Startup news and updates: daily roundup (August 12, 2022)

Lendingkart raises Rs 50 Cr in debt

Fintech firm Lendingkart announced that it raised a debt funding of Rs 50 crore from InCred Capital Financial Services Private Limited, Yubi (formerly CredAvenue), and its investors.

The debt capital raised will be utilised for the purpose of on-lending business loans to the MSME segment.

“The newly gained funds will help us in reaching out to more entrepreneurs and ensure financial aid for their businesses,” Harshvardhan Lunia, CEO and Founder at Lendingkart, said in a media statement.

Founded in 2014 by Harshvardhan Lunia, Lendingkart has evaluated nearly half-a-million applications, disbursing over 1,40,000 loans to more than 1,20,000 MSMEs in 4000+ cities and towns across all states and union territories of India.

Atal Incubation Centre (AIC) NMIMS Inks MoU with Legalwiz.in

AIC NMIMS, one among the many Atal Incubation Centres in India funded by Atal Innovation Mission set up by NITI Aayog, recently inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with LegalWiz.in—a legaltech company founded in April 2016 to helps startups with legal, financial, corporate and taxation compliances. 

The collaboration is aimed at addressing teething problems faced by new startups, when it comes to understanding and dealing with legal compliance and other technical matters, including IP registration, tax registration, and filings. It also assists startups with trademark, patent and copyright matters, besides legal drafting in a transparent manner.

Nium appoints Ramana Satyavarapu as CTO

Nium, the global platform for Modern Money Movement, announced the recent appointment of Ramana Satyavarapu as Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

Ramana brings over 20 years of software engineering expertise from companies, including Microsoft, Google, Uber, Two Sigma, and Finix. Prior to joining Nium, he served as the CTO of Finix, where he led engineering, product, and technical support.

At Nium, Ramana will be responsible for driving global engineering, strategy and Nium’s technology vision for Modern Money Movement. He will manage the company’s core technology strategy and capabilities that support Nium’s business programmes and facilitate revenue growth, as well as organise the conception and implementation of major technical decisions for the company. He will be based in San Francisco, California, and report to Prajit Nanu, Co-Founder and CEO of Nium. 

IIM-B’s NSRCEL partners with Kotak Mahindra Bank

Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited (KMBL/Kotak), Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), and NSRCEL— the startup hub at IIMB—announced their CSR partnership to implement the Women Startup Programme (WSP 4) to support women by developing their entrepreneurial and managerial skills. The programme, launched under KMBL’s CSR project on education and livelihood, aims to support ambitious and innovative women entrepreneurs by enabling them to transform their ideas into successful business ventures.

NSCREL at IIMB started Women Startup Programme in 2016, and has constantly reinvented itself and addressed the needs of women entrepreneurs at every stage in their entrepreneurial journeys. It has incubated 400+ female led and owned startups.

Meesho adds 8 new vernacular languages to tap 377M potential user base

Softbank-backed ecommerce firm Meesho has added eight new vernacular languages to its platform, with an eye on 377 million potential users across different regions, the company said on Friday.

Meesho has added Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia to its platform to target regional users. With this, Meesho customers can select their preferred language for accessing the account and product information, placing and tracking orders, and making payments on android phones.

"It is important to note that around 50% of our users are new to ecommerce and have probably never transacted on such platforms before. By introducing vernacular languages on the platform, Meesho aims to eliminate language barriers. This is a natural step in our journey of becoming the single shopping destination for the next billion users in India," Meesho Chief Technology Officer Sanjeev Barnwal said in a statement.

(With inputs from PTI)

(This story will be updated with the latest news throughout the day.)