Airtel gains more over Jio; China and 6G;UPI Boom- Whatsapp joins the play;Bihar Eggoz raises $1.5million; Flipkart "aquahires" Mech Mocha;[Funding alerts].....continue.
Week 45,2020
Hi , Shubham Shekhar here,
Welcome all to the weekly compilation of wonderful tech and related news.
Also Including the best tweet/thread of the week. Do read and engage.
Here is Your weekly dose,
#1
Airtel hitting back JIO on many fronts.
def: churn : The churn rate, also known as the rate of attrition or customer churn, is the rate at which customers stop doing business with an entity.
ARPU: Average revenue per user
Ebitda: Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation
Airtel announced its second quarter (Q2) 2020-21 (FY21) results last week, springing a surprise by declaring a net subscriber addition of 13.9 million, mostly in 4G. That’s nearly double that of Jio’s (7.3-million net additions in the same quarter) — its lowest in two years.
Airtel churn was at an all-time low of 1.7 per cent from 2.2 per cent last quarter and that Jio’s churn, which was low at 0.46 per cent in the April-June quarter, went up to matching Airtel’s 1.7 per cent.
Airtel’s wireless revenues are up 7 per cent in Q2, compared to a fall of 1 per cent the previous quarter. Jio revenues in Q2 are up 5.5 per cent, compared to 12 per cent the previous quarter.
Q2FY2021
#2
2billion UPI transactions in october.
The digital payments channel, operated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), processed a total of 2.07 billion transactions worth Rs 3.86 lakh crore in October, data released by NPCI on Sunday showed.
UPI first went live in April 2016, a few months before demonetization. It took the channel over three years to clock its first billion transactions per month in November 2019, but has, in less than a year, add the next billion transactions.
UPI is an instant real-time payment system facilitating inter-bank transactions. There are over 174 banks live on the channel.
Made in India,PhonePe beats Google Pay; emerges as largest UPI player in Oct.
Processes 835 million UPI transactions and grabs a market share of over 40%.
Total transactions including wallet hit a new milestone of 925 mn.
NPCI on 5th november placed a 30% cap on UPI transactions through third-party payment apps (TPAPs), meant for ensuring that the digital payments landscape isn’t monopolised.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) announced today that WhatsApp can go ahead with the rollout of WhatsApp Pay in India. The company will be allowed to rollout in a “graded manner” the NPCI said, and it will first be allowed to do so with a maximum of 20 million registered users in UPI.
#3
Walmart’s Flipkart acquires the intellectual property (IP) of gaming startup Mech Mocha.
Mech Mocha is the company behind the live-social gaming platform Hello Play. Flipkart will also take over 10-odd games that Mech Mocha has developed over the past five years, including Ludo, Carrom, Snakes and Ladders, and Cricket.
Mech Mocha’s gaming team is also set to join Flipkart as the latter continues to hone in on developing new tactics aimed at driving user engagement on its platform.
A Financial Express report claimed that India’s gaming scene is currently seeing a surge in domestic and foreign direct investments, raking in over US$450 million from 2014 through 2020 and with more than 400 active startups.
“We see many first-time e-commerce users come online through formats such as video and games,” said Prakash Sikaria, vice president at Flipkart. “Our observations of Flipkart GameZone reflect this trend as we see a strong correlation between casual gamers becoming early shoppers on Flipkart for their digital journey.”
#4
"the world's first 6G satellite"
China sends 'world's first 6G' test satellite into orbit,
It went into orbit along with 12 other satellites from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the Shanxi Province.
The new technology is expected to be 100 times faster than 5G enabling lossless transmission in space to achieve long-distance communications with a smaller power output.
The observatory will begin full operation in January 2021 after passing a “series of technical and performance assessments.”
#5
OkCredit : OkStaff :: Khatabook : Pagarkhata
Lightspeed-backed OkCredit has launched OkStaff while Sequoia-backed Khatabook is also offering a staff management app Pagarkhata. OkStaff made its debut on Android’s Play Store on October 30 and Pagarkhata released on November 4.
OkCredit and Khatabook are arch-rivals who have been fighting aggressively in the bookkeeping space. The scope of competition increased when both companies entered the e-commerce enablement space with separate products.
Khatabook also entered into a legal fight with Rankz Inc’s app Dukaan that offers services akin to MyStore. The Karnataka High Court had banned the distribution of Dukaan app over Khatabook’s allegation of stealing MyStore’s source code.
Both companies have raised over $85 million each in funding from the likes of Lightspeed, B Capital and Tencent.
#6
[FUNDING ALERT]
FEDO
Insurtech Startup raises $1M from Unicorn India Ventures
The funds will be used by Fedo to enhance the computer vision capabilities for non-invasive identification of health risks for various use cases requiring health assessment and to co-create personalised insurance products.
Founded in 2017 by Prasanth Madavana and Arun Mallavarapu
Fedo is an AI/ML platform that leverages the power of deep tech and medical research to automate underwriting in the health and life insurance sector.
It uses computer vision and AI algorithms to help insurers enhance sales, reduce costs, and enrich the quality of their portfolio.
Bizlog Value Chain
Reverse logistics startup raises Rs 12Cr in Pre-Series A round.
will use the funding to further develop the startup's technology, create a roadmap to onboard new verticals, and expand the business.
