The Chennai Angels Fund uFony a Interactive Platform on Smartphones - School Diary

uFony Services Pvt. Ltd., the Pune-based Ed-Tech company, has raised funding from The Chennai Angels & other independent investors for School Diary®, an interactive platform that brings education to smartphones. School Diary® is a user-friendly platform that caters to K12 schools, helping them engage students and conduct classes virtually without compromising on privacy.

It is an integrated virtual classroom with online teaching, virtual PTMs, instant academic and non-academic updates, and even an online store where parents can shop for school products. The platform also has an administrator interface to collect online payments, automate accounting, manage transport, track live busses, monitor driver/staff behavior, manage payroll, inventory & accounts, and much more.

Running profitably for the last 3 (three) years, uFony is a leading player in the K12 Education space. The company provides SAAS solutions to 1000+ educational institutes including colleges, schools, coaching, pre-schools, and daycares across 10+ countries. Post-COVID, uFony aims to bring about a change in traditional teaching methods and make them more compatible for the future.

“School Diary® is being leveraged by Schools across Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America. It is generating interest from a lot of School Districts in the USA,” said Ashish Chaturvedi, Founder of uFony Services Pvt. Ltd. “With smartphone penetration on the rise and digital learning to gain acceptance, we expect more and more schools in the USA and other countries to sign up for School Diary®. Our recent raise is to enhance our digital presence and enroll business partners to scale up quickly in the international market.”

The education industry is rapidly changing to adapt to an unstable situation. “The great thing about Ufony is its constant efforts to rediscover themselves and to provide greater value to their existing customers. By providing new features constantly, Ufony unfolds new ways of using its services at little or no extra cost and certainly with minimal efforts,” said R. Narayanan (Naru), the Investment Director. “Take for example its latest feature of video. With the mere addition of a tripod on which the cellphone can be perched, the teacher is able to instantly include an ailing child who is unable to attend class. Just at the press of two or three buttons on a phone, the sick child is transported right into the class where they can view their teachers and friends as well. Great application to a video conferencing function. Even greater addition to School Diary®’s functionality.” 

Chandran Krishnan, CEO of The Chennai Angels says, “The traditional education system that schools followed pre-COVID has led to a disruption in studies for students across the globe. Platforms like School Diary® have paved the way for education to be advanced, accessible, and most of all fun. Students seem to enjoy the idea of online classes, a trend that might become essential in the near future. We are excited to see the growth of School Diary®, which brings school to students’ smartphones.”

Established in November 2007, The Chennai Angels (TCA) is one of the leading angel networks in India. TCA is sector and geography agnostic, and has made 52 investments till date, with a 20% exit track record, in enterprise solutions, consumer products, education, healthcare, automotive, gaming and other sectors. TCA is a member-driven network with 100+ successful industry leaders, technocrats, and business professionals in its network. 

Trend Micro Research Discovers Botnet Battle for Home Routers

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, today released new research warning consumers of a major new wave of attacks attempting to compromise their home routers for use in IoT botnets. The report urges users to take action to stop their devices from enabling this criminal activity.

There has been a recent spike in attacks targeting and leveraging routers, particularly around Q4 2019. This research indicates increased abuse of these devices will continue as attackers are able to easily monetize these infections in secondary attacks.

"With a large majority of the population currently reliant on home networks for their work and studies, what's happening to your router has never been more important," said Jon Clay, director of global threat communications for Trend Micro. "Cybercriminals know that a vast majority of home routers are insecure with default credentials and have ramped up attacks on a massive scale. For the home user, that's hijacking their bandwidth and slowing down their network. For the businesses being targeted by secondary attacks, these botnets can totally take down a website, as we've seen in past high-profile attacks."

Trend Micro's research revealed an increase from October 2019 onwards in brute force log-in attempts against routers, in which attackers use automated software to try common password combinations. The number of attempts increased nearly tenfold, from around 23 million in September to nearly 249 million attempts in December 2019. As recently as March 2020, Trend Micro recorded almost 194 million brute force logins.

