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Articles by Gaurav Sangwani
Job listing portal Glassdoor sold to Japan’s Recruit HR for $1.2 billion in all-cash deal
Job employment portal, Glassdoor, better known for providing insights into company culture has been acquired by Japan’s Recruit Holdings for $1.2 billion all-cash deal. The company is one of the most popular job search engines better known for its workplace transparency. Recruit Holdings, Japan-based HR company, plans to use the acquisition as a seperate part of its HR technology business segment.
This Harvard startup is helping dogs get younger with its ‘Age Reversing’ gene therapy; Humans next?
Dogs have a special chemistry with humans that goes back many tens of thousands of years. They’re more than just pets. But why do people lavish so much care on an alien specie? A short answer lies on the emotional plane, families do not see a dog as an outsider. And when that dog passes away, in 9-10 years, it feels like the family has lost a part of itself. What if dogs could be made younger?
Unitus Ventures, backed by Dell Foundation and Bill Gates, invests $1 million in AI-enabled healthtech startup i3systems
Healthcare machine learning product company, i3systems, with a focus on insurance clients, has secured $1 million in equity investment deal from Unitus Ventures. The round also saw participation from Behram Vakil, founding partner of AZB Partners, one of India’s top law firms, and Jerxis Vandrevala, founder of Sanchez Computers.
Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures hikes stake in online insurance comparison platform Easypolicy
Unilazer Ventures, a private equity and venture capital firm floated by Ronnie Screwvala, has raised its stake in online insurance comparison platform, Easypolicy. Unilazer additionally invested over $6.7 million in the Delhi-NCR based startup. The fund believes there’s space for more than one player in the online insurance market. The company has raised funds to scale its B2C and B2B business and to build awareness of the brand.
AI-enabled Avaamo raises over $14 million from Intel Capital, Ericsson Ventures and others
AI-enabled deep learning virtual assistant platform, Avaamo, has raised $14.2 million in Series A round of investment led by Intel capital with additional investments from Ericsson Ventures, Mahindra Partners, Wipro Ventures and WI Harper. The newly secured funds take company’s total investment to $23.5 million to date.
Here's how restaurants lure you to eat out with Instagram worthy food
As the food industry expands, technology is already starting to influence food production, patterns of consumption and distribution circuits. Recent years have seen an increase in the number of apps offering food, deliveries and restaurant reviews. Almost every major industry is seeing a more connected path with its users through technology. No matter how fun it is to poke people posting pictures of their food on Instagram, those pictures are actually paying the restaurant off.
UK based Fintech firm GainCredit invests $2.25 million in B2C lending platform OYE Fintech
Team at Oye Fintech OYE Fintech, which operates a consumer-focused lending platform called OYE! Loans, has raised $2.25 million from GAIN Credit. OYE! Loans currently serves new-to-credit and new-to-workforce consumers with one year EMI loans, with ticket-sizes ranging between 10K and 1L INR. The company leverages alternative data to assess risk on customers who have thin or non-existent footprints on the credit bureau.
South Korea comes up with its own cryptocurrency ‘S-Coin’, to legalise ICOs but with conditions
The government of South Korea is on a verge to legalise Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) after it banned them in 2017. According to media reports, the coalition of lawmakers are looking to get a consensus in the National Assembly to pass the bill making ICOs completely legal in the country but with some conditions. Korean representative Hong Eui-rak is known to be the face behind legalising ICOs. He’s the member of the ruling party, Democratic Party of Korea.
Firms pessimistic on Blockchain technology, CIOs call for a change in IT infrastructure: Gartner
While blockchain and ICOs are creating a buzz in the market, the fascination is not quite perceived at the CIO level. According to market research firm Gartner’s latest CIO survey, only one percent of more than 3000 CIOs interviewed said they have some sort of Blockchain adoption in the company. While only 8 percent said they are planning to deploy the same.
Consumer spend on apps to hit $106 billion by 2018; China maintains top spot as the biggest app market
Users will be spending over a total of $106 billion in the global apps store by the end of this year and over $156 billion in the next 4 years, stated a report published by market data and insights company App Annie. This figure comparatively less that the figure predicted by the company last December — $110 billion.
