Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (May 18, 2022)

Unacademy forays into offline learning

Leading edtech platform Unacademy on Wednesday announced its foray into offline learning at its upcoming new Unacademy centres. Unacademy centres will facilitate the offline classes for learners and will extend the access to top educators in the NEET UG, IT JEE, and Foundation (IX-XII) course categories.

The startup aims to meet the growing demand for interpersonal mentoring for learners with this new approach. The first Unacademy centre will be operational in Kota by next month, followed by similar touchpoints in Jaipur, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Patna, Pune, and Delhi.

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The offline batches present learners with top educators, pedagogy, and study materials, in-person mentorship and doubt solving, regular parent-educator session, and flagship offline learning experience with high-tech infrastructure. Across Unacademy centres, the brand aims to enroll upto 15,000 learners in the first batch.

All Unacademy centres will soon initiate regular offline classes starting with Kota. It will conduct a national scholarship — admission test for batch enrollments where rankers can win scholarships. The company will announce more details about the test soon.

India Accelerator joins forces with Mylab Discovery Solutions to incubate and fund high-potential startups

India Accelerator, a leading seed-stage accelerator in India, has recently announced its strategic partnership with Mylab Discovery Solutions, India’s leading biotech firm. Mylab will provide mentorship and investor connections to help high potential startups scale business. With this collaboration, India Accelerator aims to target up to 10-12 high potential startups to raise a seed or growth capital of Rs 15 to 20 lakh.

Commenting on the partnership announcement, Abhay Chawla of India Accelerator said, “Mylab is India’s foremost biotechnology company and has constantly strived to put India on the global map through its constant endeavour to develop innovative and pioneering diagnostic solutions. We look forward to moving beyond equipping the early-stage startups with knowledge, tools, and connections. As part of our exclusive partnership, we are going to help startups with the process of operationally scaling the business and acquiring capital for growth.”

Mayhem Studios announces its first Battle Royale title

Studio for AAA games, Mayhem Studios has announced its first title “Underworld Gang Wars” (UGW), a Battle Royale game set in India. With the characters and plot rooted in India, the game will be a setting with some interesting characters inspired by stories of India. Scheduled to be launched later this year, the game’s pre-registration window will open from May 22.

Set in a truly Indian plot, the locations, the gangs and the icons represent an Indian context in a AAA game for the first time. The theme, weapons, and the maps of the game have been designed to offer a unique experience to the gamers.

To provide an authentic experience, each region depicted in the game resembles a real location in India, be it the coal mines or the next-door apartment complex. It also has iconic landmarks including a fort, station, stadium and a racecourse.

Commenting on the announcement, Ojas Vipat, CEO of Mayhem Studios, said, “We are thrilled to come up with the first Battle Royale Title that promises to offer one of the most relatable storylines for gamers. UGW’s unique locations and the highly relatable universe with great graphics are sure to provide a great experience for Battle Royale players. We are also excited to put together a blockbuster game with some unique stories of India for the world.”

Jitesh Shah joins BigHaat as the Chief Operating Officer

Agri-inputs digital platform BigHaat has roped in Jitesh Shah as its Chief Operating Officer to boost the adoption of agritech and expand its presence from 10 million farmers to the next milestone.  

Jitesh Shah, who was earlier with Cropin Technology as its Chief Revenue Officer, comes with over 15+ years of experience in sales, customer management, and operations. He has been campaigning for the adoption of agritech globally. 

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Prior to joining Cropin, he had a decade-long stint with InterCall (later acquired by West Unified Communications) where he handled various roles and was also one of the board members for its India business. 

200+ startups, investors to join Startup Summit ‘21 by 72’ in Surat organised by Ivy Growth Associates

Surat-based IVY Growth Associates, in partnership with Sapio Analytics, announced '21 by 72' Startup Summit and Expo — which will bring together more than 200+ startups and investors to the ‘next upcoming startup city’ in India.

The expo and summit is going to be held on 17th, 18th and 19th June 2022 at Avadh Utopia in Surat, attracting 5,000+ attendees from across the country and globe, focused on developing the startup ecosystem where the national and international investors interact with VCs, angel networks, entrepreneurs from across the globe.

The startup summit and expo is aligned with IVY Growth Associates’ vision of nurturing and accelerating 500+ startups in India and globally by 2030. To this effect, IVY Growth has collaborated with Atal Innovation Centers and Incubation centers across India, where they will scout and target to make 50 startups market-ready every year.

The summit is made in a format where there are multiple activities planned for the startups, - from pitching events, to exhibitions, round-table discussions, and one-on-one networking.