News Roundup: 11 Indian Startup News Of The Week [13 -18 Nov]

We bring you the weekly dose of important Indian startup news of the week.

The prime newsmaker of this week in the Indian startup ecosystem was Reliance Jio who is working with corner stores, or ‘kiranas’, and consumer brands to create an operational model that will enable shoppers to buy at neighborhood shops using digital coupons via its Jio Money platform or text messages. As per sources, a pilot project involving several stores and leading brands is underway at Mumbai, Chennai, and Ahmedabad and a larger rollout is likely next year.

Another important Indian startup news in the ecosystem was Myntra bet on its network of neighbourhood stores to bolster its last-mile deliveries. The fashion portal has been aggressively scaling its network of kirana stores under the MENSA Network programme and has partnered so far with more than 2,000 family-run grocery stores and small shops across the country.

Also, both Myntra and Jabong have entered the Indian toys segmentwhich is worth $400 Mn. While Myntra has joined hands with online seller Primarc Pecan Retail as an exclusive partner, Jabong has partnered with the UK-based toys retail chain Hamleys.

Amazon India Doubled Authorised Capital

Amazon India almost doubled its authorised capital to $4.74 Bn (INR 31,000 Cr), matching its earlier capital commitment of $5 Bn made in June last year. The funding commitment closely follows remarks made by Amazon Worldwide Consumer CEO Jeff Wilke that Amazon is not bothered by the huge losses the ecommerce company faced in the international markets including India in the last quarter.

Paytm Enters Lending Space

ICICI Bank has partnered with Paytm to launch a short-term, interest-free credit line aptly called Paytm-ICICI Bank Postpaid. The alliance will enable Paytm to offer instant loans to customers under its “Buy Now Pay Later” scheme.

Swiggy Launches Swiggy Access; Zomato Launches Zomato Gold

This is another interesting news in the Indian startup ecosystem. Swiggy Access will allow restaurant partners to set up kitchen spaces in areas where they do not have a physical presence. It will also help Swiggy to efficiently address the gaps that currently exist in the restaurant supply chain.

On the other hand, Zomato Gold is an exclusive dine out and social drinking membership program. The Zomato Gold was offered first in the markets of UAE and Portugal earlier this year. With Zomato Gold, the members can avail complimentary meals and drinks at 1200+ curated restaurants across Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru and can also get exclusive invitations to food & drinks events.

Facebook Begins Trial Of Marketplace In India

From November 16 onwards, people in Mumbai will soon start seeing a Marketplace tab where they will be able to see buy/sell listings within a predefined radius, a service similar to players like Quikr and Olx. With this India becomes the 26th country to get the feature, which comes a year after it was first launched in the US.

Virgin Hyperloop One To Study Viability Of Superfast Routes In Karnataka

Virgin Hyperloop One will be working with partners in the region and KUDD will help navigate the regulatory requirements and support the report with data. Virgin Hyperloop One will also work upon connecting the high growth cities such as Tumakuru, Hubli-Dharwad, and Hosur within the state.

Indian Government Partners MapmyIndia To Digitise Physical Addresses

This one is another important news which gained the attention of the Indian startup ecosystem. MapmyIndia has launched a pilot project- eLocations aka eLoc – to digitally map the physical property addresses in association with the Department of India Post. With this, the Indian government aims to further evaluate the idea of easing the address location process and then provide possibilities to link them to other information such as property title, property tax records, available utilities, etc.

Find the complete list of all the startup news from last week →