Now users can book Ola through MobiKwik App; Discounts underway
Indian cab hailing giant, Ola, has partnered with digital financial services platform Mobikwik. This marks as Ola’s first partnership, with a digital financial company, that will enable Mobikwik users to book Ola cabs and autos across 110 cities in India from within the Mobikwik app.
From raising funds to improving investor sentiment: Here’s what top VC firms, startups think
Any entrepreneur can tell you that raising funds can be the most typical part of starting your own business. While the competition for raising funds is increasing by the day, your chances – as an entrepreneur, raising investments become slim. Of course, finding an investor is not impossible, but one of the best decisions an entrepreneur can make is to find multiple ways that will contribute to their financial stability.
Humanoid Robotics maker Ubtech Robotics raises $820 million from Tencent Holdings, Haier Group and others
Chinese internet behemoth Tencent Holdings has invested over $820 million in its series C round of investment in Humanoid robot making company Ubtech Robotics. The investment valued the company at $5 billion.
With “no cap” on its investments, here’s what startups can expect from Google’s Assistant Fund
Global tech giant Google is taking a big leap on its Assistant ecosystem by putting its money where its mouth is. The company yesterday announced the launch of its new program that aims to provide funds and other resources to early-stage startups that are building or have build applications on its Assistant ecosystem.
From the most hyped sectors to the most admired founders: Here’s what the Indian entrepreneurs and VCs think
(From L-R) Mukesh Bansal, founder of Myntra, and Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm Over 60 percent of the startup founders agree that we’re living in a tech-bubble. But their outlook is biased, in part, the sort of company they run. Leaders of the consumer facing companies have a bleaker impression of the same.
SoundHound raises $100 million to compete with the likes of Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa
SoundHound, innovator in voice enabled AI and conversational intelligence, has raised another $100 million in its new round of funding from NVIDIA GPU Ventures, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Nomura Holdings, Inc., Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance Inc., and RSI Fund I. The round further saw participation from new investors Kleiner Perkins, SharesPost 100 Fund, and MKaNN which will join its early investors Global Catalyst Partners, Walden Venture Capital, and TransLink Capital.
The story of how Instagram started and what entrepreneurs can learn from it
Instagram founders Mike Krieger (left) and Kevin Systrom (right) Around 8 years ago Instagram was launched. As it first came to the Apple app store, the app was accompanied by a brief statement outlining of what the product can do: to make mobile photographs simple and beautiful. This is hardly any evidence of an app that would be embraced by the most powerful, famous people in the world, be priced at a billion dollars and change the way people see photographs.
Airbnb property management platform Guesty raises over $19 million to scale its services for house owners
It might be a lucrative business for a few investors to buy properties and rent them out to short-term vacation rental platforms like Airbnb, but managing multiple properties becomes a hassle. Further, the threat of regulations on the vacation rentals has done very little to dissuade these investors from investing in it. Guesty, a service that aims to do just that, today filed raising $19.75 million in its Series B round of investment.
From Failure to Persistence: 5 quotes from Tesla founder Elon Musk for entrepreneurs
Tesla, SpaceX founder Elon Musk Elon Musk is undeniably one of the most innovative people of our time. Starting from Paypal to SpaceX to Tesla, Musk is clearly on a mission to overhaul the globe, and space. You might not be planning to send over a million people to Mars but you owe it to yourself to dream big. These quotes by Elon Musk will give inspiration to aspiring entrepreneurs and help them achieve what they dreamt of, even if it seems impossible for now.
Ola steps up passenger safety, sets up safety council in sync with Brasilia Declaration
Indian cab hailing behemoth Ola has initiated Safety Council, bringing together organisations and individual achievers from various sectors viz. urban transport, climate change, women’s safety, security management, traffic management, and emergency management services. Ola’s Safety Council would be a first for the ride-sharing industry, globally, stated the company in its media release.
