Startup news and updates: daily roundup (January 25, 2023)
YourStory presents the daily news roundup from the Indian startup ecosystem and beyond. Here's the roundup for Wednesday, January 25, 2023.
Simpl appoints Ashwini Ravindranath as VP of Partner Success team
, a one-tap checkout network, appointed Ashwini Ravindranath as the Vice President of its Partner Success team to build relationships with Simpl’s merchant network and own the P&L of its Pay Later business.
With this strategic hire, Simpl aims to help its onboarded merchant partners achieve their desired business goals.
Ashwini is a seasoned ecommerce leader with over a decade of experience in retail. In her earlier stints with Airtel and , Ashwini played key roles in launching and scaling new businesses, including being a part of four key business launches at Flipkart while driving the customer and revenue growth of the ecommerce player.
Zypp Electric introduces dashboard to simplify fleet management for logistics businesses
Two-wheeler EV startup Electric has launched ZyppDash, an EV fleet management dashboard for businesses, to simplify the process of requesting and managing fleets. The new web-based application will be available for all Zypp Electric partners to track the real-time location of their vehicle and rider info to ensure effective utilisation of time and effort.
The application will enable Zypp delivery partners to monitor total carbon saved on kilometres travelled, along with ESG goal alignment, manage on-duty riders and vehicles, and allot orders through it.
Today, with a fleet size of 8,000 vehicles, Zypp manages last-mile deliveries for over 50 industry giants, including Zomato, Swiggy, Zepto, BlinkIt, Bigbasket, Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, PharmEasy, JioMart, Delhivery, Spencers, etc., to provide sustainable last-mile deliveries.
The startup also intends to roll out over two lakh electric scooters and expand its services to 20 Indian cities by the end of 2025.
Vi expands retail presence in rural
In line with its strategy to get closer to rural consumers, telecom operator Vi launched nearly 1,100 new format ‘Vi Shops’ across Tier III markets in 18 Indian states.
Ramping up its retail footprint, Vi Shops were launched across multiple towns in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
Introduced to deliver a uniform Vi experience to local customers and enable quick support and handholding, these Vi Shops were rolled out in the last three months. They offer the entire bouquet of Vi prepaid products and services and enable an enhanced customer experience and closer engagement.
Jidoka Technologies appoints auto industry veteran Shyam Kumar as Director of Sales, Marketing
, the company in automated cognitive inspection for the manufacturing industry, appointed Shyam Kumar R as its Director of Sales and Marketing.
The auto industry veteran has over three decades of experience and has held multiple leadership positions with auto manufacturers across India.
In his current role at Jidoka, Shyam will lead the company's sales and marketing initiatives as it enters the next phase of growth with expansion into other verticals and geographies. He would be responsible for developing and implementing the sales and marketing strategy for all product categories across verticals, brand positioning, and driving customer experience programmes.
Jidoka has had a presence in the automotive sector since its inception. It has now entered general manufacturing, FMCG, logistics, pharma, electronics, textiles, and printing industry domains.
After Delhi and Mumbai, Carry My Pet opens office in Bengaluru
Pet relocation startup has opened its third office in Bengaluru after Delhi and Mumbai to build a robust national and international presence.
Since its opening in January 2023, the company has received over 1,000 pet relocation queries per month from Bengaluru. In the coming year, it expects an increase in pet relocation services by 15%.
The Delhi-based company has completed more than 6,000 pet relocations, wherein over 7,200 pets were moved locally and globally to more than 30 countries. Presently, it accomplishes this through international partners but aims to set up offices worldwide, including Canada, Dubai, etc.
eBikeGo enters electric bicycle space
, an electric two-wheeler mobility platform, is entering into the electric bicycle space with its new product Transil e1 under its B2C vertical.
The pre-booking of the Transil e1 bicycle will commence in a few weeks. It will be launched in three colours and priced at around Rs 44,999.
