Suumit Shah is the CEO and co-founder of Dukaan, an app that helps small  businesses by taking their stores online. Prior to starting his own  journey as an entrepreneur, Suumit was the Social Media Manager for  Housing and TinyOwl.

Entrepreneurship: I don’t know what it means but it sounds cool – Back  in college, Suumit was designing websites and learned that he could make  money on the internet. While he didn’t know what entrepreneurship  meant, it sounded cool and he was already on track to being an  entrepreneur without knowing it.

From being a social media manager to becoming an entrepreneur: Suumit  started working for Housing and TinyOwl, where he was managing their  social media – enabling them to rank their websites on search engines by  focusing on search engine optimization (SEO). After this experience,  Suumit decided to start his own digital marketing agency where he was  doing the same but at scale for a lot more companies. He found it hard  to scale his services company and that’s when he decided to create a  product that would help the companies to use their product suite to  execute different aspects of digital marketing campaigns on their own.

Key learnings from first entrepreneurship experience: In a service-based  business, the best way to scale is by creating a product and monetizing  it. That is exactly what Suumit did when he was unable to scale his  digital marketing agency Rankz.

Story of Dukaan: A text from Jockey during the pandemic changed the  course of both Suumit and Subhash’s lives when they realised the need  for digitising local stores and helping them continue their business.  Within a week of launch, the Dukaan app was already trending on Google  Playstore. Feedbacks and requests from the customers kept coming in,  which further helped them improve their product and today the Dukaan app  has been downloaded more than 4 million times.

Dukaan vs Khatabook: Things got a little out of hand for a while when  Dukaan had a legal tussle with Khatabook in regards to copyright issues  and source code which led to Dukaan app being removed from the Play  Store for 50 days. But things have now been resolved and both Dukaan and  Khatabook are busy scaling their businesses.

Dukaan overview: A user first create his/her store using Dukaan app,  they can then share the link of their store – which contain all their  inventory and catalogue, to their existing customers and they are good  to go. Now Dukaan is also enabling the store owners to expand and scale  by providing simple marketing tools as well.

Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: The best way to learn to keep trying  things. What you learn today might help you build something a couple of  years down the line. If you have an idea, go and try it out – you will  either learn or you will succeed. It’s much better than killing your  startup at the ideation phase, which is the most common problem.

This week in Indian Startup News, Minus Zero’s attempt at building India’s first fully autonomous electric car, Upstox data breach, Pradeep Poonia vs WhiteHat Jr, Flipkart partners with Adani Group to strengthen supply chain and data capabilities, Flipkart acquires Cleartrip, Pine Labs acquires Fave and Nykaa acquires Pipa Bella.

In funding news, Zeta in talks to raise $250 million, DealShare raises $100 million, CarTrade raises $25 million, WeWork India raises $26.5 million, Miko raises $6.6 million and Beldara raises $7.4 million.

Minus Zero’s attempt at building India’s first fully autonomous electric car: Indian EV startup Minus Zero is trying to build India’s first level 5 fully autonomous electric car. They have successfully tested their technology by retrofitting an e-rickshaw. Their level 5 fully autonomous electric car should be ready by the late 2023.

Upstox data breach: India’s second largest discount broker Upstox has witnessed a data breach in their system leading to personal data of 2.5 million users being leaked on the dark web. The company has acknowledged the situation – saying that the financial data of their customers is secure and that they have strengthened the security on their servers.

Pradeep Poonia vs WhiteHat Jr: Pradeep Poonia has decided to file a lawsuit against Byju’s while he continues to defend himself in the defamation case. The next hearing for the case us scheduled for 25th May.

Flipkart partners with Adani Group: Flipkart has partnered with the Adani Group to strengthen its supply chain by building a fulfillment centre in Mumbai and to strengthen their data capabilities by building a data centre in Chennai.

Flipkart acquires Cleartrip: Flipkart has acquired Cleartrip in a deal which is expected to be worth $40 million – which is a discount for Flipkart as the entire hospitality and travel industry has been hit by the pandemic and this will strengthen Flipkart’s ticketing business.

Pine Labs acquires Fave: Pine Labs has acquired Malaysia-based payments and discovery platform Fave as the company looks to strengthen its own loyalty program across India and also expand its consumer-based business in the Southasian markets.

Nykaa acquires Pipa Bella: Nykaa has acquired online jewelry platform Pipa Bella as the company looks to expand its jewelry business ahead of its IPO. This acquisition will give them access to more than 1,500 jewelry styles while offering them the option to design their own jewelry.