5 most valued ICOs of 2018 so far, which raised millions of dollars in hours
How would it be, if you could just throw in some money blindly into a pool and magically get good returns? Well, that’s exactly what’s happening with ICOs (Initial Coin Offering or token sales) and this is evident from two points — the initial sale price and the current sale price. ICO’s are on a rise and they’re steadily moving in the realms of Venture Capital, threatening to take its place.
Shell Foundation and Zone Startups join hands to initiate accelerator for Women entrepreneurs in the energy sector
Shell Foundation, the charity arm of Shell Foundation, has entered into a partnership with Zone Startups India. Zone Startups, Indian arm, will launch a women entrepreneurs led accelerator program in the energy sector. The three year program, will seek to on board around 100 women entrepreneurs in the energy access domain from across India and provide them with mentoring, corporate connects and get their proof of concepts (POC) off the ground.
Global Industrial IoT market to touch $232 billion by 2023; Asia Pacific region to witness maximum growth
The global Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market, which was pegged at approximately $145.81 billion, is expected to touch $232.15 billion by 2023, according to report by Zion Market Research. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 8.06% in the five year period. The report further added that the Asia Pacific region with the most growth in this time period. IoT is alluded to devices encompassing use of internet protocol technologies to connect with people, processes and things.
Early-stage Indian startup incubator Venture Catalysts forays into Dubai; selects six startups on its launch-day
Venture Catalysts (VCats), integrated incubator based out of India, has announced its launch in Dubai. The launch event at the Taj Dubai in Business Bay, was attended by more than 150 investors as well as several other key stakeholders from the region, including entrepreneurs. The incubator aims to create an integrated international entrepreneurship-focussed network which facilitates business knowledge and technical acumen between Indian and international startups, investors, and organisations.
Elon Musk’s Boring Company raises $112.5 million; denies raising funds from VCs or outside investors
Elon Musk, Founder of SpaceX, Tesla and the Boring Company Elon Musk’s the Boring Company, the company that recently sold flamethrowers and was planning to build transit tunnels, has raised over $112.5 million. Most of the investment was put in by Musk himself. Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission state that over 31 investors participated in the round. According to the Boring Company, Musk has invested over 90 percent of the amount.
Half the people who profit from cryptocurrencies do not want to report gains, survey shows
Today, being the last day for filing taxes in the US, anxiety is running wild. For people who’ve invested in cryptocurrencies, this rush of blood is even higher. This is because the IRS is targeting people who have not reported their ‘crypto earnings’ for the taxes. According to a recent research, who surveyed over 2000 people, found out that over 57 percent of people have gained from the digital currencies in 2017.
Sky9 Capital and Caerus Ventures float $200 million and $100 million funds to invest in early-stage startups
Today, two venture capital funds have been announced. There seem to be more investments and even bigger funds announced these days. According to the US regulatory filings by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the early-stage investment has two new funds focussed on their particular niches. Sky9 Capital China-based Venture Capital firm Sky9 Capital has announced a $200 million fund.
Here’s how Amazon collects employee feedback -- One question a day
Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO and Co-Founder From Mark Zuckerberg to Peter Thiel, several big-shot tech entrepreneurs were college dropouts. However, don’t be fooled by these fast growing companies. Today, majority of the tech companies including Microsoft, Google, and Apple employ thousands of college graduates to fill the gaps in their organisations. And graduates who land a job in these companies make big bucks. With inexperienced entrepreneurs making it big, ever thought what goes on the inside?
SAIF Partners invest over Rs 50 crore in Indian NBFC Arman Financial Services
SAIF Partners’ Bengaluru Office SAIF Partners have invested Rs 50 crores in Arman Financial Services, a Gujarat based Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC), which caters to two-wheeler, MSME, and microfinance lending, through its fund.
Electronic Vehicles company Emflux Motors raises Rs 2 crore from Fabian Brian Crain, Samar Singhla and others
Emflux Motor’s first e-bike prototype will be launched in October this year at a price of Rs 5 lakh per unit. Bengaluru-based Emflux Motors, an electronic bike company, has raised Rs 2 crore in a new round of investment with existing and new investors.
