BlackSoil invests $4mn in GenWorks Health

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May 9, 2023

Mumbai-based alternative credit platform BlackSoil has announced an investment of $4M in GenWorks Health, a leading medical technology company based in India. The investment is part of BlackSoil’s commitment to investing in the healthcare industry. It is expected to help in the growth and development of GenWorks Health and advance innovative healthcare solutions.

In India, GenWorks Health helps distribute medical supplies and equipment. The company operates across India and has served over 40,000 customers in over 700 districts.

With a focus on increasing healthcare outcomes through innovative technology, the company has expanded its product portfolio to cover the whole care cycle of patients, including screening, diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring.

“We are pleased to tie up with Blacksoil and have them as our partner. Their funding will aid our expansion activities, grow the customer base, as well as help us maintain a robust infrastructure, such as equipment, software, technology, and staffing, to support the delivery of our healthcare services,” said S Ganeshprasad, Founder, Managing Director, and CEO, Genworks.

BlackSoil’s investment in GenWorks Health is expected to boost the company’s growth and leadership position in the medical technology sector. With the help of other investors, including Somerset Indus Capital Partners, Evolvence, and Morgan Stanley, GenWorks Health is well-positioned to increase the affordability and accessibility of healthcare across India.

“Our investment in Genwork Healthcare is not only a testament to their potential for growth, but also to our belief in the transformative power of healthcare technology. By leveraging our expertise and resources, we are confident that together we can make a positive impact on the healthcare industry and improve the lives of countless individuals,” said Ankur Bansal, Co-founder of BlackSoil Capital.

The investment will help GenWorks Health’s efforts to deliver high-quality healthcare to underprivileged areas and help tier-II/III cities across the country make healthcare more accessible and affordable.

Pride Hotels Group signs Pride Resort Ambaji, Gujarat

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May 9, 2023

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Pride Hotels Group has announced the signing of Pride Resort Ambaji. Centrally located, the property will be easily accessible to all major leisure and popular establishments in the city.

The resort will have extravagantly furnished rooms, luxurious hilltop villas, a 15000 square feet wedding hall, a swimming pool, a game zone, a theatre, a gym, a spa, a coffee shop, and a restaurant. The Ambaji temple is 1.5 km away and 10 kilometers from Mount Abu Road. The new property will be operational soon.

Announcing the signing Atul Upadhyay, senior vice-president, Pride Hotels Group, said, “We are delighted to expand our presence in Gujarat with the signing of Pride Resort Ambaji. The town’s natural beauty, historic temple, and vibrant local culture make it a popular destination for tourists from all over the world. We look forward to delivering a unique and tailored experience to all our guests at this beautiful location.”

“Ambaji is a popular pilgrimage destination and attracts thousands of tourists every year. The signing of our new property in the temple town is a proud milestone in our effort to provide the finest quality accommodation and hospitality services to our customers. Our rapid expansion in Gujarat is a testament to our commitment to providing our guests with the best possible “Pride” experience,” said Koustuva Mukherjee, AVP Gujarat, Pride Hotels Group.

With 5,390 rooms, 109 restaurants, and 152 banquet, lawn, and conference halls, Pride Hotels Group is present in about 56 various locations. Under the brand name “Pride Plaza Hotel”, an Indian Luxury Collection, “Pride Hotel”, conveniently located business hotels, “Pride Resort”, at mesmerizing destinations, “Pride Biznotel”, a new concept in mid-market segment hotels for every business, and “Pride Suites”, a premium luxury serviced apartment stays, the group operates and manages a chain of hotels. All brands are well appreciated and frequented by celebrities, corporate, and domestic and foreign tourists.

Samyuktha Menon and Rahman grace the launch of Qaadu’s new products and website, set to capture 10% of the premium personal care market

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May 9, 2023

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Qaadu, the rapidly growing personal care brand, hosted a grand launch event at the Marriott in Kochi to unveil its new products and website. The event was attended by distinguished guests, including Hibi Eden, MP, Ernakulam, popular film celebrity Samyuktha Menon, and Rahman.

