Startup news and updates: daily roundup (August 10, 2022)

Glamyo Health, Milaap join hands to provide surgical help to the underprivileged

Glamyo Health, a healthcare brand that specialises in elective and cosmetic surgeries, has announced a collaboration with Milaap to provide surgical treatments to marginalised communities earning less than Rs 20,000 per month.

With a vision to change the dysfunctional healthcare system in India, the brand looks forward to facilitating the required surgical help to old-age homes and orphans, labourers, migrant workers, rickshaw pullers, auto-rickshaw drivers, house-helps, security guards, drivers, vegetable and fruit vendors, teasellers and anyone who cannot afford the treatment.

“At Glamyo Health, we are extremely glad to have joined hands with Milaap to launch an initiative #healthcareforall. While more than 80% of people in India do not have insurance support, they depend on their immediate earnings to cater for daily expenses, leaving no savings to bear the medical costs. Glamyo Health envisions positively impacting the lives of millions of people suffering from pain and discomfort, ensuring that no one is denied the opportunity to live a healthy life due to financial constraints,” said Archit Garg, Co-founder, Glamyo Health.

Mimblu appoints Shevantika Nanda as Co-founder and COO

Mimblu, a text-based mental healthcare app that helps users to connect with professional therapists, has announced the appointment of Shevantika Nanda as its Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO).  

The new role will witness her helping grow and build the company along with Yash Malhotra - Founder of Mimblu, as well as streamlining mental health practices.

Driven and passionate about her work, she is a queer affirmative therapist who has been running her private practice for six years now. Her contribution will involve providing other therapists with the right kind of support and bringing uniformity for the clients at Mimblu.

Shevantika Nanda said, “I’m convinced both by the potential of this company and the opportunity to take a strong leap forward in terms of bringing mental health further into the consciousness of people and help break the taboos around the topic while simultaneously improving people’s access to quality mental healthcare support. I’m delighted to be working with Yash and have already seen his strong business acumen and experience in building and scaling early-stage ventures. I look forward to learning and achieving alongside him as we take Mimblu from strength to strength.”

Priyanka & Suresh Raina's Maate reveals new, holistic re-branding for baby products

Maate, a 360° wellness brand and a by-product of Priyanka Raina's unique perspective on parenthood, has introduced its new visual identity.

Through constant research and innovation, the company said it continues to bring the potency of herbs in an improved formulation. The brand's new, ,playful and colourful avatar appeals to the child within.

Co-founder Priyanka said, “Maate creates an incredibly unique experience for each mother that allows them to choose what’s best for their child."

The new brand identity comes at a pivotal moment in Maate's re-evaluation of itself and its future. Maate's ethics and ideologies are matched with the new identity as it continues to look ahead, creating a distinct aura around itself.

JSW Group partners with ElectricPe for EV charging green ecosystem

JSW Group, one of India's largest conglomerates, has chosen ElectricPe, an EV charging platform, as its charging partner. This partnership has come into effect following the recent green policy introduced by JSW to provide incentives for employees to purchase electric vehicles and provide charging infrastructure within their office and plant premises. 

ElectricPe has already enabled the required charging infrastructure at the JSW Mumbai Office headquarters. The company will soon expand its services to JSW offices in Vasind, Dolvi, Vijayanagar, Sholtu, and Jharsuguda, respectively.

The partnership will propel ElectricPe's vision to provide a seamless experience to EV users and JSW's commitment to increase the adoption of EVs. Together, the duo promotes green mobility in the country and supports India's transition to a net-zero mission by 2070. 

Logistics company Quickshift launches app

QuickShift has launched its in-house application QS Leap. With technology at its forefront, this app covers critical points such as inventory management, order processing, courier allocation, order tracking, payments reconciliation and more.

QS Leap aims to increase customer stickiness through constant value creation, helping brands reduce their Cost of Customer Acquisition, assisting their business metrics with relevant data, and forecasting business growth through each product line performance.

“QS-Leap is a one-point solution that makes the entire logistics operation seamless and hassle-free. From receiving orders placed by customers, getting prompted at warehouse, arrangement of packaging and dispatching operations to assigning nearest rider for order delivery, receiving payment and feedback, the application manages it all in real-time. For us as a brand, technology and innovation form the core of our entire operations and growth plans for sustained customer satisfaction. We believe innovative solutions like QS Leap will not just help us stay ahead but will also enable us address key areas such as stakeholder benefit, rider empowerment and preparations for market disruptions,” said Anshul Goenka, Founder, Quickshift

Jupiter introduces no-penalty SIP for mutual fund investments

Home-grown neo banking and financial services platform Jupiter has announced its much-anticipated entry into the world of investments. Its first wealth creation offering is zero-commission Direct Mutual Fund investments with No-Penalty SIP as a unique offering in the market.

The No-Penalty SIP is a landmark feature for the Indian investor. Banks typically charge between Rs 250 and Rs 750 as penalty each time a SIP AutoPay mandate fails due to insufficient bank balance. With Jupiter, these charges are now a thing of the past. The No-Penalty SIP has been built to smartly auto-skip any such charges. If the user’s Jupiter bank balance is running low, their SIP mandate is automatically skipped. 

