A highlight from the job mela was M Ashwini. She received a loan for rupees 1 crore to set up a project in the city manufacturing high density pipes. The loan was provided by the State Bank of Hyderabad under the Centre’s schemes of Startup India and Standup India. The mela was organized by the […
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Coming Soon: WhatsApp for small & medium businesses to debut in India
WhatsApp has introduced its revamped Snapchat-esque Stories feature, but that’s not all the Facebook-owned messenger has up its sleeve. The company has now announced it’s working on a new commercial messaging platform specifically for businesses WhatsApp for Business is all about smal…
New digital payment rules may empty start-up wallets
Digital payment companies are tempering their expectations of a bumper growth this financial year. India’s campaign to get more people to transact digitally has boosted transaction volumes for companies such as Billdesk and CCAvenue. But a simultaneous measure to lower the fees that merchan…
Cash crunch is easing, but Indian companies still see no hope of business as usual. Here’s why
Ghaziabad: Struggling with customers unable to pay on time and plummeting sales, small-business owner Ravi Jain fears the government’s crackdown on cash will have a much larger impact than predicted by top policymakers. Jain’s bath taps manufacturing firm Supreme, along with many othe…
Surat to get mega textile park & centre of excellence
The textiles Ministry is positively working on the proposals for a centre of excellence and a mega textile park at Surat, a hub for the man-made fabric industry in Gujarat. The proposal was sent by Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) to the ministry for establishing a centre…
Bitcoin start-ups come together to regulate India’s cryptocurrency market
Bitcoin startups Zebpay, Unocoin, Coinsecure and SearchTrade have come together to form Digital Asset and Blockchain Foundation of India (DABFI) for the “orderly and transparent growth of the virtual currency market.” A panel comprising Zebpay founders Saurabh Agrawal and Sandeep Goenka, Coinsecu…
Logistics tech start-up Delhivery may rake in $100 mn in pre-IPO funding
Mumbai: Five-year-old e-commerce logistics startup, Delhivery may close a $100 million or Rs 670 crore pre-IPO fund raise which has attracted the interest of private equity biggie Carlyle group, China’s Fosun and Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, people familiar with the matter. The Gurgao…
World Bank’s IFC plans an aggressive foray into series A start-up deals
World Bank’s arm IFC is planning an aggressive foray into startups at Series-A level, as part of its recent push towards early-stage investing in India. Till now, it has backed more mature startups like Byju’s, Lenskart, Bigbasket and Blackbuck, with ticket sizes upwards of $5 million…
Power tariff hike in Madhya Pradesh to hit MSMEs, says industry association
Indore: Increase in electricity tariffs will hit Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) as the move will up cost of production and kill competitiveness, industry association said. Industries associations of the region have opposed hike in electricity tariff for the year 2017-18 and have submi…
SIDBI expert panel sanctions Rs 1,112 cr to funds for start-ups
An expert committee set up by SIDBI has sanctioned Rs 300 crore to fund managers who would invest in startups, taking the total sanctions so far this fiscal to over Rs 1,100 crore, the government said today. During fiscal year 2014-15 and 2015-16 sanctions were made to 11 funds (Rs 314 crores) an…