<ul><li>ShareChat has raised a total of $224 million, with the latest Series D funding of $100 million from Twitter</li><li>The platform is now looking at starting its monetization journey and is reaching out to brands that could advertise on its platform</li><li>The platform’s aim is to get every Indian on to the internet, to a social network of its choice where they can converse in a language they are comfortable in</li></ul>It’s been four years since ShareChat, India’s homegrown regional social networking platform came into being. The platform came into the limelight after it raised $100 million funding in Series-D from Twitter, bringing the total raised in funding to $224 million. The company that was founded in 2015 by CEO Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh, and Farid Ahsan, currently has a strong user base of 60 million. It hasn’t been making any money till now, because according to Sunil Kamat, Chief Business Officer, ShareChat, the platform was in the growth-hack mode. As the platform is now starting its monetization journey, it is not only reaching out to brands to partner with them but also planning a major hiring spree. It plans to expand its team from its current strength of 250 to 400 within the next three to four months. While they haven’t put a target figure to where they want to be in the next few years, Kamath shares that for them, the priority is to get more and more people onto the internet and present them with a platform where they are comfortable conversing and sharing their opinions. Edited excerpts: Q) It’s been four years since ShareChat started its journey. How has it been so far? We came into being four years ago, before the data revolution happened. Our journey has been pretty impactful till now. Our co-founders saw a gap in the social media landscape early on and saw a large opportunity for a regional social platform, and that’s where it all began. It's good to be early in the space and we are glad to be at the forefront of change because a lot of people are now trying to mimic our platform. It's a good feeling. Q) How big is the team right now, and how do you plan to scale it up? We will be hiring a lot of talent for the company across various units. Our strength is currently at 250, which we plan to scale up to 400 in the next four months. Q) You say you aren’t chasing targets right now. What are you in it for then? One thing that India has been missing is the ability to get everybody on board. For us, it’s about getting every Indian user to be on a social network of his choice and to make him comfortable with his language. What motivates us is the thought of bringing every Indian user to the Internet and thereby help improve his quality of life over a period of time. Q) What has your revenue model been so far? Our revenue model will be ad-based. Till now, we have been completely focused on growth. However, we are not in this for the short-tem. Our aim is to become one of the largest social networks in India, which means we will be heavily acquisition-based. Now that we have acquired users, it's good to open up to partners, to reach the audience. It's good for our audience too, as they have brands coming on board that they can interact with brands. We will end up building our own journey because it's always been that way for us. We never had parallel system to look up to. But people tend to replicate ShareChat’s journey which is overwhelming. Q) While you’ve been in existence for four years, you haven’t spoken about the platform too much. How have you been reaching out to your audience? Our audience belongs to the Tier II, III and IV markets, so we come up with a lot of regional communication. It's about who you want to communicate to. If I wanted to attract the investor community, I would talk to the mainline media. We are doing a lot of work in the regional side; we work with a network where we get access to regional print, television. However, now that we are starting to monetize the platform, you will see a lot more of us. We were in this growth hack mode all these years and didn’t have too much to talk about. We were just putting our heads together, getting the product fitment right, the initial engagement metrics in place and then scaling up with the acquisition of consumers and audience retention. That journey continues. Now we are aiming at accelerating the reach for the platform, getting people to know about ShareChat and build monetization opportunities for the platform, to see how we can get brands to engage with audiences because it’s a fairly new audience for them as well. Q) You have seen good growth in terms of your consumer base. What have you done right? As a platform, we are very data and insights driven. Since we are a User Generated Content platform, our consumers create content for other users to consume. So, a lot of our learning comes from our users. We see people behaving in a certain manner and modify our platform according to the needs of our consumers. We have a comment section on the platform where we observed people started asking for each other’s numbers and other details. Seeing this, we enabled a chat feature. We also observe the kind of content people are consuming on the platform. Sometimes, a nicely edited content might necessarily not do as well as another piece of normal content that people connect better with. So, these are the insights which we pick up. We unlearn and learn again and that's what keeps us going. Q) Going ahead, what will be your marketing strategy? A lot of our marketing will be focused on driving engagement for consumer on content. We will focus on encouraging consumers to use our camera feature. On the other side, we want to build monetization through brands and marketing channels. Q) Have you seen a lot of interest from marketers? We are still at a very early stage because we are just starting that journey now. I have met top FMCG brands and had amazing conversations. They are the ones who are giving us ideas about how they can use the platform. This is probably the first time that brands will have the ability to put up ads in 14-15 languages on a single platform. It's a challenge and an opportunity at the same time because I don't think digital agencies are equipped to run campaigns in more than a few languages. Q) Are you planning to expand to more languages? As a country, we have 22 official languages. We would love to evaluate a language on the basis of what it brings to the table, whether there’s a significant upside of that language. We have also done dialects like Rajasthani, Haryanvi and Bhojpuri because we are a very visual platform in terms of content. We recently brought in Urdu too. We are currently building a team of people who would be well-versed in these languages too, to be able to help consumers. We have teams for various languages and each of them has learning of their own language. What works in 'A' might not work in 'B' but could work in 'C'. So, they work independently, but there is a lot of common understanding of engaging content. Q) With this new round of funding coming in, what will your key focus areas be? The new round of funding hasn’t changed things much at our end. It's more of a financial transaction at this stage but with every round you raise, you become more responsible, towards your shareholders, and investors. So, we really have to make sure that we have very good stories.

