Startup news and updates: daily roundup (May 29, 2023)

Krafton brings back Battleground Mobile India with new updates

South Korean video game developer Krafton, Inc. will welcome back players to Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI)from May 29.

The game's update features new additions such as a brand-new map - Nusa, in-game events, weapon upgrades, and a collection of new skins to enhance the gameplay.

The playtime for users under 18 will be three hours, whereas for the rest of the players, it will be six hours a day. Further, parental verification and daily spending limit for minors will continue to be a part of the game.

PhonePe links two lakh RuPay credit cards to UPI

PhonePe has said that it has become the first digital payments app to successfully enable the linkage of two lakh RuPay credit cards to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). In addition, PhoneP has also processed a Total Payment Value (TPV) of Rs 150 crore via RuPay Credit on UPI.

PhonePe aims to offer a comprehensive suite of solutions for RuPay Credit on UPI in partnership with NPCI to popularise its usage among customers and merchants alike, according to a statement from the payments app company.

L&T Finance's PLANET app records 2.9 million downloads

L&T Finance has partnered with UI/UX Design Company, ZEUX Innovation, to provide design assistance, increase user engagement and streamline the application process.

The three key aspects of the PLANET app–stakeholder engagement, loan ecosystem immersion, and user-focused app design–were drawn and implemented by ZEUX. In addition to handling user flow creation based on standards and survey data, the UI UX specialised firm also managed customer experiences for loan disbursements and EMI payments.

Its UX design approach focused on: hyper-simple task flows and journeys; efficiency to eliminate all the unnecessary information in the application; inclusivity to emphasise different target users across India by adding illustrations and images, depicting India.

upGrad’s Study Abroad continues to scale; hires actively in Noida

The Study Abroad arm of integrated learning, skilling, and workforce development and placement company, upGrad, plans to add another 500 members over the next three months to expand its business footprints across Noida. The fresh recruits would be made across multiple sub-departments including sales, marketing, tech and product.

The company recently integrated its study-abroad portfolio and consolidated its organic and inorganic businesses under a single operating stream. The vertical also expects to break even this year and cross Rs 500 crore of annual gross revenue during FY24.

Boston Consulting Group announces leadership updates

Rahul Jain will be the next System Leader for Boston Consulting Group (BCG) India, taking over from Alpesh Shah who will move into a regional leadership position leading BCG’s CEO advisory in Asia Pacific. Abheek Singhi will take on the role of Chair of Practices and Partner Committee in India.

Commenting on the transition, BCG’s CEO Christoph Schweizer said, “I am confident the new leadership will continue to drive BCG India’s stellar growth in the years ahead. The Indian system is one of our leading systems, and one which, BCG is very proud of globally. We all believe that in this decade and beyond India will play a consequential role on the world stage, and BCG is committed to bringing our cutting-edge research and ideas to support ambitious Indian companies to take advantage of the mega trends shaping the world.”

Neeraj Aggarwal, Chair, Asia-Pacific, said, “I am extremely proud of the impact we have had in India. We are excited to support our clients with even bolder ambitions. We have high expectations from the new leadership to build on our strong position.”

Foodtech startup Pluckk appoints Mamaearth’s marketplace head Kunwarjeet Grover as growth head

Foodtech direct-to-consumer company Pluckk has appointed Kunwarjeet Grover as Head of Growth. Grover will be based in Bengaluru and report directly to Pratik Gupta, CEO and Co-founder of Pluckk.

In his new role, Grover will be responsible to drive revenue across online and offline channels and lead sales and growth teams.

Grover joins Pluckk from Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd (the parent company of Mamaearth), where he was responsible for building and leading the P/L of the marketplace business for Mamaearth, The Derma Co., and Bblunt.

Before that, he was associated with Himalaya Herbal Healthcare, CavinKare, Phillips Lighting, and Havells India Ltd.

With over 12 years of experience, he specialises in P/L management, business development, online vendor management, and business planning/implementation.

Commenting on the appointment, Pratik Gupta, CEO and Co-founder, Pluckk, said, “Kunwarjeet’s deep understanding of D2C and FMCG is something that Pluckk will immensely benefit from. His experience will enable us to sharpen our product portfolio and distribution into online and offline channels, including ecommerce, modern trade, and general trade in the fresh category. His addition to the core team will help us double down on revenue and profitability across Pluckk’s online and offline presence.”

DigiAlly partners with RupeeBoss

At the recently concluded MSME Bharat Manch in Mumbai, fintech firm DigiAlly said it has partnered with

loan disbursal platform RupeeBoss.com, to enhance its reach to over three lacs Indian MSMEs.

DigiAlly delivers open data-driven graded SMEs to banks and financial institutions for digital lending. It strives to bring transformative changes into an SME’s lifecycle stages for banks, including onboarding, lending and compliance.

