Commerce and Trade Minister Piyush Goyal stated on Thursday that the government is seeking to reduce the compliance and regulatory burden on businesses so that they may operate, develop, and exit more easily amid green shoots of funding returning to India. “There’s been huge growth in manufacturing investment of late. I can see the green shoots of investment coming back to India in a big way particularly private investment,” Goyal stated on the Global Unicorn Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry. While authorities funding has been ongoing, he stated the…
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Edtech unicorn Vedantu slashes course costs
As offline education institutions reopen and demand for online education declines According to chief executive and cofounder Vamsi Krishna.edtech unicorn Vedantu has been focusing on adding new languages and lowering the prices of its courses by at least 70%. “At Vedantu we had been working on how to bring the prices low so education is affordable for everyone. Our one-year long-term course for grade 6 to 12 which was earlier in the range of Rs 22,000-25,000 a year will now be available for Rs 5,000 with the use of augmented…
Read MoreAgritech startup Poshn raises $3.8 million funding
Poshn, an agritech platform, raised $3.8 million (Rs 28.8 crore) in a fundraising round headed by Prime Venture Partners, with Zephyr Peacock as a participant. The startup intends to use the new funds to expand quickly and hire across both engineering and business divisions. Poshn, a procurement platform for bulk processed commodities, was founded in 2020 by Shashank Singh and Bhuvnesh Gupta in a severely fragmented agri-supply chain sector. By making wholesale trading smooth, the company hopes to organise the supply chain. The company provides services for commodity wholesale trading,…
Read MoreForever 21 parent Authentic Brands sues payment startup Bolt
Bolt Financial Inc., the payments firm best known for its founder’s inflammatory Twitter threads accusing Silicon Valley of being governed by “mob bosses,” is being sued by one of its most well-known clients. Authentic Brands Group claims that Bolt not only failed to deliver promised technologies, but also that the clothing retailer lost more than $150 million in online sales as a result of Bolt’s integration with Forever 21. According to the complaint, Bolt sought money at increasingly high valuations by “consistently overstating” the scope of its integration with ABG’s…
Read MoreAgritech firm DeHaat acquires Y-Cook India
DeHaat, a full stack agritech platform that provides farmers with end-to-end agricultural services, announced the all-cash acquisition of Y-Cook India. Y-Cook India is a food technology company that provides steamed produce that is ready to eat. Janardhan Swahar, Vijay Reddy, and Gayathri Swahar founded it in 2011. The Bengaluru-based company processes and exports sweet corn and lentils to nine different nations. Omnivore Partners, Oikocredit, and 021 Capital are among the investors. While OikCredit and 021 Capital will profit from this deal, Omnivore, which is also a DeHaat investor, will have…
Read MoreRobotaxi startup gains license in China
Pony.ai, a self-driving technology company backed by Toyota Motor Corp, announced on Sunday that it had secured a taxi licence in China, allowing some of its self-driving vehicles to begin charging fares. The company claimed to be the country’s first autonomous driving company. The company said that it has been granted a licence to operate 100 self-driving vehicles in the Nansha neighbourhood of Guangzhou. Pony.ai was also granted permission to provide paid autonomous robotaxi services in Beijing last year, and has since began providing rides. Rides are being offered on…
Read MoreSaaS startup Everstage raises $13M in a Series A round
Everstage, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company based in Chennai and Delaware that offers a modern sales commission management platform, has raised $13 million in a Series A round headed by Elevation Capital and current investor 3one4 Capital. Everstage is a sales commission management platform that automates sales commission processes in companies to drive the performance of their customer executives. It was founded in 2020 by Siva Rajamani and Vivek Suriyamoorthy. Everstage will use this amount of funding to extend its client services globally by growing its sales, engineering, and solutions teams….
Read MoreIndian startup ecosystem gains global recognition: Ashwini Vaishnaw
The Indian startup ecosystem has gained global recognition and respect, Minister for IT and Communications Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday, exhorting the startups and entrepreneurs to develop inclusive new-age solutions to improve the lives of the poor and marginalized. The minister referred to startups as “accelerators,” saying that the combination of their multiplier effect and the strength of a trustworthy post office network may produce remarkable outcomes in terms of financial inclusion goals. “Understand the gravity of the convergence of humanity and technology…keep the bottom of the pyramid in mind…
Read MoreEcom Express plans to convert 50% of its vehicle fleet to electric by 2025
Ecom Express, a tech-driven logistics company, wants to convert half of its fleet to electric by 2025. The business stated in a statement that it will deploy electric bikes in Jaipur and Hyderabad to complement its push into electric vehicles. Ecom Express has been operating an electric 3-wheeler fleet in the Delhi NCR for the past two years in the first-mile delivery sector, as well as successfully completing trials for the usage of e-bikes in the last-mile, according to the company. The company claims that the use of electric cars…
Read MoreMicrosoft announces two startup initiatives in India
Microsoft India announced two new programmes on Wednesday to assist startup entrepreneurs in the country in innovating and growing. Microsoft will launch its second cohort of startups as part of its AI Innovate initiative, as well as a new hackathon for startups to provide resources and support to developers working on digital solutions. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) startups whose core apps or services are built using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology are invited to apply for Microsoft AI Innovate’s second season. “With deepened focus on core AI startups in the second season of…
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