News Roundup: 12 Startup Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [18 April – 23 April]

Paytm accused Snapdeal-owned Unicommerce, an ecommerce management software and fulfilment solutions provider, for accessing confidential business data on its (Paytm’s) commerce platform via the sellers on this platform. Paytm filed a lawsuit against the company in the Delhi high court. Delhi High Court has put a stay order on Unicommerce from using any data or information derived from the sellers of Paytm.

Important Developments Of The Week

Hiree Lays Off 80% Of The Workforce

Online recruitment firm Hiree laid off 80% of the workforce. The company has retained only junior level staff and has fired the rest. The founding member commented that as part of the normal business growth, efficiency building and optimise costs, the step has been taken.

PepperTap To Shut Down Its Hyperlocal Delivery Operations

PepperTap announced the shutting down its customer centric grocery delivery app by the end of this month. Company’s founder confirmed that the company is pivoting to a full stack ecommerce logistics company.

Sequoia Capital’s Bangalore Office Raided By ED

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) searched Sequoia Capital’s Bangalore office. The search was done regarding the Aircel Maxis Scam. Sequoia Capital confirmed the reports in a series of tweets and said that it is fully complying with the investigation.

Softbank’s Nikesh Arora In Trouble

SoftBank Group Corp. has requested the board to investigate and possibly dismiss Nikesh Arora. In a complaint, the group has questioned his track record and qualifications as president and heir to billionaire founder Masayoshi Son.

Govt Launches Twitter Seva

The government launched its new initiative ‘Twitter Seva’, a helpline for entrepreneurs on micro-blogging site Twitter. ‘Twitter Seva’ is expected to work as a source of direct point of contact for entrepreneurs seeking funding, support or government assistance of any kind.

Ola & Uber Temporarily Withdraw Surge Pricing In Delhi

Delhi High Court issued a notice to Delhi Government asking to file a reply on steps taken by government to stop cab aggregators (Ola & Uber,) from charging fares arbitrarily. The move comes after Delhi’s CM Arvind Kejriwal tweeted that the government would take strict action against, including cancellation of permit, and impounding vehicles, and against taxis, which charged over the government prescribed rates.

Flipkart Founders Top 100 Most Influential People

Flipkart’s co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal have made their way to TIME’s annual list of 100 most influential people in the world in its ‘2016 TIME 100 list’. The publication wrote that Binny and Sachin do have modest lifestyles, by billionaire standards, but they’re also nimble tacticians and hardheaded realists, and they dream big.

Paytm Launches Beta Version For Paytm Wi-Fi

Paytm is now testing waters with free Wi-Fi service enabling limited-duration free Wi-Fi for its users in partnership with a licensed ISP. The company started offering Paytm Wi-Fi to its customers and merchants to access their online Paytm account at Noida Sector 18.

LogiNext Launches Sprintr

LogiNext launched its last mile delivery platform Sprintr, that will offer robust and tech-driven platform to both clients and delivery partners. Clients can easily push orders and delivery requests via the platform. It has a pan India delivery network.

Airbnb Enters In Strategic Partnership With Times Group

Community-driven hospitality company, Airbnb, announced a strategic partnership with the Times Group. The partnership comes as part of Airbnb’s plans to expand its operations in India and build more localised network

Myntra To Foray Into New Segments

Myntra plans to diversify its portfolio and planned to offer products in home furnishing, precious and non-precious jewellery and personal care segments. The move is made in an attempt to widen Myntra’s consumer base and to boost profits.

Other Developments Of The Week

RBL Launches Exclusive Branch For Startups

RBL Bank launched an exclusive branch for the startups in Bangalore. The bank will help startups in setting up their business and them understand tax and legal compliance through partners. The startup will also be provided with banking products including foreign exchange services, remittances, cash management, and others.

Dr. Deepak Chopra Launches Jiyo

Wellness guru Deepak Chopra has joined hands with former Nortel and Motorola executive Poonacha Machaiah to launch Jiyo, a health and wellness startup. Jiyo’s intuitive technology tracks users behavior and then offers insights and suggestions based on their habits.

