Page 5 - Startup

Two Indian entrepreneurs among Schwab Foundation Social Innovation awardees

Two Indians, Ajaita Shah of social commerce platform Frontier Markets and Shuchin Bajaj of hospital chain Ujala Cygnus Hospitals, figured among the recipients of the Schwab Foundation Social Innovation Awards announced here on Tuesday. Shah is the founder and CEO of Frontier Markets (India), which works with and for women to offer an essential last-mile connection to rural households. Using convenient smartphone technology, it helps a fast-growing community of women entrepreneurs connect to more than 1 million women customers in thousands of villages. It aims to serve 100 million rural households by 2030. Shah has more than 18 years' experience working in rural India through microfinance, rural distribution, marketing and building gender-inclusive business models. Bajaj is Founder and Director of Ujala Cygnus Hospitals (India), which operates 20 hospitals in New Delhi, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Haryana, providing super-speciality and emergency healthcare in

Matter of joy and pride, says Gujarat CM as state tops Startup Ranking 2022

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Tuesday said it was a matter of joy and pride as the state was ranked number one for the fourth consecutive time in the State Startup Ranking 2022 announced by the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday. The results were announced by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal at the Startup Awards & State Ranking Awards function in New Delhi wherein Gujarat was ranked top in the best performing state category for states with more than one crore population. "It is a matter of joy and pride for all of us that Gujarat has been declared the best performing state in the State Startup Ranking 2022 for creating a strong ecosystem in the state. This ranking has been given by evaluating the states on various yardsticks including funding support, mentor support, capacity building, and market access to startups," the chief minister said in his post on X. Gujarat is committed to contribute more towards realising the Startup ...

Gujarat, Kerala, K'taka best states in nurturing startup ecosystem: DPIIT

Gujarat and Karnataka are ranked as the 'best performers' in developing startup ecosystem for budding entrepreneurs, according to the ranking of states and Union territories by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh are also categorised as the best performers. The ranking is a yearly exercise under DPIIT that evaluates all states and Union Territories on their efforts to build an ecosystem conducive to startup growth. A total of 33 states and Union territories (UTs) participated in the exercise. They are ranked under five categories -- best performers, top performers, leaders, aspiring leaders and emerging startup ecosystems. The states and Union Territories were broadly divided into two sections based on their population size --those having more than 1 crore and the ones with less than 1 crore. Gujarat has been ranked as the best performer for the fourth time in a row. Karnataka has been ranked in this segment

NYSE-listed SentinelOne acquires Bangalore-based startup PingSafe

PingSafe provides Cloud security services; deal estimated to be worth $100mn

Insurance broking startup Finhaat raises $3 mn for business expansion

Company says technology-driven platform will improve accessibility to insurance

Ride-hailing firm Yaary launches on ONDC for Hyderabad auto, taxi drivers

"Yaary facilitates peer-to-peer transactions between customers and service providers with 0% commission, charging only a nominal SaaS fee to service providers," the ONDC-backed firm said

Agritech company Vegrow raises $46 mn in funding round led by GIC

Start-up will use the money to expand in India and strengthen global network

Elon Musk's xAI startup seeks to raise $1 billion from equity investors

Musk has already raised nearly $135 million, according to a document filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which doesn't include the names of investors

CashKaro expects profitability in 2 yrs, user base to grow 100 mn in 3 yrs

Ratan Tata-backed startup Cashkaro expects profitability in the next two years and to grow its user base by four-fold to 100 million in the next three years, a senior company official said on Friday. While speaking to PTI on the sidelines of the Digital Acceleration and Transformation Expo (DATE), CashKaro and EarnKaro co-founder Swati Bhargava said the company has enough revenue to report profitability anytime now, but it is ploughing back money into marketing campaigns to grow its user base. When asked about the timeline that CashKaro expects to report profitability, Bhargava said, "We are looking at two years because, after two years, we see we can do away with some of our marketing campaigns". CashKaro has thus far raised over Rs 255 crore from prominent investors like Kalaari Capital, Ratan Tata, Korea Investment Partners and Affle Global Pte Ltd. Bhargava said that at present the company sees no immediate requirement for further fundraising till the time it becomes ...