Zeta in talks to raise $250 million: Fintech startup Zeta is in talks to raise $250 million in a round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 – which could make value Bhavin Turakhia’s latest venture a unicorn.

DealShare raises $100 million: Social ecommerce startup DealShare has raised $100 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management.

CarTrade raises $25 million: Online marketplace for buying and selling used cars CarTrade has raised $25 million – pushing the startup closer to being a unicorn at a valuation of $967 million.

WeWork India raises $26.5 million: Coworking space provider WeWork India has raised $26.5 million in a mix of equity and debt funding to focus on profitability.

Miko raises $6.6 million: Robotics startup Miko has raised $6.6 million in a round led by IvyCap Ventures to further invest in product development.

Beldara raises $7.4 million: B2B ecommerce marketplace platform Beldara has raised $7.4 million from Hindustan Media Ventures as the company looks to promote their agro B2B product – Farm 2 Guide.

In this podcast interview, Caleb sits down with Narayan Subramaniam and Niraj Rajmohan (Founders of Ultraviolette Automotive) to talk about their journey of becoming entrepreneurs, building Ultraviolette Automotive from scratch, struggles they encountered along the way and what the future holds for Ultraviolette.

Ultraviolette Automotive was founded by Narayan Subramaniam and Niraj Rajmohan in 2015. They started the company with the vision of building India’s high-performance electric motorcycle – F77. After years of hard work, the team at Ultraviolette is ready with their first motorcycle the Ultraviolette F77 and it is now available for pre-order.

Early Childhood: Narayan and Niraj have been friends since the age of 10. While, Niraj started coding at the age of 9-10, Niraj’s interest in playing with Legos drew him towards building and designing stuff at an early age.

College Days: Coincidentally, the two of them even ended up in the same college. They started tinkering with ideas and building robots and cool gadgets. They took their interests further by participating in a lot of competitions and winning around 30-40 of them.

Going their separate ways: After college, Narayan decided to go deeper into learning designing automotive stuff, while Niraj went on to join Yahoo. But both of them continued to indulge in their creative endeavors on the side.

Niraj quits his job to startup in the hyperlocal space: Along with a bunch of friends, Niraj decided to start his entrepreneurial journey by jumping into the hyperlocal space. They were building a platform that would connect people who had shared interests in their area. But they failed to monetize the platform and decided to wrap up the project.

Narayan and Niraj come together to build Ultraviolette Automotove – The two friends came together and decided to re-ignite their interests and started exploring opportunities in the rapidly growing EV space. And Ultraviolette Automotive was born.

Exploring opportunities in the EV space: At the time, While they were trying to figure out what they will build - they experimented with everything from smart wearables to batteries to last-mile electric mobility vehicle.

Rejected by hundreds of investors: Investors had stayed away from investing in hardware startups as they demanded a lot of capital but had a low success rate. But the founders believed in their vision and moved ahead.

Advice to entrepreneurs looking to raise their first funding round: Believe in your product and remain open minded. Evolve and polish your idea and product over time before presenting it to the investors.

Ultraviolette gets seed funding to work on Ultraviolette F77: After hundreds of rejections – Ultraviolette found the perfect seed investor in the form of Speciale Invest.

Hiring the right people: Equipped with capital, Ultraviolette was ready to move from building prototypes to building complete versions of their electric motorcycle – F77. But they needed to find the right people who would help them grow and get to the next level.

Importance of capital while building an innovative EV startup: The founders soon realized that while building an innovative product, they would continuously need to raise funds and be creative with spending their capital at the same time.

Turning challenges into innovations: The team was using their expertise to bring down the cost of the parts by ten-fold while keeping the quality intact in order to stay away from raising capital as long as possible.

Key milestones: Ultraviolette was able to create batteries that were way beyond the normal batteries available in the market as they needed their batteries to pack more power in a restricted space.

Future of Ultraviolette: The company is looking to scale production and distribute their electric motorcycle F77 to all parts of the country and also exploring options to sell overseas.

This week in Indian Startup News, WazirX announces NFT marketplace for India, Starlink India rollout in trouble, PolicyBazaar IPO, MFine launches tool to monitor oxygen saturation levels using smartphone, Byju’s acquires Aakash and goes international with Byju’s Future School.