ShareChat is growing its team from 250 to 400 as it moves to monetize its 60 million user base

<ul><li><keyword id="6358096" type="DEFINITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="snapchat">Snapchat</keyword> completes two years of its first office in India.</li><li>It has so far witnessed a daily user base growth of 100% for the past 5 quarters.</li><li>Snapchat’s parent company Snap Inc. plans to expand the app’s presence in India with increased hiring, content partnerships and hyperlocal experiences.</li></ul>Snapchat’s parent company Snap Inc. launched its first office in India in August 2019. It has so far reported an upward trajectory in terms of user base in India, a market which its chief executive Evan Spiegel once <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/snapchat-ratings-drop-to-one-star-on-app-store-after-evan-spiegels-poor-countries-like-india-comment/articleshow/58206334.cms">reportedly said “poor” for Snapchat</a>. In its recent June quarter earnings report, Snap <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/snapchats-records-highest-growth-in-users-since-going-public-in-2017/articleshow/84670141.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">reported </a>a global revenue of $982 million, more than double as compared to the previous year. Snapchat also registered its highest user growth to 293 million daily active users. Earlier this year, Snapchat revealed it has crossed 60 million users in India. “We’re experiencing more than 150% growth in daily active users over the last year and consistently we are in triple-digit growth rate five quarters in a row,” Nana Murugesan, managing director of International markets at Snap Inc. told Business Insider India in an interview. Murugesan did not reveal the current statistics for Snapchat’s user base in India, but added that the company had a “healthy growth” in the country and that India is a “significant part” of their global community. The company is also expanding its team in India to focus on local augmented reality (AR), TikTok-rival Spotlight, partnerships, market development, sales and creative strategy. “What you’re going to see is a significant doubling down of our commitment to India, whether it’s on the teams, on the community, on the partnership, we’re very pleased with our overall India story,” Murugesan said. Hyperlocal experiences Snapchat’s key focus in India is to create hyperlocal and culturally relevant experiences for users, according to Murugesan. It launched the third landmarker lens in India, which can be experienced at India Gate in New Delhi. Snapchat users who are nearby India Gate will be notified to point their camera at it, and the monument will be embellished with the tricolour. Snapchat’s landmarker lens lets users create AR experiences at select popular locations like the Buckingham Palace in London and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. In India there are three Snapchat landmarker lenses including the newly launched one at India Gate, and Gateway of India in Mumbai and Taj Mahal in Agra. The company also has dedicated AR lenses for different religious and cultural festivals in India. It also launched the language learning lens that aims to make learning Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, and Telugu easier for users. Snapchat’s language learning lens uses AR and machine learning (ML) to translate objects in real-time in different languages. The app is also available in nine Indian languages -- Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. Partnerships Adding to the company’s strategy of reaching every smartphone user in India, one focus area for Snapchat is partnerships. “Our strategy is to make Snapchat accessible across all smartphones out there,” Murugesan said. Earlier this year, Snapchat partnered with Sharechat to integrate Snap’s camera kit into the startup’s short video platform, Moj. There are 150 Snapchat lenses available on Moj so far. “We shared our augmented reality technology with Sharechat’s Moj, they integrated our technology into their camera. It’s been exciting to see all the momentum out of that. From our partner’s perspective, it’s been a very fruitful and exciting journey as we share Snap’s camera kit,” Murugesan said. A more recent partnership for Snapchat was with Google and Reliance Jio for JioPhone Next. The low-cost 4G smartphone jointly developed by Google and Jio will come with Snapchat lenses integrated into its camera. “What you’re going to see here is JioPhone Next, the camera that will integrate Snapchat’s augmented reality lenses, which will be highly customised for local Indian users. So the people can enjoy lenses which are at the core of Snapchat, in a very native way without having to do anything. That’s going to be a very interesting way for us to engage with a very large part of the Indian demographic,” Murugesan said. This partnership is being looked at as a way for Snapchat to tap into a wider demographic of early 4G smartphone users or those who upgrade from feature phones to 4G smartphones. Murugesan highlighted the fact that Snapchat’s core feature is AR which makes the app “pretty sophisticated” so the company needs to make sure that it works on just about any device and on any network condition. TikTok-rival ‘Spotlight’ Snap’s seriousness for the Indian market can be seen with the company bringing almost every new feature and product here. Earlier this year, it launched <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/advertising/ad-tech/news/spotlight-snapchats-answer-to-tiktok-and-instagram-reels-launched-in-india/articleshow/81532302.cms">‘Spotlight’</a>, its TikTok-rival, in India. Murgesan said that the company has been seeing a “healthy adoption of Spotlight” in India. Without giving details, he added that the $1 million a day fund has really helped with the adoption of Spotlight. Snap announced it will pay creators up to $1 million a day for using Spotlight based on the number of views the videos get. At Snap’s partner summit in May this year, the company said it paid creators over $130 million globally. It also made changes to the fund saying that creators will now be paid millions per month. “We have seen incredible creativity and growth on Spotlight this year, including a tripling of daily submissions quarter-over-quarter and an all-time high in the daily number of creators posting to Spotlight. We will continue to pay creators millions per month to anyone who makes the top Spotlight Snaps, which is primarily based on engagement and relative performance of Snaps,” Murugesan said. Content partnerships Another area Snapchat has