Another indicator that the scale of this threat has increased is devices attempting to open telnet sessions with other IoT devices. Because telnet is unencrypted, it's favored by attackers – or their botnets – as a way to probe for user credentials. At its peak, in mid-March 2020, nearly 16,000 devices attempted to open telnet sessions with other IoT devices in a single week.

This trend is concerning for several reasons. Cybercriminals are competing with each other to compromise as many routers as possible so they can be conscripted into botnets. These are then sold on underground sites either to launch Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, or as a way to anonymize other attacks such as click fraud, data theft and account takeover.

Competition is so fierce that criminals are known to uninstall any malware they find on targeted routers, booting off their rivals so they can claim complete control over the device.

For the home user, a compromised router is likely to suffer performance issues. If attacks are subsequently launched from that device, their IP address may also be blacklisted – possibly implicating them in criminal activity and potentially cutting them off from key parts of the internet, and even corporate networks.

As explained in the report, there's a thriving black market in botnet malware and botnets-for-hire. Although any IoT device could be compromised and leveraged in a botnet, routers are of particular interest because they are easily accessible and directly connected to the internet.

Trend Micro makes the following recommendations for home users:

Make sure you use a strong password. Change it from time to time.

Make sure the router is running the latest firmware.

Check logs to find behavior that doesn't make sense for the network.

Only allow logins to the router from the local network.

Office Leasing in Bengaluru Drops by 42% YoY; New Supply Declines by 48% YoY in H1 2020: Knight Frank India

Highlights

* Rent growth tapers to single digit, weighted average rents see 6% YoY growth in H1 2020

* Worst half-year in this decade, home sales in Bengaluru decline by 57% YoY in H1 2020; launches fall 48%: Knight Frank India

* Price environment weakens, home prices in Bengaluru see marginal 3.3% YoY increase to Rs 4,980 per sqft

Knight Frank India today launched the 13th edition of its flagship half-yearly report - India Real Estate: H1 2020 - which presents a comprehensive analysis of the office and residential market performance across eight major cities for the January-June 2020 (H1 2020) period. The report showed that the office transactions in Bengaluru saw a 42% YoY decline to 0.44 mnsq m (4.8 mnsq ft) in in H1 2020. The new office supply in the city also saw a decline of 48% YoY to 0.37 mnsq m (4.0 mnsq ft) due to the adverse impact of COVID-19. The city has experienced a tapered rent growth with H1 2020 recording 6% YoY growth in weighted average rent.

In Bengalururesidential market, which had prominence in the country’s residential landscape, the home sales have witnessed a decline of 57% YoY to 12,177 units in H1 2020. Whereas, the home launches in Bengaluru saw a 48% YoY decline to 10,806 units. With a weaker pricing environment in the wake of pandemic and consequent disturbance on home buyer sentiments, the city recorded a  marginal 3.3% Y-o-Y increase in weighted average price.

OFFICE MARKET HIGHLIGHTS OF BENGALURU

* Bengaluru has been at the pinnacle of office demand in the country for each year during last decade. The city’s office market has grown each successive year since 2013 and with 1.42 mnsq m (15.3 mnsq ft) the city recorded its highest ever tally of office transactions, cited as an achievement milestone for any market in the country.

* Covid-19 induced tumultuous business environment has seen an influence on the transaction volumes in the market. Bengaluru saw office transactions decline by 42% YoY in H1 2020 to 0.44 mnsq m (4.8 mnsq ft),  The average deal size was reported at 5,130 sq m (55,214 sq ft), with number of deals at 86 in the analysis period of H1 2020.

* In terms of sector-wise share of transactions, IT/ITeSwas on top of the table with 30%, followed by Co-working (23%), Manufacturing (19%), BFSI (13%). A combination of other services industries contributed 14% to the overall share. Manufacturing and BFSI significantly improved their space take up. Information Technology sector, the most prominent occupier group of Bengaluru, has reduced its space take-up by 64% YoY in H1 2020.

* The vacancy level in Bengaluru office market has jumped to6.5% in H1 2020 from a much comfortable 4.1% level in H1 2019.

