News Roundup: 12 Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [2 – 7 November]

Akin to Cyber Monday and the Black Friday in US, Google use to organised GOSF during the month of December in India, which has been scrapped now. This move comes  because of the heavy discounts running from ecommerce stores all throughout the year.

Vizury Pivots To A Data Management Platform

Vizury has pivoted its business model to a data management platform (DMP) business due to which it has laid off around 50 of its employees in 3 cities in ad retargeting business.

Ad Network AdMagnet Suspends Operations

Funded by Sequoia Capital, AdMagnet, has suspended its operations. The senior executives and founding members declined to state the reason commenting that  it was a management decision.

Paytm Partners With Microsoft

The partnership is aligned with Paytm’s vision of cashless economy. The initiatives includes integration of Paytm Mobile app and the Paytm Wallet into Microsoft Cortana.

Housing To Lay Off Another 200 Employees

In order to control cash burn and meet the tightened cost targets set by its shareholders  Housing.com will let go another 200 employees in next 3 months.

Flipkart To Pump Over $2 Bn In Its Logistics Network

Flipkart opened it largest automated warehouse in Telangana which is spread over 2.2 lakh sq ft and holds storage capacity of 5.89 lakh cubic ft, creating over 17,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities within the area.

Zomato Battles Revenue Crunch & Blames It All On Sales Team

Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal in a mail to his employees said that the company’s revenue hasn’t kept up with the growth of its sales team and is worried that for the first time in five years the company might not be able to live up to its investors’ expectations and may fall short of its promises.

Google’s Project Loon, Receives Approval From Indian Govt

In India BSNL would probably be partnering with Google’s Project Loon, a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space, designed to connect people in rural and remote areas, help fill coverage gaps, and bring people back online after disasters. BSNL would be offering 2.6 GHz broadband spectrum to provide internet in rural and remote areas has been approved by Indian government.

Paytm To Hive Off Its Digital Wallet & Ecommerce Business Into Separate Apps

Paytm’s increasing commerce business that includes goods, bus tickets, hotel bookings and more, have made the app heavy and the co-existence with payments has complicated the payments use case, hence, Paytm has taken the decision to hive off its digital wallet and mcommerce into separate apps.

ISPIRT To Nurture 200 Indian Entrepreneurs

iSPIRT has announced a programme, wherein, researchers from Stanford and Duke University would help founders of 200 hypergrowth companies to plan ahead and implement the learnings in their organizations. The aim of the exercise is to inspire Indian startups to be global category leaders.

Capital Concerns Forces Pickingo To Shut

Pickingo is reportedly closing down its operations as it struggles to raise capital, however, the co-founder have denied the development.

The TinyOwl Saga

Read about Tinyowl’s layoffs, hostage crisis, absconding co-founder & jaded employees.

Other developments of the week

Just Dial’s CTO Sandipan Chattopadhyay Resigns

Sandipan Chattopadhyay, who has been the CTO at JustDial for past seven years, has decided to step down but will continue to advise the company in technical matters.

Housing.com Names Nikhil Rungta As Marketing Head

Housing.com has hired Nikhil Rungta as chief marketing officer in the latest top-level appointment at the realty portal. Rungta has also worked with Google, Yebhi.com, Yatra.com and McCann Erickson.

Jabong Names Sanjeev Mohanty As CEO

Jabong, which is struggling to increase revenue and is a money losing proposition for Rocket Internet, has appointed Sanjeev Mohanty as its CEO and MD.

Hyderabad Gets 70K Square Feet Startup Incubator “T-Hub”

A startup ecosystem, T-Hub, which aims to aid and incubate budding entrepreneurs in a private/public partnership deal has been launched to foster entrepreneurs in the state.

Snapdeal Unveils Automobile Platform

Snapdeal launched an exclusive automobile platform, Snapdeal Motors, that will offer  an integrated buying experience enabling online booking along with loan approvals within 2 minutes of the vehicle purchase.

SeekSherpa Selected For Google For Entrepreneurs Exchange Program

Google for entrepreneurs exchange program has selected VentureNursery-backed SeekSherpa, a mobile platform that connects travellers and locals over unique experiences, which is to be held in Dubai.

Mashable Launches India Edition

Mashable has launched its local edition in India in partnership with India.com, a joint venture between Penske Media Corp. and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.

Carzippi Launches A New App In Car-care segment

Carzippi launched an app that will allow users to schedule, track and choose the doorstep car wash and detailing services. The app will allow car servicing as per user’s choice of time and place.

CARE Ratings Enters Into An Agreement With GREX

To assess and grade startups and SMEs registered on GREX, CARE Ratings entered into an agreement with GREX Alternative Investments Market. This agreement will provide a broad analytical framework within which CARE Ratings will be involved in conducting Rating/Grading exercises for companies.

ShopClues Ropes In Varun Jha As its Senior Marketing Director

ShopClues appointed former PayU India executive, Varun Jha as its Senior Director, Marketing. In his new role, he will work directly with Nitin Agarwal, AVP Marketing at ShopClues and will oversee marketing strategy across channels covering online, offline, mobile and strategic alliance partnerships.

Ola Signs MoU With The State Of Rajasthan

To encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship amongst the youth in Rajasthan and to provide skill development for 50,000 men and women across the state over the next five years Ola signed a MoU with the Government of Rajasthan.

