Global Firms & Tata to Set Up IoT and IIoT Tech Incubator in Israel

Tata Group has joined hands with General Electric Ventures, Microsoft Ventures and others to set up a new technology incubator in Israel.

“With the first closing of US$20 million, the incubator called i3 Equity Partners (i3) will focus on developing next-generation IoT (Internet of Things) and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) technologies,” a Tata statement said here.

Qualcomm Ventures, HNA EcoTech, Pitango Venture Capital, and RAMOT, the business engagement center of Tel Aviv University, are the other partners in the venture.

Essentially IoT, fuelled by machine-to-machine communication refers to microprocessor and sensor fitted gadgets or ‘things’ within a network talking to each other, swapping real-time data to perform specific actions, with computer-connected individuals engaged in remote monitoring.

The Tata Group, along with the other partners, will support early-stage Israeli ventures, enabling them to reach advanced phase of development, and ultimately strengthen their presence in global markets. “The partners, on their part, expect to tap the acclaimed ingenuity and know how of the Israeli tech industry, for growing their enterprises in the field of IoT, which is expected to transform how industry operates and how individuals live, work and play,” it added.

With headquarters at the TAU campus, i3 will be headed by Managing Partners, Noga Kap and Eran Wagner, both Israeli entrepreneurs as well as investors with experience in early-stage investments, and chaired by Shlomo Nimrodi, Chief Executive Officer of RAMOT.

“We hope to provide guidance and mentorship to the start-ups based on our experience of operating across a range of sectors, across multiple geographies. We could also potentially help start-ups scale easily by facilitating better access to market,” KRS Jamwal, Executive Director, Tata Industries, said.

“This collaboration will help us identify and support breakthrough innovations in IoT, and look forward to having early access to new technologies with a focus on high quality products and ideas that will develop through this initiative,” he added.

i3 will annually provide 3-5 high-potential seed and pre-seed start-ups with financial investments of up to $1 million each, access to supportive multinational corporations at all stages of development, and centre of excellence with office space, among others.

The support from multinational corporations would entail technology validation, design, proof-of-concept, later-stage investments and purchase of mature technologies and their distribution in high-potential markets — including China and India, said the statement.

Agencies

Bengaluru Children Get Protein Heath initiative on Children’s Day

QNet, a leading direct selling company in association with Lions Club Bangalore, Kodigehalli marked Children’s Day by inaugurating a health camp at a Government Primary School in Sahakarnagar. The two month long program called the Nutriplus Protein Power Health Camp and is aimed at providing nutritional support to the students of the school by serving them protein shakes every day for two months.

QNet's Nutriplus Protein Power is developed by Dupont, the global leader in innovative soy-based technologies and ingredients is a good tasting, high quality, 100 percent vegetarian source of protein derived from soy. This product has an excellent combination of vitamins, minerals and trace elements in balanced proportion for utilising the protein optimally.

The children’s version which additionally contains Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA), a polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acid, considered to be a beneficial fat is being used at the Health Camp to provide the students aged 6 years and above with the necessary nutrition. Each of the 180 students will be served a protein shake every school day till January 14, 2017.

The Nutriplus Protein Power Health Camp was inaugurated by Lion B Mohan district governor.

Nishchal Churamani, Head – Corporate Communications for QNET in India said, “QNET’s aim is to help create awareness about health, wellness and nutrition through our products and services. During the research and development phase for our products, we realised that Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM) is a major public health concern in India. As undernutrition is more common in the lower income group, we decided to do something about it by partnering with Lions Club.

Paytm App Now Helps Locate Your Neighborhood Merchants

Narendra Modi’s announcement of demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, has left many with no other option but to try online payment services and gateways. Taking complete advantage of the new tide, digital wallet companies like PayTm, FreeCharge and Mobikwik are witnessing exponential growth in terms of users.

To give a further push to this momentum, Paytm has announced a ‘Nearby’ feature that will make it easier for users to locate nearby merchants that accept the wallet.

With over 2 lakh merchants included in the first phase, Paytm ‘Nearby’ will carry a directory of over 8 lakh Paytm’s offline merchants and partners across India. People with limited cash can browse through a list of shops & locations near them that offer services like accepting Paytm, adding cash to Paytm wallet, and upgrading accounts by doing KYC.

Sonia Dhawan – DGM, Paytm, said, “At Paytm, our approach has always been to build an ecosystem that benefits both merchants and customers. I am confident that while our customers will appreciate the increased convenience of finding Paytm services near them, our merchants and partners will value the exponential increase in visibility and new business ‘Nearby’ feature will bring.

“This is a great example of how mobile technology can drive business across the retail industry by redefining the hyperlocal space,” She further added.  

Agencies

Tata Power Solar Reigns As Indian Leader in Solar Rooftop Space

Tata Power Solar, India's largest integrated solar company, won the 'D&B Infra Awards 2016' in the project based category for financial and operational excellence in commissioning 12 MW solar rooftop project for R.S.S.B. EDUCATIONAL and ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIETY (RSSB-EES). The awards presented by Dun & Bradstreet (DnB), into its 6th edition, felicitated 22 of India's leading infrastructure companies and projects.

The 12 MW project is the largest solar rooftop plant in the world, set up in a single phase at a single premise. Set up under the Punjab Government's grid connected rooftop solar projects scheme, the plant produces more than 150 lakh units of power annually.

Speaking about the award, Ashish Khanna, ED and CEO of Tata Power Solar says, "We are delighted to receive this award, which underlines our excellence and leadership in the solar rooftop space. Our win validates the tremendous efforts we put in commissioning this complex engineering project. The 12 MW project meets the highest quality standards by systematic and planned engineering and was executed in a safe manner with zero-incidents."

