All Posts by Himanshu Sheth

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Counting and handling cash may soon become a thing of the past for offline retailers. FreeCharge, India’s leading digital payments platform has inked partnership with Ezetap, Bangalore-based pioneer in mobile payments, allowing the entire base of FreeCharge users to immediately start using their wallets to make payments at thousands of Ezetap service points consisting of small and mid-sized retailers across India.

The partnership draws FreeCharge closer to its vision of creating an ecosystem where organized and unorganized merchant networks can come together and accept electronic payments. Ezetap’s Universal Mobile Wallet Acceptance is India’s first universal solution that allows merchants to accept customer payments from any mobile wallet through their existing Ezetap mobile point of sale [mPoS] application. To encourage adoption of digital payments, FreeCharge will also run year long offers with individual Ezetap merchants that come on board with Ezetap.

Commenting on the partnership, Govind Rajan, Chief Operating Officer FreeCharge said

Our aim is to create the ecosystem for digital payments and help consumers move from cash to digital. We are excited to announce this strategic partnership with Ezetap which will further enable millions of FreeCharge customers to transact at over 40,000 POS terminals in the swiftest and safest manner possible. FreeCharge believes partnerships are critical to scale acceptance and build habit of digital payments.

Today, customers are reluctant to use any medium other than cash for small ticket transactions due to the friction involved in the payment experience. This partnership eliminates friction by facilitating payments with just a few clicks in a secure payment method. Enabling wallet payments at retail merchants will enable the wallet consumers to use FreeCharge both not just online but at over 40000 offline points too.

Abhijit Bose, CEO of Ezetap said

Our mission is to allow every business in India to easily collect payments from their customers, supporting every method and instrument that their customers want to use. We are excited to partner with FreeCharge to provide a simple and engaging user experience for both merchants and consumers.  Thousands of Ezetap smartPOS solutions are being activated at merchants every week, and each application is pre-enabled with universal wallet acceptance.  Our merchant can accept, load and take advantage of FreeCharge offers with a simple click.

FreeCharge recently announced doing 1 million transactions a day on its platform and with partnership the company will further strengthen its reach at offline stores and is aggressively on its way to achieve 7 million transactions a day by end of 2016. 

About FreeCharge

FreeCharge is India’s leading digital platform for recharge and utility payments which provides prepaid, post-paid, DTH and Electricity bill payment for almost all Indian service providers. FreeCharge was founded in 2010 by Kunal Shah & Sandeep Tandon and had received funding of over $120 million in the last 4 years. In the largest acquisition in the consumer Internet space yet, Snapdeal acquired FreeCharge in Apr’15 resulting in India’s largest m-commerce ecosystem.  For more details, please visit FreeCharge

About Ezetap

Ezetap is a mobile-based payments service provider for emerging markets based in Bangalore, India. The Ezetap service is PCI-DSS compliant, has been certified by multiple, leading financial institutions. The company has raised over Rs. 210 Crores [$35 Million] in funding to date and its investors include Social+Capital Partnership – the Silicon Valley firm led by former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya, Helion Advisors, American Express & Horizons Ventures. For more details visit Ezetap

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Simplilearn is ranked as #8 of the 50 most influential education brands outpacing Wharton University, Harvard Business School, New York University, University of Phoenix & other traditional institutions.  Organizations were honored for their achievements in the areas of educational publishing and their commitment to providing quality content. As one of the top among 50 organizations receiving recognition, Simplilearn was selected as #8 based on its engaging work on LinkedIn.

Michael Stebbins, Simplilearn’s Chief Innovation Officer, said

This is another validation that skill-centric education is the new way to improve careers. We’re among good company with LinkedIn and others who join us in engaging professional audiences with information that not only educates, but also inspires them to reach their career goals.

Education sector marketers have flocked to LinkedIn to reach the professional networking platform’s audience of professionals, who are keen to boost their careers and earning power with further education, according to the report.

Simplilearn is the world’s largest provider of short-term certification courses that address unique learning needs of working professionals. Courses include a variety of topics in the business, technology and design fields, spanning PMP, Big Data, Digital Marketing, Data Science, Cloud Computing and many more. With over 400 courses offered, Simplilearn has trained more than 500,000 professionals since its inception in April 2010. With its footprint in over 150 countries, Simplilearn’s patrons are assured of up-skilling and re-skilling themselves for faster and surer career growth. Simplilearn’s course content is recognized by more than 40 global accreditors, including PMI, Axelos, Scrum Alliance, OMCP, Peoplecert and The Open Group. For more information, visit SimpliLearn

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The National Association of Software and Services Companies [NASSCOM] announced the fifth phase of NASSCOM 10,000 Startups ‘Konnect’ and will be impacting applications from technology startups across the country. Phase five is focused on identifying, supporting, incubating & accelerating innovative technology start-ups in India.