In funding news, Swiggy raises $800 million, six startups turn unicorn in a week – Meesho raises $300 million, CRED raises $215 million, PharmEasy raises $350 million, Groww raises $83 million, ShareChat raises $502 million and Gupshup raises $100 million.

WazirX launches NFT marketplace for India: Crypto trading platform WazirX has launched one of India’s first Non-Fungible Token (NFT) marketplaces – enabling users to buy and sell digital assets like artworks, in-game avatars, virtual property, video files, audio files and even tweets.

Starlink India rollout in trouble: Broadband India Forum has asked TRAI and ISRO to stop Elon Musk’s Starlink to take pre-orders in the country as they have failed to comply with the guidelines, don’t have their ground stations in the country and they don’t even have the required authorisation.

PolicyBazaar IPO: After Zomato and MobiKwik – online insurance aggregator platform Policybazaar is expected to file for IPO next month in Mumbai which could value the company at $3.5 billion.

MFine launches tool to monitor oxygen saturation levels using smartphone: Healthtech startup MFine has launched an app-based tool that can monitor your oxygen saturation levels without the need for any additional device.

Byju’s acquires Aakash and goes international with Byju’s Future School: Byju’s has announced the acquisition of Aakash Educational Services in a deal that is pegged at nearly $1 billion. Apart from that Byju’s has announced their global expansion plans with the launch of Byju’s Future School across in the US, UK, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico – starting with coding and math classes.

Swiggy raises $800 million: Swiggy has raised $800 million at nearly $5 billion valuation from Falcon Edge Capital, Amansa Capital, Think Investments, Carmignac and Goldman Sachs.

Meesho raises $300 million: Social commerce startup Meesho has raised $300 million at a $2.1 billion valuation led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 – turning it into a unicorn.

CRED raises $215 million: Kunal Shah’s CRED has raised $215 million in their series D round led by Falcon Edge Capital and Coatue Management – pushing their valuation from $800 million to $2.2 billion within three months.

PharmEasy raises $350 million: PharmEasy has raised $350 million led by Prosus Ventures and TPG Growth at a $1.5 billion valuation as the company looks to onboard more pharmacies on their platform.

Groww raises $83 million: Online investment platform has raised $83 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management at valuation of more than $1 billion.

ShareChat raises $502 million: Indian language social media platform ShareChat has raised $502 million in round led by Tiger Global Management valuing the company at $2.1 billion.

Gupshup raises $100 million: Conversational messaging platform Gupshup is the last startup to become a unicorn this week after raising $100 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management.

This week in Indian Startup News, MobiKwik’s potential data breach, WhiteHat Jr to offer space education, InMobi plans an IPO in the US, Pine Labs to IPO in 2022, Two Delhivery co-founders exit ahead of IPO, Nazara’s successful IPO, NPCI issues guidelines for implementing 30% cap on UPI transactions, Amazon acquires Perpule and Byju’s is in talks to acquire online reading platform Epic.

In funding news, Byju’s raises $460 million, FirstCry raises $315 million, Uniphore raises $140 million, DotPe raises $27.5 million, HealthPlix raises $13.5 million and Chingari raises $13 million.

MobiKwik’s potential data breach: According to multiple media reports and independent cybersecurity experts – MobiKwik’s data has been breached leaving personal data of their 100 million users exposed. While the company has denied the reports of any data breach on their servers, RBI has asked them to conduct a forensic report.

WhiteHat Jr to offer space education: WhiteHat Jr has partnered with satellite company EnduroSat which will give them access to two satellites in space and help their students to learn more about space technology.

InMobi plans an IPO in the US: India’s first unicorn and a mobile advertising platform InMobi is all reportedly all set to launch their IPO in the next three months. They might raise as much as $1 billion through the IPO - valuing the company at $13-15 billion.

Pine Labs to IPO in 2022: Pine Labs is expected to IPO in 2022 in the US – valuing the company at $5 billion.

Two Delhivery co-founders exit ahead of IPO: Two of Delhivery’s co-founders’ Mohit Tandon and Bhavesh Maglani have reportedly left the company ahead of their IPO.

Nazara’s successful IPO: Nazara shares were issued at Rs 1,101 but they hit a 80% premium at the time of listing.

NPCI issues guidelines for implementing 30% cap on UPI transactions: The 30% cap on overall UPI transactions came into effect starting this year but the UPI apps like PhonePe, Google Pay and Amazon Pay have until the end of 2022 to comply. When any UPI app hits 30% limit, they will be asked by the NPCI to stop onboarding any new customers in a bid to bring down their number of transactions to keep them within the 30% limit.

