Digital Futurists Angels Network (DFAN) Invests Around INR 100 Million In FY'21In Edtech Start-Up Goseeko

* DFAN has recently concluded funding for Goseeko, Dheeyantra and Gully Network

* The company is looking at investing around INR 100 million in FY2021

Digital Futurists Angels Network (DFAN), a global, community-backed Angel network has invested in Edtech startup Goseeko Technologies Pvt. Ltd., one of India’s emerging Edu-tech platforms providing curated, affordable and best-in-class higher education study material as per university syllabus. Goseeko aims to make higher education accessible and convenient across Tier 2-4 cities and towns thereby helping students transition from academics to career.

DFAN is focused on nurturing tech-enabled businesses and is looking at investing about INR 100 million plus in FY2122 across different sectors; AI Products, Health-tech, Retail-tech, Edtech, Media-tech, Agri-tech and Clean-tech. DFAN is backed by their parent Digital Futurists community of 1500+ Futuristic technology, business and consulting leaders and have recently concluded funding for chatbot startup Dheeyantra and grocery tech startup Gully Network besides Goseeko. The company is looking at concluding four more investments in this month thereby taking its total investments upto INR 50 million.

Mr. Vivek Gupta, Director & Co-founder, DFAN said, “While India has witnessed an increase in the number of private colleges over the years in Tier 2 and 3 cities, there is still a lack of access to quality education. We believe there exists a huge potential in the Edtech sector wherein through innovation, companies can help in bridging the knowledge and skills gap that exists in the hinterland and thus enhance the employability quotient of students. We see Goseeko to be solving this problem by providing access to quality content and study material to students in this segment and make education more accessible, affordable and convenient for them.  As a new age angel platform, we believe in investing in tech-enabled businesses that have a large social impact and are convinced that Goseeko will create a strong positive impression on the learning outcomes of students and shape up the career growth of millions of young minds.”  

Goseeko was founded in August 2018 by Mr. Chandrabhanu Pattajoshi and Ms. Sonam Choudhary, who come with an array of expertise and knowledge of the business and corporate world. The company operates on a subscription-based model and the study materials are available at the most affordable rates across courses.  This includes notes, presentations, lecture, and reference videos, MCQs, and question banks with answers for Graduate and Post Graduate courses.

Mr. Chandrabhanu Pattajoshi, Founder, Goseeko said, “Lack of a quality higher education infrastructure continues to remain a challenge in smaller towns and cities across India. Students, meritorious yet not-so-privileged are faced with a lot of obstacles including expensive books, poor library infrastructure, multiple and fragmented sources of study material among others. At Goseeko, our aim is to provide convenience and accessibility to students by offering a comprehensive solution, in alignment with the university syllabus all at one single place. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused the transition from offline to online learning at a much faster pace. We have witnessed a 10- 15 times increase in repeat visits by existing students and an over 100% jump on new visitors week on week. We currently have a footprint of 68 universities across 19 states on our platform and with this funding we want to provide curated, affordable, higher education study material to more students and bring them at par with university syllabus and guidelines. This year, we hope to reach 2.5 million students from over 150 universities in India.”

Founded in 2019, DFAN has on-boarded multiple strategic partners including leading institutions such as Meity, IITs, IIMs and VC funds. Their immediate future roadmap includes launching incubator-cum-accelerator(s) across selected tier-II cities by bringing in collaborative partnerships to foster the start-up ecosystem in these cities.

Digital Futurists Angels Private Limited

DFAN is a global technology community backed Angels Network founded in 2019 with a vision to help, nurture & grow tech enabled startups. Headquartered in Gurgaon, it is supported by a vibrant and rich Digital Futurists community of some of the smartest minds globally, pushing the envelope on bleeding-edge technologies like AI, Blockchain, IoT, Industry 4.0, Robotics, Computer Vision etc. and how they can help solve the business problems. The goal of the company is to foster collaboration for new business, mentorship, investments, learning across disciplines, and scaling. The parent Digital Futurists, a curated invite-only community, is spread across 20 cities including Delhi, NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney, New York, London, Dubai among others.

