CoinSwitch Web3 Discovery Fund will also be an AWS Activate Provider…reports Asian Lite News
India’s largest Crypto investing app CoinSwitch has announced a Web3 Discovery Fund, which will invest in and incubate early-stage startups building blockchain solutions for the rapidly evolving Web3 landscape.
The Web3 Discovery Fund will curate portfolio startups and provide single-window access to marquee investor partners Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Woodstock Fund and Elevation Capital (ex-SAIF partners), and incubation partner Buidlers Tribe, the company said in a statement.
“The venture programme is a result of our firm belief that India will be the launchpad for population-scale Web3 projects. To realise this vision of #MadeinIndia Web3, we have to identify and enable entrepreneurs and early-stage startups leveraging the potential of Crypto to solve real-world problems unique to India,” said Ashish Singhal, Co-founder and CEO, CoinSwitch.
CoinSwitch Web3 Discovery Fund will also be an AWS Activate Provider.
The fund’s early-stage portfolio startups can apply for AWS Activate Portfolio and receive AWS credits, technical support, training, resources, and more to accelerate their growth.
Further, the portfolio startups will also benefit from ready access to CoinSwitch’s in-house capabilities, ecosystem network, and 18 million-strong user base, accelerating their product life-cycle strategy.
According to the company, Web3 Discovery Fund will be an active investor and provide strategic support for the rapid growth of the portfolio startups.
Founders and builders can pitch at ventures@coinswitch.co, the company said.
A total of 15 start-ups will be selected under the programme, where they will be granted the opportunity to accelerate their product journey from lab to market…reports Asian Lite News
Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre, the technology business incubator at IIT Kanpur, is launching the NIRMAN Accelerator Programme, supported by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
According to a release, the programme will focus on manufacturing startups engaged in healthcare and agriculture domains and help them overcome the challenges from their prototype to market journey.
A total of 15 start-ups will be selected under the programme, where they will be granted the opportunity to accelerate their product journey from lab to market.
The best performing start-ups among the cohort of 15 start-ups will receive a cash award of up to Rs 10 lakhs.
Prof Amitabha Bandyopadhyay, professor-in-charge, innovation and incubation, IIT Kanpur, said, “Our country has been facing tremendous challenges in the domain of manufacturing. We are in urgent need of innovators and start-ups working in the healthcare and agriculture domain to cater to some of the pertinent developmental challenges to uplift the status of manufacturing in India.”
Dr Nikhil Agarwal, CEO FIRST IIT-Kanpur & AIIDE said, “SIIC comes with a vast experience of working with promising innovators and start-ups that can leverage optimum social impact. This collaboration with the department of science and technology aims to revive the manufacturing domain in the country”
The six-month-long programme will be devised into four segments, namely Principles of Product Growth, Engineering Acceleration, Navigating the Compliance Puzzle, and Leading to next-stage growth.
The programme will offer knowledge workshops, one-on-one mentoring support, diving deep for customized support for clinical validation, and business and investor connect.
Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre, IIT-Kanpur, was established in 2000 when entrepreneurship was still a developing currency, making it one of the oldest incubators in the country.
SBI has agreed to be one of the partner organisations for the planned Innovation hub sharing knowledge and providing financial support…reports Asian Lite News
State Bank of India (SBI) and Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which would enable SBI to open the country’s first dedicated branch for startups.
The new facility called the ‘SBI Startup Hub’ branch will be located at Koramangala in Bengaluru. The new branch is expected to be launched in August this year.
The MoU was exchanged in presence of C N Ashwath Narayan, Minister for IT, Government of Karnataka,
Speaking on the occasion Narayan said, “this MoU would boost the prevailing Startup ecosystem in the state. Further, he stated, that SBI would start such branches at Mysuru, Mangaluru, and Hubballi-Dharawada clusters in the next 6 months.”
As per this MoU, SBI will work towards creating an enabling mechanism for startups recognised by the Government of Karnataka and supported by KDEM for availing time-bound credit based on the purchase order, the minister said.
He said the KDEM would establish Fin-tech Innovation Hub at Mangaluru focusing on Fin-tech.
SBI has agreed to be one of the partner organisations for the planned Innovation hub sharing knowledge and providing financial support.
Narayan expressed confidence that the collaboration between KDEM and SBI would benefit startups by enabling access to banking facilities including focused services like access to funds, credit facilities, etc, for the startups across the state.
The state government has envisaged helping startups by making use of the Union Government’s CGTMSE scheme to provide loans of up to Rs 2 crore for micro and small enterprises, he said.
Karnataka has more than 13,000 startups and some of them are facing a paucity of funds. The MoU between KDEM and SBI would help to address this by facilitating access to credits. It also facilitates, exploring options to extend CGTSME (Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises) loans to eligible firms.
Speaking on the occasion, Rana Ashutosh Singh, SBI’s Deputy Managing Director (Transaction Banking & New Initiatives), said the initiatives of the state government have prompted SBI to go ahead with the launch of a dedicated branch to provide cluster seed fund, the first time in the country. (ANI)
The venture is Soota’s second in the health and wellness space. He had launched SKAN last year, a not-for-profit medical research trust that focuses on aging and neurological disorders…reports Asian Lite News
Serial entrepreneur Ashok Soota, who is almost 79 launched his latest entrepreneurial venture, ‘Happiest Health’, a global enterprise that aims to provide in-depth, credible and trustworthy knowledge related to health and wellness.
Speaking on the occasion, Soota, who’s is the Chairman of Happiest Health, said, “Happiest Health owes its genesis to a cognisance that globally, healthcare knowledge is merely about repetitive factual information that may not necessarily answer the concerns of a common person or provide in-depth, coherent understanding on complex health and wellness issues.
“Through Happiest Health, we want to build the importance of integrated medicine, provide valuable knowledge through experts on early diagnosis and evidence-based therapies and do so with empathy and passion.”
The platform will have articles and blogs by esteemed doctors, while a rich panel of wellness experts will lend their voice to the knowledge base.
Another key highlight will be the platform’s collaboration with globally-renowned medical research institutes for knowledge sharing.
While keeping abreast of all modern allopathic practices, Happiest Health will also put the spotlight on therapies such as Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Naturopathy and Yoga for wellness.
The venture is Soota’s second in the health and wellness space. He had launched SKAN last year, a not-for-profit medical research trust that focuses on aging and neurological disorders.
Last year, Ashok Soota promoted SKAN Medical research trust announced a grant of Rs 20 Cr to IIT Roorkee towards sponsoring a Chair Professorship, three Faculty Fellowships, creation of a lab and funding of joint research projects.
IIT Roorkee (IITR) is engaged in teaching and research in Science, Engineering, Management, Humanities & Social Sciences and Architecture & Planning disciplines. In particular, IITR is engaged in research in the field of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering. As part of its support to medical research in India, SKAN has agreed to provide a grant of Rs. 20 Cr to IITR.
The grant of Rs 20 Cr will be utilized by IITR towards:
Funding of an Institute Chair Professorship, two new faculty Fellowships and one Institute Research Fellowship.
Establishment of a wet-lab in IITR.
Funding of joint medical research projects. The first project under this agreement has already been identified and it is in the area of bipolar disease.
Ashok Soota, Chairman, SKAN Trust, said, “I am delighted to have this opportunity to give back to my alma mater through this grant. There is negligible private funding towards medical research in India and I was pleased to see that IITR is doing excellent work in this area. I see this as a good opportunity for me to contribute and also fulfill these needs of IITR.”
B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, Chairman BoG, IIT Roorkee, said, “A big thank you Soota for giving back to your alma mater. Your generous funding will give further momentum to Biological Sciences and Bioengineering research at IITR. I am confident that IITR will make good use of your funding for research in ageing and neurological disorders to make the world a better place to live. You are an exemplar alumni and a role model for present and future generations.”
They were followed closely by ShareChat ($255 million) and upGrad ($225 million)….reports Asian Lite News
The funding in the Indian startup ecosystem nosedived by a huge 33 per cent to $6.9 billion in the April-June period (Q2), from $10.3 billion in the first quarter (Q1) this year, amid the economic meltdown and layoffs in the funding winter, a report showed on Thursday.
In Q2, 121 new startups closed their first funding rounds, four startups turned unicorns, 62 startups got acquired, and five filed their IPOs, according to data intelligence platform Tracxn Technologies.
The Indian startups raised $6.9 billion in Q2 in 409 funding rounds and the top startups were VerSe ($805 million), Delhivery ($304 million), and udaan ($275 million).
They were followed closely by ShareChat ($255 million) and upGrad ($225 million).
Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai are the top cities attracting the maximum investments, as per the report.
“We aim to give industry stakeholders key insights of the ecosystem that would help in business decision making that is backed by extensive market intelligence and thorough research and data analysis,” said Neha Singh, Co-Founder, Tracxn.
