Startup news and updates: daily roundup (July 30, 2021)

Creative management platform Rocketium raises $3.2M, will focus on expansion and product development (Funding)

Creative automation platform Rocketium has raised $3.2 million as a part of its Series A funding round. The company stated that the current round saw participation from Emergent Ventures, 1Crowd, LetsVenture, and Blume Ventures. Prior to this round, Rocketium had raised a pre-Series A round of $1 million in 2018, with participation from 1Crowd and Blume Ventures.

AI-based edtech startup SP Robotic Works raises $3M in Series A round (Funding)

AI-based edutainment startup SP Robotic Works has raised $3 million in Series A round led by Mount Judi India Growth Fund. The funding round witnessed additional participation from BCCL and its existing investors Indian Angel Network and multiple renowned Angel Investors like Ajai Chowdhry (Founder, HCL), Raman Roy (Chairman and Managing Director - Quatrro), and others.

Lovlina enters semis, assures India of first boxing medal at Tokyo Olympics

Debutant Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) assured India of its first boxing medal at the ongoing Olympic Games when she upstaged former world champion Nien-Chin Chen of Chinese Taipei to enter the semifinals on Friday. The 23-year-old Assam boxer prevailed 4-1 to make the last-four where she will square off against reigning world champion Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey, who hammered Ukraine's Anna Lysenko in her quarterfinal bout.

GE Healthcare selects 6 Indian startups under 'Cohort 3' programme

Medical technology company GE Healthcare has selected six Indian startups under its 'Cohort 3' programme to help them build and scale up their technologies for their target market segments. The selected startups 4basecare, Haystack Analytics, zMed Healthcare Technologies, Tricog, Aira Matrix and Qritive will spend six months with healthcare industry experts from within and outside GE on their product development.

9Unicorns launches student fund, to invest upto $75K per startup (Funding)

9Unicorns, India’s first accelerator VC firm, on Friday announced that it is launching a student-focused VC fund known as campus fund, university fund, or student capital. Students at premier institutes such as IITs and IIMs would have a second option to launch their startup in the coming campus placement season even before passing out of the college, according to a press statement.

Failing to ensure wider access to COVID vaccines could undermine global eco recovery: WTO report

Failing to ensure wider access to COVID-19 vaccines could undermine the global economic and trade recovery, a report of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has warned. The Director-General's mid-year report on trade-related developments presented to members on Thursday calls on WTO member countries to ensure that markets remain open and predictable.

Sequoia India expands its leadership team amid funding boom

Sequoia Capital India, one of the largest investment firms in the country, promoted five members to their leadership team amid an investment boom in the startup ecosystem.

While Ashish Agarwal and Harshjit Sethi were promoted as managing directors in the venture team, Ishaan Mittal, Tejeshwi Sharma and Sakshi Chopra joined the growth investing team.

First Solar plans to invest $684M to set up solar manufacturing facility in India

First Solar Inc on Friday said it is planning to invest $684 million (about Rs 5,000 crore) to set up a fully vertically integrated photovoltaic (PV) thin-film solar module manufacturing facility in India.

Contingent upon permitting, and pending approval of Indian government incentives that are satisfactory to First Solar, the advanced facility is expected to commence operations in the second half of 2023, a company statement said.

3SC raises $15M in Series B round led by GEF Capital’s South Asia Fund (Funding)

Gurugram-based supply chain planning and logistics startup SS Supply Chain Solutions, also known as 3SC, has raised $15 million in its Series B funding round led by GEF Capital’s South Asia Fund.

According to a statement by the startup, the funds will be utilised for scaling up its domestic business and expand its geographical reach further across Europe and Southeast Asia.

Google removes 71,132 content pieces in May, 83,613 items in June in India

Google removed 71,132 pieces of content in May and took 83,613 removal actions in June following user complaints, the company said in its monthly transparency reports released on Friday.

In addition to reports from users, Google also removed 6,34,357 pieces of content in May and 5,26,866 in June as a result of automated detection.

CII to work with Serum Institute to expand Covid vaccination to small towns, rural areas

Industry chamber CII on Friday said it has entered into an agreement with Serum Institute of India (SII) to accelerate Covid vaccination in small towns and rural areas.

The chamber said the partnership with Serum Institute will help catalyse industry participation to reach out to communities at large.

Chennai-based Chai Waale raises Rs 5Cr from marquee angel investors (Funding)

Chennai-based tea brand Chai Waale on Friday said it raised Rs 5 crore in funding from marquee angel investors, including Sunil Sethia, Sunil Kumar Singhvi, Manish Mardia (UNI-M Network) and celebrities Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan.

Additionally, private organisations such as the online trading platform of unlisted shares Unlisted Kart LLP and Chennai-based Conscience multi-family office, among other investors also participated in the round.

Social enterprise incubator Villgro announces $5M funding for startups through iPitch

Social enterprise incubator, Villgro, announced its fifth edition of the social startup discovery platform – iPitch 2021. Bringing together its largest coalition of impact investors and incubators to channel its highest ever pool of funding, iPitch will provide an unprecedented $5 million to India’s social startups.

1.37 cr candidates enrolled under PMKVY since launch of scheme: government

The government on Friday said that 1.37 crore candidates have been enrolled under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) as on July 10 since the launch of the scheme, covering more than 700 districts and 37 sectors.

Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that under the scheme, as on July 10, around 1.29 crore candidates are trained/oriented across the country against the target of 1.32 crore.

Masterchef Sanjeev Kapoor, WCK to provide 15,000 meals to Maharashtra flood victims

Maharashtra is now struggling with floods as heavy monsoon rains fall across several areas of the state. While many parts of the state are struggling to cope with the coronavirus pandemic, they are now faced with the ill effects of the floods.

In these trying times, philanthropist and MasterChef Sanjeev Kapoor along with World Central Kitchen (WCK), founded by Chef José Andres and Taj Hotels, started an initiative on July 30, 2021, to provide meals in flood-hit regions of Chiplun and Mahad. 

India's SaaS industry projected to record 5x growth over next five years

The Software as a Service (SaaS) industry in India is expected to grow by 5x over the next five years, as the demand for talent and technological innovation has remained very strong, according to a report.

The joint study titled 'Indian SaaS Revolution: Rising Trillion Dollar Global Opportunity', and conducted by venture capital firm Chiratae Ventures and management consultancy firm Zinnov stated that over the last five years, there has been a 5x revenue growth and 2x growth in the number of SaaS companies.