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|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Couple of days back, we had covered the #StartSomething initiative by Espark-Viridian, a startup accelerator which is a joint-venture between the Entrepreneurial Spark, UK and Viridian Ventures, India. Today we have a chat with Mr Vibhuti Channa, Director of Viridian Ventures about the accelerator, how to apply for the October cohort, entrepreneurship, scaling up, etc.

So, lets start with the Q&A…

Espark-Viridian(EV) is a JV, can you please give a brief about the team and Viridian’s association with Entrepreneurial Spark?

We have a partnership with Entrepreneurial Spark under which we have been operating accelerator centres in India for over a year now.

Can you please walk us through the complete programme or what is the planned curriculum over that 18 month period?

The programme is a comprehensive one that gives access to the entrepreneurs to dedicated enablers, mentors, service providers, suppliers, office space and potential investors for their businesses.

Off late there are many accelerators- Microsoft Accelerator, Kyron, TLabs, GSF, etc. why should an entrepreneur choose EV accelerator (or how does it differ in offerings) over other accelerators (that are present in India for quite sometime)?

The fundamental differentiator is the enablement programme which envisages a dedicated enabler who works with an entrepreneur on a one on one basis through the entire relationship that an entrepreneur is with us in the programme. This facilitates a regular tracking of the business and the entrepreneur is challenged and stretched at every stage to ensure that the outcome is robust and in line with his dream for the business.

How strong are your connections to mentors/investors etc. involved with the accelerator? How much time would the selected startups get with the mentors?

The mentors and entrepreneurs are linked up at a stage when it is believed that the entrepreneur requires the necessary intervention and support. The duration is determined by the specific need that may arise for such support.

Do the selected startups have to part away with equity? Are there any fixed costs that selected startups need to bear during the tenure of the programme?

The accelerator does not take an equity stake in the entrepreneur’s business.

How are the previous cohorts of Espark-Viridian (EV) doing right now? Can you please share some details about the traction, revenue, funding, etc. of couple of startups from the previous cohort.

We have 25 graduates from our programme thus far of whom 5 have successfully secured seed funding.

What does the EV team look for in the startup team that is applying for the accelerator programme?

We look for people who have an entrepreneurial mindset – someone who is willing to take the risk, is open to being challenged and work hard. This is not an easy journey and one should be resilient to ride the tumbles with equanimity in the quest for success.

EV is present in select cities in India, is it mandatory for the shortlisted startup to relocate to any of these cities or they can work remotely (and get necessary support from mentors etc.)?

It is possible to operate from locations where we are not present and be a part of the programme.

When you choose a startup, do you look at companies which are solving local problems or companies which have a global mindset?

We are sector agnostic and are open to companies that are addressing areas across sectors and geographies.

Should a startup be in any particular stage (i.e. Idea/Growth etc.) in order to apply for the Programme?

We are happy to support start ups at any stage between idea and scale up.

Any priority or focus on sectors that the programme would focus on (Can a hardware startup apply for the programme)?Is your programme also open to Social Enterprises?

We are open to people from any sector and do have people on board from the social enterprises space as well.

Apart from Idea, what are some of the key things your team looks into while assessing the applications?

We look at the entrepreneurs mind set which is critical to the success of the business. We look for openness, resilience and a spirit to get challenged in a positive manner.

Some insights into the industry partners for the Programme?

Some of the partners we work with include banks, payment gateways, cloud space, software support apart from other service support areas.

2016 is a tough year for startups (especially for companies that are in the growth stage), can you please some tips for entrepreneurs looking to raise funds and how they can see through these turbulent times?

It is critical that entrepreneurs remain hard nosed and ruthlessly focused on driving value for their businesses. The fundamentals of doing business and driving the bottom line will never change irrespective of the industry or times we live in. As long as entrepreneurs bear that in mind they will not have a problem riding through these times.

If you are an entrepreneur and willing to apply for the October 2016 cohort of the Espark-Viridian accelerator, please visit the Application Page. If you have any further questions about the accelerator, their offerings etc. please leave a comment and we would have it answered from the EV Team.

|In: AppReview|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

What is the first thought that comes to your mind when you are leaving your home for a different city (be it for work, studies, etc.) Apart from the accommodation, locality; people who are concerned about us would be worried about one important factor that keeps us going – Food 🙂 Don’t we all miss the home-cooked food when we are away! In fact, when you are at home (enjoying home cooked food); you would sometimes crave for hotel food/junk food, etc. However, at the end of the day Home Cooked food always has one ingredient that is missing in outside food – Taste and Affection (with which the food is made).

Food is a vast topic and so are the delicacies in India. In every state, every city and every home (in India), you would find that one Special Dish that you would have craved for 🙂 Each dish has its own unique identity. What if one of your neighbours has made her special dish for lunch , whereas the other neighbour has made another delicacy and you had the privilege of choosing either of them right from the comfort of your home/office! Connecting Foodie with the celebrated home-cook via Technology would be an ideal solution.

Now every home-cook or home-based cook can showcase their passion for cooking, Culinary delights and become a mini-entrepreneur with an enabler – Eat Social. There are many startups that are operating in the Home Cooked Food On the Cloud category (I would not term them as Food-Tech Startups), I got a first-hand experience about it on Eat Social when I ordered Dinner from its Android app when I was in North Bengaluru.