With Leadsquared, Purplle, PhysicsWallah, and Open becoming new unicorns, the total valuation of unicorns escalated to $31.8 billion in Q2.
With respect to exits, while eMudhra, Delhivery, Handicrafts village, Eighty Jewellers, and Veranda Learning Solutions filed for IPOs, Blinkit (By Zomato), Whiteteak (By Asian Paints), and MyHQ (By ANAROCK) were the top acquisitions in the second quarter.
Social Platforms, internet first media, payments, B2B e-commerce and e-commerce enablers are the top sectors receiving the most funding from investors between April and June, the report mentioned.
The total funding in Q2 also witnessed a decline in comparison to the same quarter last year (Q2 2021), where the total funds raised were $10.1 billion.
“Though investors are a little wary due to the current environment it hasn’t dampened the investment spirit of the community. They have become more decisive about the startups they want to nurture and are focusing extensively from a long-term gain perspective,” said Abhishek Goyal, Co-Founder, Tracxn.
While IPV and Blume Ventures topped the investment charts in seed-stage startups, Sequoia Capital and Accel ranked highest in the early-stage startups funding standing.
Sofina and DST Global are the leading late-stage institutional investors, theATracxn report mentioned.
According to a report by market intelligence provider Tracxn, 14 Indian companies turned unicorns between January and June 1…reports Asian Lite News
Before the funding winter hit the Indian startup ecosystem, the country gave birth to at least 14 unicorns in the first five months of the year.
According to Union Science and Technology Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, the country has risen from 300 to 70,000 startups in the last 8 years, which is a massive 20,000 per cent increase.
“We should aim at a sustainable startup ecosystem because startups are going to determine the future economy of India. It is a matter of pride that globally out of every 10 unicorns, one is Indian,” the minister said during an event organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry late on Thursday.
“The concept of startup is still new to India so we should work collectively in this direction. We should explore sectors like agriculture, dairy and space which has immense potential and are exclusive to us,” Singh added.
According to a report by market intelligence provider Tracxn, 14 Indian companies turned unicorns between January and June 1.
Last year, India saw 13 unicorns in the same time period.
Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel highlighted the astonishing growth of the startups in a short span of time.
“Startups are fueled by innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, spreading across the length and breadth of the nation. More than 50 per cent of startups are witnessed in tier 2 and 3 cities which are a sign of great success,” she told the gathering.
Nearly 47 per cent of startup businesses have women as their director or CEO.
India today has more than 70,000 DPIIT-recognised startups.
PHDCCI President Pradeep Multani said that by leveraging its strengths in human capital and ICT (information and communications technology) services, and transitioning to a digital and knowledge-based economy, “India is fast becoming a breeding ground for innovation and startups”.
“Knowledge economies use ICT, innovation and research and higher education and specialised skills to create, disseminate, and apply knowledge for growth,” he said.
However, the startups ecosystem is witnessing a funding winter owing to Aglobal macro-economic factors that can last up to 18-24 months.
As VC money disappears amid economic slowdown, tech startups have laid off over 20,000 employees the world over since April, while more than 8,000 employees have lost jobs at the Indian startups led by edtech platforms.
In total, over 6,000 people have been shown the door in the name of “restructuring” and “cost cut” as startups and unicorns shut non-performing verticals, cut marketing spend, and freezing fresh hiring…writes NISHANT ARORA
After funding galore that saw more than $42 billion flowing in the Indian startup ecosystem last year alone, the current layoff season has shaken up the country’s workforce, especially the young, who quit traditional, stable companies to join startups at crazy packages.
The blockbuster startup party, that started in the pandemic years, appears to be over as thousands have been fired from startups ranging from edtech to e-commerce and healthtech verticals.
The professional networking platforms like LinkedIn are full with raging posts from employees who have been asked to leave.
The situation is set to get worse with recession looming and funding drying up.
From early-stage startups to “soonicorns” (set to become unicorns with a valuation of $1 billion and above) and the unicorns — all are bracing for a harsh winter ahead.
In total, over 6,000 people have been shown the door in the name of “restructuring” and “cost cut” as startups and unicorns shut non-performing verticals, cut marketing spend, and freezing fresh hiring.
Edtech major BYJU’s-run WhiteHat Jr forced more than 1,000 employees to resign after they were either asked to join at different locations or return to Mumbai or Gurugram.
