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|In: startups|Last Updated:

Ducere Technologies Pvt. Ltd, the makers of Lechal – the world’s first interactive haptic footwear, has been selected as a ‘Cool Vendor’ in India by research and advisory firm Gartner Inc. for 2015. The annual ‘Cool Vendor’ report profiled a select few Indian companies, and lauded Ducere Technologies for developing an innovative product within the burgeoning wearable technology segment.

lechal

Speaking about being chosen as ‘Cool Vendor’, Krispian Lawrence, Ducere’s co-founder and CEO, said

We are delighted to be selected as a Cool Vendor in India by Gartner. We are India’s first wearable tech manufacturer and aim to become a global leader in the WT space. Being recognized by Gartner helps us achieve that mission by linking us to other cool vendors, who will help us explore this exciting space.

Lechal footwear is a disruptive innovation designed to smoothly integrate into the everyday. Available as an insole or a shoe, Lechal footwear uses Bluetooth technology to connect to the user’s smart phone via our App. Using simple foot gestures or voice commands, the wearer can use it as a navigational tool or track their activity from a fitness perspective.

The footwear communicates with the user via gentle vibratory responses or haptic feedback. In addition to taking you places, you can also tag favourite locations, share new routes, create group journeys – all with your footwear. It also tracks the number of steps taken, calories burnt, and distance travelled, logs your fitness activity, and charts your activity over time.

Lechal has received an overwhelming response with over 50,000 pre-orders received till date from across the world. Shipment of these pre-orders are scheduled to begin in September. Lechal footwear will also be available at retailers and e-tailers in India, West Asia, the United Kingdom and the United States by the end of the year, with further distribution planned in other countries in 2016.

About Gartner’s Cool Vendor Report

Gartner is the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company that delivers technology-related insights to its readers. The Gartner Cool Vendor Report 2015 profiles the top Cool Vendors that provide innovative solutions across variety of industries and disciplines in the Indian market. The report presents a platform for the top management of Indian companies to evaluate the capabilities of these vendors to create a differentiation for their businesses.

About Ducere Technologies

Ducere Technologies focuses on creating intuitive, unobtrusive and user-friendly wearable technology innovations. The brainchild of Krispian Lawrence & Anirudh Sharma, graduates of the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively, the Hyderabad-based company was set up in 2011 with the aim of taking wearable technology to the people.

Ducere launched its first product – the world’s first interactive haptic footwear – under the brand name Lechal in 2014. Today, Lechal is a fashion and lifestyle brand that has been recognized globally for innovation, winning several awards and recognition, including Frost & Sullivan India’s New Product Innovation Leadership Award 2014 and securing second place at Rec@nnect Challenge 2014, a partnership between CRDF Global and the United States Department of State.

To learn more about Ducere Technologies and Lechal, please visit http://www.duceretech.com

Complete report of Gartner Cool Vendor 2015 spanning different categories is located here

|In: Business|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

Akosha, the messaging platform for all consumer-to-business interactions & Aircel, one of India’s leading innovative telecom players, have together created new milestones in the realm of customer satisfaction in the country.

With the launch of the Aircel Mobile Sewa Kendra, a mobile app-based platform that has been deployed across 2,000 retailers in rural areas and through the use of smart application of Akosha OneDirect suite to manage online interactions, Aircel has been able to significantly enhance customer experience and satisfaction across geographies in a span of just eight months.

Akosha_Aircel

To achieve this, Aircel divided its subscriber base into three tiers, forming a pyramid. The upper two tiers represented premium customers, who have started to embrace social media to resolve issues while the third tier, one of the fastest growing segments, comprised customers from rural areas.

The two-fold challenge accepted by Aircel was first, to  ensure that the prime customer segment received superior customer service across all channels including social media and second, to deliver a stellar customer service experience to the rural and semi-urban subscriber base, despite logistical barriers such as lack of on-ground customer support in most of these places.

Akosha and Aircel formed a Joint Action Team to address these issues. To cater to the premium customer segment, Akosha provided the requisite infrastructure to Aircel in the form of Akosha OneDirect suite so that the organisation could listen to all its customers, through social media platforms, 24×7 and empower itself with actionable customer data to achieve the desired customer-centricity.

