Warburg Pincus plans to close fund in the first half of 2020Warburg Pincus is looking to raise $1.5 Bn for its first India-focused fund.

According to a Reuters report, Warburg Pincus has not yet finalised the launch date or the average deal size.

In 2019, the company closed $4.25 Bn private equity fund China-Southeast Asia II, which like the name suggests exclusively focuses on Chinese and Southeast Asian companies.

Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has more than $62 Bn in assets under management.

In India, affiliates of private equity funds raised by Warburg Pincus have invested more than to $4 Bn in about 50 Indian companies. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575027004.5421548/Airtel-Backer-Warburg-Pincus-Looks-To-Raise-$1.5-Bn-For-Indian-Companies?ref=audio_experience

MoEngage, the five-year-old technology startup in the customer engagement platform space, is targeting a revenue of $25 million by 2020, having recorded 200 percent growth in the last financial year.

The results of which is seen in the traction for our product and the positive feedback from our customers," says Raviteja Dodda, CEO and Co-founder, MoEngage.

MoEngage founders: Raviteja Dodda (left) and Yashwant KumarMoEngage has over 200 plus employees with offices in Bengaluru, Jakarta, London, Berlin, and San Francisco.

According to the startup, over 50 percent of its revenue comes from enterprise clients.

MoEngage started targetting the Asia market first before it expanded to developed economies like Western Europe and North America. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575025205.2061167/MoEngage-targets-revenue-of-$25M-by-2020?ref=audio_experience

Vinted, a social marketplace for pre-loved clothing, has taken the spot as Lithuania’s first tech unicorn, after raising a stellar €128 million.

Vinted, was founded in 2008 in Vilnius, Lithuania, and offers a peer-to-peer mobile experience for users to sell, buy and swap secondhand clothing.

Firstly, it shines a spotlight on the startup ecosystem of Vilnius, Lithuania, an increasingly innovative entrepreneurial hub.

If you are thinking of starting up or scaling up in Vilnius, check out our rundown of the Vilnius FinTech ecosystem.

Looking to the future, Vinted’s mission is to make second-hand fashion the first choice worldwide. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575023407.450777/Lithuania-crowns-its-first-tech-unicorn!-Vinted,-second-hand-fashion-marketplace,-pockets-€128-million-and-secures-€1-billion-valuation?ref=audio_experience

Online trucking platform BlackBuck on Thursday said it has partnered with private lenders IDFC Bank and Yes Bank to provide FASTags to truck owners free of cost.

Truck owners can order FASTags on BlackBuck's Boss App, a digital services platform exclusively for truck fleet owners, and it will be delivered at their doorstep free of cost until December 31, 2019, the company said in a statement.

"BlackBuck offers free FASTags to truck owners across India.

The FASTags on BlackBuck Boss app are provided in partnership with IDFC Bank and Yes Bank.

From December 1, 2019, all lanes of free plazas on national highways will be 'FASTag lanes'. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575021605.3555965/BlackBuck-partners-with-IDFC-Bank,-Yes-Bank-to-offer-free-FASTags-to-truckers?ref=audio_experience

The government wants to conduct an audit of WhatsApp's security systems following revelations of Israeli spyware exploiting its vulnerabilities, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said but refused to say if the government had bought the spyware.

The Indian Computer Emergency Team (CERT-In) "has clearly said that we want to audit your (WhatsApp) entire system... we have told them that we want to conduct an audit and inspection of WhatsApp's security systems and processes," Prasad said in reply to a short duration discussion in Rajya Sabha over the spying controversy.

He, however, did not give a direct reply to Congress leader Digvijaya Singh's repeated query if the government had bought Pegasus spyware from Isreali firm NSO.

To Singh's question on Home Minister having met WhatsApp officials, Prasad said WhatsApp representatives keep meeting government officials and they "may have met Home Minister as well.

Prasad said cyber security agency CERT-In had sought information from WhatsApp including need to conduct an audit and inspection of WhatsApp's security systems and processes on November 9, and further clarifications and details have been sought on November 26, following response from WhatsApp on November 18. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575019805.9057636/Govt-wants-to-conduct-audit-of-WhatsApp's-security-after-NSO-espionage:-Ravi-Shankar-Prasad?ref=audio_experience

KOLKATA: In order to create an environment for developing biotechnology industry in West Bengal, the state government will provide dedicated space for incubation and laboratory so that startups in the sector can thrive, an official said.With three per cent share of the global biotechnology market, India ranks third in the Asia Pacific region after Japan and China and is the 12th largest biotechnology market internationally, the official said.

"In the biotech park , a facility with 45,000 sq ft space will be available as an incubation and lab(laboratory) to promote start ups and entrepreneurs," the Biotechnology department secretary Barun Kumar Ray, said on Thursday at a stakeholders' meet, organised by CII The meeting was held to sensitise the potential startups, entrepreneurs and investors for their biotechnology ventures at the facility.West Bengal is uniquely positioned to harness the potential of biotechnology due to its bio-diversity geographic location and availability of unique crops and plants which can be utilised with the intervention of biotech for production of value-added products, the official said. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575018107.1227396/Bengal-offers-dedicated-space-for-biotech-incubation?ref=audio_experience

SA Bobde, the Chief Justice of India said that the Supreme Court has proposed to introduce a system of AI that would help in better administration of justice delivery and constitution.

“We propose to introduce, if possible, a system of artificial intelligence.

There are many things which we need to look at before we introduce ourselves.

We do not want to give the impression that this is ever going to substitute the judges.” said the Chief Justice addressing the Constitution Day function organized by the Supreme Court Bar Association.

The Chief Justice added that machines cannot replace humans and that we must continue to rely on the knowledge and wisdom of judges, however the deployment of an AI integration will help reduce the number of pending cases and improve the efficiency of the judicial system. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575016205.9598954/Indian-Supreme-Court-proposes-to-use-Artificial-Intelligence-for-improved-efficiency-of-judicial-system?ref=audio_experience

Bangalore traffic police has installed as many as 200 life-sized mannequins at troublesome junctions in Bengaluru.

The hope is that the mannequins, dressed as traffic police, will deter repeat offenders“The behaviour of motorists changes automatically when they see a traffic policeman.

Studies show that there are fewer violations in manned junctions compared to unmanned junctions.

However, the police cannot be deployed everywhere, and so we decided to put up mannequins,” said B. R. Ravikanthe Gowda, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic).

“The mannequins will be replaced with real policeman the next day, to ensure that motorists follow rules.”This is a great experiment on human behavior and as long as they keep it ‘random’ (i.e. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575014405.456178/Mannequins-dressed-in-uniform:-This-Bengaluru-traffic-experiment-is-super-creative?ref=audio_experience

Here’s How To Successfully Communicate Your Marketing Message.

To help you out, four key ways to boost the reach of a digital marketing message are listed below.

Though you may assume that you are successfully communicating your digital marketing message, this may not always be the case.

By mapping this and thinking about empathy, you can decide on the best time to convey a specific marketing message.

There is no set way to perfectly communicate a digital marketing message, which is why success often comes down to trial and error. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575012711.114281/How-To-Communicate-Your-Digital-Marketing-Message---Young-Upstarts?ref=audio_experience

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Get instant notifications from Economic TimesAllowNot nowYou can switch off notifications anytime using browser settings. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575010827.0952716/Silicon-Valley-startup-Vested-gets-funded-by-IP-Ventures?ref=audio_experience