[Startup roundup] The startup pool in India grows to 5,200 and it's good news for all

The Indian startup ecosystem is growing. The Nasscom Startup Report released this week ranks it the third largest in the world.

Recently, we had a group of entrepreneurs from Manila, Jakarta, and Berlin visit us as part of the StartUp AsiaBerlin Roadshow. We agree whether East or West, all entrepreneurs are the same but it was interesting to note how the ecosystem of a particular geography is important for their success.

While places like Manila and Jakarta are slowly waking up to the importance of encouraging tech entrepreneurship, Berlin is looking for newer markets. They, on the other hand, were surprised that in a short span of time, India had made strides in creating an impactful startup ecosystem.

The Nasscom Startup Report released this week, noted that 1000 startups were added in 2017, taking the total number of startups to 5200 in India, making it the third largest startup ecosystem in the world.

That is saying a lot. And if that was not enough, the World Bank’s ease of doing business report released this week saw India elevate to 100th rank from 130 last year.

All in all, a feel-good moment as we end 2017. If nothing else, it gives hope to all the stakeholders that 2018 will be an improvement from this year.

For us at YourStory though, it was business as usual, as we continued to bring stories of new startups to our readers daily. As I’ve said earlier, our inbox is like the proverbial ‘Sudama’s pot’ that never ceases to stop overflowing with requests from startups to cover their story. You can imagine, it becomes difficult for us to answer each and every query.

Here’s a tip on how to get our attention fast. Begin with a crisp one-liner on what problem you are solving. That will set you apart from the hundreds of requests that come to us.

Lawyered

This week, we wrote about Lawyered, a startup that is making legal compliance easy for SMEs and businesses.

The Indian startup landscape witnessed many legal dramas. Writes Sindhu Kashyap, “From the OYO and Zo Rooms battle to the ugly war Stayzilla had to face. From Uber encountering several legal battles on their home ground and in India to smaller startups facing other hiccups, legal compliance issues have remained in the forefront."

So what’s a startup or corporate to do? Delhi-based bootstrapped startup Lawyered was started to help startups understand legal compliances. A legal advisory platform, Lawyered focuses on providing legal assistance to professionals, businesses, and corporates.

Shashank Tiwari, Co-founder and CEO of Lawyered, says a majority of successful businesses tend to spend at least five percent of their total expenses on the legal sector.

Read the full story here.

Euler Systems

Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) may sound like the latest buzzword in the startup market, there are a few startups that are using it ‘intelligently’. Euler Systems, one of our Tech30 startups this year, uses data science and AI to help businesses that may not be native AI and data businesses.

Writes Alok Soni, “With great power comes great responsibility, and with great data comes great analysis. Data science and AI are the tools to make sense of the massive amount of data.”

Delaware-based Euler Systems uses AI and statistical learning to optimise pricing, revenue, and cost. The company augments experts with virtual assistants. Its current work includes trader assistants for asset managers, revenue manager assistants for hotels, and retail merchandising, pricing, stock selection, and pipeline maintenance assistants for retailers.

Read the full story here.

BigDeals

Another Tech30 startup we profiled this week is a fintech startup that offers a secure mediator account through Escrowffer, an online escrow account for small value transactions in real estate.

Writes Libza Mannan, “Close to 60 percent of court cases in India are related to property matters, and often take decades to resolve. Bringing about a change with an organised product commonly used worldwide is not easy, but Bigdeals hopes to solve this tough one.”

Launched in February 2014, Bigdeals is an end-to-end platform for buying real estate online. The site, India’s first cashback platform for real estate and property loans, offers a start-to-finish process that is simple, efficient, and transparent.

Read the full story here. 

StomatoBot Technologies

Looks like this week we published more stories of Tech30 startups. Another one that I would like to highlight is StomatoBot Technologies’ WatchMan that aims to solve the surveillance monitoring problem in near-real time and attempts to do what CCTVs currently fail at.

The WatchMan is a computer vision product that automates CCTV surveillance in almost real time and provides mobile alerts. Founded in 2015, StomatoBot Technologies has been doing deep research in computer vision for a long time and wants to give eyes to machines, so they can “see” better than humans eventually.

Writes Honey Mehta, “While initially bootstrapped with around Rs 4 lakh, StomatoBot Technologies has received funding from a UK-based angel investor who has funded them twice in two years. The company filed a provisional Indian Patent in May 2017.”

Read the full story here. 

Muster

True to our claim of bringing at least one foodtech story a week, here's Muster for you. It is a Chennai-and-Canada-based social dining app which allows your GPS to locate fellow Muster users and restaurants/bars/cafes around you to choose from.

Inderjit Vasudevan Moorthy’s trip to Montreal turned into a memorable episode of his life when he got to interact with the people of the city. Thinking of how such interactions can enhance the experience of travel, Inderjit conceptualised Muster in 2016.

The Muster app helps you find and meet locals and works as a social dining app. In short, it helps you forge new friendships while breaking bread with strangers.

Read the full story here. 

Thank you for writing back to us with your comments and feedback. Do share your ideas and views about startups in India. I look forward. Here’s the email id again [email protected].