Flipkart hosts fourth edition of ‘Crafted by Bharat’ on 74th Republic Day to support Indian artisans
Ahead of the 74th Republic Day, Flipkart announced the fourth edition of Flipkart Samarth's ‘Crafted by Bharat’ event, to be held between January 26-27. The event will celebrate India’s rich culture of handicrafts and handlooms by featuring over 100,000 products from more than 300 art forms across India.
The ‘Crafted By Bharat’ aims to provide Indian craftsmen and weavers with a platform to be recognised and showcase their craftsmanship. Flipkart will also have a dedicated storefront on the platform for the event, where products by women sellers will be specifically.
Lakhs of artisans, weavers, specially-abled people, women from SHGs, and government emporiums, associated with the Flipkart Samarth programme, will participate in the event. These include people from Tier II and III cities, a few urban centres, and rural regions of the country.
CrisperBits develops OmiCrisp, a test to detect omicron, other variants
Health and wellness firm CrisperBits has developed OmiCrisp, a test that could detect omicron and non-omicron variants of SARS-CoV2. The test, which uses CRISPR technology, was developed with the C-CAMP Indigenisation of Diagnostics Programme, supported by the Government of India's biotechnology department.
The Delhi-based firm is waiting on the patent and the test and claims it is different from the RT-PCR tests currently used to diagnose the omicron variant. So far, OmiCrisp has been tested across more than 80 clinical samples and claims to be 100% accurate in identifying the right variant.
"CRISPR as a detection system for nucleic signal offers great promise to meet the need for pervasive and distributed diagnostic platforms. The accuracy of these tests on both clinical and environmental samples gives us great hope, as well as the ease of rapidly redesigning assays as new emerging variants of pathogens and resistance markers need to be detected," said Dr. Vijay Chandru, Co-founder, CrisprBits.
Millennials lead digital financial service usage: neobank Freo
Millennials, born between the early 1980s and late 1990s, constituted 44% of the total transactions, availing lending products from Freo. The Bengaluru-based neobank claimed that digital credit and payments are becoming preferred tools for financial goals.
Further, Bengaluru and Hyderabad emerged as the top cities for transactions, followed by Delhi and Mumbai.
“Each generation has its own favourite way to spend. However, our survey shows that millennials are truly redefining both the lending and payments categories in India. One of our key observations has been the shift in mindset and growing comfort towards availing digital credit and using digital payments to achieve both short and long-term goals," Anuj Kacker, Co-founder, Freo, said.
"Interestingly, these financial instruments are no longer confined to Tier I cities, and we are seeing a significant uptake from Tier II and III cities as well," he added.
Govt expects 5-7 countries to sign up for adopting India tech stack by March - PTI
The government expects five to seven countries to sign up for adopting India-developed technology platforms like UPI and Aadhaar by March for accelerating digitisation, according to Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
While speaking at the India Stack Developer Conference, the minister said that the Prime Minister has decided to offer India technology platforms to countries to help them accelerate digitisation.
The government plans to reach out to several countries to offer them technology stack (Aadhaar, UPI, Digi Locker, Co-Win, GeM, GSTN, etc.) as part of its responsibility as G20 Presidency and expects Indian startups and system integrators to gain from the exercise.
IntrCity registers 200% increase in annual revenue, operational profitability
IntrCity SmartBus, the tech-enabled fleet of inter-city buses, registered a 186% increase in annual revenues and achieved operational profitability in 2022. The company is currently doing nearly two lakh bookings per month. In 2022, the platform saw a 24% rise in solo and female travellers compared to 2021.
The startup launched new features on IntrCity SmartBus in 2022 for providing a further improved experience, reschedule the journey, pre-order food at the pit-stop, organised the bio-break points for hygienic breaks, enhanced first-mile connectivity with the help of pick-up vans from various parts of cities like Delhi and Lucknow, besides existing vans network in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Kapil Raizada, Co-founder, IntrCity said,
“We could see the enthusiasm in the traveller and especially the trust with the IntrCity SmartBus brand that helped us register a 186% increase in annual revenues. Looking at the current growth trajectory, we have stronger growth plans and expect 300%+ year-on-year growth in 2023. We are planning to go deeper in the existing routes across north, south and west along with the addition of new routes.”
Edited by Suman Singh