focused on is content partnerships. It has so far partnered with 60 local channels from 32 different publishing partners. Content of different genres ranging from news to Bollywood, beauty, comedy, and art are displayed in the app’s Discover section. It also partnered with comedian Vir Das for a new comedy series ‘VirDas -The Most Epic Max Show’. Another <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/advertising/ad-tech/news/snapchat-launches-creator-shows-a-series-with-3-5-minutes-long-episodes-features-vir-das-and-anushka-sen-in-its-first-original/articleshow/83603487.cms">creator show</a> it launched was with Indian television actress Ansuhka Sen for a cooking show called “What’s On My Plate”. Snapchat also launched its first non-English Snap Original show ‘Phone Swap India’ which turned out to be a huge hit in India, according to Muregesan who credits the show’s unique concept as the reason behind it. Phone Swap is a reality dating show where the participants have to go through each other’s phones and decide whether they want to go on another date. This show was especially popular with India’s Gen-Z, which is also Snapchat’s core user group. “You will see us do more of these types of things. It was the first time we’ve tried something like this so you’ll probably see us doubling down on these kinds of concepts,” Murugesan added. In addition to Spotlight and content partnerships, Snapchat also launched customised games for users in India. It partnered with MoonFrog Labs to launch a custom version of Ludo Club, and it also made a localised game concept called “Dosa Dash” that is based on one of its popular games, ‘Ready Chef Go’. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/snapchats-records-highest-growth-in-users-since-going-public-in-2017/articleshow/84670141.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Snapchat records highest growth in users since going public in 2017</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/advertising/ad-tech/news/snapchat-launches-creator-shows-a-series-with-3-5-minutes-long-episodes-features-vir-das-and-anushka-sen-in-its-first-original/articleshow/83603487.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Snapchat launches Creator Shows, a series with 3-5 minutes long episodes; features Vir Das and Anushka Sen in its first original</a>

Snapchat to ‘double down’ on expansion in India as it witnesses over 150% growth in daily active users

<ul><li>The second edition of the <keyword id="12701966" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="burgundy-private-hurun-india" source="Orion">Burgundy Private Hurun India</keyword> 500 report featured <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>’s 500 most valuable companies with combined sales of $820 billion. </li><li>The highest amount of funding was received by edtech platform BYJU’s, according to <keyword id="3656834" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="hurun-india" source="Orion">Hurun India</keyword>. </li><li>As per the IVCA-EY Report, PE/VC recorded investments worth $8.3 billion in India in Q3 <a href="https://www.ey.com/en_in/news/2022/10/pe-vc-investments-and-exits-decline-by-69-percent-and-48-percent-respectively-in-3q22">2022</a>, declining 69% y–o-y. </li></ul>The second edition of the Burgundy Private <keyword id="1846161" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="hurun" source="Orion">Hurun</keyword> India 500 report featured India’s 500 most valuable companies with combined sales of $820 billion. While many large startups have raised public funds last year, many new-age companies also feature in the list of most valuable companies funded by private equity and venture capital investors. “In the long run, start-up value creation is going to significantly increase the velocity of companies entering the future editions of the Burgundy Private Hurun India 500,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher, Hurun India. He also added that public markets listing, which is considered a litmus test for valuations, has ended up becoming a poisoned chalice for a few. Some of the biggest value shedders in the list are start-ups such as <keyword id="161885" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="policy-bazaar" source="Orion">Policy Bazaar</keyword>, <keyword id="6357120" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="paytm" source="Orion">Paytm</keyword>, <keyword id="830092" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="zomato" source="Orion">Zomato</keyword> and Nykaa which lost 68%, 59%, 50% and 48% respectively in value since last year. “This trend is a clear indication that start-up valuations based on “2021 parameters” in private markets are up for a bumpy ride,” Junaid said. As per the IVCA-EY Report, PE/VC recorded investments worth $8.3 billion in India in Q3 <a href="https://www.ey.com/en_in/news/2022/10/pe-vc-investments-and-exits-decline-by-69-percent-and-48-percent-respectively-in-3q22">2022</a>, declining 69% y–o-y. Here are the 10 companies with the maximum funding by private equity and venture capitalists (PE/VC) investors, as per the Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 report. 1. BYJU's (2011) Total Funding: ₹47,680 crore BYJU’s is the only edtech company to feature on the list. In October this year, the decacorn laid off 2,500 employees to consolidate its businesses. The same month, it raised $250 million from existing investors. <ol><li><keyword id="6354720" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="ola" source="Orion">Ola</keyword> (2010) </li></ol>2. Ola (2010) Total funding: ₹41,110 crore The Bengaluru-based ridesharing company Ola was planning to launch its IPO this year but it has been delayed. Ola is among the 19 companies included in the transport and logistics industry by Hurun. 3. Paytm (2010) Total funding: ₹39,460 crore The Noida-based digital payments and financial services company ranked third on the list. In 2022, Paytm performed strongly on expansion of loan disbursement with reported<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/paytms-net-loss-widens-by-20-yoy-to-571-crore-in-q2-but-down-sequentially/articleshow/95369930.cms"> improvement</a> in earnings before interests, taxes, depreciation and amortisation. 4. OYO (2012) Total funding: ₹32,880 crore The Gurugram-based multinational hotel chain is the only startup from the hospitality industry to feature on this list. OYO has over 157,000 storefronts and its app crossed the 100 million download mark in 2021. 5. Swiggy (2014) Total funding: ₹29,600 crore Founded in 2014, the food-delivery start-up Swiggy ranked fifth on the list. The 8-year-old startup with headquarters in Bengaluru has already spread to 500 Indian cities. 