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Startup Ecosystem
Gwalior's royal family scion Mahanaaryaman Scindia, whose name speaks volumes, has shed his legacy and ventured into building his own empire from scratch through startup MyMandi, which he expects to turn profitable in about one-and-a-half years of its business commencement. By combining his lineage of public service, lessons of creating social impact by grandfather late Madhavrao Scindia and wisdom acquired during work at global firms Boston Consulting Group and Softbank Group, 27-year-old Scindia and his firm's co-founder Suryansh Rana, 25, zeroed in on a common passion of working in agriculture sector, cut down on waste of fresh produce and logistic costs. Founded in 2022, MyMandi began operations from Gwalior where Scindia himself goes into local mandis, with a covered face to conceal his identity, for procuring fresh produce and sell the inventory to the firm's last mile delivery partners -- street vendors and cart pushers community. The formula of their venture has led to a ...
Union Minister Smriti Irani on Tuesday said India has emerged as the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world with more than 84,400 such businesses operating across 656 districts in the country. In 2014, there were only 720 startups in the country, Irani said. She further said the valuation of Indian unicorns stood at USD 332.7 billion. "Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, India has emerged as the third-largest ecosystem of startups with more than 84,400 startups in 656 districts across the country," Irani was quoted as having said in a statement issued by the BJP. The minister said in 2014 when Narendra Modi assumed the charge of prime minister, he had stated that his aim would be to create such atmosphere that the youth should be "job creators rather than job seekers." "Prime Minister Modi took various measures including Skill India, Start-up India, Stand-up India, Make in India, Digital India and Mudra Yojana to empower the youth," Irani said. Talking about th
The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bangaluru-based deep tech startup QNu Labs to develop indigenous Satellite QKD (quantum key distribution) products. With this MoU, QNu Labs, with the support of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and IN-SPACe, aims to demonstrate unlimited distance Satellite QKD based quantum secure communication, according to a joint statement on Tuesday. Terrestrial QKD systems have the limitation of requirement of repeaters every 100-150 kms, which is a big hindrance in creating a large-scale Quantum Secure Network, it was noted. "With Satellite QKD capability, India holds the potential to become a world leader in creating Quantum Secure Communication Network", the statement said. "The outcome of this collaboration shall ensure that India leads the future of global quantum communication networks that will involve a combination of the quantum-satellite constellation,
BharatPe's former MD Ashneer Grover, who was recently slapped with a civil suit and criminal charges for cheating and siphoning off funds from the company he co-founded, has advised startup founders not to go by Western concept of arm's length and related party transactions. In his new book 'Doglapan', Grover says there is nothing wrong in giving spouses a board position as they invest in founders' success and will be a victim of their failure, like no one else. "Just because your business has capital coming in from the US, you do not have to go by their concept of management - of not involving family in business," he writes. "To my mind, the concept of a related party transaction in India is totally irrelevant." BharatPe, a fintech unicorn, has in recent days taken three legal actions against Grover - filed a civil suit in the Delhi High Court, a criminal complaint with the Economic Offences Wing and filed an arbitration for clawing back his restricted shareholding and founder tit
A Mumbai-based venture debt marketplace is in the midst of setting up an Alternate Investment Fund (AIF) in India and raise USD 90 million for funding 100 startups in 10 countries as well as opening a Singapore office. The AIF, a private equity fund in India, will raise money from Indian investors for the Indian companies, Mumbai-based 8vdx founder Ravi Chachra said on the sidelines of Singapore Fintech Festival. We have money from Indian investors and we are setting up an Indian AIF, an equity fund, said Chachra, a serial entrepreneur and veteran financial investor with a specialisation in credit. The Mumbai team of 15 will be expanded to 40 next year while 10 more funding experts will be placed in offices in Singapore, to be opened next year, as well as Delaware and California. The company has already raised USD 10 million, some of which have come from small investors such as people keen on investing as little as US$10,000 in startups, he explained. Chachra, and 8vdx co-founder
The valuation of the startup ecosystem in the country is nearly Rs three lakh crore, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday. "...the fact that we are probably 110-plus unicorns, about 75 or so soonicorns which are on their way to become unicorns, is truly a remarkable achievement. The last time we did a valuation of our startup ecosystem, it came to about USD 368 billion, that's nearly three lakh crore rupees," he said. Goyal said there are over 80,000 startups in the country registered with the Industry Ministry. "We have about over a million people directly engaged by them. Must be many million more who are indirectly involved in the entire startup ecosystem. Over a 110 unicorns," he said. He spoke about the various initiatives taken by the government to promote the startups. The government is also strengthening the patent offices and everything is going to be online, he said. He was replying to a query on what is being done to boost the startup ...