ONE TOUCH RESPONSE Launches Mobile-Based Private Security Force

Unlike other safety apps available in the market, which are limited to tracking and notifying emergency contacts, OTR has intensively trained professionals, strategically placed across Delhi and NCR provides Immediate Assistance and First Response services within minutes, regardless of the location.

TopDoctorsOnline.com Partners With Thyrocare

TopDoctorsOnline.com tied up with Thyrocare to provide access to nearly 200 different diagnostic tests and book appointments on the platform. The users will even have an option of the samples to be collected from home, delivery of reports on mobile followed with free doctor consultation.

Fork Media Launches Hauterfly

Fork Media announced the launch of Hauterfly aimed at millennial women interested in high quality fashion and lifestyle content. The launch of the platform is in sync with Fork’s ambitious expansion plans into premium digital content in the highly competitive lifestyle space.

Iralzo Marks Debut In Online Retail

Fashion and Apparel company, Iralzo stepped into the ecommerce market with its exclusive designer collection ranging from scarves, dresses, jumpsuits, accessories and more for the chic and stylish women of today.

HolidayIQ Appoints Must See India Vikas Rana As CTO

Vikas Rana, previously founder and CEO at Must See India, will strengthen the tech team, robustly scale infrastructure and lead technological innovation as Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at HolidayIQ.

Wizikey Launches in India

Covering more than 100 mainstream publications in India, Wizikey launched in India and rolled out its reputation engineering platform to users in the country. The platform enables users to track news in less than 5 seconds, compare and analyse with competition in less than 30 seconds and build influencer lists in less than 30 minutes.

Flipkart Hires Google’s Surojit Chatterjee

Flipkart appointed Surojit Chatterjee as Senior Vice President and Head of Consumer Experience and Growth. He will be responsible for all consumer experience across desktop and mobile, and will report into Punit Soni.

Indix Launches Self-Serve Access to Product API

Indix, announced the Indix Product API is now available through a self-serve portal and includes a free trial option. For the first time, developers can obtain an Indix API key through a simple online sign-up process, immediately gaining access to the world’s largest product database.

Ola & Nissan Inks Strategic Partnership

For India’s first cab leasing program, Ola announced first of its kind strategic partnership with Nissan Motor India Pvt Ltd. Ola’s subsidiary, Ola Fleet Technology Pvt Ltd, will purchase cars from Nissan India in a composite deal to be leased out to driver-partners

Zivame Strengthens Management Team

In a bid to strengthen its management team Zivame appoints Shaleen Sinha, ex-Aditya Birla Group exec, as COO. He will lead the growth agenda at the company and drive key initiatives to build a highly data focused and technology savvy company.

GetVee Technologies Launches Wedlock Application

With an aim to give choice to individuals to find their ‘right match’, GetVee Technologies launched Wedlock mobile application in India. Wedlock is targeted towards eligible, educated singles aged above 24 years looking for a life partner.

Book Your Next Tata Value Home With MobiKwik Wallet   

MobiKwik ties up with Tata Value Homes to allow mobile payments for home bookings. With this exclusive association, the customers can book homes across the country for just INR 10,000 on paying through the MobiKwik Wallet.

Furlenco Introduces Crowd-Sourced Furniture ‘Bounce’

Furlenco introduced user-inspired piece of furniture called Bounce at Bangalore’s Tippler-On the Roof. Customers can pre-book the furniture piece from the online platform and enjoy free doorstep delivery and installation as per the availability of the product.

Bangalore City Police Launches Copkart

Bangalore City Police (BCP) launched Copkart, billed as the first such initiative from police anywhere in India, to help its police force buy subsidised groceries and other products from their canteen on Mysuru Road.

RCom Ropes In Flipkart’s Vittal As HR Head For Consumer Biz

Reliance Communications has roped in Babu Vittal, who was earlier with Flipkart, as its chief human resources officer for consumer business. Vittal will help in the transformation of RCom into an incumbent data player in the fast-growing data market, focusing on the youth and online communities.

Zocalo Launches Co-Living Platform “CoHoStayz”

CoHoStayz will revolutionise the co-living concept in India, offering managed apartments & villas while catering to the long-stay accommodation needs of the youth.

Uber Partners With ItzCash

In order to expand its customer base by offering the on-demand urban mobility experience to the under-served / under-banked segments across Chennai, Chandigarh and Nagpur, Uber partnered with ItzCash.

Dailyhunt’s New “Satchet Marketing” Model

Mobile platform for news magazines and vernacular ebooks is planning to bring ‘sachet marketing’ to books by introducing chapter-wise billing through its mobile app Dailyhunt.

GreenCoinX Gets Legal Nod To Start Operations In The Isle Of Man

GreenCoinX has won legal recognition to start operations in the Isle of Man, a self-governing British Crown dependency. GreenCoinX is coming up with the first identifiable block-chain which will identify all information about a person depending upon the requirement for each country.

Uber To Create Opportunities For Ex-Defence Personnel

Bringing American feature to India as Uber Fauji. Uber has inked an agreement with the Army Welfare Placement Organisation (AWPO) under the Ministry of Defence to help ex-service members get access to vehicle loans so that they can become drivers on the platform.

Microsoft Launches Initiative To Help Startups Working On Smart City Solutions

Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella announced an initiative to help local startups working on solutions for smart cities. In which Microsoft will provide $120K worth of Azure credits.