HYPERLOCAL COMMUNITY APP
Skyesports announces pan-India Gaming Mahotsav starting from Chennai
Skyesports has announced Gaming Mahotsav, a nationwide festival series blending gaming with culture and entertainment. Starting with Gaming Thiruvizha in Chennai on August 30-31, the festival will travel to six Indian cities, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kochi and Pune. The event features cosplay, comics, live performances, LAN tournaments, and regional art, aiming to foster hyperlocal communities.
Hyperlocal community app Shuru raises Rs 29 crore in round led by Krafton India
Existing backers, including Omidyar Network India and Eximius Ventures, participated in the funding round. The investment adds to Krafton India’s–the local unit of the South Korean maker of Battlegrounds Mobile India—commitment of over $200 million to Indian startups since 2021, largely across gaming, entertainment and allied sectors.
Top-deck churn at Tata Digital; Rapido’s cash burn rises
Happy Friday! Top-level exits continue at Tata Digital with CEO Naveen Tahilyani abruptly ending his year-long stint. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.
Time to buy cars smartly - Meta and FADA team up for digital thrust for car dealerships
Meta has partnered with the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) to digitize India's auto dealerships through the 'Move with Meta' program. This initiative equips dealers with tools like Reels, WhatsApp, and hyperlocal marketing to engage customers and boost sales. A Meta white paper, Shift Gears, highlights that 72% of new car buyers discover brands via Meta platforms, and 48% use WhatsApp for direct communication with dealers.
Swiggy enters 15-min food delivery; Meta adopts Community Notes
Swiggy has rolled out Snacc, a standalone app for 10-15 minute food delivery. This and more in today’s ETtech Top 5.
American Express launches Program Vasundhara in Bengaluru & Gurugram for environmental sustainability
American Express and Safe Water Network have launched Program Vasundhara, a three-year initiative to boost environmental sustainability and climate resilience in Bengaluru and Gurugram. The program will focus on water management, sustainable agriculture, biodiversity conservation, and renewable energy. Key initiatives include rainwater harvesting, reforestation, and empowering local communities through sustainable livelihoods.
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India is in line for a major AI platform shift: Google Labs VP
Google Labs is an incubator created by US technology firm Google to test and publicly demonstrate new projects.
CCI order against Google needs to be implemented strongly, quickly: MapmyIndia CEO
The CCI findings show how Indian indigenous apps have been suppressed, and that’s the main reason most Indians haven’t been able to access and use the better, more local Indian apps: CEO Rohan Verma
YouTube Shorts to drive long-term India-first innovations
YouTube Shorts was Google’s answer to Meta-owned Instagram’s Reels and Chinese ByteDance-owned short-video app TikTok.
Ola to sack 1,000 workers; Aarogya Setu data protocols were discontinued in May
The restructuring exercise – which is expected to last a few more weeks – is aimed at increasing Ola’s focus on its electric mobility business, for which it is hiring “aggressively”, according to executives engaged in the recruitment process.
Swiggy to test social commerce for group buying of groceries
Swiggy has been conducting a combination of external as well as internal hiring – including for several technology roles - to build the vertical.
Brands find novel ways to hitch a ride on the Zomato IPO buzz
Moment marketing is where brands hijack a trending topic and weave clever content around it, aiming to catch people’s attention by becoming a part of the trending conversation.
Facebook's 'Neighborhoods' faces crowded niche market, profiling concerns
Neighborhoods users are prompted to introduce themselves, log interests and answer ice-breaker questions
DusMinute picks up $1.1 million in funding led by Indian Angel Network
The Bengaluru based startup sets up in-society stores allowing residents to walk in and buy products, or order them through its app.
Desi app Leher rides Clubhouse wave
Leher facilitates debates and discussion within a limited group via audio and video, has private and public chat rooms, and supports both ephemeral and recorded conversations.
ShareChat acquires SAIF Partners-backed Circle Internet
Circle Internet provides locally relevant information to Indian language internet users across tier-II and -III cities and currently has a presence in more than 120 districts across Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Kerala.
Instagram’s take three: Vocal for local finds few takers. For now.
For the past two years, Instagram has been ramping up the presence of small businesses on its platform. The company believes that its "Support small business" sticker will help SMEs reach new customers and stay connected to the people they serve.
Startups help blue collar workers start their own gigs
Many startups are aiming to upskill and reskill the new breed of micro-preneurs across states such as Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
We need an early-warning system to prevent pandemics like Covid-19: Inder Singh
ROAD Inder Singh, the CEO of San Francisco-based health technology firm Kinsa, has had a few busy months with his company selling more than 10,000 internet-connected thermometers every week in the US.
E-commerce firms stick to MRP as offline stores charge extra: Survey
A majority of complaints received by LocalCircles were of overcharging on products such as masks and hand sanitisers.
Deal with Zuckerberg may have put Ambani in line for India grocery crown
The deal is likely to give Ambani's ambitious online grocery venture, JioMart, a huge lift. As part of the deal, JioMart will now team-up with WhatsApp to increase its outreach.
Providing Mobile Connectivity Solutions to Enterprises Across India
One of the fastest-growing startups in the Mobile Ecosystem over the last few years has been Equence Technologies Private Limited. The Bangalore based compan...
Flipkart-owned PhonePe bags Zopper Retail
As a part of the acquisition, Neeraj Jain, the chief executive officer at Zopper Retail will be joining PhonePe as the head of product for its offline merchant solutions.
Go hyperlocal: Congress social media mantra in poll-bound states
This is to take on the heft of the ruling BJP in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
SeenIt raises funding from Calcutta Angels and Augment Ventures
The startup, which also counts InfoEdge Chief Executive Hitesh Oberoi and former Wipro Chief Technology Officer IVK Vijaya Kumar as advisors, was also part of the Axilor Ventures Accelerator Program in Bangalore.
Sistema Asia Fund leads Series B in social fashion platform Woplr
The fashion community and e-commerce platform started in 2013 pivoted from being a hyperlocal discovery platform to an influencer-led fashion commerce platform where buyers can shop the look and complete the transaction on the platform.
From finding blood donors to renting sherwani, new apps make local connection easier
Over the past year, startups across India have launched their versions of apps that allow people to connect with those around them.
Mobile internet can increase small farmers' revenue by 50%: Vodafone report
Small farmers, it says, typically, have limited access to internet resources, services, information, markets and social networks.
Investment in startups falls in recent weeks
Only one $50 million deal, of online pharmacy Netmeds, was announced in the last week of October.
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