Sooperfly To Launch Investonomix

Media startup Sooperfly is partnering with former Bloomberg India editor Vivek Law to launch Investonomix, a fintech digital media platform that will focus on personal finance. The startup will aim at demystifying the world of personal finance, said Roopak Saluja, founder of Sooperfly.

Netmagic To Set Up Two Data Centers

Data centre company Netmagic plans to invest about INR 2,000 Cr to set up two new facilities in Mumbai and Bangalore. The startup also plans to increase its headcount to meet growing business.

Snapdeal Partners IIT Delhi

Snapdeal partnered IIT Delhi and Phoenix Medical Solutions to sell ‘SmartCane’ online. As a part of the partnership, potential donors can also choose to donate SmartCane via Snapdeal Sunshine platform, where the product will be shipped directly to NGO partner Saksham that works for empowering persons with blindness.

Edureka Launches Three New Courses

Online-only learning platform Edureka today launched three new courses in cloud operating systems and data analytics. The startup provides the deep understanding and industry-relevancy that is required to work on these software solutions, in addition to allowing learners to work on real-time use cases and live projects.

Eko Launches Domestic Money Remittance Service

Eko, a leading mobile-based fintech company, launched Domestic Money Remittance Service through API integration in partnership with 10 plus companies in mobile recharge, travel and ticketing domain.

Jombay Partners With Talview

Jombay, an assessments and development company, partnered with Talview, a mobile video recruitment platform, to launch B-HiVE – an integrated platform to conduct hiring assessments. The platform aims at conducting a comprehensive assessment of an individual’s personality and will be used for campus, lateral, technical & frontline hiring, among others.

HashLearn Launches Android App

On-demand mobile tutoring platform, HashLearn, developed an android mobile application to give a better user experience to students, who are preparing for entrance examinations. The app allows students to choose a topic and connect with an expert on the subject.

Fundnel Partners With Impact Guru

Investment platform Fundnel entered into a strategic tie-up with Indian crowdfunding platform Impact Guru to tap into philanthropic and investment capital from the Indian diaspora. This will unlock investment opportunities in areas including financial inclusion, clean tech, education, water & sanitation, and healthcare.

Quikr To Set Up A Delivery-Truck Fleet

Quikr has launched its own logistics arm in a bid to enhance customer experience and create new revenue streams beyond just advertising alone. The company will set up a fleet of delivery trucks as part of the newly-launched logistics services, which facilitates price negotiations, payment, pickup and delivery of second-hand goods traded on its platform.

IRCTC Ties-Up With Simpli5d Technologies

IRCTC tied-up with Simpli5d Technologies, the company behind NLP Captcha to power the captchas on its train ticket booking website. NLP Captcha is an audience intelligence platform that replaces the tradition captchas with advertiser-driven content.

Juggernaut Books Launches Android App

Juggernaut Books has gone live with an android app listing over 150 books that users can browse and read. The app lists four categories- Discover, Read, Write, and Me.

iUnir Launches Ride-Sharing App

iUnir launched a mobile application to facilitate ride sharing on personal vehicles. iUnir users can log in to the application using their Facebook or Linkedin account so that they get to share ride with their contacts only.

Jabong Launches Mexx In India

The online fashion retailer has announced a new partnership with international fashion retailer Mexx. With this, Jabong adds another international brand to its high-street brands such as TOPSHOP, TOPMAN, Dorothy Perkins and Missguided to name a few.

Ixigo Launches 1-Tap Cab Booking

Ixigo launched “1-Tap Cab Booking” on the ixigo cabs app. The feature will allow booking the nearest available cab in one tap of a button on the user’s home screen. Currently, available for Android, 1-Tap Cab Booking will work even in places without a stable internet connection, such as airports, railway stations, bus stations, and even while the user is en-route to his destination.