Since its establishment in 2022, Qaadu has rapidly expanded its presence offline and online across India and the GCC, establishing a formidable presence in over 200+ locations, including leading retailers such as LuLu India & UAE, Aster Pharmacy, Life Pharmacy, TATA 1MG among others. Furthermore, the brand has successfully ventured into key online stores such as Nykaa, Amazon, and Flipkart.

Qaadu aims to capture 10% of the premium market within ten years with its over 18 premium and prestige personal care, wellness, and nutraceuticals products.

“Our first-year sales exceeded 15 million businesses, of which 80% were offline stores, and online sales accounted for 20%. This massive growth and reach give us the confidence to target the top five positions in the premium category,” stated Shafin Kalathingal, Founder and CEO of Qaadu.

“Our products are certified by leading international quality standards organizations such as the USFDA and the Vegan Society of the UK. Our production processes follow GMP and ISO certified factories,” Kalathingal added.

The Qaadu Natural Talent Hunt is another initiative by the brand aimed at identifying and supporting talented individuals within the market where it has a strong presence.

“We are thrilled to introduce our new products and website, and we are confident that our premium and prestige segment offerings will cater to the needs of our discerning customers. As our product gains prominence globally, we’re keen to enhance our customer engagement and fuel our growth to 110 million within the next three years,” Kalathingal said.

About Qaadu

Qaadu is a personal care brand focused on creating opportunities for natural talent. The brand offers premium and prestige segment products across personal care, wellness, and Nutraceuticals. All our products are certified Vegan by the world’s best and oldest vegan certification, The Vegan Soviet of the UK, and most of our products are manufactured from USFDA registered, GMP, and ISO-certified facilities.

For more information about Qaadu’s products, visit their website: https://qaadu.com/

US-based Invesco slashes Swiggy’s valuation to $5.5 billion

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May 8, 2023

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According to a recent filing, US-based investment firm Invesco has slashed foodtech giant Swiggy’s valuation to about $5.5 billion. Invesco valued the company at around $8 billion in October, just a month ago.

This development occurs as reports circulate that the world’s largest food delivery company is taking action to cut costs, eliminate unprofitable business segments, and drive profitability. According to reports, the company is taking these actions in preparation for a forthcoming stock market debut.

The company recently ended Handpicked, a premium grocery delivery pilot program in select Bengaluru areas.

“At Swiggy we’re continuously experimenting with new propositions in line with our vision to enable unparalleled convenience to consumers. Handpicked was being piloted in a few zones in Bengaluru and we have had several positive learnings from it,” the company spokesperson said.

According to Swiggy, charging the fees helps them “operate and improve our platform and enhance app features to deliver a seamless app experience.”

In January, the company closed its meat marketplace vertical and laid off 380 employees as part of a company-wide restructuring effort.

Swiggy achieved a ‘decacorn’ status last year after it raised about $700 million from Invesco. Decacorns are privately-held firms whose valuation exceeds $10 billion.

Fintech startup Fundly.ai raises $3mn in seed funding

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May 8, 2023

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Mumbai-based fintech startup Fundly.ai on Sunday said it had raised $3 million in a seed funding round led by Accel. Multiply Ventures and other angel investors also participated in the round.

Fundly.ai, founded by Amit Chawla and Shreeram Ramanathan, has a presence in nine Indian cities and has been bootstrapped since 2021. Through the years 2018 and 2019, the duo worked at InCred.

“With this new funding, we are excited to expand our reach and explore untapped markets, bringing our vision of a more efficient and effective pharma supply chain to an even larger demographic,” Fundly.ai founder, Amit Chawla said.

By disbursing funds worth Rs 140 crore ($17.1 million), the company has served over 2,000 retailers and more than 30 distributors in nine cities. According to Chawla, roughly 55% of the company’s business comes from Tamil Nadu, 30–35% from Maharashtra, and the rest from Andhra Pradesh.

Fundly.ai planned to increase engagement with existing customers, expand into new geographies, build technology, and work on new offerings.

