Startup News You Probably Missed

OYO Returning to Home Accommodations

Airbnb may have had it right from the start then. OYO is looking at partnering with large real estate players to add serviced apartment and home accommodation to expand its budget and leisure stay accommodations.

A change of heart it appears Ritesh Agarwal, the prodigious founder of the SoftBank backed room aggregator, may have had. Some time back the startup was inching out of the home accommodation sector – the brands OYO Homes and Studio Stays may make a comeback after all.

Uber Rival Lyft, Acquires Pune Startup, FinitePaths

US based peer-to-peer transportation platform, Lyft has acquired a startup from Pune named FinitePaths for an undisclosed sum. Following the acquisition the cofounding team from FinitePaths will be shutting shop and joining the Lyft team.

FinitePaths had created an app called Trail Answers which worked like a search engine helping users make decisions based on “social, local and contextual signals.” The cofounders who each have a decade of experience building large scale distributed infrastructure and search engines at Yahoo, Amazon and Google will continue to do the same at Lyft.

According to recent reports, Lyft is looking to raise 500 million dollars at a valuation of $6 billion.

Need of the Hour: Mobile Drinking Water Startup Funded through IIT Kanpur

Decentrik Technologies from Lucknow is the deserving recipient of seed funding approved by IIT Kanpur. The funds will be disbursed by Innovative Ventures and Technologies for Development (INVENT). INVENT is a joint venture by the central government’s Technology Development Board (TDB) and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID).

INVENT will fund 40 such tech startups solving social issues. The maximum funding offered is Rs 50 lakh.

Decentrik has created a ‘water ATM’ called a ‘Waah’. This portable water units will dispense 250 ml of drinking water for just Rs 2. The startup has already partnered with Indian Oil pump stations to setup their product.

Government Changes Rules for Startup ‘Fund of Funds’ (FoF)

To avoid further cumbersome 10k Crore Fund (also known as the FoF) disbursal procedures the cabinet has allowed the following:

The Alternate Investment of Funds (AIF) can invest in eligible startups, amounts twice the size such AIFs may receive from the FoF.

Funds from the FoF can be used for the following expenses, given the expenses do not exceed 0.5 percent of the funds committed - operating expenses to conduct due diligence; legal and technical evaluations, and expenses related to the Venture Capital Investment Committee.

India’s Largest Incubator, T-Hub, Signs MoU Leading Mobile Chip Maker, Qualcomm

Located in Hyderabad, Telangana, T-Hub has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with billion dollar chip manufacturer, Qualcomm in what could be a strategic partnership that will fuel even more tech startups out of India.

Reports say Qualcomm will leverage this MoU to expand its existing Innovation Lab while further opening up its design, R&D and testing resources in Hyderabad. T-Hub will continue to mentor and incubate startups in addition to providing logistics assistance

In January 2017, Qualcomm announced that they are committed to investing $8.5 million in India under their Design in India initiative.

Logistics Disruptor Raises $70M from Flipkart and Others

Called BlackBuck, the tech startup from Bangalore announced it has secured $70 million in a series C funding bout. The leading investor for the round was Sands Capital, along with Accel and surprise! Flipkart. Or not so much a surprise since the ecommerce company also announced securing a billion dollars in funding, albeit in down round (raising funds at a lower valuation than perceived net worth of company).

BlackBuck which says they serve large MNCs like Unilever will be using the investment to scale up and expand operations and technological capabilities of its platform. The logistics tech startup specializes as a “marketplace for inter-city trucking,” catering to long haul inland truck requisites of companies with transparent, low cost freight procurement solutions.