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This Indian Startup Has Made a Zoom Alternative, in Just 20 Days

4May By PriyankaNo Comments

Story

This Indian Startup Has Made a Zoom Alternative, in Just 20 Days

Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India: More than a third of world population is under lockdown and India with its 1.3 billion people tops the list. The government is controlling the movement of its citizens to avoid the spread of the coronavirus. Socializing, consulting, training, operations, and governance have become a virtual experience predominantly with no movement or interaction outside the home. Non-native and fishy apps are handy to use for official and personal communication. Blue Jeans, Google Duo, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, WhatsApp, FaceTime, and Skype are the only recourse in current unprecedented times. Some of these apps suffer from the restriction on the number of participants to partake in a video or voice communication. Other applications have their share o...

Impact of Lockdown on Dry Cleaning & Laundry Services

30Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

ANALYSIS

Impact of Lockdown on Dry Cleaning & Laundry Services

Dublin, 30th April 2020: A recent survey by ResearchAndMarkets.com said the impact of Covid-19 on Dry Cleaning & Laundry Services Market will be short term and demand for app-based Laundry Services will rise. The global dry-cleaning and laundry services market is expected to decline from $106.2 billion in 2019 to $104 billion in 2020 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of -2.1%. The decline is mainly due to economic slowdown across countries owing to the COVID-19 outbreak and the measures to contain it. The market is then expected to recover and grow at a CAGR of 5% from 2021 and reach $118.3 billion in 2023. Asia-Pacific was the largest region in the global dry-cleaning and laundry services market, accounting for 34% of the market in 2019. North America was the second l...

Nokia profit up; Sales dip due to Covid19

30Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

BUSINESS

Nokia profit up; Sales dip due to Covid19

Nokia has reported first-quarter profit but said the COVID-19 pandemic dented sales by around USD 218 million mainly due to supply issues associated with disruptions in China. The company based in Espoo, Finland, reported a net profit of 33 million euros for the January-March period, in comparison to a loss of 116 million euros the previous year. Sales were down 2 percent at 4.9 billion euros. CEO Rajeev Suri said, Nokia didn't see a decline in demand in the first quarter but noted that as the coronavirus situation develops an increase in supply and delivery challenges in a number of countries is possible and some customers may re-assess their spending plans. Nokia is one of three main providers of the ultra-fast, new-generation 5G networks along China's Huawei and Sweden's Ericss...

WhatsApp Video Call now supports up to 8 Participants

29Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

News

WhatsApp Video Call now supports up to 8 Participants

WhatsApp will now allow up to eight people to connect on a group video call as an increasing number of people turn to digital platforms to connect with friends and family amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Facebook-owned company said over the last month, people on average are spending over 15 billion minutes talking each day on WhatsApp calls, well above a typical day before the pandemic. "...we see that people all over the world are turning to voice and video calling on WhatsApp more than ever before. Group calling has been particularly useful and our users have asked to connect with more people at once," WhatsApp said in a blogpost. Starting Tuesday, the company is doubling the number of participants one can have on a WhatsApp video or voice call from 4 to 8 people at a time, it ad...

Fitness startup Fittr raises USD 2 mn from Surge

28Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Fitness startup Fittr raises USD 2 mn from Surge

Fitness startup Fittr has raised USD 2 million from Sequoia Capital India's Surge programme. The company will deploy the pre-series A funds for hiring, technology, and overseas expansion, Fittr Co-founder Jitendra Chouksey said. Surge is the rapid scale-up programme for early-stage startups in India and Southeast Asia. Founded in January 2016, Fittr (formerly SQUATS Fitness) provides free access to diet and training tools, live fitness sessions with experts, Q&A with coaches, and connects users to a community of fitness experts and enthusiasts. With over 8.5 lakh members, the company said it been profitable since inception, achieving a cumulative revenue of USD 13 million. Fittr is focussing on markets like North America, Indonesia, India, and Singapore, Chouksey said. "...

27Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

INDIA

India cancels orders for Chinese COVID-19 test kits

The Indian Council of Medical Research on Monday asked the states to stop using COVID-19 rapid testing kits procured from China due to their poor quality even as the government said not a single rupee will be lost in cancelling the orders as payments were not made to the Chinese suppliers. India procured around five lakh rapid antibody test kits from the two Chinese firms, Guongzhou Wondfo Biotech and Livzon Diagnostics, and they were distributed to several states reporting rising cases of the coronavirus infection. In a communication to chief secretaries of all states and union territories, the ICMR asked them to stop using the kits saying it found "wide variation" in the effectiveness of the equipment supplied by the two Chinese firms despite the promise of good performance. "Th...

