Star India invests $10M In Data Analytics Startup SagacitoStar India Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc., has invested close to $10 million in data science and analytics start-up Sagacito Technologies Pvt. Ltd founded by two former top executives at Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd (BCCL) as reported by DealStreetAsia.
Founded by former BCCL employees Ravi Dhariwal and Arunabh Das Sharma, Sagacito aims to help businesses maximize market share and margins through predictive data analysis.
Star India is its first client. “Star India has identified big data and analytics as one of the focus areas, and Sagacito is one of our partners in this pursuit. To help Sagacito accelerate its growth, Star India has decided to make a minority investment in this business,” said Prateek Garg, head of business development at Star India.
LT Foods Acquires Amritsar-Based Rice Brand 817 ElephantLT Foods, acting through its UK-based subsidiary LT Foods International Ltd, has acquired an Amritsar-based rice exporter Deva Singh Sham Singh Pvt Ltd which operates under the brand name 817 Elephant.
However the deal amount was not disclosed.The acquisition will help the company to further strengthen its existing presence in Canada, USA and Israel, LT Foods said in a stock market disclosure. Public-listed rice exporter and marketer LT Foods Ltd incorporated its UK arm last month for strengthening its presence in Europe as reported by DealStreetAsia.
It was also seeking to set up a facility in the Europe. LT Foods’ scrip last traded at Rs 298.05 each, up 4.80 per cent on BSE in a weak Mumbai market on Monday.
Wow! Momo Gets $1.2M Debt Funding From Bandhan BankKolkata-based Wow! Momo, chain of quick service restaurants (QSR) has received Rs 7.9 crore ($1.18 million) in debt funding from Bandhan Bank to set up back-end infrastructure and to open new stores. The funding includes Rs 1 crore in cash.
“Our cash flows continue to be quite strong, and we are confident that we’ll comfortably manage to service the amount raised as we have been doing in the past,” Sagar Daryani, co-founder of Wow! Momo told DealStreetAsia.
Last year, Wow! Momo,, had raised around rs 10 crore from Indian Angel Network.
Luxurystation.com Launches Spa Cleaning For Bags, In Talks With US Company Online luxury goods seller luxurystation.com plans to invade into offering dry cleaning and refurbishment services for luxury products in India.
The company is in talks with a US based spa brand to bring it to India, said Kapil Gupta, CEO, Luxury Station.
The company, which currently sells handbags and other accessories online, plans to launch clothes and shoes on its website within the next two months.
Set up in October 2015, Gupta said that they followed an inventory based model which is what set it apart from other companies in the space. "Instead of importing the product after the order has been placed, we already have the inventory in India which enables us to deliver within 24-72 hours instead of a few weeks,"as reported by ET.
Gupta also said that the company would be expanding its studios to other cities beyond New Delhi and expanding its product offerings over the next few months
E-Pharmacy Startup CareOnGo Launches B2B Mobile App InstaStockE-pharmacy startup CareOnGo has launched a business-to-business mobile app, InstaStock, partnered with financial technology player LendingKart to allow instant working capital loans for retailers.
Through the InstaStock app, retailers, hospitals and other healthcare institutions can procure medicines as well as health and wellness products directly from more than 100 pharmaceutical companies and brands as quoted by ET.
The startup's logistics system will eliminate the middle man and help make the delivery within 18 hours.
The app includes an analytics platform, 'Pharmalytics', which will provide insights into customer profiles, top-selling medicines by locality, consumer behaviour and demand predictions.
Through the point of sales solution, pharmaceutical companies can receive payments via cards and mobile wallets, including Paytm and PayU.
Lendingkart Ties Up With Wydr To Provide Easy Finance To TradersAhmedabad-based Lendingkart, a fintech start-up entered into partnership with Wydr, a B2B mobile marketplace to provide short term credit for inventory purchase to retailers and shopkeepers.
Wydr will provide the technology interface to its buyers to seamlessly apply for Credit from within its App. The maximum amount of loan that an SME can apply for is Rs 10 Lakhs. This facility shall be available to all registered business users of Wydr for transactions through its platform.
Rishabh Dhyani, VP - Business Development, Wydr said, "The SMEs in the business would no longer have to worry about issues like arranging funds for operational purposes. The partnership with Lendingkart Group is an effort in that direction." as quoted by ET.
Harshvardhan Lunia, Co-Founder & CEO, Lendingkart Technologies said, "The partnership with Wydr is an effort to simplify the process of loans disbursement and make capital accessible via our completely online application process".
India Market Regulator Sebi Proposes Easier Norms For REITsThe Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Monday proposed easier norms for real estate investment trusts (REITs) and said that such entities do not need to buy or sell assets at prices suggested by independent valuers while undertaking related-party deals.
At present, for related-party transactions, REITs are required to purchase or sell assets at a price that is not greater or less than the average of two independent valuations. In order to allow more flexibility, the regulator proposed that REITs can purchase properties at any value as long as the price is not greater than 110% of the average of the two independent valuations.
And REITs can sell a property at any price as long as the value is not less than 90% of the average of the two independent valuations, Sebi said in a consultation paper.
Sebi proposes to allow REITs to invest in holding companies which have investments in other SPVs, which subsequently hold the real estate assets as reported by DealStreetAsia.
SaaS-Based Startup Applop Raises Bridge Round From GHV AcceleratorApplop Mobile Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a software-as-a-service provider that enables users to make their own mobile app, has raised a bridge round of funding from existing investor Green House Ventures Accelerator, co-founder Rahul Singhal told TechCircle.