Sharing his views, Rajat Tandon, Vice President, NASSCOM 10K Startups said

India is the third largest startup ecosystem in the World with immense talent and innovative startups flourishing each day. With the strong support from mentors, industry experts, investors and VCs, we have successfully created a significant impact on the startup ecosystem of the country. Phase 5 is going to be our biggest Konnect to date as we are aiming to create a greater impact across the early stage startup ecosystem.

For the fifth phase, NASSCOM has shortlisted 200+ domain centric applications from startups, which will provide a detailed overview of their business idea and the market opportunity. Startups who have applied in the last 4 months are now being considered for Phase five shortlisting and for the 10K Nurture program.

The shortlisted startups will be pitching to over 100 investors in six locations and will have the access to participate in the intensive accelerator pitch and mentoring Konnect sessions. The program has strong support from 50+ industry experts [NIPP] and close to 100 incubator partners. The sessions will start in the first week of March across Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Kochi & Hyderabad.

In its last four phases, a total of 11,000 startups applied out of which 1,100 were shortlisted and 500 have been impacted by way of funding, acceleration and mentoring. Some of their impacted startups include SmartVizX, Lazylad, EnglishDost, Flutura, SeekSherpa, Faircent, Hiree, Sliderule, Vidgyor, CustomerXPS to name a few.

NASSCOM 10,000 Startups is a startup incubation program whose objective is to create 10,000 domain specific startups in the country by 2020. Phase Four of the NASSCOM 10K Start-ups Konnect had 150+ startup shortlists that went through pitch and mentoring sessions

About 10,000 Startups

Started in April 2013, 10,000 Startups is an ambitious attempt by NASSCOM to scale up the startup ecosystem in India by 10x. 10,000 Startups aims to enable incubation, funding and support for 10,000 technology startups in India over the next ten years. The initiative brings together key stakeholders of the ecosystem including startup incubators, accelerators, angel investors, venture capitalists, startup support groups, mentors, and technology corporations.

Since its launch in April 2013, they have done about 450+ events in 22 cities of the country which were attended by a whopping 25,000 attendees and received 9000 Applicants, 800 Startups Shortlists, and 150 Impacts.

Nasscom-Partners

The program is supported by founding partner Google for Entrepreneurs, Microsoft Ventures, Intel and Kotak Mahindra Bank

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Lowe’s Innovation Labs [LIL], the disruptive innovation hub of Lowe’s Companies, Inc. have announced the opening of LIL-Bangalore and unveiled its new facility in the heart of Bangalore.

The new lab will house tech-savvy startups that will participate in an intensive 16-week accelerator program and give them an opportunity to partner with Lowe’s and deploy their technology in the U.S. LIL-Bangalore’s primary focus and priority technology areas include augmented and virtual reality, 3D printing and scanning, and robotics.

Richard Maltsbarger, chief development officer and president, International, Lowe’s Companies, Inc. said

Innovation and diversity of thought is at the core of what Lowe’s represents. Lowe’s Innovation Labs is revolutionizing the home improvement retail experience in the U.S., and we hope the tremendous talent and vibrant startup community in Bangalore will help us continue building a network of uncommon partners with whom we can co-develop technology.

Lowe’s created LIL in 2014 to bring together uncommon partners with a commitment to get technology out of the lab and into the real world. Beginning with science fiction prototyping to craft a narrative for the future, LIL collaborates with startups and has introduced projects including the Lowe’s Holoroom, an augmented and virtual reality home improvement design tool, the OSHbot autonomous retail service robot & in-store and online 3D scanning and printing.

Kyle Nel, executive director of LIL said

Lowe’s Innovation Labs-Bangalore will provide an open space where startups can interact and rapidly bring customer experience solutions to life through cutting-edge technologies, once thought to be the realm of science fiction. Bangalore is a dynamic community with world-class tech resources right in the heart of the city making it the perfect launching pad to expand our work in the U.S. and take disruptive technology to the next level.

LIL-Bangalore will also complement Lowe’s existing Bangalore Global In-house Center [GIC], which has been operating since 2014 and has grown to include more than 400 employees working on technology and analytics solutions.

