ICICIdirect Launches ICICIdirect Markets Smart App Across India

* Superfast order placement, swipe-to-trade, one view portfolio etc. to provide a superior stock trading experience

ICICI Securities (I-Sec), which operates ICICIdirect, a digital platform for investments, protection and loan products, today announced the launch of ICICIdirect Markets app, a brand new trading app which promises to provide a superior trading experience with its simple, fast and intuitive UI & UX (User Interface & User Experience) design. ICICIdirect Markets aims to make buying and selling stocks on-the-go as hassle-free as it can get and redefine the way people trade in this era of rapid digital adoption.

ICICIdirect Markets comes with best-in-class analytical tools like advanced charting, Open Interest graphs on Option Chain, integrated research, and live profit & loss monitoring. Investors can buy or sell stocks by simply swiping. The app comes integrated with biometric-based login for enhanced security and allows for personalisation by allowing customers to create their own watchlist with Stocks, Index, F&O Contracts.

Speaking on the launch, Mr. Vishal Gulechha, Head – Retail Equity, ICICI Securities, said, “ICICIdirect believes in simplification of the trading experience and believes that technology can lead this change. In an effort to create a trading platform that not only addresses today's requirements but is also flexible enough to meet tomorrow’s technological advances, we built the ICICIdicrect Markets app after extensive customer consultation, particularly the millennials. Innovating with changing times to attain customer satisfaction has been a top priority for us and we envisage to build the next generation of AI-based hassle-free trading experience.”

The app comes with other tools like eATM (instant liquidity on selling of shares), cashless trading with shares as margin, and MTF (Margin Trade Funding) option. The app simplifies the entire buying and selling process by consolidating all related activities in just three steps. Customers can monitor positions across asset classes in one go with consolidated positions view.  The app also makes available the best of ICICIdirect Research across Equity and Derivatives along with One Click Portfolio for smarter investments.

The ICICIdirect Markets app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store and can be easily operated on Android or iOS devices.

Google Play Store:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.icicidirect.markets

Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/icicidirect-markets/id1570800408

About ICICI Securities

ICICI Securities Limited (I-Sec) is a subsidiary of ICICI Bank Ltd. The company began its operation in May 1995 and continues to grow its operation through expanding its client base and providing different type of services.

I-Sec operates www.icicidirect.com, a virtual financial supermarket, meeting the three need sets of its clients- investments, protection, and borrowing. Through its four lines of businesses -- broking, distribution of financial products, wealth management, and investment banking-- I-Sec serves customers ranging from the retail and institutional investors to corporates to high net-worth individuals to government. I-Sec is listed on National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). 

Asia’s Eyewear Giant, Lenskart Enters The US Market, Opens Tech Center In New York

Lenskart, the largest eyewear retailer in India, has announced its foray into the USA market and plans to open it’s first-ever tech centre in the retail capital city -New York. The company has recently announced its expansion in Singapore and the Middle East with a projection to achieve growth to the tune of $15 billion by 2025.

Lenskart provides a fully operational website lenskart.us on android play and an iOS app store with free delivery across all regions similar to its current practice in India, Singapore, and Middle East Asia.

Peyush Bansal, CEO & Co-Founder at Lenskart, “Expanding in the US brings us another step closer to transforming the vision of the world. While the US is a hypercompetitive market, we strongly believe we can bring greater dynamism to the way customers look at eyewear there. Given our scale and global reach, Lenskart has the ability to bring a wide catalogue of over 2000 product styles to the US market, especially for new-age consumption patterns. We are also aiming to build a differentiated, never-seen-before experience backed by our brand, innovation, and technology. Through a Lenskart tech center in the US and dedicated technology & business teams operating from there, we will be successful in growing our business.”

With a rapidly growing business reaching out to over half a million customers a month with uniquely designed physical stores, as well as a first of its kind 'home eye check up' service, Lenskart has already revolutionized the eyewear industry in India, Singapore, and Middle East Asia. It is now ready with an aim to provide every American with access to high-quality designer glasses at affordable rates.

