[Startup Watchlist] 3 startups to kick start your Monday

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The India v/s Pakistan World Cup game yesterday had the mindshare of more than 15% population in the world! (more than a billion people watched) India came out triumphant at the end and had the nation on a high. During the game, I talked about some of the cricket startups that have been gaining ground and opportunity that lies ahead. Turning a leaf, widening scope again, it's time for the Monday startup watchlist and here are the three startups in the spotlight today:

1) RKSV

An online stock trading platform RKSV is a technology company which is trying to reduce the friction in trading online for Indians and drastically reduce the costs associated with investing and trading. The Sensex has appreciated, on average, 18% over the past 10 years which beats almost all asset classes in India, By offering 5 free trades each month on their Dream Plan, RKSV wants to start encouraging investors to make self informed decisions. "We are building an education portal to help users make better informed decisions," says Raghu, the co-founder of RKSV.

Why is RKSV on the list?

-> Strong team behind the platform- the three co-founders are ex hedge fund managers and a strong technologist. (read full story)

-> With a team strength of 80, RKSV handles INR 4000 crores in transaction volume daily. And has been completely bootstrapped till now.

2) ClearTax 

Founded in 2012 ClearTax is again a technology company at the core which happens to be in the finance space. Currently ClearTax has a single mined focus on letting users e-file their taxes. The government's mandate is to make tax returns electronic for the nation and ClearTax is at the forefront in the space. A big boost came in when ClearTax got through to the YCombinator Accelerator and became the first India focused company to be selected.

Why is ClearTax on the list?

-> ClearTax had proved its persistence by being at it for a good three years but its recent tie up with the government is why ClearTax finds a place in the list right now. Founder and CEO Archit Gupta told us recently, "We have rolled out a partnership with Government of Karnataka for their Mobile One initiative." And more such partnerships with the government are underway for ClearTax.

3) VenueLook

VenueLook is a marketplace for venue discovery and booking for social and corporate events. It is a one-stop solution to find “relevant venues for the event”, “check for availability, packages, prices, services offered” and “facilitate the final venue booking". There has been some activity in the event ticketing and products for event organizers space (Ayojak raising funds, Eventifier getting acquired) and VenueLook opens up another niche focusing just on venues for events.

Why is VenueLook on the list?

-> Since their soft launch in April 2014, the company claims to have facilitated more than a 1000 events in NCR. The startup has just launched in Mumbai.

-> Founded by a woman tech founder Ruchi Garg, Venuelook is a growing team of 12 with and a strong advisory network/investors- Rahul Garg (ex-Google), Ashish Kumar (CEO, Kelton Tech), Kaushal Bhalotia (Head of Marketing, Zalora) and Jamshed Ranjan (Chief Product Officer, Nimbuzz)

What do you think of these startups? Drop in your feedback to [email protected]