Lalit Ahuja, acting managing director, Lowe’s India said

Opening Lowe’s Innovation Labs-Bangalore further strengthens our long-term commitment to India. We are confident that it will complement our efforts and further establish India as one of the innovation hubs for the company.

LIL-Bangalore is expected to welcome its first round of accelerator startups later this year. For more information, visit LIL-Bangalore.

About Lowe’s

Lowe’s Companies, Inc. is a Fortune 50 home improvement company serving approximately 16 million customers a week in the United States, Canada and Mexico through its stores and online at Lowes, Lowes.ca and Lowes.com.mx. Founded in 1946 and based in Mooresville, N.C., Lowe’s supports the communities it serves through programs that focus on K-12 public education and community improvement projects. For more information, visit Lowes.com

[Image Credit* – BrassRing]

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Truecaller unveiled TrueSDK which enables third party apps to easily on-board users with their Truecaller profile and their Truecaller verified phone number. This service can be used by developers to sign up, update a user’s information or purely verify the user’s phone number based identity in their mobile apps through user consent. Available to registered third party apps & currently Android only, this feature is launched with 12 partners who have on-boarded to simplify the app on-boarding and user verification process. Some of our esteemed partners include India’s popular apps namely Quikr, Mobikwik, redBus, CarDekho, BharatMatrimony, ixigo, OYO Rooms, TO THE NEW Digital, FreshMenu, Terraa, Cash Care & ShopClues

Nami Zarringhalam, Chief Strategy Officer & Co-founder of Truecaller said

At Truecaller, our mission has always been to provide as much information as possible to users about their calls and enabling them to use that information in meaningful ways. In this process, we realized the power and importance of a mobile number, especially when it comes to personal identification. Our aim is to empower third party apps with a credible verification option and enable users to use the app of their choice by making their phone numbers their identity.

TrueSDK helps both the users to quickly use their credentials that are already verified with Truecaller to easily engage with 3rd party apps of their choice.

[L-R] Kari Krishnamurthy – VP Growth & Partnerships Asia and Country Manager Truecaller, Nami Zarringhalam – Co founder and CSO Truecaller, Priyam Bose – Director Worldwide Dev

Commenting on the newly launched platform, Priyam Bose, Director Worldwide Developer Relations at Truecaller said

Phone numbers are quickly becoming the primary personal identity to verify users in the global mobile arena. App Developers are looking for ways to minimize friction in user on-boarding & engagement flows. TrueSDK gives developers an opportunity to fulfill these needs and overtime bridge offline and online identity gap. Instead of having every app developer build and maintain their own systems, they can now use TrueSDK and instead focus more on their core aspects of their app led offering.

Offering’s of TrueSDK

  • Phone number based on-boarding and verification
  • Free to use and no verification cost for existing Truecaller users
  • Significantly reduces friction in user on boarding
  • Permission based flow
  • Light weight client side SDK and minimal changes needed on developer’s back-end

Anurag Saran, CPO-Chief Product Officer, Quikr added

As one of India’s most trusted brands, security of consumers while transacting on our platform is crucial. Truecaller has a large existing community and the integration of TrueSDK on our mobile app reduces friction for mobile number verification. This gives our consumers an added layer of convenience and security.

Bipin Preet Singh, Founder & CEO-Mobikwik said

At Mobikwik, we’re taking every step keeping customer experience at the centre of focus. By integrating TrueSDK from Truecaller, we look forward to solve many challenges in one shot in our app. Our users while signing up on Mobikwik now will have an auto fill mechanism with their Truecaller verified phone number. Verified phone number based user on-boarding will significantly reduce friction in the user journey and minimise drop-off’s which could be a key in the entire consumer engagement life-cycle.

More reactions from TrueSDK partners

ShopClues is one of the first in the industry to move to the use of verified phone numbers for user registration on our app by tying up with TrueSDK from Truecaller. ShopClues is committed to making the user journey as smooth and seamless as possible. By using Truecaller verified phone number-led credentials we are ensuring that the customers’ propensity to on-board with us is enhanced.

Sanjay Sethi, CEO & Co-founder, ShopClues

By integrating our app with a solution such as the TrueSDK we are solving many problems at one go. Users will no longer need to fill in information manually with the auto-fill option. By auto filling their contact credentials we will be able to considerably reduce friction in user journey. Additionally, owing to the vast user community of Truecaller we will have ready access to a bank of verified phone numbers making the process much simpler and safer.  Going forward, we consider this to be a big step in enhancing our in-app experience.

