Doodhwala Secures $2.2 Million in a Round of Seed Funding by Omnivore

Doodhwala, a micro delivery service for fresh groceries has received a seed investment of $2.2 million by Omnivore, a venture capitalist firm, for a minority stake in the company.  The hyperlocal delivery platform, Doodhwala, is a subscription-based, early-morning delivery platform for all farm fresh groceries sourced directly from local farms and dairies.

 “Doodhwala with it's unique model has had a tremendous momentum, becoming a well-known brand for fresh milk and grocery delivery in Bengaluru & Pune. We are evolving into the finest delivery service option for customers seeking freshness, convenience and specialty products,” said Aakash Agarwal, Co–Founder, Doodhwala.

“Doodhwala’s unique business structure benefits customers, dairies and supermarkets. It makes farm-to-fork viable by taking over sales, marketing, logistics, and fulfilment for producers. Additionally, we are expected to scale easily due to our capital effective model, paired with the high demand for milk, and a need for regulated milk supply”.

Commenting on the transaction, Jinesh Shah, Founding Partner, Omnivore said, “The lean operating model, and the direct sourcing relationships that have been built, made this company stand out amongst competitors.”

Doodhwala offers users a wide selection of ad hoc everything from fresh dairy milk, meat, vegetables, fruits to shelf stable items delivered to their door before 7 am every day. Users get the convenience of ordering on subscription basis which helps in frequent and easy purchases.

“Our unit economics are exceptionally strong. By lowering our delivery cost to Rs 3, Doodhwala is uniquely positioned in a market where other players are struggling. We have done a great job of maintaining a steady month-on-month growth rate while scoring a 85% plus customer retention,” said Ebrahim Akbari, Co–Founder, Doodhwala.

Currently operating in Bangalore and Pune, Doodhwala has over 4 lakh month deliveries. The new financing will go towards expanding Doodhwala’s service into new markets, funding talent acquisition and upgrading technology.

Reihem Roy, Principal, Omnivore will join the board.

The new funding comes less than a year after the company raised an undisclosed amount in another Pre Series A funding from Thomas Varkey, a partner at Stonehill Capital, USA.

C-Zentrix- Enhancing Customer Experience in Business in India

C-Zentrix, a leading contact center solution provider is transforming customer experience in business. Customer experience is gaining phenomenal importance in today’s business due to the competitive environment. Businesses in India have started givingtop priority to digital transformation and customer experience which is witnessing hugeinvestment, says an Adobe report. The quality of customer experience has improved in India,according to Forrester's 2017 Customer Experience Index (CX Index). Customer experience is atan all-time high. It has been seen that firms with powerful implementation of customerexperience strategies achieve greater customer satisfaction, a fall in customer churning and anincrease in revenue. Furthermore, as per a research conducted by American Express, 60% ofcustomers are willing to pay more for a better experience.

C- Zentrix recognizes the need of businesses to adopt customer experience, enhancing solutionsand thus provide a variety of products for this. They enhance the customer experiences withvaried products like CZ Omni that creates a seamless interaction for the customers byintegrating all their channels of communication like voice call, SMS, chat, bot, social media andemail interactions whereas the Sticky Agent feature helps in routing the call of a customer tothe same agent every time they contact for the customer’s convenience.

According to Arijit Chatterji, Chief Business Officer, C-Zentrix, “Our aim at C- Zentrix is to constantly innovate and come up with solutions that can help our clients deal with their customers in the most effective and efficient manner. We believe to provide the tools that help toadopt to the changing needs and trends of the customers and thus help companies enhance their customer experience. Technologies like artificial intelligence and chatbots are helping us to build solutions that can help cater the growing communication needs ofcompanies.”

