Indian Startup News Ep 30: Skyroot Aerospace's Swadeshi Rocket Engine & Zomato Period Leaves

This week in Indian Startup News, Skyroot Aerospace becomes India’s first private space company to successfully test an upper-stage rocket engine, Flipkart launches its accelerator program Flipkart Leap, Swiggy launches quick grocery delivery service InstaMart, Zomato introduces period leaves, Paytm Money launches stock trading service and ByteDance in talks with Reliance for investment in TikTok.

In funding news, Eduvanz raises $5 million, BigHaat raises $2 million, ZipLoan raises Rs 15 crore, Chingari raises $1.3 million and CityCash raises $1 million.

00:00 Intro

00:30 Skyroot Aerospace becomes India’s first private space company to successfully test an upper stage rocket engine: Skyroot Aerospace has become the first private space company in India to successfully test its upper stage rocket engine called Raman. If things go as planned, the company will be launching its three-stage rocket named Vikram I by the end of last year.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/12/indias-first-private-space-launch-startup-skyroot-succeeds-with-upper-stage-engine-fire-test/

2:20 ByteDance in talks with Reliance for investment in TikTok: ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, is reportedly talking to Reliance Industries Limited to gets its backing for TikTok India business. Since the Indian government banned TikTok along with 58 other Chinese apps in June, TikTok not only lost about 200 million users but also the future of its 2,000 employees hangs in the balance. ByteDance is now looking to either convince the government to remove the ban or might have to sell off TikTok to Reliance, Microsoft or any other interested company.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/12/bytedance-in-talks-with-indias-reliance-for-investment-in-tiktok/

04:51 Zomato introduces period leaves: Zomato has grabbed the headlines by introducing paid period leaves of up to 10 days for its women employees. This move by Zomato is not only aimed at tackling the stigma attached to menstruation but also to remove addition burden and to enable participation of women in India’s labour workforce which stands at a low 23.4%.
https://www.zomato.com/blog/period-leaves

06:54 Swiggy launches quick grocery delivery service InstaMart: Swiggy is doubling down on online grocery delivery with the launch of InstaMart in Gurugram. Swiggy Instamart will be available to its users from 7 am to 12 am and it will deliver more than 2,500 items including instant meals, ice-creams, snacks, fruits and vegetables within 45 minutes. The company will also be introducing the service to Bengaluru in the coming days.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/swiggy-joins-quick-grocery-delivery-race-with-instamart/articleshow/77454228.cms

07:46 Flipkart launches its accelerator program Flipkart Leap: Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has launched its own accelerator program called Flipkart Leap to support local entrepreneurs who are building startups in the technology and consumer internet space. Under the 16 week-long virtual program, the company will select 6-8 startups that will receive all the necessary training from industry experts to scale their ideas and also get the opportunity to win a $25,000 equity-free grant.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/flipkart-launches-its-startup-accelerator-program-flipkart-leap/articleshow/77457714.cms

08:54 Paytm Money launches stock trading service: Paytm has introduced stock trading on its wealth management platform Paytm Money enabling its users to invest directly in the Indian stock markets. Using a fully digital KYC process, the users on Paytm Money will be able to open their accounts, finish their KYC compliance and start trading within 24 hours. While the stock trading service is only available for Android users at the moment, the company will be rolling out the service for iOS users in the coming weeks.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/gadgets-news/paytm-money-launches-stock-trading-service/articleshow/77522596.cms

09:45 Chingari raises $1.3 million: Video sharing platform Chingari has raised $1.3 million in its seed round from AngelList India, Utsav Somani's iSeed, Village Global, LogX Ventures, and NowFloats co-founder Jasminder Singh Gulati.

10:42 CityCash raises $1 million: Digital payments startup CityCash has raised $1 million in seed funding from Orios Venture Partners.

11:24 BigHaat raises $2 million: Agritech startup BigHaat has raised more than $2 million from Beyond Next Ventures, Rockstud Capital and Ankur Capital. It will use the fresh capital to scale its technology platform and marketing efforts by hiring talent across its technology and marketing teams.

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