It is a unique software tool that has been designed keeping in mind the specific challenges that Indian brands face in delivering the best possible customer experience. This technology connects every online interaction the customer has with a brand. OneDirect is the only platform that includes all of the capabilities to manage a holistic social media strategy; along with built-in integrations with traditional CRMs to leverage the power of social media.

On the other hand, to cater to the needs of the semi-urban and rural subscriber base, the Joint Action Team roped in neighbourhood corner shops and empowered the local retailers to help customers with their queries by simply using a smartphone. This led to the development of‘Mobile Sewa Kendra’ -a mobile-based customer service app that became a game changer in this domain.

While catering to this e-rural segment, it was important to deploy a platform that would be user-friendly, available in local languages, and also which worked efficiently on a 2G connection. The app structure was therefore designed such that a query, request or a complaint could be addressed in just three simple steps. This air-tight query, and request and complaint capturing mechanism left no scope for a complaint to be lost in the loop. The deployment of this platform was met with a tremendous response and high levels of acceptance. As a result, retailers have wholeheartedly embraced this app to provide valuable feedback, leading Aircel to consolidate its market leadership position in terms of customer satisfaction.

Speaking on the initiative, Vishrut Chalsani, VP, Enterprise Solutions & Co-founder, Akosha said

The rural subscribers of Aircel sought more personalized attention while the more net savvy customers from urban geographies demanded a quick and responsive social media management. Through an intelligent API integration of Akosha OneDirect with the Aircel internal CRM, we were able to achieve both goals. With the Mobile Sewa Kendra, Aircel and Akosha have been able to tremendously improve customer experience across segments such that our combined success has become a veritable case study for superb CRM, specific to the Indian context.

Alok Kumar, Chief Service Delivery Officer, Aircel said

A highly effective customer-centric organization has to be tuned to serve its market in the best possible way. An ‘internet savvy’ customer needs a responsive social media management, while a customer in semi urban/rural area needs a personalized ‘high touch’ handling at the front end. We are glad to have got Akosha as our ‘Customer Experience’ partner, who have brought in their technology offerings, combined with a young, energetic and enthusiastic team, who were willing to learn and innovate with us, to deploy creative solutions for serving both these segments.

Aircel today manages its entire Online Reputation Management [ORM] operation from a single dashboard, where team members can easily respond to tickets and resolve them, without having to go back and forth over elaborate, complex protocols. In addition, Aircel’s Mobile Sewa Kendra won the Voice&Data- Telecom Leadership Award 2015 for Innovation in Customer Service.

About Akosha

Akosha is a horizontal platform for all consumers to business interactions. Customers can connect with any businesses using an Akosha mobile app, dedicated customer care helpline and website.

Akosha has received over 40,00,000 consumer queries across sectors, including telecom, consumer appliances, ecommerce, mobile, banking and insurance in 2014. The company has 350+ employees and 3 offices in India.

On the B2B side, Akosha OneDirect is a social CRM platform that helps brands in managing their customer experience across all online channels. In May 2015, Akosha secured $16 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital.

|In: Funding|Last Updated:

iDreamCareer [iDC], a Delhi based Ed-tech startup, has raised an undisclosed sum as angel capital through ah! Ventures, a startup focused growth catalyst bridging ideas and money. The angels from ah! Ventures together with angel investors Vivek Joshi, Mohit Satyanand, Indian Designs Group & others partnered to fund the startup. The deal was solely advised and syndicated by ah! Ventures and led to closure on its private equity investment platform, CLUBah.

iDreamCareer

Founded in late 2013, iDreamCareer has grown to become India’s leading EdTech brand in the space of career & higher education planning for students and it is being promoted by IIT/IBS alumnus. Understanding the growing problem for students in deciding a career for themselves, iDC developed a 3S framework program – “Structured, Scientific & Scalable”, which is currently being used by students in India, Middle East & East Africa.

iDC Career planning Program empower students to take informed career decisions through its proprietary Career Assessment tool and one-on-one career mentoring. iDC package plans ranges from one time engagement session to two year plans with multiple engagements with experts mentors, delivered over combination of face to face, Skype and phone sessions.

