Startup Around

However, app-based drivers from Ola, Uber, Swiggy, Zomato, Rapido and Dunzo have protested across the country about the lack of support for hygiene and sanitation.

They demanded that companies enhance the existing measures and provide fresh safety kits to drivers and delivery workers.

Ola and Uber have claimed to provide drivers with PPE kits, masks, sanitizers etc and have mandated that drivers sanitise cabs after every ride.

In another press note regarding driver safety, Ola said it will ensure all driver-partners have access to quality safety equipment such as masks, sanitizers, and disinfectant liquids.

Neither Ola nor Uber responded to questions on how riders outside the containment zone are being verified or screened. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1591931737.6314197/Ola,-Uber-Drivers-Demand-For-Protective-Gear-With-Transport-Back-On-Road?ref=audio_experience

BENGALURU: Software as a service ( SaaS startup Postman has raised $150 million in its Series C funding round, led by Insight Partners at a valuation of $2 billion, catapulting it into the coveted unicorn club.ET was the first to report the development on June 5.

Existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Charles River Ventures, which had together invested $50 million into the company in June 2019 at a valuation of $350 million, also participated in the fundraising.

The San Francisco and Bengaluru-based company has raised $208 million in total across various funding rounds.

It is understood to have clocked a revenue of $40 million in 2019, according to a person in the know.Postman is the fourth Indian SaaS company to enter the unicorn club after FreshWorks, Druva and Icertis.

Among the four, Postman has been the fastest to get there, taking just six years to be valued at more than $1 billion. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1591930841.6321428/$150-million-Series-C-round-catapults-Postman-into-SaaS-unicorn-club?ref=audio_experience

If you have employees who rely on a business email to communicate, you want to make sure that they know what an unsafe document looks like.

It might look like a company email with a document that pertains to the person’s job.

If you haven’t updated your technology or you’re not sure if you have, check out what you have.

Make sure to choose adequate systems and make sure that they’re being updated consistently.

It’s important to note that you will suffer greatly if your business information is hacked. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1591926318.2021575/Are-You-At-Risk-of-a-Cybersecurity-Attack?-Here’s-how-to-Know-For-Sure?ref=audio_experience

Asynchronous chat apps like Slack have done their best to kill email, but maybe the key to chat replacing email is just making email look like chat?

That’s the idea of Spike, a productivity startup that has built an email app that organizes emails into chat bubbles with an interface that encourages users to keep it short and simple.

“Email is a collection of your tasks, so why should it be separated from where your other tasks are?” asks CEO Dvir Ben-Aroya.

The new functionality widens the ambitions of the software but also refocuses the app on a more complete business use case.

“Unlike many other available email clients, we’re never touching, manipulating, using, reusing or selling any part of the user data,” he says. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1591922709.832852/Spike-raises-$8-million-to-make-your-email-look-like-a-chat-app-–-TechCrunch?ref=audio_experience

This startup just raised $12 million from top VCs to offer financial planning as an employee perkCompanies increasingly recognize that one of the greatest stresses for their employees is financial wellness.

But providing financial education to a workforce, which has become increasingly common, is largely useless as most employees will tell you.

It’s also a missed opportunity, according to a growing number of founders who are working to convince employers to move beyond education and instead offering automated financial planning (with a dash of human involvement) as an employee perk.

All are paying $6 per employee per month because it doesn’t matter how much employees are making, says Watson.

For example, another startup that’s also developing financial planning services as an employee perk is Northstar, founded by Red Swan Ventures investor Will Peng. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1591921811.3028872/This-startup-just-raised-$12-million-from-top-VCs-to-offer-financial-planning-as-an-employee-perk-–-TechCrunch?ref=audio_experience

Codat has received $10m for its fintech solution that aims to simplify interactions between small businesses and banks.

The investment came from Index Ventures, the backer of payments platform Adyen, Californian fintech Plaid and trading app Robinhood.

Index Ventures partner Jan Hammer and venture partner Stephane Kurgan will now join Codat’s board.

Codat’s technology connects the internal systems of small businesses to financial organisations to enable the flow of data in real time.

Hammer, partner at Index Ventures, said: “It’s simply luddite for so much business data to travel over email. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1591920907.4741552/Index-Ventures-invests-$10m-in-London-fintech-Codat?ref=audio_experience

To this effect, Surat-based cleantech IoT startup Jal Technologies tracks, monitors, and measures pollution and climatic levels at several locations across the state to understand how pollution is affecting people’s lives.

In 2015, when we realised the dangers of air pollution, we began developing a device, which will give data about the pollution level in real-time.

Shell also invested an undisclosed amount in February 2020 in Jal Technologies as a part of this programme.

Credit: Jal TechnologiesB2C Solution: Prkruti LiteJal Technologies has also developed a B2C solution Prkruti Lite to measure the indoor air quality.

However, he adds that Jal Technologies has no immediate funding plans and is currently working with its own funding and investment from Shell. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1591920008.042065/[Startup-Bharat]-Surat-based-Jal-Technologies-aims-to-help-India-solve-its-air-pollution-problem?ref=audio_experience

Among them is Branch, a 1.5-year-old, venture-backed New York-based startup that sells what it calls “exceptional office furniture, at half the price” — and which nearly went kaput because of the pandemic.

A small layoff at Branch followed — its 11-person team shrank to 8 people — along with some panic.

Instead of throw in the towel, the startup retooled itself to sell home office furniture to the many employees who are now working from home and receiving a stipend to update their set-up.

The startup already had some advantages over many more traditional office furniture retailers.

” Instead, he says, “A lot of white-collar employees will be working from the office just two days a week. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1591917307.5706692/COVID-19-nearly-killed-this-office-furniture-startup;-turning-to-home-offices-may-save-it-–-TechCrunch?ref=audio_experience

But in the most challenging environment in decades, those metrics are out the window.

While there are no blanket rules or guidance that applies to every business, company leaders need to focus on a few critical metrics to understand their performance and maximize their opportunities.

This includes understanding their burn rate, the overall real market opportunity, how much cash they have on hand and their access to capital.

Nonetheless, as the impact of COVID-19 became apparent, one of our board members suggested that we quickly develop a business plan that assumed we were running out of money.

For most companies, talent is both their most important resource and their largest expense. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1591916422.8250146/Gauging-growth-in-the-most-challenging-environment-in-decades-–-TechCrunch?ref=audio_experience

But in the most challenging environment in decades, those metrics are out the window.

While there are no blanket rules or guidance that applies to every business, company leaders need to focus on a few critical metrics to understand their performance and maximize their opportunities.

This includes understanding their burn rate, the overall real market opportunity, how much cash they have on hand and their access to capital.

Nonetheless, as the impact of COVID-19 became apparent, one of our board members suggested that we quickly develop a business plan that assumed we were running out of money.

For most companies, talent is both their most important resource and their largest expense. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1591915519.5554283/Gauging-growth-in-the-most-challenging-environment-in-decades-–-TechCrunch?ref=audio_experience