Sources close to the company had told IANS that WhiteHat Jr asked its nearly 3,000 sales and support employees to report to either Mumbai or Gurugram (out of its 5,000-strong workforce that includes teachers which are on contractual basis, and hence not full-time employees) in April, leading to mass resignations.
Several sales executives have also quit BYJU’s after they were asked by the HR team to join various locations on meagre salaries.
Edtech platform Unacademy first laid off nearly 600 employees, contractual workers and educators — about 10 per cent of its 6,000-strong workforce across the group — in April.
Unacademy’s co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal has predicted a funding winter that can last as long as 18 months, saying it will cut costs wherever required to weather the dry spell and become profitable.
In a letter to employees, Munjal said that “we must learn to work under constraints and focus on profitability at all costs”.
“Some people are predicting that this (funding winter) might last 24 months. We must adapt. This is a test for all of us. We must learn to work under constraints. We must focus on profitability at all costs. We must survive the winter,” he wrote.
Another online learning company Vedantu has fired more than 424 workers owing to “financial constraints”.
According to Vamsi Krishna, CEO and co-founder of Vedantu, the external environment is tough as the Russia-Ukraine war, impending recession fears, and Fed rate interest hikes have led to inflationary pressures with massive correction in stocks globally and in India.
“There is no easy way to say this but I am truly sorry. Out of 5,900 Vedans (employees), 424 of our fellow teammates i.e about 7 per cent of our company, will be parting with us,” Krishna said last week.
Healthtech platform mFine has laid off over 50 per cent of its total workforce (more than 500 employees) from operations, product and marketing verticals, according to sources.
Shripati Acharya, managing partner, Prime Venture Partners, told IANS that they are in unprecedented times and the steep change in macro-conditions is particularly difficult on companies who are in active fundraise right now.
Prime Venture Partners is one of its existing investors in mFine.
“Unfortunately, restructuring and layoffs are inevitable in such scenarios and are very hard decisions for entrepreneurs to make. MFine has built a great product which is being used by millions of people and has built a huge hospital network with esteemed doctors,” Acharya said.
Pre-owned e-commerce platform CARS24 has asked around 600 employees to go on the basis of “poor performance”.
“This is business as usual as these are performance-linked exits that happen every year,” the company said in a statement shared with IANS.
The platform was last valued at $3.3 billion, about double the valuation from its previous round in September 2021.
Zomato-owned Blinkit (earlier Grofers) has laid off more than 1,500-1,600 employees owing to “cost-cutting”, in cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata looking to cut costs and reduce cash burn, according to media reports.
Zomato invested $100 million in Blinkit for a 10 percent stake at a valuation of $1 billion, right before its IPO in July last year.
E-commerce platform Meesho has fired over 150 full-time employees from its grocery business as part of “restructuring” of “Meesho Superstore which is aimed at bringing in efficiencies”
Furniture and lifestyle rental brand Furlenco has laid off over 180 employees as it scaled operations in several parts of the country.
“The decision is a part of a larger cost restructuring exercise to focus on creating an asset-light model,” according to Furlenco.
Social commerce startup Trell asked more than 300 employees to go as it had to do “some right-sizing within the firm”.
According to Ritesh Malik, doctor-turned-entrepreneur and investor, the country will see a lot of casualties in coming months, specially for startups who raised a lot of money without a proper product-market fit (PMF) model.
“This funding winter is a downtime for the ecosystem but is a very good time to actually work on building frugal machinery, consolidating and also ensuring reflection by leaders to ensure unit profit is at the centre of their foundership,” Malik told IANS.
The entire startup ecosystem must reflect, learn, conserve cash and get ready for a turbulent phase ahead.
“The founders need to wear their seat-belts and focus on NPS (net promoter score), customers and teams,” said Malik.
Startup CEO salaries vary by the amount of venture/seed funding that the companies have raised…reports Asian Lite News
The average startup CEO salary increased by 2.7 per cent in 2022 to reach $150,000 per annum globally from last year, while the median increased to $140,000, according to a new report.
According to startup accounting firm Kruze Consulting, in 2022, chief executives at early-stage companies that have raised over $10 million in financing were paid just $199,000.
“Founder CEOs at companies that have raised under $2 million were paid $106,000 on average — a difference of over $90,000,” the report mentioned.
Startup CEO salaries vary by the amount of venture/seed funding that the companies have raised.
The accounting firm looked at data from over 250 seed and VC-backed startups.
It found that average represents a 7.9 per cent increase in pay from 2020, when CEO wages went down owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Companies that raised over $5 million and over $10 million in funding saw their CEO pay go up by 7.5 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively.