PhonePe’s Corona Insurance Sees Wide Adoption & Rising Demand With Increasing COVID-19 Cases

With COVID-19 cases rising across the country, PhonePe, India’s leading digital payments platform shared trends on the adoption of its Coronavirus insurance product launched last year. The analysis of sales and claims data over the past year showed that Coronavirus insurance has seen widespread adoption with 75% of policies bought by customers in smaller towns outside the tier-1 cities. This reflects the trust in the PhonePe platform among users in smaller towns and rural areas of the country. The top states contributing to sales included Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana and Gujarat. PhonePe has seen a fivefold jump in Corona insurance sales in March 2021 (when cases started rising nationally) vis-a-vis February.

In terms of claims paid to customers, the top states included Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Delhi and Karnataka. The claims from customers of more than INR 3.5 crore have already been paid. 75% of the claims were made from customers residing in smaller towns and rural areas of the country.

PhonePe in association with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance offers the most affordable Coronavirus insurance policy in the market today. The annual premium starts as low as INR 396 for a cover of INR 50,000. Customers can also opt for a higher cover of INR 1,00,000 at an affordable premium of INR 541. The cover is applicable at any hospital offering COVID-19 treatment. It also covers 30 days of expenses related to pre-hospitalization costs and post-care medical treatment.

Sharing his views, Gunjan Ghai, VP & Head of Insurance, PhonePe said, “The last few weeks have seen a resurgence in COVID-19 cases across the country. While the central and state governments are taking several steps towards containing the outbreak, many Indians still don’t have health insurance covers as a result of which they may have to bear an additional financial burden in case someone in their family needs to be hospitalized for COVID-19. Keeping this in mind, we are one of the very few players in the market today who continue to offer the Coronavirus insurance product for our vast base of over 287 million registered users.” 

Customers can buy this product by going to the Health Insurance section on the PhonePe app. They don’t need to undertake any medical tests before buying. The entire policy buying process takes less than 2 minutes and customers will be instantly issued their policy documents inside the PhonePe app.

FADA Releases March 2021 Vehicle Registration Data Across India

* March Auto Registrations continue to fall by -28.64% YoY but grew 10.05% MoM.

* Tractors and Passenger Vehicles sustained its healthy momentum by growing 29.21% and 28.39% YoY on a low base, transition from BS-4 to BS-6 and India going under lockdown last year.

* On YoY basis, 2W, 3W and CV unrelentingly fell by -35.26%, -50.72% and -42.20% respectively.

* On MoM basis 2W, 3W, CV, PV and Trac grew by 9.54%, 14.15%, 14,15%, 10,11% and 12.60% respectively.

* Passenger vehicle waiting period continued to hold its ground and remained as high as 7 months as scarcity of semiconductors remained put. 47% PV dealers said that they lost more than 20% sales due to supply side constraints.

* There was no significant change in Dealer inventory days as PV & 2W inventory remained in the range of 10-15 and 30-35 days.

* The second wave of Covid is not only spreading faster but is also trying to destabilize the growth which India has been able to achieve in last few months. Any lockdown at this point will severely hamper the momentum which is getting built for Auto Industry to come out of the woods.

The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) today released Monthly Vehicle Registration Data for March’21.

Commenting on how March’21 performed, FADA President, Mr. Vinkesh Gulati said, “Auto Registrations for the month of March witnessed double digit fall to the tune of -28.64% YoY, in spite of 7 days of lockdown last year.

Tractors and Passenger Vehicles were the only 2 categories which saw healthy double digit growth. This growth can be associated with multiple factors like low base of last year, transition from BS-4 to BS-6 and India going under total lockdown. Global shortage of wafers which is an input for semiconductor, continued to linger around and kept PV waiting period as high as 7 months. According to FADA Survey, 47% PV dealers said that they lost more than 20% sales due to supply side constraints.