Lenskart has always kept customer experience and technology at the forefront of its servicing. It provides a unique offering of AR (Augmented Reality) technology for virtual try-on. The technology indigenously developed in India will enable customers in the US to try eyewear virtually that makes intelligent recommendations as per their facial analysis.

Lenskart’s new tech hub is under development in New York City region of the US with investment to build highly specialized technology team to tap into mature talent available in region across: product, design & consumer research.

On Hiring, Ramneek Khurana, Co-Founder at Lenskart mentioned: “For us, technical skills are table stakes, beyond that, what we are looking for are engineers with first principle thinking - who are excited to solve problems with a fresh perspective, & to work on problems which have not been solved yet at this scale.”

Being the largest service provider for eyewear in India, serving over 7 million customers annually through its omnichannel shopping experience, which spans online, mobile application, and 750+ Omnichannel stores in 175 cities across the country. With the launch of the first & the only eyewear app in Singapore and the Middle East, Lenskart will set a unique first-time experience to their respective masses and will further strengthen its presence in those regions and beyond.

About Lenskart:

Founded in 2010, Lenskart is India’s largest Omni channel retailer and manufacturer of premium quality and stylish eyewear. With a unique click and mortar business, Lenskart is revolutionizing the eyewear industry by offering disruptive services like home eye check-up, 3D try-on, home trial and prioritising the consumer needs above all else. The company aims to provide every consumer access to high-quality glasses by eliminating middle persons, using hi-tech robotic technology, and incorporating world-class designs into its products.

Meditronic And Government Of Kerala's Additional Skill Acquisition Pprogramme Sign MOU To Advance Skill Development In Kerala

* Medtronic is the Only MedTech Company to Engage in this Partnership with ASAP

* Goal of Providing 12-Month Internship Opportunities for Qualified Students

India Medtronic Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) – the world’s largest medical technology, services, and solutions company – today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Government of Kerala’s promoted Section 8 Company, Additional Skill Acquisition Programme Kerala (ASAP), to equip final year students with advanced skill sets and improve overall employability within the healthcare industry.

Under this program, ASAP will continue to provide and implement skill development programmes for youth through its Advanced Skill Development Centres. Simultaneously, through the Acquire Early Program, Medtronic will leverage this talent pool for its internship projects, that will see students benefit from mentorship support, constructive job experience and enhancement of their overall soft and employable skills. In addition, final year students from Tier 3 and Tier 4 institutes will undergo the Bridge Program developed by ASAP and upon successful completion, will be assessed for internship opportunities by Medtronic.

“As the largest medical technology company in the world, Medtronic has enabled skill proficiency building across biomedical engineering and multiple therapy areas, significantly contributing to the healthcare ecosystem in India. Our partnership with ASAP is one more step in that direction,” said Madan Krishnan, vice president and managing director, Medtronic India. “Through this program, we hope to extend opportunities to students to join the innovative world of medical technology and contribute to improving access to latest therapies. We firmly believe that our internship program provides an opportunity to gain valuable work experience and understand a rapidly growing and evolving med-tech industry. We remain confident that through our collaboration, we will leverage our common strengths, and continue to work with students and develop the skilling eco-system in the country, aligning with Government’s Skill India vision.”

“The very philosophy of ASAP as a skill development agency is to accentuate the employability of the youth. We look forward to leveraging this philosophy through a mutually benefitting collaboration with Medtronic and offer some unique opportunities for the youth of Kerala,” said Dr. Usha Titus, chairperson and managing director, ASAP Kerala.

Focused on providing students an immersion into the med-tech job market, Medtronic and ASAP will also partner on deploying a series of insight led webinars and guest lectures designed for third year and final year engineering students. Key Medtronic leaders will interact with young minds through these interactive sessions with the goal of providing aspiring students a peak into a career in the med-tech sector.

