We bring to you the latest edition of movers and shakers of the week in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Here’s a look at the other important movers and shakers of the weekChiratae Ventures Appoints Dr Ferzaan EngineerChiratae Ventures has appointed cofounder and chairman of Cytecare Hospitals Dr Ferzaan Engineer to Chiratae Ventures India Advisory Council.

Launched in 2006, Chiratae Ventures India Advisors (formerly IDG Ventures India) is a technology venture capital funds advisor.

ft.Blackhawk Network India Appoints Radhakrishna VenketeshwaranBengaluru-based Blackhawk Network India has appointed Radhakrishna Venketeshwaran as the vice president – head of strategic development centre of product & engineering.

Prior to joining Blackhawk Network, Radhakrishna worked with Wibmo as a vice president of mobile payments and commerce. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582344006.1737669/Important-Movers-and-Shakers-Of-The-Week-[17--22-Feb]?ref=audio_experience

We bring to you the latest edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!

Overall, startups raised 15 around $330.85 Mn funding and five startup acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem.

WhatfixBengaluru and San Jose-based enterprise tech startup Whatfix has raised $32 Mn in Series C funding round led by Sequoia Capital India.

Onsitego’s existing investor Accel India has also participated in the funding round, along with Accel US.

AvalonMetaEdtech startup AvalonMeta has raised $420K in a funding round led by gaming company Peerplays. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582342206.709104/Funding-Galore:-Indian-Startup-Funding-Of-The-Week?ref=audio_experience

Catching on the trend, startups like Livspace, HomeLane, Bonito Designs, Infurnia, and Spacejoy are eyeing major growth in the segment by leveraging the funds to increase their user base.

Let’s take a look at these 5 Bengaluru-based interior designing startups, which raised funds recently.

HomeLaneHomeLane helps people with home renovations and interior designs.

Bonito DesignsBonito Designs, a bespoke interior space creator, raised $6.3 million in March 2019 from Tomorrow Capital to extend its operations.

SpacejoySpacejoy, an e-design startup offering interior design as a service, had raised $1 million in seed funding from Accel Partners in September last year. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582340406.8377168/These-5-interior-designing-startups-caught-investors’-attention-recently?ref=audio_experience

Twenty-six-year-old Ritesh Agarwal is rated among India’s most celebrated young entrepreneurs.

Ritesh started selling SIM cards at the age of 13 for survival.

In July 2019, it was reported that Agarwal purchased shares worth $2 billion in the company, tripling his stake.

Ritesh dropped out of college to fulfil his entrepreneurial dreams and went against all the social norms to become the youngest successful entrepreneur of our country.

We know our vision, our goals – and we just focus on getting there before anyone else can.”(Edited by Megha Reddy) | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582338606.5099275/12-inspirational-quotes-by-Oyo’s-Ritesh-Agarwal-on-how-to-become-a-successful-entrepreneur?ref=audio_experience

India has always relied on other countries for meeting the demands for lithium, a major element used to manufacture lithium-ion batteries which power electric vehicles.

As the government is pushing for early adoption of EVs in the country, the demand for lithium is growing to demand in the near future and luckily India has now found a new lithium reserve inside the country.

“Out of this lithium ore, around 14K tonnes of lithium metal can be extracted,” he added.

Munichandraiah said that Chile has around 8.6 Mn tonnes, Australia has 2.8 Mn tonnes, Argentina has 1.7 Mn tonnes and even Portugal has around 60K tonnes of lithium deposits.

While this is the first time a lithium ore has been discovered in India, industry experts have complained that not much of the government effort has been towards this direction. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582336807.589731/Lithium-Reserve-Discovered,-Can-It-Meet-The-India-EV-Battery-Demand??ref=audio_experience

Promoted by K Ganesh and Meena Ganesh’s GrowthStory, Verloop’s first client was beauty and personal care ecommerce platform Nykaa.

Irrespective of the type or field of business, companies need to attend to customer queries.

“Verloop is the next-generation answer to the question of 'how can companies increase profitability by improving customer retention?

'” says Founder Gaurav Singh.

“This makes us affordable for small companies and also allows us to increase our revenues as our clients scale,” Gaurav says. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582335014.438194/With-Nykaa-as-the-first-client,-this-startup-automates-customer-engagement-for-over-5k-businesses?ref=audio_experience

Leading OTT platform Netflix launched in India four years ago, and chilling hasn't been the same since then.

For more information, click here.

Associate, Content Strategy and AnalysisExperience required: 2-5 yearsThe Content Strategy and Analysis team is in charge of the valuation and analytical strategy behind its content buying and original content decisions.

It also evaluates the general programming and content strategy, in addition to leading competitive analysis.

For more information, click here. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582333206.8579817/[Jobs-roundup]-Ride-the-OTT-craze-with-these-job-openings-at-Netflix-India?ref=audio_experience

Global pre-seed startup accelerator and support organization Founder Institute (FI) has released its Investor Update for startups.

The resource includes an easy to use template that lets you write a consistent and useful investor update in 5 minutes or less.

Founder Institute CEO Adeo RessiSaid Founder Institute CEO Adeo Ressi, “For as long as I can remember, producing investor updates has been time consuming and difficult for entrepreneurs.

At the organization CEO Adeo Ressi and his colleagues train people to become entrepreneurs in a three-month course.

The accelerator was founded in Silicon Valley by Adeo Ressi and Jonathan Greechan with the mission to globalize Silicon Valley. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582331407.9843493/Founder-Institute-introduces-Investor-Update-resource-for-startups?ref=audio_experience

And there’s a whole bunch of important things that you’re going to be trying to learn here.

You’re going to be looking for this question about who are you selling to?

You’re going to have to make the transition to being able to have ordinary salespeople have a playbook that they can execute.

And again, that’s going to be different for each use case and for each different target market.

More importantly, if you want a story that’s actually going to perform with investors, with potential customers, within your industry, that’s the kind of place. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582329608.228802/SaaStr-Podcasts-for-the-Week-with-Matrix-Partners-and-EZPR-—-February-21,-2020?ref=audio_experience

In fact, Ayenda , the largest hotel chain in Colombia, has raised $8.7 million in a new round of funding, according to the company.

Led by Kaszek Ventures, the round will support the continued expansion of Ayenda’s chain of hotels in Colombia and beyond.

The hotel operator already has 150 hotels operating under its flag in Colombia and has recently expanded to Peru, according to a statement.

Financing came from Kaszek Ventures and strategic investors like Irelandia Aviation, Kairos, Altabix and BWG Ventures.

Oyo’s story may be a cautionary tale for companies looking at expanding via venture investment for hotel chains. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582327809.533007/Investors-in-LatAm-get-bitten-by-the-hotel-investment-bug-as-Ayenda-raises-$8.7-million-–-TechCrunch?ref=audio_experience