Speaking about the funding, Ayush Bansal, co-founder of iDreamCareer.com said

Our vision is to build future proof career for students through unbiased and credible career planning programs. In the business where trust is the key element, our focus has been on providing quality career planning service to students and parents that empowers them for taking informed career decisions. Over the last year and a half, more than 55,000 students have benefited through iDreamcareer.

This was achievable purely because of the trust the student and parent community have reposed in us. Over 40% of the students on the platform come through referrals, which is an indicator of the trust they have on the brand. We are happy to have angels on board who understand our vision.

Pravesh Dudani, an alumnus from IIT Kharagpur & co-founder of iDreamCareer.com adds

Given the complex structure of our higher education system, choosing a career path as well as process of applying to colleges is one of the most daunting task for students and parents. New age parents, consider a career choice as most important and life altering decision for their children and hence they are willing to pay for availing professional guidance from trusted and reliable advisors.

The current investment round will be utilized to upgrade our product line with addition of information alert tools, college application system, content up-gradation etc. Additionally funds will be utilized in sales & marketing to grow our business in new geographies across India & Middle East & also to improve our service delivery system.

Vivek Joshi, lead investor said

iDreamCareer is rightly placed in the current educational context where plethora of courses are available to students, making it difficult for them to choose the right course and hence a career. Ayush and Pravesh are very committed towards making a difference by helping students make better career decisions. I am excited to be part of the journey at iDreamCareer.com

Abhijeet Kumar, Co-founder of ah! Ventures said

EdTech has always been an interesting area for us and iDreamCareer is really disrupting the space of career and higher education planning through a combination of a hard working team, innovative & proven business model, strong revenue pipeline and usage of next generation technology. Their global footprint makes them a leader in this space. This deal was concluded through the private equity investment platform, CLUB ah!

CLUB ah! is India’s first full-spectrum startup investment network and platform comprising of over 475 plus investors, including some of the renowned angels and early-stage VC’s. CLUB ah! platform today has over 2500+ startups, 425+ seed/angel investors and over 60 VCs & intuitional investors, Making it one of the largest platform of investors and startups.

The network also recently secured its first profitable exit from Harness Handitouch within 2 years of its investment. CLUB ah! has till date invested close to INR 30 crores in over 13 startups spread across varied industries and domains.

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

iDreamCareer has demonstrated their ability to disrupt the market using their unique customized career planning program rather than competitors’ plain vanilla assessment reports created using online aptitude tests. Tech is undoubtedly used as an enabler for automation of content and the assessment process – but iDC’s mix of online and offline models of career planning through 1-on-1 sessions using their retail offices and telephonic interviews, gives a more holistic approach.

This coupled with a strong team of senior people like Punam Kashyap, Rahul Parmar & others on their advisory board and their ability to successfully penetrate the international markets like Middle Eastern countries, made iDC a very attractive investment opportunities for ah! Ventures’ investors. The career planning sector for high school students in India is estimated to be over USD 1.5 billion and iDC is perfectly positioned to target and dominate a majority of it. We at ah! look forward to partnering iDC in their next growth phase

For more information, please visit iDreamCareer, ah! Ventures & CLUB ah! Deals

|In: Android|Last Updated:

HeyBiz-logoHeyBiz Messenger, a mobile application that connects both customers and businesses on mobile with real time chat; has added an exclusive feature in the app called Expert Advice.

HeyBiz has grouped a team of experts from different niches on a mobile platform. These experts are from vastly varied domains that include health care, dental care, fitness, career experts, astrologers, makeup artists, gadget and gizmos, gift options, jobs & real estate consultants. Not just that, it allows the users to chat directly with the experts in a real time conversation, ask questions, and get opinions and advice.

Adding further about the exclusive feature, Bhartesh Chhibbar, Founder, HeyBiz said

“Chat with Experts” is a feature that will help you get a second opinion on anything and everything, making sure you take the right decisions; whether you are booking a vacation or purchasing a house, contemplating a job switch or looking for a “Shubh Mahurat” for a family function.

