After vying with each other to invest in start-ups at high valuations in the past few years, investors spent much of 2016 in cleaning up their portfolios, asking start-ups to reduce their cash burn, improve unit economics, and extend their runways (life). Several start-ups, which had no future, s…
Start Up India
HealthifyMe raises $1 mn from Dubai-based NB Ventures
Mobile health and fitness start-up HealthifyMe, run by Caeruz Ventures Pvt. Ltd, said that it has received $1 million in funding from Dubai-based venture capital fund, NB Ventures. This is an additional investment to the $6 million in Series A funding that the company raised in May from IDG Ventu…
Unorganised sector to be worst-hit by demonetisation: Report
The unorganised sector in India will be the worst hit by the November demonetisation of high value currency, while lots of industries in the organised sector would be impacted by the shortage of cash required to run business, a market analyst said. “The unorganised sector is expected to bea…
News app Funcastic raises funding
Two investors, including US-based North Base Media Fund, have put in money in a startup here that has come out with an audio news and content app ‘Funcastic’. “This app allows you to listen to all kinds of news, be it political, sports or entertainment in both Hindi and English …
Housing.com partners Tata Housing to develop digital platform
Realty portal Housing.com has tied up with real estate major Tata Housing to create an exclusive digital marketing platform for the sale of existing inventories and launch of new projects. Housing.com and Tata Housing have formed a partnership as part of which the realty portal would “offer…
Technology start-up eRaksha to monitor child development
From real time alerts about the status of their children to receiving updates from teachers at school, Mumbai-based technology startup eRaksha acts as a bridge between teacher and parents to monitor the overall development of children. The startup which is run by Cartel Solution is a business to …
Former Zomato VP develops tech discovery platform for SMEs
A recent study by management consulting firm Zinnov says that digital enablement is going to present a $25.8 billion opportunity for tech vendors by 2020. India is home to over 51 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs). While only 40% are influenced by technology today, that figure is expect…
Mediatech start-ups using machine learning to create personalised news feeds for users
Mediatech startup Dailyhunt, InShorts and ScoopWhoop -through its latest acquisition Touchfone -amongst others are increasingly leveraging machine learning capabilities to improve personalisation and interaction for the end user. From InShorts introducing quizzes to Dailyhunt’s personalised…
Year in Review: 8 moments in 2016 that changed India’s start-up ecosystem
As we stand at the cusp of 2017, it’s time to gather one’s thoughts regarding the year that passed us by. For startups in India, 2016 proved to be the year for consolidation and transition, where entrepreneurial mindset metamorphosed from a gold rush-like mentality into an ecosystem where p…
PM talks-ups Start-up India, but why is taxman putting spanner in the works?
Given the Prime Minister’s emphasis on Startup India, it is particularly odd to see the taxman levying a tax on the premium they get on their valuation from investors. Start-ups are a bet on the future and investors pay a premium for this—that premium, then, is invested in the business which, if …