Tractors continued its dream run as rural incomes saw improvements after successive monsoons and good rabi produce. If experts are to be believed, India will witness a normal monsoon for the 3rd year in a row. This will further see tractors performing well in FY 21-22.

According to Pew Research, financial woes brought by Covid-19 have pushed about 32 million Indians out of the middle class, undoing years of economic gains. This had its impact on 2-wheelers as it saw one of its steepest de-growth in last few months. This coupled with high fuel prices and price increase acted as double whammy. It not only created a havoc in entry level customers mind but also kept them away from visiting showrooms.

The 3-wheeler marketing is witnessing a tactical shift from ICE to EV’s. While prices of vehicles are increasing due to BS-6 and metals prices, customers coming from lower income category are not able to re-pay EMI’s due to poor income. This coupled with social distancing norms and educational institutions still closed are keeping riders away.

Commercial vehicles continued to degrow on YoY basis. High BS-6 prices, low finance availability, repayment pressure due to moratorium period getting over, were the few reasons for non-performance. The category showed growth in some markets/sub categories where Government Infrastructure spending has begun. Bus segment continued to suffer due to ongoing Pandemic.”

Near Term Outlook

The month of April comes with festivities like Ugadi, Gudi Padwa, Baisakhi and Poila Boishakh. This coupled with marriage season is generally a high sales period. At this juncture, the second wave of Covid is not only spreading faster but is also trying to destabilize the growth which India has been able to achieve in last few months. Any lockdown at this point will severely hamper the momentum which is getting built for Auto Industry to come out of the woods.

Increase of Covid and fear amongst consumer’s with last year’s sight in mind has started keeping them away from making high ticket purchase. The effects of the same can be seen in 2-Wheeler category where inquiry levels are low. This coupled with semiconductor shortage will continue to hamper not only Passenger Vehicles but also Two Wheelers as ABS shortage is currently ringing alarm bells.

Since Maharashtra contributes 10-11% of the auto retail, the current Lockdown will have catastrophic effect on overall sales for the month of April.

Overall, FADA maintains extreme caution for the month of April as Covid rises to newer highs.

Key Findings from our Online Members Survey

Sentiments

43.9% dealers rated it as Good

35.7% dealers rated it as Neutral

20.4% dealers rated it as Bad

Liquidity

45.5% dealers rated it as Good

37% dealers rated it as Neutral

17.5% dealers rated it as Bad

Expectation in April

48.7% dealers rated it as Growth

31.7% dealers rated it as Flat

19.6% dealers rated it as De-growth

Inventory

Average inventory for Passenger Vehicles ranges from 10 – 15 days

Average inventory for Two-Wheeler ranges from 30 – 35 days

Disclaimer:

The above numbers do not have figures from AP, MP, LD & TS as they are not yet on Vahan 4.

Vehicle Registration Data has been collated as on 06.04.21 in collaboration with Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India and has been gathered from 1,277 out of 1,482 RTOs.

CV is subdivided in the following manner

LCV – Light Commercial Vehicle (incl. Passenger & Goods Vehicle)

MCV – Medium Commercial Vehicle (incl. Passenger & Goods Vehicle)

HCV – Heavy Commercial Vehicle (incl. Passenger & Goods Vehicle)

Others – Construction Equipment Vehicles and others

About FADA India

Founded in 1964, Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), is the apex national body of Automobile Retail Industry in India engaged in the sale, service and spares of 2/3 Wheelers, Passenger Cars, UVs, Commercial Vehicles (including buses and trucks) and Tractors. FADA India represents over 15,000 automobile dealers having 26,500 dealerships including multiple Associations of Automobile Dealers at the Regional, State and City levels representing the entire Auto Retail Industry. Together we employ ~4 million people at dealerships and service centres.