HeyBiz Experts are also taking care of best deals for the users, Bhartesh adds on

When a business or service provider register with HeyBiz, we make sure he brings the quality as well as good price for our users. Based on the service provider’s best bargain, we suggest the deal to our users and connect them with those service providers. It is real time right on the Chat.

Rewards is another interesting feature that has now been added to the app. The users can earn reward points by sharing the app with friends and family, by following their nearby businesses on HeyBiz, by doing a deal with any business on HeyBiz and by referring their favorite local business to HeyBiz.

The users can redeem the accumulated reward points with HeyBiz directly against a wide array of options available like iPhone 6, Power Bank, Selfie Stick, Philips Trimmer, Mobile recharge, etc.

Within 3 months of its launch, HeyBiz application has acquired 3000 SMB’s & 12,000 users .Already several Brands like Axis Dental, Tansen Sangeet Mahavidhayala, Bonton Holidays, Snap Fitness, Little Millennium, Eco Rent a Car etc and many of the local businesses have been attached to the HeyBiz and enjoying the benefit of digital presence and reaching out to customers.

HeyBiz is also looking to extend its Platform and bringing Local online Shopping [L-commerce] together in its platform.

About HeyBiz Messenger

HeyBiz Messenger is a mobile application that connects both customers and businesses on mobile with real time chat. With HeyBiz, customers can do one click search, find the relevant business and can initiate a real time chat without disclosing personal contact details. They can enquire about services, product or support related to the business. They can upload pictures, videos and detailed description of service and can update it on regular basis. Potential customer will simply search and initiate a chat about the business.

HeyBiz for Android & iOS can be downloaded from here & here respectively. Do give HeyBiz a spin & share your experiences…

|In: Android|Last Updated:

Body Mind Me Inc, has launched Jiyo – a well-being platform that has been co-founded by Deepak Chopra, M.D world-renowned physician, bestselling author & Poonacha Machaiah, entrepreneur and technology expert.

Jiyo acts as a personal well-being companion by using intuitive technology to analyze users’ daily activities and offer insights and tiny habits to nudge them on their path to well-being. Aggregate data from trackers, sensors, public databases & apps is analyzed into meaningful information and users can engage, learn, and interact with a diverse range of curated content and connect with experts on the platform.

Talking about Jiyo, Deepak Chopra mentioned

The goal of Jiyo is to help people experience a joyful energetic body, loving compassionate heart, restful alert mind and lightness of being. This is the key to personal and planetary transformation.

Besides providing personalized insights and tiny habits, the Jiyo platform also aims to foster community through a curated network of expert content partners as well as ambassador channels from leading wellbeing experts.  The platform will have a blend of free and premium paid services for enhanced content, products and services.

Adding about Jiyo, Poonacha Machaiah said

Jiyo aims to democratize well-being by leveraging mobile technology, devices/sensors and predictive analytics to provide contextual services [content + services] to the user that will enable them to make positive Behavioral changes

Jiyo’s platform provides users with the right content or service in the right context using the mobile phone as the primary medium to start the user on the journey of transforming their personal well-being.

About Jiyo

Jiyo is a US based startup founded by world renowned physician, bestselling author and wellness expert Deepak Chopra, M.D. & Poonacha Machaiah, entrepreneur, technology and trans-media expert in 2015.

For more information & to sign up for the Jiyo beta platform, please visit www.jiyo.com. Connect with Jiyo on social media, Twitter- @jiyo4life & Instagram – @jiyo4life

[Image Credit – Jiyo]

|In: Interviews|Last Updated:

There has been a buzz around e-commerce, Hyper-local Commerce etc. More & more SME’s are joining the bandwagon & trying to take advantage of this Online Revolution by setting up their e-commerce stores [or becoming a seller on reputed online e-commerce sites]. “Setting up an e-commerce store” is a daunting task & this is where e-commerce enabler(s) pitch in and help you to scale your business.

Today, we have a chat with Namrata Soni, Founder & CEO of Twikster, a startup based in Bengaluru. In few words, Twikster is primarily into e-commerce enable-ment & want more SME’s to come online !!

Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and it’s founders ?