Rajnish Kumar, Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer (CTO), ixigo

TrueSDK is the first major product to offer verified phone number based sign up/login feature. For OYO Rooms, where we are mobile first and use phone number for user account creation, this really helps in reducing customer friction in signing up. With Truecaller’s large user base, we hope this feature will benefit a large number of our users.

Anurag Gaggar, VP, Products, OYO Rooms

We are pretty excited to partner with Truecaller which has an extensive customer base with verified phone numbers. Personalization on a fast-growing growing channel mobile is key to our success and we strongly believe that this partnership will help us ease the process of signup which is a pre-requisite to our personalization efforts

Krishnan Ramaswami, Head of Products, Analytics and Acquisition Marketing- redBus

CarDekho believes in making our user’s experience seamless and frictionless. The potential of integrating with Truecaller promises authentic details without making users fill forms or enter OTP for verification. We are certain such innovative solutions will be accepted enthusiastically by consumers.

Rahul Yadav, Director-Products, CarDekho

All our profiles carry a verified phone number. The TrueSDK helps the Truecaller user to verify the phone number but also auto fill personal details while registering for Bharat Matrimony App for a seamless experience.

R Chandrasekar, Chief Technology Officer and Information Officer, BharatMatrimony

We are excited to partner with Truecaller on TrueSDK integration with our TV Everywhere and OTT Video platform apps ‘Video-ready’. The True SDK is a revolutionary concept for Video applications as it aids in significant improvements to User Experience by enabling a seamless and verified phone number based authentication process as well as allowing applications to understand the user journey in much more detail and useful ways. The same data can be used in aiding to multiple experiences across personalised content and user engagement.

Dave Mann, EVP-Video Solutions, TO THE NEW Digital

TrueSDK is currently only available for selected partners on Android platform, but will be open to public in near future. To sign up for TrueSDK contact truesdk@truecaller.com with your app details.

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Lukup Media, India’s first converged TV and Internet access provider, commercially announced the launch of its services in select areas of Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune and Bangalore. Lukup Media is India’s first dual play provider  and offer linear television, video on demand  and Internet access through a single connection and for a single monthly subscription. The Lukup Media network is an IP platform and uses last mile cable and fiber networks to deliver content and internet access.

The subscription plans begin at Rs 990 per month for more than 140 free-to-air linear channels, 500 GB network storage to record TV, 30 GB broadband data and includes Rs. 300 credit to subscribe to standard definition and HD pay TV channels and video on demand content. The company is working on adding popular video on demand services on its IP platform. Viewing Television and Video on demand do not incur any internet access charges. Subscribers get free credit in every pricing plan that gives them the freedom to create their own Lukup plan, based on their individual choice and requirement.

The Lukup Media service is delivered to consumers using a device called the Lukup Player which combines the functionality of a TV set top box and a broadband router. The Lukup Player can be connected to a TV and can also stream licensed content to second TV screens and wireless music systems. Multiple mobile devices and PCs can also access the internet through the Lukup Player.

The Lukup Player can be remote controlled using a mobile phone application which lets users browse, search, record content and also rewind back TV channels up to 7 days back with Lukup Media’s unique ‘catch up TV’ feature. Users can also access permitted TV channels and video on demand content out of home using the mobile application.

Kallol Borah, Founder & CEO of Lukup Media said

The Lukup Media service will change the way we watch television and access content and internet on multiple devices at home. The manner in which we have converged different services will transform the media landscape. This is a first of its kind technology in India, is state of the art by global standards and is entirely Made in India.

The Lukup Media service is available through local cable TV network partners and the Lukup Player is also available online on Amazon and the company’s website.  It is priced at Rs. 6,000/- [exclusive of taxes] for the multi-screen variant, and the single screen variant is priced at Rs. 5,000 [exclusive of taxes].

About Lukup Media

Lukup Media is a pan India Multi-system Operator and Internet Service provider. It operates India’s first on demand and multi-screen TV service . The company offers its dual play services with TV and Internet access through a single connection to homes where its Lukup Player product delivers content and internet access to multiple screens and consumer devices. The company is promoted by Kallol Borah & Harsha Mutt who have built and operated businesses in the US, Europe and India. For more information, please visit Lukup Media

[Image Credit* – YourStory]

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

If you follow popular shows on the NDTV network such as The Big Fight, Power Lunch, Prime Time and Chakhle India Kachcha Raasta, there is good news for you! YuppTV, the world’s largest Over-The-Top [OTT] provider for Indian content, has announced its partnership with the NDTV Group. Under the move, YuppTV subscribers will be able to view the four channels – NDTV India [Hindi], NDTV 24×7 [English] and NDTV Profit/Prime [Business] and NDTV Good Times anytime, anywhere.