FADA India, at the same time also actively networks with the Industries and the authorities, both at the Central & State levels to provide its inputs and suggestions on the Auto Policy, Taxation, Vehicle Registration Procedure, Road Safety and Clean Environment, etc. to sustain the growth of the Automobile Retail Trade in India.

upGrad Jeet Builds Road-To-Success; Help Aspirants Achieve Single-Digit Ranks In GATE 2021 Results

* The coaching institute (formerly known as The Gate Academy) has aided over 142 rankers in Top 100 List from the GATE 2021 result

Within just a month of launching a new business solution and rebranding its 100% subsidiary, The Gate Academy (TGA), now rechristened as the ‘upGrad Jeet’, has enabled over 142 government-job seekers to come in the Top 100 AIR (All India Rank) List and move strongly towards achieving their desired career goal. These learners are required to go through 900 hours of training over a period of 12 months, which includes online coaching/training, one-on-one career counselling sessions, projects completion, workshops with industry mentors & experts, along with other engagement programs to help them enhance their skill sets. Such an advanced teaching structure and detailed guidance helps learners crack GATE and attain meaningful professional growth. 

One such inspiring success story is of a young upGrad Jeet learner, Polarpu Akhil from Kalyandurgam, Andhra Pradesh, who comes from a very humble background and is a son of a bus conductor. He battled all his personal struggles to achieve great heights in the recently announced GATE 2021 results and secured AIR 4 in Electronics and Communication (EC), thus making his family proud. Akhil now stands as a role model to all those who face financial difficulties and thinks cracking the entrance exams is not possible. “My message to all those who are preparing for Government exams, is to remain positive, and be consistent in your daily preparation,” he adds.

Ritesh Raushan, CEO - upGrad Jeet commented, “Most of the Government job aspirants come from humble backgrounds with certain financial or personal limitations. They find it extremely difficult to travel to metro cities for quality education and coaching. Hence, our vision at upGrad Jeet is to get the best of teachers and offer their tutoring to learners from the remotest part of the country who are deprived of quality education.”

Mayank Kumar, Co-founder, and MD, upGrad added, “In line with our vision of driving meaningful career outcomes for our learners, we have differentiated and extended our line of solutions to reach the length and breadth of the country. We are happy to support and to play an important role in empowering the nation, particularly the youth.”

upGrad Jeet aligns with the brand’s ambition of Rural India penetration strategy in making Bharat employable. This also marks the higher edtech leader upGrad’s foray into the INR 400 Billion test preparation market for government exams pan India.

About upGrad Jeet

upGrad Jeet aims to ensure the win (“Jeet”) of every learner. Winners need to sweat it out every day to win and the course is exactly designed to make every aspirant become an active learner. With daily and weekly goal settings, notification-based study reminders, one-to-one mentorship, 24/7 doubt solving, revision modules, personalization all driven by technology, upGrad Jeet stands for participative learning. We have the best faculties to teach and make the students solve thousands of questions while you learn from basic concepts to mix, and complex ones to ultimately solve questions at the actual exam level and beyond. The learning methodology is like a guided tour where each and every learner is supported according to their level.

Cavendish Industries Ltd (A Subsidiary Of JK Tyre) Assigned “IND A- / Stable” Rating

India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has assigned long-term issuer rating ‘IND A- / Stable’ to Cavendish Industries Limited (a subsidiary of JK Tyre & Industries Ltd).

The assigned rating and the stable outlook reflects, Cavendish Industries Ltd. (CIL) strong operating performance in FY21 on the strength of strong demand from replacement markets, higher operating efficiencies, leaner cost structure and higher capacity utilisation, which has resulted in improved profitability. The Company has also resorted to aggressive marketing through expansion of the dealer network in the current financial year to cater to high rural and suburb demand.

Ind-Ra further expects healthy double-digit growth in revenues on the back of robust replacement market demand on account of increased vehicle penetration in the country in FY22.

