The year 2019 has finally ended and yet when it comes to Indian startup policy initiatives, many of the promises have not been fulfilled at large.

Fund disbursal under Startup India’s Fund of Fund for Startups (FFS) remained on a slow track.

The government, meanwhile, has reiterated that the Startup India fund would be disbursed much before 2024-25 as the number of startups is growing, a senior official said.

Govt Launches 3rd Defence India Startup ChallengeIndia’s defence ministry recently launched the third phase of the Defence India Startup Challenge (DISC) at the electronic hardware incubator, Maker Village, in Kochi.

With this challenge, the government is looking for innovation that can be utilised in the India defence sector. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578279714.9583626/Startup-Policy-Rundown:-Govt-Launches-E-Auction-Platform,-3rd-Defence-India-Startup-Challenge-And-More?ref=audio_experience

App development and testing platform BuildPan has raised a seed round from HNIs in India, Japan, and the US.

The undisclosed seed round was announced by Sonal Khandelwal, Founder and CFO of BuildPan.

Streamlining mobile app developmentThe app business is huge worldwide.

She’d seen from the inside how the process of mobile app development wasn’t efficient – and realised, after doing some research, that app development on competing systems wasn’t any better.

Sunil Kumar Singhvi, Partner, Singhvi Heritage LLP, says, "We believe that the team at BuildPan has a fantastic SaaS-cum-Enterprise model for the global app developer community. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578277806.725196/[Funding-alert]-App-tools-startup-BuildPan-raises-undisclosed-seed-round-from-Japanese-and-Indian-investors?ref=audio_experience

- Roger Mavity, ‘How to Steal Fire’There are not as many women in STEM as we would like to see.

But if you look deep into their journeys from day one to day 100, they would have gone through lots of mistakes and learning.

- Nithin Kamath, ZerodhaThe current crop of Indian SaaS startups has the potential to take on their global counterparts head-on.

- Chaitanya Prabhu, Mark Your PresenceThe spice market in India is worth Rs 40,000 crore and branded spices have 15 percent market share.

- Jyoti Bansal, Unusual VenturesFinancial success is an outcome, never a goal. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578276006.6733007/‘Financial-success-is-an-outcome,-never-a-goal’-–-40-quotes-from-Indian-startup-journeys?ref=audio_experience

In March 2019, Gympik created its own software platform, called Traqade, which focusses on the requirements of the fitness industry and works on the software as a service (SaaS) model.

Today, it has 500 customers for Traqade, all of them through the inbound sales route without any aggressive marketing.

ePayLater was awarded at the MeitY Startup Summit 2019 in October.

Mumbai-based fintech startup ePayLater lets consumers ‘buy now, pay later’ through a one-tap solution.

Tracecost teamFounded in 2019, Delhi-based startup Tracecost’s cloud-based automated project management solution helps stakeholders to ensure faster delivery of projects. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578274209.653621/Don't-give-up---your-startup-fix-for-the-week?ref=audio_experience

According to the global education market intelligence firm HolonIQ, the edtech market is projected to grow at 11 percent per annum to $341 billion by 2025.

The Indian edtech market itself is pegged to touch $2 billion by 2021, according to a report by KPMG and Google.

As 2020 kicks off, YourStory caught up with edtech startup StudyPad (creators of Splash Math) CEO and Co-founder Arpit Jain to identify trends that are likely to dominate the edtech sector in 2020.

However, it is now becoming a centre focus thanks to mobile phones and easy access to the internet.

Voice searchArpit believes voice search will become a bigger tool for education in the new year. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578272407.7995892/[2020-Outlook]-From-voice-search-to-game-based-learning,-trends-to-dominate-edtech-this-year?ref=audio_experience

Coditas is a product development startup that designs and develops software applications.

The SaaS startup offers services pertaining to the entire software development life cycle.

Coditas offers services including design, architecture consulting, software development, cloud services, and anything that revolves around architecture consulting and software development.

Market overview and future plansThe software development sector is one of the fastest growing in the world.

Going ahead, Coditas wants to stick to its current plan and continue building quality software. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578270608.407608/How-this-IIT-Bombay-alumni’s-bootstrapped-startup-achieved-profitability-within-a-month?ref=audio_experience

“I surveyed some friends and colleagues and asked them about the benefits of fuel delivery.

Tikendra Yadav, Founder and CEO, PepfuelsThat was just the validation Tikendra needed to start Pepfuels, an on-demand fuel delivery startup that supplies diesel, petrol, and engine oil across Delhi-NCR.

Founder-CEO Tikendra shares, “We have eight mobile dispensing units (MDUs) and are selling three to four lakh litres of fuel per month.

Problems solved by on-demand fuel deliveryThe benefits of app-based fuel delivery are manifold.

Large-scale customers typically transport fuel for generators and heavy machinery using jerry cans and industrial drums, which is both cumbersome and time-consuming. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578268808.4841864/This-startup-brings-fuel-to-your-doorstep-using-IoT-enabled-mobile-dispensers?ref=audio_experience

Clearcover, a Chicago, IL-based smart car insurance company, raised $50m in Series C funding.

The round, which brought total funding to more than $104m since 2016 founding, was led by Omers Ventures, with participation from previous investors American Family Ventures, Cox Enterprises and IA Capital Group.

In conjunction with the funding, Michael Yang, managing partner at OMERS Ventures, will join Clearcover’s board.

The team will double its current headcount across product, engineering and data science with local and remote options.

Led by Kyle Nakatsuji, Co-Founder and CEO, Clearcover provides a smart car insurance products by leveraging a customer-first, service-focused model powered by advanced technology. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578268223.24455/Clearcover-Insurance-Secures-$50M-in-Series-C-Funding?ref=audio_experience

The bright lights of the big cities come even to smaller towns in the form of business signs.

Custom business signs are cost-efficient and low maintenance and can help you personalize your business, which is important when you want to stand out from the competition and make an impression on people.

Plus, according to Bakers’ Signs, a Houston sign company, “An electric sign is the least costly means of advertising available to you over the long run.”Here are six ways investing in a custom business sign can increase sales.

They’re Hard to IgnoreBeing so bright and bold, a custom business sign has a very small chance of going unseen by passersby.

You’ll find yourself with a string of new customers if you invest in a custom business sign. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578266428.5535808/6-Ways-Investing-in-Custom-Business-Signs-Can-Increase-Sales?ref=audio_experience

Andreessen Horowitz is doubling down on Latin America with a $165 million investment in Loft, a Brazilian real estate startup taking on Zillow in developing markets | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1578264626.1193738/Andreessen-Horowitz-is-doubling-down-on-Latin-America-with-a-$165-million-investment-in-Loft,-a-Brazilian-real-estate-startup-taking-on-Zillow-in-developing-markets?ref=audio_experience