Below review is based on the overall experience with Eat Social and it covers aspects like App Review, TAT (Turnaround Time), Food Quality etc.

Let’s get started with the review…

Eat Social : Home Cooked Food On the Cloud

Eat Social is a social (hyper-local home food) platform where your neighbourhood Home Chefs will share their tasty healthy home cooked food with you. Cooked Food is one category in commerce where Delivery Time matters the most and hence, Eat Social restricts food delivery if your address is not within 5~7 km of the chef’s location.

The restriction of distance has a positive impact on Customer Retention & Customer Delight since you ensure that the customer gets Quality Home cooked food !!

Eat Social : In Depth Review

Eat Social app is currently available for Android and can be downloaded from here For users who are on non-Android platforms, Eat Social is accessible via Eat Social’s web app The app has functionalities for Foodie & Home-chef bundled into one i.e. there is no separate app for the seller.

Eat Social for Home Chef(s)

A passionate Home cook willing to register as a Chef on Eat Social has to create a profile, upload quality photographs of the dishes, available quantity & preferred timings (Lunch/Dinner/Treats). Food can be listed either as Veg/Non-Veg.

Though Veg/Non-Veg is a distinct category, it would have been better if there was a third category – Vegan

Eat Social : Food Experience

Similar to an e-commerce platform, where sellers are rated, Chef on Eat Social are rated based on his/her performance (which is closely tied to Food Quality, Delivery Time, Packaging, Customer Delight etc.). When we ordered the dinner, it was nicely packed and it arrived within the stipulated time. Delivery Time, Quality, Packaging, and Food Safety are the key KPI’s for the food business and Eat Social scored well in all those areas. The quality of the food was great and the quantity also adhered to the number mentioned in the description.

The UX of the Eat Social app is clean & minimal and a Foodie has to key-in his/her location & address and order food from your favourite Home-Chef based on the availability. There is a separate section named ‘TREATS’ where chefs can upload specialty dishes based on occasions (Onam, Diwali, Christmas etc.)

The overall experience with the Eat Social app was smooth and so was the end product (home cooked food that was not only packaged well but also had great taste). We loved the concept of Super Diner – Silver Spoon Premium Delivery Program (loosely modeled on Amazon Prime) where regular Foodie’s on Eat Social Platform need to pay Rs. 200 and they can enjoy free delivery for a month (there is no restriction on the number of orders placed on the platform). It is an interesting strategy to maintain ‘Customer Stickiness’. The app also has ‘Refer a Friend’ feature where you would be incentivized on the first order placed by your friend/contact on Eat Social given the condition that (s)he has used your Referral Code when installing the Eat Social App. Customer can opt for online payment (using PayUMoney) or Cash On Delivery (COD) while ordering food on Eat Social.

Whether your wife (if you are married :)) needs a break from her kitchen or you are a bachelor (craving to have delicious home-cooked food) or want to have home-cooked food for lunch/dinner at your office, Eat Social is the option for you!!

Eat Social : Scope for Improvement

No matter how good your product is there is always room for improvement. Below are some of the improvements that can make the entire ‘Eat Social’ experience more enriching:

1. Virtual Kitchen Tour : One factor that is very important in the ‘Food’ Category is ‘Hygiene’ and that can be the very first ‘Barrier’ in customer’s mind before (s)he takes the step to order food. ‘Virtual Kitchen Tour’ of the top-5 (or more) chefs could be very effective to convert these tentative foodies into compulsive foodies.

2. Customer Testimonials : Everyone enjoys having lip smacking food and it is very important to translate those emotions into customer endorsements. Effective Customer Testimonials helps build brand trust and acts as a medium to gather feedback (that can be used to improve the product). As mentioned in Boast io, A website with a hundred testimonials will generate more leads and close more sales than a website with no testimonials every time.

3. Eat Social App Distribution via SMS & QR Code  : Currently, users can download the Eat Social app from the Play Store, 9Apps Store (Direct) but there is a definite need to have a mobile app landing page for downloading the app. A common theme is the use of SMS (text messaging) to deliver the app download link to user’s mobile phone. There was no QR Code format (of the Eat Social App) which is an absolute necessity since it helps in customer acquisition and tracking app conversion rate.

4. Identification of next logical expansion : Foodies and Home chefs are the pillars of the Eat Social eco-system. Getting more Chef’s and Foodies on-board would be an on-going task for the Eat Social team, but it is important to capture footprint of visitors (on Eat Social) who are from places (in Bengaluru other than North Bengaluru).

A small Notify Me page where the user enters his/her pin-code can act as important data for their team to identify next logical expansion for Eat Social i.e. whether we need to expand to South Bengaluru/East Bengaluru/Only one specific locality in Bengaluru etc.

Eat Social : Closing Thoughts

The overall Eat Social experience was fantastic (effortless meal booking, hassle free online payment, on-time delivery and above all delicious food)!! The future of India would be shaped by entrepreneurs and Eat Social is a classic example of how food can act as a medium to empower women who can now take their cooking skills beyond their own kitchen and transform themselves into ‘Home Chefs’ or ‘Food Entrepreneurs’! Whether you are a bachelor missing home cooked food or a loving husband who wants to give his wife ‘Delightful Break’ :), Eat Social will come to your rescue.

