by Editor | Jan 16, 2023 | Business, Startup Basics, Tech
Faridabad, Haryana, India
The round was led by Research Capital’s Douglas Penny, Largest investment banking firm of Toronto, Canada and also saw the participation of ex Global CEO of Bookings.com (Stoffer Anko Norden).
Startup Lanes, Marwari Catalysts and IVY Growth Associates played a important role in growth of the company.
Hobit, Founded during the first lockdown in 2020, by Gaurav Dua, Arpit Tyagi, and Lakshay Rohilla, Hobit is addressing the market for extracurricular activities/hobbies for working professionals and home makers where people learn from the industry’s top-notch artists through Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Gaurav Dua, Co-founder & CEO (HOBIT) added, “Our goal is to help you learn in the best way possible, across categories and mediums. The next decade will see new paradigms of learning and for this, we’re building a new model of community and learning that is a fundamental evolution of ed-tech.”
Hobit Claims to have impacted 2 lakhs+ lives in India and UAE by helping users pursuing their favourite hobby.
Arpit Tyagi, Co-founder & COO further commented, In today’s era, the biggest challenge for home makers & working professionals is of not getting enough possible time to pursue their hobbies. Hobit helps them to pursue their hobby at their convenient time and place with the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Lakshay rohilla, Co-founder & CTO commented that, Hobit has seen tremendous growth in the past One year, Our community of like-minded individuals is seeing high engagement with average conversation started within the platform with each other is 3 minutes and platform is having 20+ minutes average user engagement time.
The non-academic EdTech startup will use the funds to strategically allocate for strengthening the technology & product, Penetrating in UAE and US market, user base expansion, strengthening the team, and accelerating its growth in order to expand its footprint in India and international markets.
by Editor | Dec 21, 2022 | Startup Basics, Women Entrepreneur
The youth of Kashmir Valley now believe in self-employment. A good number of females have left a unique mark by breaking all the taboos.
Srinagar, Dec 21,2022: The youth of Kashmir Valley now believe in self-employment. A good number of females have left a unique mark by breaking all the taboos.
A good example of this can be taken from Kashmir’s Dr. Rukhsar Saeed, who started her own business after completing her PhD in Food Technology and emerged as the first woman from the Kashmir Valley to start a frozen food venture. Today Dr. Rukhsar is not only earning herself but also is providing employment to many other women.
This achievement of Dr. Rukhsar is also important because after marriage she nurtured her hobby along with raising her two children. Dr. Rukhsar says that her in-laws helped her in every possible way.
This venture called ‘Khalis’ was started by Dr. Rukhsar in 2019. “Pure Food” offers a wide range of frozen chicken products, ready to fry / bake. Each product is carefully manufactured using quality ingredients, she says.
According to Dr. Rukhsar, the idea came to her while raising her two children when she felt the need for food that was easy to prepare and of good quality.
“I came up with the name ‘Khalis’ because I wanted to make my food pure, food that is easily available and doesn’t compromise on quality and taste,” she said.
Talking to IANS, Dr. Rukhsar said, “Sarting a small food business at home after obtaining a doctorate in food technology has always been my dream. I was always surprised by the concept and preservation of frozen food. I tried to prepare such frozen snacks in which the freshness and taste could be maintained and with God’s grace I succeeded in this.
“After a lot of hard work and effort I have made them easily available for the foodies while retaining the freshness and taste without compromising on quality. The aim was to provide easy to cook and ready to eat halal snacks.”
This venture of Dr. Rukhsar is getting a lot of popularity among the public. “Khalis” products are also available at many departmental stores in Srinagar district while they are also available online. Rukhsar has emerged as an inspiration for other girls in the Kashmir valley.
by Editor | Oct 19, 2022 | Business, Startup Basics, Startup Financing
India now has more than 450 active Web3 startups, with four unicorns, that have raised $1.3 billion funding (till April 2022), a Nasscom report said on Wednesday.
Bengaluru, Oct 19,2022: India now has more than 450 active Web3 startups, with four unicorns, that have raised $1.3 billion funding (till April 2022), a Nasscom report said on Wednesday.
Currently, India is home to over 11 per cent of the global Web3 talent, making the country the third largest Web3 talent pool worldwide.
Between 2021-2022, India registered over 170 new Web3 startups, yielding over 50 per cent CAGR growth since 2015.
With increasing confidence and interest from global investors, investments in Indian Web3 and Web 2.5 startups have also soared. New age incubators have pooled in over $587 million, said the NAsscom report with VC firm Hashed Emergent, prepared in research partnership with Zinnov Consulting.
