July, August & September 2020
The Startup News Asia third quarter 2020 round-up of India’s startup news from July, August and September.
Each news headline listed below deals with a tech or startup news item from Q3 2020 connected with India’s startup ecosystem in some way, whether an announcement by an Indian startup around a new service, pivot or VC investment, or an article covering something likely to affect India’s startup ecosystem, such as a government or corporate startup program, for instance.
The focus is obviously on India’s startups, but outside-world tech and startup news headlines are included where useful as points-of-reference, food for thought, or to provide wider industry or tech knowledge.
September 2020 | August 2020 | July 2020
India’s startup news: September 2020
- India: Venture Catalysts incubator sets up operations in 11 new cities to boost angel investor network, aiming for network of 10K investors across 100 cities by 2021
- Download: Implications Of Artificial Intelligence On The Indian Economy (pdf)
- India: A collection of the country’s tech, startup and funding news from the month past, a regular month-end round-up from Startup News Asia
- India: Tech, startup and funding news collected across the past month, a 3-page offline-to-online snapshot of the country’s entrepreneur-focused headlines
- Mobile Only Accelerator – MOX- unveils 7 graduates of 9th cohort of startups focusing on mobile-first markets in South and Southeast Asia
- Singapore’s Atlantis fintech enters India with Neo-Bank digital-first challenger bank focusing on the country’s Gen-Z and millenials
- India: A location-based listing of the startups in the 10,000 Start-Ups initiative from NASSCOM trade association
- India: Government bans 118 China-connected mobile apps including PUBG Mobile, Alipay and Baidu, citing concerns over “stealing and…transmitting users’ data”
- India: Following ban of China’s PUBG game, nCore Games launches FAU-G multiplayer game based on scenarios faced by Indian soldiers at the Indo-China border
- India: Confederation of All India Traders seeks gov’t probe into 141 Indian startups over concerns around Chinese investments, including “in-built spying capacity”
- India: Gaana music streaming firm raises $51M from returning investors China’s Tencent Cloud Europe and India’s Times Internet, launching new HotShot video app
- India: 9Unicorns Accelerator Fund, run by Venture Catalysts, marks first close at $14M with target of $42M, looking at early-stage startups
- India: IIT Alumni Council to establish 6 research centres to provide equipment and support to technology-heavy startups in its MegaIncubator initiative
- India: TrulyMadly dating app raises $1.1M pre-Series A with sights set on projected $77M market for such apps by 2023
- India: Microsoft selects Magenta clean energy firm for startup support program for development of electric vehicle software and charging platforms
- India: LazyPay lending platform launches LazyUPI digital credit card, providing real time credit via Unified Payments Interface for offline merchants and online use
- India: China’s Tencent relinquishes rights to PUBG Mobile in India, transferring publishing responsibility to Korea’s PUBG Corp in bid to sidestep Chinese apps ban
- India: CHUNAUTI start-up challenge launches under the Next Generation Incubation Scheme, aiming to support 300 startups and SMEs over 3 years
- A brief intro to India’s Growfitter, incentivised wellness platform recently selected for South Korea’s K-Startup Challenge program
- India: New cryptocurrency trading ban may be looming – “…government will encourage blockchain…but is not keen on cryptocurrency trading”
- Hong Kong’s Betatron accelerator and VC firm unveil the 9 startups selected for its 6th cohort, including startups from India and the Philippines
- India: Atumobile electric vehicles startup launches Atum 1.0 electric bike at Rs50K, US$680, offering 100km range per charge and speed limited to 25kmph for teens and city use
- Download: Digital Peace Now Society’s International Cyberwarfare Awareness Report, gathered from the US, India, South Africa, Malaysia, Mexico and France
- India: 100XVC invests in 9 startups selected from 4500 applications
- India: A brief intro to the 16 startups selected for the 4th cohort of SAP Startup Studio, working on AI, analytics, IoT and more
- India: Mobile Premier League mobile gaming platform raises $90M, hosting tournaments and providing games publishing, whilst developing no games of its own
- India: STPI IoT Open Lab launches in Bengaluru, aiming to aid 500 firms working on IoT-based applications across 5 years
- India: An intro to Nexart’s Eyewey app, using IoT and AI to help the visually impaired with better voice and vision recognition, and object detecting solutions
- India: AFK Gaming e-sports and media company gains $200K funding with focus on e-sports news and events
- India: BOB Financial Solutions, Bank of Baroda subsidiary, to use Signzy startup’s biometric video KYC system to enable fast, touch-free and paperless regulatory compliance
- India: An intro to the 9 seed-stage startups selected by 100XVC venture capital firm for investment, chosen from over 4500 pitches