Co-founded by Priya & Namrata, two digital product managers, Twikster is an e-commerce enable-ment platform for SMB’s in India & appeared on the e-commerce scene in 2014. Facing boldly the challenges of setting up an e-commerce business in India, Namrata, after having lived in the US for nearly a decade, along with Priya [who continues to live in the US], jumped head-on into working on Twikster.

Creating Twikster wasn’t easy, but the vision was simple and sufficient – to make e-commerce accessible and affordable for SMB’s in India. What started off as a basic platform for small businesses to create their e-stores, has evolved into a sophisticated, solution-driven and user-friendly path to setting up, managing and growing an online business for anyone who is interested in doing so.

What was the trigger for starting Twikster ?

Some very simple questions – Why are such few retailers selling online? How do retailers expect to compete with the marketplaces ? Why is it so expensive to create an e-commerce store? Why are the existing pricing models making it hard for small and medium players to compete fairly?

How does Twikster stack up against the other competitor’s that are also in the e-commerce enabler space [e.g. Zepo, BuildABazaar] ?

Most popular e-commerce enable-ment solutions in India follow a pricing model that forces users to choose a plan & pay a monthly subscription fee for a set of pre-defined features. Often, users have to move to a higher, more expensive plan to get basic support or for just a few features that they may need on their store. And these plans don’t come cheap; some painfully costing as much as Rs.60,000/- to 84,000/- annually.

Consequently, this model results in alienating a large section of people and makes it harder for small and medium players to compete fairly. This is where Twikster’s new pricing model is set to give users an edge. Users are liberated from forced monthly subscription fees and bundled features. With ‘Twikster GO’ anyone can create a ‘Forever-Free’, feature-packed, mobile-friendly online store at ‘Zero’ monthly subscription fee. From there on, users may choose to pay for specific support, services and features when their business demands it or their pocket allows it. It provides a wholesome package in the absence of forced pricing plans and monthly subscription fees.

Should the user decide to upgrade to the Twikster ‘Preferred’ plan, a nominal one-time set up fee of Rs.6999/- and a small annual maintenance fee of Rs.2399/- kicks in. The Preferred user is empowered with end-to-end support to create an e-commerce store, set up on multiple marketplaces, tie up with logistic providers, open merchant accounts with payment gateways and access a host of add-ons that may be purchased as and when required.

What is the revenue model of Twikster ?

Our sources of revenue are set up fee, annual maintenance fee, transaction fee and commissions in certain cases, and annual fees for use of add-ons.

What are the other areas [e.g. Product Portfolio development etc.] that your startup plans to venture into in future ?

Plan to keep this question for future 🙂

Can you please explain about ‘Art Space’, the latest offering by Twikster? [you can also touch upon features as compared to Postergully etc.]

When we started out with Twikster, both Priya and I hoped that small, upcoming yet talented artists in India would take to selling online if we made the platform simple and affordable. We learnt quickly that their challenge lies in marketing the online stores – so we decided to create ArtSpace by Twikster, a marketplace on which we would showcase and market the artwork of these artists. Our goal with this marketplace is to make art accessible outside India [starting off with the US] by the end of this year.

What are the major changes that you experienced when you moved from an Employee to an Employer ?

Its a mindset change. For one, it meant putting in more hours of work than I had ever before. It meant having to make decisions for the business and everyone involved in it. It meant always always being willing to learn. Becoming an employer brings with it a lot of responsibility and at some level, even though I did not know what exactly it would entail, I was ready for it.

What are your key advice(s) to people who want to start-up ?

Get started. It is important to get started. Its ok to make mistakes, learn from them, and keep forging ahead. There will never be a time as good as now to pursue your dreams.

What are your views about the start-up landscape in India?

It has a very promising future. See the support structure that is slowly becoming available, start-up events that are helping address questions/ concerns of new and old entrepreneurs, the maturing trends in funding and investment. There really hasn’t been a better time for start-ups.

You have a decade long experience in US, what made you shift to India & why you chose Bangalore for your startup ?

I always knew that I would return to India someday. It did not matter how long I had stayed away – India was always “home” 🙂 I chose Bangalore, not for the obvious reason that it is the start up hub of the country, but because my family lives here and being close to them was just as important to me as starting up!

