STARTUP DIGEST: Here’re startup stories of the day
KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)
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Summary
There were many developments in the startup space on Thursday these include Flipkart acquired Walmart India’s wholesale business, Vernacular language learning app startup Entri raised an additional $1.7 million, and Amazon Pay launched car and bike insurance, among others.
There were many developments in the startup space on Thursday these include Flipkart acquired Walmart India’s wholesale business, Vernacular language learning app startup Entri raised an additional $1.7 million, and Amazon Pay launched car and bike insurance, among others. Here’s a closer look at today’s startups news and everything you need to know:
1. Flipkart acquires Walmart India’s wholesale business to launch Flipkart Wholesale in August
E-commerce platform Flipkart has acquired 100 percent interest in WalMart India, which operates the Best Price cash-and-carry business. This acquisition was announced with the launch of Flipkart Wholesale, a new digital marketplace to help transform the kirana retail ecosystem in India.
Flipkart Wholesale will launch its operations in August 2020 and will pilot services for the grocery and fashion categories. It will be headed by Adarsh Menon, a veteran at Flipkart. Sameer Aggarwal, Chief Executive Officer at Walmart India, will remain with the company to ensure a smooth transition, after which time he will move to another role within Walmart.
2. Vernacular language learning startup Entri raises an additional $1.7 million led by Good Capital
Vernacular language-focussed learning app Entri, raises an additional $1.7 million to the $1.4 million it raised in February from a set of investors led by Good Capital, closing its Pre-Series A round at a total of $3.1 million.
The round also saw participation from several top angel investors in the Valley and in India, including HyperTrack Founder Kashyap Deorah and Hari TN, Head of HR at BigBasket.
Entri will be using the newly raised fund to capitalize on the opportunity ahead and ramp up marketing, and to produce more content in the coming months.
The local-language learning app for jobs also crossed 3 million users, and saw a 100 percent spike in new users and 150% growth in revenue since the lockdown.
3. Amazon India sets up 10 new warehouses to expand storage capacity
Amazon India has added 10 new warehouses and expanded seven existing buildings, ahead of its upcoming Prime Day sale. These new fulfilment centres will be set up in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Patna, Lucknow, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ludhiana and Ahmedabad, a statement said.
Unlike traditional warehouses, fulfilment centres are equipped with highly automated pick, pack and shipping processes to facilitate safe and timely processing of orders. The company however did not give details about the expansion of the seven existing buildings and the investment made.
With this expansion, Amazon India has more than 60 fulfilment centres (FCs) in 15 states with a total storage capacity of over 32 million cubic feet and include the specialised network of FCs for large appliances and furniture category and Receive Centres, it added.
4. WhatsApp Pay’s rural push: From insurance, micro-credit to pension are the app’s next big bets
Providing access to financial services such as insurance, micro-credit, pension and lower income segments in rural India is WhatsApp’s next big bet on the payments front. “We want to open up with more banks in the coming year to simplify and expand banking services to rural and lower income segments,” said Abhijit Bose, head of WhatsApp India.
“Our collective aim over the next two to three years is to enable low-wage earners and the unorganised sector access insurance, micro-credit and pension.”
Bose admitted that extending payments to newer, rural customers can’t be done in isolation. “The goal is not to bring payments but services to the masses,” he said, adding, “Even the RBI’s five-year financial strategy highlights the need to extend financial services to the masses.”
5. Amazon Pay launches car and bike insurance
Amazon Pay has marked its foray in the insurance space by offering two and four-wheeler insurance policies, in partnership with Acko General Insurance Ltd. One can now purchase insurance in less than two minutes with no paperwork, the company claims.
The Amazon Prime members get extra benefits, including additional discounts.
Customers can pay using Amazon Pay balance, UPI, or any saved card and the policy will be in their email inbox in less than 2-minutes. A copy of the policy can also be downloaded from Your Orders page.
6. Saas based HR Tech platform Dockabl launches its new product Clink
Dockabl, an HR-tech startup, launches a new feedback-sharing mobile application – ‘Clink’ – in India. Clink helps in the continuous performance and development of teams by sharing, organizing, and analyzing feedback in real-time.
Dockabl has raised $1.3 million till date out of which they made an initial investment of $500k amount in building the new product. Clink plans to foray into Southeast Asian and North American markets by September 2020.
Clink is now live on Apple App Store and Google Play Store for users. The platform extends free membership to first 10,000 users for Clink’s team++ plan. With this new product, Dockabl plans to foray into Southeast Asian and North American markets by September 2020
7. WYN Studio raises angel funding from India Angel Fund led by Sanjeev Sinha
New age content startup WYN Studio raises angel funding from India Angel Fund led by Sanjeev Sinha, along with India Japan Partnership Fund based in Tokyo, Pranay Anthwal, Narendra Firodia, Founder of Sohamm Unicorp and Rahul Narvekar,Co-Founder, India Angel Network.
The startup plans to use these funds to further strengthen their team with new hiring and also create more original content. While currently they are more focussed on all things audio, with a bit of video content for brands, they are also working on a pipeline of original digital content for various platforms.
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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow