Startup news and updates: daily roundup (March 28, 2023)

Tata Elxsi, Alps Alpine sign deal to set up engineering centre in Thiruvananthapuram

Tata Elxsi has signed a deal with Alps Alpine, a Japanese manufacturer of electrical components, to establish a global engineering centre at the former's campus in Thiruvananthapuram.

The GEC will focus on innovation around software and engineering, and develop next-gen tech for connected infotainment, body electronics, and autonomous, shared, and electric mobility, the companies said.

Atal Incubation Centre-Pinnacle Entrepreneurship Forum to incubate 25 new startups in FY24

The AIC-Pinnacle Entrepreneurship Forum—an industry-backed incubator run by Pinnacle Industries Ltd—aims to incubate 25 new startups in FY 2024.

The forum has incubated over 60 startups so far, in pre and incubation stages, and facilitated Rs 1.5 crore in investment to startups under various schemes and grants in FY 2023.

Supported by Atal Innovation Mission (Atal Incubation Centre), NITI Aayog, Ministry of MSME, and Ministry of electronics and IT, the AIC-Pinnacle Entrepreneurship Forum's incubation programme provides participants with several benefits such as access to mentorship, networking opportunities, funding, etc. Startups across sectors, including technology, healthcare, and finance can apply for incubation.

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Rage Coffee to offer ready-to-drink cold coffees

Virat Kohli-backed Rage Coffee has launched three new ready-to-drink cold coffee flavours, available online and on partner platforms.

The coffee cans will be available for Rs 140, and come in three flavours. The new product will first be launched exclusively on Blinkit for 30 days, and be available on all other channels by April 2023.

ShareChat users sent 1 billion+ virtual gifts in the past year

Multilingual social media platform ShareChat says users on its platform have sent over a billion virtual 'gifts' to each other in the last 12 months. These virtual gifts, forms of microtransactions, have doubled this year since December 2021, resulting in a 3X increase in revenue for ShareChat.

Virtual gifts on social media platforms can be bought for anywhere from Rs 5 to Rs 500 and more, and are typically gifted to live video streamers by their followers and fans.

"This milestone of over 1 billion virtual gifts in one year is a testament to ShareChat’s popularity and highly engaging and relevant content, where consumers appreciate the creative content through paid gifts at a large scale," said Manohar Singh Charan, CFO of ShareChat.

MeitY Startup Hub and Google to support 100 Indian startups

MeityY Startup Hub, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's (MeitY) initiative in partnership with Google, would offer training and development support to 100 Indian early- to mid-stage startups. This would be a part of Appscale Academy's Class of 2023.

Appscale Academy will help early to mid-stage startups from India to build high-quality games and apps besides enabling them to build global businesses. Of the 950 applications received, 100 were selected across education, agriculture, health, gaming and social sectors based on creative ideas and innovation, product quality, product scalability, and talent diversity

Approximately, one out of every two startups in the cohort is from Tier II and III towns while 37% have a woman founder.

Anurag Saxena becomes new CBO of Reverie Language Technologies

Reverie Language Technologies has appointed Anurag Saxena as its new Chief Business Officer (CBO). Prior to his new stint, Saxena worked in organisations including Ernst & Young, Deloitte, SAP, HCL Technologies, and NEC Corporation in senior roles.

"As the new CBO, Anurag will be responsible for driving a more broad-based strategy for Reverie’s business growth across government and enterprise and creation of a robust partner-led ecosystem as well," said Reverie Language Technologies, a subsidiary of Reliance Jio Platforms, in a statement.

80% of early-stage startups looking to hire in 2023: Survey

Over 80% of early-stage startups are planning to increase their employee count in 2023, according to a survey done by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Randstad India, a staffing solutions and HR services provider. The survey included 300 startups of which around 80% have less than 20 employees and are at the Series A and B funding stages.

This comes at a time when major startups and companies are looking to trim costs, especially by letting go of some of their employees. A majority of the startups (92%) said "their hiring decisions will primarily be driven by new project orders, additional funding raised from investors and expansion strategies".

A little less than a third of the startups expect to increase their employee count by over 30%. The sectors that have the highest intent to hire include healthcare (13%), IT/ITeS (10%), agri/agritech (8%), AI/ML/DeepTech (7%), fintech (7%), and manufacturing (7%).

Pranav Haridasan appointed new MD and CEO of Axis Securities

Axis Securities, a subsidiary of Axis Bank, said it has appointed Pranav Haridasan as its new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, for a period of three years. This move is part of Axis Group's succession plans where Axis Securities' current MD and CEO, B Gopkumar is moving to head Axis Asset Management Company.

Harisdasan, who is MD and Co-head of Equities at Axis Capital, has 20 years of experience in financial markets across different asset classes. Prior to his stint at Axis Capital, he worked at Citigroup Global Markets as Director and Head of India/ASEAN Execution Services.

(The story will be updated throughout the day with the latest news.)