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Business

Maxima Brings the Perfect Smart watch for Fitness Enthusiasts With the Launch Of Max Pro X5 On Amazon India

Dec 3, 2021 by Agency 0 Comments #Amazon Fashion India, #Director & Head, #Managing Partner, #Manjot Purewal, #Maxima Watches, #Saurabh Srivastava

New Delhi: One of the world’s largest watch manufacturers, Maxima Watches, announced the launch of its brand-new smartwatch Max Pro X5 on Amazon.in today. Featuring a superior design, this offering from Maxima Watches, now available on Amazon Fashion, is a delight for customers who are constantly looking at making a fashion statement. The special (limited time) launch price of Max Pro X5 is Rs. 2999.

The smartwatch packs a large 1.7” HD display with brightness topping 450 nits, making it bright and clear even on the sunniest of days. Max Pro X5 is built with a high-density ABS case material with a metal coating, available in some lively colours including grey, black, blue, and rose gold. An advanced Realtek chipset powers the Max Pro X5, which makes it speedy, smooth, and bug-free. It also structures a strong battery life of up to 15 days, so users do not have to worry about charging the smartwatch.

The smartwatch has received an international standard rating of IP68, which means that it can withstand dust, dirt, and sand, and is resistant to submersion up to a depth of 1.5m underwater for up to 30 minutes. Additionally, the watch has an in-app GPS feature and boasts 10+ sport modes. All these enticing features make this smartwatch perfect for a variety of needs, especially for customers who are adventure and sports enthusiasts.

“We are excited to launch the Maxima Max Pro X5 smartwatch on Amazon Fashion. We are constantly striving to improve efficiency and create superior value for our customers. With this latest addition to our smartwatch portfolio, we continue to offer the best of technology at affordable price points and cater to the ever-growing fashion and style needs of our customers. Customer experience remains the priority for us and we want to be a part of their holistic journey helping them make the right health and lifestyle choices. Additionally, we remain committed as always to ensuring the safety of our customers and we believe e-commerce is the best way to deliver a wider selection of products while upholding the tenets of safety and social distancing”, said Saurabh Srivastava, Director & Head, Amazon Fashion India.

Talking about the launch of their latest smartwatch on Amazon Fashion, Manjot Purewal, Managing Partner of Maxima Watches said, “We are very excited to announce the launch of our latest performance smartwatch – The Max Pro X5. We have spent considerable time developing this product and packed it with Superior Tech, an amazing large super bright screen topping 450Nits, and incredible features that deliver superior value. We are always looking to exceed our customers’ expectations, and with Max Pro X5, I believe we have done so again.”

Max Pro X5 comes with an Advanced LC11 heart-rate sensor that delivers accurate heart rate and SpO2 readings. Comfortable to wear, the smartwatch also features Intelligent AI Sleep Monitoring, which allows its users to track their sleeping habits and make the right adjustments to create a healthy sleeping schedule.

The smartwatch also allows its users to check their social media notifications and comes with the Maxima Smartwear App that has its own perks. Maxima is known for its unparalleled quality and finesse and Max Pro X5 upholds the same exceptional standard as its predecessors while offering a boatload of new features.

Ashok Prasad, CEO and Co-founder of Unnati

Business

Unnati secures INR 60 Cr from Incofin Investment Management, NabVentures, and Orios in Series A funding round

Nov 12, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Ashok Prasad, #CEO and Co-founder, #Incofin India, #Managing Partner, #Orios, #Partner, #Rahul Rai, #Rehan Yar Khan, #Unnati Agri

Mumbai: In a significant development, Unnati Agri, a fintech-driven agriculture service platform, has raised INR 60 Cr in a Series A funding round from Incofin Investment Management, NabVentures, and Orios. Unnati will utilize the fresh capital to augment its tech infrastructure and increase its uStore network.