“While we are only scratching the surface when it comes to emerging tech such as Web3, the ‘Techade’ will be all about the technology making significant advances leading to innovative use-cases and magnified positive impact at a grassroots level,” said Debjani Ghosh, President, Nasscom.
Web3 has become a buzzword with technological concepts, such as metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) gaining prominence.
In terms of distribution, over 80 per cent of Indian Web3 startups are in the tier I cities.
However, the tier 2 and 3 ecosystem is growing rapidly with locations such as Jaipur, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Trivandrum and Coimbatore evolving as emerging hubs for Web3 startups.
Today, nearly 75,000 Blockchain professionals are actively employed by the tech industry in India, the report said.
This surge in Web3 startups has driven up the adoption of blockchain. Startups focused on other emerging technologies are building solutions for on-chain consumption.
While the global demand for blockchain specialists and developers surges, India’s existing, and fastest growing digital talent pool has incumbent advantages when it comes to expertise development, quick reskilling, and bridging the Web3 demand-supply gap.
The report said that this talent pool is expected to grow by over 120 per cent in the next 1-2 years.
by Editor | Sep 28, 2022 | Entrepreneurship, Startup Basics, Startup Financing
The Kerala government on Wednesday announced to double the financial assistance to industries and startups from Rs five million to Rs 10 million, making the environment more conducive for the units.
Kochi, Sep 28, 2022: The Kerala government on Wednesday announced to double the financial assistance to industries and startups from Rs five million to Rs 10 million, making the environment more conducive for the units.
Inaugurating the KSIDC Scale up 2022 here, State Industries Minister P. Rajeev said, “Start-ups have to be given all the atmosphere to grow as at the moment 30 per cent of the Start-ups close down. Our aim is to bring that figure down and for that, we will be there with all the assistance and help. KSIDC will set up a team of experts who will also provide support,” said Rajeev.
KSIDC (Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation Ltd) is the industrial and investment promotion agency of the Government of Kerala, for the promotion and development of medium and large scale units in the State of Kerala.
He said the Industries department’s programme of starting one lakh new units in one year has in six months saw 61,350 units, new ones being set up and creation of 1.35 lakh new jobs.
“We are now working out a project with KELTRON (state owned electronics agency) where we expect Rs 1,000 crores investment. At present, in Kerala we have the biggest blood bag manufacturing unit in Asia and several other units and more and more companies are opening offices in the state,” added Rajeev.
He said Kerala is a huge market (bottled water to the tune of Rs 240 crore and textiles worth over Rs 3,000 crore) and of this, a sizeable share of things are produced outside the state.
“We are planning for a branding campaign for ‘made in Kerala’,” added Rajeev.
by Editor | Sep 7, 2022 | Business, Entrepreneurship, Startup Basics
Aimed at driving innovation in coffee and taking it to the masses, the Mumbai-based startup will use the capital to strengthen its product portfolio and grow its topline 10X in the coming months
September 07, 2022: Specialty coffee startup Toffee Coffee Roasters has raised seed funding of INR 1 Cr from the Indian Angel Network (IAN). The funding round was led by IAN Lead Investors Hari Balasubramanian, Uday Chatterjee and Rajeev Sarda. Bootstrapped until now, the startup will utilize the fresh capital to strengthen its product portfolio and grow its topline 10X in the coming months.
Founded in 2019, Toffee Coffee Roasters is the brainchild of Nandini Shrivastava and Rishabh Nigam, owing to their shared love for coffee. Born in the back lanes of Bandra, this Mumbai-based startup aims at creating the best craft coffee for its customers, sourcing coffee beans from some of the finest estates worldwide by closely partnering with the farmers.
Nandini and Rishabh’s love for a good cup of coffee took them to several estates in Wayanad, Yercaud, Coorg, and Chikmagalur, only to discover that most of India’s high-quality coffee is exported to European Nations. To widen the penetration of freshly roasted coffee in India, Toffee Coffee Roasters was born, and the business expanded within the first three months.
Following its six-sigma step of procurement and artistically roasting the beans, Toffee Coffee Roasters provides its customers with some great blends, and only sells coffee that has been out of the roaster for less than 48 hours for the customers to enjoy it at its peak flavor. The company has over 20 SKUs of coffee with several categories, including Speciality Coffee Blends, Single Origin Coffee, Fermented Coffee, Barrel Aged Coffee, Easy-to-brew Pour Over Coffee, Cold Brew Coffee, and South Indian Filter Coffee.
