<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/48512836.cms" /> Hyper-local logistics startup <keyword id="3004068" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Shadowfax">Shadowfax</keyword> has received an investment of about $300,000 in an angel round led by Indian entrepreneurs such as <keyword id="219793" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Kunal-Bahl">Kunal Bahl</keyword> and <keyword id="396598" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Rohit-Bansal">Rohit Bansal</keyword> of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Snapdeal">Snapdeal</a>, Zishaan Hayath of <keyword id="2385607" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Powai-Lake-Ventures">Powai Lake Ventures</keyword>, and <keyword id="289857" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Prashant-Malik">Prashant Malik</keyword> of Limeroad. 
 
 “We believe that improving the existing state of last mile delivery and hyperlocal logistics would enable all future business growth. At Shadowfax, we are looking to build India’s most formidable, credible and fastest merchant delivery service,” Abhishek Bansal, co-founder and CEO of Shadowfax, said in a statement on Monday. 
 
The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Gurgaon">Gurgaon</a>-based company has invested in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=technology+">technology</a> that uses multiple modes of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=communication+">communication</a> to provide relevant solutions. It employs integrated GPS tracking functions and algorithms in its product to improve the efficiency of the network. 
 “We have incorporated several features that leverage our proprietary end-to-end capacity planning algorithm to put the merchant directly in touch with the rider, geo-location for tracking orders, rider route planning, and order coupling,” said <keyword id="1308709" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Vaibhav-Khandelwal">Vaibhav Khandelwal</keyword>, CTO and co-founder, Shadowfax. 
 
Since its launch in May 2015, Shadowfax had an average delivery volume processing of about 3,000 orders a day and 120-150 outlets that are currently utilizing its service for last mile delivery in the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Delhi-NCR+region">Delhi-NCR region</a>. The growth of the company has been driven through referrals. 
 
“We have already created a niche for our services in Delhi-NCR and are looking to strengthen our present team of 35+ employees and 350+ riders and expand into 10 more cities within the next one year,” said Abhishek. 
 
He added: “We have opted for a partial crowd-sourced model, where anyone who wishes to be a rider can join our rider pool. However, every rider is imparted vocational skill based training before deployment.” 
 
Shadowfax charges its customers on a pay-per-delivery model based on distance and required service quality. It provides merchants a flexible, technology-driven framework incorporating features such as automatic rider scheduling, seamless app communication, instant feedback, geo-based tracking, and location-based rider allocation. 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

Shadowfax gets funding from Snapdeal founders! Raises about $300,000

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/47812798.cms" /> 
Indians are experiencing entrepreneurial revolution in the country. With funds and support coming from all corners of the globe, and Tatas and Ambanis showing interest in startups, one can easily say that Indian entrepreneurs are having a gala time. 
 So when we met Prateek Agarwal, founder, BiteClub.in, who left his high-profile job with <keyword id="1960231" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Housing-com">Housing.com</keyword> to pursue his dream of opening up an exclusive ‘restaurant in the cloud’, we weren’t surprised. What amazed us was the concept—we all have imagined owning a home in the cloud at some point of our life, but the thought of owning a kitchen (or in this case a restaurant) never crossed our minds. However, what inspired Prateek to open a ‘restaurant in the cloud’ i.e. a virtual restaurant was his passion for good and healthy food; something that he missed the most while living alone in Mumbai. And when Prateek, along with his friends, Aushim Krishan and Siddharth Sharma pulled in passionate chefs from various fields on a revenue sharing agreement, <keyword id="2898226" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bite-Club">Bite Club</keyword> was born. 
 
Bite Club: It’s different? Carrying certain traits of both a restaurant and a Tiffin service, Bite Club is not conventionally just another food service platform. Instead, it is a technology and logistics platform that sources its food from various home chefs and professional chefs, and then delivers it directly to the consumers. The good things about this platform are: a wide variety of cuisines, daily changing menu and a native app across all platforms- Android, <keyword id="75489" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="IOS">iOS</keyword> and Web that helps customer order a guilt-free hearty meal in just three taps. The bad thing is: we didn’t really get the chance to taste its offerings so can’t really say how good the food is, but their idea is certainly delicious! 
 
