Startup news and updates: daily roundup (February 22, 2023)

TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship partners with Swiss-based Global Apprenticeship Network (GAN)

TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship is partnering with Swiss-based Global Apprenticeship Network (GAN Global) to scale the adoption of degree apprenticeships/work-based learning in India.

With this partnership, TeamLease and GAN aim to scale degree apprenticeships adoption in the country. The association is built on the premise of the prowess of apprenticeships to address employability gaps and create a robust pipeline of skilled talent for the industry.

With the aspiration to scale up to 10 million apprentices in 10 years, TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship is paving the way for the next generation to continually equip them with required skillsets and help them get into the workforce.

This partnership will not only help in creating a skilled workforce but will also contribute to the economic growth of the country, and enhance employability of youth.

Ravinder Reddy joins Logically as Vice President and General Manager for India

Logically has appointed Ravinder Reddy as its new Vice President and General Manager for India. Reddy’s responsibilities will include widening the scope of its work by establishing its fact-checking services and threat intelligence platform,

Logically Intelligence–combined with expert human intelligence–aims to continue fighting the menace of misinformation, disinformation, fake news, and misinformation in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

With Reddy’s appointment, Logically has its sights set on expansion in the region, and is looking to tackle harmful content and actors that may negetively impact public safety, public health, election integrity, or national security.

After serving as a lieutenant colonel in the Indian Army in 2008, Reddy took voluntary retirement and has since been helping consulting firms establish robust public sector practices in the field of e-Governance, Digital Transformation, and Smart Cities.

ReelStar appoints angel investor Marc Robinson as Asia Head

Web3 integrated social media platform ReelStar has appointed angel investor and global blockchain leader, Marc Robinson, as its Asia Head. Robinson has over 22 years of experience working across the blockchain, financial services securities market, and digital assets space.

Robinson began his career with the Lehman Brothers for the APAC region where he was in charge of building the first low-latency ecosystem for HFT clients. In 2008, he moved to Nomura, and over the next three years built the business to become the largest trading desk in Japan. He then moved to JP Morgan to restructure its electronic business.

DBS Bank India partners with eSamudaay to propel local commerce in small towns through ONDC

DBS Bank India has partnered with eSamudaay, a SaaS-based solutions provider (owned and operated by Nirmund Digital Distributions Private Limited), to focus on non-metro towns and cities, providing digital solutions on both the buyer and seller side and logistic support to make doing business on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) convenient for smaller players in the market.

With this partnership, DBS Bank India aims to meet the needs of SMEs and MSMEs while conducting business through ONDC and expanding its digital solutions beyond traditional banking.

Under this alliance, DBS Bank India will gain deeper insights into the end users’ requirements and can offer them customised solutions.

PrepInsta, along with WeCP, announces PrepSAT

PrepInsta has launched PrepSAT, a test through which PrepInsta will open horizons for engineers. PrepSAT will help candidates get job offers, internship offers, pre-placement offers, and more.

Over 300-plus companies are expected to analyse the applications through PrepSAT. In the first phase, PrepInsta opened and made the registration link live for all the aspirants.

The test is aimed at boosting one’s skills in the field. A dedicated team of professionals has curated the test based on requirements and assessments of various service and product-based companies. The test will be conducted on the platform WeCP.

PrepSAT is free of cost and is open to register the first one lakh applications. The final date of the test will be announced within a month.

Hyper Connect Asia launches Magina

Hyper Connect Asia, a multi-disciplinary agency, has launched Magina, a D2C jewellery brand that is focused on celebrating the rich heritage and culture of Maharashtra through contemporary designs. The brand launch brings together some of the biggest names from the Marathi film fraternity like Tejashri Pradhan, Sayali Sanjeev, Spruha Joshi, and Shivani Kulkarni.

The brand name is inspired by ‘Maharashtra cha Dagina’ or ‘Jewel of Maharashtra’. The company said it is an effort to celebrate the rich culture, heritage, and stories of Maharashtra through its unique modern-day heirloom pieces.

The D2C startup is the brainchild of Yogeshwar Dande, a fourth-generation jewellery entrepreneur from the 100-year-old legacy brand Govind Dande and Sons based out of Nashik. With Magina, Yogeshwar’s vision is to create a global light jewellery brand that takes inspiration from the cultural heritage of Maharashtra.

TRST01 launches blockchain-enabled Global ESG tool, Footprint

TRST01 (TrayamBhu Tech Solutions), a blockchain and climate-tech company, launched Footprint—an ESG blockchain automation tool.

This will be the first Global ESG automation tool product using the Web3 interface (blockchain). The Footprint ESG automation tool has been developed to meet the growing demand for transparency and accountability in an organisation’s sustainability practices. With the tool's advanced features and functionalities, businesses can easily track their ESG performance and report their progress to stakeholders, investors and customers.

Another essential feature of Footprint is its supply chain management reporting. The tool allows companies to track and report their suppliers' ESG performance, providing a comprehensive view of their supply chain sustainability practices.

SBI rolls out BHIM SBIPay for international payments

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, launched the real-time payments system linkage between India and Singapore on February 21, 2023. The State Bank of India has rolled out BHIM SBIPay mobile application to allow fund transfers from India to Singapore through registered mobile numbers, and from Singapore to India using UPI ID.     

The UPI-PayNow linkage is a significant milestone towards the development of infrastructure for cross-border payments between India and Singapore.

Ubona Technologies creates voice-based solution for payments

Ubona Technologies, a speech recognition company, has conceptualised and created 123 UPI, a first-of-its-kind speech recognition technology-based payments solution that enables users with any phone (feature phone/smartphone) to make digital payments in their preferred Indian language.

This solution uses Automatic Speech Recognition Engine to help people to transact in their preferred Indian language, enabling people to engage in digital payments in their mother tongue.

During the first transaction, the user is required to dial the dedicated contact number and complete a one-time registration as guided by an automated IVR and can start transacting over phone calls immediately after that. The payment over the phone is completely secure and all vulnerabilities are plugged to provide the best in class security, the company states.

Newstor joins hands with mFilterIt to build a secure mobile ecosystem

mFilterIt, a Gurugram-based company that caters to protecting digital integrity across platforms, has joined hands with Newstor, a multinational digital and media-tech enterprise to mitigate fraud in VAS services and build a secure digital payment ecosystem.

Newstor has deployed mFilterIt’s DCB VAS Anti-fraud Solution to mitigate fraud across the DCB VAS ecosystem and ensure good acquisition quality. 

mFilterIt aims to optimise media efficiencies, giving a boost to mobile money, and making the customer onboarding and VAS subscription journey frictionless and secure. 

MediSim VR ropes Dr Gianluca De Novi as a Simulation Advisor 

MediSim VR, a medtech company, today announced its association with a global industry expert, Dr Gianluca De Novi, to lead the penetration of VR-based education at a global level.

Dr De Novi, Director of the Harvard simulation lab, is a pioneer and a world-leading expert in medical simulation.

“MediSim VR has built great VR applications and aims to push the boundaries of what can be done for medical training across the globe," said Dr De Novi. "The company has shown strong business acumen and willingness to grow, experimenting and contributing in technology advancement. I feel honoured to leverage my expertise and experience in this field to help MediSim VR to continue innovate and expand.”