What are your thoughts on the “Digital” movement of the BJP Government & how much it would help SME’s in India ?

There is no denying that this government has taken to the internet/technology & understands its importance better than any govt has in the past. But I think will be a little more while before we can conclusively state whether the Digital movement started by this govt is actually helping start-ups and SME’s in India.

With this we conclude our Q&A with Namrata !! We hope that our reader’s would have got some useful tips on starting up.

If you have any questions for Namrata or are an SME planning to setup an e-commerce store, please leave a comment & we would get back to you on the same.

For more information, please visit Twikster

|In: Blogging|Last Updated:

Has the “Youtube Offline” advertisement caught your attention? But with the improving internet speed & increasing broadband penetration, “Buffering” would sooner/later be history 🙂 With Telecom companies entering into tug-of-war over “Pricing” in order to woo customers, it is definitely happy time for us !!!

This would also mean that in future, customers can view their favorite videos without/with least amount of buffering [contrast to this advertisement :)]. This would definitely give a huge boost to companies or start-ups that provide On-Demand TV.

Few weeks back, we had a meetup with start-up named Lukup that wants to create a dent in the “On Demand TV” market that is still at a very nascent stage in India but the points discussed above could definitely turn out to be a winner for Lukup. It is a video streaming service offering licensed Indian & international content

Today, we do a walk-through of Lukup’s product called Lukup Player which we personally experienced during the “Blogger’s brain-storming” session.

Click on Image to enlarge

DSCN0396

Lukup Player

Lukup Player is a connected device from Bengaluru based start-up Lukup Media that aims to provide India’s first On-Demand TV service. Using the Lukup Player, consumers will also be able to stream content on more than one screen or devices like TV, tablets, phones etc. The best part is that the “Synchronization” is maintained between the connected devices to ensure better viewing experience.

Setting up the Lukup Player was a very easy task. The player supports multiple options for connectivity i.e. Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth that ensures that consumers can view high-quality videos using HDMI input & at the same time, broadcast content using WiFi/Bluetooth.

Features of the Lukup Player

  1. The Lukup Player is easy to set up. Works with your home broadband or WiFi connection.
  2. Personalize your TV experience by creating your profile. You have the option of linking your social network to your profile.
  3. Swipe on the Lukup Player’s touch screen to navigate content on the TV.
  4. Use applications on the Lukup Player to search for content, browse the TV guide and much more.
  5. With the TV guide, choose from a list of on-demand video, audio and broadcast TV channels.

  6. From the context menu for any content title, you can select a screen or device to stream to.
  7. Content is available as pay per view titles or as monthly subscription channels. Subscribe from the context menu.
  8. Stream content to TVs using WiFi and to music systems and headsets using Bluetooth, all at the same time.
  9. Record live TV channels on your unlimited cloud storage drive which starts with 500 GB free storage.
  10. Use the media Storage application to browse and view recorded content anywhere, on any device.

  11. Use the Planning application to view reminders, recording schedules and receive notifications.
  12. Social Integration & Screen synchronization.
  13. Use the Lukup Player as a WiFi hotspot that you can connect your mobile phones, tablets and PC to access the internet.
  14. Play Interactive Games.

Pricing, Variants & Availability

The Lukup player is available in two variants – Lukup player S [without WiFi & multi-screen connectivity] and Lukup Player X [with WiFi & multi-screen]. Lukup Player runs on a 1.7 GHz processor & is loaded with 1 GB of RAM. It has a micro USB port for charging. Lukup Player is exclusively available on Amazon where Lukup Player X is available for Rs. 12,660. As stated in Lukup Player Requirements page:

The Lukup Player requires a single connection to bring TV, interactive content and internet access to homes. A minimum of 2 Mbps for a single screen home and a minimum of 4 Mbps for multi-screen home is recommended.

Instead of using a broadband modem, wireless router and set top box separately, you can just use the Lukup Player that combines all the functions.

Some of the content is package-based, so users can subscribe for fixed amounts each month. There is also a pay-per-view model. We tried playing a couple of movies during the meet-up where Lukup Player X was up for display & we were able to watch HD movies [with some hitches due to WiFi issue at the venue]. Lukup Player X is definitely suited when viewers want to view HD content.

