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|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Joolz, an online jewellery community and a marketplace that facilitates jewellery retail, has taken the Indian jewellery industry by storm.The enterprise has recently raised USD 500K funding as a part of its Pre Series A round from ah! Ventures and others. This current seed round was also led by Mahesh Ahuja – CEO of Brittman India, Sri Peddu – MD of Powerhouse Ventures, M&S Partners, Deepak Kasthwal – Ex-CFO of OLA, PKX Thomas – Ex Technology Head, Cleartrip, Neha Shah and angel round by GSF Accelerator

Online jewellery in India is seeing rapid growth signs in recent times. But that is mostly focused on smaller ticket items ranging between INR 15,000 and INR 30,000. The Indian consumer has been buying jewellery in a certain way for the last decades, and for traditional and larger ticket items, this is not bound to change soon. Through Joolz, Founder Arnaud Lorie is looking to help consumers discover prices and options online and facilitate the offline process of buying the jewellery.

Founded in May 2015 with total team of nine, Joolz is an India-focused community and marketplace that brings together leading jewellery brands on a single platform. The startup aggregates and curates high-quality jewellery inventory and offers its consumers an unmatched discovery and shopping experience. Joolz is more than just an online sales platform, it enables two-way interaction between jewellery buyers and sellers through discussion, discovery and education. It is accessible as a smartphone app on Android and iOS platforms and on the Joolz website.

The primary objective of the recent fund infusion is to boost operations, products, marketing and further build up its team. The plan is to reach a new group of brands and investigate new revenue models and not to be a company solemnly focused on the online traction. The offline jewellery industry valued at over $40 billion, has a large opportunity untouched by technological initiatives.

Commenting on the unique proposition of Joolz, Founder Arnaud Lorie said

Buying jewellery is so closely intertwined with Indian culture that the act of simply selling it online is not going to create any significant impact in the market. We therefore want to be the single biggest facilitator of jewellery commerce, whether online, or more importantly offline.

Born and brought up in Belgium, the diamond capital of the world, Lorie moved to Israel when he was 18 to join the army. He then joined his family’s company International Gemological Institute [IGI], the largest certificate company for diamond and jewellery worldwide and has now been living in India for past 3 years. After training in one of the largest diamond factories in Navsari, Gujarat for 12 months, he started working on this new business venture – Joolz.

Joolz Team
Joolz Team

Commenting on the thriving start up, Powerhouse Ventures Managing Director Sri Peddu opined

What attracted us most was the company’s rich understanding of the jewellery space and the passion with which they are planning to transform the way consumers interact with jewellery, online and offline.

Joolz, in a short span of time has reached an average selling ticket size of about INR 25,000 in an industry where the offline ticket size is still hovering at INR 15,000. It has even managed to clock sales that have ranged up to INR 3 Lakhs.

Giving an investors’ perspective, Harshad Lahoti, Founder and CEO of ah! Ventures, said

The online jewellery market in India is expected to grow at $3.6 billion over the next three years, which in itself makes the sector a lucrative one to invest in. In addition to that, given the background of the founder and their in depth understanding of the business, this enterprise has from the very beginning started off on the best foot possible. Jewelry business in India, as is in any part of the world, closely related to the culture and the emotional binding of the people buying it and only a team with understanding of this fact can successfully drive a business in this sector, to the top. We at ah! Ventures see that spark in Arnaud & his team and we are sure to see them being game changers in this industry.

Commenting on the strong partnership between Joolz and ah! Ventures, Founder Arnaud Lorie said

ah! Venture has immensely helped in quick closure of this round. Fast and efficient, they managed to add great value in terms of executions and and in bringing valued investors on board.

ah! Ventures is in the process of closing 2 more investments in the coming week.

About Joolz

Joolz is an online jewellery community and a marketplace that facilitates jewellery retail, both online and offline. Joolz aggregates and curates inventory to offer consumers an enjoyable and rewarding shopping experience. Through behavior analytics the jeweler will get to know his customers and be able to curate to them, in order to increase sales and set trends. Joolz is not just a sales platform; it is a community that breeds interaction, education, discussion, and feedback analysis. For more information, please visit Joolz

About ah! Ventures

ah! Ventures is a startup focused growth catalyst that brings together promising businesses and investors by creating wealth creation opportunities for both. ah!’s unique model serves investors, entrepreneurs and enablers through a unique blend of customized services, skill, and industry & domain experience.

