Collected startup news from India, gathered in the first month of 2020. India’s startup news from January 2020 collects items from English-language media, online, covering tech news in e-commerce and social commerce, government policy and state initiatives, India’s venture capital scene and many other fields.
India’s startup news from other months and quarterly news collections can also be read online.
- India: National Payments Corporation of India unveils Vajra, enterprise blockchain platform to automate payment, clearing and settlement of transactions
- India: A look at Cars24, online used-car sales platform complementing bricks-and-motor presence with auction app
- India: An intro to V Resorts, making older, heritage houses, resorts and bungalows in smaller towns tourist-friendly
- India: An intro to String Bio, harvesting carbon from methane to create protein for animal feed
- India: An overview of the opportunities and challenges for India’s organic foods market, and the startups working in the space
- India: An overview of Moofarm, agri-tech startup empowering smallhold farmers which gained funding via World Bank Agriculture Insuretech Innovation Challenge
- India: JioMart e-commerce venture soft-launches with 50K-strong catalogue, working closely with neighborhood stores in move to compete with Amazon and Walmart
- Don’t rush into 5G’ – A concise look at why India needs to be wary of China’s technology presence in its communications network
- India: A look at the 4 startups that made it to Y Combinator’s Startup School 2019 grant recipient list
- India: Concerns raised over use of AI-driven facial recognition surveillance at recent political rally in Delhi
- India: A brief overview of the Defence India Startup Challenge, connecting startups and MSMEs with opportunities to prototype and commercialise around national security
- India: An overview of the Indian edtech market, projected to hit $2BN in value by 2021 and with an in-country platform user base of near 10M already
- India: Drone Federation of India inks MOU with AWS as cloud service provider, aiming to boost development and innovation in country’s drone ecosystem
- India: Rheo e-sports and community platform raises $2M with over 100 game streams, and more than 900 hours live content daily in five regional languages
- India’s Telangana and New Zealand ministers discuss ties and collaboration, touching on startups and agritech
- India: Mamaearth personal care startup raises $18M with 100% toxin-free, natural skincare, hair care and baby care products
- India: T-Hub selects 31 startups from 180 applications for 1st edition of T-Angel, joint initiative with Telangana gov’t to enable early-stage startup investments
- India: Testbook online edtech startup gains $8M backing with focus on aiding students to prepare for recruitment exams for government jobs
- India: An intro to Bigthinx, fashion-tech startup using neural networks to create personalised 3D virtual avatars from 2D images for both businesses and shoppers
- India: A look at Shayna EcoUnified, using plastic waste to make colorful floor tiles
- India: An intro to My Lead Catalyst, tech firms providing marketing automation, leads development and management platform and services
- India: An intro look at 10 media and entertainment startups with sights set on a slice of an industry expected to hit $34.8BN in value by 2021
- India: IncubateHub management-as-a-service platform gains funding from Venture Catalysts, early-stage incubator, to connect large companies with tech startups
- India: Mantra Capital launches $24M early-stage VC fund focusing on food-tech, agri-tech, health-tech and similar
- India: An intro to Niruthi, providing field-level information to farmers for better management of crops, using aggregated data from satellites, IoT and more
- India: epiFi, fintech founded by ex-Google Pay execs, raises $13.2M in seed round for wide-service neo-banking platform focused on millenials
- India: Ankur Capital reaches first close on 2nd fund, near $33M corpus focused on early-stage environmental and social-benefit tech
- India: HaikuJAM online creative writing platform gains $3.4M with INSPO, beta platform providing automated writing suggestions and subject background
- India: Amazon to invest $1BN in India over the next 6 years to onboard and digitise micro, small and medium enterprises, capitalizing on the Make in India program
- India: Venture Highway unveils $78.6M second fund for pre-seed and seed investments in early-stage startups
- India: ExtraaEdge edtech startup raises pre-Series A with marketing automation and customer relationship management platform
- India: Gamerji esports tournament platform raises $400M with 18 online tournaments each day
- India: Fintech app adoption continues growth thru 2019, with Google Pay the top app with 36M new downloads in 2019
- India: Wysh engagement platform raises $2M to aid fans in getting personalized video messages from celebrities
- India: Microsoft selects 54 startups from Tier 2 cities across 5 states for Highway to a Hundred Unicorns accelerator program
- India: Y Combinator selects 26 Indian startups for Winter 2020 batch
- India: Telecom and IT minister prompts National Informatics Centre to boost education quality in gov’t schools using blockchain technology-based solutions
- India: Centre of Excellence in Blockchain Technology launches in Bengaluru, Karnataka state, aiming to provide blockchain-as-a-service solutions
- Digital Media India 2020 Conference set for February 18-19 in Delhi, covering journalism, digital, monetization and all things media
- India: An overview of what to expect from E-Summit 2020, set for February 1-2 in Mumbai
- India: “By mixing funding sources like debt and angel funding, startups aren’t just reinforcing their own finances – they can also support investors’ financials, too”
- India: An intro to Utter, using chatbots and online private tutors to improve the English fluency of aspiring white-collar and blue-collar workers
- India: Goodmylk vegan milk brand raises $400K in second round funding
- India: Mastercard partners Pine Labs merchant commerce platform for card and real-time payments-based instalment financing at checkouts, in-store and online
- Silicon Valley VC firm Sequoia plans to float largest-yet India-dedicated fund with a $1.25BN corpus
- India: She Capital women-focused venture capital fund announces first close of inaugural fund at $9M
- India: Instoried AI-driven content tech startup secures funding with regional languages focus
- India: Info Edge launches its maiden fund, Info Edge Venture Fund, with corpus of $14M, to invest in consumer-focused tech
- India: Techstars’ Bengaluru accelerator unveils 10 startups from second cohort, spanning fintech, cryptocurrency, sports-tech and more
- India: Konfinity gains funding in round led by AngelList with AI-based platform aiming to train students to become software developers inside 6 months
- India: LetsVenture deal syndication platform unveils MyStartupEquity, platform to digitise, manage and liquidate startup employee stock grants
- India: A look at BazaarNXT, startup providing end-to-end packaging and procurement for restaurants, with high-profile client list
- India: InterviewBit raises $20M series A with online computer science program for college graduates and young professional engineers
- India: WizKlub edtech platform raises near $1M seed funding to help school-age children to code
- India: National Institute for Smart Government seeks stakeholder comments on the National Strategy on Blockchain, aiming to formulate legal and regulatory structure
- India: Kisan Network raises $3M seed funding with integrated supply chain for farmers, aiming to eliminate middlemen
- India: An overview of the government’s National Startup Advisory Council, intended to act as an overarching body for the country’s digital ecosystem
- Indian startups set to gain soft landing option in America via University of Illinois at Chicago UoI Discovery Partners Institute
- India: An interview-based overview of the goals of the Arunachal Pradesh Social Entrepreneurship Meet
