Start- Ups

Indian startups move court to stop Google's new in-app billing system

The Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) last month asked India's antitrust regulator to investigate Google for devising a new system startups say still charges them a high service fee

India Accelerator announces Dubai foray, will invest $20 mn in start-ups

Incubator will provide start-up founders with four-month training in business growth

Indian startup funding dives 75% YoY to $2.8 bn in Q1 of CY 2023: Tracxn

Deal values dip sequentially as well; despite this India emerges as second-highest funded nation, behind the US

B2B start-up ElasticRun takes a step back, to focus on core strategy

ElasticRun extends the reach of a brand's direct distribution network to deep rural markets

India startups call for antitrust probe of Google in-app billing fee

Google, which counts India as a key growth market, faces other regulatory challenges, including a recent setback that forced it to change how it markets its Android system

Global investors slash valuation of Indian unicorns amid funding winter

Investors are looking to mark down the valuations of top Indian tech firms in the range of 20 per cent to 50 per cent, according to analysts

How Souled Store is riding young India's swelling pop culture wave

The Souled Store's target audience is young Indians in the age group of 16-30 years, a bulk of which is middle class - the biggest segment in India

Space start-up Skyroot conducts long duration test of its cryogenic engine

Private space tech start-up Skyroot Aerospace has achieved a major milestone by successfully test-firing a fully 3D-printed cryogenic engine for 200 seconds, the company said on Tuesday. The endurance test of 'Dhawan-II', using Skyroot's indigenously developed mobile cryogenic engine test pad, was carried out at Solar Industries propulsion test facility in Nagpur. It demonstrated impressive performance results, the Hyderabad-based company said in a statement. The achievement follows the November 2022 launch of Vikram-S, which made Skyroot the first Indian private company to send a rocket into space. The Dhawan-II engine builds on the foundation laid by Skyroot's first privately developed fully-cryogenic rocket engine, the 1.0 kN thrust Dhawan-I, which was successfully test fired in November 2021. "This is a major milestone for our cryogenic propulsion programme, which will enhance the payload capacity of Vikram series of space launch vehicles making them more modular so as to meet

V3 Ventures plans to invest 30 mn euros in Indian start-ups

London-based V3 Ventures on Tuesday announced that it will invest around 30 per cent of its EUR 100 million fund in early-stage start-ups in India in the next 12-18 months. V3 Ventures, Co-Founder and Investment Partner, Arjun Vaidya said that the company plans to invest the rest of the fund in the US and Europe. "India's economy is still growing rapidly and we are one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. In this macros environment - India has a unique advantage. "Given this, we expect consumer and technology businesses to thrive in the foreseeable future. This allows us to identify and back entrepreneurs who are building strong, purpose-driven, scalable brands," he said. Vaidya said that the VC will back good businesses and are very bullish about the opportunity India presents to the firm. "We aim to invest roughly 30 per cent of the 100 million euro fund. We have a strong pipeline in place and believe in a concentrated strategy. We believe India is at the cusp of a ...

Havells India partners with Swedish tech startup Blixt Tech AB

Leading electrical goods and appliances maker Havells India on Tuesday said it has entered into a commercial agreement with Swedish tech startup Blixt Tech AB to introduce Solid State Circuit Breaker (SSCB) technology in the domestic market. By introducing SSCB, Havells is strengthening its position in the switchgear segment. It also highlights Havells' focus on innovative and future-ready solutions, said a joint statement. "With this association, Havells is positioned to make a significant impact in the Indian electrical industry," it said. India's demand for high-power applications is expected to grow faster in the coming decades, and the power system is projected to become technologically superior, smart, and conducive to IT-enabled data sharing and management technology, said Havells. SSCBs have the ability to interrupt current flow much faster than traditional mechanical circuit breakers and there is no wear and tear due to digital switching with practically no arc unlike ...

User engagement platform CometChat Raises Rs 40 crore in venture debt

Funding round led by Utah-based Zions Venture Fund; CometChat offers a full-fledged messaging and communications platform within apps and websites to improve a brand's user engagement

Indian start-ups may take legal route against Google in-app billing

They argue that the charges are "exorbitant", make any alternative billing apart from GPBS economically unviable for them

Snacks start-up Kikibix raises $300,000 from founders of nine unicorns, VCs

Nutrition snacking start-up Kikibix has raised USD 300,000 from founders and co-founders of nine unicorns, including Mama Earth, Pristyn Care, Fashinza etc, the company said on Friday. Early-stage venture capital firms Blume Ventures led the funding round and US-based Angelist also participated in the fundraising. Founded by paediatrician Ridhi Kaur in 2022, the company makes cookies in flavours such as Cranberry Oats, Gur Chana, Ragi Mocha, Coconut, Figs, and Date Almonds. Mama Earth Founder Varun Alagh, Mosaic Wellness Co-founder and CEO Revant Bhate, Pristyn Care Co-Founders Vaibhav Kapoor and Garima Sawhney, EaseMyTrip Co-Founder Prashant Pitti, Fashinza Co-Founder Abhishek Sharma participated in the funding round. Kaur said that in the last six months, the company had seen 10 times growth in its monthly revenues. The organization plans to use the funds to launch more product categories, build a team and enter more distribution channels across the country.

Funding for Healthtech companies falls 55% to $1.4 bn in 2022: Tracxn

Drop is mostly due to a 75% dip in late-stage investments, from $2.4 billion in 2021 to $606 million in 2022

80% of early-stage start-ups looking to expand workforce in 2023: Report

These enterprises, the study by Ficci and Randstad says, are well capitalised and have raised series A and B funding rounds

MeitY Startup Hub, Google to support 100 Indian early to mid-stage startups

About 50 per cent of the cohort comes from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, including Varanasi, Ernakulam, Surat, Dehradun, Allahabad, and many others

Finance Bill 2023: Angel tax another hiccup for start-ups amid funding woes

Angel tax another hiccup for Indian startups amid the funding winter

Finance Bill: No respite for startups as Angel Tax effective from Apr 2024

Previously, many stakeholders had suggested the exclusion of investments from foreign companies in startups from the Angel Tax regime

Rs 700 cr corpus available to fund startups, no limit to fund innovation

State-owned research and development organisation C-DOT has a corpus of over Rs 700 crore for funding startups, but the government has kept no limit to fund innovation, a top official of the entity said on Thursday. Speaking to PTI on the sidelines of Regional Innovation Forum, C-DOT chief executive officer and chairman C-DOT Project Board RajKumar Upadhyay said that a number of delegations of ministers from neighbouring countries at the forum have expressed interest in technological collaboration with India, which will help in expansion of indigenous innovation beyond the country's boundary. "We have various schemes of government to fund innovation. Some of these schemes are available through C-DoT. Through them we have a corpus of Rs 700 crore to fund startups, but there is no limit of fund if we find right innovation," Upadhyay said. The delegation of communications ministers from Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal , Iran, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh visited the C-DoT campus. The campus now a

Amazon's accelerator programme to support 50 Indian D2C startups

Amazon Global Selling Propel Startup Accelerator (Propel S3) is a key part of the e-commerce giant's commitment to enabling $20 billion in e-commerce exports from India by 2025