* Rent growth has been strong in Bengaluru for the last 5 years and the similar trend was observed in the beginning of 2020, until March 2020. Since April, rents have stagnated with occupiers also seen reaching out to landlords for partial rent or maintenance cost waiver for the lockdown period. In this background, H1 2020 recorded a rental growth of 6% YoY. Bengaluru’s PBD East market saw the highest rental growth of 9% YoY in 12- moth change, followed by SBD (8%) and ORR (6%).

Shantanu Mazumder, Senior Branch Director, Bangalore, Knight Frank India said, “Bengaluru office market was on a very strong footing with a robust momentum in demand, supply and rent until the first quarter of 2020. However, as businesses faced disruptions in the wake of the pandemic in second quarter of 2020, Bengaluru office market also felt the pain. Information Technology sector, the most prominent occupier group of the city, saw demand decline by 64% YoY in first half this year. Ongoing deals faced delays and new office enquiries were put on temporary hold. While we do recognise the potential of Bengaluru office market, recovery will depend on the trajectory of the pandemic itself.”

RESIDENTIAL MARKET HIGHLIGHTS OF BENGALURU

* Bengaluru residential market recorded a home sales decline of 57% YoY in H1 2020.While all micro-markets were adversely affected, notable decline was seen in North and West where sales declined by an even greater magnitude of 70% YoY and 66% YoY, respectively.

* The affordable housing segment, classified as house value up to INR 5 million, witnessed its share further shrink to 32% in H1 2020 compared to 38% in H1 2019.

The state government reduced the stamp duty rates from 5% to 2% for houses costing up to INR 2 million and from 5% to 3% for houses costing between INR 2.1 – 3.5 million. This was limited to first time registration of new apartment valued up to INR 3.5 million. 81% of sales in H1 2020 occurred in the segment of INR 2.5 - 10 million with 51% in INR 5 - 10 million segment. In this situation, we believe a broadersegment for stamp duty reduction would have helped the sector.

* In terms of launches, H1 2020 saw 48% YoY decline compared to 20,894 units in H1 2019. While all micro-markets witnessed a sharp fall in launches, West and North were the most hit markets with a decline of 78% and 69% respectively.

* In H1 2020, the pricing environment was strong until February 2020. However, prices have stagnated since the COVID-19 struck in March 2020. Overall, the city saw prices higher by 3.3% YoYin H1 2020. Whitefield and Hennur recorded a 5% price increase for 12-month period, till June 2020.  

* With restrained launches compared to housing sales over the past year, unsold inventory level has come down by 10% to 77,043 units in H1 2020.

Shantanu Mazumder, Senior Branch Director, Bangalore, Knight Frank India said,“Despite being affected during H1 2020, Bengaluruemerged as one of the quickermarkets to come out of the state-imposed lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus. During this period, although at a much lower level compared to pre-lockdown, May and June 2020 saw the resumption of project sites and customer visits. With pandemic induced market disruptions, the pricing environment has become weak now. However, instead of a headline price reduction, customers are being offered a variety of indirect price benefit schemes. Price protection and free cancellation schemes are also offered to assuage homebuyer concerns on job security and pay cut.

While the inherent strength of Bengaluru housing market is intact, COVID-19 induced threat to lives and livelihoods and recurrence of lockdown will have an overbearing impact on market and going forward, the intensity of pandemic will define the recovery trajectory.”

EuroSchool Bangalore Students Secure 100% Results in CBSE Examination

All three Bangalore campuses of EuroSchool (Whitefield, Yelahanka and Chimney Hills), have announced great performance in the CBSE Class X results of 2020 having witnessed 100% results.

Miss Ariya Samir Wadekar from EuroSchool Whitefield scored 97%, topping the three campuses in Bangalore. Ten students of EuroSchool Whitefield scored above 90%. The highest marks in Maths was 100 and 99 in Second Language.

Ms. Shruthi Arun, Principal, EuroSchool, Whitefield, said “It is a proud moment for us at EuroSchool, Whitefield as our students once again, have excelled in the Class X results reflecting years of hard work. It is the deep commitment of our faculty that has helped our students to prepare not just for the board exams but also for their professional careers and life after school. 