Eat Social (for Android) can be downloaded from here, here. Non-Android users can visit Eat Social here. If you have used Eat Social before, please leave your experience/feedback in the comments section… 

|In: LastMinuteKeys|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Internet has become an integral part of consumer’s life and before online shopping became more mainstream, travel triggered the e-commerce boom in India. Companies like MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip, Yatra are some of the prominent  players in the Online Travel Aggregator (OTA) segment. These companies are the pioneers in the Horizontal Travel Segment and are online travel agencies that enable customers booking of flight, hotels, tours, recreational activities etc. There are other players like OYO Rooms, WudStay, Treebo Hotels, Vista Rooms etc. that are a part of the Online Budget Segment and act as enablers for hotel discovery and rentals.

Credit to the rising internet penetration, the online hotel booking sector is rapidly growing and is set to become USD 1.8 bn in 2016. There is a significant headroom for growth in the sector, with the ease of access to information and details online propelling consumer confidence to book hotels online [Source*].

The Opportunity – Last minute hotel deals

Though the hospitality industry is growing at a burgeoning speed with new hotels being launched every month, global investments being made; there is still a huge imbalance in the demand-supply cycle. Due to excess supply of hotel rooms inventory, an average of 40% of hotel rooms are unsold in India.

As Budget accommodation is fastest growing segment in India, most of the Online Travel Aggregators are looking at grabbing a piece of the market share [Source*]. However, this also involves an overhead cost of property inspection, standardisation, training hotel staff etc. Hence, there is still lot of room for disruption in the last minute 3*, 4* & 5* hotel booking space, as there are no very few startups that service the needs of the millennial , SME & Corporate travellers. Be it business trip, personal trip; travel can be impulsive and customers would look out for last minute hotel deals.

This is where Mumbai based Last Minute Keys sensed an opportunity and wanted to provide a platform for travellers so that they do not loose out of ‘Deals’ for un-planned trips and for Hotels so that they can liquidate their inventory for today, tomorrow  and day after on a real time basis, which is not available with other OTA’s

Last Minute Keys has partnered with quality 3*, 4* & 5* hotels thus ensuring that there are low no overhead costs since these top-rated quality hotels already maintain high standards!

Let’s have look into Last Minute Keys’s differentiators, market size, funding plans etc.

Last Minute Keys – Presence and Key differentiators

As mentioned earlier, Last Minute Keys is dynamic platform for hotels to liquidate their inventory for today, tomorrow & day after on a real time basis. Customers can only do the booking three days prior to their travel and enjoy awesome savings on last minute booking.

Unlike the other last minute players in the market that have either integrated API’s of other online portals & have merely just positioned themselves as last minute players, Last Minute Keys have one on one contracts with each and every hotel that are listed listed on their platform.

Currently Last Minute Keys has tied up with more than 400 hotels in 12 cities (Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Jaipur, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Cochin & Goa) & plans to expand to 1000 hotels in over 25 cities in India in a short span of time.

Last Minute Keys – Key benefits for Hoteliers and Customers

Hoteliers: There is a huge demand-supply gap in the hospitality industry due to which at times there would be huge unsold inventory particularly in off seasons. Hotels would be open to offer rooms at a discounted rate in order to minimize losses by increasing the overall occupancy ratio.

Last Minute Keys offers the hotels a cutting edge extra-net platform, through which the hoteliers are able liquidate their last minute inventory dynamically based on supply & demand.

Customers: Last Minute Keys offers guaranteed lowest prices to their customers for last minute bookings (bookings over next 72 hours) as the platform only lists deals offered by hotels for their unsold inventory, which are the sold at rock bottom rates.

Hotel rooms are perishable in nature, hence any unsold rooms sold through the hotels on Last Minute Keys platform is additional revenue for them, customers on the other hand, land up getting a great deal at the last minute, hence making it a win-win situation for all.

Last Minute Keys – The team

Last Minute Keys team comprises of veterans that bring in tremendous experience from the Travel & Tourism Space and also have close knit relationships with hoteliers throughout India as well as International hotel chains. They have deep rooted understanding of the nitty-gritties of the hospitality industry.

Manoj Gursahani, Co-founder & CEO: He has over 3 decades of experience in the Travel & Hospitality segment and has a complete 360 degree understanding of how the dynamics of the Industry works including e-commerce, MICE segment etc. Read more about Manoj here

Mahesh Shirodkar, Co-founder: He is the Managing Director of Tamarind Global, one of the largest hotel room consolidators in India. Read more about Mahesh here

Naveen Varadharajan, Co-founder: He is spearheading and overseeing the technology innovations at Last Minute Keys. He also heads the InsatiableGroup and BOB Tech Solutions as Director & CEO. Read more about Naveen here

Last Minute Keys – Technology

It is a mobile-only travel marketplace and it is currently present on the Play Store. Customers can book a last minute discounted room in just a few taps on their mobile. The hotels present on their platform are hand-picked and have excellent ratings on TripAdvisor which is a seal of Quality Guaranteed.