“However, startups with more limited funding saw their CEOs make less, by about 7 per cent, than in 2021,” the report mentioned.
The report found three primary drivers for this behaviour.
“Firstly, and most obviously, companies with more funding are better able to pay their CEOs. Secondly, the increased CEO salaries recognises that these CEOs are more effective at fundraising, much like how compensation increases for CEOs in mature companies that generate greater profits,” said Healy Jones, VP of Financial Planning & Analysis for Kruze.
“Finally, startup culture can generate pressure to not take salaries,” Jones added.
Biotech and pharmaceutical companies tend to have the highest CEO compensation, with seed funded companies paying their CEOs nearly $161,000.
Healthcare companies had lower founder/CEO pay.
“We realised that this is because of the rise of D2C healthcare companies, which tend to seem more like SaaS businesses and less like a healthcare company with a CEO who has an advanced degree,” the report mentioned.
During Covid, the average startup CEO salary dipped 2 per cent to $139,000, but bounced back to $146,000 at the beginning of 2021.
Italy slaps $1.3 bn fine on Amazon for abusing market position
Amazon said that with GlowRoad, it will help accelerate entrepreneurship among millions of creators, homemakers, students, and small sellers from across the country…reports Asian Lite News
E-commerce giant Amazon on said that it has acquired homegrown women-focused social commerce startup GlowRoad for an undisclosed sum.
In a statement, the company said the acquisition will help it meet the commitment to digitise 10 million local Indian businesses by 2025.
“Amazon continues to explore new ways to digitise India and delight customers, micro- entrepreneurs and sellers and bringing GlowRoad onboard is a key step in this direction,” a company spokesperson told.
The acquisition comes at a time when the social commerce industry in India is booming, with players like Flipkart’s social commerce platform arm Shopsy and Meesho.
Amazon said that with GlowRoad, it will help accelerate entrepreneurship among millions of creators, homemakers, students, and small sellers from across the country.
“This acquisition will complement GlowRoad’s already loved service with Amazon’s technology, infrastructure, and digital payments capabilities, bringing more efficiency and cost-saving for everyone,” said the company spokesperson.
GlowRoad recently raised nearly $32 million and has investors like Accel, Vertex Ventures and CHD Investments, among others.
The platform has over six million resellers and is present in more than 2,000 cities.
A recent Accenture report said that as the global social commerce market is set to reach $1.2 trillion by 2025, India will be one of the fastest growing markets in the space.
The report said that India’s social commerce market is expected to grow at a 59 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach $17 billion in gross merchandise value by 2025.
It sets the stage for Pixxel’s first commercial phase satellites, to be launched in early 2023…reports Asian Lite News
Spacetech startup Pixxel has successfully launched its first fully-fledged commercial satellite called ‘Shakuntala’ with Elon Musk-run SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket.
Being Pixxel’s first fully-fledged satellite, ‘Shakuntala’ hosts one of the highest resolution hyperspectral commercial cameras ever flown to space, bringing it one step closer to building a 24×7 health monitor for the planet, it said in a statement.
Launched on Friday aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-4 mission from Cape Canaveral in the US, this launch puts the company within touching distance of its ambitious mission to assemble one of the world’s most advanced constellations of low-earth-orbit imaging satellites.
“From being one of the very few finalists in the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition in 2017 to now launching our own satellites as part of SpaceX’s fourth dedicated rideshare mission, life has come full-circle for us,” said Awais Ahmed, CEO of Pixxel.
Weighing less than 15 kg, Shakuntala (TD-2) is capable of capturing orbital images in more than 150 bands of colour from the visible and infrared spectrum with a resolution of 10-metres per pixel, far exceeding the specificity of 30-metre per pixel hyperspectral satellites launched by a few select organisations such NASA, ESA, and ISRO.
In just a few weeks from launch, Shakuntala will begin amassing information and uncovering the invisible changes wreaking havoc on our planet like natural gas leakages, deforestation, melting ice caps, pollution, and declining crop health.
The launch came at the heels of Pixxel’s $25 million Series funding from Radical Ventures, Seraphim Space Capital, Relativity Space co-founder Jordan Noone, Lightspeed Partners, Blume Ventures, and Sparta LLC, among others.
It sets the stage for Pixxel’s first commercial phase satellites, to be launched in early 2023.
With six satellites flown in a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) around a 550-km altitude, Pixxel’s hyperspectral constellation will be able to cover any point on the globe every 48 hours.
