Startup news and updates: daily roundup (March 1, 2023)

Sequoia backs 12 startups through Surge

Surge, Sequoia India and Southeast Asia's early-stage accelerator programme, revealed its eighth cohort comprising 12 startups.

The cohort includes two healthtech startups, a metaverse player, two climate-tech startups, and three consumer companies creating new-age brands across food, home decor, and the wedding sector, among others.

At present, 30 founders from the selected 12 startups are undergoing a 16-week programme in company building from mentors, including Kunal Shah (CRED), Sanjeev Bikhchandani (InfoEdge), Amrish Rau (Pinelab), Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Paytm), and Nithin Kamath (Zerodha), among others.

UpGrad onboards Dan Rosensweig to board of directors

Edtech startup upGrad has onboarded Dan Rosensweig, the former chief operating officer (COO) at Yahoo, as an independent non-executive director on its board.

In his current stint at Chegg Inc, a student-focused textbook rental and homework help platform, Rosensweig serves as the president and CEO of the company. He has been working in Silicon Valley for close to two decades, and also serves on the board of Adobe, among other companies.

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3SC Solutions appoints Mark Gordon as the Director of Sales—US

Supply chain solutions company 3SC Solutions has appointed Mark Gordon as its Director of Sales for the North American region as part of its ongoing expansion efforts.

With a career spanning almost three decades, Gordon has worked as a consultant, an executive director, an SVP of business development, and a sales and strategy director across multiple industries.

Gordon's expertise lies in supply chain analytics, predictive analytics, and operations consulting. Throughout his career, he has designed and implemented supply chain analytics solutions and managed complex inventories. He has a customer-centric approach toward every analytics service he offers, emphasising the supply chain's predictive, prescriptive, and descriptive domains and leveraging data accuracy, speed, and efficiency, the company said.

Fasal introduces ‘Fasal Fresh'

Agritech startup Fasal launched Fasal Fresh to expand into the farming output business. The feature will remove intermediaries in procurement to ensure fairer prices for farmers while bringing end-consumers export-quality produce grown using Fasal’s proprietary farm-level crop intelligence systems. 

Through its patented IoT system Kranti, Fasal aims to make horticulture farming guesswork-free with advanced irrigation alerts, farm-level forecasts, and pest/disease forewarnings. It works with Indian farmers leveraging its technology over 60,000 acres across 20+ crops.

Fasal Fresh, which has been in the works since last year with a focus on building the horticulture farming network, will directly bring the produce grown via precision farming to the end consumers via retailers/e-tailers, wholesalers, and exporters. 

At present, the feature is operational in Delhi, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, with its Mumbai operations planned for March this year.

IIM Kashipur FIED Uttishtha brings 29 LOIs over Rs 5 Cr funding to 15 national agri startups

IIM Kashipur FIED (Foundation for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development) marks the seventh edition of Uttishtha 2023 – its annual entrepreneurship summit. It has successfully clocked 29 LOIs worth Rs 5 crore funding for 15 national agri startups. It also hosted over 100 startups and nearly 20 VCs to exchange their interests. Three days of Uttishtha 2023 witnessed the national business plan pitching competition, investors meet, and entrepreneur’s conclave.

So far, FIED has incubated over 140 startups, where more than 40 startups have generated direct employment of over 1,200 and have impacted over half a million farmers.

The initiative, supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, aims to bring socio-economic value to Uttarakhand’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

BQP joins Intel oneAPI for startups

BosonQ Psi (BQP), a Bengaluru-based deep tech startup, has joined Intel's oneAPI for startups.

The Intel oneAPI for startups helps startups grow and succeed by assisting them to access advanced technology. Additionally, the ecosystem provides business support and enables connections with various stakeholders.

BQP joining the Intel one API for startups will strengthen its ability to make a massive difference in the field of simulations using the power of its quantum computing.

Liferay aims to hire more than 200 employees n India in next 2 years

US-based cloud-powered digital user experience platform (DXP) provider, Liferay, intends to double its headcount in India and onboard more than 200 engineers and management candidates in the next 24 months.

As a part of its commitment, Liferay has also opened a new office in Bengaluru to pave the way for its expansion.

With a strong foothold in 19 countries across EMEA, APAC, and the Americas, Liferay aims to attract the best talent in India and expand its local presence. In the next two years, Liferay’s Bengaluru office will hire experienced and entry-level engineering and management graduates for various roles focusing on cloud technologies, product development, operations, marketing, and sales.

As a part of the new hiring plan, Liferay has created an internship programme that will nurture and train engineering and management candidates from top Indian institutes. Upon completion of the programme, the interns will be offered full-time employment opportunities at Liferay.

Veera Health forays into nutraceuticals with the launch of VeeVital PCOS support 

Veera Health has forayed into the nutraceutical market with Veera Wellness and has launched VeeVital PCOS support for better management of PCOS disorder.

VeeVital contains a clinically studied dose of Myo-inositol, which is proven to have beneficial effects on PCOS symptoms by improving insulin levels, lowering male hormone levels, regulating periods, and improving ovarian function and fertility. 

LifeSigns Partners with Amala Hospital

Amala Hospital has partnered with Chennai-based healthtech startup LifeSigns to launch an innovative smart ward with wearable wireless technology and to implement its iMS technology across cardiology and medicine departments at its hospital based in Thrissur, Kerala.

This smart ward is equipped with advanced technology that provides continuous patient monitoring and aims to improve patient outcomes and reduce the risk of medical errors.

It is also equipped with monitors at the nursing station and patient information systems for the hospital, all of which work together to improve patient care and streamline the healthcare process.

Cult.sport launches fitness smartwatch

D2C platform of Cure.fit Cult.sport launched its first fitness smartwatch designed to cater to the needs of health and fitness enthusiasts.

Available exclusively on Flipkart and its website, the smartwatch aims to bridge the growing demand for affordable yet advanced technology in the fitness industry and is equipped with a wide variety of features to empower enthusiasts in their health and fitness journey. 

This smartwatch comes in a variety of attractive designs and offers a multiplicity of features, including heart rate monitoring, calorie tracking, and sleep tracking, among others. Users can easily sync the watch with their smartphones and monitor their progress.

Housing.com partners with Niro; launches rent now, pay later services

Housing.com launches a rent now, pay later (RNPL) service in partnership with Niro to offer customers the ability to pay their rent on credit, with a zero-convenience fee, an interest-free credit period of up to 40 days, and an option to convert rent payments into easy monthly instalments (EMIs).

The RNPL service provides users with the option to upgrade their credit limit to be able to draw down cash for a variety of use cases, taking advantage of instant low-interest rate loans.

Housing.com and Niro had a successful pre-launch phase where they extended offers to nearly one lakh users. The first rental payment involves zero conveniences fee, and users can choose to upgrade their credit limit up to Rs 3 lakh.  

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