Miss Ariya Samir Wadekar from EuroSchool Whitefield says about her success, “Enjoy your present and work hard towards your goals. I invested my time in reading curriculum books, reference books, getting extra information from the teachers and combining all these to ensure clear understanding about a topic before moving to next. Just remember, whatever you are going to do is in your hands.”

Ms. Shruti Sampoorna Mishra from EuroSchool, North Campus, Bangalore scored 95% topping her school. She scored 99% in Second Language, 98 in Maths and 93 in Science. Ms. Brunda M from EuroSchool, Chimney Hills scored 91.60%, topping her school, followed closely by Ms. Greeshma D Holeyannavar, with 90%.

The current academic module at EuroSchool lays emphasis on learning with technology. The virtual schooling programme runs on the proprietary Digital Learning Ecosystem (LMS) ARGUS ensuring effective Home Engagement with students to ensure #UninterruptedLearning.

EuroSchool currently has a presence of 11 Schools across six cities in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Surat.

About EuroSchool International:

EuroSchool, is a network of 11 K-12 Schools, across 6 cities in India. A division of EuroKids Group, the School Operates on the philosophy of ‘Discover Yourself’ wherein the core focus is to encourage children to realise latent talent, ascertain areas of interest, hone individual skills, thereby uncovering varied facets of their personality. The profound realisation that the skills that are required to face the challenges we will be up against in the future must be imparted from a young age evolved into the philosophy of ‘Discover Yourself’ which is delivered via the ‘Balanced Schooling’ pedagogy. Their Learn - Reinforce - Practice - Apply methodology, paves the way for the students to do well in academics, with the co-curricular activities helping children to develop their creative, sporting and musical aspirations. 

All EuroSchools are affiliated either to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) or the Indian Council of Secondary Education (ICSE) and select EuroSchools also offer the CAIE, Cambridge Assessment International Education (IGCSE).  It is India’s 1st chain of Schools to receive the ‘Safe School’ certification from a global audit firm.

Quick, Healthy and Delicious—Cure.Fit’s New Ready-to-Eat Product Range Launched

Ready-to-Eat Products

* The products will be available for online ordering in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi

* They have a shelf life of 12 months and contain no chemical preservatives, artificial additives

or trans fat

India’s leading integrated health and wellness platform, cure.fit, announces the launch of its Ready-to-Eat products under its healthy food delivery vertical—eat.fit. This range of products includes an offering of healthy easy-to-prepare food options that are 100% safe and free of chemicals, highly affordable and most importantly, delicious and authentic in taste.

The Ready-to-Eat products, priced between Rs. 100 to Rs. 150, are available for ordering in Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad via the cure.fit app or on Swiggy and Zomato. While currently the two variants being launched are Rajma Masala and Dal Makhani, eat.fit plans to expand its range in the next six to nine months to include around 13 varieties.

In fulfillment of its promise to always maintain a high bar on health, these products are free of chemical preservatives, artificial colours or flavours, and trans fat. The ambient nature of the products coupled with a long shelf life of 12 months make them easy to store and stock as well. Retort technology, which is used to manufacture them, ensures that the ingredients do not lose their freshness.

These products have been manufactured in conjunction with Tasty Bites—one of the pioneers in the ready-to-eat category who have also been credited with launching it in 1987 in India. Our products are being made in their state-of-the-art factory in Pune from where they are shipped to other eat.fit locations and have been developed using their rich expertise and insights coupled with an active feedback seeking mechanism we have with our customers.

Speaking on the launch of this new offering, Ankit Nagori, co-founder, cure.fit, said: “Today convenience is highly prized as people are hard pressed for time. However, it is also important to never compromise on the food we consume. As a consumer-first health brand, eat.fit seeks to constantly develop new offerings that are not only healthy and convenient for our customers but are also packed with flavour. Our Ready-to-Eat products are specifically designed to deliver on this. With this range of food, we hope to gain greater acceptance and household penetration, especially at a time when home-cooking is at the forefront.”