Tasting the power of crowdsourcing Prateek’s first success came with a seed funding of $250,000 (Rs 1.5 crore) from <keyword id="2385607" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Powai-Lake-Ventures">Powai Lake Ventures</keyword> and a few other investors. They could have set up a physical restaurant, but this IIT alumnus decided to leverage the power of crowdsourcing because: one, he wanted good food to reach all and not only selected few; two, he wanted people to know a bit about the chef who would be preparing a meal or them; and three, it also open room for more innovations and variety. 
 
So, how Bite Club really does all this: It has built a community of 100+ chefs spanning home chefs, recipe bloggers, ex- restaurateurs, professional chefs who are all taking their cuisine to a large number of people via Bite Club’s platform. Marketing, order management, packaging and delivery for the chef are Bite Club’s responsibility. 
 
Good food no longer a luxury 
A majority of times, people in metro cities end up spending exorbitant amounts for the food they consume, which is mostly unhealthy with no guarantee of freshness or novelty. Bite Club aims to address this problem by giving them a choice to the get delectable and appetizing food made with fresh produce. And for those, who miss home-cooked meal prepared by their moms as they struggle for a living in an unknown city, there are 80+ women partner chefs on the Bite Club platform. Most of these women are housewives who the company claims make more than Rs 80,000/month through them. We don’t know how valid their claim is, but even if women are earning half of this amount per month, then surely Prateek is also giving wings to other entrepreneurs in the country. And this, we believe, is not a bad beginning at all! 
(Image: Bite Club)

​An ex-Housing.com employee is now serving a gastronomical treat to India

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/53208343.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" />A 6-feet female <keyword id="6392350" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Crocodile">crocodile</keyword> spotted near the entry gate of Ganesh immersion ghat adjoining the IIT-Mumbai boundary wall left Mumbaikars shocked last week. 
 An activist who spotted the crocodile later informed media that the dangerous animal could have used a makeshift road made by <keyword id="1234437" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="BMC-workers">BMC workers</keyword> who has been engaged in clean-up and beautification work at the <keyword id="536956" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Powai-Lake">Powai Lake</keyword>. 
<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/53208350.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /> 
 
The road was created due to silt being collected on the banks by the workers who ignored the possibility that crocodiles could use it to stray out of the lake. Also a stretch of land was formed because of debris being dumped here that was not cleaned by BMC over the years. There are 40 crocodiles in Powai lake. 
 
The incident has raised security concerns and infuriated activists who are blaming BMC for destroying the crocodile habitat and ignoring safety of the citizens. 
 Meanwhile, civic body officials have identified the two areas from where the crocodiles can venture out, and have dug up two trenches near <keyword id="61708" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="IIT-Bombay">IIT Bombay</keyword> campus. 
 Activists are now warning Mumbaikars to stay away from the lake, more so because <keyword id="6439882" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="monsoons">monsoons</keyword> will lead to water level rise and crocodiles may stray out again. 
 
Meanwhile, warning boards have also been put up suggesting that the lake has crocodiles and people should not venture close to the water body.

A 6-ft Crocodile found
dangerously close to IIT Mumbai campus wall leaves Mumbaikars shocked

Mumbai, July 5 (IANS) Heavy rains continued to batter coastal Konkan Maharashtra, including Mumbai, for the third consecutive day on Sunday, and the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued high alerts for the next two-five days, officials said. As incessant rains pounded the city, Mumbai's Powai Lake started overflowing on Sunday noon. The famed picnic spot of Bhushi Dam in Lonavala (Pune district) also started overflowing after three days of rain in the region, bringing cheers to the locals. Over the weekend, the entire Konkan belt and parts of western and northern Maharashtra received good rain, and upbeat farmers got busy with the sowing season. The South-west Monsoon, which usually hits Mumbai around June 10, was disturbed owing to the Cyclone Nisarga that hit Raigad on June 3. After over a three-week delay, Mumbai finally got the first monsoon showers and the past three days seemed to make up for the season's early deficit. On Sunday, Mumbai received 8-10 cm rain. Based on satellite and radar images, fresh heavy rainfall warnings had been issued for the Maharashtra and Gujarat coasts, said IMD Deputy Director-General K.S. Hosalikar. Heavy overnight rain also saw water-logging in several parts of Mumbai, including Chembur, Kings Circle, Sion, Dadar, Parel, Goregaon and Malad. The IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy rain over the next three days (till July 7) in Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg (till July 9), and similar conditions over the next two days in Pune, Nashik, Dhule, Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Satara and Kolhapur. Fishermen have been advised not to venture into the Arabian Sea due to strong winds along the coast and in the high seas, and 3-4.1 metres high waves off the Maharashtra and Goa coasts over the next five days (till July 9). --IANS qn/pcj