Unnati is enhancing its technology platform by adding a wide range of new features to its farmer and retailer apps, including the introduction of Artificial Intelligence led features related to farm diagnostics, farming lifecycle management, supply chain management for partners etc. The company is investing heavily into AI and Machine Learning platforms for bringing the latest digital tools to farmers and uStore partners.

Till date, Unnati has served more than 3 Lac farmers through its network of 20000 plus uStore network. It has been digitising agri-input retailers, traders and other ecosystem players. Unnati platform with its partner network offers digitally-enabled services to farmers helping them improve their farm incomes. It has grown more than 15x over the last 12 months owing to an increase in its platform usage.

Commenting on the funding, Ashok Prasad, CEO and Co-founder of Unnati, said, “Unnati has been committed to enhancing the lives of farmers as well as our retail partners through technology solutions. Unnati has built several innovative solutions to enable farmers and retailers to grow and scale their business, and our growth trajectory has been remarkable so far. We are happy to announce that we have raised our Series A round of funding and are thrilled to have marquee investors backing us in our journey. We will continue to work towards our ultimate goal, which is to bring all farmers across the country onto a single digital platform which nurtures ‘farmpreneurs’ enabling them to double their farm income.”

“We are delighted to partner with the high performance founders- Ashok and Amit of Unnati Agri as they scale a tightly knit strategy of an integrated rural ecosystem of knowledge based farm input advisory, financial inclusion and supply chain integration through the use of technology. Incofin looks forward to supporting them as they execute this unique combined agri-tech and fin-tech opportunity.” said Rahul Rai, Partner, Incofin India.

“As digital expands across India, one of its most important touchpoints is the Agricultural Supply Chain. Unnati is building a distributed model to optimize upstream supplies for the farmers and we are excited to partner with Amit & Ashok to build what promises to be an exciting business”. said Rehan Yar Khan, Managing Partner, Orios.

NABVENTURES Fund-I, the flagship fund of NABVENTURES Ltd. backed by NABARD, has followed-up on its initial investment in the company, by also participating in this round of fund-raise.

As a part of its network augmentation, the platform is also looking at geographical expansion to Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and further expansion in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Maharashtra. Unnati aims to create 5 million ‘farmpreneurs’ by enabling them with relevant digital tools to power their farming business. Unnati is planning to invest heavily on farmer-focused initiatives in future. The transaction has been supported by Sumeet Seraf of Equity360.

Business, News

TMT Law practice accelerates growth and expands geographical presence in Bangalore & Bhubaneswar

Aug 5, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Managing Partner, #Mr Abhishek Malhotra, #TMT Law Practice

Mumbai: TMT Law Practice, India’s premier law firm in the segment of Technology, Media and Telecoms, announced its expansion into Bangalore and Bhuvneshwar on completion of 13 years of its existence. The law firm, which is headquartered in Delhi, has also opened a new office in Delhi and moved to a bigger office in Nariman Point, Mumbai.

TMT has commenced its operations in Bhubaneswar with Mr Laban Das, an Associate Partner and Mr Soumitra Bose, Senior Associate joining the team. The firm intends to leverage its geographic location to address clients’ requirements in the East and also in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The Bhubaneswar office has strengths in Disputes – Litigation and Arbitration, Corporate & Commercial, FinTech, Insurance, M&A and representation of Not-For-Profit entities/Trusts.

TMT has grown in Mumbai to 12 lawyers, including four partners, three of whom were onboarded this year to add to the existing Disputes team and to strengthen the Commercial practice in Media & Entertainment, M&A and Corporate services. The new office in Bangalore specialises in Disputes in the domain of Insolvency & Bankruptcy, Indirect Tax, Intellectual Property and Real Estate. The firm is already servicing Start-Ups in the Gaming, Healthcare, FinTech, Data Protection and Commercial Space domains from the Delhi office.

