News Roundup: 12 Startup Stories You Don’t Want to Miss This Week [16 May – 21 May]

Paytm, PayU India and Oxigen have got in-principle approval for operating as Bharat Bill Payments Operating Unit. This will allow customers to pay all their bills anytime and anywhere under the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), and the companies which have received licenses will provide platforms to offer these services.

MakeMyTrip Partners With BookMyForex

In a bid to become a one stop destination for all travel related services, MakeMyTrip partnered BookMyForex, a marketplace for retail foreign exchange and private remittances. With this, international travelers can purchase the required foreign exchange from MakeMyTrip website or mobile app.

BeeWise Launches Savings Wallet

Fintech startup BeeWise launched a ‘Savings Wallet’ to help consumers save money on their daily expenses across online and offline stores through a cashback model. It provides a frictionless way to attract new customers for merchants, re-engage lapsed customers and reward loyal customers based on financial data.

Jugnoo Re-Launches Hyperlocal Delivery Service

Jugnoo restarted its hyperlocal delivery service ‘Fatafat’, which will be currently available in Chandigarh and will facilitate fresh fruits and vegetables to the doorsteps at affordable prices.

Smartron Unveils Tphone

Tech-hardware company Smartron launched tphone, a 5.5” premium android smartphone, as part of its tronx ecosystem that includes all of its hardware, software, cloud, care, and community platforms. The startup is aiming to build an India based global technology OEM company, riding the Internet of Things (IoT) wave.

Tata Group Set To Enter Ecommerce Space

Under its new vertical Tata Unistore, Tata Group has entered the ecommerce space with the launch of online marketplace CliQ. The marketplace will be initially focused on apparel, electronics, footwear and later more categories will be added.

DigitalOcean Nasscom’s Tie Up

DigitalOcean announced a tie-up with Nasscom’s 10,000 Startups initiative to grow and support the startup ecosystem in India. It plans to assist the startups in India through one-on-one interactions, workshops, boot camps, and mentorship programs. DigitalOcean has also created a special cloud credit program that will offer cloud credits worth $10K to the selected startups in the program.

Apple Looks To India For Growth

Apple CEO Tim Cook announced a new iOS app design and development accelerator in Bangalore to support engineering talent and accelerate growth in India’s iOS developer community. The iOS App Design and Development Accelerator is expected to open in early 2017. The company also launched development centre in Hyderabad.

Indian Govt Reforms Patent Registrations For Startups

The Indian government introduced expedite services for patent registrations in the country by amending the patent rules in the country. With this, startups from all across the world will now be able to register patents in India at lower costs under a ‘tatkal’ (instant) option.

Ekart Launches Courier Service

Ekart has started with its consumer facing courier services in Bangalore. It plans to scale its services to 10 more cities including Mumbai, Kolkata and New Delhi in next two months and top 50 cities by September.

OYO Expands Network In NorthEast

In order to expand its service pan India, OYO started has its services in the Northeast. It will offer 250 rooms in Gangtok and Darjeeling in popular tourist spots like Tiger Hills and Mall Road in Darjeeling, and Tsango Lake, MG Marg in Gangtok.

Uber Ends Surge Pricing

Uber has suspended surge pricing completely in New Delhi after strict warnings issued by Delhi CM. Also, in a letter to the Transport Minister, it has agreed to not exceed the fare from what is decided by the government.

Other Developments Of The Week

AppVirality Launches 2^nd Edition Of Million Install Meetup

AppVirality Inc- a plug and play growth hacking toolkit is launching the second edition of Million Install Meetup in Bangalore on 28th May. The event will comprise of discussion on understanding the app marketing strategy and mobile trends in the mobile app market.

Harbhajan Singh Launches Mobile Only App Ballr

Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh launched cricket gaming application Ballr, a sports engagement platform a Delhi and Singapore-based sports engagement platform, owned by Fantasy Sport Technologies. Singh will also lead its endorsement in India. Ballr aims to create a community of sports fans and build a digital environment for friendly competition & conversation.

Canvas Champ Enters Indian Market

US-based canvas printing startup CanvasChamp launched its India operations. The company offers free professional design and design proofs to a customer upon request.