Customer engagement strategies help companies to retain their customers. Companiesneed to be constantly in touch with their customers nowadays due to the growing expectation of customers to receive a personalized customer experience. This is the key to retention. We, at C- Zentrix recognize the pressing need of businesses to launch oneself in the future of customer experience and our endeavor is to aid in integrating multiple digital channels to create the desired customer experience. C-Zentrix has built highly secure solutions to offer seamless customer experience among various customer touchpoints and help enterprises to scale seamlessly to accelerate business growth.

Cisco Appoints New President for Asia Pacific & Japan to Lead Regional Growth Charge and Accelerate Digital Transformation

Cisco, the world’s leading IT and networking company, today announced the appointment of a new President for its Asia Pacific & Japan business.

After three years at the helm of Cisco Japan, Miyuki Suzuki has been promoted to president for Asia Pacific & Japan. Charged with regional revenue growth across 18 markets, and propelling customer digital transformation and cybersecurity efforts, Suzuki will report to Chris Dedicoat, executive vice president of Worldwide Sales and Field Operations.

A seasoned executive with more than 35 years’ experience, prior to Cisco, Suzuki served in numerous leadership positions for organizations throughout Asia, spanning across technology, aviation, telecommunications and financial services. 

Suzuki assumes the leadership from Irving Tan, who last month took on the newly created role of senior vice president of Operations and Digital. Joining Chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins’ executive leadership team, Tan will be responsible for driving Cisco’s digital transformation across the company in partnership with Sales, Engineering and other functions.

Commenting on her appointment, Miyuki Suzuki, President, Asia Pacific & Japan at Cisco said: “Asia boasts incredible diversity, with each country presenting new, and often untapped opportunities. With growing economies and increasing technological maturity, Cisco is positioning itself at the heart of regional innovation, enabling customers to collaborate and transform by taking the time to understand the needs of each individual market. I’m looking forward to the challenges ahead and developing new bridges.”

“Miyuki has been instrumental in driving Cisco’s breakthrough growth in Japan in recent years by securing a broad partner network, developing exemplary company initiatives and building customer trust,” added Chris Dedicoat, executive vice president of Worldwide Sales and Field Operations at Cisco. “I’m confident Miyuki has the right experience, innovative thinking and leadership qualities to capture market opportunities across the wider region in her expanded role.”

Currently based in Tokyo, Suzuki will relocate to Cisco’s Asia Pacific & Japan headquarters in Singapore in the near future.  Recruitment is underway for her successor for President of Cisco Japan and will be announced in due course.

Milkbasket to Hire 2000 Employees Within Next 12-18 Months

Milkbasket, India’s first micro delivery platform, today announced the company’s plans to hire at least 2000 employees within the next 12-18 months. The company recently closed a $3M Pre-Series A round from Unilever Ventures, Blume Ventures and Lenovo Capital (LCIH). 

Anant Goel, Co-founder and CEO at Milkbasket said, “We aspire to serve over a million households by 2022 and this would be our first step to realize this mission. We will be strengthening our team with additional 2000 employees by next year to serve up to 50,000 daily orders in Gurgaon.”

The company will be hiring over 1500 full time and 500 part-time employees.  

“Part-time employment is a great way for students and micro-entrepreneurs to have a sustainable source of income, while they continue with their daily routine. We will hire at least 500 such employees in Gurgaon to support our morning deliveries” Anant added.

Microsoft Announces Wide Support for e-Mail Addresses in Indian Languages

On the occasion of International Mother Language Day, Microsoft has announced support for email addresses in 15 Indian languages across its email apps and services, including Office 365, Outlook 2016, Outlook.com, Exchange Online and Exchange Online Protection (EOP). For the first time, users will be able to use local language email addresses for Outlook accounts on PCs, e.g.,  व्यक्ति@संगठन.भारत. It will also allow users to now seamlessly send/receive mails to/from local language email addresses via Outlook client on PCs, outlook.com in addition to Outlook apps for Android and IOS. This initiative is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to support Email Address Internationalization (EAI) across its products and services eco-system and make technology accessible in local languages.

