Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (December 11, 2023)

The Circle FC supports 10 South Korean startups in second cohort

Delhi-based business accelerator and soft-landing platform The Circle FC has concluded its mentorship programme for 10 South Korean startups as part of the second cohort, across sectors such as healthtech, HRtech, and SaaS.

During the fourth-month programme, the startups signed 18 MoUs and went through over 500 hours of mentoring with more than 200 one-on-one meetings. About seven companies were registered, while many set up local offices and participated in ecosystem events such as NASSCOM Engineering & Design Summit, World Dental Show (Mumbai), Medical (Delhi), and AOMSI (Delhi), the firm said in a statement.

The in-person demo day was held at The Circle Work in Gurugram on November 23 and witnessed participation from more than 200 stakeholders including investors, academia, government bodies, corporates, and local entrepreneurs.

“At The Circle FC, we're not just fostering businesses; we're building an ecosystem that strengthens ties, fosters cross-cultural understanding and propels the shared vision of global entrepreneurship," said Nemesisa Ujjain, VP - Innovation at The Circle FC.

Easebuzz ties up with Wix.com to make digital payments secure

Pune-based Easebuzz payments platform has partnered with NASDAQ-listed software firm Wix.com to expand its digital presence. Through the partnership, Easebuzz will offer Wix.com merchants a complete suite of online payment solutions to accept secure digital payments on websites and ecommerce stores, aiming to simplify the payment experience.

Easebuzz will enable merchants using Wix.com to accept payment methods including debit and credit cards, net banking, UPI, and wallets. The companies aim to meet the demands of the rapidly expanding Indian ecommerce market, which is expected to reach $150 billion by 2026, according to a statement.

"The integration is aimed to provide merchants with the ability to manage and track all their orders and payment transactions through a single dashboard. We strongly believe that our superfast checkout experience will help Wix merchants improve their order conversion rates and foster business growth,” Rohit Prasad, MD and CEO of Easebuzz, said.

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Cybersecurity firm Securonix appoints Venkat Kotla as CTO

Cybersecurity and enterprise technology firm Securonix has onboarded Venkat Kotla as the chief technology officer. In this role, Kotla will be responsible for leading the company’s engineering function and fostering partnerships with leading technology organisations to support the growing demand for the company’s Unified Defense SIEM platform.

Kotla has more than 25 years of experience in enterprise software, with the latest stint as the vice president and head of engineering for economy BU at Atlassian. Prior to joining Atlassian, Kotla spent over 14 years in senior engineering leadership roles at Google.

"SIEM is the backbone of cybersecurity defences, and Securonix has long been the industry’s premier solution provider. I look forward to working with the leadership team to incorporate advanced technologies into the platform and aggressively develop new partnerships with the world’s leading technology providers,” Kotla said in a statement.

Naturals Salons partners with skincare brand SkinQ for new beauty service

Chennai-based salon chain Naturals Salons has collaborated with skincare brand SkinQ to introduce a beauty service called Medi-Facial.

Medi-Facial is a Made Safe Certified Active facial kit specifically formulated for Indian skin types after extensive research, clinical testing and factoring in the diversity of local climatic conditions in the country, according to the company.

“... Combining the unique leadership of inventing certified Medi-Facial kits for Indian skin types by SkinQ with Naturals’ heritage of providing highly skilled beauty services, we hope our salons will serve as an even more helpful, one-stop destination for a range of beauty as well as aesthetic services that will fulfil the beauty aspirations of our valued customers,” Veena Kumaravel, Founder of Naturals Salons, said.

Sauce.vc acquires stake in food business GRM Overseas Ltd for undisclosed amount

GRM Overseas Ltd has sold more than 3% stake in GRM Foodkraft—a subsidiary of GRM Overseas focused on domestic India-based foods business—to early-stage consumer-focused fund Sauce.vc for an undisclosed amount. 

Sauce has also acquired an additional 1% stake from other shareholders, according to a company statement.

“Our goal is to evolve our brands into distinguished names in their respective product categories. We also intend to work with the Sauce team to identify emerging areas for launching new brands in packaged foods and to explore deepening our presence in digital channels including e-grocers, quick commerce, and e-commerce. Sauce’s investment aligns with our commitment to rapidly scale and diversify our product portfolio,” Atul Garg, MD at GRM Overseas, said.

Tata’s passenger mobility group sign MoU with 4 startups to develop charging infrastructure

Tata Passenger Electric Mobility (TPEM) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with four startups—Chargezone, Glida, Statiq, and Zeon—aimed at developing India’s charging infrastructure.

The agreement builds on the existing presence of each operator in the charging ecosystem and TPEM’s telematics insights basis more than 1.15 lakh Tata electric vehicles (EV) on Indian roads. TPEM will actively assist the four CPOs in installing chargers at locations most frequented by its EV owners and share insights on how the chargers are being used to help understand and enhance customer experience, Tata said in a statement.

“The need of the hour for accelerating a nationwide charging ecosystem is open collaboration, and we are delighted to announce our strategic collaboration with Chargezone, Glida, Statiq, and Zeon, to accelerate India’s journey towards e-mobility. This collaboration will benefit from TPEM’s unparalleled EV usage insights, coupled with the CPOs’ innovative charging solutions and entrepreneurial spirit, and create 10,000+ additional charging points in the country by FY25,” Balaje Rajan, Chief Strategy Officer at Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, said.

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