About ASAP

Additional Skill Acquisition Programme Kerala (ASAP Kerala) is a not for profit company under Government of Kerala, India, that invests in provision of industry relevant skills. Over the last 8 years, ASAP Kerala has created a unique demand-based, industry-led skill training ecosystem in the State through 121 Skill Development Centres connecting Higher Secondary Schools and Arts and Science Colleges, Advanced Skill Development Centres (ASDCs) in 90 Engineering Colleges and 45 Polytechnics institutions and 16 Community Skill Parks (CSPs) for multi-skill training.

About Medtronic

Medtronic plc (www.medtronic.com), headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is among the world’s largest medical technology, services and solutions companies – alleviating pain, restoring health and extending life for millions of people around the world. Medtronic employs more than 90,000 people worldwide, serving physicians, hospitals, and patients in more than 150 countries. The company is focused on collaborating with stakeholders around the world to take healthcare further, together.

Delhivery Acquires Spoton To Become One Of The Leading B2B Express Logistics Players In India

Delhivery, a leading end-to-end logistics, and supply chain services company in India, confirmed the acquisition of Bangalore-based Spoton Logistics. This move further strengthens Delhivery's existing B2B capabilities.

Commenting on the announcement, Sahil Barua, Delhivery CEO, said, "This development is consistent with our objective of being growth-oriented and building scale in each of our business lines. Over 10 years Delhivery has established a leading position in B2C logistics and now by combining our part truckload business with Spoton's we will be on the path to the same position in B2B express as well. More importantly, we are well placed to provide benefits of synergies between our B2C and B2B express businesses to the customers of both Delhivery and Spoton, and further enhance our end-to-end supply chain capabilities".

Abhik Mitra, Managing Director, Spoton Logistics, said, "The Spoton team and I are hugely excited to be part of Delhivery's journey of growth and value-creation. The Delhivery team has done a tremendous job in creating a leading end-to-end logistics, and supply chain services company in India in a short span. Spoton is known for its focus on customer relationships and service quality, professional management and technology and engineering, which are values shared by Delhivery as well, and that sets us up to together be one of India's leading logistics companies.

We will continue to invest in improving our clients’ businesses through our investments in people, technology, network and infrastructure. Our teams and our business partners will have an opportunity to be part of a much larger organization with significant opportunities for growth".

Sandeep Barasia, Chief Business Officer of Delhivery, also added, "Spoton is a great business. Abhik and the team have done a fantastic job of building the company. We take great pleasure in welcoming the entire Spoton team to Delhivery. This is a coming together of two high quality companies with shared values. Our combined scale and focus on technology and data will enable us to develop new solutions for our customers and allow us to enter new verticals in freight".

Samara Capital and Xponentia that together acquired Spoton from IEP in 2018, are making a full exit for cash as part of the transaction.

Kotak Mahindra Capital Company acted as the financial advisor and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. acted as the legal advisor to Delhivery on this transaction.

About Delhivery

Delhivery is a leading end-to-end logistics and supply chain services company in India. With its nationwide network covering over 19,400 pin codes, the company provides a full suite of logistics services such as express parcel transportation, LTL and FTL freight, reverse logistics, cross-border, B2B & B2C warehousing, End-to-end supply chain services, and technology services. Delhivery has successfully fulfilled over 1 billion shipments since inception and today works with over 17,000 customers, including large & small e-commerce participants, SMEs, and other enterprises & brands. For more information about Delhivery, please visit www.delhivery.com. 

About Spoton Logistics

Spoton Logistics, an engineering and technology-driven logistics company, is a leading multimodal express logistics and supply chain solutions company in India. The company started its journey in 2012 when private equity firm India Equity Partners bought the domestic business from TNT India. In 2018, Spoton partnered with a consortium of investors led by Samara Capital and Xponentia Fund Partners to build the next stage of its growth. A well-established network, and professional resources allows it to service customers in an array of industries, including Hi-tech, Automotive, Engineering, Pharmaceutical, Electronics & Electricals, and Lifestyle, Retail & eCommerce.

Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance Announces Upto 15% Reduction In Premium Rates Of Its Term Plan - ABSLI DigiShield Plan

* Offering extremely competitive premium rates for Sum Assured up to Rs 3Cr. in their most customizable Term Plan

Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance (ABSLI), the life insurance subsidiary of Aditya Birla Capital Limited (ABCL), announces reduction in the premium rates in ABSLI DigiShield Plan by up to 15% thereby making it one of the most competitive offering in the Term Insurance space. This plan caters to the unique protection needs of customers and can be personalized to suit specific protection needs.

Unlike traditional term plans, ABSLI Digishield plan allows a customer to enjoy a guaranteed recurring income starting from age 60 years through the Survival Benefit Option. Further, it provides a unique flexibility to reduce the sum assured at a pre-defined retirement age, allowing customers to align their cover as per their outstanding liabilities and the life stage.

ABSLI DigiShield Plan offers extensive flexibility to cater to one’s varied protection needs across life stages by offering multiple plan options to choose from, joint life protection, critical illness cover, and rider options to tailor-make a distinctive protection solution for the customers and their loved ones. 

Commenting on the premium price reduction of ABSLI DigiShield Plan, Mr. Kamlesh Rao, MD & CEO, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance, said, “The pandemic lasted longer than expected with people experiencing strains on their personal finances. We have been meticulously observing the pandemic experience before making any price revisions in our products. With a rise in demand for term plans, we have consciously announced a reduction in premium for ABSLI DigiShield Plan, a hyper-personalized term plan offering, to suit our customer’s ever evolving monetary needs. We urge customers to take benefit of this reduced premium pricing of this holistic term plan, providing financial protection for self and loved ones.”

This plan also provides various premium payment terms, policy tenures and death benefit pay-out options to satisfy unique customer requirements. This holistic plan mitigates liabilities, provides protection to loved ones, and supports retirement and legacy goals.

About Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance, an Aditya Birla Capital Company 

Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Limited (ABSLI) is a part of Aditya Birla Capital Ltd (ABCL). ABSLI was incorporated on August 4th, 2000 and commenced operations on January 17th, 2001. ABSLI is a 51:49 a joint venture between the Aditya Birla Group and Sun Life Financial Inc., an international financial services organization in Canada.

ABSLI offers a range of products across the customer’s life cycle, including children future plans, wealth protection plans, retirement and pension solutions, health plans, traditional term plans and Unit Linked Insurance Plans (“ULIPs”).

As of June 2021, total AUM of ABSLI Stood at Rs.543, 656 million. ABSLI recorded a gross premium income of Rs. 17,628 million in Q1 FY 2021-22 and registering a y-o-y growth of 4% in Gross Premium with Individual Business FYP at Rs 3,691 Mn. ABSLI has a nation-wide distribution presence through 370+ branches, 7 bancassurance partners, 6 distribution channels, over 90,000 direct selling agents, other Corporate Agents and Brokers and through its website. The company has over 13,000 employees and more than 17 lac active customers.

About Aditya Birla Capital

Aditya Birla Capital Limited (ABCL) is the holding company for the financial services businesses of the Aditya Birla Group.ABCL’s subsidiaries have a strong presence across Protecting, Investing and Financing solutions, ABCL is a universal financial solutions group catering to diverse needs of its customers across their life stages.  Powered by more than 23,500 employees, the subsidiaries of ABCL have a nationwide reach with 900+ branches and more than 2, 00,000 agents / channel partners and several bank partners. As of June 30th, 2021, Aditya Birla Capital Limited manages aggregate assets under management over Rs. 3,430 billion, has a consolidated lending book of approx. Rs. 572 billion, and an active customer base of over 25 million, through its subsidiaries and joint ventures. Aditya Birla Capital Limited is a part of the Aditya Birla Group, in the league of Fortune 500. Anchored by an extraordinary force of over 140,000 employees, belonging to 100 nationalities, the Aditya Birla Group operates in 36 countries across the globe.