In contrast to other online travel agencies and travel marketplace, prices displayed on Last Minute Keys are Final Prices (with no hidden charges).

Last Minute Keys – Marketing

The team at Last Minute Keys believes that a good product can speak for itself. They are relying on good customer reviews and ensuring that the customer gets an awesome stay at the best price! They are now marketing the product via Digital Media so that they can reach to potential customers.

Last Minute Keys – Funding

Last Minute Keys is currently self funded and is looking to raise funds for further expansion. Post funding, they plan to launch Last Minute Keys for B2B market segment. There is also a plan to have a Day Room Use & Night Room Use Tariffs integrated in all their platforms (existing & forthcoming)

As per Traxcn, USD 8 bn has been globally invested in online travel in 2015~16 with Horizontal and Accommodation being the top funded sectors [Source*]

Last Minute Keys – Scaling up and Customer Acquisition

Travellers can book hotel-rooms via the Last Minute Keys app. Since their potential partners are boutique and premium hotels, an iOS app would be a must-have for further customer acquisition.

There is a plan to cater to the B2B segment with the following offerings:

Travel agents: Last Minute Keys plans to offer web based platform to Travel agents, along with offering attractive commissions as a major chunk of hotel rooms are still sold through the travel agents. Hence, it is very critical to have a Travel agent facing platform as well in order to increase the conversion rates.

SME’s/Corporates: A tailor-made solution for HR’s of Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) as well as large corporates. Attractive loyalty programs would be a major playing factor in the corporate ‘Customer Segment’

In our opinion, since most of the SME’s & large Corporates manage their employees’ travel through their Travel Desk (or Corporate Travel Agencies), last minute Lead Generation for corporate travel agencies could also be a model to explore!

Last Minute Keys – Expansion Plans

Many of the impulsive travellers might require a stay only for a day, Last Minute Keys plans to introduce Day & Night use Room Tariff’s where customer can book a hotel room for minimum period of 10 hours (10 am~7 pm or 9 pm~8 am).

Other future plans are Tie-up with international last minute hotel players via API integrations. This would be a win-win situation for both the parties since international last minute deal companies can enter the Indian market & service their Indian customers whereas Last Minute Keys can expand its services to more than 300 cities worldwide! Selling last minute hotel deals on e-commerce websites is another area that is to be explored.

Since travel does not only involve stay, hence it is important to address all the touch-points that deal with unplanned & impulsive travellers. Hence, they also plan to tie-up with Taxi Aggregators in order to ease their journey.

Last Minute Keys – Competition

Better pricing strategy is definitely a key USP for Last Minute Keys. Though online travel sites like MakeMyTrip (via its Last minute deals), ClearTrip (via Quick keys), Yatra etc. also cater to the impulsive traveller but that is not their key area of focus.

The Last Minute Keys team consistently monitor rates & maintain rate comparative analysis with other OTA’s. At times they offer deals that are more than 50% cheaper than their competitors. There is definitely a huge rate advantage, since it gets great deals from hotels, as hotels sell their unsold inventory at rock bottom rates on their platform.

Last Minute Keys – Conclusion


Be it individuals or corporates, there is a definite need to cater to the impulsive travellers even though it is still in it’s nascent stage. With their B2B plan, Last Minute Keys has a clear winner in terms of addressing the requirements of the corporate travel segment.

Plan a little less, live a little more. Be spontaneous! Use Last Minute Keys

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Unocoin, a Bangalore based Bitcoin startup, has raised $1.5 million in a Pre Series-A round, the highest total raised for a digital currency venture in Indian history. Funding was sourced from well-known Indian entities such as Blume Ventures, Mumbai Angels and ah! Ventures along with prominent international investors such as Digital Currency Group, Boost VC, Bank to the Future and FundersClub.

Unocoin co-founder and CEO, Sathvik Vishwanath said

We are honoured to have this type of support from top investors. We started from my small hometown called Tumkur near Bangalore and our goal from the beginning was to make it easy to get bitcoin in India. A few years later, we are now headquartered in Bangalore with 30+ employees, serving more than 100,000+ customers across the country and growing exponentially. Given our steep growth rate, we’re looking to serve millions more in the coming years.

These are exciting times. India has the largest gold, inward remittance, and IT markets in the world, all of which make it a perfect home for Bitcoin and blockchain technology.

Blume Ventures, headquartered in Mumbai, has played a pivotal role in leading the Unocoin Pre Series A round. According to Karthik Reddy from Blume Ventures, it was the belief in the team at Unocoin that encouraged Blume to participate.

Karthik Reddy from Blume Ventures said

In Sathvik and team, we discovered not only the leading Bitcoin company in India, but a determination to educate all stakeholders, simplify Bitcoin’s usage, and bring another frictionless layer to payments and commerce. We are confident that Unocoin will further alter the landscape and make additional inroads into remittances and e-commerce in India.

