Startup news and updates: daily roundup (December 23, 2022)

Wadhwani AI receives $1M Google.org grant to build AI solutions in agriculture

The Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence has received a $1 million grant from Google. The firm will use this grant towards building AI-powered solutions that help farmers gain timely, localized, and accurate weather-related information. This also includes crop and other farm-related information besides improving the efficiency and capabilities of agriculture knowledge systems in India.

Wadhwani AI was also awarded a $2 million Google.org grant in 2019 to support the CottonAce AI-powered pest management solution. With an easy-to-use multilingual interface, the CottonAce app helps farmers correctly identify the types of pests at their farms and offers early warnings and advisories to farmers. This would enable them to take timely action to effectively combat infestation and ensure a healthy crop yield. 

Outside of the benefits directly related to the solution, the deployment of CottonAce over the past few years has resulted in an increased awareness of trap-based pest management and farmers becoming more familiar with a technology-based approach to agriculture.

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Curefoods reaches a milestone of 1M orders per month

Cloud kitchen operator Curefoods reached a milestone of one million orders per month on Friday. This milestone includes contributions from various brands like EatFit and Cakezone, among others, which come under the Curefoods brand umbrella.

Earlier this month, Curefoods said it will clock 1.1 million orders, resulting in an annual recurring revenue of $65 million.

Among the Indian cities that engaged the most in online food ordering this year, Bengaluru saw the highest number of people who ordered food online, contributing to a revenue share of 40%, followed by Delhi-NCR at 15%, Mumbai at 13%, Hyderabad at 12%, Chennai at 8%, Pune at 4%, and the other cities contributing an overall 8% to the revenue.

Under the Curefoods umbrella, EatFit saw the highest traction of food orders at 45% and Cakezone contributed 20%.

Trinity Gaming partners with EmChain FZE 

Gaming content and marketing firm Trinity Gaming India has partnered with Dubai-based EmChain FZE to facilitate businesses worth $10 million in the Web3 and blockchain-based gaming sector in India. Trinity Gaming and EmChain will train, mentor, and provide revenue streams for creators in the Web3 and blockchain space.

Managing the majority of the Indian creator market share and a gaming community of over 40 million, Trinity Gaming, along with Emchain, aims to generate business from global developers and publishers in the P2E (Play to Earn) crypto and NFT gaming space.

This partnership will enable Web3-based gaming content to generate new revenue streams for Indian influencers and provide them with opportunities to work alongside brands and game developers globally, including the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Southeast Asia (SEA) regions, and the US. 

Founded by Abhishek Aggarwal and Shivam Rao in 2019, Trinity Gaming caters to publishers, platforms, and brands. Trinity is a Creator Service Provider (CSP) to Facebook and exclusive to the Facebook Gaming Partner Programme managing over 700 creators. The company also caters to Krafton in India by exclusively facilitating content, event, and marketing activities for the brand in the country. 

AXISCADES Technologies Ltd completes acquisition of Mistral Solutions

AXISCADES Technologies Ltd, an end-to-end technology and engineering solutions company, on Friday said it completed the acquisition of Mistral Solutions Private Ltd, a leader in semiconductor, embedded electronics, defence, and product engineering capabilities.

The acquisition, initiated in 2017, was executed over four phases at an aggregate acquisition cost of Rs 296 crore.

With the completion of this acquisition, AXISCADES strengthens its position as a technology leader, providing cutting-edge product design and development services to its customers for a wide range of applications.

This acquisition bolsters the company’s ability in the digital engineering, embedded electronics, and systems engineering domains.

CARE Hospitals partners with StanPlus

Hyderabad-based CARE Hospitals group, today announced its partnership with StanPlus, India's largest medical emergency response platform, to deliver an efficient Emergency Response Service across Hyderabad.

As part of this partnership, the five branches that are Banjara Hills, Nampally/Malakpet, Hi-Tech City, and Musheerabad will have one ALS ambulance each in addition to one more ALS that will also be deployed at CARE Hospitals Banjara’s Hills outpatient center.

The partnership between CARE Hospitals and StanPlus marks an integral step towards strengthening the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ecosystem in Hyderabad. StanPlus via its state-of-the-art technology, prompt response mechanism and trained paramedics will be able to get to the critical patients on time and easily extend life-saving services like triaging and vital sharing during the "golden hour."