British banking and financial services major Barclays on June 15 launched Rise, an innovative hub for fintech start-ups, in collaboration with 91 spring board in Mumbai. The new hub located in Lower Parel will provide a co-working location and a physical location for such start ups to use event s…
Start Up India
Zoomcar changes track to marketplace model, aims for profitability by 2017
Self-drive car rental startup Zoomcar, which last year had raised $11million from various investors such as Nokia Growth Partners and Sequoia Capital, has pivoted to a marketplace model as part of a broader strategy to drive efficiencies in its business, as it aims to hit profitability by next ye…
Start-ups seek easier institutional ownership for IPO regulations
Start-ups want markets regulator Sebi to ease minimum institutional ownership criteria to qualify for launching an initial public offering (IPO). Currently, regulations mandate a company to have a 50% institutional ownership in order to launch an IPO. However, many small start-ups are funded by a…
Peer-to-peer lending startups such as Faircent eye blockchain technology
Peer-to-peer lending startups such as Faircent, Micrograam and i-lend are increasingly examining the potential of integrating blockchain technology into their systems to improve transparency levels, and act as a ledger system to automate and record transactions on their platforms. These are still…
Couponhaat.in records half a million monthly hits mark
Within just one year of its operation, Delhi based start-up and India’s leading coupons and deals company – Couponhaat.in has recorded half a million monthly hits traffic milestone across its website store, blog, forum, and shop pages. Over last quarter it had attracted over 1.5 million hit…
Practo to add 65 cities in India, expand overseas in 2016
Digital healthcare platform Practo is intensifying expansion in key markets, including Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and eastern Europe besides adding 65 new cities in India during 2016. The Bengaluru-based firm claims it manages over 40 million appointments across 35 cities in I…
Siftr magic cleaner launched in six Indian languages
Siftr Labs, founded by former Abode employees Romil Mittal and Mayank Bhagya, launched its junk cleaning app AI powered Magic Cleaner in six Indian languages including Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali. The move is part of the company’s strategy to reach out to non-english …
Foreign firms to be invited to Startup India anniversary
The government plans to invite prominent international startups to enter India’s growing new economy. The department of industrial policy and promotion will organise a start-up conference next January to coincide with the first anniversary of the StartUp India initiative, according to an official…
With SmartQ & Hate2wait, the nightmare of queues is almost over
After having sold his first company, Tastykhana, to Food Panda in 2014, Shachin Bharadwaj was on the lookout for a new business idea. It was while waiting at a paediatrician’s clinics that he struck upon an idea for a new venture, which he would later name ‘SMINQ’ (see me in no …
Asia’s richest may quench startups’ thirst for funding
The family offices of two of Asia’s richest men, Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma and Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai, are among a fresh breed of Chinese investors exploring investments in India, seeking to replicate their successes outside their home market. While their personal investme…