Unocoin Co-founders: Sunny Ray (President), Sathvik Vishwanath (CEO), Harish B V (COO) & Abhinand Kaseti (CMO)
Unocoin Co-founders: Sunny Ray (President), Sathvik Vishwanath (CEO), Harish B V (COO) & Abhinand Kaseti (CMO)

Digital Currency Group, based in New York City, supports Bitcoin and blockchain companies by leveraging their insights, network, and access to capital with over 80 investments in more than 25 countries.

Barry Silbert, Founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group, said

Since making our first investment in Unocoin, it has been tremendous to see the company solidify its position as the leading Bitcoin company in India, as well as emerge as one of the fastest growing companies in DCG’s global portfolio of 80 Bitcoin and blockchain companies.  We are thrilled to welcome this fantastic group of new investors to Unocoin and look forward to many more years of rapid growth and industry leadership by the company.

Commenting on their investment into Unocoin, Harshad Lahoti, Founder and CEO of ah! Ventures said

It’s no secret that usage of bitcoin is picking up rapidly and the concept has seen a warm welcome from freelancers and retailers in India. That’s when Unocoin, a venture backed by a strong team with industry acumen and a rocketing number of users, caught our attention. We believe Unocoin will continue to be one of the strongest players in India’s booming crypto-currency market.

ah! Ventures is India’s first full-spectrum (seed, angel & VC) investment network and platform comprising of over 850+ investors, including some of the renowned angels and early-stage VCs. Founded in 2010, ah! Ventures has systematically disrupted the early stage funding ecosystem of India through its innovative approach toward startup investing. First of its kind initiatives like the CLUB ah! platform, ah! Angels (India’s largest angel network), ah! Seeders and ah! VC networks (India’s first seed & VC investment networks), have brought together and integrated the previously segregated startup funding lifecycle, under one roof. CLUB ah! platform today has over 15000+ startups, 750 seed/angel investors and over 90 VCs & institutional investors, making it one of the largest platform of investors and startups. The network also last year secured its first profitable exit from Ed-tech venture Harness Handitouch within 2 years of its investment. ah! Ventures has till date syndicated close to INR 100 crores in over 30 investments spread across varied industries and domains.

Boris Silver, Co-Founder and President of FundersClub, said

We are thrilled to partner with and back Unocoin as a portfolio company in the FundersClub community. We were impressed with the company’s vision, team, growth, and large market opportunity. Blockchain technology has tremendous potential and we’re excited to support Unocoin as they continue to innovate, lead, and execute in the space.

FundersClub focuses on backing disruptive, technology-enabled startups starting at the seed stage. Their portfolio holdings include fast-growing, disruptive technology companies like Slack, Instacart and Coinbase. Over the past 4 years, the FundersClub portfolio has attracted >$1.2B of follow-on capital from other top VCs.

Addressing the role of Bitcoin in the Indian economy, Simon Dixon, CEO of Bank to the Future and fund manager of Bitcoin Capital, said

In India, 95% of the people do not have credit cards and 50% are unbanked due to the country’s poor financial and payments infrastructure. We believe Bitcoin has a role to play in India in the long term and are happy to join the round of the leading bitcoin company in India.

Sharing the story behind Unocoin, Co-founder and President of Unocoin Sunny Ray said

We started this company with the mission to bring bitcoin to billions. Bitcoin opens up a world that simply wasn’t possible before. When we got started four years ago, we saw a once in a lifetime opportunity to build out a secure platform for people to easily access bitcoin. Empowered with our current round of financing from many of the best investors in the world, we believe that Unocoin is strategically positioned to reach millions of people in the next few years. In the near future, we believe that bitcoin has the potential to take market share from gold, substantially reduce the cost of remittance and potentially bank the unbanked.

When we first learned about Bitcoin back in 2012, we knew that Bitcoin was going to be a big deal. The question we kept asking ourselves, however, was: ‘How do we bring the benefits of Bitcoin to Indians while systematically protecting against the downside risks?’ In the absence of clarity, we were the first company in India to seek out and work closely with top techno-legal firm in the country, Nishith Desai and Associates. We were also the first Bitcoin company in India to implement a comprehensive compliance and banking like framework to address these challenges.

Unocoin’s Vishwanath added

We believe that we’re at the dawn of a new evolution where money itself is being reinvented. We love seeing so many of the smartest cryptographers, mathematicians, and computer scientists from all over the world working together to scale Bitcoin to the masses. Over the past year, we’ve also been innovating at light-speed: we’ve recently launched a merchant point-of-sale (POS) app, a mobile trading app, an auto-selling feature for remittance users, systematic investment planning (SIP) to mitigate against volatilty risk, integration with NETKI to simplifly Bitcoin addresses, created an over the counter (OTC) desk for large traders,integrated with purse.io for discounts on Amazon, launched an API for developers and more. Over the coming months and years, we’ll continue to build practical, useful features and tools on top of Bitcoin.

Vishwanath concluded, “We have a clear vision here at Unocoin: let’s Make Money Simple.”

