Startup Around

Trends that may have been on retailers’ radar in the medium term are suddenly critical right now.

Download the free report to learn about the latest trends in retail and strategies to watch for 2020.

Retailers, meanwhile, have had the chance to take a closer look at any technology that will further automate their stores.

Retailers will look for technology that automates the store, including AI for inventory management, robot associates, and cashierless checkout.

Gaming’s virtual worlds have attracted renewed attention as consumers look for new ways to engage with people from within their own homes. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585771207.580378/Retailers-Shift-To-Meet-Supply-Chain,-Fulfillment,-And-Digital-Experience-Needs?ref=audio_experience

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has been with the company for over 10 years — she started in March 2008, just before the financial crisis hit.

In March 2008, when Sheryl Sandberg joined Facebook as its chief operating officer, the company was still a startup.

"We had a very small business," Sandberg told Business Insider EIC Alyson Shontell in an interview published Wednesday, "but we were worried."

Sandberg pointed to a crucial question the company's leadership had to ask itself: "What is your core business, and what is the core service you're providing?"

For Facebook, the answer was adapting the company's core business — advertising — to the moment. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585769407.1314106/Sheryl-Sandberg-joined-Facebook-when-it-was-a-startup,-just-months-before-the-2008-recession.-Here's-how-she-says-Facebook-strengthened-its-business-during-the-downturn,-and-her-advice-to-startups-tha?ref=audio_experience

The 75 percent wage subsidy will be available for Canadian businesses that have experienced a 30 percent decline in revenue due to COVID-19.

Applications for the subsidy program are set to open soon and will be available through the Canada Revenue Agency’s website.

Trudeau announced the increase of the employee wage subsidy from 10 percent to 75 percent last Friday (March 27).

Since then, new announcements, including the 75 percent wage subsidy have increased the federal government’s package to $107 billion.

— pierrepoilievre (@PierrePoilievre) March 31, 2020Morneau and Ng had been set to provide more details on the increased wage subsidy on Tuesday but faced delays. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585767607.579478/Morneau-provides-more-detail-on-government’s-75-percent-wage-subsidy-for-Canadian-businesses?ref=audio_experience

I was set to talk to 30 business leaders who were ready to learn more about how they could become more resilient to major outages.

We scrambled to find a workaround at the last minute while the assembled VPs and CTOs sat around waiting.

I can also tell you that working remotely makes the entire process more complicated if teams are not accustomed to it.

It’s often the small things that can make all the difference when working remotely; things that seem obvious in the moment, but may have been overlooked.

So here are some tips for managing incidents remotely: | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585765807.4829907/A-former-chaos-engineer-offers-5-tips-for-handling-online-disasters-remotely-–-TechCrunch?ref=audio_experience

According to Worldometers, the number of coronavirus cases in India stands at 1,637, with 45 deaths reported.

Coronavirus: E-diagnostics startup KlinicApp brings COVID-19 testing to homes as India scales up capacityHealthtech startup KlinicApp has launched COVID-19 tests on its platform.

ICICI Lombard and BharatPe join hands to launch coronavirus insurance cover for shopkeepersAmid the coronavirus pandemic, ICICI Lombard and BharatPe have partnered to launch coronavirus insurance cover for shopkeepers.

Coronavirus: Wipro, Azim Premji Foundation commits Rs 1,125 Cr to combat COVID-19Wipro group joins the list of other leading corporates who have made financial contributions towards combating the deadly coronavirus.

Lack of medical funds poses challenge in fight against coronavirus: FitchContinued lack of medical funds and healthcare infrastructure, despite additional funding, poses challenges in mounting an effective response against the coronavirus outbreak, says a report. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585764008.3343344/Coronavirus-updates-for-April-1?ref=audio_experience

Founder Karimpana said that the funds will help in achieving profitability in the next 12-18 monthsFurniture rental startup Furlenco, on Thursday (April 1) announced a $10 Mn funding round with participation from its existing investors.

For this funding round, Waterfield Advisors, DPNC Advisors, and Quadito were the advising partners to Furlenco.

The company has closed this funding round at a valuation of $125 Mn.

So far, the startup has raised around $43 Mn in equity and $45 Mn in debt.

However, online rental platforms like Furlenco are changing the landscape. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585762206.6359355/Furlenco-Bags-$10-Mn-From-Lightbox,-Others-To-Achieve-Profitability?ref=audio_experience

Bengaluru-based healthtech startup MedGenome has raised $55 Mn in a fresh funding round.

The funding will be used towards expanding its clinical genomic testing in Tier 2 and 3 cities and smaller towns.

Prior to this round, the company has raised $55 Mn in funding,Founded by Sam Santhosh in 2013, MedGenome is a genetic diagnostic testing company.

The company claims to have built the largest database of South Asian genome variants in genetic diagnostics in India and research partnerships.

According to DataLabs by Inc42, the healthtech sector recorded total funding of $586.93 Mn in 2019, an increase of over 10% in the amount of funding from the previous year. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585760406.6336627/MedGenome-Raises-$55-Mn-In-Fresh-Funding-To-Expand-In-Tier-2-3-Markets?ref=audio_experience

Besides this, even the ministry of consumer affairs has rolled out ecommerce guidelines to protect the consumers shopping online.

But the commerce ministry, which is working on the ecommerce guidelines, is reportedly in touch with the IT ministry over the personal data protection bill to ensure that there is minimum overlaps in the two bills.

As per an ET report, the commerce ministry will soon provide a recommendation in regards to the governance of data.

The DPIIT reportedly believes that the committee should look into critical data such as military, biological and genomic data, and not deal with ecommerce data.

DPIIT had released the draft ecommerce policy back in early 2019. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585758605.1450272/Indian-Govt-Ensures-Minimum-Overlap-in-Ecommerce-Policy,-Data-Bill?ref=audio_experience

The volume of UPI transactions is further expected to fall in AprilAfter almost 12 months of continuous growth, the government’s unified payments interface (UPI) has seen a 6% decline in transactions in March 2020.

The number of UPI transactions may take a major hit in April 2020 considering the lockdown effects and the new rules of P2P charges.

After availing the 20 free transactions, users will have to pay INR 2.5 for transactions under or equal to INR 1000, and INR 5 for transactions above INR 1000.

At present, neither banks nor platforms charge users for UPI transactions in a bid to keep demand high.

As lockdown continues to run till April 14, with speculation of it being extended considering the jump in positive cases, how UPI payments survive this period remains to be seen. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585756818.8336196/UPI-Payments-Take-A-Hit-In-March-As-Lockdown-Slows-Growth?ref=audio_experience

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between.

This morning we’re talking about churn — the bane of software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies big and small — in the new world we find ourselves in.

SaaS companies, from startups to huge public firms, have built their businesses under strong economic conditions.

It’s easy to say that churn will go up; some customers will close, cancelling contracts (boosting gross churn) while other customers will slow software budget growth (limiting net retention).

To get a handle on what’s next for churn, I spoke to the CEO of CrowdStrike, a public SaaS company; the CEO Gainsight, a quickly-growing private SaaS company who recently ran a survey on the topic; and Denis Barrier. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585755009.1966171/How-bad-will-SaaS-churn-get-in-the-downturn?-–-TechCrunch?ref=audio_experience