6. Zomato (2010) Total funding: ₹20,550 crore The Gurugram-based food delivery startup Zomato, which took the sixth position on the list, witnessed a slew of resignations by top executives in 2022, including co-founder Mohit Gupta’s resignation. 7. Sharechat (2015) Total funding: ₹13,980 crore Founded in 2015, Google and Temasek Holdings owned Sharechat is an Indian social media enterprise based in Bengaluru. It also came up with alternatives to Tiktok in India, like Moj and Moj Lite. 8. Dailyhunt (2007) Total funding: ₹13,980 crore Coming under the media and entertainment industry, Dailyhunt is owned by VerSe Innovation. It raised $805 million in funding this <a href="https://yourstory.com/2022/04/funding-dailyhunt-verse-innovation-investment-local-language">year</a>. The content aggregation platform is available in 14 Indian languages and was founded in 2007. 9. Dream11 (2008) Total funding: ₹13,320 crore Dream11 is India’s first fantasy sports company to become a unicorn in 2019. Its co-founder <a href="https://twitter.com/harshjain85/status/1589609986677964800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1589609986677964800%7Ctwgr%5E39e7abf60b9ff6ace3d2ab2149125f463accc799%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wionews.com%2Fbusiness-economy%2Findia-dream11-co-founder-offers-jobs-to-people-fired-from-twitter-meta-and-others-533728">Harsh Jain </a>offered jobs to laid off employees at Meta and Twitter this year. Founded in 2008, the company deals with over 13 crore users playing fantasy cricket, football, hockey, handball etc on the platform. 10. PharmEasy (2015) Total funding: ₹13,150 crore PharmEasy is an e-pharmacy company founded in 2015 that sells medicines and medical essentials online. The Mumbai based company is the only company from the healthcare industry on this list. 11. Udaan (2016) Total funding: ₹13,150 crore Bengaluru based B2B e-commerce platform Udaan shared the tenth spot with PharmEasy. Udaan enables companies, especially small and medium enterprises, to sell their products online. Amid a startup capital crunch, it also raised $120 million in convertible notes and debt in October <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/amid-startup-funding-crunch-udaan-raises-120-million-and-plans-ipo-after-a-year/articleshow/95122956.cms">alone</a>. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/byju-oyo-ola-serum-swiggy-among-top-10-valuable-unlisted-companies-in-india/slidelist/95910460.cms">Serum Institute of India, BYJU’S, Ola, OYO among top 10 valuable unlisted companies</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/reliance-industries-emerges-as-top-company-in-terms-of-value-revenue-and-profits-in-hurun-2022-list/articleshow/95910143.cms">Adani may be the richest Indian but Ambani’s RIL retains the top spot on Hurun's list of most valuable companies</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/top-10-companies-based-on-highest-revenue-in-india-as-per-hurun-report/slidelist/95910204.cms">Top 10 companies in India with the highest revenue in 2022, according to Hurun</a>

BYJU’s, Zomato, Dream11 among India’s most valuable PE/VC-funded companies as per  Hurun

<ul><li><keyword id="9148173" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="pepper-content" source="Orion">Pepper Content</keyword> has raised $14.3 million in order to expand to the US-market.</li><li>It currently works with 2,500 customers such as Adani Enterprises, Hindustan Unilever, P&amp;G and others.</li><li>The company’s founder believes that their existing backers will make this international journey much easier given their existing network and expertise.</li></ul><keyword id="14146559" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="content-agency" source="Orion">Content agency</keyword> Pepper Content has raised a whopping $14.3 million (₹110 crore) in an attempt to expand to the US. The company currently runs its fill-stack content marketplace in India. Pepper Content’s Series A round was led by <keyword id="2828823" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bessemer" source="Orion">Bessemer</keyword> Venture Partners. Tanglin Venture Partners, Lightspeed and Titan Capital also participated in the round, along with seasoned global operators like Doordash’s Gokul Rajaram, OYO’s Ritesh Agarwal and Abhinav Sinha, Teachable’s Ankur Nagpal, Nutanix’s Dheeraj Pandey, Helion.vc’s Ashish Gupta, and CRED’s Kunal Shah. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Choosing US was a simple decision" comment="subhead" text="Choosing US was a simple decision">Choosing US was a simple decision</cmsannotation> The company will use the proceeds from this funding to expand its international operations, particularly in the USA. Usually, companies start their international operations from the Middle East or other countries in Southeast Asia because of their similarities with the Indian market. However, Pepper Content has decided to skip that market for exactly the same reason. <div type="ExtQuote" text="“Instead of fighting the same battle in a similar market across the world, we thought let's just go after the biggest market because if not now, one year after we will have to go after the US. So why not start with the US, get in those bigger chunkier pieces then expand globally.”" auname="— Rishabh Shekhar, the co-founder of Pepper Content, said in a conversation with Business Insider."></div> Another factor that motivated Shekhar to skip the Middle East and expand directly to the US is the “seamless acceptance” of its products during trials in the US market. The other reason for Pepper Content to go after the US market is the ability to earn in dollars that too in a market which is more focused on quality of content rather than the price, he explained. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="More services, more competition" comment="subhead" text="More services, more competition">More services, more competition</cmsannotation> Pepper Content — founded in 2017 by Anirudh Singla and Shekhar at the BITS Pilani campus — is a full-stack content marketplace (SaaS) that connects content creators to organisations that require content. The company claims to work with 2,500 customers such as Adani Enterprises, Hindustan Unilever, Procter &amp; Gamble (P&amp;G), HDFC Bank, CRED, Groww, SBI Mutual Funds. Google, Binance and Adobe. Along with the expansion to the US market, the company has also decided to introduce fresh services like graphic design, language translations, and video content creation. The new and existing verticals would pit Pepper Content against <keyword id="14146561" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="verbilo" source="Orion">Verbilo</keyword>, <keyword id="222017" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="webchutney" source="Orion">Webchutney</keyword>, <keyword id="14146562" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="99design" source="Orion">99design</keyword> and <keyword id="14146563" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="super-design" source="Orion">Super Design</keyword> in the US market. “What Salesforce has done for Sales, we will do for the content ecosystem,” both Singla and Shekhar said in a statement. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Shekhar says existing investors could make its US expansion easier" comment="subhead" text="Shekhar says existing investors could make its US expansion easier">Shekhar says existing investors could make its US expansion easier</cmsannotation> Shekhar also noted that their existing backers will make this international journey much easier given their existing network and expertise. “We have got the right people. And Bessemer is really big in [the] US, so we are already in contact with the US arm,” Shekhar told Business Insider. <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; table-layout: fixed; width: 468pt;" class="redcator-table-advance"><colgroup></colgroup><col /><col /><col /><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Investor </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Designation / Advantage </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Bessemer Venture Partners </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">The US-based fund had been a backer in LinkedIn, Pinterest, Shopify, Yelp and others </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Tanglin Venture Partners </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">The Singapore-based fund had invested in Jupiter, Rupeek, Open, Inshorts, Moglix </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Lightspeed </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">The US-based fund has invested in around 1,200 companies including Byju’s, OYO, ShareChat </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Gokul Rajaram </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Product and Business Helper at Doordash, Board Member at Coinbase and Pinterest </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Ritesh Agarwal </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">CEO of global budget hotel chain OYO </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Dheeraj Pandey </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Founder of Nutanix, Board Member at Adobe </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Ashish Gupta </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Founder at Helion.vc, Board Member at Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) </td></tr></tbody><tbody></tbody><tbody></tbody></table>Source: Pepper Content, Company websites "We firmly believe that the future of work is on-demand driven and we love the approach that Pepper is taking to build a powerful content marketing stack that helps startups and enterprises to work more strategically with expert on-demand freelance talent and enable workflows and collaboration tools to create great quality content,” Anant Vidur Puri, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, said. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/after-amazon-flipkart-reliance-and-tata-neu-indias-133-billion-ecommerce-market-may-be-too-little-for-a-fifth-player/articleshow/92062540.cms">After Amazon, Flipkart, Reliance and Tata Neu, India's $133 billion ecommerce market may be too little for a fifth player</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/physicswallah-is-indias-first-profitable-edtech-startup-up-here/articleshow/92056796.cms">YouTube channel to a billion dollar company — India’s first profitable edtech unicorn is here</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/deepinder-goyal-akshant-goyal-here-is-how-much-zomatos-dream-team-earned-since-october-2021/articleshow/92080767.cms">Deepinder Goyal, Akshant Goyal — here is how much Zomato’s dream team earned since October 2021</a>

INTERVIEW: Pepper Content skip the traditional Middle East route, heads directly for the US market

<ul><li>‘The lower the prices we achieve, the more we will sell,’ <keyword id="6429663" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ikea-india" source="Orion">Ikea India</keyword>’s Per Hornell said.</li><li>The company is planning to open stores in Delhi NCR and Bengaluru over the next few years.</li><li><keyword id="6371031" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ikea" source="Orion">Ikea</keyword> wants to attract 200 million customers in India over the next few years.</li></ul>Sweden-based furniture retailer Ikea, which opened its first store in Hyderabad in 2019, plans to go big in India with reduced prices and new stores in metro cities. Per Hornell, market and expansion manager of Ikea India, said that the company is looking at revising its pricing for some of its products even further to attract more customers. “We must find ways to always make sure that the price becomes as low as possible. The lower the prices we achieve, the more we will sell. We are working intensively with making sure that the furniture part becomes even more affordable,” he<a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/retail/ikea-to-slash-prices-to-boost-sales/articleshow/85575629.cms?utm_source=ETTopNews&amp;utm_medium=HPTN&amp;utm_campaign=AL1&amp;utm_content=23"> added</a> in an interview with The Economic Times. For starters, Ikea will see a 20% price reduction for nearly four dozen products. Mumbai, Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) and Bengaluru are among its top priorities and the company will open Ikea stores of different formats in each city in the next few years, Hornell added. Ikea, on Tuesday (August 24), announced the location of a new store in Kamala Mills in Mumbai. This store will be the third physical store that IKEA has opened in India. The store will be a much smaller store (around 80,000 square feet) compared to Ikea’s large format store (400,000 to 500,000 square feet) in Navi Mumbai opened in 2020. Globally, Ikea plans to open 50 new smaller format stores in top cities. Ikea’s physical stores in India <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; table-layout: fixed; width: 468pt;" class="redcator-table-advance"><colgroup></colgroup><col /><col /><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Location </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Launch </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Hyderabad </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">2019 </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Mumbai </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">2020 </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Mumbai city store </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">2021 </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Delhi, Bengaluru </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Yet to be announced </td></tr></tbody><tbody></tbody><tbody></tbody><tbody></tbody></table> Ikea, in a press note on Tuesday, mentioned that it wants to attract 200 million customers in India over the next few years. The company plans to take an omnichannel approach to accomplish this goal, under which it will sell to customers through both online and offline medium. The company already has e-commerce presence in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Bengaluru. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/swiggy-sharechat-byjus-lead-the-funding-race-as-indian-startups-raised-6-5-billion-between-april-and-june/articleshow/85583697.cms">Swiggy, ShareChat, Byju’s lead the funding race as Indian startups raised $6.5 billion between April and June </a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/royal-enfield-maker-eicher-motors-re-appoints-siddhartha-lal-as-md-amid-a-salary-hike-tussle/articleshow/85582376.cms">Royal Enfield maker Eicher Motors re-appoints Siddhartha Lal as MD amid a salary hike tussle</a>

Ikea products would now be cheaper in India

<ul><li>The company had raised $450 million in September 2021 and another $400 million now.</li><li><keyword id="4306161" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cars24" source="Orion">Cars24</keyword> has also increased its valuation from $1.8 billion to $3.3 billion in the last three months.</li><li>The company plans to go for an IPO in the next 18-24 months, Cars24 India CEO told Business Insider.</li></ul>Cars24 has raised $850 million in 2021, which is<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/byjus-swiggy-and-dream11-the-top-10-startup-deals-of-2021-that-raised-7-7-billion-overall/slidelist/88121451.cms#slideid=88121678"> as much as the capital raised by Dream11 this year</a>. Initial public offering (IPO)-bound PineLabs has raised $700 million this year, while ShareChat has raised $640 million. The Gurugram-based startup has also increased its valuation from $1.8 billion to $3.3 billion in the last three months, Cars24 has said. The latest round of fundraising by the Gurugram-based <keyword id="40524" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="used-car" source="Orion">used car</keyword> marketplace was a $400 million tranche led by Alpha Wave Global (formerly known as Falcon Edge Capital). Nearly $300 million of this capital was raised through equity, while the rest $100 million was debt. Prior to this, the company had raised $450 million in September 2021. Meanwhile, its peer <keyword id="1980082" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cartrade" source="Orion">CarTrade</keyword> Tech Limited has lost 41% of its value since its listing in September 2021 [check] and its market value has fallen to ₹4,120 crore ($54 million). Here’s an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/loss-making-cars24-is-worth-more-than-a-profitable-cartrade/articleshow/86158047.cms">explainer why the listed CarTrade</a> is trailing so far behind Cars24, which is also working towards an IPO. <div type="image" title="Used car marketplace Cars24 has raised as much as Dream11 this year to set up operation overseas" msid="88386009" hostid="261"></div> Cars24 will use the recently-raised capital to fuel its brand’s global expansion in the Middle East, Australia and Southeast Asia. Besides this, it also aims to further strengthen its foothold in India. “These markets are really a function of supply and demand. It was about, is there demand for used cars? Is it a crowded space in terms of players already in the use of space? And, we basically apply those filters to identify markets that we'd like to go up,” chief executive (CEO) of Cars24 India, Kunal Mundra, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/used-car-startup-cars-24-not-in-a-hurry-for-ipo-like-droom-and-cartrade-com/slidelist/87743891.cms#slideid=87743912">had previously told Business Insider</a>. Vikram Chopra, global CEO of Cars24, highlighted that Cars24 has some aggressive plans for next year. Founded by Vikram Chopra, Gajendra Jangid, Ruchit Agarwal and Mehul Agrawal, Cars24 allows customers to sell their old cars as well as bikes through their omnichannel network. A consumer can simply book an appointment with any of the Cars24 branches, visit the branch and sell a car in a single visit. The branches are available across 106 cities in India — including Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Meerut. It competes with other automobile ecommerce platforms like publicly listed-CarTrade and private companies like Droom and CarDekho, which are valued over a billion dollars. While Droom is going for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/droom-founder-explains-why-he-is-considering-a-us-ipo-and-where-he-intends-to-spend-the-money/articleshow/84917608.cms">an initial public offering (IPO)</a>, Cars24 plans to wait another 18-24 months. “In my mind, an IPO is always a means to an end, it is not an end by itself. The end goal for us is to really build the most incredible auto ecommerce company in the world. I think when the time is right, when we feel that it's the right time to go down that route, we'll look at it. That's kind of it's not a stake in the ground that we put,” Mundra said. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/how-do-rising-covid-19-cases-lead-to-a-fall-in-markets/articleshow/88385905.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Why is the stock market falling so sharply today?</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/razorpay-is-now-the-most-valued-fintech-startup-in-india/articleshow/88382493.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Razorpay is now the most valued fintech startup in India</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/razorpay-is-now-the-most-valued-fintech-startup-in-india/articleshow/88382493.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Razorpay is now the most valued fintech startup in India</a>

Used car marketplace Cars24 has raised as much as Dream11 this year to set up operation overseas