About Unocoin

Started in 2013, Unocoin is a Bangalore based technology startup and is India’s first entrant into the bitcoin industry. The company operates India’s largest BTC-INR trading platform which enables Indians to buy, sell, store, use and accept bitcoin. Every month, Unocoin processes transactions worth more than INR 200M for its 100,000 customers. In just 3 years since inception, the company has drawn more than 30 top investors from 5 countries. Unocoin is responsible for industry leading innovations such as the Bitcoin Systematic Investment Plan (SIP), Bitcoin Point of Sale (POS) App and Bitcoin Over-The-Counter trading (OTC).  For more information, please visit unocoin.com

About ah! Ventures

ah! Ventures is a growth catalyst that brings together promising businesses and investors by creating wealth creation opportunities for both. ah!’s unique model serves investors, entrepreneurs & enablers through a unique blend of customised services, skill, and industry & domain experience. Founded in 2010, ah! Ventures has systematically disrupted the early stage funding ecosystem of India through its innovative approach toward startup investing. First of its kind initiatives like the CLUB ah! platform, ah! Angels (India’s largest angel network), ah! Seeders and ah! VC networks (India’s first seed & VC investment networks), have brought together and integrated the previously segregated startup funding lifecycle, under one roof. This, coupled with ah! Impact network, an impact investment network for investing in social enterprises and ah! Mentors network, a mentor network to engage with startups in their growth and expansion, has today made ah! Ventures one of India’s most respected change leaders and a formidable industry force to recon with.

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

G7CR Technologies have announced the launch of its Business Enablement & Automation Program (BEAP) for SMEs, the world’s first free suite of custom solutions for SME automation. The ITaaS based solution is aimed at enabling SMEs turn digital disruption into competitive advantage by offering business process automation in an innovative business model giving them the experience of customized as well as standardised low-cost end to end managed solutions scalable to their growing business needs.

Image Source – LinkedIn

Leveraging Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, G7CR would provide software development, migration, adaption, implementation and 24*7 support for SMEs at no cost, while the client would pay only on the cost per click basis for cloud usage, at actuals. BEAP provides an ideal way for an SME to obtain a custom developed business automation application or existing standard solution depending on their specific needs from G7CR at affordable price points.

With capital investment on non-core functions such as IT, being eliminated completely, automation will enable SMEs shift focus more on their CORE business functions while becoming more productive and competitive. G7CR provides solutions across industries as well as the entire stack of industry-agnostic horizontal services to meet the needs of SMEs.

Dr. Suraj Baliga, Founder, Clinikk Healthcare said

G7CR’s delivery excellence coupled with innovative and scalable solutions for IT led innovation is working as the backbone for SMEs such as Clinikk with its mission of providing accessible, affordable and high quality supervised care as the healthcare buddy for physicians and patients alike.

Christopher Richard, MD & Chief Software Architect, G7CR Technologies said

Lack of financing coupled with fast paced digital disruption are proving to be major constraints for most SME’s today as they try to scale up and become increasingly competent. The IT-as-a-Service offering for SMEs would help accelerate their growth while freeing up vital resources such as financing for core business functions.

About BEAP Solution Offering

BEAP is a SaaS-based solution offering for the SMEs and is available on a pay-per-click basis, at Microsoft cloud actual rates, with no solution development, maintenance or support cost. It enables small businesses to adopt Cloud-based IT capabilities and optimize their overall IT and infrastructure cost while focusing on profitability and core business growth.

About G7CR Technologies India (P) Ltd.

G7CR Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. is a global leader in Consulting, Outsourcing, Technology, Cloud Sales & Support, and Corporate Training. The company has its headquarters in Bangalore, India and serves across the globe with over 700+ employee strength. With a proven record of achieving customer success in various industry verticals such as telecom, healthcare, education, IT, consulting etc., G7CR has seen more than 500% growth in size and turnover in past 3 years and is currently one of the fastest growing companies in India. For more information, please visit G7CR

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

In a first, fintech startup MoneyTap, is launching India’s first App-Based Credit Line, in partnership with banks, and directly targeted at consumers. MoneyTap enables consumers to get instant credit from partner banks at the tap of a button on the app.

Credit Line, a facility that was only available for businesses until now, is now being made available to consumers. “Credit Line” means that the bank will issue a limit of up to INR 5 lakhs, without any collateral or charging any interest. Against this limit, using the MoneyTap app, consumers can borrow as little as Rs. 3000 or as much as Rs. 5 lakhs and repay it as EMIs from 2 months to 3 years. The interest is paid only on the amount borrowed and the rates can be as low as 1.25% per month. The limit also gets automatically replenished as soon EMIs are paid back.

Any salaried employee can download this free Android app and in a few minutes, using a patent-pending Chatbot interface, provide all the information typically required by banks. The app securely connects with the banking systems to give them not only an instant approval but also a credit limit, depending on individual credit history.

MoneyTap launched in partnership with their banking partner, RBL Bank, one of India’s fastest growing banks. RBL’s technology enables MoneyTap to provide instant decision and instant access to money, 24/7, irrespective of holidays. Though all actions are initiated on the MoneyTap app, per RBI guidelines, all financial transactions such as billing, repayment or withdrawals will directly be with the bank using secure APIs. As an added convenience for shopping needs, a “MoneyTap RBL Credit Card” is also provided for the user. This is a regular MasterCard Credit Card that is accepted at all locations and for all card purchases – offline and online.

