Startup news and updates: daily roundup (February 8, 2023)

Krishna Ramachandran joins TVS Capital Funds as Managing Partner and COO

As part of its efforts to strengthen its core team, TVS Capital Funds (TCF), a private equity fund, has appointed Krishna Ramachandran as Managing Partner and COO.

Krishna has more than 27 years of experience across client engagement, business transformation, data analytics, digital transformation, and finance. Until recently, he was the Managing Director at Accenture and was responsible for Accenture’s Chennai operations. Prior to that, he was associated with Royal Philips, Allianz, KPMG, and Vodafone in multiple roles.

TVS Capital Funds has cumulatively raised around Rs 3,500 crore so far across three funds and backs technology-driven businesses in financial services and B2B services.

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Citykart appoints Ritesh Rathi as its President and COO

Citykart, one of India’s value retailers focusing on family fashion retail in Tier II, Tier III and Tier IV towns in North and East India, has appointed Ritesh Rathi as its President and COO.

Ritesh joined Citykart in February 2023 and will oversee the strategy, retail operations, HR, marketing, supply chain technology, and overall growth of the business.

With more than two decades of business experience in retail, manufacturing, banking, and financial services, Ritesh has been associated with multiple globally distinguished organisations, including Walmart India, where he last served as Senior Vice President.

Blue Tribe partners with INOX Cinemas

Blue Tribe Foods, a foodtech company on a mission to reinvent global meat-consuming methods, has joined forces with INOX Cinemas.

The brand will soon start catering to the non-vegetarian (primarily) customer base in theatres by providing them with healthy and sustainable plant-based protein-integrated snack options like sausages, burger patties, nuggets, and keema. These 100% free plant-based products will be initially offered in 35 INOX theatres in all major metro cities and will gradually reach pan India customers.

It is pertinent to note that INOX Cinemas only offer vegetarian meals and snack options to its customers, leaving non-vegetarian food lovers with limited options. But now, with Blue Tribe’s 100% animal-free bundles of food-goodness, the customers will be able to enjoy the mouthfeel of meat-based products with a planet-friendly twist and conscious mindset.

Bidyabrata Biswas quits Wipro to join edtech startup SkillArbitrage

Edtech startup SkillArbitrage has appointed Bidyabrata Biswas as Director of web and mobile apps to lead its growing team of programmers. Biswas brings with him over eight years of experience in the information technology industry, including at big technology companies including Wipro, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Infosys, and Mastiska.

At SkillArbitrage, Biswas will be responsible for managing a team of analysts, developers, and testers, leading the charge of developing new web and mobile applications.

TenderCuts launches new venture

Tendercuts, a tech-driven, omnichannel fresh meat and seafood company, has launched a new venture, HappyChops, a marketplace to empower local meat shops with the latest technologies, robust supply chain and accelerated growth.

As India’s first integrated marketplace, HappyChops connects meat vendors with their customers online. They enable local meat shops with a lean supply chain, thereby providing easy access to quality produce with doorstep delivery at competitive prices. The company also plans to provide these shops with digital payment infrastructure and access to credit and insurance in the near future.

The company has already onboarded 100 chicken and mutton shops in Chennai. By March 2023, the company plans to get 300 more neighbourhood shops onboard and expand to 10 more cities by June 2023.

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ElectricPe launches free charger management software

ElectricPe, an electric vehicle (EV) charging aggregation platform in India, today announced making Charger Management Software (CMS) freely available to all users.

The need for a comprehensive CMS to manage, monitor and track charging devices will only increase as the number of public and private chargers rise to five million by 2030 in India. This move will significantly benefit charger manufacturers and Charge Point Operators (CPOs), allowing them to provide multiple tariff options, control user access, and real-time energy monitoring.

ElectricPe is collaborating with multiple charger manufacturers to provide a comprehensive EV solution that simplifies the charging infra-setup. The company’s decision to make a leading product available to all players is a game-changer for the EV industry, unlocking a $30 billion market opportunity.

EkoTejas ties up with SBI insurance, Bajaj Allianz and other lending institutions 

EkoTejas has tied up with seven financial institutions, insurance providers and Non-bank financial institutions (NBFCs) including Bajaj Finance, TJSB Bank, Shriram Insurance, SBI insurance and Bajaj Allianz with an aim to help the customers buy the two- and three-wheelers EV with affordability.

The recent tie-up is expected to benefit EV customers by them providing financial assistance. Moreover, the company’s dealers will install charging points at the buyer’s parking spot, especially if the buyer lives in an apartment.

EkoTejas has a pan-India presence. The company has an established dealer presence in about ten states including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Vantage Circle partners with Heyy 

Vantage Circle announced a partnership with Heyy, a mental health care company based in Southeast Asia/India. The partnership's main objective is to add a crucial benefit of mental health care to its customers and partner employees globally.

Through the partnership, Vantage Circle and Heyy hope to build a platform where employees can experience well-rounded happiness of mental well-being.

Vantage Circle aims to shape an inclusive work culture and build winning work cultures across the globe through innovative AI-powered employee engagement solutions.

Contentstack appoints Vasudeva Kothamasu as General Manager and Leader for Engineering

Contentstack today announced the appointment of the first-ever General Manager for India and Leader for Engineering, Vasudeva Kothamasu.

Kothamasu will be responsible for leading Contentstack’s global software engineering and cloud infrastructure teams where he will lead the definition and development of the company’s future roadmap and architecture in India. He will be reporting to Contentstack’s Co-founder and CTO, Nishant Patel.

Emids names Sean Narayanan as CEO with Founder Saurabh Sinha to become Chairman

Emids today named Sean Narayanan as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors. Company Founder and current CEO, Saurabh Sinha, will transition to the role of Chairman.  

Narayanan joins Emids after nearly two years at the helm of digital services firm Apexon, where he led the company through a period of transformational growth.

Prior to Apexon, Narayanan was Senior Executive Vice President and CEO of the $5 billion Business and Platform Solutions division of Atos, a global leader in digital transformation services. He has also previously held executive roles at Liquidhub, iGate (now Capgemini) and Cognizant.

Rural Electrification Corporation partners BFI

Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) will be supporting the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) to provide a major boost to the development of Indian boxing for the next three years.

The company will be spending Rs 30 crore, as part of its CSR initiative, over the period of three years with an aim to develop the sport in India.

As a part of the support agreement, BFI will be utilising the funds to conduct an international training camp in New Delhi from March 3 to 12 ahead of the upcoming 2023 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships.

Cloud Communication Platform MyOperator Launches Heyo

Cloud communication company MyOperator launched Heyo Phone, digital phone line for small and medium businesses. The digital phone connection will help small and medium-sized businesses manage their customer interactions, and improve their customer call and WhatsApp chat experience through a single business number.

While MyOperator provides a full-stack communication platform (CPAAS) to 10,000+ businesses including Lenskart, Apollo, PWC, Wow! Momo, E&Y, Amazon, Heyo aims to make communication simple for Small and Medium Business, professionalise their customer experience, and empower small and mid-market retailers, traders as well as freelancers. 

Heyo has been launched with the objective of digitising customer engagement and commerce for India’s 65 Million+ small and medium businesses. Offering one number and a single dashboard to manage all customer calls and chats, Heyo aims to help SMEs boost customer interactions and convert every conversation into a business opportunity. A business  the owner can activate his Heyo number in less than a minute with digital

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