The four channels of NDTV can be accessed by users on YuppTV from outside India and YuppTV India from India, or by downloading the YuppTV app on their smart phones, smart TVs, smart Blu-ray players, streaming media players, tablets and gaming consoles. The move took the number of channels on YuppTV’s platform to 16, adding to its current repository of 200+ Indian TV Channels in 13 languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi, Oriya, Gujarati, Sinhala, Urdu and Bangla.

Speaking on the announcement, Uday Reddy, Founder & CEO, YuppTV, commented

We are the largest OTT provider for Indian content in the world, while the NDTV group is the preferred news channel for Indian expats worldwide. The association will allow us to add NDTV’s popular news and lifestyle programmes to our offerings and will improve the selection choices for our users. We are confident of satisfying all India-centric news-related requirements of our subscribers with this partnership.

Rahul Sood, Head, Network Distribution & Affiliate Sales, NDTV, added

We are pleased to partner with YuppTV, a leading digital content destination for Indian expats and this association will serve to add even more options for the YuppTV users and allow its users with anytime, anywhere access to our channels.

About YuppTV

YuppTV is one of the world’s leading Over-the-top [OTT] content providers for South Asian Content. YuppTV was founded in 2006, with headquarters in Atlanta, GA and has branch offices in the USA and India. YuppTV started with two channels and has grown to deliver more than 200+ TV Channels today.  YuppTV is accessible on more than 25 internet enabled – Connected TVs, Internet STBs, Smart Blu-ray players, PCs, Smart Phones and Tablets.

For more information, please visit YuppTV

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Bangalore based retail-tech startup SnapBizz have announced that it has raised funding from Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus, Tata Sons. In January 2016, SnapBizz had announced a Series A funding of $7.2 million led by Jungle Ventures, Taurus Value creation, Konly Venture and Blume Ventures.

With the mission of transforming the un-organized fragmented retail sector in the country, SnapBizz currently works with over a thousand kirana stores across Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore and aims to expand its footprint across other tier 1 and 2 cities.

Prem Kumar, CEO and founder, SnapBizz said

We are privileged to have Mr. Tata as an investor at SnapBizz. As one of the most respected names in corporate India, Mr. Tata brings a rich legacy of doing business with a human touch. This reflects in his investment in SnapBizz as we have begun a humble journey of reverse marginalisation of SMB’s and driving digital inclusion in the large consumer goods industry.

A visionary of Mr. Tata’s stature showing confidence in SnapBizz is certainly a big boost for our business idea and will continue to accelerate the digital revolution in India’s kirana stores. Brands are also seeing this an opportunity to partner with us in order to be a well wisher of the retailers ?and get the share of mind of the retailer to appropriate the positioning as the company that cares for the retailers.

Snapbizz is on a mission to transform the face of small-scale retail sector in the country and empower kirana stores not only to be competition ready but to have a competitive edge by making them ‘Virtual Super Markets’. Snapbizz solutions are designed and developed with an in-depth understanding of business process of the kirana store that is reflected in its simplicity and ease of use.

It’s unique ability to create virtual shelf space attracts additional income to retailers from companies that want to merchandize and contextually engage customers in-store and out of store. It also enables smart store management and a digital connection to consumers, FMCG companies and distributors.

In a diverse market like India, where the traditional kirana stores make 98% of store universe and 85% of retail business, the Snapbizz solution is revolutionizing kirana stores across the country by connecting all the dots of the fragmented FMCG ecosystem [brands, retailers, consumers, wholesalers and distributors] and addresses pain points of all stakeholders.

About SnapBizz

SnapBizz Cloudtech Pvt Ltd is a retail-technology company founded in 2013 to transform the small scale retail sector in the country. To reverse marginalization of SMB’s and drive digital inclusion in the large consumer goods industry, it has developed a technology platform to connect all stakeholders of the fragmented retail ecosystem of India, while adding value to individual stakeholders.

The end-to-end solution it offers is an android based, cloud-connected business platform that is also cost-effective. The solution comprises of tablet, barcode scanner, printer and an intelligent external large consumer facing LED display for consumer engagement. SnapBizz is backed by leading investors and strategic partners who are captains of industry and bring in an innovation funnel of cutting edge technology.

[Image Credit* – SnapBizz]