Chandigarh’s rise as a startup innovation hub
But, the success story of the Chandigarh-Panchkula-Mohali tricity came into the spotlight only in July 2020, when PrepLadder was acquired by edtech giant Unacademy for $50 million.
A small city of just over 10 lakh people, Chandigarh is home to about 558 tech startups.
In the past few years, several Chandigarh-based startups such as Jugnoo, LetsShave, Pumpkart, EduRev, Trideal, PayMart, among others have been backed by the likes of Kalaari Capital, Omnivore, Wipro Consumer Care Ventures, Y Combinator, Indian Angel Network, etc.
But, the success story of the Chandigarh-Panchkula-Mohali tricity came into the spotlight only in July 2020, when PrepLadder was acquired by edtech giant Unacademy for $50 million.
While Chandigarh’s core sector — IT services — has been strengthening over the years with SaaS startups like authorSTREAM, SchoolPad, Uengage, and Click Labs, other areas like pharma and agriculture have also shown major potential.
As per the ministry data, Chandigarh led the startup innovation in North India with 89 patent requests in 2019-2020.
“We need to play on our strength and build a market. There is a huge potential for smart talent to co-create products and services with experienced experts in the domain," says Alok Ramsisaria, CEO, Grazitti Interactive.
Now, the tricity is coming up with its own Startup Policy with a special focus on women entrepreneurship, a dedicated startup hub, a seed fund with a corpus of Rs 50 crore, and more.
Read all about how the Indian startup ecosystem is battling the second wave of COVID-19 here.
Here are some useful tools to help you find the nearest vaccine centres in real-time.
You can also share a tribute to COVID-19 warriors, saviours, and survivors here.
The Interview
WazirX is India's largest cryptocurrency exchange with over six million users, and a monthly volume of $6.2 billion. With the potential to be India’s first crypto unicorn, WazirX enables users to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Tron, Zilliqa, and over 100 cryptocurrencies.
Serial entrepreneur Nischal Shetty, CEO and Founder, WazirX, talks about building and scaling a successful crypto business and how WazirX is putting India on the global crypto map.
Editor’s Pick: App Fridays
Neeraj Arora and Michael Donohue helped build WhatsApp to be the category-defining product that it is today. Now, they've announced their new venture — HalloApp, an ad-free private social network.
HalloApp claims to be the “first real relationship network” that connects you with people on your phone address book. It prioritises privacy over network effects and friend/follower counts, and facilitates safe conversations. Read more.
Photo: YS Design
Startup Spotlight
IIT-KGP grads Afsar Ahmad and Govind Agarwal started Gameberry Labs with a goal to build mobile games that would not only connect players from all over the world, but also give people games they could “grow old with”.
While their first offering Ludo Star was an instant hit, gaining 250,000 daily active users within three months of launch, Parchisi Star attracted players from Spain, Morocco, Colombia, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. Read more.
News & Updates
- Zomato has rolled out a pilot run of its grocery services in select areas and for select users in Delhi. This comes as part of Zomato's plan to add online grocery services on its app, especially following its investment in Grofers.
- Teen-focussed payments platform FamPay said it has signed a deal with card issuer Visa Inc to launch numberless, prepaid cards for teenagers to enable them to make NFC-powered payments.
- Hinduja group flagship firm Ashok Leyland will invest up to $200 million (nearly Rs 1,500 crore) in its electric vehicles journey through its UK-based arm Switch Mobility in the next few years. Switch Mobility will launch an electric light commercial vehicle later this year in India.
- In remarks that come amid the stock market debut of food delivery app Zomato and proposed IPO of Paytm, a senior Sebi official said both profit and loss-making companies can come on exchanges and entities with "unconventional business models" listing bodes well for the startup ecosystem.
Before you go, stay inspired with…
“Chandigarh has been a net exporter of tech talent. With remote working, the dynamics are shifting.”
— Deepanshu Goyal, Co-founder, PrepLadder
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