Coupondunia Launches Last Minute Hotel Booking AppOnline coupon and cashback site Coupondunia launched a last-minute hotel booking mobile app ‘Sorted’. The platform currently curates options to book a hotel up to 72 hours in advance and will work on a commission-based revenue model.

Xerox Research Centre Partners With Impartus

Xerox Research Centre India (XRCI) has entered into a partnership with Impartus, a startup that provides video-learning solutions. As part of the agreement, Impartus will license and integrate Xerox’s technology into its video-learning solution and will provide its technology to improve student engagement with video-based educational content.

ShopClues Partners With GoDaddy

ShopClues and web hosting company GoDaddy have entered into a strategic partnership to help all merchants on the platform build their own ecommerce websites. GoDaddy will provide them with domain names while ShopClues will assist and maintain these websites.

Flipkart Taps Big Brands For Its Advertising Biz

Flipkart is looking to tap big brands such as Samsung and Microsoft to speed up its fledgling advertising business. It will promote these brands prominently during searches by customers on its website and mobile app, besides helping them to target customers better through data analytics and tracking consumer behaviour.

FreeCharge Partners redBus

Digital payments platform FreeCharge joined hands with bus ticket booking firm redBus to provide bus tickets on-the-go. With this the redBus users will get a chance to select payment options and indulge in faster payments with higher success rates.

Yatra Partners Taxi Aggregators

Yatra has partnered with various taxi aggregators to offer cab services in 450 cities across the country, through its mobile app. Under the collaboration, the customers can choose from a large range of cars including hatchbacks, sedans, SUV/MUVs and vans for one-way, round trip and multi-city trips.

MobiKwik Partners QSRs For Cashless Payments

Mobile payments company MobiKwik has partnered with Domino’s and Burger King for cashless payments across their outlets in 200+ Indian cities. With this association, MobiKwik now has enabled cashless payments across 8,000 restaurants in India.

Intel Bets Big On The Cloud & Ecommerce Sectors In India

Keeping in line with the business direction adopted by Intel globally, Intel India introduced its focus on offering Indian enterprises the enhanced technologies and products allowing faster and easier adoption of modern clouds based on Software Defined Infrastructure (SDI). The company is providing secure, robust, and high-performing platform to enable customers to move to fully automated SDI-based modern clouds with greater visibility and control capability.

Ola Signs MoU With Kempegowda Airport

Ola signed a MoU with Kempegowda International Airport to provide reliable transportation access to travellers through a designated ‘Ola Zone’.

Uber and Ola Signs MoU With NSKFDC

In order to create 10,000 women driver entrepreneurs over the next five years Ola signed an MoU with National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC) to avail opportunities with the company  as driver-partners after getting trained under Commercial Motor Driving Training Program.

In a similar move, to create training and entrepreneurship opportunities, especially for women on its uberMOTO platform, Uber too signed a MoU with NSKFDC.

Meru Cabs Launches Meru Enable

Meru Cabs launched specialized service for differently abled and elderly commuters called ‘Meru Enable’ in association with Ezy Mov. The fleet is equipped with a state-of-the-art hydraulic lift, which can comfortably lifts the passenger seating in a wheelchairs & helps him/her directly board the cab without any support of anyone. This would enable the people with special needs to commute across the city with or without any caregiver, giving them freedom to travel independently.

ToneTag Partners Mphasis

To revolutionize mobile payments through “Sound Waves” technology, ToneTag announced a strategic partnership with Mphasis. As part of the agreement, Mphasis will collaborate to build solutions and be an integration partner for ToneTag’s sound based technology globally to enable contactless proximity communication, location-based services and customer engagement services among a multitude of other solutions.

Industrybuying Launches App For B2B Customers

Industrybuying launched its mobile app for Android users to enhance the customer experience and provide a seamless procurement process. The app allows its B2B customers to explore more than 1 Mn industrial utility products from over 40+ categories and more than 3000 brands. The iOS version of the app is due for launch later this month.

One Internet partners with FLYP@MTV

One Internet announced its association with FLYP@MTV to launch first co-working café by the name One Co. Cafe at FLYP@MTV. OneCo.Cafe will cater to young enterprises, creative minds, freelancers, and independent professionals who want to escape from the conventional work place and explore a blend of Work, Chill and Play.