The Gurgaon-based startup has received nearly $250,000 (Rs 1.6 crore) so far and is seeking to close this round at $500,000, Singhal said. He added that a Bangalore-based angel investor also participated in this round, as reported by TechCircle.
The startup will use the fresh capital for technology development and expanding operations to Southeast Asia. A part of money will also be used for marketing and brand building.
Launched in July 2015 by Singhal and his wife, Jyoti Singhal, Applop is a mobile app that enables smartphone users to create and customise their mobile apps without any coding.
Mast Kalandar in Talks to Close $10M Funding Bengaluru-based food company Mast Kalandar is in advanced talks to close a $10-million funding round, people familiar with the development said.
The eight year-old company, founded by Gaurav Jain and his wife Pallavi Gupta, specialises in vegetarian north Indian food.
It had earlier raised investments from Footprint Ventures and Helion Venture Partners. Acuity Capital, a Delhi-based independent investment corporate advisory firm, is the exclusive advisor to this transaction, as quoted by ET.
Focused on consumer brands and technology, Acuity Capital works with founders to raise early-stage or growth-stage funds.
Google's Sunil Rao Joins Venture Capital Firm LightspeedSunil Rao quits Google to join early-stage venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners as partner. Rao was the head of strategic partner development, VCs & startups, in Google India.
Lightspeed's appointment of Rao coincides with the launch of its Bengaluru office. The venture firm, which counts Oyo and Freshmenu among its portfolio companies, already has offices in Delhi, as quoted by ET.
Rao will be partner of business services and community, responsible for proactively supporting Lightspeed's portfolio companies and engaging with the startup community, including accelerating technical recruiting by running hackathons for them.
Rao spent five years in Google, where he was instrumental in driving its mentoring programme - Google Launchpad - focused on areas like product strategy, user experience (UX) and user interface (UI), technology, marketing, business development and presentation skills. He played a key role in its accelerator and the more recent Sandhill programs at Google for later stage startups.
TPG Growth Invests $33 Million In Rhea HealthcareTPG Growth, the $7 billion growth equity investment arm of TPG, on Tuesday announced a $33 million investment for a "significant" majority stake in Bengaluru-based Rhea Healthcare which operates a network of mother and child care centres in India under the "Motherhood" brand.
"This latest investment reinforces our sector focus on healthcare in India and globally," said Puneet Bhatia, managing director and country head for TPG in India. "Through TPG's Growth, Capital, Asia, and Biotech platforms, the firm has invested more than $10 billion in healthcare companies around the world."
Currently, quality centres offering specialised birth and neonatal care are limited in India but are increasingly gaining demand with the rising Indian middle class where mothers are seeking out exclusive care centres that offer a combination of clinical expertise and personalised attention, TPG Growth said in a release.
TPG Growth's investment in Rhea Healthcare is the latest in a series of healthcare investments the fund has made in India and the region. In April, TPG Growth invested in Cancer Treatment Services International (CTSI), a network of single-specialty facilities across India and in December last year, it invested in Asiri Healthcare, Sri Lanka's leading hospital and diagnostics chain.
Genpact and UpGrad to Address Data Scientist Talent Gap By Upskilling Working ProfessionalsGenpact, a global leader in digitally-powered business process management and services, and UpGrad, the online education platform for working professionals, today announced they are partnering together in an innovative postgraduate diploma data analytics program in association with the International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIIT-B).
The rigorous nine-month program helps bridge the critical talent gap facing today’s analytics industry. The demand for experienced data scientists far exceeds the availability of trained professionals to meet the growing need for global enterprises to provide real-time intelligent information to their customers, regulators, partners, and other groups in an increasingly digitally and data connected world. In India alone, industry experts expect a shortage of at least 200,000 data scientists in 2016. It also helps to increase the employability of many professionals in the face of changing work requirements.
Genpact will serve as UpGrads’ “knowledge partner” and the two companies will work closely together to create case studies, guest lectures, and other curriculum. Genpact and UpGrad will also host events for students at Genpact offices, provide mentorships with Genpact leaders, and offer recruitment opportunities for students among other activities.
The UpGrad program, which aims to train more than 10,000 professionals over the next three-to-four years, is geared to help working professionals acquire additional industry relevant knowledge, grow their professional network, and accelerate their career in data analytics. The curriculum covers diverse advanced subjects in data analytics through interactive sessions, live lectures, and three-month capstone projects mentored by the best in the industry.
The UpGrad program is live now at https://upgrad.com/programs/data-analytics/. The program also features other leaders from the analytics domain contributing in individual capacities.
OYO Partners with HDFC Bank’s PayZapp to Aid Frictionless PaymentOYO, India’s largest branded network of hotels, announced the integration of PayZapp, a complete payment solution by HDFC Bank, on its consumer app. This tie-up will enable customers to directly link their debit and credit card to PayZapp, and book an OYO by making the payment in just one click. With PayZapp, users do not need to preload money each time they transact - and can thereby access a convenient and secure way of payment.
OYO is committed to building a long term relationship with HDFC Bank and PayZapp and will continue to collaborate on both strategic and tactical campaigns.
OYO, now present over 180 cities, has more than 6000 hotels in its network and also has operations in Malaysia.
BW Reporters
This is Chitrakshi Suneja currently pursuing graduation and diploma in journalism and mass communication. She is crazy about Writing stuff on Startups, Entrepreneurs and reading as well.