RupeeBoss has offered loans over Rs 6,000 Cr to Indian MSMEs, aspiring to become a preferred destination for a wide range of financial loans, including retail loans, SME loans, credit cards, rectify credit, elite

services and mutual funds.

The partnership envisions empowering small and emerging business units, startups and women entrepreneurs across Tier 2,3,4 towns of India with knowledge and support to leverage the

power of financial inclusion.

Qualcomm Women Entrepreneurs India Network 2023

Qualcomm India Pvt. Ltd. has collaborated with Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) for the selected cohort of the 2023 edition of Qualcomm® Women Entrepreneurs India Network. Under the initiative, the third cohort of selected startups will benefit from the mentorship and insights of industry leaders, as well as masterclasses on intellectual property (IP), marketing, and more.

Qualcomm Women Entrepreneurs India Network was launched in 2020 and has empowered 25 early-stage women-led startups over the last two years. The programme aims to support the entrepreneurial efforts of female innovators in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The third edition of Qualcomm Women Entrepreneurs India Network aims to mentor eight women entrepreneurs of the selected startups engaged in the deep tech space across various industries. It will offer 1:1 mentorship sessions with senior leaders, and masterclasses to give the cohort insight into business development, raising capital, marketing, sales, reducing risks in innovation, and enable them to develop soft skills.

The cohort will benefit from increased visibility amongst the startup ecosystem through a curated demo day and the opportunity to connect with various government bodies and network with industry leaders, VCs, investors, industry associations and other accelerators that could help them scale up their business at various opportunities throughout the year, a statement from the company said.

Gati and Schneider Electric partner for eco-friendly express logistics solutions

Gati Ltd., an express logistics and supply chain solutions provider, has entered into a collaboration with Schneider Electric, which works on energy management and automation. The collaboration is aimed at designing greener logistics solutions for the company.

In the initial phase of the collaboration, Gati has exclusively deployed alternative fuel vehicles for the pick-up of consignments from Schneider Electric’s key distribution centres at Kundli in Haryana, Bhiwandi in Maharashtra and Chennai in Tamil Nadu. Subsequently, deliveries in Gurugram are also being carried out with alternative fuel vehicles.

Apart from offering low-emission long haul transportations, under the greener logistics collaboration, Gati will also manage local deliveries in Gurugram for Schneider Electric with a fleet of alternative fuel vehicles.

Paisabazaar closes FY'23 at an annualised loan disbursal rate of over Rs 15,000 Cr

Paisabazaar has reached an annualised loan disbursal rate of over Rs 15,000 crore in March 2023. The company registered a 76% year-on-year growth in loan disbursals, disbursing Rs.11,619 crore in FY 2023.

Credit Cards issued through Paisabazaar grew by more than 180% year on year, reaching an annualised rate of over half a million credit cards issued in March 2023. Over 4.6 lakh credit cards were issued via the platform in the financial year.

Paisabazaar also offers consumers free credit reports and scores from all four credit bureaus. Over 3.49 crore consumers from 823 cities and towns across India had accessed their free credit report on Paisabazaar by the end of FY 23. According to the company, around 14% of active bureau consumers in India, with at least one active credit product, have checked their credit score on its platform.

Manappuram Finance launches digital lending app Ma-Money

In a bid to tap into the growing digital lending sector, Manappuram Finance Limited has launched Ma-Money, a new digital lending platform. The app is aimed at providing customers with all the financial products offered by Manappuram Finance under one umbrella. The company hopes that the new app will help it scale up its digital business and reach a wider audience, and is primarily targeted at customers in Tier II and III cities.

Ma-Money offers a wide range of loans, including personal loans, business loans, consumer durables loans, loans for the healthcare industry, food industry, small-scale industries, school finance to improve infrastructure, car loans, home repair loans, and farm equipment loans, among others.

BluSapphire Cyber Systems opens new office in Hyderabad

Cybersecurity solutions startup BluSapphire Cyber Systems opened a new office in Hyderabad with a capacity to accommodate 120 people. The company has around 75 people and will be adding another 50 employees in the next two quarters.

Kiran Vangaveti, Founder and CEO, BluSapphire, said, “Our plan is to expand our research and development, in alignment with our robust product roadmap, and bolster our global security operations to serve our clients across the globe better.” 

BluSapphire has developed a technology platform driven by AI and big data analytics called Hybrid XDR. Besides, it offers managed detection and response services enabling organisations quicker reaction time in cyber breach detection and mitigation.

Founded in 2017, BluSapphire Cyber Systems raised $9.2 million as part of its Series A round in 2022 led by Barings Private Equity India, with participation from Dallas Venture Capital, xto10x, RPG Ventures, and Merisis Venture Partners.

(The copy will be updated throughout the day with the latest news.)