Startup news and updates: daily roundup (August 1, 2023)

Funding

Drake Trade invests $2M in The Fuel Delivery

Singapore-based Drake Trade and Investment invested $2 million in The Fuel Delivery (TFD), an Indian doorstep diesel delivery company, as part of its pre-Series A funding round, with undisclosed equity.

TFD will use these funds to enhance and upgrade its IoT-enabled and tech-based platform for expanding new geographical territories and marketing. It will also foray into the Gas and EV space soon and expand overseas using this model as a plug-and-play.

Singapore’s Drake Trade will also offer further working capital facilities to the company. TFD has been operating for the past 30 months, serving over 1,000 customers in more than 38 cities across India.

Other news

Magenta Mobility appoints Vishal Sharma as National Head of Asset

Magenta Mobility, an electric mobility solutions provider, has named Vishal Sharma as its National Head - Asset, where he will collaborate with the company's founders to devise and execute strategies aimed at maximising asset utilisation and enhancing operational efficiency.

With a career spanning over 14 years, Sharma brings expertise in fleet management, OEM relationships, and vehicle asset management. He has worked at Ola Electric, Ola Fleet Technologies, Hyundai, and Mahindra Navistar.

Alongside Sharma, Magenta Mobility recently appointed Satyen Sail as Mobility Business head and Shashank Sathe as CTO in its leadership team.

Magenta Mobility has secured $22 million from bp Ventures and Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure. The company recently launched in Pune and has operations in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Mysuru, Delhi, Noida, and Gurugram.

Kintree appoints Vikram Lad as Co-founder and COO

Social app Kintree has appointed Vikram Lad as co-founder and chief operating officer to help the firm to further expand in the social entertainment space focusing on marketing, sales, operations, and investor relations.

Lad, an IIM Ahmedabad alumni with 18 years of track record in the media and entertainment industry, has worked with consumer-facing businesses such as ZEE Entertainment International, Disney STAR, and Chingari in the past.

He has worked in various leadership roles, where he played a vital part in scaling businesses to enhance valuation, revenue, P&L management, growth, and marketing efforts.

Kintree, an all-in-one platform for families, is currently available in 12 languages, with plans to incorporate international languages.

Thyrocare gets NABL accreditation for 9 more labs

Thyrocare has achieved National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accreditation for nine more processing laboratories, bringing its total NABL-accredited labs across India to 18, representing 64% of its entire lab network.

Thyrocare also has accreditations from other national and international bodies like the College of American Pathologists, the International Organisation for Standardisation, and the National Glycohemoglobin Standardisation Programme.

Thyrocare, one of India's leading diagnostic and preventive healthcare service providers, has a wide reach spanning over 2,000 cities/towns nationally and internationally. It has a team of more than 50 expert MD pathologists stationed across all their labs.

VC firm Accel's Atoms 3.0 opens applications for AI, Industry 5.0 cohorts

Venture capital firm Accel has opened applications for the AI and Industry 5.0 cohorts under Atoms 3.0, aimed at supporting early-stage startups in these fields in India, Southeast Asia, and the UAE.

Accel Atoms, an accelerator programme for pre-seed and seed-stage startups, offers funding, personalised mentorship, and industry-specific guidance from experienced operators and founders. Since its August 2021 launch, Atoms has invested in 24 companies across two cohorts, and these firms have collectively raised over $160 million in funding.

The AI cohort will be led by Prayank Swaroop, and the Industry 5.0 cohort will be spearheaded by Barath Shankar Subramanian, both supported by Accel investors, operators, and mentors. 

The programme will offer workshops, mentorship, networking, up to $500,000 investment, access to Accel's mentorship network, community events with other AI and Industry 5.0 startups, meet-ups with potential customers, mixers with investors and Accel portfolio companies, perks from partners like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, and webinars and AMA sessions with industry experts.

91Springboard appoints Anshu Sarin as CEO

 91springboard, a co-working space provider, appointed Anshu Sarin as the new Chief Executive Officer. The outgoing CEO, Anand Vemuri, has taken on the role of executive chairman, concentrating on cultivating strategic partnerships and investments.

Sarin brings a wealth of expertise to 91Springboard with her diverse background in hospitality and aviation, leadership skills, and strong proficiency in digital business transformation. Before joining 91Springboard, she served as the CEO at Berggruen Hotels.

Sarin's appointment is crucial as 91Springboard enters a new phase of growth and value creation. Since its inception in 2012, the company has expanded to 26 hubs in eight cities, including Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Gurugram, Noida, Pune, and Goa.

CIIE.CO launches people and culture accelerator, aims to accelerate 30 startups

CIIE.CO at IIM-Ahmedabad has introduced a people and culture accelerator aiming to fast-track 30 startups. 

The three months programme will cater to startups in the pre-Series A to Series B stages, featuring a boot camp at IIM Ahmedabad campus, personalised mentoring, and a range of other advantages to address HR-related challenges, including hiring, performance management, attrition, and formalisation.

The accelerator follows an open enrollment model, and the participating startups need to pay a fee to join the cohort.

In its 20-year history, CIIE.CO at IIM Ahmedabad has mentored over 5,000 startups, invested in 700 startups, and trained 2000 startups.

Planview appoints Shalini Sankarshana as Managing Director and Country Manager

Planview Inc, a platform for connected work, has appointed Shalini Sankarshana as the Managing Director and Country Manager to lead its India office. 