Travel credit card startup Scapia raises $23 mn to expand business

Company has zero joining and annual fees, provides 10% reward on every card transaction

Byju's lenders win fight over $1.2 billion loan default, control of unit

Lenders have been pushing hard for the repayment of the $1.2 billion loan amid the company's mounting distress after a pandemic-era boom in online learning fizzled out

E-commerce startup Udaan to trim costs, forge partnerships ahead of IPO

Udaan, which competes with Reliance Industries Ltd. and Walmart Inc.'s Flipkart in helping smaller merchants source their goods, will make an operating profit within 18 months

The Dunzo story: When quick commerce proved to be a tough nut to crack

Dunzo's rush into quick commerce and search for funds have yet to deliver the goods, leaving it in a fragile state

Dunzo seeks to raise $35 mn in rights issue at a $200 mn valuation

The ailing startup has heavily cut the scale of its quick-commerce operations to save cash over the past year

Ex-Googler's struggling search startup becomes antitrust cautionary tale

Taking the stand Monday in federal court in Washington, Neeva co-founder Sridhar Ramaswamy recalled how the company thought it could deliver a better search experience by charging consumers

Third Wave Coffee raises $35 mn in series C funding round led by Creaegis

Third Wave Coffee is present in several major Indian cities, including Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Pune, Hyderabad, Noida, Coonoor, and Chandigarh

Zepto most preferred startup for professionals in India: LinkedIn ranking

E-commerce platform Zepto, which has turned unicorn recently, has emerged as the top startup in India in terms of professionals' preferred workplace, according to a list by a top recruiting platform. Startups that followed the e-grocery app in the ranking include EV cab aggregator BluSmart, fintech company Ditto Insurance, audio OTT platform Pocket FM and Skyroot Aerospace, respectively. LinkedIn on Wednesday released its 'Top 25 Indian Startups List', an annual ranking of emerging companies where professionals want to work, based on the hiring platform's data of almost 1 crore members. Zepto climbed three spots from number 4 last year as the top startup in terms of employee growth, jobseeker interest, member engagement within the company and its employees, and the startups pulling talent from LinkedIn's Top Companies list. "It's truly remarkable that 14 of the 20 startups featured on this year's list are new entrants, underscoring the immense potential and astonishing pace of ...

Beauty startup Pilgrim raises $20 million in Series B funding round

Pilgrim, a startup operating in the field of beauty and personal care, on Tuesday said it has raised USD 20 million (around Rs 166.6 crore) in a funding round. This Series B round was led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India along with existing investors Fireside Ventures & Narotam Sekhsaria Family Office, a joint statement said. The company currently has an annual run rate of Rs 300 crore and aims to scale it to Rs 1,000 crore by 2025 on the back of its commitment to robust R&D and consumer-centricity. Pilgrim, which is serving over five lakh consumers monthly, will deploy this funding to increase brand building, and R&D, and bolster offline expansion within India, it added. "Pilgrim has been steadfast in crafting efficacious solutions tailored to individual consumer needs and co-creating products alongside our customers. This approach has empowered us to introduce groundbreaking innovations, reshaping the landscape of India's beauty and personal care market," its .

SKUAST launches agricultural-entrepreneurship startup training programme

The Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) on Monday launched a skill training programme for creating the next generation of agri-entrepreneurs in Jammu and Kashmir. The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) has granted 550 skill training programmes to SKUAST for implementation in the current year, officials said. "We have to take our farming community from subsistence agriculture to sustainable commercial agriculture. We have to strive to achieve the goal set by the JK government to double the agricultural GDP in the next five years," Vice chancellor of the SKAUST Nazir Ahmad Ganaie told reporters. Last year the university implemented 66 skilling programmes. He said it is important that the country shifts toward startup culture as India is emerging as a big startup ecosystem in the world. "The universities have a very important role to play in bringing Jammu and Kashmir on the startup ecosystem map of the country," he added. S

China's artificial intelligence 'war of hundred models' heads for shakeout

China now has at least 130 large language models (LLMs), accounting for 40 per cent of the global total