Investor Mark Cuban has an emphatic message for entrepreneurs, businesses, and the government – invest in artificial intelligence (AI) technology or risk becoming ‘a dinosaur’ very soon.

End of story,” he told a roomful of consumer industry delegates at the CES, the annual technology conference hosted and produced by the Consumer Technology Association.

We really, really, really, really, really, really, really need to invest in it.

The billionaire – who has invested in several healthtech startups such as Eon Health and Genetesis that leverage AI technology – also stressed on the need for entrepreneurs and businesses to understand AI technology and include it in their strategic long-term plans in order to stay relevant in the years to come.

But challenges aside, it is imperative that governments and businesses make understanding and integrating AI technology a priority, said the owner of NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578565806.412985/CES-2020:-Mark-Cuban-is-betting-big-on-AI;-urges-entrepreneurs,-government-to-do-the-same?ref=audio_experience

Emergex Vaccines Holding Limited, an Abingdon, England, UK-based biotechnology company developing set-point vaccines to prevent serious infectious diseases, secured over US$11m in Series A funding.

Vickers Venture Partners led the round and Dr. Finian Tan, Chairman of Vickers Venture Partners, will join the Emergex Board as a non-executive director.

Proceeds will also support the Universal Influenza and Filovirus programmes through the preclinical stages and early clinical trials.

In parallel, Emergex will continue to identify peptide libraries for a range of infectious disease indications to further expand and diversify its development pipeline.

Founded in 2016 by Professor Thomas Rademacher, CEO, Emergex focuses on developing vaccines that prevent virulent diseases such as Zika, Dengue Fever, Ebola and even pandemic Flu. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578564008.88723/Emergex-Secures-Over-US$11M-in-Series-A-Funding?ref=audio_experience

High Street Essentials (HSE), the parent company of FabAlley and Indya, on Thursday said it has raised Rs 8 crore in venture debt from Trifecta Capital.

This is the second round of debt infusion by Trifecta into the company, a statement said.

HSE had raised its first venture debt round of Rs 5 crore from Trifecta Capital in January 2018, it added.

The company had raised Rs 60 crore in Series B funding from SAIF Partners in December 2018.

HSE recently announced its FY19 results, and reported a net revenue of Rs 90.2 crore and profit of Rs 1.3 crore. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578562205.2124944/[Funding-alert]-FabAlley-raises-Rs-8-Cr-venture-debt-from-Trifecta-Capital?ref=audio_experience

Byju’s is now worth $8 billion (Rs.

This round makes Byju’s India’s third most valuable startup behind Paytm, which is valued at $15 billion, and Oyo Rooms, which is valued at $10 billion.

The fund raise has also catapulted Byju’s ahead of Ola, which is currently valued at around $6 billion.

In December 2018, Byju’s had become India’s fifth most valuable startup at a valuation of $3.6 billion.

With a $8 billion valuation, it’s now in the very upper echelons of India’s startup ecosystem. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578560406.2208717/Byju’s-Valued-At-$8-Billion-After-New-Fundraise,-Becomes-India’s-Third-Most-Valuable-Startup?ref=audio_experience

Axilor Ventures, a Bengaluru-based accelerator and seed fund, has selected 14 startups for its winter 2019 cohort.

For the first time, the winter 2019 batch also includes a Global SaaS cohort of six startups, Axilor added.

Currently, robot makers have to spend months in developing good navigation software for their robots and even then the software is not robust.

ChangePay is currently live in NITK and has over 4,000 users and another 10 communities are expected to go live by March 2020.

CollegePass streams live online college admission sessions, live online masterclasses delivered by International college advisors, and test prep experts. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578558606.5264754/Meet-14-startups-selected-by-Axilor’s-accelerator-programme-for-its-winter-2019-cohort?ref=audio_experience

NEW DELHI: High Street Essentials ( HSE ), the parent company of FabAlley and Indya , on Thursday said it has raised Rs 8 crore in venture debt from Trifecta Capital During FY20, HSE scaled up its retail footprint with 10 new Indya stores and 5 FabAlley stores, along with expanding both brands to over 350 shop-in-shops across the country, a statement said.

