Startup news and updates: daily roundup (March 9, 2023)

Pepperfry appoints Kushal Budhia as head of furniture business

Pepperfry, a furniture and home goods marketplace, has appointed Kushal Budhia as the head of furniture business. He joined Pepperfry in 2021 as the head of corporate strategy where he led financial planning and analysis and corporate development for the company.

Budhia will be responsible for scaling Pepperfry's D2C private labels and expanding the marketplace. With his experience in the strategy domain, he will aim to drive the medium- and long-term growth plans of the organisation and build a sustainable and profitable business.

He will be delving into key developmental areas of the furniture business, such as brand building, expanding merchant partnerships, new product development, strengthening sourcing capabilities, improving merchandising, and driving superior business unit economics.

Garuda Aerospace, Ninjacart partner to bring dronetech to farmers

Garuda Aerospace, a manufacturer of drones for the agritech sector, and Ninjacart, an agritech e-commerce startup, have entered into a partnership to bring advanced drone technology to farmers across India.

Through this partnership, Garuda Aerospace and Ninjacart will offer short-term financing options to farmers, enabling them to access the latest drone technology at affordable rates.

"This partnership will not only help farmers improve their yields and reduce costs, but it will also provide young entrepreneurs with skills and business opportunities. We believe that this collaboration will help in developing an ever-lasting impact on the agricultural sector in India," said Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Founder and CEO, Garuda Aerospace.

PropTiger appoints Sridhar Srinivasan as national sales head

PropTiger, a digital real estate brokerage company, has appointed Sridhar Srinivasan as its national sales head. Srinivasan will be responsible for driving the company's growth.

PropTiger is owned by REA India that also owns Housing.com and Makaan.com.

Srinivasan's appointment comes at a critical juncture, as the company seeks to consolidate its leadership position in the highly competitive real estate market.

Srinivasan has held key positions in organisations such as MaxLife, Aegon, Indiamart and Home Credit India.

As the national sales head of PropTiger, Srinivasan will oversee various aspects of the business, including building retail teams, developing innovative value-added services, and ensuring that the brand remains the preferred choice of customers.

91Springboard partners with Maharashtra govt to launch virtual incubation centre

To support early-stage startups in Maharashtra, the Government of Maharashtra is launching the Maharashtra Virtual Incubation Centre in partnership with 91Springboard Business Hub, a co-working space provider.

 91springboard offers facilities like office infrastructure, administrative support, mentoring, and access to networks.

The centre aims to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in Maharashtra by providing a supportive ecosystem for startups to grow and scale their businesses. Incubation-related products and services like legal, financial, intellectual property, cloud and mentoring will be offered at preferential rates to startups in Maharashtra.

The incubation centre will also offer access to co-working spaces, networking events, and other resources.

91Springboard will provide access to the services either by itself or through qualified service providers/vendors.

In its first phase, the platform is being launched for 300 startups incorporated in Maharashtra and recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Government of India.

Siply partners with PB Fintech Group's MoneyWide

Siply, a micro-savings platform with 7 million users, said it is partnering with MoneyWide, a fintech lending platform, to offer Siply users paperless and instant personal loans at its phygital branches.

Siply aims to disburse more than 10,000 loans by FY24 worth Rs 100 crore through this partnership.

This partnership announcement follows a $7.5 million recent acquisition of myPaisaa's advanced new-age chit platform by Siply.

Shipyaari onboards Pallav Jagoori as Chief Product Officer

Shipyaari has announced the appointment of Pallav Jagoori as the Chief Product Officer to support the company’s growth trajectory and drive its vision to be a leader in the segment.

Jagoori will spearhead the development and execution of customer-focused solutions for an enhanced and engaging experience while simplifying logistical needs.

He brings over 15 years of experience across sectors including IT Services, media, ecommerce, retail, fintech, and edtech alongside a strong background in scaling new age product lines that offer integrated experiences in both digital and physical realms to Shipyaari. Jasoori was previously at BYJU's before he joined Shipyaari. 

Tide and WE Hub together launch ‘Sarthika’ to operationalise Government schemes

Tide and WE Hub have launched the Sarthika programme, to bridge the information and last mile delivery gaps in state and central government schemes for women-led micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

Through this initiative, Tide aims to reach women entrepreneurs across India and enhance the ease of doing business by improving access to information and uptake of public schemes and initiatives.

The Sarthika web portal will work with cohorts at the grassroots level to help them navigate through the application process, eligibility criteria, and other important aspects of the schemes. After the completion of full KYC process, Tide India and WE Hub will work with relevant government departments to quicken operationalisation of the schemes.

ClickPost partners with Vinculum to manage end-to-end eCommerce for customers

ClickPost and Vinculum Group have announce a strategic partnership for ecommerce brands to build effective business strategies for higher customer retention and increased sales. This partnership will enable a much faster courier tracking sync than before, with flexible carrier allocation and advanced AWB generation logic. 

The strategic partnership will help brands manage end-to-end ecommerce, right from global marketplace listings, data consistency, real-time view of inventory in stores, BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store), BOPAK (buy online, pick up at kerbside), returns across channels, for streamlined logistics operations, and enhanced customers’ delivery experience. 

The ClickPost-Vinculum partnership brings together deep skills in business and technology strategy, technology development and deployment, and organizational change management to help support ecommerce clients through successful transformations. 

Bessemer Venture Partners reveals its India fintech roadmap 

 Bessemer Venture Partners dives deeper in its investment roadmap for India’s fintech sector and shares how its investment thesis has changed over the years.

The report highlights that despite fintech's wider reach, there is scope for rapid growth across financial services with the potential for billions of dollars in market cap to be created in public markets in each of these sub-sectors. 

Financial services is the largest sector in the world at around 20%-25% of the global economy. India is no different, with financial services constituting over 24% of the market cap in India. According to predictions, by 2030 domestic credit will double to be $5.5 trillion market, mutual fund AUM will grow five times from $400B to $2 trillion and insurance will grow five times from $100 billion to $500 billion.

Emeritus Partners with Vahani 

Emeritus has revealed its scholarship programme for young women through Vahani, an NGO dedicated to educating talented students from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds.

Through this programme, Rs 1 crore in scholarships will be provided to Vahani Alumnae to access Emeritus’ education programmes offered in partnership with universities across technology, data analytics and digital marketing fields, as a gateway for women to enter into various industries of the economy.

The scholarship programme is an extension of Emeritus’ commitment to increasing access to education to marginalized and underserved communities. In 2021, Emeritus launched a partnership with Vahani which included individual scholarships and one-on-one mentorship for Vahani alumni. Through this tie-up, Emeritus team members have been on boarded as Vahani mentors, who provide one-on-one guidance to their mentees twice a month helping them choose better career paths.

GrayQuest raises $7M in Series A funding round

Fintech firm GrayQuest has raised $7 million in a series A funding round led by Pravega Ventures.

Family investors such as Weizmann Group, Telama Family Office and Apurva Parekh (Pidilite Family Office) and existing investors like the family offices of Ashok Wadhwa (Founder – Ambit Capital) and Yogesh Mahansaria, also participated in the round.

Funds from the round will be used to improve its products and scale distribution, the company said in a statement.

Till date, the firm counts over 5,000 educational institutions as clients with a client base of about 3 million students.

It helps formulate payments options that educational institutions could offer to parents that includes monthly payment options to pay education fees at no extra cost, as per the company.

Disclaimer: This story has been updated to include a news piece.