About Cure.fit 

cure.fit Healthcare Pvt Ltd is a holistic integrated healthcare platform headquartered in Bangalore. Founded in 2016 by Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, cure.fit aims to address preventive healthcare through a combination of engagement, coaching and delivery using a mix of online and offline channels. cure.fit caters to living a healthy life through four critical dimensions- eat.fit, mind.fit, cult.fit and care.fit. While cult.fit focuses on physical strength and fitness, eat.fit focuses on healthy and nutritive food, mind.fit on mental wellbeing and care.fit on integrated medical and lifestyle care.

cure.fit is an app based service provider and is available on Android and iOS.

Vestige Launches Assure Natural – Vegan, Cruelty-Free and Natural Personal Care Range that Promotes Harmony with Nature

Our planet is in crisis as it suffers unbridled exploitation of nature by mankind and is now raising an alarm for society to learn to respect nature and live in harmony with it. As the crisis of the pandemic looms large, it’s high time people and society adopt a more natural approach towards things that are good not just for the environment, but for humankind itself. With this intent, the leading Indian direct selling company Vestige Marketing Pvt Ltd, specializing in world-class health, wellness, personal care, cosmetics, agri and other products, has launched its natural and environment-friendly personal care range – Assure Natural. The products under this brand are made with extracts of exotic natural ingredients that are claimed to be good for the environment as well as people. The range is 100% vegan, not tested on animals and is PETA-certified.

Vestige’s aim is to move people closer to nature with Assure Natural products that are scientifically validated and extremely effective in providing deep nourishment to the body, skin and hair. Vestige has ensured that no animal testing was conducted so that Assure Natural products remain true to its promise of making beauty cruelty-free. Assure Natural products are vegan, PETA-certified and ethical. They are also free from sulphate, harmful chemicals, paraben, etc, ensuring that the customer feels as naturally cared for as possible.

Speaking on the occasion of the launch, Gautam Bali, Managing Director, Vestige Marketing Pvt Ltd, said, “It’s important that we as a society understand that we need to play a collective and constructive role to help mother nature heal and regenerate, which is why it’s the right time to integrate our lives with nature and live in harmony with it. At Vestige, our focus is to ensure our customers get the best of world-class products that are ethically-sourced making them good for both themselves as well as the environment. The Assure Natural personal care range is inspired by this higher purpose. It’s taking people closer to nature and helping them rediscover the care and love of mother nature while staying contemporary at the same time.”

Mr Bali also emphasised the fact that by refraining from cruelty against animals and adopting a vegan culture in product development, Vestige is delivering a message that it stands for nature first. “Vestige has recently launched its innovative and unique engine oil additive named MACH-DRIVE, which helps significantly in reducing emission from the engine and thereby is good for the environment. With Assure Natural, we took another leap towards becoming an environment-friendly company”, Mr Bali added.

Starting with seven products in skin and body care range, Assure Natural will launch many more products in the coming days. The products launched today are:

Assure Natural Sunscreen: It is a hydrating, softening, and non-greasy daily sun-care cream with SPF 40+. This protects the skin against harmful UVA and UVB rays that cause tanning, sunburns and premature ageing. Enriched with marshmallow and olive extracts, it balances the skin giving it a shine-free finish.

Assure Natural Lightening Cream: With SPF 15, it increases hydration, restoring the skin's structure and combats oxidative stress that causes premature ageing and dark spots. Enriched with passion fruit extract, which is high in Vitamin C and antioxidants, it keeps the skin firm and youthful.

Assure Natural Day Cream: It is a lightweight and fast-absorbing moisturising cream with Moringa and Amazonian Murumuru butter extracts that regenerate cells and provide long-lasting hydration, making the skin smooth, soft and radiant. 

Assure Natural Face Scrub: It is enriched with the goodness of real papaya extract that gently removes dead skin cells and leaves the skin soft, supple and radiant. It is rich in anti-oxidants, clears skin pigmentation and reduces dark spots. It slows down the ageing process by retaining the required moisture of the skin.