The acquisition of Cavendish Industries Ltd. (CIL) by JK Tyre in the year 2016 was strategic in nature and well considered decision to increase the manufacturing capacities at a much lower investment cost and also to enter 2/3 wheeler tyre segment. CIL's presence is primarily in the domestic replacement market and has diverse product portfolio in the truck and bus (T&B) bias and radial tyres, two/three-wheeler (2/3W) tyres and non-truck bias tyre segments.

Vi Unveils Integrated IoT Solutions: New IoT Solution Portfolio For Enterprises To Leapfrog Into The Future

 
·         Vi Business to offer end-to-end Integrated IoT Solutions for Smart Infrastructure, Smart Mobility and Smart Utilities plus many more offerings

·         Launches IoT Adoption best practices “IoT Self-Scan” report for the manufacturing sector

Vi Business, the enterprise arm of Vodafone Idea Ltd. (VIL), has further strengthened its IoT portfolio with the launch of Integrated IoT solutions for enterprises. With this industry first initiative, VIL has become the only telecom company in India to offer a secure end-to-end IoT solution offering that comprises connectivity, hardware, network, application, analytics, security and support. The offering is designed to simplify and accelerate the digital transformation journey for enterprises.

With the pandemic induced digital disruption, businesses are increasingly transforming to digital means, opting for Internet of Things (IoT) to bridge the need gap, adapt to market dynamics, and the evolving consumer needs.

Vi IoT is transforming the way businesses operate by reinventing processes, operations, customer experience and developing newer business models and revenue opportunities.

Recognising the challenges faced by enterprises in conceptualizing, designing and deploying IoT as a strategic driver, with Vi Integrated IoT solutions, the telco will adopt a consulting-led engagement to support businesses in identifying their needs, design and develop the right IoT solution and implementation. It will also provide them with a tailored solution to be integrated with best-in-class enterprise-grade IoT framework.

Vi is the largest IoT player in India and with this launch, it has further strengthened its portfolio by providing a comprehensive range of IoT solutions across Industries for - Smart Infrastructure, Smart Mobility and Smart Utilities, on its 5G-ready network. With Vi Integrated IoT Solutions, an enterprise can now focus on its core strength, thus simplifying and accelerating IoT Innovation.

Commenting on the launch, Ravinder Takkar, MD & CEO, Vodafone Idea Limited, said, “Vi is a market leader in IoT and well positioned to capitalize on future growth driven by the Government’s push towards ‘Digital India’ and ‘Smart Cities’. A trusted and valued IoT partner in the nascent industry, and with its strong foundation, Vi is helping enterprises succeed in IoT, thereby paving the way for a digitally enhanced market in India. The launch of Vi Integrated IoT Solutions is a strategic step towards making Vi Business - an IoT ecosystem integrator for Indian enterprises, and positioning Vi to have an Ecosystem Play driving our transformation from a ‘Telco’ to ‘TechCo’”.

Abhijit Kishore, Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Vodafone Idea Limited, said, “We are proud to be the first telecom company to offer end-to-end IoT offerings that address the marketplace needs of a reliable partner, scale, security and quick deployments. Vi Business will be the single point of contact for enterprises so that they can fully focus on accelerating their business with the assurance that the solutions are tailored as per their needs, managed professionally, and business outcomes are delivered. As a trusted partner, Vi Business is well placed to maximize the benefits of IoT enabled Industry 4.0 revolution in the country.”

More on Vi Integrated IoT

• Market Leader in IoT with large market share in Smart Mobility industry with a million plus vehicles, fleet and other dynamic assets 

• Over 90% customer market share in the automotive industry with 2.2 mn+ vehicles on IoT connectivity

• Enabled enterprises with Innovative IoT maturity framework - IoT Self-scan to measure their IoT readiness and maturity 

• Leading IoT player in the energy sector

Under the Vi Integrated IoT Solutions portfolio, the Smart Infrastructure IoT solutions will connect intelligently with assets like heterogeneous machines, energy systems and range of applications like ERP, factory applications for industries. The Smart Mobility IoT solutions will offer automotive OEMs, logistics and associated industries with connected vehicle and fleet management solutions which is based on real-time vehicle and environmental parameters. With the Smart Utility IoT solutions, Vi Business will empower utility companies and DISCOMs to remotely monitor the performance of the transformers and other energy consuming machines or provide an integrated system of smart meters (Advanced Meter Reading, Advanced Metering Infrastructure) for improved customer experiences.