Speaking on the expansion, Mr Abhishek Malhotra, Managing Partner, TMT Law Practice said, “This last year has helped us to showcase our existing strengths and seize growth opportunities. With seven Partners and three Associate Partners across the various geographies, we will be able to provide the entire gamut of services under one umbrella organisation, leveraging the strengths and backgrounds of our lawyers and associates, to offer complete solutions to issues arising in the TMT sectors.”

TMT’s Delhi office has also added another office space. The new premises houses the non-litigation team, that takes care of IP prosecution and advisory, Corporate & Commercial, Data Protection, FinTech, Digital Healthcare, AgriTech, Commercial Space, Policy & Regulatory, Competition, Employment & Compliance.

Business World

PG Electroplast shareholders approves INR 76.6 Crores Incoming Investment from Baring Private Equity India, Ananta Capital and Others

Jun 22, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Ananta Capital, #Managing Partner, #Managing Partner of Baring Private Equity Partners India, #Mr Rahul Bhasin, #Mr. Ashutosh Taparia

New Delhi: PG Electroplast Limited, a leading consumer durables manufacturing company and Electronics Manufacturing Services provider, on 19th June, 2021 approved an incoming investment of Rs. 76.6 crore in the Extra-Ordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the company. The shareholders approved the issue of Equity Shares and Compulsorily Convertible Debentures to Baring Private Equity India AIF, the Taparia family backed Ananta Capital, members of the Patni Family Office and some individual investors.

The meeting of the shareholders of PG Electroplast was held on 19th June, 2021 through audio-video conferencing. The voting results of EGM were declared earlier today and the shareholders overwhelmingly voted to approve the resolution for issuance of equity shares and compulsorily convertible debentures as proposed by the Board, with over 99.99% voting in favour of the proposals.

This is an incredible landmark in the Company’s history as this approval paves the way for exponential growth thereby creating greater value for all stakeholders. Mr. Vishal Gupta, Managing Director (Finance), PG Electroplast Limited (www.pgel.in) said, “The investment by Baring PE and the family offices provides great affirmation in the future of Indian manufacturing and also endorses PG’s business model and future plans. We anticipate market demands for Consumer Durables to increase, and we will continue building further capabilities and capacities to be able to capture the same. This infusion of funds will also further enhance PG Electroplast’s abilities to make investments into its Air Conditioner manufacturing capabilities, making it a stronger contender for the Production Linked Incentives Scheme for White Goods announced by the Government of India.”

Mr Rahul Bhasin, Managing Partner of Baring Private Equity Partners India (www.bpepindia.net), said, “We are excited to partner with PG Electroplast in their transformation from a leading plastic molding player to becoming a full-suite EMS company. The positive feedback we have received from all stakeholders, coupled with management’s professionalism and execution focus, inspires confidence. The full-suite EMS space in India has tremendous growth prospects, and we are strong believers in PGEL’s capability to capitalise on it.”

Speaking about the opportunities presented by the Indian markets, Mr Ashutosh Taparia, Managing Partner, Ananta Capital (www.anantacapital.in), said, “We are strong believers in the India consumption story over the next several decades and our fund backs category-leading companies and high quality founders who are chasing this opportunity with our patient pool of capital. PGEL, led by Anurag, Vishal and Vikas, have built world-class manufacturing enterprise from India which is contributing meaningfully to our defined national vision of Make in India”.

PG Electroplast has been growing continuously since despite restrictive business situations and has posted great results for FY21, recording a robust growth of 10% in the revenue. EBITDA has grown 23.6% YoY accompanied by a 344% jump in net profits over the same period. We have strengthened our Balance sheet this year further. Though Net Debt is the same as last year at around 172 crores, the tenure has changed and the company has increased its long term borrowings while reducing its short maturity borrowings. Net Debt to Equity is now less than 0.9x and Debt to EBITDA in FY21 is 3.3 and we believe it will further improve going forward. The company’s focus area, its products business has grown 30% in FY21, and the company expects to see further growth from this segment going forward.