The MoneyTap app is available on Android Playstore to all salaried employees, living in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. The company is planning to expand in other cities as well in the next few months. Qualified customers, after completing the KYC, will pay a one-time Line setup fee of Rs. 499 + tax in their first month bill from RBL Bank. This includes the cost of issuing the limit for the customer, a Free MoneyTap RBL MasterCard and a slew of other benefits. There are no hidden fees or charges and every time the customer chooses to take an EMI, they will be shown the interest & any other applicable charges and the customer will be required to provide explicit consent before borrowing.

Harjeet Toor, Head – Cards, Retail & MSME Loans and Financial Inclusion, RBL Bank said

We are delighted to partner with MoneyTap to launch India’s first app based Credit line. We have integrated MoneyTap’s technological innovation with our own banking system to provide a never-before 24/7 experience for users without compromising on security and compliance issues. With this cutting-edge technology, we aim to offer many more personalised services to our customers.

Bala Parthasarathy, CEO & Co-founder, MoneyTap said

Growing up in India in the Eighties and Nineties, and coming from middle-income group families, we have all faced shortage of additional funds at some point. At MoneyTap, we are on a mission to change this and make credit accessible to those who deserve it. The ubiquitous presence of smartphones and initiatives such as Aadhaar has made it possible for us to develop a truly powerful and disruptive financial instrument. The credit line for consumers with accessibility through an app is a new concept in India and we are excited about the opportunities it can bring to thousands of millions of Indians. We are extremely thankful to RBL to have trusted us and delighted that they are equally passionate about solving the existing problem of easy and quick access to credit.

How MoneyTap works

About MoneyTap

MoneyTap is a Bangalore-based fintech startup, founded by serial entrepreneurs Bala Parthasarathy, Anuj Kacker & Kunal Varma, who are IIT/ISB alumni. Bala has co-founded multiple startups in Silicon Valley including Snapfish (sold to Hewlett Packard), which he helped grow to 100M users and $300M in revenue. After moving to India in 2007, he volunteered for UIDAI under Nandan Nilekani before starting AngelPrime in 2011 (now Prime Venture Partners) where he helped create companies like ZipDial (sold to Twitter), EZETap, Happay, etc. Kunal (ex Texas Instruments) & Anuj  (ex Airtel & JWT) co-founded Tapstart that grew to 300K users and turned profitable in 2 years. They exited this venture in 2015. MoneyTap works in very close partnerships with various banks and other financial institutions to make the process painless and on-app. For more information, please visit MoneyTap

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

There is a dialogue in the Web Series TVF Pitchers from TVF Play – ‘India’s future would be shaped by entrepreneurs and it is their ideas that would play a crucial role in India’s growth‘, that is very relevant in the current scenario. India is on the cusp of the entrepreneurship wave and grass-roots level initiatives like Make In India, Digital India, India Stack (UPI, eKYC etc.), Startup India Fund etc. are opening up new avenues for aspiring entrepreneurs in India. India did jump four spots in Easy Of Doing Business Index but yet there is lots of work to be done (Source*) so that the conditions are more conducive to starting as well as winding-up of businesses.

Apart from the conducive entrepreneurial environment, there is a dearth of focused groups for idea validation, converting ideas into a viable business, connecting with fellow entrepreneurs, connecting with investor community (Angels, Early stage VC’s), getting early-adopters for products, etc. Mentors can act as a motivational device for a startup, they can provide guidance through their domain expertise as well as much needed motivation! Effective Mentorship & Guidance was one of the key factors for the success of RedBus (Source*). To summarize, each and every torch bearer is critical in building a vibrant startup ecosystem.

As mentioned in Startup Revolution, a community is a core part of the startup eco-system and must be built with a bottom-up approach, not top-down. Startup Accelerators play a vital role in community development and that is the reason number of accelerators have been on the rise. However, the impact an accelerator has in a startup’s journey would vary depending on the program. Many accelerators welcome entrepreneurs that have business ideas in Ideation Stage whereas some require the ideas shaped in the MVP Stage. Seed capital, Mentoring, Infrastructure are the key pillars of Startup Accelerator. During my tenure with a startup – Anaxee, the team at the Nirma Labs incubator (used interchangeably with accelerator) played a crucial role in shaping up the idea to MVP along with providing the Seed Capital.

One such accelerator that aims to be a significant player in the development of the entrepreneurship eco-system in India is Espark-Viridian. Espark-Viridian is a joint initiative of Entrepreneurial Spark, UK, and Viridian Ventures. It has a network of accelerator centers that follow a program based approach to foster entrepreneurship. Espark UK has an amazing track record with more than 650 Enabled Startups with a success rate of 88%.

Irrespective of whether a startup is in the ideation phase or growth phase, entrepreneurs are welcome to apply for the October 2016 batch. Espark-Viridian has launched the #StartSomething campaign and expanded the accelerator program to Chandigarh and Mumbai. Hence, entrepreneurs irrespective of their current location can apply for the October batch for the Mumbai, Chandigarh, Delhi or Gandhinagar centers.