Amazon acquires Perpule: E-commerce giant Amazon has acquired Perpule for $14.7 million as they plan to strengthen their presence in India’s offline commerce space which generates 95% of the sales by helping them get online using their latest acquisition.

Byju’s is in talks to acquire online reading platform Epic: India’s most valuab;e edtech startup Byju’s is reportedly in talks to acquire Epic as the company plans to expand its overseas presence in the US.

Byju’s raises $460 million: Byju’s has raised a massive $460 million in their ongoing series F round from MC Global Edtech Investment Holdings at an expected valuation of $13 billion.

FirstCry raises $315 million: Omnichannel retailer for baby products has reportedly raised $315 million as they plan to expand their presence in the Middle East.

Uniphore raises $140 million: Conversational AI startup Uniphore has raised $140 million from Sorenson Capital Partners to help them focus on video-based AI applications.

DotPe raises $27.5 million: DotPe has raised $27.5 million from PayU at a $90 million valuation to help offline businesses to sell online.

HealthPlix raises $13.5 million: HealthPlix has raised $13.5 million in series B round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners to onboard 50,000 doctors on their platform.

Chingari raises $13 million: Chingari has raised $13 million from OnMobile for a 10% stake to enhance its content portfolio and expand its user base.

This week in Indian Startup News, Zomato and MobiKwik to file for IPO soon, New SPAC to take Indian startup public in the US, Paytm’s NUE plans, Y Combinator features 43 Indian startups in W21 batch and Khatabook acquires Biz Analyst.

In funding news, Dream11 raises $400 million, ClearTax in talks to raise $100 million, KreditBee closes $145 million round, Moglix in talks to raise $70-$100 million, Purplle raises $45 million, Public App raises $41 million, Velocity raises $10.3 million and FloBiz raises $10 million.

Zomato and MobiKwik to file for IPO soon: After Nazara Technologies, Zomato is planning to file for IPO next month and is expected to raise around $650 million at a $7-10 billion valuation. Also, MobiKwik is looking to file for IPO in May at a billion-dollar valuation.

New SPAC to take Indian startup public in the US: Elevation Capital and Think Investments have formed a new SPAC called Think Elevation Capital to take Indian startups public in the US.

Paytm’s NUE plans: Paytm has launched its New Umbrella Entity (NUE) named Foster Payment Network which is in the final stages of submitting their bid for the NUE license. While Paytm and its three entities will hold the majority stake – companies like PolicyBazaar, Induslnd Bank, Ola, Electronic Payments Services, Centrum Finance, Suryoday Small Finance Bank and Think360.ai will also be joining their consortium.

Y Combinator features 43 Indian startups in the W21 batch: Out of 350 startups from 43 nations featured in Y Combinator’s W21 batch – with 43 startups India is the second most represented country.

Here are all the 43 Indian startups: QuestBook, Leap Club, CashBook, GimBooks, BusinessOnBot, ZOKO, Prescribe, Chatwoot, Weekday, Fountain9, Dyte, YourQuote, Fifthtry, Voosh, Kodo, Krab, Bueno Finance, Betterhalf, Pensil, AcadPal, Pragmatic Leaders, Splitsub, Zingbus, Tilt, FanPlay, GroMo, BimaPlan, BimaPe, Zealth, Codingal, Unschool, Flux Auto, SigNoz, Pitbit.ai, Invoid, Redcliffe Lifesciences, Veera Health, Snazzy, BeWell Digital, Jeevam Health, Triomics.

Khatabook acquires Biz Analyst: Khatabook has acquired SaaS-based business management platform Biz Analyst in a $10 million deal to monetize their 40 million users.

Dream11 raises $400 million: Dream11 has raised $400 million in their latest secondary funding led by TCV, D1 Capital Partners and Falcon Edge at a valuation of $5 billion.

ClearTax in talks to raise $100 million: ClearTax is in talks to raise $100 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management at an expected valuation of $750-$850 million.

KreditBee closes $145 million round: Digital lending startup KreditBee has closed its series C round at $145 million – raising $75 million in the latest tranche led by NewQuest Capital Partners and Motilal Oswal Private Equity.