The funds raised will be used to further strengthen our balance sheet and give us growth capital which we need for investing in the capex in FY22. The planned capex for FY22 is over Rs 100 Crores, and will be used for building, plant & machinery and product development activities. The company is planning a world-class integrated facility for AC manufacturing on the recently acquired land in Ahmednagar and will be expanding capacities in Noida for AC parts and its sanitaryware business. It is going to invest in its Research and Development divisions to be able to offer the best ODM solutions for its customers and to improve its value addition. PGEL remains committed to its strategy of growing its product businesses, and is confident that the it is well positioned to take advantage of the coming opportunities in the Indian Indian Manufacturing sector.

Business World, News

MediBuddy closes $40 Million in Series B – the biggest round of funding in the Digital Healthcare space

Bengaluru: MediBuddy, India’s leading digital healthcare platform announced the closure of its $40 Million Series B Round. This follows the recent infusion of $20 million led by India Life Sciences Fund III, LLC, with participation from other investors. The digital healthcare platform had earlier announced an initial funding of $20 million (INR 150 crores) in June 2020 under this round. MediBuddy is led by co-founders Mr. Satish Kannan & Mr. Enbasekar, as the CEO and the CTO, respectively.

COVID-19 has created an unprecedented acceleration in digital healthcare adoption and MediBuddy has been at the forefront of this transformation. To-date, over 3 crore Indians have used the mobile and web platforms to access specialist doctors 24×7 on video, order medicines and book home collection of lab samples. In addition, several Fortune 500 companies in India have trusted MediBuddy as their preferred digital healthcare partner to help their employees access various healthcare benefits.

In June 2020, to create market leadership in the digital healthcare industry, DocsApp (India’s leading online doctor consultation platform) merged with MediBuddy. Going forward, both MediBuddy and DocsApp will operate under a single brand name – MediBuddy.

Addressing the press conference, Mr. Satish Kannan, Co-Founder & CEO, MediBuddy, said, “At MediBuddy, we strive towards making high-quality healthcare accessible to Indians across the length & breadth of the country. On any given day, we provide consultations to more patients than any leading offline hospital chain. Moreover, we are proud of the fact that over 50% of these users are from non-urban areas.”

Mr. Kannan also added that the potential of the MediBuddy platform has generated significant investor interest in the Series B round despite the uncertainty prevalent worldwide, helping it secure the highest funding in the digital healthcare space since the start of the pandemic. He also said that the Series B round attracted new investments from India Life Sciences Fund III, LLC, TEAMFund LP, JAFCO Asia Fund, FinSight Ventures, ALES Global Japan and Beyond Next Ventures. Existing investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Milliways Ventures and Rebright Partners also participated in this round.

Mr. Vishal Gupta, Managing Director, Bessemer Venture Partners India, said, “We are fortunate to have been a part of Satish’s and Enba’s journey from the very early days. We continue to be strong supporters as they execute towards their aim of enabling more Indians to have access to high-quality healthcare.”

Mr. Vikul Goyal, Venture Partner, FinSight Ventures, said, “Telemedicine in India is growing at a monumental pace and the pandemic has only further amplified the importance of going digital. MediBuddy is by far the leader in the digital healthcare space in terms of scale, size & customers served; and we are excited to partner with MediBuddy in this growth journey to make high-quality healthcare accessible to a billion Indians.”

Mr. Devarajan TP, Managing Director, representative of India Life Sciences Fund III, LLC, on the Board, said, “The Fund is excited about partnering with MediBuddy and its dynamic leadership team with Satish and Enba at the helm. MediBuddy’s e-health platform enables customers access the entire gamut of healthcare services, be it tele-consultation services, lab tests or medicines, across devices. The Fund is particularly heartened by MediBuddy’s efforts at enabling such access in vernacular languages, which will be the key to meeting its mission of serving customers across the length and breadth of the country. Its marquee customer base, consisting of the India operations of several Fortune 500 companies, and many leading insurance companies, is testimony to the quality of services provided. The Fund’s representatives look forward to working with MediBuddy and supporting it in its endeavour to emerge as India’s preferred digital healthcare platform.”

Ms. Supriya Singh, Director, JAFCO Asia Fund, said, “The telemedicine market in India is a very large growing opportunity and MediBuddy is in a very strong position in this market. They have the most comprehensive platform to address the market needs. JAFCO Asia has been one of the key investors in Teladoc in the US which is right now at USD 38bn in market cap. JAFCO Asia is very proud to be a partner to Satish and Enba in the growth journey for MediBuddy.”

Mr. Yousuf Mazhar, Managing Partner, TEAMFund, said, “TEAMFund is very excited to partner with the team at MediBuddy, and is looking forward to helping build out their chronic disease management capabilities for remote patients. MediBuddy has built a first class, frictionless platform that integrates telehealth with essential lab and pharmaceutical services that we believe is amongst the best in the world. This is extremely valuable for patients across the country, and especially for those in rural and low resource areas who benefit from increased efficiency, lower cost, and increased access to specialized services.”

The digital healthcare platform will utilize the funding in further strengthening its doctor and hospital base, patient reach, product, technology and brand to move a step closer to its mission of providing high-quality healthcare to a billion people. Additionally, the platform has onboarded leading industry professionals over the last few months to drive critical areas, bolstering an already-strong leadership team.

With a network of over 90,000 doctors, 7,000 hospitals, 3,000 diagnostic centres and 2,500 pharmacies, covering over 95% of all pin codes in India, MediBuddy is well-positioned to strengthen its leadership position by providing 24×7 access to a range of healthcare services across India. MediBuddy is truly living up to its name of being a ‘buddy’ who can be trusted to meet all your healthcare needs.

News

PointOne Capital announces first close, plans corpus of INR 50 crore for pre-seed startups

Dec 19, 2020 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Archana Priyadarshini, #Ex- Letsventure, #Managing Partner, #Mihir Jha, #PointOne Capital, #PointOne Capital): Ex-Unicorn India Ventures, #Ravish Ratnam, #Urban Clap, #Urban Company

Bangalore: PointOne Capital, a pre-seed focussed VC fund, recently announced the first closing of its maiden fund. The SEBI registered CAT-1 AIF which targets early seed stage startups, plans a total corpus of INR 50 crore with a ticket size of up to INR 1 crore per startup.

The fund counts successful entrepreneurs, PE & VC firm partners, CXOs & seasoned senior corporate leaders as its LPs. PointOne aims to solve the funding gap for start ups at the pre-product and revenue or the beta launch phase with very early traction.

The team comes with an in-depth experience and success in early stage investing and includes Archana Priyadarshini, Mihir Jha and Ravish Ratnam. All the three have collectively worked with over 1000 startups. Closing over 60 investments in their tenure apart from collaborating with 100+ VC funds and 1000+ angel investors, provides them an edge in identifying success patterns and enabling future rounds of their portfolio companies.

Adding further, Mihir Jha (Managing Partner, PointOne Capital): Ex- Letsventure, Urban Company (formerly Urban Clap), said, “Raising funding at a beta stage or pre-PMF stage is challenging for founders – it becomes too risky vis-a-vis the traction for larger VCs unless the founders come with a proven entrepreneurial track record. We are willing to take those risks in favor of the opportunity and the new insights the team brings to the table. Another problem is feedback in cases where an investor is not interested in investing. PointOne believes in changing that paradigm. Our conviction is that a pointed feedback at early stages of venture building will contribute manifold to increasing the overall efficiency of the Indian startup ecosystem. We aim to provide this to every entrepreneur whom we engage with.”

Ravish Ratnam (Managing Partner, PointOne Capital): Ex- Letsventure, added, “Our country is producing entrepreneurs at an unprecedented rate – needless to say, capital needs to catch up. PointOne has been set up to partner with the founders at the most fundamental stage, one which has the most number of variables(and hidden variables). We are glad to have the backing of industry experts from India and abroad in our first close as it opens up a powerful network which our portfolio founders can leverage as they navigate through their zero-to -one journey.”