Founded in 2010, ah! Ventures has systematically disrupted India’s early stage funding ecosystem through its innovative approach toward startup investing. First of its kind initiatives like the CLUB ah! network & platform, ah! Angels (India’s largest angel network), ah! Seeders and ah! VC networks (India’s first seed & VC investment networks respectively), have brought together and integrated the otherwise 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 assist startups in their growth and expansion, has today made ah! Ventures not just one of India’s most respected change leaders, but also a formidable industry force to recon with.

|In: Incubators|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Reinforcing their commitment to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship as a step towards making Digital India successful, Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India, Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd and Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT Bombay have collaborated to launch the Collaborative Incubation Program for Hardware and Systems Startups Program.

This is a unique program wherein the industry, academia and Government have come together to support hardware and systems-based start-ups in the country through mentoring, training, lab facilities, hardware kits, prototyping, business services,  funding, etc.

The announcement was made in the presence of Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Government of India, Nivruti Rai, General Manager, Intel India,Vice President, Platform Engineering Group, Intel, Prof. Devang Khakhar, Director of IIT, Bombay.

Collaborative Incubation Program for Hardware and Systems Startups

  • The Program will address gaps in the hardware and systems start-up ecosystem that companies face in product design, development, commercialisation, and creating scale for their solutions.
  • DST, Intel India and SINE aim to support up to 20 start-ups under this Program, and the call for applications for the first batch will be announced in early August 2016.
  • During the year-long Program, start-ups will be supported for six months on-site at SINE, IIT, Bombay or Intel India, Bengaluru. After a period of six months, the start-ups’solutions will be showcased to investors and industry players at a demo day, post which, the Program will extend virtual support for another six months.
  • Participating start-ups will be incubated through intensive training periods, one-on-one mentoring, technology related support from Intel experts, business service support from SINE, as well as prototyping and manufacturing support.
  • Intel India will build capacities through mentors, and provide technology related support for productization, and facilitate ideation, design thinking, prototyping workshops and manufacturing support through industry experts.

Intel India’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship initiatives

  • Intel India has been at the forefront of enabling innovations and entrepreneurship among students, professionals, researchers and entrepreneurs.
  • Towards this, the company has been driving multiple interventions, including its flagship program – Intel-DST Innovative for Digital India Challenge – which has helped enable six entrepreneurs to change their ideas into actual market solutions, the Intel India Maker Lab, the Atal Tinkering Laboratories, Academia engagements with 200+ engineering institutes and incubator centers, the set-up of 100 Internet of Things (IoT) centers across universities that promote IoT capacity building, design thinking, prototyping and fabrication, among other projects.

Nivruti Rai, General Manager, Intel India, Vice President, Platform Engineering Group, Intel said

Intel has a strong focus on accelerating innovation and entrepreneurship in India, and we are committed to help enable startups in the systems area, both hardware and software. Along with DST and SINE, IIT Bombay, Intel India will provide the critical support these starts ups need to be able to excel in creating market ready products and solutions.

H K Mittal, Advisor and Head, NSTEDB, DST, Government of India said

Department of Science and Technology (DST) is deeply committed to supporting technology and entrepreneurship initiatives that are of relevance to national needs. We have had very positive experiences in the past working with both Intel and SINE in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship. For the first time, DST, Intel and SINE are collaborating to incubate hardware and systems startups in India. I am very excited to be part of this collaborative effort that helps startups to accelerate their product journey and scale their business.

Prof. Devang Khakhar, Director of IIT, Bombay said

SINE is one of the pioneers in incubating product & IP-based startups in India, and the new, collaborative, sector-specific program is further evolution of its activities.  The collaboration with Intel will bring in corporate expertise to give new hardware & systems companies in India a vital competitive edge and fast-track to growth. SINE has so far focused on start-ups from IITB. This new initiative, supported by DST, will extend SINE’s role to help start-ups across India and increase IIT Bombay’s contributions to the ecosystem.

Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT Bombay

Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SINE) is the business incubator at IIT Bombay, and supports technology start-ups that are based on products or intellectual property. It has been supporting start-ups since 2004 and has so far supported more than 80 starts-ups. Majority of SINE supported star-ups have become revenue generating, with several having reached Rs. 50-100 crore in revenue, and many start-ups having raised multiple rounds of funding.

|In: Exotel|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Exotel, one of India’s leading cloud telephony companies has achieved a milestone by connecting 93 million people in FY 2015-16 which accounts for over 42% of the Indian smartphone user base. Exotel also connects three million calls on a daily basis and has enabled 1.6 billion calls since its inception.

This growth momentum further strengthens Exotel’s position as a leading cloud telephony service provider in India. Over the past year, Exotel has grown significantly as a company with their technology team doubling in size. They have a team of 100 employees working at their Bengaluru office.

Exotel’s technology expertise has been reaffirmed with the launch of Exotel Labs that reflects their vision to spur innovation in the voice space. They have also announced plans to expand in South East Asia with a foray into Singapore earlier this year with an initial investment of USD 10 million for the next two years. The biggest business advantage clients see is improvement on their operational efficiency and using call intelligence to track business growth. Along with this, the customer privacy angle too has been an important factor for customer adoption.

Speaking on the expansion, Shivakumar Ganesan, Co-founder and CEO, Exotel said

I am delighted with the widening appeal of Exotel’s solutions and our growth trajectory since we started. This shows we are moving in the right direction to become a leader in cloud telephony space. We hope to continue this upward growth trend in the coming years by adding diverse clients to our portfolio. We see strong adoption growing among the marketplaces, job portals and food tech startups.

About Exotel

Exotel is the most reliable and scalable cloud telephony platform in India. Founded by Shivakumar Ganesan, Ishwar Sridharan and Siddharth Ramesh in 2011, it powers voice communication for over a 1000 businesses including brands like Ola, Uber, Flipkart etc. Voice & Data picked Exotel as the Editor’s Choice Emerging Company of the Year 2014. Nasscom’s Emerge Product conclave picked Exotel as one of the top 10 emerging startups in India. For more information, please visit Exotel

|In: AspectWise|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

CleverTap the leader in mobile analytics & engagement have announced its new startup marketing partnership with Mobile Growth Academy, an online education platform for startups featuring video tutorials, how-to guides and step-by-step mobile growth hacking tips used by Silicon Valley’s leading apps.

The two companies have joined forces to produce a variety of events designed to provide startups with the best possible combination of mobile behavior analytics & engagement guidance and practical support through meet-ups, webinars, video tutorials to support startups from product launch to mobile growth phases.

Monica Puchner, Head of Business & Developer Relations for CleverTap said

Life can feel very lonely when you leave a job in a large company to launch a startup. All of the business support and resources you’re used to aren’t available anymore and you have to find your own solutions for everything from venture capital to growth marketing. In today’s mobile app economy, there are very few companies actively focused on helping startups, but that’s exactly what CleverTap and Mobile Growth Academy’s partnership was established to do.

Adding to the challenge, all mobile startups operate under time pressure. Self-funded startups need to start generating cash as quickly as possible, while even well-funded ones can have alarming burn-rates as they seek to establish themselves. ‘Growth hacks’ – techniques designed to maximize the rate at which a startup grows – are the Holy Grail.

Nagi Salloum, CEO for Mobile Growth Academy said

Our video tutorials have helped over 4000 startups achieve success in the competitive mobile app marketplace but businesses need practical support as well as the best startup advice – that’s where CleverTap comes in. There are a number of companies that offer a suite of mobile marketing automation, live user segmentation, and CRM products, but most of them are price-prohibitive for startups. CleverTap matches the best feature-for-feature but offers pricing structures geared towards startups.

About CleverTap

CleverTap is the next generation mobile engagement platform. It enables marketers to identify, engage and retain users and provides developers with unprecedented code-level access to build dynamic app experiences for user groups. CleverTap includes out-of-the-box prescriptive campaigns, omni-channel messaging, un-install data and the industry’s largest free messaging tier. To learn more about CleverTap please visit clevertap.com

|In: Zuver|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Zuver, a driver on demand startup from Mumbai has tied up with QuikrServices, the services vertical of Quikr, India’s No.1 cross-category classified business. As per the tie up, any on-demand driver requests from Mumbai and Pune will be fulfilled by Zuver with its network of professional drivers.

