Startups

Aakash Chaudhry, the managing director of test prep firm Aakash+BYJU’s, on Wednesday led a Series-A funding in HR tech startup Hono. While Chaudhry invested $4 million (around R.31 crore) in HONO, the startup has raised $1million more from other individual investors including Hemant Sultania, Amit Khanna of Amaya Ventures, and Harsh Gupta of Udayat Group. The series A funding totals $5 million. Chaudhry has made the investment in his personal capacity and will also be part of the board at the HR tech firm. “Hono was helping us in our talent management for last few years and now we have come on board to help it grow in India and elsewhere. I will be a facilitator and be on their board,” Chaudhry told Moneycontrol on May 11. Mukul Jain, founder and chief executive of Hono, said Aakash was earlier our client and now our investor. “Having Aakash Chaudhry and our new group of investors in the fold, makes the Hono journey more exciting. Their presence and this strategic … [Read more...] about Aakash Chaudhry leads Series-A funding in HR tech startup Hono

Eeshan Sharma, COO & Co-Founder, Mehul Nath Jindal, CEO & Co-Founder, Shyam Murugan, CTO & Co-Founder Bengaluru-based fintech startup BharatX raised $4.5 million in seed round from Y Combinator , 8i Ventures, Multiply Ventures, Soma Capital and others investors to enable embedded credit in the Indian market, the company said on May 12. The Y-Combinator-backed startup plans to use the funds to build and expand its team, work on products and expand footprint. Existing investor Java Capital also participated in the round, which also saw participation of several marquee angels including Arash Ferdowsi, Co-founder, Dropbox, Harshil Mathur, CEO & Co-Founder of Razorpay,  Shashank Kumar, Founder of Razorpay, Varun Alagh, Co-founder & CEO of Mamaearth, Kunal Shah, Founder and CEO of CRED, Ankur Aggarwal, Co-founder of Dunzo, and Vikas Choudhury, President of Reliance Jio. ''We want to give the middle class of India easy access to credit products that they … [Read more...] about Y-Combinator-backed BharatX raises $4.5 million in seed round

Representative photo MamaEarth has received an award in the Young Turks Startup of the year category at CNBC-TV18's India Business Leader Award 2022. Founded in 2016 by husband-wife duo Varun and Ghazal Alagh, Mamaearth has emerged as one of the hottest new-age consumer brands in India, riding the direct-to-consumer wave, where brands sell their wares directly to consumers through their own websites, apps or via e-commerce channels. Mamaearth became the first unicorn of 2022 when its parent Honasa Consumer raised $52 million on January 1 in a round led by Sequoia, at a valuation of $1.2 billion. The company offers more than 80 “toxin-free, natural products”, including bamboo-based baby wipes, face masks, lotions, and hair-care products. Mamaearth also launched a second brand, Derma Co, late in 2019. Its products have hit an annual revenue run rate of over Rs 500 crore, something few new-age consumer brands have managed to do. Recently, Mamaearth launched Aqualogica, a … [Read more...] about MamaEarth awarded as the Young Turks Startup of the year at IBLA 2022

Seems that there's always time to do things over--because we often have no choice. Too many managers keep forgetting that it's a whole lot smarter and much cheaper in the long run to take a little more time at the outset to get things right the first time.  As the tailors all say: measure twice, cut once. In the case of your new hires-- the inbound talent that will ultimately make or break your business-- if you get the messaging and the training wrong at the beginning, these are generally unrecoverable errors. Things will only get worse over time. And keep in mind that "newbies" come in all sizes and ages. Gray hair is a sign of age, not necessarily wisdom, experience, or knowledge that is specific and relevant to your business. If you mess things up at the start, you'll soon enough get to that awful and uncomfortable conversation where someone will ask you about one of the new hires and you'll say "I don't know" or "the jury's still out." It isn't. When you say, "I don't … [Read more...] about Are You Doing Enough for Your Newbies?

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The consumer experience is frequently starting mobile-first as the medium, as smartphone applications facilitated over $133 billion in transactions in 2021 , yet buggy experiences cause users to rapidly churn. Instabug , founded by Omar Gabr and Moataz Soliman, is the first “mobile observability and performance monitoring platform” for developers of smartphone applications. The San Francisco-based startup has raised a $46M Series B round led by Insight Partners, with participation from existing investors Accel and new participants Forgepoint Capital and Endeavor. Instabug counts DoorDash, Verizon, IHG, ABInveb, Porsche, Qualtrics, Gojek and more among its customer base. Ganesh Bell, Managing Director at Insight Partners, says, “Mobile app development is exploding as enterprises invest in apps that delight and engage their customers. In talking to the mobile developers that make this possible, it was clear to us that … [Read more...] about Instabug Raises $46M To Create The Mobile Observability And Performance Monitoring Platform