The languages being introduced are those that support Unicode, an international encoding standard for use with different languages and scripts. Local language email addresses are inseparably linked with Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and can currently be registered in these 15 languages according to .IN Registry, which is responsible for registering IDNs in India.Microsoft’s products will also support additional Indian languages as and when their IDNs and email addresses become available in the future, making this feature forward compatible.

Speaking of the announcement Meetul Patel, COO - Microsoft India said, "Ensuring that language is not a barrier to the adoption of technology is key for digital inclusion and growth. Making email addresses available in 15 languages is an exciting step to making modern communications and collaboration tools more accessible and easier to use for all – something we have been relentlessly working towards. We’re making technology use the language of people, and not requiring people to first learn the traditional language of technology.”

Users can register local language email addresses in India from third party EAI address providers such as XgenPlus through a simple online process. Microsoft, a member of Universal Acceptance Steering Group (USAG) along with international partners including XgenPlus, Coremail, CNNIC and SaudiNIC, is working to support email addresses in any Unicode script through its apps and services, including RTL (right to left) languages such as Urdu and Arabic.

Microsoft and Local Language computing: Starting with Project Basha in 1998, Microsoft has been consistently working to provide local language computing in Indian languages. Microsoft supports 22 constitutionally recognized Indian languagesoverall, including 11 Indian language scripts for Office and Windows. Moreover, Bing allows users to browse in nine Indian languages. With the help of its AI technologies and Deep Neural Networks, Microsoft is now making translation and speech recognition across several Indian languages, in addition to making Indic computing on the local cloud a reality by launching local cloud services from India data centers.

Unity Tech Among World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Virtual and Augmented Reality

Unity Technologies creator of the world’s most widely used real-time 3D development platform, today announced it has been named by Fast Company as a “World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Company.” Chosen as the #4 “Most Innovative Virtual and Augmented Reality Company,” Unity’s real-time development platform is at the center of the VR/AR ecosystem, powering more than 60 percent of all content. Whether it is VR, AR, or MR, Unity’s highly optimized rendering pipeline and the rapid iteration capabilities of the Editor make XR creative vision a reality. Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies Award honors leading enterprises and rising newcomers that exemplify the best in business and innovation.

“We're honored to be recognized by Fast Company as an innovator in this space,” said Tony Parisi, Global Head of VR/AR Strategy at Unity Technologies. “We’ve been a long-standing champion for the VR/AR industry, and it’s gratifying that our heavy commitment to this space is recognized and is bearing fruit. We believe the world is a better place with more creators in it, and the opportunities for virtual and augmented reality present limitless possibilities. The tech is here, the reach is here, and the time for incredible content is now.”

On the heels of this honor, Unity is announcing its South by Southwest (SXSW) presence, a line-up made of 80 percent women, that will share insights and best practices on virtual and augmented reality. The expertise and deep-seeded knowledge of virtual and augmented reality within Unity is unparalleled. Here are the sessions that Unity is participating in at SXSW 2018:

• March 5: Students Can Build the VR/AR Worlds of the Future | Jessica Lindl, Global Head of Education, Unity Technologies
• March 11: Future Proof Media: Engaging Tomorrow's Audience | Silvia Rasheva, Producer at Unity Technologies
• March 12: Setting the Visual Language of Storytelling | Timoni West, Director XR Authoring at Unity Technologies and Natalie Grant, Senior Product Marketing Manager, VR/AR and Film at Unity Technologies
• March 14: AR Update 2018: Evolution or Revolution?| Tony Parisi, GM, Head of VR/AR Strategy, Unity Technologies

Unity was also the platform of choice at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. 70 percent of New Frontier’s interactive content at Sundance was Made with Unity, and two unprecedented virtual reality film deals took place at Sundance, SPHERES and Zikr: A Sufi Revival, both of which were Made with Unity. These deals further solidify Unity’s position in virtual filmmaking and demonstrate that 360-degree immersive films carry clout and will become a staple for film festivals moving forward.

Games and experiences made with Unity have reached more than 3 billion devices worldwide in 2017 and were installed more than 20 billion times in the last 12 months.

3.16 Lakh Candidates Placed Under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana in Less than 2 Years of its Launch

In less than two years of its launch, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) (2016-20), the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has taken multi-fold strides. The scheme has achieved a landmark milestone of 3,16,671 placements (as on February 2018).  With nearly 55 per cent successful placements, the Short-Term Training Program (STT) under PMKVY (2016-20) is an effective, refined and demand-driven endeavour, with an over-riding focus on quality of training. 

Under the STT program, over 13 lakh candidates have been trained, of these over 9 lakhs have been certified till February 2018. Placements have been facilitated for 5.98 lakh candidates who were certified by the end of November 2017. Placements for the latter batches who were certified post November 2017 are currently underway. 

Placements under PMKVY (2016-2020) are categorized into wage and self-employment. Approximately 76 per cent of the candidates have been placed in wage employment and 24 per cent placed in self-employment/ entrepreneurship.  80 per cent of the candidates placed in wage employment across various sectors i.e. Electronics and Hardware, Apparel, Beauty and Wellness, Agriculture, Retail, Logistics, Leather, Telecom, Security, Textiles and Handlooms.

Commenting on the progress of the scheme, Rajesh Agrawal, Joint Secretary & CVO, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) said, “PMKVY (2016-2020) scheme is closely aligned with the industry requirement of a job-ready workforce. Embarking on the Skill India Mission, our endeavour has been to provide superlative quality training in industry relevant job role. The Skill India Mission also promotes entrepreneurship, which is further supported by Mudra Loans and other financial provisions.”

“Self-employed candidates are encouraged and supported in availing Mudra Loans through the UdyamiMitra Portal. Currently more than 10,000 candidates have applied for these loans”, Mr. Agrawal further added.

Jayant Krishna, ED & COO, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)commented, “NSDC is working collaboratively with its training providers, sector skill councils and industry for creating and deploying good and quality trained resources, who could cater to the evolving demands of the organisations. Our initiatives such as integrations with organisations, syndication with portals such National Career Service, creation of Labour Market Information System, organizing job fairs (Rozgar Melas) and more, are intended to match demand with supply.”

NSDC is continuously working towards accomplishing the objectives laid down under Skill India Mission by training and facilitating employment for skilled manpower across leading organisations across the country, namely Tata Motors, Pay TM, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter, Accenture, PVR Cinemas, Bata India, G4S Secure Solutions, Lemon Tree Hotels, L&T, Tata Sky, Samsung, Volkswagen, SBI Life etc.

The PMKVY (2016-20), launched in November 2016 with an outlay of Rs. 12,000 crores, is the biggest training and certification program of the Government of India.  It aims to skill one crore youth by 2020. In nearly sixteen months of its launch, the scheme has certified over 13 lakh candidates under its two different programs - Short Term Trainings and Special Projects.  The scheme’s other component - Recognition of Prior Learning is a certification program that gives due importance to learning as an outcome rather than learning as process.

The Short-Term Training (STT) program of PMKVY (2016-20), imparted through NSDC’s approved training centres, is aimed at benefitting youth who are either school/college dropouts or unemployed.   Apart from skills training, the program comprises orientation in soft skills, entrepreneurship, financial and digital literacy. The program encompassing 200 – 1,000 hours of skill training, is designed according to varied job roles. 

The other component of PMKVY (2016-20), is Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) comprising 12 – 80 hours of training. It provides recognition to the informal learning or learning through work to get equal acceptance as the formal levels of education. Focusing on workforce in the unorganised sectors, RPL is designed for those who already have a job or are self- employed and require up-skilling and certification for better prospects. Till date, more than 4.5 lakh candidates have been certified under this component of PMKVY (2016-20).