Author: Girish Shetti

The fear that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is stealing precious human jobs is sheer rubbish. This startling revelation has come forth through a recent global survey conducted by the IT consulting giant Capgemini. This Capgemini survey may actually end up busting some serious myths about AI’s negative impact on job sector, with the survey even claiming that AI (contrary to public opinion) is adding lot of jobs across the companies. This global survey conducted across 1,000 organizations, who are applying some sort of AI solutions, praised AI for offering comprehensive benefits. Nearly 83% of the organizations claimed that AI has created…

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Credit scoring startup CreditVidya has bagged nearly $5 Mn (Rs 32 crore) through fresh round of funding led by Matrix Partners India. Existing investor Kalaari Capital, which invested approximately $2 million last year, also participated in the round. As part of the pre-arranged deal, CreditVidya allotted 5,951 Series B compulsorily convertible cumulative preference shares and additional 100 equity shares to the investing companies. This is according to the documents filed with Ministry of Corporate Affairs. CreditVidya’s parent company will be using the fresh funds to introduce whole new gamut of anti-fraud and verification services under its existing big data underwriting…

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IBM and MIT university will be collaborating together to conduct a comprehensive research on Artificial Intelligence (AI) at a new state-of-the art lab. This new lab will be called The MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, and IBM will be investing nearly $240 million in this new lab over the span of 10 years. The mission of this new lab includes developing new AI algorithms, creating new sophisticated hardware for AI computation, developing AI that can be used for specific industries and evaluating the impact of AI on important social issues. As per the deal, the intellectual properties of all the…

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Finally (and I literally mean it) we’ve an app that aims not just to redefine but also revolutionize our viral video experience. There can be little argument over the fact that for too long we’ve been waiting for good video apps that can helps us in getting rid of those pretentious and fake viral videos going around the Youtube and our social media pages. After all, for how long are we going to live up with those half-hearted and hollow smiles. We all deserve real smiles and truly joyous moments. With these expectations, I logged into the world of Swish…

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Mazkara, which owns online salon platform Fabogo, has acquired Mumbai-based software firm BazingaLabs for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition deal is reportedly part cash and part equity. Mazkara said in an official statement that through this acquisition Fabogo will seek to leverage BazingaLabs’ expertise in mobile technology and thereby consolidate its presence among smartphone users. Fabogo is an online platform that enables users to find best saloons and spas in cities like Pune, Mumbai, Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. Its parent company Mazkara was incorporated by Prasanjeet Roy and Mohammad Ali in 2015. The parent company recently received third trench…

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Private equity investor True North and venture capital firm IDG Ventures India are planning nearly $20 million investment in ETechAces Marketing and Consulting (parent company of online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar), according to sources close to the matter. This investment is reportedly part of $78 million (Rs 500 crore) round led by asset management giant Wellington Management. This latest round of funding will apparently help PolicyBazaar in partly meeting the IRDA’S (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) investment criteria that mandates all Indian insurance companies to have 51% investment by domestic investors. True North and IDG Ventures have so far…

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It is no more raining funds for Indian startups. Since the mid-2015, funds have been hard to come by for most startup companies. Nonetheless, every week many promising startups still manage to win the faith of investors and this week was no different. What was special about this week was that quite a few healthcare startups managed to raise funds from investors. Here is a look down on all the startups that managed to rake up the funds this week. Curefit Raises Funds from Existing Investors    The first in our list is a well-known healthcare startup company that has been…

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Online drug seller 1mg has acquired online healthcare consultation platform Dawailelo for an undisclosed amount, according to statement issued by the company. After acquisition formalities are completed, the Dawailelo staff will report to 1mg COO Tanmay Saksena, the statement added. This is online drug seller’s fourth acquisition. Its last three acquisition includes multi-speciality e-hospital platform MediAngels, diagnostic e-commerce platform Medd.in and ayurvedic & homeopathic drug portal Homeobuy. With latest acquisition, 1mg is hoping to consolidate its presence in Tier II and III cities, region where Dawailelo has made a strong niche for itself. Since its inception in 2013, the Varanasi-based…

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Mfine, a yet to be launched doctor consultation startup, has bagged $1.5 million (Rs 9.58 crore) in its first ever funding led by Stellaris Venture Partners. The round also saw participation of seasoned healthcare entrepreneurs Mayur Abhaya & Rohit M.A. As part of the deal, Ritesh Banglani – a partner in Stellaris Venture – will join the board of Novocura Tech Health Services – the parent company of Mfine. Mfine was founded earlier this year by former Myntra employee Prasad Kompalli and co-founder Ashutosh Lawania. They were later joined by Myntra’s CTO Ajit Narayanan, while Bengaluru based neuro-radiologist Dr. Jagadish…

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A silicon valley based Saas startup Narvar Inc has acquired the Bengaluru headquartered logistic startup GoPigeon for an undisclosed amount. GoPigeon’s largest investor Nexus Venture Partners will become a shareholder in Narvar Inc following this deal.  Additionally, GoPigeon’s top management including CEO Deovrat Singh and the entire engineering team will join Narvar after all the necessary due processes are completed. Following the team integration, GoPigeon’s team will help Narvar in consolidating its operations in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific e-commerce market and in other critical markets. GoPigeon was incorporated by IIT Kharagpur alumni Deovrat Singh, Yeshu Singh, and Sourav Sarkar. The…

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Fintech startup Lendingkart has hired Mukesh Singh as its new CTO (Chief Technology Officer), according to statement issued by the company. An alumnus from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bengaluru, Singh previously worked in SaaS startup SirionLabs and had a brief stint in Bitzer Mobile ( later acquired by Oracle). Singh’s appointment is been seen as a part of Lendingkart’s ongoing overhaul of its top management. Last month, the Fintech startup hired Utsav Mehrotra – an ex- Axis Capital executive – as vice president of capital markets and Abhishek Arora (former executive at Dubai based e-commerce firm Souq) as vice…

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Budget hotel chain group Treebo Hotels has raked up $34 million (Rs 220 crore) through Series C funding round led by Hong Kong-based investment firms Ward Ferry Management and Karst Peak Capital, according to a statement issued by the company. The current investors SAIF Partners, Matrix Partners India, and Bertelsmann India Investments also invested in the round. A press note issued by Treebo said that the fresh funds will be used for improving customer experience, consolidating the brand image and in expanding its geographical footprints. Established in 2015, Treebo is one of the many players in the industry that is…

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