The 4th quarter 2022 snapshot of India’s tech, startup and venture capital news headlines, gathered across October, November and December of 2022.
India’s tech news coverage in Q4 of 2022 touched on items and subjects including India’s burgeoning creators industry, agricultural-tech developments benefiting smallhold farmers, artificial intelligence in medical technology, the Digital Rupee project, and many more. Hit the links below to read each article in full, online.
December 2022 | November 2022 | October 2022
December 2022: India
India: Retail & E-commerce Trends Report 2022
- Reserve Bank of India to commence retail CBDC pilot project from December 1st, with select locations and closed user groups using a digital token that represents legal tender
- India: “The [Enforcement Directorate] has also charged Vivo India for money laundering, alleging more than 50% of its turnover has been transferred to China to avoid paying taxes…”
- India: Gamerji e-sports tournament platform raises $3M Pre-Series A, with sights on MENA and SEA expansion, and introduction of E-sports-as-a-Service
- India: ‘Digital transformation’ spending projected to reach $85BN by 2026, according to International Data Corp report
“Research, manufacturing (discrete and process), professional services, banking, government, retail, and telecommunications will be the top industries spending on DX in India, as per the latest report from IDC India.”
- India: Former Flipkart exec lands $5.8M seed funding with Flash, a digital identity for shoppers to use across retail sites making order processing, communication with sellers and rewards programs easier
- India: Gov’t is considering making ‘net and social media firms legally ‘accountable’ for algorithms deployed to tailor content based on browsing history and user profiles
- India: MoneyyApp, platform for SMEs, digital solo-preneurs and creators, raises pre-seed funding from AngelList Early Stage Quant Fund, with sights on services for India’s 100M creators and 63M MSMEs
- India: Cricket start Shikhar Dhawan launches $75M VC fund focusing on sporting tech and innovation
- India: Ministry of Electronics and Info Tech Startup Hub and Google unveil Appscale Academy and plans for multi-city roadshow to engage 1000+ startups across emerging hubs
- Download: The Startup Economy Report 2022, from India’s StrideOne (pdf)
- India: Virgio ‘fast fashion’ startup secures $37M Series A, digitizing from design to purchasing to streamline overall production
“Since its launch, the app has recorded more than 100,000 downloads. The platform currently has about 20,000 daily active users. Virgio was described as the Indian version of the controversial fast-fashion giant Shein.”
- Startup India Innovation Week is set for January 10–16, with webinars and in-person events scheduled
- India: An intro to Carnot Technologies, helping farmers to make data-driven decisions to earn up to 30% more using IoT and artificial intelligence
- India: Startup India Seed Fund Scheme approves 126 incubators, with 656 startups selected for participation
- India: A wish list for the 2023 Budget: ‘India needs to emphasize on capacity building for emerging sectors, aid startups for country’s march to the top’
- “India loves religious festivals, but are its citizens ready to attend such celebrations in virtual reality?”
- India: Ola CEO blog calls for alternate supply chain to curb the country’s increasing dependence on China for lithium, proposing partnerships with Australia, Chile, Argentina and others
Lowy Institute: Asia Power Index, 2023 edition
November 2022: India
India: Crypto assets – Imagining the way forward / KPMG (pdf download)
- India: Pegatron, Taiwanese contract manufacturer for Apple, likely to join Foxconn in manufacturing iPhone 14 models in India, aiming to move 5% of global manufacturing demand to India by the end of 2022
- India: Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are adding near 3500 5G-capable sites per week cumulatively, with sights on scaling up to 9-10K per week combined inside 4 months
- India: Bengaluru Tech Summit announcements include calls for national robotics body, bridging tech gap with China, and construction of 6 new hi-tech cities in Karnataka
- RedBrick AI raises $4.6M in round led by Sequoia India, focusing on automating annotations in medical imagery, saving up to 60% of time processing CT scans, X-rays, MRIs and ultrasounds
“RedBrick AI co-founder and CEO Shivam Sharma said the startup helps make annotations up to 60% faster using its configurable workflow system that works with medical imagery such as CT scans, X-rays, MRIs and ultrasound.”
- India: Growfitter reward-based digital wellness platform partners NEAR Foundation India hub for Web3 expansion and NEAR-based tokens
- India: MAARG portal – Mentorship, Advisory, Assistance, Resilience and Growth – opens startup registrations
- India: Bureau of Indian Standards guidelines aim to guard customers from fake online reviews of products, with tech giants and homegrown platforms to now face close scrutiny of reviews on their platforms
- Taiwan’s Foxconn to boost southern India workforce to 70K, adding 53K more workers over 2 years in part to address disruptions in China-based production
India’s Cyber Security Policy and the Quad
October 2022: India
India: Crypto assets – Imagining the way forward / KPMG (pdf download)
- India: VideoLAN, maker of VLC media player, issues legal notice to DoT and MeitY over banning the company’s website in India, having received no notice, reason or appeals process for the ban
- India: Kerala’s Greenikk launches end-to-end single platform supply chain focusing on banana cultivators, traders and exporters, spanning finance, seeds, crop advisory, insurance and more
- India’s CBDC launch: 5 key issues that the Reserve Bank needs to fix before a Digital Rupee pilot
- India: Village of 3000 in Maharashtra declares ‘independence’ from TV and mobile internet ‘addiction’ for two hours every day in bid for digital detox
- India: Hubbler platform raises $1.5M with focus on no-and-low-code digitization of business processes
- National Payments Corporation of India’s international arm partners France’s Worldline multinational payment services firm to support Indian digital payment modes in Europe
- India’s Garuda Aerospace inks MoU with Lockheed Martin for Uncrewed Aerial Systems use in defense and commercial applications, alongside data processing collaborations and wide-focus algorithm development
India’s Cyber Security Policy and the Quad
- India’s cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar makes equity investment in Rario cricket-focused NFT platform, making Tendulkar’s digital collectibles exclusively available on the platform
- India: Bodhi AI education-tech startup raises $200K with interactive, online 1-to-1 video teaching, allowing teachers to conduct classes and sell courses
- India: Footrax performance tracking startup raises $100K with sports wearables and data analysis
- Currently, fintechs have a 7% share of the $1.4 trillion enterprise valuation of the Indian financial sector, which is set to rise to 15% in 4 years, says Bain & Co study…
- Download: India Fintech Report 2022 from Bain & Co
- India: Silverneedle Ventures launches $12M fund with first investment in Knorish creator monetization platform focused on creation and sale of online courses, webinars and memberships
- Australian Strategic Policy Institute and India’s Centre for Internet and Society unveil project focused on techdiplomacy and standards settings in Artificial Intelligence in the Indo-Pacific
- India: 3 digital asset management firms now under investigation over suspected illicit drug transactions, with nearly $3.5M so far tracked
- India: Facebook launches community accelerator program, selecting 15 Indian community leaders of Facebook groups for the 4-month program in partnership with Hyderabad’s IT Hub
- Taiwan’s Gogoro electric vehicles startup to pilot 6-second battery swapping stations in India, building on Singapore and Indonesia pilots
Credit Suisse Research: The global effects of Asia’s aging population
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