Fundly.ai plans to partner with retailers, distributors, and other stakeholders to provide new products using financial as an entry point, Sarthak Singh, an Accel investor, said.

“Amit and Shree bring a wealth of experience from their deep lending background. Leveraging this experience, they have been able to identify the gaps and opportunities that exist in the pharma supply chain,” Singh added.

Rentals United announces partnership with MakeMyTrip

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May 8, 2023

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Rentals United, a leading channel manager and vacation rental tool, adds MakeMyTrip to its ever-growing list of channel partners. This new alliance will assist Rentals United in strengthening its position as a significant player in the Asian vacation rental market, allowing property managers to diversify their listings and capture bookings from a rapidly growing market.

One of the leading South Asian online travel companies, MakeMyTrip has offices in India, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries. MakeMyTrip is a one-stop travel shop that provides services for all travel occasions, whether domestic or international, including bookings for flights, hotels, other types of accommodation, holiday planning and packaging, rail and bus tickets, car rentals, and other travel essentials. An opportunity to reach millions of potential customers through MakeMyTrip is enormous for property managers.

“We’re excited to announce this partnership,” said Rentals United CEO James Burrows. “As one of the key channels in India, integrating to MakeMyTrip is inline with our strategy to provide our customers access to high quality local channels. We strongly believe that diversifying your listings is vital for increasing bookings and revenue. Listing your properties on MakeMyTrip will open up a new world for guests in Asia, UAE and beyond.”

Customers of Rentals United can easily connect their calendars and bookings with all other channels in a verified, secure, and reliable online ecosystem. Users won’t ever have to worry about calendar clashes or price differences because of the seamless connection.

Access to 60+ channels, including popular, specialist, and location-specific sites, is available to property managers that use Rentals United to manage listings. In addition to the platform’s renowned channel manager, customers of Rentals United have access to a guest communication tool, website builder, data platform, and automatic listing quality checker.

Zapkey raises fresh funding from DSP and existing investors

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May 6, 2023

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Zapkey, a proptech startup, has raised pre-Series A funding led by the DSP Group Family Office. The company plans to use the fresh capital to fuel geographical expansion and strengthen the tech.

The company did not disclose the amount raised in the round.

Existing investors Gruhas Proptech and the DLF Family Office participated in part in the round.

In 2020, Shubhankar Dongre, Sandeep Reddy, and Raja Seetharaman founded Zapkey, a company that claims to guarantee home sales for customers within three months of the listing date.

Their pricing is determined by proprietary algorithms that monitor more than one crore property registration records. In its first market, Zapkey has engaged more than 2,500 local brokers in its distribution network and attracted over 8,000 home sellers to its platform over the past year.

“We couldn’t be more excited to have DSP join our cap table. Easily one of the most powerful names in Indian finance, their access, and support is only going to help compound our growth as we open new markets”, said Shubhankar.

“The pedigree of the founders of Zapkey gave us maximum confidence to invest. Add to that the size of the total addressable market and the product market fit that they’ve achieved over the past year checked all our boxes”, added Shuchi Kothari of DSP.

Last year Zapkey secured $2 million in seed funding led by Nikhil Kamath and Abhijeet Pai-backed Gruhas Proptech.

According to the company, the funding round includes the DLF Family Office, Blume Founders Fund, Alkem Labs Family, Aprameya Radhakrishna (co-founder of Koo), and Srini Sriniwasan (MD, Kotak Investment Advisors).

ChatGPT-maker Sam Altman says era of remote work is over

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May 6, 2023

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ChatGPT-maker OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said that employees working from the office can create new products while the remote work model creates confusion. According to India Today Tech, he added that we still need the required technology for people to work entirely remotely during a session hosted by the fintech company Stripe.

Altman added that he considers remote work as an experiment when discussing work from home. He stated, “I think definitely one of tech industry’s worst mistakes in a long time was that everybody (thought they) could go full remote forever, and startups didn’t need to be together. There was going to be no loss of creativity. I would say that the experiment on that is over, and the technology is not yet good enough that people can be full remote forever, particularly on startups.”