Speaking about this, Archana Priyadarshini (Managing Partner, PointOne Capital): Ex-Unicorn India Ventures, said, “Having met over 500 startups in the last 5 years, I have seen that initial days are the most difficult in a founder’s journey. At such a stage, guidance along with capital becomes very important as founders need support in clearly articulating their vision, preparing a focused output-oriented pilot and defining the initial GTM. Through PointOne, we strive to be that pillar of support for the founders and also learn from them during that process.”

PointOne calls itself the “earliest early stage VC” and vouches for its speed of decision making. Their focus is on providing a clear investment feedback to founders whom they engage with. Their major USP includes the fact that the fund offers a dedicated Venture Partner to its portfolio companies post investment. These are entrepreneurs in the specific sector with a successful track record of scaling tech businesses.

Prior to this, PointOne has been investing in similar ventures through their angel syndicate. Some of these ventures have already raised their next round of funding within 6 months of PointOne’s syndicate investment. Although largely sector agnostic they are primarily targeting large untapped opportunities in Fintech, Consumer Internet, Gaming, SMB SaaS, Enterprise SaaS, Healthcare and Ed-tech. They plan least 1 investment per month going forward.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence

Technology

Wildcraft collaborates with IBM to drive higher customer advocacy

Aug 25, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Co-Founders, #Gaurav Dublish & Siddharth Sood, #Global Business Services, #IBM India/South Asia., #Kamal Singhani, #Managing Partner, #Wildcraft India Pvt. Ltd.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Wildcraft India Pvt. Ltd, India’s foremost company in the manufacturing and distribution of head-to-toe products for trek-to-travel solutions, has selected IBM to implement a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as-a-service-platform to drive customer advocacy and enhance the customer experience.

The solution developed by IBM Services is powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) capabilities and analyses customer interactions with Wildcraft India Pvt. Ltd at multiple touch-points. This 360-degree view of every shopper will help the company provide its customer’s personalized shopping experience across all its channels.

The CRM-as-a-service solution ties into ‘The Circle’, Wildcraft’s customer engagement program which provides consumers with a single-window to get all relevant information about the brands, products and services of Wildcraft. This initiative is part of the company’s growth plan to drive higher customer engagement by understanding their preferences.

As part of this new CRM solution, Wildcraft is introducing a virtual chatbot on their website and via WhatsApp. This virtual chatbot will be available in English and eight Indian regional languages (Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, Oriya, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam). The virtual chatbot will handle a high volume of inquiries, from general FAQ’s to questions about multiple topics including products, policies and procedures and even customer complaints.

“At Wildcraft, we have always believed in harnessing the power of the unknown. In the last couple of months, we have been able to reach out to some of the remotest areas in the country to enable everyone to be safe and be ready. A lot of these consumers are first time users of Wildcraft and it was necessary to create a mechanism to reach out to them effectively. Partnering with IBM allows us a robust technology-driven platform to understand our consumers and their wants. This will help us make our products better and customise them according to the larger needs,” said Gaurav Dublish & Siddharth Sood, Co-Founders, Wildcraft India Pvt. Ltd.

“We are proud to partner with Wildcraft India Pvt. Ltd to drive customer advocacy for higher brand affinity. IBM’s CRM-as-a-service platform has equipped Wildcraft with a 360-degree view to map their customers’ journey – from a prospect, to the customer, to brand advocate. Every customer will be nurtured at each stage to harness the real power of CRM, in today’s challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Kamal Singhani, Managing Partner, Global Business Services, IBM India/South Asia.

The virtual chatbot will authenticate users and facilitate user-specific information and transactions. In addition to understanding the intent of customer conversation through natural language processing (NLP), it will analyse the sentiment of customer responses and transfer the conversation to a live agent, if need be.

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