Rain clobbers Maharashtra, high alert in Konkan

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/53077363.cms" /> 
Online fashion rental platform Flyrobe has raised around $1.7million in seed funding led by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Sequoia+Capital&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Sequoia Capital</a>. The deal was closed last year and the official announcement is expected to be made later this month. 
 
Biggies from the startup industry including <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Snapdeal&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Snapdeal</a> founders <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Rohit+Bansal+&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Rohit Bansal </a>and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Kunal+Bahl&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Kunal Bahl</a>, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">FreeCharge</a> founders Sandeep Tandon and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Kunal+Shah&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Kunal Shah</a> invested in this round. The filings show Zishaan Hayath, co-founder of Powai Lake Ventures, and Abhishek Jain, former associate director at Temasek Holdings Advisors India were the other investors 
. 
What’s so special? Mumbai-based Flyrobe is an on-demand apparel rental platform that offers premium designer wear and branded outfits on rent. The company has joined hands with designer labels like Outhouse, Masaba Gupta, <keyword id="667" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ritu-Kumar">Ritu Kumar</keyword> and Shehla Khan. 
 
Who are these people? 
Omapal Technologies, the company that runs Flyrobe was founded in September 2015 by IIT Bombay alumni Shreya Mishra, Pranay Surana and Tushar Saxena. The founders – Sh 
reya Mishra, Pranay Surana, and Tushar Saxena have come together over the belief that ‘shared economy’ in fashion can work wonders. 
 
Before starting Flyrobe, Mishra was working as an analyst with Everstone Capital, Surana has earlier worked as a senior analyst at Deutsche Bank and Saxena was earlier chief technology officer at Triptainment Technologies. 
 
Troubled times for Sector 
The apparel rental space has been facing tough times recently. Ethnic market-place, Craftsvilla <a href="http://www.vccircle.com/news/technology/2016/04/28/ethnic-products-marketplace-craftsvilla-buys-clothing-rental-startup" target="_blank">acqui-hired</a> women clothing rental platform F2SO4 and Bangalore-based online apparel rental platform Klozee <a href="http://techcircle.vccircle.com/2016/05/13/online-apparel-rental-platform-klozee-shuts-down-co-founders-join-livspace/" target="_blank">closed</a> operations. 
 
Others startups operating in this space include Revamp My Closet, which was also recently acqui-hired by Spoyl, another online platform. 
 
Big Money to be made, apparently 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=PricewaterhouseCoopers&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">PricewaterhouseCoopers</a> estimates the global sharing economy will grow from $15 billion today to $335 billion by 2025. However, its yet to pick up big time when it comes to apparel. Transportation, accommodation, and food and beverages sectors are doing better. 
 
Flyrobe estimates the fashion rental market, including western and ethnic wear is worth $4-5 billion today. 
 
Rental economy picking up? 
In India, the idea of rented apparel has been reserved to graduation, fancy dress competitions and theme parties. 
 
However, as large scale immigration to bigger cities across the country picks up, investor interest too is growing. Back in November, furniture rental company <a href="https://www.rentomojo.com/" target="_blank">RentoMojo</a> raised $2 million in funding and Klozee raised a seed round from TracxnLabs and angels in August. 
 