- India’s Int’l Centre for Entrepreneurship and Tech and Israel’s Start-Up Nation Central ink MOU around technology cooperation between startups and corporates
- India: A look at PhoolCo’s Fleather, and eco-friendly and more sustainable leather alternative made from discarded temple flowers
- India: An overview of Assam’s The Nest, incubation hub that has boosted 76 startups since launching in January 2019
- India: Jio telecom giant now working with domestic manufacturers to secure production capacity for 150–200 million smartphones, aiming for $54 retail price
- India: Eureka! business model competition applications close October 17th, presented by Entrepreneurship cell of IIT Bombay and Deutsche Bank
- India: RephraseAI software-as-a-service platform for customisable video creation raises $1.5M with AI-driven focus on ‘synthetic media’
- India’s Tata Consultancy Services and Yale University jointly developed new blockchain framework aiming to address privacy and trust in peer-to-peer digital networks
- India: Gov’t reportedly planning $2BN investment fund with global pension fund and insurance authority to reduce startups’ dependence on foreign private equity
- Australia’s GameFace AI and India’s Gamerji Esports make it to St Louis VC firm Stadia Ventures’ investment list following accelerator participation
- A deep dive into the many problems of political campaigning apps, focusing on Trump, Biden and India’s Modia
India’s startup news: August 2020
- India: Toppr edtech startup raises $46M with range of services focused on K-12 students
- India: A month-end round-up of the country’s tech, startup and funding news from across July 2020
- India: Whatsapp preps to enter the lending and micro-finance sector with bank partnerships aiming at small business loans, small pensions and insurance
- India: A brief intro to the government’s Innovations for Defence Excellence, aiming to provide startups with a platform to connect with the defence sector
- India: FarEye logistics management startup gains $3M backing from South Korea’s KB Investment Co, gaining from COVID-19 boost in e-commerce
- India: Probus Smart Things IoT startup gains seed funding from Unicorn India Ventures with electricity grid analytics and automation focus
- India: WhiteHat Jr acquired by Byju’s, online learning giant, for $300M, based on services around online coding classes for school-going students in India and the US
- India: ShareChat content sharing platform reportedly in talks with Microsoft around investment of up to $100M, at same time ShareChat launches Moj video-sharing service
- India Regionals for Startup World Cup 2020 applications are now open, closing October 10th
- India: Gov’t considers enabling public, startups, researchers and others to request anonymized data from companies for use in national security, economic and public interest purposes
- India: A dive into how neo-banks are ushering in a new age of digital banking in the country, second only to China in terms of unbanked population
- India: Flipkart e-commerce marketplace giant launches Flipkart Leap startup accelerator program, a 16-week virtual program
- India: DocSumo raises $220K seed funding with workflow automation for financial services firms, cutting admin costs with document data capture, analytics and fraud detection
- India: Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy in Bangalore, offering prescription, OTC and Ayurvedic medication and basic health devices
- India: IDEMIA launches iCube incubator program to boost ‘augmented identity’ startups, those working on secure, authenticated and verifiable transactions via biometrics
- India: Eduvanz fintech startup raises $5M series A with student-focused education loans
- Lightspeed India Partners raises $275M fund for India, aiming to invest in upwards of 24 early-stage startups
- India: Mitron short-video app raises $5M Series A with similar service to China’s TikTok, claiming 9BN video views per month
- India: Text Mercato Solutions raises $646K with cataloguing and content management platform focused on streamlining e-commerce platform operations
- India: Chingari the latest short video app to gain funding on back of TikTok ban, raising $1.3M seed round with 25M user base and 3M daily video views
- India: TiE Hyderabad to hosting virtual Global Summit form December 8-10, gathering 25 TiE chapters from across the Americas, Europe, Africa, India and APAC
- India: FPL Technologies raises $10M Series A with multi-faceted fintech platform, spanning app, credit card, domestic and int’l transactions, and financial education
- India: A brief intro to the 5 shortlisted candidates in the Startup of the Year category for The Economic Times Startup Awards 2020
- India: China’s Alibaba Group ceases innovation initiatives in India, citing the challenges of the current geopolitical environment
- India: Wipro IT services firm implements blockchain-based small scale liquefied natural gas trading and fulfilment platform for German energy solutions giant
- India: A look at how food-focused tech startups Swiggy and Zomato are boosting their presence in smaller Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities for long-term growth
