When China’s Alibaba opened its wallet last year to invest over half a billion dollars in Paytm, the world of financial technology took notice. However, beyond Paytm, there is a bunch of start-ups engaged in various aspects of fintech, a sector that has seen a funding slowdown this year. Here is …
Start Up India
Karnataka to conduct ‘hackathon’ to source solutions from startups
Karnataka Tourism department has said it is conducting an open challenge (hackathon) to crowd-source innovative solutions and products from startups working in the area of Tourism. Government through this challenge is inviting proposals from early stage startups to present their products or solut…
Grofers India seeks govt approval for FDI in food trading
Grocery delivery start-up Grofers has sought government’s approval for foreign direct investment to carry out trading in food products. The government has recently permitted 100 percent FDI under government approval for trading, including through e-commerce, in respect of food products manu…
India’s startup ecosystem scales up with widespread government initiatives
With 4,200 tech startups, India is the third-largest tech startup hub in the world. But the steady increase in startups and a range of initiatives by the Indian government to spur growth does not mean the challenges for entrepreneurs are any less. In India, 40% of startups failed since 2014, whil…
‘Startup Chhattisgarh’ launched for boosting entrepreneurship
To give a fillip to Prime Minister’s vision of Startup India, the state government launched ‘Start-up Chhattisgarh’ initiative here to foster entrepreneurship and promote innovation. “Youths have no dearth of ideas. Lots of creative ideas take shape in their mind. They should co…
Investor group CAN to support 10 startups
Investor group Calcutta Angels Network plans to support 10 startups, including at least three three city-based ventures, in the remaining period of this fiscal. “We plan to support ten additional startups this year. Three to four are from the city,” President of Calcutta Angels Networ…
Lending market in India – rise of the fintech industry !
It would not be an exaggeration to state that the SME sector is one of the most critical contributors to the growth of the Indian economy. Over 51.1 million SME units across the country contribute to about 37% of India’s manufacturing output. The industry also contributes around 7% of the manufa…
Indian start-ups’ East Asian connection
The interest of Chinese and Japanese investors in Indian start-ups continues. While established investors such as Alibaba and Softbank have been rather lukewarm this year, other investors from the two countries such as Beenos Partners, Rebright VC, Digital Garage, GMO, Tencent, Ctrip, Hillhouse C…
LensPick raises funds to expand online presence
The two year old eye wear e-commerce portal LensPick.com has raised second round of funding for inventory enhancement and technology upgradation as part of its plans to increase its online presence. US-based Scadea Solutions Inc., has picked a 10 percent stake in LensPick.com at a valuation of $5…
Google India VP invests in education startup Stoodnt
Palo Alto-based education startup Stoodnt, which helps students aspiring to study abroad by connecting them with high-quality college admission counsellors, and providing guidance, insights and online tools, has raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Rajan Anandan, Vice-President, Google, S…