<a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/photo/51891607.cms">Image Source</a>

This unique online apparel rental
portal just raised one of the largest funding rounds in recent times

According to an education survey conducted by HSBC, <a href="http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/minorityview/indian-parents-have-very-high-expectations-about-their-childrens-education-and-careers/">educating their children is the ultimate goal of 51% of Indian parents</a>. So, it is not surprising that education is the next front on the horizon of the entrepreneurial Indians leading to the emergence of many interesting edtech concepts. 
 Most of the <keyword id="2989202" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="edtech-startups">edtech startups</keyword> comprise faculty pool, <keyword id="6379645" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Online-education">online education</keyword> material and technology working in tandem. Most of them cater to various sections of the student community, ranging from schoolchildren to working professionals and budding entrepreneurs. 
 
While there is some focus on tuition for school-going children, others help in cracking entrance tests, and a few others focus on providing professional certification courses. Indian education system has come a long way from classroom education to redefining the way children are taught, and these edtech <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/topic/Startups">startups</a> are responsible for this revolution. 
 
<h3>
	<a href="http://www.embibe.com/">Embibe</a></h3>
Embibe is an online portal that consists of a team of entrepreneurs, who help students to get coaching for various entrance examinations like JEE, AIIMS, AIPMT, CET and many more. Founded by an ex-TCS employee, 33-year-old Aditi Avasthi, wanted to change the way students prepared for competitive exams. 
 
At present, Embibe boasts of over one million student users. Last year, this edtech venture raised $4 million from early-stage investor such as Kalaari Capital and Lightbox. 
 
<h3>
	<a href="http://www.careerguide.com/">CareerGuide</a></h3>
<h3>
	CareerGuide is an edtech platform targeted to provide answers to all the career related queries of an aspirant. They have a marketplace of renowned career experts from various fields and a student can connect instantly to get their query resolved.</h3>
How it is different than the other players? Well, Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be the answer. CareerGuide boasts of an AI-led algorithm that connects students with the best possible career guidance expert based on their query. Further, their psychometric assessments help students in figuring out their true aptitude, interest, motivation and personality to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/6-Tips-To-Landing-A-Job-At-A-Startup/articleshow/27654867.cms">take informed career decisions</a>. CareerGuide has most definitely emerged as the one of the hottest names in the edtech business as of now. 
<h3>
	<a href="http://www.vedantu.com/">Vedantu</a></h3>
<h3>
	Looking for a personalised teaching while you sit at home? Vedantu, the live online tutoring edtech company, is conceptualized to bring personalization back into education where a teacher will teach according to the requirement, pace and level of a student and the student will interact with the teacher online.</h3>
The founders claimed the existing teaching system to be “institutionalized and generalized”, which quite possibly was the motivation behind this concept. 
 
According to Vamsi Krishna, cofounder and CEO, “The current system is teacher-centric and learning happens, predominantly, one-way. We want to change that.” 
 
Vedantu raised a $5 million from Accel Partners and Tiger Global Management last year in May. 
<h3>
	<a href="http://www.edukart.com/">EduKart</a></h3>
<h3>
	EduKart is an online entrance coaching site that caters to the needs of almost every individual. Apart from courses for high school students appearing for various competitive examinations, the company offers undergraduate and post graduate courses for everyone who seeks help in management, engineering, medical, civil services, business, Law, and various other interesting courses.</h3>
The startup acquired $1 million funding from Holostik Group’s United Finsec, Yuvraj Singh’s YouWeCan Ventures, 500 Startups, and a bunch of other investors in June ‘15. EduKart projected 5x growth for themselves last year. 
 
<a href="http://www.upgrad.com/">UpGrad</a> 
 
If you are a working professional and want to upgrade your skill set, UpGrad is the place for you to explore. This startup offers online higher education programs for working professionals. With a highly experienced faculty forming academia advisory board, this company provides one-to-one academic and non-academic support for all its students by providing them with live projects, case studies, group assignments, access to live lectures and interactive content and many more. 
 
“With UpGrad, we aim to revolutionise the online education industry by bringing credibility and scale. The response to our first course is a strong validation that we are on our way of achieving our vision,” said UpGrad founder Ronnie Screwvala. 
 