Co-founded in 2016 by HS Srinivasan, Krishnan Rajan, and E.V. Shunmugam, Bizlog provides services to many large corporates to startups in solving their returns management and reverse logistics issues.
During the pandemic, the startup had provided work from home logistics solutions to many big corporates.
Leena AI
US and Delhi-based artificial intelligence (AI)-powered employee experience platform raises $8M in Series A round led by Greycroft.
“This investment will fuel our mission to elevate employee experience through AI-powered conversations and insights and become the Siri for enterprise employees,” said Adit Jain, Co-founder and CEO, Leena AI.
Founded in 2018, the company plays well with 20 plus platforms, including SAP SuccessFactors, ADP, Oracle, Workday, and Microsoft Office 365, and companies like Nestle, Puma, AirAsia, Coca-cola, Lafarge Holcim, and Abbott rely on the platform.
Eggoz
Bihar based Agritech startup Eggoz raises $1.5M from Avaana Capital and Rebright Partners
Eggoz will use the pre-Series A funding of $1.5 million to expand into newer markets, launch new products, grow its supply base, and strengthen its tech platform.
Founded in 2017, Eggoz has sold over 25 million eggs, with over 100 thousand birds under management.
Founded by Abhishek Negi, Uttam Kumar, Aditya Singh and Pankaj Pandey, Eggoz secured Rs 2.5 crore in seed funding in May this year. The startup had earlier received Rs 1.2 crore from a clutch of angel investors.
“India produces more than 100 billion eggs every year. However, the category has seen minimum innovation and product development, and lacks a consumer-focused brand, serving the country’s growing need for fresh and nutritious food products. Eggoz wants to be the preferred brand for both consumers and farmers. We look forward to partnering with Avaana Capital and Rebright Capital to scale our business and realize this vision,” said Abhishek Negi, Co-founder, Eggoz.
Tamasha.live
Gaming platform Tamasha.live raises Rs 2.5 Cr from 9Unicorns, Titan Capital & FirstCheque
will use this funding to strengthen its team with cross-functional expertise, invest in building a strong product, and grow its user base.
Founded in 2020 by Saurabh Gupta and Siddharth Swarnkar, Tamasha is an influencer-lead live online gaming platform where new-age influencers and content creators will host the games that will have real cash prizes for winners at the cost of a small entry fee.
Saurabh said, “Tamasha aims to disrupt the booming social gaming industry. We aim to give, the new generation of content creators, the power to entertain their fans through live games and also monetize it effectively in new and unique ways; and the backing of leading investors such as 9Unicorns will help us realise that vision.”
Traya Health
Tatva rebrands to Traya after Rs 4.5 cr seed round led by Kae, Whiteboard.
The funding has so far been used in technology ramp up, research and development of its products, and clinical research.
the startup provides doctor prescribed and customized hair loss solutions, through what it said is a combination of three sciences - ayurveda, allopathy, and nutrition.
The company was co-founded by Saloni Anand and Altaf Saiyed. The MBA graduates came up with the idea of the startup after Altaf’s bout with a hair loss issue, and the experience of its prognosis.
TurboHire
AI-based recruitment platform TurboHire raises seed funding of $1M
Turbohire was founded in 2018 when a group of former IITians and NITians, who quit their respective jobs at Microsoft, Google, and ISB and came together to create a new Augmented Intelligence-based platform to dramatically change how organisations make hiring decisions.
In a statement, the startup said that fresh capital will be utilised for expanding into global markets, improving the value proposition by building an ecosystem, and deepening the intelligence with automated interviews.
TurboHire is being used by more than 100 enterprises, including brands such as ICICI Bank and RPG Enterprise.
Gully Network
Grocery tech startup Gully Network raises $1.2M pre-Series A round led by Venture Catalysts
The startup plans to use the funding to open new income streams with scale and will strengthen its offering for retailers as well as end consumers.
Started in 2019 by IIT Madras and IIM Ahmedabad alumni Ajay Nain and Prateek Chaturvedi, Gully Network provides a tech-enabled platform that takes care of the entire value chain for retailers and helps them generate additional income while modernising their store end to end.
Gully Network said that it is creating its niche in the $25 billion mid-sized store segment that has mostly been ignored amidst the e-grocery and Kirana war
Stones2milestones
Stones2milestones raises Rs 19 Cr bridge funding led by Unreasonable Capital
Gurugram-based education technology firm Stones2milestones, which owns and operates Freadom got Unreasonable Capital's first investment in India.
LetsTransport
Diptab Ventures Pvt. Ltd, which operates the last-mile intra-city logistics marketplace LetsTransport, has raised Rs 56 crore (about $7.5 million) in an apparent extension of its Series B funding round, according to a report.
LetsTransport was founded in 2015 by Pushkar Singh, Sudarshan Ravi and Ankit Parasher.
The company provides urban logistics services to businesses. Clients can book vehicles and manage bookings through its platform.
LetsTransport had raised Rs 100 crore in December 2018 in its Series B round, which was led by Fosun International and Bertlesmann India Investments.
LetsTransport primarily deals in the light commercial vehicle segment with a distance range of between 100 to 200 kilometres. It maintains a presence in around 15 cities in the country.
Thread of the week-
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