Before this, Altman expressed his inclination towards working from the office. As per his tweet, “tech companies who rushed to full remote permanently made a big mistake, and the cracks are starting to show.”

He added that OpenAI’s best talents are working remotely. He said, “some of our best people are remote, and we will continue to support it always, so please don’t let hating SF stop you from applying to OpenAI! I don’t like the open air fentanyl markets either.”

Discussing the importance of working from the office for a startup, Altman noted, “The more unclear and early the product is, the more in-person time the team needs to grind together,” he added.

Altman also discussed the future of AI. Considering that AI may pose an “existential risk,” Altman says the technology needs to be taken extremely seriously.

‘Godfather of AI’, Geoffrey Hinton, resigned from Google this week and blew the whistle on AI, the technology he helped develop. He continued by saying that he left Google to be able to speak freely about the potential dangers posed by AI without having Google associated with it.

According to Reuters, the White House will host CEOs of leading artificial intelligence firms, including Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Microsoft, to discuss the risks and safeguards associated with AI.

SOTC Travel expands its retail presence in Mumbai

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May 6, 2023

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Leading omnichannel travel and tourism company SOTC Travel inaugurated a new retail store in Chembur. This expansion brings SOTC’s network strength in Mumbai to nine stores (3 retail and 6 franchises), reinforcing the company’s strategic goal of expanding its footprint in the city. This expansion was driven by an interest in taking advantage of the city’s rapidly growing travel sector. Himanshu Sampat, associate vice-president – sales, SOTC Travel, inaugurated the outlet.

Daniel D’souza President & Country Head – Holidays, SOTC Travel, said, “We continue to witness strong continuum – brisk demand of over 55% for escorted and customized tours vs. pre-pandemic emerging from Mumbai and Maharashtra since the pandemic, and they remain key source markets for us at SOTC. We are delighted to open our new retail outlet in Chembur, with this new addition our network strength in the city increases to nine stores in Mumbai. Our new store is centrally located and a hub for cosmopolitan travellers thus allowing us to target valuable segments of Gen Z/new age travellers, millennials, families, couples and business owners. Our expanded holidays portfolio has something for everyone – from customised holidays to luxury and premium holidays, also group escorted tours. We extend a warm welcome to our customers, and we look forward to plan their next holiday with us.”

SOTC Travel’s new outlet offers end-to-end travel solutions with an array of services, including: International & Domestic Holidays (Group tours, Personalised Holidays, Cruises, etc.), Value Added Services like Travel Insurance; Visa Services, etc.

PropertyPistol bags INR 45-Cr from ICICI Bank, Equity Partners India

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May 5, 2023

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Proptech startup Property Pistol, a real estate advisory service, has raised Rs 45 crore from investors, including ICICI Bank and Baring Private Equity Partners, to expand its business.

Ashish Narain Agarwal, an IIT alumnus, launched the Mumbai-based PropertyPistol company in 2012. Tushar Shrivastava later joined as a co-founder. It provides a range of tech solutions and advisory services for home buyers, real estate agents, and developers.

The company has raised Rs 45 crore in Series A funding led by ICICI Bank and Baring Private Equity Partners India. ICICI Bank and Baring Private Equity Partners India endorsed the company’s Series A investment effort, which saw the company raise Rs 45 crore. It plans to use the funds to strengthen its position in emerging markets in India and overseas and to grow the leadership team across all business divisions.

“This fundraise will help expand the company’s operations into newer geographies and yield significant business growth and value in the future,” Ashish Narain Agarwal, Founder, and CEO, PropertyPistol, said.

The company will focus on new product development and strengthen core verticals, such as the syndicate broker platform and project mandates. PropertyPistol has developed a highly reliable and profitable firm through careful capital deployment, according to Varun Batra, Partner, Baring Private Equity Partners India. He added that with a stronger emphasis on marketplace technology and distribution, the investment will enable the company’s next expansion phase.

According to PropertyPistol, it helped with the sales of more than 20,000 homes, managed more than 5,000 projects, and reached transaction values of nearly USD 2 billion across India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

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