Moglix in talks to raise $70-$100 million: B2B industrial goods marketplace Moglix is in talks to raise $70-$100 million in a round led by Falcon Edge Capital and it could make them India’s second B2B ecommerce unicorn.

Purplle raises $45 million: Online beauty commerce startup Purplle has raised $45 million led by Sequoia Capital India and Verlinvest – while giving a 22X return to IvyCap Ventures that made a partial exit.

Public App raises $41 million: Public App, owned by Inshorts, has raised $41 million led by A91 Partners – doubling their valuation from $125 million to $250 million in just six months.

Velocity raises $10.3 million: Fintech startup Velocity that offers credit to online businesses based on their revenues has raised $10.3 million in seed funding led by Valar Ventures.

FloBiz raises $10 million: FloBiz, a startup that helps offline businesses to digitize their billing and accounting has raised $10 million in series A round led by Elevation Capital.

This week in Indian Startup News, Nazara Technologies becomes India’s  first company to IPO, Log 9 Materials launches EVs with their Rapid  Charging Battery, Oyo shuts down some coliving and coworking business,  Zomato enters dietary supplement market, Tata’s acquisition bid for  BigBasket and Square Yards acquires PropVR.

In funding news, PolicyBazaaar raises $75 million, MyGlamm raises $24  million, Leap Finance raises $17 million, OZiva raises $12 million and  YAP raises $10 million.

Huge funding rounds in the making, CRED expected to raise $200 million,  Delhivery could raise up to $150 million ahead of IPO and Stanza Living  in talks to raise $120 million.

Nazara Technologies becomes India’s first company to IPO: Nazara  Technologies finally launched its IPO on 17th March – making it the  first Indian company ever to go public. The company has transformed  itself from a telecom gaming subscription company to a full-fledged  gaming company with fingers in every major segment from esports to  gamified learning.

Log 9 Materials launches EVs with their Rapid Charging Battery: Log 9  Materials has announced the launch of their electric scooters and  three-wheelers that come with their disruptive Rapid Charging Battery  packs.

Oyo shuts down some coliving and coworking business: In a bid to focus  on its core business, Oyo is checking out of its loss-making ventures –  by shutting down some coliving and house rental business (Oyo Life) and  some coworking spaces.

Zomato enters the dietary supplement market: Indian foodtech unicorn  Zomato is looking to diversify by launching its own brand of dietary  supplements ahead of its expected IPO this year.

Tata’s acquisition bid for BigBasket: Tata Digital is finally seeking approval of CCI to acquire 64% of BigBasket.

Square Yards acquires PropVR: Real estate startup Square Yards has  acquired AI-based PropVR to turn 2D floor plans into interactive 3D  walkthroughs in minutes.

PolicyBazaaar raises $75 million: PolicyBazaar has raised $75 million in a round led by Falcon Edge Capital.

MyGlamm raises $24 million: MyGlamm has raised $24 million in series C round led by Ascent Capital, Amazon and Wipro Consumer.

Leap Finance raises $17 million: Leap Finance has raised $17 million series C led by Jungle Ventures.

OZiva raises $12 million: OZiva has raised $12 million in series B led by Jungle Ventures.

YAP raises $10 million: YAP has raised $10 million in series B led by Flourish Ventures and Omidyar Network.

CRED expected to raise $200 million: CRED is expected to raise $200  million in fresh funding at a $2 billion valuation – that would make it  India’s fastest unicorn.

Delhivery could raise up to $150 million ahead of IPO: Delhivery is  reportedly in talks to raise up to $1450 million ahead of its IPO.

Stanza Living in talks to raise $120 million: Stanza Living is in final  talks to secure a $120 million funding – doubling its valuation from  $300 million to $600 million.

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Zostel vs Oyo: Zostel and Oyo have been engaged in a legal battle for  more than 3 years. When Oyo refused to acquire Zostel back in 2016,  Zostel believed that they had signed a binding agreement but Oyo  considered it to be a non-binding agreement. Zostel believes Oyo owes  them a 7% stake in the company for transferring their business as part  of the deal. The tribunal has finally come to a decision that is still a  little vague. The tribunal has said that Zostel is entitled to costs in  the cause without putting any monetary value but it also said that  ‘definitive agreements have yet to be executed’.