About Sun Life Financial Inc, Canada 

Sun Life Financial is a leading international financial services organization providing insurance, wealth and asset management solutions to individual and corporate Clients. Sun Life Financial has operations in a number of markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bermuda. As of June 30, 2021, Sun Life Financial had total assets under management of CAD 1,361 billion. For more information please visit www.sunlife.com. Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under the ticker symbol SLF. www.sunlife.com

Effitrac Solutions Announces Strategic Partnership With RazorpayX For Indian SMEs

* Empowers MSME customers with new-age banking platform

* Transforms MSME fintech needs and analytics dashboard digitally

Effitrac, an end-to-end business process technology SaaS platform that helps small and medium businesses to optimize their time, money, and resources, has recently partnered with RazorpayX. The new-age banking platform will empower Effitrac customers with payout links, book-keeping in autopilot mode, automated TDS, and give them access to capital services when needed through Effitrac’s Neobooks. Businesses can even integrate with Razorpay payment gateway to accept the incoming payments.

Neo-banks are a boon for MSMEs in India for its simple account-opening procedures, low-cost, user-friendly interface, and unified solutions to monitor the money movement from vendors to customers. It also will help them drastically reduce their time consumed in financial tasks including, reconciliation, monthly compliance payments, checks & approvals, sending/receiving money, and recording transactions.

With digital transformation powering the MSME sector, NextGen banking is helping the MSME’s to compete with global players and markets. Effitrac believes it can power the growth of millions of MSMEs further through RazorpayX. Effitrac is on track to reach 1 million MSMEs in 3 years.

The association with RazorpayX aligns with Effitrac’s goal – ‘aiming to be the technology growth partner of every MSME in the country’.

Logesh Velusamy, Founder & CEO of Effitrac, said, “The partnership with RazorpayX will help our customers open a fully accessible digital current account, like a bank. With hassle-free transaction experience, seamless book keeping and highly secured easy user interface, business owners can focus on growing their business rather than worrying about digitalizing their financial processes. RazorpayX will improve the capabilities of our Neobooks and will make it a one-stop solution to meet all business transaction needs of such businesses.”

RazorpayX is a new-age business finance platform from Fintech giant Razorpay. Built on top of a current account (from India’s leading banks), RazorpayX is designed to automate and simplify repetitive and time-consuming financial tasks. From facilitating day-to-day payments, accounting & reconciliation, to helping businesses borrow collateral-free loans, automate the payroll process, and adhere to the latest tax compliance standards, RazorpayX provides businesses and entrepreneurs with a future-forward solution. RazorpayX current account is powered by RBL Bank.

About Effitrac

Effitrac is an end-to-end technology SaaS platform that helps small and medium businesses to optimize their time, money, and resources. Headquartered in Coimbatore, Effitrac is the technology growth partner for 500+ MSME clients and helps over 30,000 users across 13 verticals. The mobile-enabled platform is engineered to solve the business problems of SMBs by offering fully customizable, scalable, cost-efficient, and user-friendly cloud-based management tools that don’t require specialized technological know-how. SMBs can stop worrying about day-to-day tasks and focus on growing their businesses.

Nidhi SSS Funds Four Startups Of INR 2 Crore Incubated By riidl

Four startups Pillpouch Healthtech Pvt Ltd, Doubt Buddy Education Technology Pvt Ltd, Pocketly Infotech Pvt Ltd and Swipe received funding of INR 2 Cr through Nidhi Seed Support System, an umbrella programme conceived and developed by the Innovation & Entrepreneurship division, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. The startups are incubated by Research Innovation Incubation Design Laboratories (riidl), a not-for-profit organization under Somaiya Trust, supported by the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, Maharashtra State Innovation Society, Government of Maharashtra. Nidhi SSS provides seed funding to promising and innovative startups. Its objective is to bridge the financial gap in the initial phases that are faced by technologically driven startups.