Road Ahead

Piracy is one of the major challenges that is creating a huge challenge for digital media companies. How can we forget that we get the pirated CD/DVD’s being sold openly on roadside(s) the very next day after a movie is released !!! However, Lukup’s Pay Per View [PPV] can provide an answer to curb piracy if it is able to provide digital content at reasonable price !!! As per recent report, Lukup Media is looking to expand its Over-The-Top [OTT] services by acquiring Multi-System Operator [MSO] & Internet Service Provider [ISP] licenses.

Lukup Media has also signed a deal with Widevine for integrating DRM solution. Widevine’s DRM solution provides the capability to license, distribute and protect playback of content on any consumer device. Now Lukup can provide access of protected content to its customers. The content including movies, music and television shows can be accessed to any device even in congested networks [Source – CableQuest]

Lukup Media also encourages developers to use their platform to develop apps for Lukup Player & if you are an Android developer, you should not miss this video.

Closing Thoughts

There has been news that many on-demand media streaming companies have announced to enter India which is the fastest growing market [due to increasing broadband & internet penetration].

Lukup Media has a first-mover advantage & given the interesting features in Lukup Player, it would click with cost-sensitive Indian consumers!!!

[Image Source – Lukup]

[Thanks to Neeva Tiwari from Lukup for the Blogger Invite :)]

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated:

EduKart, India’s leading education marketplace has raised US $1 Million from Holostik Group’s United Finsec (family office arm), Yuvraj Singh’s YouWeCan Ventures and prominent early stage fund 500 Startups.

Existing investors including Vijay Shekhar Sharma [Founder, PayTM], Manish Kheterpal [Ex Director of Providence Equity Partners], Amit Patni & Arihant Patni of Patni family and Stanford Business School’s alumni angels have also participated in the current round.

The total education sector of India is pegged over US $60 Billion, with approximately 50% in higher education sector, 40% in K12 sector and 10% in coaching, skilling and other non-formal areas with thousands of educational institutions and companies in each of these areas.

Edukart

Speaking about the funding, Ishan Gupta, CEO of EduKart.com, who is a Stanford University (USA) alumnus, ex Facebook employee & early Paytm team member said

Over the last year, EduKart has partnered with more than 90 course providers to promote and drive enrollments in more than 2000 courses in K12, entrance coaching, degrees, diplomas, short courses and industry relevant certifications through the marketplace. The incoming funds will be utilized for further upgrading the marketplace platform, increasing course portfolio and strengthening marketing efforts.

The list of course providers listed on EduKart is long and impressive including  Vidyamandir, Aakash, Jamboree, Toppr, Brilliant Tutorials, Indian School of Business, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Bharati Vidyapeeth University, School Guru, Vskills, Copal Partners, Digital Vidya, Knowledge Woods who are all leading course providers in  their respective domains.

Ankit Gupta, head of strategy and investments for Holostik Group & alumnus of Harvard Business School said

While on one hand, EduKart has been successful in helping students and parents make informed education related decisions, on the other it has given various course providers a platform to expand their reach to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across India. Through its services like dedicated counselling support and flexible payment options, EduKart is establishing itself as a go-to destination for figuring out one’s educational needs.

Commenting on the funding, Yuvraj Singh, ace cricketer & founder of YouWeCan Ventures said

I am really excited to be a part of the EduKart journey. I have always believed that following your passion is very important in life. At the same time, a focus on education is also a must in today’s cut throat competitive environment. EduKart can really become your trusted partner in making the right choices.

Pankaj Jain of 500 Startups added

Education spending is on the rise among the tech savvy Indian middle class. I believe that the online distribution of education products and services will have significant growth in the coming years. The highly effective EduKart team is ideally positioned to execute on this opportunity with a very strong course portfolio and mind-share amongst prospective students.

The company has attracted top tier talent from the likes of Google, Pearson PLC, Wiley, Monster Inc to join in leadership positions and build various functions of the company. In the next three years, EduKart is looking to drive gross enrolment sales of over $100 million for its course providers, by enrolling 100,000+ students annually.

For more information, please visit EduKart