<h3>
	<a href="http://www.toppr.com/">Toppr</a></h3>
<h3>
	This super-interesting edtech firm focuses on giving training to students aspiring for IIT JEE, pre-medical and also the foundation courses (starting from class 8) for various competitive examinations. They provide the students with unlimited practice tests along with learning material and students’ doubts will be answered personally on live chat.</h3>
 
Till date, Toppr has raised $12.2 million in three funding rounds from four investors, such as Fidelity Growth Partners India, Helion Venture Partners, SAIF Partners, InnoVen Capital India and Powai Lake Ventures. 
<h3>
	<a href="http://www.wiziq.com/">WizIQ</a></h3>
<h3>
	WizIQ believes in delivering high impact online teaching and training through mobile apps by making virtual classrooms possible. Their online academy builder includes live classes, integrated cloud storage, mobile learning, tests and assignments and many other interesting features.</h3>
Hailed as the 'best virtual classroom provider' at the World Education Congress, one should expect a promising 2016 from WizIQ. 
 
<h3>
	<a href="http://www.iprofindia.com/">iProf India</a></h3>
<h3>
	iProf claims to be India's biggest Tablet PC based education content delivery company and digital education library that offers “smarter way” of studying through its advanced android based application that works on offline mode (without internet connection). Their USP is their content, which can be accessed both online and offline via pen drives, memory cards, tablet PCs in a secured and scalable environment.</h3>
iProf has raised $15 million in total funding through Series A &amp; B rounds from Daily Mail Group Information, IDG Ventures India and Norwest Venture Partners – NVP. 
 
In a nutshell 
 
The Indian edtech market is pegged at over $70 billion by 2017. The space breakup is estimated with higher education sector closing on 50 per cent, K12 at 40 per cent, and coaching/tutoring taking up 10 per cent. These emerging and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Top-10-Indian-startups-that-are-going-places/articleshow/49090916.cms">successful startups</a> are surely creating an impact and are making their presence felt. Books cannot be updated real time but these start-up can push updates on an app and this can be distributed to millions with no incremental cost which makes edtech definitely one of the most exciting sectors in the Indian consumer market. The funding battleground could perhaps change the face of this sector as well. 
 
(The article has been authored by <a href="https://plus.google.com/+UtkarshSahu9?rel=author">Utkarsh Sahu</a>, a digital strategist with over three years of writing experience for business magazines, such as Business Insider, Huffington Post, Tech Radar, etc. He admires technology with paradigm-shifting attributes, and digital marketing, social media and content are his current beat. An analytics enthusiast, he likes to break down key performance drivers of a robust digital marketing campaign. You may connect with him on <a href="https://in.linkedin.com/in/utkarshsahu9">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/UtkSahu">Twitter</a>.) 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

You Searched For "Powai Lake Ventures" and got 6 results

Shadowfax gets funding from Snapdeal founders! Raises about $300,000

BI India Bureau

An ex-Housing.com employee is now serving a gastronomical treat to India

Richa Sharma

A 6-ft Crocodile found dangerously close to IIT Mumbai campus wall leaves Mumbaikars shocked

Anushree Singh

Rain clobbers Maharashtra, high alert in Konkan

IANS

This unique online apparel rental portal just raised one of the largest funding rounds in recent times

Saikat Pyne

8 Indian Edtech startups to watch out for in 2016

Guest Author

You Searched For "Powai Lake Ventures" and got 6 results

Shadowfax gets funding from Snapdeal founders! Raises about $300,000

BI India Bureau

​An ex-Housing.com employee is now serving a gastronomical treat to India

Richa Sharma

A 6-ft Crocodile found dangerously close to IIT Mumbai campus wall leaves Mumbaikars shocked

Anushree Singh

Rain clobbers Maharashtra, high alert in Konkan

IANS

This unique online apparel rental portal just raised one of the largest funding rounds in recent times

Saikat Pyne

8 Indian Edtech startups to watch out for in 2016

Guest Author

An ex-Housing.com employee is now serving a gastronomical treat to India