- India: Tata Group conglomerate to launch super app, aiming to take on e-tailers like Amazon, Facebook and Reliance in the one-stop e-commerce ecosystem
- India: A look at the country’s moves into a digital economy, from McKinsey & Co
- India: Kheyti agri-tech firm gains backing from Acumen Fund impact investor with focus on improving yields and income of small farmers
- India: An intro to 5 women entrepreneurs changing the B2B startup ecosystem working in digital payments, HR-tech and more
- India: Gamezop multi-game platform raises over $4M with 34M monthly active users for HTML5 games embedded in over 1600 apps
- India: Paytm Mall e-commerce platform denies reports of massive data breach, with hackers gaining unrestricted access to company data and demanding ransom
- India: Gov’t launches Chunauti program, competition to boost startups and software products with a focus on tier-II towns, aiming to select 300 startups for development
- India: ICICI Bank, one of India’s largest, has started using satellite data to inform credit assessments for farmers in 500 villages, aiming for future roll-out to 63K villages
- Another look at the 11 startups selected from the End Plastic Waste Innovation Platform program, from Australia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and UAE
- Deep Tech for Good in Asia event set for September 15th, delivered online by Singapore’s SGInnovate and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry
India’s startup news: July 2020
- India: Across H1 2020, ed-tech startups raised $795M compared to $108M in H1 2019
- ICYMI: Indian gov’t bans 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, Helo and WeChat, deeming them ‘prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity…defence…security of state and public order’
- India: A video-based snapshot of the country’s tech, startup and funding news from across June 2020, providing the headlines at a glance
- India’s Zeta fintech startup expands neo-bank platform-as-a-service to The Philippines and Vietnam
- India: ChitMonks gains $650K with blockchain-based ‘chit fund’ management platform allowing regulator oversight
- India: Facebook partners Central Board of Secondary Education for certified curriculum on digital safety and online well-being, and AR for students and educators
- India: An intro to 5C Networks, using AI and ML to deliver faster and more accurate radiology scan results
- Sequoia Capital India unveils $1.35BN in new funds for India and Southeast Asia, broken into a $525M venture fund and a $825M growth fund
- India: Frontier Markets secures $2.25M pre-Series A with last-mile rural distribution built on networks of tech-enabled women agents
- Global FinTech Fest India virtual event set for July 22-23
- India: Edhusk gains funding from Mumbai Angel Network with 1-on-1 personalized learning platform
- India: Ministry of Electronics and Info Tech launches Digital India AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge, aiming to identify and boost public-benefit apps
- India: An intro to 5 of the country’s education-tech startups helping students deal with maths anxiety
- India: A round-up of the last week’s startup funding and acquisitions news, from Inc42
- India: Tech Mahindra launches digital platform for media and entertainment industry, blockchain-based Contracts and Rights Management System
- India: Qualcomm Inc investment arm to take stake in Jio Platforms for $97.1M in part for 5G infrastructure and services presence
- India: A look at Laminar Global, building a platform to help content creators launch their own Netflix-like platform – a Shopify for video streaming
- India: $10BN Google For India Digitisation Fund launched to invest in businesses, social impact projects and gov’t digitisation efforts over 5-7 years
- India: In the next 3 years, Jio aims to connect 1/2 BN mobile customers,1BN smart sensors and 50M home and business establishments, with 5G trials starting shortly
- India: Following TikTok ban, Roposo emerges as one of its successors with new instals reaching as high as 500K an hour and expectations of 100M users by month-end
- India: A look at Ni-Varak, contactless thermometer system using mobile phone and IoT sensor, focusing on COVID-19
- India: Telangana’s T-Hub initiative joins Ministry of Electronics and Info Tech and Digital India for Scale Up program focusing on hardware and IoT startups
- India: Openapp raises $500K with IoT-based fingerprint and bluetooth-enabled padlocks
- India: Used car leasing platform PumPumPum raises $292K to grow ‘cars as a service’ model
- A brief intro to the 12 finalists from the 5th edition of Qualcomm Design in India Challenge 2020, a wireless hardware startup incubation program
- Startup India Learning Program – 4 weeks, online, free entrepreneurship program from Startup India, available in Hindi and English
- India: An intro to Volody, legal-tech startup with solutions across contract management, meeting recording, insider trading management systems and more
- India: SATYA MicroCapital microfinance startup raised $9.6M with focus on unbanked at the bottom of the pyramid, lending primarily to women-owned businesses
- India: Government bans additional 47 Chinese apps, identified as clones or variants of 59 apps previously banned
