This is one of the problems that Taiwan-based Appier is looking to help online retailers solve.

Its AI-powered platform tracks customers’ activities across a website to improve the chances of them completing a transaction.

Today, Appier announced it had raised $80 million in a series D round of funding from Insignia Venture Partners, HOPU-Arm Innovation Fund, TGVest Capital, Temasek’s Pavilion Capital, JAFCO Investment, and UMC Capital.

“Our clients need to be able to use our solutions to manage many different and fast-moving scenarios — different KPIs, varying data sources, etc.

“Appier is riding a strong long-term trend for enterprises leveraging data to make smarter decisions,” added TGVest Capital chairman DC Cheng. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1574740921.421293/Appier-raises-$80-million-for-AI-that-improves-marketing-decisions?ref=audio_experience

People familiar with the company’s thinking said that over the next few months, it will aggressively grow its credit cards and health insurance segments.Ola has struck partnerships with Religare for health insurance, Zipcash for the wallet business, and SBI to launch credit cards.

“In such a high-compliance regulatory framework, the key to scale in financial services is to strike mutually scalable strategic partnerships,” said one person aware of the matter.Ola Financial Services is led by former PayU CEO Nitin Gupta.

Last week, the company appointed Hemant Kaul, a financial services veteran, to the board of OFS.

Kaul was an executive director at Axis Bank until 2009; thereafter, he was the MD and CEO of Bajaj Allianz General Insurance until 2012.People who spoke to ET indicated that with its core ride-hailing growth stagnating, Ola is betting on electric mobility, financial services and food delivery through cloud kitchens to drive growth and profitability in the long term.

Earlier this year, Ola Electric, an independent entity set up in 2017, raised $250 million led by Japanese major SoftBank, joining the ranks of India’s newest unicorns. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1574739004.881439/Ola-moves-financial-unit-out-of-parent-ANI-Technologies?ref=audio_experience

With the aim to raise more funds, Ola’s parent company ANI Technologies has reportedly decided to spin off its fintech business Ola Financial Services.

The move would separate Ola Money from cab hailing and other businesses.

According to a report in ET, the company’s board has already approved the move to set up Ola Financial services as an independent entity.

This would put Ola Money in direct competition with the likes of Paytm, PhonePe, Amazon Pay and Google Pay.

Last month, it revealed renewed plans to enter the foodtech market with Ola Foods, with Ola Electric and Ola Money being the other two pillars of the business. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1574737205.4712045/Ola-Could-Spin-Off-Fintech-Services-To-Take-On-Paytm,-PhonePe?ref=audio_experience

How many of you remember the trademark glass of milk we had to drink every morning?

India's dairy market – worth Rs 9,168 billion – is catered to by a complex network of farmers, dairy cooperatives, private players, cooperative federations, and more.

And his birthday, November 26, is celebrated as National Milk Day.

Although Kurien passed away in 2012, his ideas still live on in companies that are on a mission to bring milk to the masses.

Here are five such dairy brands that use simple farming and procurement models to make crores of revenue each year. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1574735509.4440706/National-Milk-Day-and-India's-Rs-9,168-billion-dairy-market?ref=audio_experience

Photo by Austin Distel on UnsplashFor Internet business ventures, you don’t need as many resources and capital as you’d need for a traditional business.

If you want to build Internet business opportunities for yourself and make money online, these are the first steps you should follow.

Start a WebsiteThe most common-sense Internet business advice is to make sure your business truly has a presence online.

For healthy business performance, you need to invest seriously in promoting your Internet business venture.

Starting an Internet Business Takes Smart PlanningStarting an Internet business is easy, considering the abundance of resources, tools, and free advice that floods the Web. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1574733608.2135494/Set-up-an-Internet-Business-in-Just-5-Steps-–-Business-Ideas?ref=audio_experience

However, to get that brand recognition, you need a solid marketing strategy that maximises brand exposure in the first place.

This is one of the traditional forms of promotional marketing and shouldn’t be overlooked, even in this day and age.

Search Engine Optimisation is a long-term online marketing strategy that will help to build your search rankings for certain key terms.

It works for promotional marketing if you invest in SEO and keep working on it.

The right promotional marketing strategy is essential to maximise and build your brand exposure as part of a wider marketing strategy. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1574731809.349579/How-Promotional-Marketing-Can-Maximise-Your-Brand-Exposure---Young-Upstarts?ref=audio_experience

Contxto – Mining companies Buenaventura, Gold Fields, and Nexa, alongside the National Society of Mining, Oil and Energy (SNMPE) have joined forces to create the Mining Innovation Hub in Peru.

The objective of this hub is to find solutions to accelerate the Peruvian mining industry with the zest for innovation that only startups know how to cook up.

This open competition calls for startups to present solutions that can enhance the productive efficiency of mining in Peru.

Lastly, those chosen will also partake in a training program for innovative collaboration in the mining industry.

For its part, the Mining Innovation Hub hopes to grow in membership by 2020. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1574730007.2469442/Revitalizing-the-Peruvian-mining-industry-through-startups-in-Latin-America?ref=audio_experience

The joke doing the rounds among the fund managers of Indian venture capital firms is that is it easier to sell the India story to overseas investors rather than the domestic counterparts.

Overseas dependentTill now, the Indian startup ecosystem has largely received funding from North America and Europe, followed by Japan and China.

The lack of enthusiastic participation from domestic investors into the startup ecosystem has also got to do with the regulatory environment.

This, he feels is a major deterrent for domestic investors to invest in startups, which are all private entities.

Future positiveHowever, amidst this tepid environment of lower amount of domestic capital into Indian startups, there's some hope for the future. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1574728206.4170802/Why-domestic-investors-shy-away-from-embracing-Indian-startups?ref=audio_experience

Their love for food – especially a rich, creamy milkshake – led two college friends to bootstrap a startup in the F&B space.

College roommates Nishant Tripathi and Anil Paremal, who crossed paths during their engineering days, took their memory of that "sad and watery canteen milkshake" and converted it into a bootstrapped startup: Shake It Off.

Nishant and Anil already had a startup dream and a milkshake business added fuel to that entrepreneurship fire.

In 2016, the duo bootstrapped milkshake brand Shake It Off with an investment of Rs 10 lakh.

Shake It Off is eyeing $1.5 million in funding to accomplish the founders' goal: 100 outlets by 2022. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1574726406.3229702/With-just-Rs-10-lakh,-these-two-college-friends-built-a-Rs-1.85-Cr-milkshake-startup?ref=audio_experience

Advanced Navigation, a Sydney, Australia-based robotics and AI sensor business, raised $$13m in Series A funding.

The round was led by Main Sequence Ventures’ CSIRO Innovation Fund, with participation from Brick & Mortar Ventures and In-Q-Tel, Inc.

In conjunction with the funding, Martin Duursma, Partner at Main Sequence Ventures, and Curtis Rodgers, Principal at Brick & Mortar Ventures, will join Advanced Navigation’s board.

The company intends to use the funds for global expansion and accelerate research and development programs for transformative new robotics, navigation and sensor technologies.

The company has a large research facility in Perth, Australia and sales offices around the world. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1574724609.0786512/Advanced-Navigation-Raises-$$13M-in-Series-A-Funding?ref=audio_experience