Source: AFP Japan’s SoftBank Group on May 12 reported a net loss of 1.7 trillion yen ($13 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31 2022, as the Japanese conglomerate’s listed portfolio companies were hit hard by falling tech valuations across the globe with investors pricing in interest rate hikes and China tightening regulations on the industry. According to Reuters estimates, SoftBank’s Vision Fund investment unit posted a record loss of over 2.97 trillion yen for the Jan-Mar quarter hitting the Japanese investment conglomerate’s profits for the year. The Masayoshi Son-led investment firm had reported a net profit of 4.99 trillion yen ($38 billion) for the previous fiscal year, with the Vision Fund unit clocking a profit of about 4.03 trillion yen. Shares of South Korea’s Coupang Inc and China’s Didi Global, two of SoftBank’s biggest portfolio companies, have plummeted in the Jan-Mar quarter, dragging the Japanese investment conglomerate into losses for the year. … [Read more...] about SoftBank posts $13 billion loss for FY22 as tech shares plunge across the globe

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son Trade Watchlist Portfolio Message Set Alert live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More × Japan’s SoftBank Group , which has been a prolific tech investor in India and across the world, will be cutting its investments to a fourth in 2022 from a year earlier as valuations of high-growth technology firms have plummeted globally. “In the latest quarter from December to March, compared to the previous quarters, we have made it (investments) smaller. (Our investments had) peaked in Q1 (first quarter) when we made investments of about 2 trillion yen. But in Q4 (fourth quarter) you see a huge decline compared to Q1,” said CEO Masayoshi Son, addressing the press after the Japanese conglomerate declared its earnings earlier in the day. ALSO READ: SoftBank posts $13 billion loss for FY22 as tech shares plunge across the globe “Compared to … [Read more...] about SoftBank will cut investments to a fourth in 2022 as tech shares plunge globally

Agriculture technology startup Fyllo has raised $2 million in funding led by Triveni Trust, Ninjacart, and existing investor Indian Angel Network (IAN), the Bengaluru-based firm said on May 13. The round also saw participation from new investors such as Venture Catalysts, StarAgri, Kia Ora Ventures, Singularity Ventures and Mastermind Capital. “Farmers have seen the impact of technology and the adaptability has increased. Having received the funding, we are looking to invest in expanding our brand to new markets and more crops,” founders Sudhanshu Rai and Sumit Sheoranand said. Founded in 2019, Fyllo’s data-driven agri-science platform has developed crop-specific models for irrigation, nutrients, diseases, pests, and weather management for each physiological stage of crop and soil. Its IoT (Internet of Things) system understands and measures the precise requirements of plants on a real-time basis and then an agri-science platform backed by artificial intelligence provides … [Read more...] about Agri-tech Fyllo raises $2 million from Triveni Trust, IAN and others

Zerodha CEO and Co-founder Nithin Kamath Nearly 950 of broking firm Zerodha’s 1100 employees will work from home permanently, according to CEO and co-founder Nithin Kamath. Kamath said in a recent interview with Moneycontrol that the core team will work on a hybrid model. The company had moved operations online after the closure of many offices and workplaces in the pandemic. For its employees working from home, he had earlier mentioned that the company had started setting up satellite offices in smaller towns in Karnataka. Kamath said, “85-90% of our team is working from home and we will continue to do so. We have also set up an office in Belagavi (city in Karnataka).” “We have a taken a call that we would do permanent work from home and people are enjoying living in their small towns. Belagavi has amazing talent and we have a large team working there. Folks are enjoying Belagavi as a city, are having maids and independent houses which they could never think of affording … [Read more...] about Up to 90% of our team will permanently work from home: Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath

I used to be mainly concerned about the unfortunate but deeply ingrained attitudes of the upcoming and incoming workforce, and how these overly entitled kids would fit into the newly serious and heads-down culture of those startups and growth stage businesses that had dodged the bullets and stayed alive for the last three years. These kids had been indoctrinated from birth by helicopter parents, with first-place trophies for all, and convinced by college faculty that their generation would be a gift (and a bargain at any price) to the working world. But I'm afraid that over the last few years, the "real" world has taught them some even more pernicious and dangerous lessons. I was worried about the "work" part of their work ethic, and I should have been paying more attention to the ethics part. Work isn't going to be a picnic for anyone who thinks the next two years are going to be fun, easy, or anything but a difficult slog with plenty of bumps along the way. If they believe … [Read more...] about What Do We Tell Our Newest Workers?