The exclusive partnership aims to boost the need for the driver on demand category on QuikrServices which calls for skilled, trust worthy and well informed professional drivers. Quikr consumers across these two cities can now book drivers for daily commutes, outstation trips and also to avail valet services for help with parking.

Speaking on this, Sidhanth Mally, Co-founder of Zuver said

Zuver is a rapidly growing driver on demand service provider while Quikr is a market leading brand, through this partnership we are excited to share our expertise with Quikr consumers in the driver on-demand space. We have over 150 drivers in Mumbai and Pune all of whom are trained and validated to drive all types of cars ranging from hatchbacks to SUVs

Talking about this tie up, P D Sundar, Head of QuikrServices said

Partnerships like this help bridge demand and supply by offering service providers like Zuver access to our robust consumer base.  We are delighted to be associated with Zuver which provides skilled & well trained drivers who are knowledgeable of city routes.

Founded by co-partners Sidhanth Mally and Sovin Hegde, Zuver, a Mumbai-based startup provides 24*7 on demand driver requirement services at any location throughout the city. Zuver offers you drivers on demand to drive you to your destination, in the comfort of your car.

Zuver for Android and iOS is available here & here respectively.

About Zuver – Driver on Demand
Zuver is a start-up with a unique selling proposition –a service that promises reliable, skilled, well-trained ‘driver on demand’ at your doorstep. They aim to make their drivers the gold standard for industry drivers and create a new benchmark. This mobile-first company that offers the best in class service is on its course to expand its presence in other metros. Zuver, Your driver on demand is available on Android and iOS or at 022-43686868. For more information, please refer Zuver

|In: Education|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

HashLearn, the on-demand mobile tutoring app that instantly connects students to tutors, announced the launch of ‘Atom’, India’s most affordable, high-quality tutoring service. ‘Atom’ is priced at Rs.30/- for a 20 minute session.

HashLearn tutors are from the IITs, BITS, AIIMS, and leading institutions offering instant sessions in Physics, Chemistry, Math and Biology for all entrance exams like the JEE Main, CET, NEET as well as school exams. Tutors are available on-demand and round the clock thereby ensuring students never get stuck while learning.

‘Atom’ can be bought in packs of 1, 2, 4 and 5 sessions. Apart from regular payment options, another differentiator is the ability to buy the packs through one’s mobile operator right within the app itself. The amount will be deducted from one’s prepaid balance or added to the postpaid bill. Carrier billing is now available to 870 million subscribers of Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance, Aircel and Tata.

Jayadev Gopalakrishnan, CEO & Co-founder, HashLearn said

Our vision is to connect every student to a high-quality tutor by making the service accessible and inclusive. ‘Atom’ is a first step in this direction. By offering an affordable price point and enabling payment through mobile carriers, we are making access to high-quality tutoring frictionless and truly democratic

In India, only 20% of the tutoring market is organized. The vast majority cannot access high-quality tutoring owing to tuition costs or location constraints. Even for students from urban markets, they grapple with unique issues that conventional systems fail to address like lack of personalized attention and the lack of authentic help, right at the moment the student needs it.

HashLearn combines the power of the smartphone with a huge supply of tutors to enable anyone – whether from a city or from a small town/city – to access a high-quality tutor anytime, at an affordable price. The 20-minute session format is based on data from thousands of live sessions conducted on its platform over the last several months. Each session focuses on a specific concept or problem at the end of which students rate tutors.

Apart from ‘Atom’, HashLearn also offers an unlimited sessions plan under the ‘Infinity’ brand.  While most of its paying subscribers so far have come from metros and urban markets, the launch of  ‘Atom’ caters to a larger category of users looking for affordability and flexibility without compromising on quality.

The HashLearn Android app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or by SMSing ‘GETNOW’ to 56263. All new users can take the first three sessions free of cost.

About HashLearn

Founded by serial entrepreneur Jayadev Gopalakrishnan and technologist Gokul Janga. HashLearn is building a range of products and services that connect educators and students. HashLearn is an on-demand tutoring app that connects students to tutors from IITs/BITS & leading institutions, instantly, 24/7. HashLearn is backed by leading angels including the founders of Flipkart, Ola, People Group and Rajan Anandan.

