The invite-only roundtable was attended by startup founders who brought up a host of challenges that have not been addressed under the proposed draft of the intermediary guidelines.

This allows small businesses, particularly bootstrapped startups, to set up online businesses and offer services in the country with ease from any location in the world.

In December 2018, MeitY released a set of proposed amendments to the intermediary guidelines that mandate local incorporation (i.e., a permanent registered office) for all online platforms with over 50 lakh users in India.

The discussion then moved onto the effects that such a local incorporation requirement would have on the global ambitions of start-ups.

Proactive Content Monitoring RequirementsThe proposed amendments also require online platforms to proactively monitor user-generated content and block ‘unlawful’ content. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575876706.5220923/A-Cautious-Rollout-Of-Intermediary-Guidelines-Important-For-Startups?ref=audio_experience

The issue is that this came with minimum capital requirements, which Zopa came close to slipping below before Wednesday’s last-minute funding bail-out.

It’s worth digging into who Zopa are and whether the funding means they’re out of the red.

Following a dramatic countdown, UK fintech Zopa last week secured the £140m in funding it needed to keep its preliminary bank license.

Details on “Zopa Bank’s” planned products remain vague.

To their credit, they’ve overtaken several big banks like Lloyds and RBS who are losing current account customers overall. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575873208.1842256/European-fintech-weekly:-After-a-last-minute-fundraise,-what-lies-ahead-for-Zopa-and-its-lending-peers?ref=audio_experience

“From what I know we’re the only country that actually has a startup strategy.”It’s hard to think of a government-funded organisation doing as much as French Tech.

She’s the head of Station F, Paris’ startup mega campus — and the (non-French) face of French tech.

Designing the French Tech Visa, for example, was just like the process of designing a new product in the private sector.

French Tech already has 51 regional communities, 13 of which have full-time staff (and 48 volunteer-run communities abroad).

In France they’re part funded locally, by cities or regions, and part funded by the main French Tech organisation. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575871286.980324/France's-impressive-government-startup-organisation?ref=audio_experience

The content platforms will end up streaming low resolution content which, in essence, would deter user conversion.

He adds that Deep Tech is the only way to go up the curve.

“A combination of product and deep tech stack is the best way forward for the Indian startup ecosystem to evolve,” he says.Media and entertainment, understandably, is a top priority for the company.

“They do multiple hops to get the exact clarity of that image or the resolution of that image so that they don't lose out on any particular detail.

Fortunately, 2019 is the area of deep tech which everybody is vying to get into,” he chuckles. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575869420.2148852/Why-the-'Father-of-the-Pentium-Chip'-is-bullish-on-image-processing-startup-Orbo.ai?ref=audio_experience

What to make of the alarming data on assaults, murders and other unsafe incidents reported by Uber Technologies Inc. on Thursday?More than 3,000 sexual assault allegations were made in 2018 by Uber drivers and passengers in the U.S., the company said in a first-of-its-kind safety report.

That was partly because Uber, Airbnb and similar companies were too convenient and useful for many people to shun.

Uber and its peers around the world also touted their ability to screen drivers and passengers, and track rides to protect people from possible harm.

Because companies such as Uber sold us on trust, they get no passes when it comes to ensuring the safety of riders and drivers.The collective power of trust is one of those internet-era truisms that is coming under question now.

Now companies, and the users of their products and services, are reckoning with the limits of trust. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575867622.6789184/Uber’s-assault-report-erodes-the-power-of-trust?ref=audio_experience

BENGALURU: Amazon is halting the use of an important tool called “search-seeding” that helped decide which products appear first in searches on its India marketplace .

Two sources aware of the development said “search-seeding”, as it is called by Amazon executives, has over the past few months been disabled on Amazon India Search-seeding boosted the chances of products appearing on the coveted first page of results.

Amazon has over 5,00,000 sellers in India, which explains why it’s important for sellers that consumers see their product first.

“Search-seeding helps you appear on the first couple of pages once someone is looking for a certain product.

Keywords used to list that particular product are a critical part of searchseeding,” the merchant said.Amazon does not disclose its search algorithm on the marketplace. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575865952.2499328/Amazon-India-halts-‘search-seeding’,-denies-deploying-tools-favouring-merchant-listings?ref=audio_experience

Vertex is likely to invest in Licious from its Vertex Growth Fund, which announced the final close of its inaugural investment vehicle at $290 million in September this year, according to sources cited above.The VC firm had previously invested in Licious from its Vertex India and Southeast Asia fund.

The growth fund invests $10-15 million per company, typically in third and fourth round fundings, versus $3-4 million by its affiliate funds in early rounds.

It is, however, yet unclear if Vertex’s India and SE Asia fund will also participate in this new round.

Licious declined to comment on “market speculations”.

Email sent to Ben Mathias, managing partner at Vertex Ventures in India, did not elicit any response till the time of going to press.The latest round, which is expected to close over the next few days, will value the firm at $250-300 million, a significant uptick from the $150 million valuation it commanded in its last round of equity financing. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575864060.7807047/Licious-in-advanced-stages-to-close-$25-30-million-funding-round?ref=audio_experience

The Indian union cabinet approved the Personal Data Protection Bill on December 4, which is meant to ensure the protection of personal data and other sensitive information of Indian citizens.

Similar to the compliance window provided by European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), many international companies which have users in India will have to incorporate a local business to handle India operations.

The Personal Data Protection Bill was introduced in draft form 2018 by the Srikrishna Committee.

It defines personal data as any data of a natural person which allows direct or indirect identifiability.

Sensitive personal data includes financial data, biometric data, positive additions such as religious and political beliefs, caste, intersex/transgender status, and official government identifiers like PAN etc. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575862215.4151351/Tech-Companies-Likely-To-Get-Two-Years-To-Comply-With-Data-Protection-Bill?ref=audio_experience

It a B2B ecommerce platform built to empower farmers with information and products to make farming a more profitable business.

“SmartFarms aims to make farmers feel proud and change the rural landscape in India,” Satish says.

Satish explains that to build an ecommerce platform for rural India, deep knowledge about rural India is a prime requirement.

The people he brought on board had extensive knowledge about rural India and a combined experience of over 62 years in the sector.

When we started working out of WeWork , the community team introduced me to the HR and the sales team who helped build my team,” Satish says. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575860620.2055676/How-this-farmer’s-son-built-an-agritech-startup-to-bring-business-and-scale-to-agriculture-in-rural-India?ref=audio_experience

Tapping into the aspiration of millions of Indians, who desire to speak and pronounce English language correctly, is ELSA (English Language Speech Assistant).

ELSA believes that its app has the right framework to guide users on how to speak English correctly without external assistance.

Manit Parikh, Country Manager, India, ELSA.

AI and NLP-driven ELSAELSA was built using artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP), catering to different native languages.

There are few startups such as English Helper, English Bolo, Multibhashi, Kings Learning, and Utter that are helping people learn the language. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575858722.269036/Now-in-India,-US-based-startup-ELSA-uses-AI-and-NLP-to-help-people-improve-their-English?ref=audio_experience