With her extensive experience in software product and technology leadership, Sankarshana brings a wealth of expertise to drive digital transformation and expand Planview's presence in the Indian market, furthering its growth.

Sankarshana, reporting to Planview CEO Razat Gaurav, will lead the scaling of Planview's Capability and Innovation Center (CIC). 

Sankarshana's career spans over 20 years, during which she has built and scaled enterprise platforms and products for some of the world's top financial institutions. 

Ecommerce industry anticipated to create 7 lakh gig jobs in H2’23: TeamLease

Indian ecommerce companies are preparing to meet consumer demands during the annual shopping frenzy, which is expected to create approximately 700,000 gig jobs in the second half of 2023, TeamLease said.

This year's festive hiring is anticipated to witness a remarkable 25% increase in gig jobs compared to the same period last year. The sector has around 200,000 open positions for temporary workers primarily in the last-mile delivery space and warehouse operations jobs.

The demand for gig workers during the festive season is increasing in cities like Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai, and Tier II and III cities like Vadodara, Pune, and Coimbatore. 

Roles, including warehouse operations, last-mile delivery personnel, and call centre operators, are in high demand in both metros and Tier II and III cities, with a higher proportion of demand seen in the latter compared to last year.

Additionally, gig workforce hiring is not limited to the ecommerce sector, as several other industries, including retail and logistics, are also ramping up their recruitment efforts to meet the festive season's demands and cater to increased consumer activity, TeamLease added.

DGT, AWS India collaborate to offer skilling programmes on emerging technologies

The Directorate General of Training (DGT), part of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), is teaming up with Amazon Web Services (AWS) India to enhance students' skills in cloud computing, data annotation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) to enhance their employability. 

The collaboration will benefit students enrolled in DGT institutions, including about 15,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and 33 National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs) across India.

AWS India will provide individuals with free self-paced online learning programmes in emerging technologies through DGT's Bharat Skills platform, which offers updated curriculum, course content, and learning videos for Craftsmen Training Scheme (CTS) and Crafts Instructor Training Scheme (CITS) courses.

It will train individuals in data annotation and labelling using Amazon SageMaker Ground Truth and provide a cloud computing curriculum to nominated education institutions under DGT for industry-recognised certifications and cloud-related jobs.

SkinQ appoints Meera Iyer as Co-founder and CEO

SkinQ appointed Meera Iyer as Co-founder and CEO to guide the company through its next growth phase and towards profitability.

With over 17 years of leadership experience in FMCG, consumer internet businesses, sales, brand, and marketing, Iyer previously held positions as the business unit head for the RPSG Group (Dr Vaidya's), CMO and business head (OTC and Private Label, Offline Stores) for Medlife, and CMO at BigBasket. She also spent nine years at Unilever, last serving as the regional brand manager for Dove and Pears.

Founded in 2022 by Dr Chytra Anand, SkinQ is a dermatologist-formulated brand for Indian skin. The brand focuses on holistic and effective skincare, with original and unique product formulations based on years of R&D.

CRED goes live with RuPay credit cards on UPI 

CRED, in partnership with NPCI, has introduced RuPay credit card-based UPI payments for its members, supporting RuPay credit cards from various banks, including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, Axis Bank, BOB Financial Solutions, Canara Bank, Indian Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Punjab National Bank, and Union Bank.

With this integration, CRED members can now use multiple payment options for UPI transactions, including linking their RuPay credit card, P2P transfers, scan and pay, and payments on online merchants. 

RuPay credit cards can be linked to a UPI ID to make payments to merchants by scanning the UPI QR code. With the increased acceptability of credit cards through UPI, merchants will benefit from larger transaction ticket sizes and volumes. 

62% Indian employees receive salary hikes in 2022-23: Report

About 62% of Indian employees received a salary hike this year despite the uncertainties and cautious sentiments observed in the job market today, according to the Foundit Appraisal Trends report.

Based on a comprehensive survey by foundit.in, collecting inputs from 3,066 employees, the report offers insights into nationwide appraisal trends during 2022-23, revealing that companies are exploring additional and alternative variables to salary hikes, such as ESOPs, bonuses, and promotions.

This year's appraisal distribution across experience levels shows that associate-level professionals received the highest hikes, while over 50% of entry-level employees did not receive any appraisal.

Intermediate employees surprisingly stood out as the top beneficiaries, with 13% of them receiving hikes exceeding 20%, surpassing even senior and leadership positions. Additionally, over 30% of employees in each experience level category did not receive any appraisals this year, as per the report.

About 49% of employees without salary hikes received ESOPs and bonuses, while 20% were offered promotions, reflecting positive recognition and career growth opportunities. Moreover, 38% of respondents were satisfied with their increments, and 52% found the appraisal process fair, showing transparency and fairness.

Chingari crosses 100M downloads on Google Play

Chingari, a Web3 short video app that initially started as a social app in 2020, has surpassed 100 million downloads on Google Play. It has over 175 million downloads across Play Store and App Store.

Chingari, available in 16 languages, boasts more than five million daily active users (DAU) and 40 million monthly active users (MAU). 

The company provides its users and creators with various revenue streams, including Gari Mining, Chingari LIVE Rooms, Subscriptions, and Creator cuts. The app is currently available in India, UAE, Indonesia, the UK, and the US, with plans to expand to Africa and South America in the future.

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