The Espark-Viridian program is an 18-month long program that can be very crucial for accelerating your business to the next stage. That duration would help them validate their idea, get initial traction and make their ideal market-fit. That is the primary reason, the program is built on the following pillars that are key to the entrepreneurial eco-system:

Validation and MVP Design: Develop an initial prototype of your product with minimum investment.
Funding Readiness: Transform ideas into viable businesses by helping entrepreneurs explore new avenues and validate the product. Pitch to investors for follow-on funding.
Enablement and knowledge sharing : Industry experts, successful entrepreneurs would be invited to empower startups. Each team would have a Mentor who would be a Subject Matter Expert in that particular domain. Enablers keep the team motivated and play a vital role in shaping the idea into a workable product. Check the mentors associated with Espark-Viridian program here

In order to address requirements of the startups that enroll for the program, Espark-Viridian has tied up with AWS Activate, Paytm, HeadStart, IAmWire, YourStory, and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Some of the startups that Espark-Viridian has worked with can be found here. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur looking for idea validation or to shape your idea to MVP or to take your startup to the next level of growth, you can apply for the Espark-Viridian Program

Follow Espark-Viridian for updates on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube

In a nutshell, startup accelerators can have a positive impact on the startups associated with them, though it might vary depending on the program. Irrespective of the potential of impact, accelerators do have a positive effect on the eco-system!

|In: acquisition|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

GO-JEK, Indonesia’s largest start-up has acquired Pianta, a Bengaluru-based home healthcare services start-up for an undisclosed amount. This is the third Indian acquisition by the Indonesian unicorn following its previous buys in 2015:Bangalore-based C42 Engineering and Delhi-based CodeIgnition. The acquisition will help fast track the development of GO-JEK’s logistics and transportation platforms to support its fast-growing Indonesia operations.

As part of the acquisition, the newly acquired firm will be wholly integrated into GO-JEK’s India arm, GO-JEK Engineering India. Based in Bangalore, GO-JEK Engineering India focuses on product innovation, mining data and crafting consumer experiences for its parent company GO-JEK. The company is looking to double its existing India headcount of 70 employees in the coming months.

Nadiem Makarim, Founder and CEO of GO-JEK Indonesia said

At GO-JEK, we constantly seek to continue to push the boundaries of innovation. Pianta’s role will be very important to strengthen our technology excellence to bring the best services for customers. We believe this acquisition will advance our mission to become the largest on-demand application of choice for all Indonesians.

Run by SLX Logistics Pvt. Ltd., Pianta is a marketplace for home healthcare services that helps discover and book appointments with healthcare providers who provide home visits for physiotherapy, nursing and lab sample collection. The start-up had raised an undisclosed seed funding in May 2016 from Freecharge founders Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon.

Founded in 2015 by former Ola and Flipkart executives Swaminathan Seetharaman, Ganesh Subramanian and Nitin Agarwal, Pianta has over 250 home service providers listed on its platform. Seetharaman has worked with Ola as vice president of engineering while Subramanian was earlier principal architect at Ola. Agarwal was earlier a director of engineering at Ola.

The acquisition will see the three co-founders strengthen the core leadership team at GO-JEK Engineering India, led by Sidu Ponnappa, whose tech firm C42 Engineering was bought in 2015 by GO-JEK, as its Managing Director.

Swaminathan Seetharaman, CEO & Co-founder, Pianta said

GO-JEK provides us with a great opportunity to leverage the capabilities that we at Pianta have built in the domain of on-demand delivery and logistics. It presents us with a large canvas to create a much larger impact and to create it faster

Funded initially by the likes of Sequoia Capital and Yuri Milner’s DST Global, GO-JEK is currently the fastest growing start-up in South Asia and the largest in Indonesia in terms of valuation, funding raised and number of transactions. Having started as a bike-taxi business, the start-up has diversified into food delivery, one-hour courier delivery, grocery delivery and even has aggregated trucks on its platform. It has partnered with 200,000 motorcycle drivers and 5,000 trucks across Indonesia, all of whom, collectively cover an average distance of 4.5 million kilometres daily.

Last month, GO-JEK had secured more than $550 million in a new round of funding led by KKR and Warburg Pincus LLC, the largest ever for an Indonesian technology start-up. The start-up competes against the likes of Uber and Grab, two private car-hailing start-ups in Indonesia’s burgeoning ride-hailing industry.

With over 20 million app downloads, GO-JEK’s platform powers the Indonesian equivalents of Ola, Paytm, Swiggy, Grofers, Zomato, Dunzo and UrbanClap at a comparable scale. Its GO-FOOD business alone does more daily orders than all Indian food tech start-ups combined.

The company is actively looking for talent for key operations like data science, mobile, security and DevOps as it looks to shore up its technology operations in Bangalore and Singapore.

About GO-JEK Engineering India

GO-JEK Engineering India is the Bangalore-based product development centre of GO-JEK., Backed by Sequoia Capital India and DST Global, GO-JEK is one of the most watched start-ups in Southeast Asia having acquired two Indian technology companies – C42 Engineering and CodeIgnition in 2015. The GO-JEK Engineering India team comprises of developers, data scientists, designers and product managers who work on product innovation, mining data and crafting consumer experiences. The company takes pride in its world-class product engineering team who have a deep-rooted passion for working with the engineering community in India on topics such as innovation, education and Open Source. For more details about GO-JEK, please visit www.go-jek.com