"The company plans to deploy the fresh round of funding to further fuel the offline expansion of its brands," it added.

This is the second round of debt infusion by Trifecta into the company, a statement said.HSE had raised its first venture debt round of Rs 5 crore from Trifecta Capital in January 2018, it added.

"The capital expenditure required to fund this growth is best done through debt, since it reduces the cost of capital and improves return on equity," HSE co-founder and Shivani Poddar said.

HSE had recently announced its FY19 financial results, reporting a net revenue of Rs 90.2 crore and profit of Rs 1.3 crore.The company said it is on track to close FY20 at a growth of 75 per cent over FY19, with EBITDA and PAT-level profitability. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578556806.430524/FabAlley-raises-Rs-8-crore-venture-debt-from-Trifecta-Capital?ref=audio_experience

Froogal mainly operates in SaaS, more specifically - Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, Marketing automation, Customer Experience, CRM & Data Analytics, Automation, Marketing, Digital Transformation, Feedback Management, Business Intelligence tools.

Customer Experience Management.

FROOGAL focuses on knowing, retaining every customer and ensuring customer loyalty.

With a variance of packages based on the customer’s business needs making it cost-effective through providing Aspirational and Experiential Customer Loyalty.

Froogal - Business Model and Revenue ModelSaaS business model- Froogal works monthly based subscription pricing ranges from 2500 per month - 15000 per month per location. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578555110.015482/Bridging-the-Gap-Between-Brands-&-Consumers?ref=audio_experience

Reliance Jio on Wednesday launched voice and video calling over Wi-Fi service that will allow customers to switch seamlessly from LTE to Wi-Fi-based calling when they are at home or office.

The company said Jio Wi-Fi calling - which works on the largest ecosystem of handsets - will also allow users to make video calls over Wi-Fi.

Customers can use any Wi-Fi network for Jio Wi-Fi-calling.

The voice and video calls will seamlessly switch over between VoLTE and Wi-Fi to provide an enhanced voice/video-calling experience, it added.

Jio Wi-Fi Calling will be enabled pan-India between January 7 and 16, the statement said. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578553205.2044153/Reliance-Jio-launches-voice-and-video-calling-over-Wi-Fi?ref=audio_experience

Leo Mavely, Founder and CEO, Axio Biosolutions, said,“Axio Biosolutions’ purpose is to make meaningful impact in the surgical and wound care space globally through our patented Chitosan-based technology.

Soon, we will also be launching our products direct to consumers for emergency trauma use,” he added.

Badri Pillapakkam, Investment Partner at Omidyar Network India, stated,“We need innovative, affordable solutions to make healthcare accessible and affordable to all, particularly in countries like India.

In 2016, Axio Biosolutions had raised Series A funding of $2.1 million from Accel Partners and Chiratae Ventures.

In 2018, the investors joined a $7.4 million round, led by Ratan Tata’s UC- RNT Fund. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578551405.543728/[Funding-alert]-Medtech-firm-Axio-Biosolutions-raises-Rs-36-Cr-led-by-Omidyar-Network-India?ref=audio_experience

In order to understand how esports attracts investors it is important to understand what it is!

Esports is an acronym for Electronic Sport which in layman’s terms covers everything from competitive gaming to playing scrabble online!

In Japan, for example, esports has become so popular that ‘Japanese publisher Konami is currently constructing a new building in the capital city of Tokyo dedicated to its esports efforts’.

There are multiple different reasons to invest in esports, such as broadcast revenue, prize money, ticket sales and merchandise (to name a few).

Whilst Facebook, Instagram Snapchat AND esports all saw high traction rates, globally, it is only esports that has an effective monetisation strategy. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578549608.264471/How-Esports-Attracts-Investors---Young-Upstarts?ref=audio_experience