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Vamaship, world’s first integrated logistics platform, founded by Bhavik Chinai & Rohit Chemburkar had raised $500K in their first round of funding from the BVC Ventures, Mumbai. Soon they will be announcing their second round of funding by end of 2016.

Vamaship is a technology-driven logistics platform launched in October 2015, where shippers can ship through India’s best logistics companies, creating a win-win for all the stakeholders. Traditionally, shippers never had visibility of the right price for shipping and logistics companies are not able to reach thousands of SMEs due to limited sales resources, Vamaship brings the two stakeholders together.

In 9 months, Vamaship is now facilitating shipping of any commodity through air, ocean and surface, in India to over 10,000 pin codes and 200+ countries globally.

Vamaship has 100+ partners which include e-commerce logistics companies, freight forwarders, trucking brokers, trucking companies and courier companies. It has over 500 customers ranging from 50 year old listed entities to 2 day old Instagram sellers.

Growing at over 100% month-on-month, Vamaship has a strong team of serial entrepreneurs and domain experts from logistics, consulting and technology, and is mentored by the managing director of the world’s largest diamond company. It’s big successes has been collaborating with the world’s third largest bauxite mining company for their global logistics, taking over shipping for Caratlane – India’s largest jewelry website and the one of India’s fastest growing lifestyle start up, Label Life. It is also witnessing incredible feedback and support from all customers to help make the platform better each day. Instead of competing, Vamaship has partnered with logistics startups like Blackbuck.

Speaking on this, Bhavik Chinai, CEO of Vamaship said

We are delighted at the phenomenal response we’ve received from shippers and logistics companies. We’re gearing up for expanding rapidly by going international, hiring and setting up offices in smaller towns in India. Currently with offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, we are planning to expand our sales penetration to 20+ cities to activate over 10,000 SMEs. We’ll announce our next, larger round within 6 months

Rohit Chemburkar, Co-founder and CTO of Vamaship added

In the first round, we invested in upgrading our technology and be in sync with global best practices. With the next round, we intend to invest in further automation and better tech tools and upgrade our existing processes to ensure an extraordinary shipping experience, each time.

About Vamaship

Launched in October 2015, Vamaship is a revolution in logistics that connects shippers with industry’s best logistics companies. Vamaship as a market place facilitates shipments to over 10,000 pin codes in India and to 200 countries from India. With a nationwide network of partners, Vamaship brings the best of technology and logistics to create a seamless shipping experience. Vamaship is focused on the vision & mission to become the world’s shipping partner and to set global benchmarks in service quality, growth rate and stakeholder satisfaction, respectively. For more information, please visit Vamaship

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Microsoft Accelerator at Bengaluru is now taking applications for its Winter 2016 cohort. These applications are open to technology and technology enabled startups in any vertical.  Scale Up is focused on helping later stage startups in growing traction. The High Potential program [Hi-Po] is designed for series stage startups, where corporates work with startups and Microsoft Accelerator in order to speed up their business potential.

Image Source* – e27.co

Launched in 2015 – these programs have received tremendous traction with leading corporates like Citibank, Patni, Reliance and Kyron partnering with Microsoft Accelerator. The program has also seen the maturing and success of startups like Reverie, Altizon and Aureus Analytics who are now closely working with corporates from Microsoft’s own corporate customer network.

Over the years, the program has received over 3500 applications till date. Ravi Narayan, Global Director, Microsoft Accelerator said

The Indian startup ecosystem is evolving rapidly and so are the needs of startups. Through the common application process for @acceler8, we can identify the right fit for applicants and recommend the right set of interventions.

Applications for these programs will also be eligible for screening and recommendation to Microsoft’s partners under the @cceler8 program. Through a single @acceler8 application, eligible startups will be recommended for programs run by Microsoft’s Partner Accelerators. These include Reliance’s GenNext Hub, ISDI and AIM Smart City, which is the latest addition to the list.

The final date for application to the Hi-Po and Scale-Up programs is 10th August 2016. To know more and apply visit the@cceler8 website.