The award was presented at an event supported by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and given by Mansukh L. Mandaviya, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Chemicals and Fertilizers, Government of India. The Infra Awards serve as a platform to honour leading infrastructure projects, which are judged by an independent jury on an array of pre-defined project execution criteria.

Tata Power Solar has been a consistent leader in the solar rooftop space with a cumulative rooftop installation upwards of 117 MW. It was recently ranked the #1 solar EPC rooftop player, for consecutive year, for installations done in the commercial, industrial and residential sector. Apart from the RSSB-EES project, the company has installed several rooftop projects over the last year, especially in the space of education and religious institutions.

Mark Moran Appointed as New Chief Marketing Officer Simplilearn

Simplilearn, a leading professional certification training provider, today announced the appointment of Mark Moran as its Chief Marketing Officer. As the company strengthens its global operations and expands its presence in the U.S market, Mark will oversee its marketing initiatives, communications, and go-to-market efforts.

Reporting to CEO Krishna Kumar, Mark will be based out of San Francisco, Simplilearn’s US headquarters. The company’s renewed focus on its enterprise training business and rapid customer growth had led to three more key appointments earlier this year in U.S and India.    

Commenting on the appointment, Kumar said, “Mark’s experience across leading internet companies and strong track record of driving effective marketing efforts will be highly valuable to Simplilearn. In this phase of our growth, we look forward to his guidance in elevating the Simplilearn brand globally, across enterprises and individual professionals.”

“Simplilearn’s unique focus on training for the Internet economy, in skillsets ranging from digital marketing to cyber security, has already helped over 500,000 professionals stay current and competitive in our rapidly changing economy. I look forward to working with the team on rapidly growing our student body in the US and internationally and to helping millions of professionals advance their careers” said Moran.

A passionate internet executive with two decades of marketing and line-management experience, Mark has successfully driven 9-figure revenue streams for emerging companies and divisions of Fortune 100 corporations. Previously, he headed marketing at Ebates and held executive positions with RealPage and Wells Fargo, among others.

Mark is a joint inventor of Patent 20080082426 for enabling image recognition and the enhanced search of remote content on partner websites and in ad units. An angel investor and startup adviser, Moran holds a BA from Pomona College and an MBA from Stanford Business School.

VCs and Investors to Interact With SuperStartUp Winners 2016

The Superbrands’ SuperStartUps award organizers have been approached by a number of VC Funds and Angel groups interested in ‘participating’ in the program.

“When VCs and Funds came to know that these winners will be chosen by online netizens across 25 cities in India, a number of them have expressed their intention to meet the winners for talks” said Shivjeet Kullar, Council Leader “so we are now able to guarantee if you win an Award you will sit across the table with a VC interested in you!”

To recap - for over 20 years Superbrands has been the definitive honour for top brands across the world. From Australia to Argentina, Germany to Ghana and UAE to USA in over 50 countries over the globe Superbrands has been the ‘Oscar’ of the business world. In India too it has been an accolade that the best companies have sought, won, and used in their advertising and communication. Superbrands aims to work with the burgeoning startup ecosystem by launching SuperStartUps for India.

The SuperStartUp Council in India led by legendary brand builder turned online entrepreneur, Shivjeet Kullar who has over 100 national and international awards to his credit, also features names like Deep Kalra - founder Make My Trip, Sanjiv Bikchandani – the poster boy of the Internet world, Sid Talwar – founder Lightbox turned VC, Prahalad Kakkar - India’s top Ad Film Maker, Valerie Pinto - CEO Weber Shandwick – and Anmol Dar – founder Superbrands India; to name a few.

“As entry to the program is free” says Program Manager Ankur Kayesth “a start up should look at this as a possible ROI– since you only ‘invest’ if you are a winner!”

Today SuperStartUps represents the only international level honor for StartUps and will be judged by online voting. So if you too believe you site has what it takes log in to superstartupsindia.com and enter now.

Capital First Raises Rs 340 Cr Funds from Affiliate of GIC, Singapore

Capital First announced that it is raising fresh equity capital of Rs 340 crores on a preferential basis at Rs 712.70 per share (face value of Rs. 10.00 and premium of Rs. 702.70 per share) subject to approval of Shareholders. The company will allot 47,80,000 shares to Caladium Investment Private Limited, an affiliate of GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.

Post this transaction, the total capital (including Tier 1 and Tier 2 capital) of the company will increase to Rs. 3,263 Crores on a consolidated basis and the Capital Adequacy will increase to 21.6%.

For the recently concluded quarterly results, Capital First Limited reported a Profit after Tax of Rs. 57.6 Crores for Q2FY 17, an increase of 40% from Rs 41.0 Crores in Q2FY 16, which is the highest ever quarterly profit in the history of the company.

The Company’s AUM grew 32% to Rs. 17,937 Crores as on September 30th, 2016 on a year on year basis, with its retail loan portfolio contributing to 90.1% of its overall AUM as of September 30th, 2016. The Gross NPA and Net NPA of the company stood at 0.98% and 0.45% respectively as on September 30th, 2016 on 120 DPD NPA recognition basis.

V Vaidyanathan, Founder and Chairman, Capital First said “We are delighted to receive a firm proposal from Caladium to become a new Shareholder of the company, who will provide growth capital to the Company, and we wholeheartedly welcome them. This reaffirms the strong institution built at Capital First over the years in the Indian Financial Services space. Post this transaction the Capital Adequacy Ratio will increase from 19.1% to 21.6%, which will help the Company to continue its future growth plans on a strong capital base.”