From edtech to fintech, these startups shine a torch on how riidl is helping accelerate & support the startups amidst this pandemic.

MicroDegree (Pillpouch Healthtech Pvt. Ltd.) aims empowering local technology talent from non-metro with on-demand IT skills in Vernacular languages thereby connecting them with right job opportunities at pocket friendly prices. Founded in 2019, they have 10k+ active users on their platform. Website Link: https://www.microdegree.work/

Doubt Buddy app (Doubt Buddy Education Technology Pvt. Ltd.) is the 24 x 7 doubt resolution platform, where students from different classes and subjects can instantly solve doubts in a personalized way. It also caters to all subjects, including the ones covered by JEE and NCERT and provides guidelines and strategies for competitive examinations such as IIT, NIT, IIIT, DTU, DU, AIIMS. They serve the students with a hybrid model so the students have an option to solve the doubt the way  they want for example getting the solution instantly or chat with the best tutors via chat, audio etc.

Their traction includes solving over 60k+ doubts to date with a monthly active users of 7k. They have picked 90% of doubts within 2 minutes. Website Link: https://www.doubtbuddy.com/

Pocketly Infotech Pvt. Ltd. is a micro-lending platform for college students. It provides a credit line to its users from Rs 500-10,000 and builds up the credit score of students to ensure they have access to credit in college. Their traction to date consists of 400k+ downloads, 5000+ colleges in India, loans worth Rs 40 Cr+ disbursed and 75% month over month user retention. Website Link: https://www.pocketly.in/

Swipe is a simple billing and accounting app for small businesses in India. They make it easy for local businesses to invoice their customers over WhatsApp. With Swipe, businesses can send a WhatsApp message with a link that allows their customers to pay instantly with a variety of payment methods. Most of the ~75M SMEs in India still rely on manual processes to track sales, purchases & payments. This is a highly inaccurate and inefficient process.

Additionally, business owners in India need to file monthly tax returns. Currently, they manually consolidate all their sales for the month on a spreadsheet and send it to their accountant for filing. With Swipe it takes less than 10 seconds to send sales reports to the accountant. Today, more than 1000 businesses use Swipe for their daily transactions, and they're growing 100% MoM. They launched in February and are now recording $1M monthly in transactional volume. Website Link: https://getswipe.in/

Gaurang Shetty, Chief Innovation Catalyst, riidl said, “Most entrepreneurs struggle to raise angel or seed funding during the early stage and this fund from NIDHI SSS is like a boon for entrepreneurs in the ecosystem.

We, at riidl, supported 4 startups with NIDHI Seed Support grant of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, additionally providing access to business mentoring, technical mentoring, early customer access support, virtual incubation, networking & outreach opportunities, and many more. We are proud of all the startups achieving new heights and receiving funding to take their startups even higher.

Dr. Anita Gupta, Scientist G / Adviser & Head (Innovation & Entrepreneurship), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt of India has been instrumental in supporting our incubator riidl to build various programs including the NIDHI Seed Support System program.”

riidl is a technology business incubator that supports the creation and incubation of early-stage companies from ideation to commercialization by providing them with resources, labs, government grants, investor connections, funding and mentorship. 

About Somaiya Vidyavihar University: 

Padma Bhushan Karamshi Jethabhai Somaiya founded Somaiya Vidyavihar, an education trust in 1959, to provide quality holistic education. It was founded on the belief that education is an important pillar of nation-building with the power to change lives, and education must innovate to encourage the holistic development of youth. It is known as much for its Science, Technology, Engineering, Management, Social Sciences, and Commerce programs, as for its programs for academic studies in various faiths and cultures of India. 

With over six decades of rich experience in building and managing educational institutes of great repute, Somaiya Vidyavihar has become a Private University in 2019, bringing all of its self-financing higher education institutions and the self-financing programs at the undergraduate and postgraduate level under one umbrella. The University was enacted by an Act of the Maharashtra State Legislature and approved by the University Grants Commission, Government of India.