Assure Natural Charcoal Peel-Off Mask: It is a detoxifying and skin brightening formula that helps to pull out blackheads, dead skin, excess oil and improves the skin’s tone while adding youthful radiance. It also repairs skin damage and increases hydration.

Assure Natural Sleeping Mask: It is an overnight rejuvenating face mask, enriched with seaweed extracts, that naturally detoxifies and replenishes the lost moisture content of the skin, thereby, making it radiant, hydrated and youthful. It helps to soothe and soften the skin, and reduce skin sensitivity.

Assure Natural Body Wash is enriched with Siberian ginseng root and lime extracts, laden with antioxidants and Vitamin C. It helps in rinsing away daily impurities while keeping your skin smooth, soft, nourished and hydrated.

India’s First Factory Custom, Jawa Perak, Hits the Streets Across the Country

Jawa Perak

* Deliveries of the motorcycle start from 20th July 2020 at dealerships across India

* Powered by a 334cc cross port engine delivering 30.64 PS of power and a higher 32.74 Nm of torque

* The company puts in place attractive finance schemes and safety protocols across dealerships for a worry-free buying experience 

  

Jawa Perak has been one of the most anticipated motorcycles of 2020 and now the wait to see the Perak on the road and own this creature of the night is over. Classic Legends Pvt. Ltd. announced the start of deliveries of the Perak from the 20th of July across the length and breadth of the country.

The Perak is a motorcycle reminiscing the past, yet far ahead of its time. Designed and developed as a factory custom embodying the spirit of ‘Stealth, Vigilante and Dark’, the BSVI compliant machine is a true bobber in spirit and form with ‘bobbed’ fenders, chopped exhaust and a floating seat.

India’s first Factory Custom is powered by a 334cc liquid cooled, single cylinder, four stroke, DOHC engine, producing 30.64 PS of power and 32.74 Nm of torque, breathing out through signature twin Jawa exhausts chopped for the authentic bobber stance.

The time during the lockdown was spent fruitfully by the Perak product team as they managed to crank up the torque by nearly 2Nm from its earlier 31 Nm. The higher torque directly translates to better pulling performance both from standstill and rolling acceleration. This has been achieved with meticulous fine tuning of the engine coupled with the new cross port technology that ensures thrilling performance while delivering cleaner emissions compliant with BSVI regulations. All this power is put to the tarmac via a 6-speed transmission with ratios optimised to offer a great riding experience through the gears. 

Housed in a completely reworked chassis with an all-new swingarm, engineered to offer the optimum transverse, longitudinal, torsional rigidity. Frame and swingarm stiffness have been tuned for a linear feel, aiding stability over straights and poise along winding roads. This plays a significant role in improving the handling.

Unleashing the Jawa Perak, Anupam Thareja, co-founder, Classic Legends said, “When we set out to build the Perak, the goal was simple – to create a motorcycle with the right blend of exclusivity, individuality and performance, with a hint of sinister and dark. Built on the idea of India’s first factory custom, the Perak is just that and now it is out on its prowl. We are proud of our creation and today we offer it to our customers to enjoy. We welcome them to the ’dark’ side and hope that nights will never be the same for Perak riders.”

To help bikers give in to temptation more easily, the Jawa Perak is also available with a range of easy finance options. Each Finance Options on offer across Jawa dealerships has something unique. A few highlights are:

•           50% off on first 3 EMIs

•           Special EMI plan @ Rs. 6,666/month

•           EMI plans as low as Rs. 8,000 @ 2years and Rs. 6,000 @ 3years

•           100% funding | Zero down payment | No income proof required. (T&C apply)

The Jawa Perak was officially launched on November 15th 2019 and the bookings for this factory-custom bobber motorcycle began on January 1st. The motorcycle is priced at Rs 1,94,500, ex-showroom, Delhi. The motorcycle is available for display, test rides and booking at all Jawa dealerships across India.

Classic Legends has put in place a comprehensive standard operating procedure across its sales outlets and the dealerships have been adhering to the policies and measures directed by the Central and State governments with respect to the safety of customers, employees and visitors. The showrooms are functional with teams trained and equipped to follow social distancing, hygiene and sanitation protocols.