Amul eyes 15 percent growth in turnover despite COVID-19, Doble its Overall revenue in 5 years

27Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

BUSINESS

Amul eyes 15 percent growth in turnover despite COVID-19, Doble its Overall revenue in 5 years

New Delhi, 27th April 2020: Indian group GCMMF, which markets dairy products under Amul brand, expects its turnover to grow 15 percent this fiscal year from Rs 38,550 crore in 2019-20 despite economic slowdown caused by the nationwide lockdown to control coronavirus outbreak. The household consumption of milk and other dairy products is expected to rise and will compensate any temporary loss of sales caused by the closure of hotels, restaurants, and cafeterias (HoReCA segment) during the ongoing lockdown period, said R S Sodhi, the managing director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF). As per the company's financial data, Sales of Amul Federation and its 18-member union rose 17 percent year-on-year and crossed Rs 50,000 crore in the year ended March 31, 2020....

26Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Beverage Platform Bira91 raises $30 mn funding

Bira 91 a craft beer brand has raised $30 million in an equity funding round led by its existing investors, Sequoia India and Belgium-based investment firm Sofina. The funding round also saw participation from Mumbai based consumer-focused venture capital fund, Sixth Sense Ventures, Korean private equity fund Neoplux, and certain family offices, the company said in a statement. The company will use the latest funds to further expand its India footprint and consolidate its leadership position in the premium beer market in India. Last year, the company established two new beer plants, one each in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. With the launch of Boom, its latest mass-market beer brand, the company achieved a market share close to 3% of the overall beer market, along with a presence i...

26Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Edtech startup GUVI raises $786k in Pre-series A funding

GUVI, a startup incubated by IIT Madras and CIIE.CO-IIM Ahmedabad has raised $786k in its Pre-series A round of funding from Education Catalyst Fund, an education-focused venture capital fund managed by CBA Capital. CIIE.CO is a startup incubator established by IIM Ahmedabad. An integrated ed-tech platform providing course contents in vernacular languages as well, GUVI has presence in over 1,000 engineering colleges. "We will use the capital raised in this round to scale up operations, introduce newer courses in more vernacular languages and expand our geographical presence for our blended (offline+online) learning program ''Zen class''," S.P. Balamurugan, Chief Executive Officer, GUVI, said in a statement. "During the lockdown, we are experiencing a huge surge in number of peo...

25Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Gojek Acquires Moka for $130 Million

As per the Bloomberg report, Ride-hailing startup Gojek has acquired a payment startup Moka for $130 million. The deal was under negotiations since last year and completed about a month ago. The report also said, Indonesia based Ride-hailing and food delivery startup recently raises $1.2 billion funding to cement its position in digital payments space to acquire the users who are shifting away from cash and using digital services in this virus lockdown. The Moka payment app has more than 35,000 merchants and present in more than 100 cities across Indonesia. Moka accepts debit, credit cards and mobile wallets. It also has an analytics platform to track sales and inventory, run loyalty programs, and manage employees. A Gojek representative declined to comment, while a Moka off...

Former Vice President of Baidu’s Suspected of Corruption

22Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

CHINA

Former Vice President of Baidu’s Suspected of Corruption

A former executive at China's internet search giant Baidu is being investigated for corruption, the company said. Ex-Baidu vice president Wei Fang is under suspicion of corruption following internal investigations, and his case has been handed over to public authorities, said the firm's professional ethics committee in a statement to AFP. Baidu vowed it would "resolutely crack down on all violations of law and discipline", but did not give further details of Wei's alleged wrongdoing. The case comes just weeks after it was revealed that a top executive at Starbucks competitor Luckin Coffee might have faked 2.2 billion yuan (USD 310 million) worth of sales last year, causing the shares of the NASDAQ-listed firm to plummet over 70 per cent. The former chief operating officer and s...

Spelling Bee canceled for first time since WW-II

22Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

USA

Spelling Bee canceled for first time since WW-II

For the first time since World War-II, the prestigious spelling bee tournament, which has been dominated by Indian-Americans over the years, has been cancelled for 2020 in view of the coronavirus pandemic. The competition, which is only open to students in elementary and middle school, will return on June 1, 2021. However, the eighth graders who qualified this year for their last try at the national title won't be able to participate next year, spelling bee officials said in a statement on Tuesday. "Our hearts go out to the spellers who won't get their final shot at winning because of the pandemic and the difficult decisions it is prompting us to make. They are now part of a widely expanding group of children and adults who are missing out on opportunities due to the coronavirus," sa...