Startup news and updates: daily roundup (March 14, 2023)

Beej Network to invest over  $3M in 24 early stage startups in 2023

Angel investing firm, Beej has revealed its plan to invest Rs 24 crore (over $3 million) in 24 early-stage startups by the end of this year 2023. 

Beej Network provides financial aid to qualified startups through integrated resources.

The co-founders Nikhil Jain, Nikhil Sethia, K.V.T. Ramesh, and P.S. Suman decided to establish Beej Network 6 months ago after living the experience of Angel investing for more than four years with a portfolio of over 60 startups. Beej has built an investor base of over 400 investors with 10 startups in their portfolio.

Thus far it has invested in startups like Chaiwaale, Swytchd mobility, Mr.Med, Crib, and among others, wiht plans to launch its CAT 1 Angel AIF soon.

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Pine Labs appoints Navin Chandani as President of its Issuing Business

Merchant commerce omnichannel firm, Pine Labs, on Tuesday revealed the appointment of Navin Chandani as the President of its Issuing Business. The issuing Business of Pine Labs deals with issuing of prepaid cards, gift cards, rewards, incentives, loyalty programs and several other stored value programs for retail and enterprise clients through its brand Qwikcilver.

Navin is based in Mumbai and prior to joining Pine Labs, he was the Regional Managing Director for India and South Asia at CRIF, a global fintech specialising in credit and business information, analytics, and open banking. He brings nearly three decades of leadership experience to the role, having worked with companies like Visa and American Express in the past.

“We are delighted to welcome Navin... His wealth of experience and strategic thinking will help us scale further our issuing business. We are also excited for Kumar Sudarsan who moves to a new role of Chief Growth Advisor for Pine Labs group. Kumar has been instrumental in laying the foundation and driving the phenomenal success of the brand Qwikcilver," said B Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs.

Wow! Momo Foods launches its first Wow! Eats QSR store

Wow! Momo Foods that operates with three brands Wow! Momo, Wow! China and Wow! Chicken, is now entering into the Indian Quick Service Restaurant playfield, with the launch of its new format - Wow! Eats.

Wow! Eats will bring all three brands under one roof, the company said in a statement.

Wow! Eats will also be extended online as the Wow! Eats App soon, where the consumers can place an order both in dine in and delivery; from all 3 brands from a single app. The first Wow! Eats oulet was opened in Chennai recently, with plans to extend these outlets to 10 super speciality restaurants within the next 3 months.

Expansion plans include the opening of 1 outlet in Chennai and 2 in Hyderabad, 2 in Kolkata, 1 in Bhubaneshwar and few more lined up across key metro cities.

GuarantCo and Axis Bank collaborates with Northern Arc to drive financial inclusion in India 

GuarantCo, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), along with Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector bank has revealed its collaboration with Northern Arc Capital, the technology and data powered diversified financial services company to drive funding into the Indian financial inclusion space.

As a part of the collaboration, GuarantCo and Axis Bank will partner with Northern Arc to deploy around Rs 325 crore across sectors like microfinance, small business enterprises, commercial vehicle financing, affordable housing and education. Over a period of five years, around 200,000 Indians from low-income and rural regions are expected to benefit from this collaboration through improved access to affordable loans. 

Laundry startup UClean plans to expand its business globally

Dry cleaning service chain UClean, has revealed its plan to consolidate its position in the country with 1500 UClean Laundromat stores by 2025. The company currently has 323 franchise stores in 93 cities in India.

It is now set to expand its services beyond India to the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region and Southeast Asia in 2023. UClean provides door-step laundry services, where customers can place their orders using a smartphone app, via the its call center number, or through the its WhatsApp bot. Users can also do their laundry at select stores in a DIY (Do It Yourself) format.

Car service provider startup Automovill aims to hire 100+ new employees by the end of 2024

Bengaluru-based Automovill a full-stack mobility solution provider, has announced plans to increase its talent pool by hiring an additional 100 new employees by the end of calendar year 2024. The current staff strength within the firm is 55. In the previous quarter it hired 15 employees.

The startup will aggressively fill positions in all departments, including 30 in operations, 8 in marketing, 10 in technology, and the remaining positions in human resources and administration, it said in a statement.

The hiring effort is primarily focused on bringing on board City Managers, WSMs (Workshop Managers), Supply Chain Managers, and experts in Senior Level Marketing and Operations (VPs) in the cities of Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Guwahati, NCR and Calcutta.

Agritech startup TartanSense rebrands as Niqo Robotics

Agritech startup TartanSense has rebranded as Niqo Robotics. The rebranding comes on the heels of the company launching its proprietary green on green artificial intelligence spot spray robots in India. With a fleet size of 50, the company claims to be the world’s largest commercial deployment of AI powered robotic sprayers.

Niqo’s proprietary green on green tech leverages real time AI assisted computer vision to selectively spray chemicals on plants resulting in up to 60% chemical and water savings.

“As we get ready to launch the world’s largest fleet of green on green AI spot spray robots to market, we need a strong identity that can boldly carry us into this exciting future," said Jaisimha Rao, CEO and Founder Niqo Robotics.