Monday, June 15, 2020

In Case You Missed It

Indian Startup Funding Tracker is the latest addition to the Inc42+ membership programme, helping the ecosystem keep a tab on all the latest funding deals in a single place. The tracker includes all the startup funding deals recorded in 2020, along with a 360-degree view of the latest investments, sectors that are gaining attention, business models and active investors.
With Covid-19 bringing down ad spending by brands, content providers, media companies and entertainment platforms all need to focus on maximising subscriptions. Most analysts and media founders felt that Covid-19 will not change the market direction, in that this was always going to be the logical conclusion. But the trajectory has shifted and the curve is now climbing fast. Despite free consumption rising and discretionary spends going down, subscription is expected to see more takers and it will be interesting to see how the boom sustains itself in the long run — will Indians continue to add to their subscription baskets or will the hunt for quality bring the subscription players to a point of consolidation?

Policy experts and tech platforms have argued that companies leading censorihip and monitoring of user content will impact freedom of speech and right to privacy. So does Donald Trump’s spat with Twitter and the backlash a lesson for India’s social media regulation? Read the full story and find out!

"We are solving two main problems for farmers in terms of microfinance — one is the credit creation for farmers and the other is repayment of the loans from farmers. This is done by using technologies such as satellite imagery, soil sampling and testing," said Satoshi Nagata, chief strategy officer at Sagri.


This Week In Inc42+

Estimates show that the India's most active 50 Mn internet users take cabs twice a day, order food thrice a week, order groceries once a week, shop online once every two weeks, book a flight / movie ticket once in 2 months & pay for most of this digitally mostly through apps. Tapzo (one of India’s earlier super apps) founder Ankur Singla in 2017 in a post stated that almost all apps (except top 5-8 apps) see 60-80% uninstall rate within 90 days due to lack of space, a problem that a super app can potentially solve.

"It all depends on what kind of student you are, if you are dishonest, edtech makes it easier for you to cheat." - Nisha Vashist, Delhi-based chemistry teacher. This is the thing that is discussed very little in the education circles. Despite edtech platforms and massive amounts of content, nobody has been able to prove that students performance has increased drastically because of these new-age teaching products.


Today, Reliance Jio not only owns the digital distribution chain through its apps but also the tech and cloud infrastructure that it is pushing to many small and medium businesses, thanks to its Microsoft Azure partnership as well as the telecom or connectivity layer. Such balanced vertical integration by Jio will enable it to offer lower costs in digital services and eventually knock off existing competition (such as Paytm, Amazon) in the segment. In fact, such a comprehensive stack has not been seen in any other country in the world, save perhaps China.



Newly-incorporated insurance tech startup #Onsurity raises nearly $2.5 Mn from Tier 1 VCs such as Nexus Venture Partners, but is sued by rival #Acko, where Onsurity's founders worked just weeks before starting up. Even though such practices are not uncommon, in Acko's case, the timing of the exits of Onsurity's founders and the allegations of IP theft and the business pivot raises serious questions.

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio’s massive funding spree will end at some point, but the company’s backers may include more tech giants besides Facebook as per new reports.

As lending startups pivot their credit models and adapt to the shifts in the lending space, digital lenders are looking at smaller ticket sizes with sachet loans to existing borrowers who have high creditworthiness. At the same time, such startups are also incorporating innovative ways such as WhatsApp bots and easy support to connect with borrowers.


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