Startup news and updates: daily roundup (Jan 7, 2022)

Hammer raises Rs 1 crore at Shark Tank India

Audio and fitness devices brand Hammer raised Rs 1 crore in funding at the ongoing Shark Tank India show from one of the judges - Aman Gupta.

Founded by Rohit Nandwani in 2019, Hammer is also a seller on the Flipkart marketplace and this fund raise from Shark Tank India has come by giving away 40 per cent equity. This lifestyle startup claims that it has served over 1.5 lakh customers.

Hammer founder Rohit Nandwani said, “Our speciality is that we are a completely made-in-India brand with our manufacturing unit set up here offering viable products for the consumers.”

IIT Kanpur sets new record for 2021 with filing of 107 patents

IIT Kanpur has filed 107 patents in the calendar year 2021, making it the highest number of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) ever filed by the institute by breaking its earlier record of 76 patents filed in 2019.

Among the 107 IPRs filed, the different IPR prospects included 62 patents, 15 design registrations, two copyrights, and 24 trademark applications along with four US patent applications.

The patents included inventions ranging from MedTech to Nanotechnology. These patents also resulted in inventions such as reusable facemask consisting PVDF composite nanofibers and nasal spray formulation against COVID-19 and related respiratory viruses. IIT Kanpur has also witnessed a two-fold increase in revenues from IP licensing.

Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Director, IIT Kanpur, said, “With an exceptional technology transfer rate of 15.2 per cent to industry partners from the total patents filed, the institute filed a record-breaking 107 patents in this calendar year.”

FarEye announces new CFO

SaaS startup FarEye has announced the appointment of Manoj Rathi as its chief financial officer (CFO). Manoj brings over 27 years of experience in leadership roles at Genpact, Grofers, BirlaSoft, DXC Technology, NIIT, among others.

Over the last year, FarEye has hired several senior executives, including CRO, Amit Bagga (Ex-President of APAC at BlueYonder and strategic sales leader at Oracle), and CPO, Suvrat Joshi (former executive at Dropbox, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft). Other key hires include Arun Kumar (ex-Microsoft) as SVP Engineering and Rajat Budhiraja (VP Professional Services, ex Nagarro).

The appointment of a new CFO comes at a time when FarEye is expanding its business across the globe. The company plans to increase its employee strength by over 1,000 in the coming year.

upGrad appoints new VP for international growth

Edtech unicorn upGrad has announced the appointment of Vikram Vyas as the Vice President - Growth, International Sales for the APAC and EMEA regions.  The leadership addition is part of upGrad’s strategy to scale up operations in the global higher-ed space.

Vikram Vyas is an industry veteran with over 20 years of experience across countries and cultures servicing and leading sales growth for e-commerce, banking, insurance, hospitality, telecom, and education-based clients, amongst others.

According to upGrad, the latest appointment is in-line with its recently announced business ambitions and growth plans of becoming the integrated higher edtech global leader in the coming times.

InnAccel Technologies bags award at CES 2022

Healthtech startup InnAccel Technologies has bagged the WBS-CES Global Women’s HealthTech award at the Consumer Electronics Show 2022 for its pregnancy monitoring product - Fetal Lite.

Fetal Lite is a AI-powered, pregnancy monitoring and labor management technology medical device. It has been designed to increase access to adequate and timely pregnancy and labor monitoring at home and in clinical settings across cities and remote rural areas with limited infrastructure.

The startup claimed that Fetal Lite will help in reducing the 300,000 annual intrapartum deaths that occur every year in India, due to inadequate monitoring with current technologies.

Four day summit on cryptocurrency and blockchain

Cryptonite, a four day pan-India cryptocurrency and blockchain summit will held from January 7 to 10. This is organised by Finance Club – IIT Bombay, Woodstock Fund, Builders Tribe, DAOMaker and Polytrade.

The summit aims to serve as a platform that would provide students knowledge about the new and rapidly evolving world of blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs and Web 3.0. It would consist of numerous panel discussions covering different aspects of cryptocurrency and web 3.0.

To gain practical exposure, participants would also get to learn about the practical advancements made by some of the startups in this sphere and also a chance to learn under the companies’ umbrella in the form of various mentorship opportunities.

Saraf Furniture plans Rs 10 crore investment for expansion

Saraf Furniture, a maker of solid wood articles plans to invest around Rs 10 crore for expanding its existing product portfolio. The focus will be on products range of home décor and furnishings and the categories will include lightning, accessories and rugs & carpets.

Saraf Furniture is based out of Sardarshahar, a small town in Rajasthan and it also plans to hire over 200 people. This hiring will also include specially abled individuals who will do functions like after sale services, tele-calling, quality check, designing and content writing.

Greta Electric forms partnership with Shriram Automall

Greta Electric Scooters, a Gujarat-based start-up has entered into partnership with Shriram Automall India to auction its pre-owned and refurbished units.

Under this partnership, consumers will be able to Greta Electric vehicles at the Shriram Automall auctions at a affordable price point.

The e-scooters up for auction would be pre-owned scooters used for test drives and end of life models. All the products on sale have been refurbished at the factory, fitted with fresh new batteries, and will enjoy the company's warranty of one year on the product and three years on the battery.