Highlighting the potential of IoT adoption in manufacturing, Vi Business also launched an IoT Insights report “Vi IoT Self Scan: Framework for accessing IoT maturity” basis its key learnings of working closely with the manufacturing companies. According to the report, manufacturing companies recognize the business need to build a connected factory ecosystem. Most companies wish to automate their plant operations with IoT in the next few years. IoT Self Scan Report identifies other reasons like production monitoring, planning and scheduling, quality and compliance and process optimization as triggers for manufacturing companies to adopt IoT.

Note: **Complete report available here: Link to website section - https://myvi.in/business/TBD

About Vi:

Vodafone Idea Limited is an Aditya Birla Group and Vodafone Group partnership. It is India’s leading telecom service provider. The Company provides pan India Voice and Data services across 2G, 3G and 4G platform. With the large spectrum portfolio to support the growing demand for data and voice, the company is committed to deliver delightful customer experiences and contribute towards creating a truly ‘Digital India’ by enabling millions of citizens to connect and build a better tomorrow. The Company is developing infrastructure to introduce newer and smarter technologies, making both retail and enterprise customers future ready with innovative offerings, conveniently accessible through an ecosystem of digital channels as well as extensive on-ground presence. The Company is listed on National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in India. The company offers products and services to its customers in India under the TM Brand name “Vi”.

Hero Motocorp Initiates COVID-19 Vaccination Drive For Permanent & Contractual Employees

In keeping with its commitment to ensure the safety and wellbeing of its people, Hero MotoCorp has initiated a Covid-19 vaccination drive across the organization, including its permanent and contractual employees.

Hero MotoCorp will bear the cost of the vaccination drive for its workforce.

The Company will also facilitate similar vaccination initiative across its group companies such as Hero FinCorp, Hero Future Energies, Rockman Industries, Hero Electronix and AG Industries.

In order to ensure the safety of people across its ecosystem, Hero MotoCorp is also working closely with its dealers and supply chain partners to facilitate similar vaccination for their employees.

More than 80,000 employees, including the entire workforce of Hero MotoCorp, Group Companies and Supply Chain Partners will be covered under this initiative. Additionally, a similar drive will be commenced for Hero MotoCorp’s Pan-India dealer network.

The vaccination initiative will cover both shots of the Covid-19 vaccine in phases as defined by health authorities, and will be implemented as per the guidelines prescribed by the government, covering people over the age of 45 and those with comorbidities first, followed by a wider application in the general population.

We at Hero have always believed in a holistic development of our employees as well as the society at large. With the government opening up the vaccination process against the coronavirus for the corporate sector, we have decided to vaccinate our workforce and other stakeholders within the extended Hero family at no cost.

At the very onset of the Covid-19 in March 2020, the Hero Group was among the very first corporates to pledge Rs 100 Crore as aid for the relief-efforts in the country. Half of this sum, Rs 50 Crore, was contributed to the PM-Cares Fund and the remaining Rs 50 crore was spent in other relief efforts.

As part of its ongoing relief efforts, Hero MotoCorp has so far distributed more than 23 lakhs meals, over 37,805 ration kits, more than 37,700 litres of sanitizers, 45+ lakhs face masks and 57,000+ PPE kits to the government hospitals, Police departments and other agencies.

The Company has also donated 60 unique First Responder Vehicles (FRVs), custom-built as an upgrade on the powerful Xtreme 200R motorcycle, to various government authorities in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha.