11 Indian Startup News Stories That You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [02-07 July 2018]

We bring you the latest news stories from the Indian startup ecosystem

Two of the biggest announcements impacting the Indian startup ecosystem this week were IPOs by Salebhai and IndiaMART.

Ahmedabad-based etailer Salebhai will be issuing 22,59,600 shares, offering 26.58% of its equity in the market to raise $3.48 Mn (INR 23.73 Cr). The company has received in-principle approval from the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to file its initial public offering (IPO).

On the other hand, Noida-based online marketplace IndiaMART will be offering over $4.28 Mn shares for sale through its IPO. The company will be going online and will be making its IPO debut.

Let’s have a look at some other important developments from the Indian startup ecosystem.

Important Indian Startup News Stories Of The Week

Reliance Industries Enters The Ecommerce Market With Hybrid Model

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has announced its foray into the ecommerce segment with a hybrid online-offline model. The announcement was made with an aim to create shared profitability by integrating the offline stores of three crore small retail players via Reliance Jio, RIL’S online platform.

Flipkart Applies For NBFC Licence, Receives Vendor Notice Over Non-Payment Of Dues And More

• MacroWagon, a vendor of Flipkart, has sent a notice for the non-payment of dues and damages worth $2.9 Mn (INR 20 Cr). However, Flipkart has claimed that all the allegations are incorrect and that it has already initiated legal proceedings against MacroWagon.
• Myntra And Jabong now look to Invest $300 Mn in three years. Myntra and Jabong expect to triple their GMV to $4 Bn in three years, from $1.2 Bn in Fy17. Also, the companies aim to triple their combined customer base and improve their share of the domestic online fashion market to 50%, from an estimated 35% now.
• Flipkart has applied for a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) license to focus on consumer lending. The company will be starting its fintech services with microlending and microinsurance for ecommerce purchases on the website.
• Flipkart is now looking to reach Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of $17.6 Bn by 2020-21. It is expecting that 45% ($7.4 Bn) of its GMV target will be contributed by mobile phones, whereas large appliances and fashion will contribute $2.7 Bn and $2.6 Bn respectively. Groceries will be contributing to another $1 Bn.
• Walmart has set the target of June 7, 2019 to complete the process of arranging funds for the Flipkart deal. Walmart had started the process of selling $16 Bn worth bonds to complete its 77% acquisition of Flipkart in June.

Online Marketplace Nykaa Launches Nykaa Man

Nykaa has added a new section to its beauty and wellness marketplace- Nykaa Man. The company is expecting an addition of 2% to the overall revenue earned. Nykaa claims that 15% of its social workers are men and about 20% of its traffic comes from men and male products. Nykaa expects that men’s section will provide an increased revenue of 10% in the coming years.

Ecommerce Subgroup Asks Centre To Allow FDI In Inventory-Led Online Retail

An ecommerce subgroup has asked in a proposal from the Centre to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in an inventory-led online retail model, limited to players who are stocking products under the Make in India Campaign. The proposal has come when the discussion around ecommerce policy is going on. In the new ecommerce policy, there will be greater liability and responsibility on online retailers.

Home Ministry to Look Into Cybercrimes, Walmart Receives Warning And More

• The Union Home Ministry will constitute a panel under joint secretary, cyber and information security (CIS) to monitor cyber crimes, particularly fake and violent content. The panel will ensure compliance of complaints by social media platforms like Facebook and Whatsapp.
• The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has issued a warning against WhatsApp to stop the spreading of fake and violent messages by applying appropriate technology. Last year, rumours of child lifting were mobilised on WhatsApp which led to the killing of 31 people.
• WhatsApp believes that it needs collective efforts to address the misinformation. The company has said that it will give users controls and information to make sure that they stay safe. It is also planning to run a long-term public safety advertising campaign.

Uber To Launch Uber Express Pool In India

The effort is being taken by Uber to minimise the inconvenience for riders in terms of time spent in vehicle sharing. With the advent of Uber Express Pool, private ownership of cars will be challenged and there will be less congestion on the road. Also, it is the cheapest service, offered so far by the Indian cab aggregators.

NPCI May Launch Upgraded UPI 2.0 Soon

The new version will have features like generating collect payment requests along with invoice/ bill attachment, a one-time mandate with block functionality, signed intent/quick response code, adding of overdraft account type in UPI and foreign inward remittance.

OYO Launches OYO Auto Party

OYO Auto Party platform provides banqueting and wedding planning services to its customers. It will be available in cities like Delhi/NCR, Jaipur, Lucknow, and Kolkata. There will be in total 50 venues in all the cities combined.

Amazon To Leverage Its Prime App, Opened Third Fulfillment Centre In West Bengal And More

• Amazon is leveraging its hyper local application Prime Now in top four cities to offer ultra-fast deliveries to its customers during the upcoming Prime Day Sale. The application has gained attention in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
• Amazon India will be offering virtual reality stores at malls all over the country on the second edition of members-only Prime Day. The company is planning to set up over 11 pop-up stores in malls across the country.
• Amazon.in has launched a dedicated store for Collectibles. The new store comprises of collectibles from two categories – Entertainment and Sports that will provide Amazon.in customers direct access to thousands of collectibles in the form of sports and entertainment memorabilia from selected sellers.
• Detel’s products which could previously be ordered via Detel’s official website or B2BAdda.com is now listed on Amazon India. Going forward, all new products to be launched by the brand in the Mobiles and Accessories category will also be listed on Amazon.
• Amazon India has launched its third fulfillment centre in Kolkata, West Bengal, ahead of its upcoming Prime Day Sale in India starting from July 16. The fulfillment centre is spread across an area of 1,40,000 square feet and has a storage space of 600,000 cubic feet. The fulfillment centre in the state will enable faster deliveries and empower thousands of small and medium businesses to sell on Amazon.in

Other Indian Startup News Stories Of The Week

UPI Records 30% Growth In Transactions In June

According to National Payment Corporation of India, the country has used Unified Payment Interface UPI for 246.37 transactions in June 2018. The transactions have seen a spike from 189.48 transactions since May 2018.

UIDAI Extends Aadhaar Deadline

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has extended the deadline for deployment of 16-digital virtual ID as an alternative to Aadhar numbers till August 2018. Virtual ID is one of the two-layered safety net features to avoid data breaches.

Paytm To Enable Self-Employment Opportunities In Rural India

Paytm Payments Bank has partnered with the Grameen Foundation for Social Impact (GFSI) to provide self-employment opportunities to women and youth of rural India in the banking and finance sector. The programme has been started under the Paytm AshaKiran initiative.

ItzEazy Partners With Bikes4sale

The partnership aims to make RTO Services for used bikes easier. Initially, the service will be offered in 10 metro cities across India including Bengaluru, New Delhi, and Mumbai.

PolicyBazaar Aims To create 2,500 New Jobs In FY19

On the occasion of completing 10 years, PolicyBazaar announced that it will create 2,500 more jobs in FY19, taking its employee strength to 6,000 people. Growing 100% Y-o-Y PolicyBazaar.com is aiming to underwrite premium worth $1.4 Bn (INR 10,000 Cr), expand its unique customer base to one crore and increase its revenue to $217.8 Mn (INR 1,500 Cr) by 2020.

Finzy Receives NBFC-P2P Certification

Bengaluru-based peer to peer platform Finzy has received its NBFC-P2P certification from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Finzy would now be compulsorily required to maintain specific net-worth, meet set prudential and leverage norms, have a fit and proper board at all times and ensure fair and transparent operating principles in the conduct of its business. Finzy would also have to contribute repayment track record of each and every loan to CIBIL on a periodic basis.

Indus OS Partners With Appnext

Mobile discovery platform Appnext will provide Indus OS with smart interactive tools and technologies helping India’s home-grown mobile operating system to offer its customers a unique way to discover and access services.

Govt. Of Karnataka Partners With Nasscom

National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) along with Government of Karnataka, has launched the Centre of Excellence for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (CoE – DSAI), in Bengaluru. NASSCOM also signed a MoU with Niti Aayog to collaboratively foster applied research, accelerating adoption and ethics, privacy and security.

Snapdeal Introduces Instant Sign-Up For Sellers

Under this tech-enabled initiative, sellers need to simply provide their GST Identification Number (GSTIN) and other key seller details will be auto-populated using tech integration with the government’s GST network. Instant Seller Sign-up feature is a transformative tool because the use of automated GSTIN verification process eliminates all manual verification steps. This will lead to a significant drop in the instances of seller rejection in the onboarding process.

Tencent Enters The Indian Cloud War

Tencent is aiming to bet on niche offerings for video and live streaming products.  It is offering two specific solutions to its prospective clients- Tencent Cloud LVB(live video broadcasting) and Tencent Cloud for VOD(video on demand).

Digilocker Becomes The Ultimate Solution To Save Official Documents

Digilocker has announced that Railways will accept soft copies of Aadhar and driving licenses saved in DigiLocker. DigiLocker is a digital storage service operated by the government that enables citizens to store official documents on the cloud. DigiLocker is being used by 9 Mn people across India to store over 197 Cr documents such as Aadhaar Cards, driving licenses, and more.

Stay tuned for the next week edition of Indian Startup News Stories Of The Week!