CCI asks MakeMyTrip to relist Oyo rivals Treebo and FabHotels on its  platform: Back in 2018, Oyo had signed a commercial agreement with  MakeMyTrip and soon Oyo’s rivals Treebo and FabHotels were delisted from  MakeMyTrip. In 2019, FHRAI had filed a complaint against MakeMyTrip for  stifling competition by not letting Treebo and FabHotels use  MakeMyTrip’s platform. While the probe is still underway, CCI has asked  MakeMyTrip to relist both Treebo and FabHotels providing them interim  relief.

Paytm’s new app turns smartphones into POS machines: Paytm has launched a  Smart POS app that can turn any NFC-enabled android smartphone into a  POS machine. In order to process payments using their Smart POS app,  customers simply need to tap their credit/debit cards at the back of a  merchants’ smartphone.

Acquisitions: Tata is reportedly in talks with an online search engine  for local businesses Just Dial for an acquisition or a strategic  alliance. Logistics technology startup FarEye has acquired another  logistics technology startup PY Technologies to scale customer  implementation and incubate new ideas. VerSe Innovation, the parent  company of dailyhunt and Josh, has acquired photo-sharing platform  Vebbler to boost the camera and social capabilities of its short video  app Josh and build a comprehensive product platform for Indian language  users.

Turtlemint raises $46 million: Turtlemint has raised $46 million in  series D from Jungle Ventures, GGV Capital, American Family Ventures,  Mass Mutual Ventures, SIG, Sequoia Capital India, Blume Ventures, Nexus  Venture Partners, Dream Incubator and Trifecta Capital.

NODWIN Gaming raises $22.5 million: NODWIN Gaming, a subsidiary of  IPO-bound Nazara Technologies, has raised $22.5 million from PUBG Mobile  developer Krafton. Ecom Express raises $20 million: Ecom Express has raised $20 million  from the CDC Group.

Quizizz raises $12.5 million: Quizizz has raised $12.5 million from  Eight Roads Ventures, GSV Ventures, Rocketship.vc, Nexus Venture  Partners and Prime Venture Partners. Riscovry raises $5 million: Riskcovry has raised $5 million from Omidyar  Network India, Pentathalon Ventures, DMI Sparkle Fund, Bharat Inclusion  Seed Fund, Varanium Capital and Better Capital.

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Nexus Power: Founded by twin sisters Nishita and Nikita Baliarsingh in  2019, Nexus Power is building bio-organic and biodegradable batteries  for electric vehicles. Initially, Nishita and Nikita wanted to actually  build EVs, but after doing some research, they realized that India’s EV  space was still a really tough market to get into and they started  creating batteries that could replace Lithium and were good for the  environment.

Little Black Book (LBB): Founded by Suchita Salwan in 2011, LBB started  as a Tumblr blog and has now evolved into a discovery-led commerce  platform. Suchita started building a small team of employees,  freelancers, and interns, who would scour Delhi searching for  interesting places that people could visit. They later started building  their own website and app after Dhruv Mathur joined LBB as a co-founder  in 2015.

YourStory: Founded by Shradha Sharma in 2008, YourStory started as a  platform that would tell stories of entrepreneurs who are not superstars  yet but have the spark, drive and hope. After failing to raise funds  from investors for her media and news startup, Sharadha Sharma  bootstrapped YourStory for seven years before investors eventually  realized the potential of her venture.

Myelin Foundry: Founded by Aditi Olemann, Ganesh Suryanarayanan and  Gopichand Katragadda in 2019, Myelin Foundry’s flagship service called  Fovea Stream is able to leverage the power of artificial intelligence  and deep learning to upscale videos that viewers are watching on OTT  platforms up to 4K, irrespective of the video’s original quality or  network bandwidth limitations.

Doubtnut: Founded by husband-wife duo Aditya Shankar and Tanushree  Nagori in 2016, Doubtnut provides its users with instant video solutions  to doubts in a number of different educational categories like math,  physics, chemistry, and biology. Students just plug in their question or  even take a photograph of it and Doubtnut provides a solution to that  question.

SmartVizX: Founded by another husband-wife duo Gautam and Tithi Tewari  in 2015, SmartVizX is a virtual reality startup that is changing the way  architects communicate. Their flagship product Trezi is India’s first  VR-based design communication and collaboration product. SmartVizX’s  customers can use Trezi to seamlessly review, modify, and experience a  project design with clients and colleagues.

ZestMoney: Founded by Ashish Anantharaman, Lizzie Chapman, and Priya  Sharma in 2015, ZestMoney is a fintech startup that partners with NBFCs  and banks to offer EMI option to customers who do not have access to  credit cards and can’t afford to pay for products out of their pockets  in full.