Netflix wants to save millions of dollars just by changing its font, and it’s not the first one to do so
Netflix spends billions of dollars on producing new content, but this new move by the company is actually the one that may save it a whole lot of cash and it’s all to do with the font it uses on its platform. Netflix has developed a new typeface and has moved-on from using the traditional ‘Gotham’ style. The font is an inspiration from the company’s logo, mainly from the curves in its current logo.
Healthcare focussed fintech startup AffordPlan raises $10 million from Lok Capital, Kalaari Capital and others
Healthcare centric fintech startup Affordplan has secured $10 million in Series B round of investment led by Lok Capital. The round also saw participation from Omidyar Network, with existing investors Prime Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital. The company plans to use the freshly secured funds scale up geographically and launch new savings, lending and insurance products to cover medical and healthcare expenses.
Beyond Blackstone Group: Here are 5 global PE behemoths investing millions of dollars in India
The Indian private equity market has seen tremendous growth in the past past decade or so. 2017 was notably the best year ever for Private Equity funds (PE Funds). Growing by over 60 percent to $15.7 billion, the market was directed by confidence of investors and the public, according to a recent report. With Private Equity firms floating large funds in India, we take a look at the the 5 biggest PE firms investing millions of dollars in India.
Unicorn sightings become common: A look at billion-dollar startups of India and China
There was a time when a startup with a valuation of $1 billion or more was considered be a rare kind, almost a mythical thing and that’s why it was called a unicorn. In the past few years unicorns have become pretty common, more like horses. Further, from a few years the venture capital industry is looking to tighten its grip and bring back the valuations back to earth. But, just last year investments poured heavily skyrocketing the valuations of many companies.
Ripple invests $25 million in XRP to a $150 million Blockchain and digital currency focussed venture fund
Famous distributed ledger technology company, Ripple, has invested $25 million in XRP to Blockchain Capital Parallel fourth venture fund. Blockchain capital Parallel’s fourth venture fund is actually the first to accept capital calls in digital assets and focuses on the development in the blockchain space. The $150 million fund is handled by Blockchain Capital — one of the oldest venture firm focussed on the development of digital currency and blockchain technology.
Indian Cab hailing company Ola offers two free rides on its launch in Melbourne today
Ola Co-Founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal Indian cab hailing giant, Ola, has initiated its services in Melbourne today. This comes in just a month after they started their services in Sydney. The company backed by Chinese internet behemoth Tencent as well as Masayoshi Son’s Softbank started its operations in February in Australia starting from Perth.
Venture Catalysts invests $1 million in insurance-based management startup Ideal Insurance
One of the biggest incubators in Asia, Venture Catalysts, has invested $1 million in Kolkata based insurance management startup Ideal Insurance brokers in its seed round of investment. The round also saw participation from a group of industrialists and business leaders from Venture Catalysts investor panel, including Nitesh Prakash of Ola, Atul Jain of Samyakth Finserv, Maithan group, Primarc, Artha group among others.
Udacity initiates Foundation Nanodegree Programs to enable non-technical people access technical career paths
Learning platform, Udacity, has initiated a series of Foundation Nanodegree Programs. These Programs are designed for the Indian audiences, enable working professionals and freshers with or without a technical background to gain a fundamental understanding of emerging technologies.
Jack Ma’s Ant Financial is looking to raise $9 billion ahead of its IPO
Jack ma, Co Founder and Executive Chairman at Alibaba Group Ant Financial, Alibaba’s financial technology business which runs one of the biggest payment services in China Alipay, is looking to raise $9 billion ahead of its Initial Public Offering (IPO), according to Wall Street Journal. The round will mark Ant Financial as one of the most valuable companies in the world. Further, this investment will mark company’s valuation at $150 billion.
Meet the 9 Virtual Reality startups selected for T-Hub and Facebook’s India Innovation Hub Accelerator Program
One of India’s biggest accelerators in India, T-Hub along with Facebook today announced the first batch of winning startups, selected for their joint program “India Innovation Hub.” The program which was launched in November last year, aims to help startups focused on using emerging technologies by providing support and mentorship to accelerate their businesses in new and innovative ways.
Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal’s Fundamentum invest $12 million in TravelTriangle
Tech Travel startup, TravelTriangle, has secured $12 million in its Series C round of investment led by Fundamentum. The startup works like a travel package booking platform, where users can choose and select from a list of travel packages across India. The company further collaborates with offline travel agencies to help them offer packages and tailoring trips. TravelTriangle provides a back-end platform to the agencies help them posting packages on the platform and generate more revenue.
Breaking Stereotypes: 50 year old founders more likely to see success than entrepreneurs in their 20’s or 30’s
There’s no question that entrepreneurs these days have it pretty good. But there’s a big misconception running wild on the streets of startup hubs – ‘Young founders do well’. Often a silicon valley investor will look for an entrepreneur, usually technical, and young – very young with absolutely no job experience at all. Even people like Peter Thiel have started a fund to award college dropouts with a $100,000 to start a business. One just needs to be below 23 years of age and a college dropout.
Famous online hacker ‘Geohot’ raises another $5 million to enable better control in Autonomous vehicles
Comma.ai founder George Hotz With the autonomous vehicles defining the future of travel, companies cashing on the concept are raising humongous amounts of investment. And this is nothing new. Just the cost of sensor arrays and other automation systems can straightaway cost something in 5 figures and the car’s excluded, according to Crunchbase. According to the SEC filings, Autonomous vehicles company Comma.ai has raised another $5 million in external investment.
YumLane raises $4 million from RB Investments, Flipkart Founder Binny Bansal and others
Food-tech startup, QwikPik Technology which owns YumLane, has secured $4 million in series A round of investment led by Singapore based RB Investments.
Mark Zuckerberg Congressional hearing live streaming online in India: When and how to watch Facebook CEO’s testimony
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg Facebook Founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, will begin with the most scrutinized two days of his life. Tonight, the members of US senate will hear from the Facebook founder on data privacy, protection and data use in the midst of Cambridge Analytica scam and Russian election meddling. While Facebook founder’s statement has already been issued to the public, there are a plethora of questions yet to be answered.
From JPMorgan to Amazon: Over 86 % companies in UK, pay women less than men
One of the most unexpected things that happen when it comes to discrimination is that we glare at the victims and expect them to fix it. This is as useful as telling people not to carry their wallets while walking so that they can prevent pick-pocketing. When it comes to gender pay gaps many are asking women (victims) to take up management roles to end the disparity.
Credit bureau veteran Darshan Shah joins LenddoEFL as Managing Director
Singapore-based financial SaaS company, LenddoEFL, has appointed Darshan Shah as Managing Director, India and South Asia. Shah is a credit bureau veteran and brings close to two decades of experience including credit reporting, scoring, analytics and technology. He will be leading LenddoEFL’s team and expansion in India and South Asia. Also, he‘ll be responsible for driving deeper engagement with the company’s existing and new financial institution clients.
5 Entrepreneurs, other than Mark Zuckerberg, who dropped out of college to earn billions
WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg As a new batch of high school graduates prepare to enter the next zone (college), one of the biggest problem they face is to decide the college. Despite the increase in academic fees and growing student debts, college grads still make over 60 percent more than high school grads. That doesn’t mean college is the only path to success. Some of the most influential entrepreneurs are college dropouts.
After $530 million NEM hack, Coincheck gets acquired by Online Brokerage firm Monex
Coincheck, Japanese cryptocurrency exchange platform, who was in news after hackers stole more than $500 million worth NEM coins, has been acquired. The company, in Japanese, today announced that online brokerage firm Monex group will be completely acquiring it The transaction will enable the acquired to become a owned subsidiary of Monex. The deal clearly looks like a reaction to the recent NEM hack, the company has realised that it needs to strengthen its management and security.
Cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase launches Coinbase Ventures; to invest in early stage cryptocurrency startups
One of the biggest online platforms to trade Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, Coinbase, has announced a new fund for early-stage cryptocurrency and Blockchain startups ‘Coinbase Ventures’.
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