Toffee Coffee Roaster co-founder Nandini Shrivastava said, “India is one of the top coffee producers and a USD 1.5 billion market. Still, people struggle to find a good cup of coffee in the country. Toffee Coffee Roasters was established to make great coffee blends accessible to everyone. In three years of our existence, we have had 40% repeat customers, which is a significant figure in the sector. While we started by targeting coffee lovers in Tier-1 cities, our reach has expanded to Tier-2 cities post COVID-19. With IAN backing us up, we intend to deepen the focus on our existing product categories. We are also looking to expand our team and have already started hiring across multiple roles. However, we believe in lean teams, so we plan to get the best talent onboard to solve the challenges in the sector.”
IAN Lead Investor, Rajeev Sarda said, “The coffee industry in India is growing, and we are witnessing the emergence of a new segment of consumers who are extremely taste conscious and are looking for speciality coffee with innovative blends. We firmly believe that new-age brands like Toffee Coffee Roasters are well positioned to garner a sizeable share of this growing demand. We at IAN are excited to be a part of this journey, and believe that Nandini & Rishabh have all the capabilities required to create a global consumer brand in Coffee from India.”
So far, Toffee Coffee Roasters has served over 25,000 customers since it pivoted the business online. Over 80% of the orders are placed on its website, and the rest are from aggregator platforms like CRED, Amazon, etc.
The Indian instant coffee market is evaluated at USD 0.7 billion, growing at a CAGR of 13%. While the traditional players are into one or two coffee variations, they still currently capture 77% of the market. New players have emerged to form a small portion of the market and are growing gradually to capture a significant market share.
About Toffee Coffee Roasters:
Toffee Coffee Roasters is a Mumbai Based Coffee Company known for its freshly roasted signature coffees. Known for their Barrel Aged Coffees, Fermented Coffees, Single Origin Coffees and Speciality Blends, the company sources coffee from some of the finest coffee estates of the world and roasts it artistically. As of date Toffee Coffee Roasters has served over 30,000+ users since lockdown.
About IAN:
Indian Angel Network is India’s first and world’s largest business angel network with close to 500 members across the world, comprising the who’s who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. With investors from 12 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and the UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded start-ups across 19 sectors in India and 7 other countries growing global footprint companies. With an excellent track record, IAN has been giving excellent cash exits year-on-year to its investor members, for the last 12 years. Some of its marquee investee companies include Druva, Spinny, Box8, Uniphore, WOW Momos, Consure, Fareye, NOCCARC, Propelld, Skit.ai amongst many others.
IAN Fund, an INR 375 crore VC fund is a uniquely differentiated seed/early stage Fund that aims to transform India’s entrepreneurial landscape. The fund invests in innovative companies in sectors including healthcare and medical devices, VR, AI, software as a service, marketplaces, fin-tech, big data, artificial intelligence, agritech, and hardware. With this, IAN has created the single largest platform for seed and early-stage investing, enabling entrepreneurs to raise from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores.
by Editor | Sep 2, 2022 | Business, Startup Basics
The government has received a total of 236 solutions under ‘Swachhata Startup Challenge’ which was launched by the Ministry of Urban Affairs in collaboration with Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to promote an enabling environment for development startups and entrepreneurs in the waste management sector.
New Delhi, Sep 2 , 2022: The government has received a total of 236 solutions under ‘Swachhata Startup Challenge’ which was launched by the Ministry of Urban Affairs in collaboration with Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to promote an enabling environment for development startups and entrepreneurs in the waste management sector.
Officials said that a total of 236 solutions across four themes including social inclusion, zero dump (solid waste management), plastic waste management and transparency through digital enablement were received, of which 30 solutions have been shortlisted.
Out of the shortlisted solutions the final list of 10 winners will be chosen by a jury. Winning entries under the Challenge will be rewarded with seed funding of Rs 25 lakhs per project along with one year of dedicated incubation support.
The Swachh Technology Challenge was launched by the Ministry of Urban affairs on December 6, 2021, as part of Swachh Survekshan 2022. To further incentivise the start-up ecosystem, the ministry also launched a Swachhta Start-Up Challenge as next step to the Swachh Technology Challenge on 27th January 2022.
Provisions have been made under Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban 2.0 guidelines to encourage adoption of locally innovated, cost-effective technology solutions and business models in sanitation and solid waste management by startups, through investment in Research & Design (R&D) and facilitation in Government e-Market (GeM) portal, in order to take forward the government’s vision of an “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” and “Make in India”.
As a technological tool promoting cleanliness, Swachhata App has emerged as an important tool towards enabling citizens to have their grievances addressed by the concerned Municipal Corporation. The revised version enables citizens to get their Covid-related complaints also redressed by their respective urban local bodies (ULBs). The Swachhata App has a total of 2.08 crore users from all across the country.