Rivigo: In 2014, Deep Garg and Geet Kalra set out to make the profession  of truckers more humane and address the growing need of truck drivers  in the country by starting Rivigo. The company’s innovative relay  trucking model not only helps its drivers to go home to their families  every day but also makes deliveries for their customers much faster.  Today, Rivigo has become a unicorn and has raised more than $280  million.

MobiKwik: Founded by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku in 2008,  MobiKwik is a digital payments startup that was started before  FreeCharge, Paytm and PhonePe. Initially, MobiKwik was a prepaid mobile  recharge service but it has now expanded its portfolio to include a host  of financial services.

Nykaa: Founded by Falguni Nayyar in 2012, sells beauty, wellness, and fashion products for both men and women  using an omnichannel channel approach: through their website and 70  offline stores across India.

This week in Indian Startup News, New Umbrella Entity Licenses to strengthen digital payments ecosystem, Paytm processes 1.2 billion transactions and Flipkart expands grocery service and explores IPO via SPAC route.

In acquisition news, Flipkart in talks to acquire Cleartrip, Delhivery acquires Primaseller and Reliance acquires majority stake in skyTran.

In funding news, Groww in talks to raise $100 million, PolicyBazaar raises $45 million, Cashify raises $15 million, Apna.co raises $12.5 million, Euler Motors raises $4 million, The ePlane Company raises $1 million and Clairco raises $577,000.

New Umbrella Entity Licenses to strengthen digital payments ecosystem: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is doling out New Umbrella Entity (NUE) licenses as the central bank is looking to create a consortium of companies that could compete with the NPCI and create better digital payments systems and technologies that will be compatible with NPCI’s Rupay and UPI to turn India into a cashless and digital economy. Companies like Reliance, Tata Group, Amazon, Paytm and Ola have formed their own consortiums to apply for the NUE licenses.

SpaceX’s satellite internet service Starlink is available for pre-booking in India for $99: SpaceX’s satellite internet service Starlink is now available for pre-booking in India for $99. While the internet service will only be available in India by 2022. Starlink currently offers speed in the 50-150 Mbps range but it will be increased to 300 Mbps soon.

Paytm processes 1.2 billion transactions: India’s most valuable unicorn Paytm claims to have emerged as the leading mobile payments provider by volume – processing more than 1.2 billion transactions last month. While PhonePe and Google Pay lead the UPI payments, Paytm claims the top spot in the consolidated mobile payments space.

Flipkart expands grocery service and explore IPO via SPAC route: Flipkart has expanded its grocery delivery service to more than 50 cities and is also looking to take the SPAC route to IPO in the US.

Flipkart in talks to acquire Cleartrip: Flipkart is in talks with online travel agency Cleartrip for an acquisition as the ecommerce giant looks to expand its product offering.

Delhivery acquires Primaseller: Logistics unicorn Delhivery has acquired a SaaS-based platform Primaseller that provides an omnichannel inventory management software

Reliance acquires majority stake in skyTran: Reliance has doubled its stake in the US-based skyTran from 26.3% to 54.46% for $26.76 million.

Groww in talks to raise $100 million: Online investment platform Groww is in talks with Tiger Global Management to raise $100 million at a valuation of about $1 billion.

PolicyBazaar raises $45 million: Online policy aggregator PolicyBazaar has raised $45 million through secondary share sale from Bay Capital, IIFL Wealth, White Oak Global Advisors and Cyrus Poonawalla Group.

Cashify raises $15 million: Online platform for selling used smartphones Cashify has raised $15 million from Olympus Capital Asia.

Apna.co raises $12.5 million: Professional networking platform for blue-collar workers Apna.co has raised $12.5 million Sequoia Capital India, Greenoaks Capital, Lightspeed India and Rocketship.vc

Euler Motors raises $4 million: EV startup Euler Motors which is gearing up to launch its first electric cargo three-wheeler has raised Rs 30 crore ($4 million) as a part of its ongoing series A round led by Inventus India and Jetty Ventures.

The ePlane Company raises $1 million: The ePlane company has raised $1 million from Speciale Invest, Naval Ravikant, Java Capital, FirstCheque.vc, and Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad’s CIIE incubator.

Clairco raises $577,000: Air purification startup Clairco has raised Rs 4.2 crore ($577,000) from Anicut Angel Fund, Max Group and AngelList.