Meesho strengthens regional foothold, adds 8 new vernacular languages to its platform

Meesho, an internet commerce company, has added eight new vernacular languages to its platform in line with its mission to democratise internet commerce for everyone. The move comes just ahead of the festive season, when millions of users from all corners of the country are expected to transact on the platform.

These additional languages are Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia. Meesho customers can now select their preferred language for accessing account and product information, placing and tracking orders, and making payments on Android phones.

Last year, Meesho introduced Hindi as a language option on the platform, which has seen a high adoption rate of 20% so far. Majority of Meesho customers come from Tier 2+ cities like Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Jamshedpur and non-Hindi speaking states, where English or Hindi may not always be the language of choice. This latest initiative will boost Meesho’s adoption in these areas and further simplify online shopping experience for millions of customers.

Neo-bank major Niyo appoints Ex-PayPal’s Kiran Kulkarni as head of design

Neo-banking platform, NIYO SOLUTIONS, has announced the appointment of Kiran Kulkarni as its Head of Design. Kiran brings with him over 18 years of leadership experience in product and interface design. At Niyo, Kiran will take a lead in enhancing Niyo’s banking app’s experience for Niyo’s 5 million strong customer-base.

Prior to joining Niyo, Kiran was associated with Paypal as their Senior UX Manager, Consumer Experiences. In the past, he has built the design research for tech-giant Yahoo! India and worked as a senior lecturer at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Amazon India signs MoU with Council of Handicrafts Development Corporations (COHANDS) under the Karigar programme

Amazon India announced that it has signed an MoU with the Council of Handicrafts Development Corporations (COHANDS), an apex body of 30 Central/State Government Handicrafts & Handloom Development Corporations, under the aegis of Government of India, Ministry of Textiles, Office of Development Commissioner (Handicrafts).

Through this collaboration, Amazon India aims to empower the growth of over 50,000 artisans and weavers associated with over 100 craft clusters and specific interventions across India under the Amazon Karigar program. The collaboration will also positively impact 55 artisanal clusters which are funded by the Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise’s (MSME’s) flagship project Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI).

This initiative is driven by the intent to encourage digital inclusion and empower the artisan and weaver community, offer economic opportunities by becoming Amazon sellers, as well as job creation, as part of the Amazon Karigar Program.

Orange Health acquires Gurugram-based diagnostics lab Rapidx to enhance NCR footprint

Orange Health, a leading healthtech startup building India’s fastest diagnostic lab service, has announced that it has acquired Gurugram-based Rapidx, a diagnostic lab, in a bid to expand its footprint in the NCR region.

Started by entrepreneurs Dr Amit Arora, Kishore Gemini, and Dr Dipti Ekka, Rapidx is an NABL and ICMR- approved diagnostic lab with a significant presence, and has serviced 6,50,000 patient orders, with a peak capacity load having handled 3,000+ patient orders per day.

The current acquisition is a part of Orange Health’s strategy to accelerate growth, expand its reach and consolidate its position in the $10 billion diagnostic sector in India.

Coming close on the heels of its Series B funding, Orange Health’s latest acquisition will now enable them to deliver and expand its flagship service - 60-minutes (sample) collection and six-hour reporting (diagnostic report) - in the northern region of the country at much ease.

Bounce Infinity opens second experience centre in Bengaluru; 10th in India

Bounce Infinity has announced the launch of its new store in Bengaluru. The store, located in Bengaluru’s BTM layout, is the company’s 10th store in India. The retail stores provide an immersive educational and check-out experience. Customers can reserve a test ride on the Bounce Infinity website or simply walk-in in the stores. In early April, Bounce Infinity announced deliveries of its E1 scooters across major cities in India. With an order book exceeding 60,000+ units, the company has seen solid organic demand for its e-scooters.

Bounce Infinity currently has ten operational stores across the country, namely Bengaluru, Moodbidri, Sirsi, Kundapura, Mumbai, Kota, Hyderabad, Dehradun, and Jaipur, with six more scheduled to open in Bhubaneswar, Pune, Secunderabad, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, and Chennai, by August end this year.

Speaking on the new store launch, Vivekananda Hallekere, CEO & Co-Founder, Bounce, said, “We are delighted to cater to the growing demand for electric vehicles in Hyderabad and Dehradun with our new Bounce Infinity experience centers. With these stores, we aim to strengthen our presence in the city and further support our vision to achieve green mobility in the country.”

DGCA issues guidelines to assess fitness of transgender persons applying for pilot licence

Aviation regulator DGCA on Wednesday issued guidelines for medical examiners to assess fitness of transgender persons who have applied for commercial pilot licence.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had last month countered media reports that claimed that Adam Harry -- a transman from Kerala -- has been denied permission by the regulator to get a commercial pilot license.

Stating that these reports were not true, the DGCA had then said a transgender person can be issued a fit medical certificate provided that there are "no associated medical, psychiatric, or psychological conditions".

This story is updated throughout the day