<ul><li>Google has invested in two short-video platforms in India on the same day – Glance which owns Roposo as well as DailyHunt’s parent company VerSe Innovations which runs Josh.</li><li>Interestingly, both Roposo and Josh offer content in local languages and are looking to cater to India’s Bharat users. </li><li>The investments come in from Google’s $10 billion fund – the same fund from which it has backed Reliance Jio.</li></ul>It looks like global tech giant Google is looking to take over the space left behind by the ban of Bytedance’s TikTok in India. Google has invested in two short-video platforms in India on the same day – Glance which owns Roposo as well as DailyHunt’s parent company VerSe Innovations which runs Josh. Interestingly, both Roposo and Josh offer content in local languages and are looking to cater to India’s Bharat users. During the Google for India event, the global tech giant announced a $10 billion investment plan for India, from which it had also announced a $4.5 billion funding in Reliance Jio. The company’s CEO Sundar Pichai had then said that one of the four areas where they will invest is in companies “enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own language, whether it’s Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi or any other”. “Still too many Indians have trouble finding content to read or services they can use confidently, in their own language. And this significantly limits the value of the internet for them, particularly at a time like this when the internet is the lifeline of so many people. This investment underlines our strong belief in working with India’s innovative startups towards the shared goal of building a truly inclusive digital economy that will benefit everyone,” said Caesar Sengupta, VP, Google in a statement. According to reports, Google was also in talks with another content and short-video platform Sharechat for a<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/google-is-reportedly-in-talks-to-acquire-twitter-backed-indian-social-media-startup-sharechat/articleshow/79381248.cms"> billion dollar buyout.</a> Roposo in numbers <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; width: 468pt; table-layout: fixed;"><colgroup></colgroup><col /><col /><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Monthly Active Users </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Daily Active Users </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">115 million (for Glance) </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">33 million </td></tr></tbody></table> Roposo is owned by Glance, which is a subsidiary of Indian unicorn InMobi. Glance has raised $145 Million from Google as well as its existing investor Mithril Capital. With the latest investment, the company aims to deepen its AI capability across Glance and Roposo, expand its technology team, launch services on the platform, and drive expansion in global markets Josh in numbers <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; width: 468pt; table-layout: fixed;"><colgroup></colgroup><col /><col /><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Monthly Active Users </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Daily Active Users </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">77 million </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">36 million </td></tr></tbody></table> The other investment from Google has come through for DailyHunt’s take on TikTok – the short video platform Josh. The news aggregator platform had launched Josh after the ban on TikTok in India, in 12 local Indian languages to capture the “Bharat” users, the term used for the next 200 million internet users in India. With this, DailyHunt’s parent company VerSe Innovation has crossed a valuation of over a billion dollars, making it the latest unicorn in India. DailyHunt has raised the funding from Google along with Microsoft and AlphaWave, a Falcon Edge Capital unit. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/google-microsoft-invest-in-dailyhunt-for-its-short-video-platform-josh-making-it-the-latest-unicorn-in-india/articleshow/79850804.cms">Google, Microsoft invest in DailyHunt for its short video platform Josh – making it the latest unicorn in India</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/cryptocurrency-exchange-coindcx-raises-13-9-million-funding/articleshow/79850829.cms">Cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX has raised $20 million since the pandemic broke out⁠ — the founder says he is hiring aggressively as volumes have tripled</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/this-man-spent-almost-50-lakh-let-go-of-his-3bhk-dream-to-run-a-rice-atm-for-the-needy-in-hyderabad/articleshow/79851856.cms">This man spent almost ₹50 lakh, let go of his 3BHK dream to run a ‘Rice ATM’ for the needy in Hyderabad</a>

Google invests in two Indian short-video apps on the same day – both of which offer content in local languages

<keyword id="6358070" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mumbai" source="Orion">Mumbai</keyword> maintains its top spot in Top 100 Emerging Ecosystems' list as Indian <keyword id="6362513" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Startups" source="Orion">startups</keyword> raise 12.1bn in first half of 2021. <keyword id="6354968" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="London" source="Orion">London</keyword> and New York are top cities globally to build a successful tech company outside of Silicon Valley Bangalore-Karnataka ranks 23rd globally while Delhi comes in at 36th in the top list London ranks highly for funding, talent, and connectedness in latest Global Startup Rankings by Startup Genome London tech firms raise record levels of investment in 2021, already more than the whole of last year London, Mumbai and <keyword id="6355033" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bangalore" source="Orion">Bangalore</keyword> have featured among the world's top <keyword id="3475004" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Startup-Hubs" source="Orion">startup hubs</keyword>, according to a comprehensive ranking of international startup hubs compiled by Startup Genome for its annual Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2021. Despite Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic, London maintained its second-place ranking tied with New York for the second year in a row. Bangalore also ranked in the top 30 global tech hubs (#23 globally) and Delhi made it into the top 40 list, coming in at 36th. Mumbai maintained its first position in the Emerging Ecosystems ranking (ecosystems in earlier stages of growth that have high potential to be global performers in the future), outperforming other fast-growing ecosystems in areas of funding, performance, market research and talent. Released to coincide with London Tech Week, the largest tech event in Europe, the report ranks the leading 140 startup ecosystems based on seven success factors including Performance, Talent and Connectedness. The findings revealed that London is the most attractive destination to set up a tech startup outside of Silicon Valley, with an overall ecosystem value of 142.7bn. London has risen up the league table in the last few years, climbing from number eight in 2012 when the first rankings were released to number two in 2020. Silicon Valley held onto the top spot this year while Beijing and Boston came in fourth and fifth respectively. The research shows that Indian startups raised 12.1 billion in the first half of this year, demonstrating the rapid growth of India as a global hub for tech and innovation. As of August 2021, India has produced 24 unicorns in 2021, including 6 in just 4 days in April. The city of Bengaluru and the surrounding state of Karnataka is also the world's 4th largest technology and innovation cluster and home to more than 400+ global R&amp;D centres. Alongside Mumbai, a number of other Indian hubs made it into the Top 100 Emerging Ecosystems' list, including Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad. The findings also revealed London is one of the best cities in the world for access to funding and quality and activity in the investment ecosystem (referring to the number of local investors, investor experience and their level of activity). London has already seen record levels of VC tech investment this year, with the UK capital's tech startups receiving 13.3bn in the first seven months (January to July), more than the 10.9bn raised in the whole of 2020. London's impressive start to 2021 has been boosted by major funding rounds for Revolut (800m), Checkout.com 450m) and Hopin (400m). Bangalore's ranking was also boosted by healthy access to growth capital, demonstrated by recent large funding rounds from food delivery platform Swiggy (1.3bn), social media company ShareChat (502m) and edtech firm Byju (460m). Compared with other international tech hubs, the research found that startups in London have access to deeper pools of capital, with an average seed round of 653k, ahead of the global average of 494k. London is currently home to over 1,370 VC firms - more than any other European city, providing access to a vast network of investors and a depth of capital in the ecosystem. A number of global investment firms have also increased their presence in London recently, with Index Ventures announcing a 3.1bn fund for European start-ups in July and the news that Silicon Valley based VC Sequoia Capital had expanded its footprint in the UK capital. London is also recognised for its world class talent pool, with the city ranking highly across the board for quality and access to Tech and Life Sciences talent. With four of the world's top ten universities located in or close to London, the city is home to 484k software developers as well as a high number of Life Sciences-focused universities and degree programmes. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said, London is a fantastic place to grow and scale a global tech business. We celebrate the diverse, international nature of our tech ecosystem and it is great to see our thriving start-up community being recognised in this report. London's tech sector has a pivotal role to play as we rebuild from the pandemic, and I am excited to be part of London Tech Week to discuss how our tech community can work with other start-up hubs to solve global challenges. In the face of Brexit and the global pandemic, London has demonstrated its resilience and proven itself once again to be one of the best places globally for tech innovations and start-ups. Janet Coyle, Managing Director Business Growth, London &amp; Partners said, India and London have shared strengths in technology, innovation and entrepreneurship and today's report findings demonstrate the abundance of opportunities for Indian tech companies looking to London for international expansion. For startups and high growth companies considering global expansion, London has access to high levels of funding, talent and customers all in one city. As one of the world's leading hub for innovation, there is huge opportunity for London to collaborate with other fast-growing startup hubs like Bangalore and Mumbai. JF Gauthier, Founder &amp; CEO of Startup Genome said, Entrepreneurs, policymakers, and community leaders in Asia have been working hard to build inclusive innovation ecosystems that are engines of economic growth and job creation for all. The Global Startup Ecosystem Report is the foundation of knowledge where we, as a global network, come together to identify what policies actually produce economic impact and in what context. While the US and China have long been considered the global superpowers for startups and tech, the pandemic has accelerated the democratisation of startups, and Europe is quickly cementing its position on the global stage. The report shows Europe accounts for 17% of the top 30 ecosystems this year, with London the only European city to make the top 10 list. Asian ecosystems also continue to rise in the rankings, with Tokyo (from #15 to #9), Seoul (#20 to #16), Shenzhen (#22 to #19), Bengaluru (#26 to #23), and Hangzhou (#28 to #25) moving ahead. Poppy Gustafsson, Founder and CEO at Darktrace, said, At Darktrace, we are proud to be building on the UK's rich heritage in tech and innovation. Being part of the UK's tech ecosystem affords us access to a vast network of investors, researchers and talent and has been instrumental in building a successful AI business and - in particular - advancing our leading position in Self-Learning AI. I'm thrilled to be an ambassador for London Tech Week, a fantastic opportunity not only to celebrate the UK's achievements thus far, but to drive our industry forward. The release of the latest Global Startup Ecosystem Report coincides with London Tech Week, bringing together the global tech community to address how tech can solve some of the world's most pressing challenges. Key speakers throughout the week include Hilary Clinton, former US Secretary of State, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Co-founder &amp; CEO at Klarna, Alex Mahon, CEO at Channel 4 and Maria Raga, Founder &amp; CEO at Depop. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/defense/news/a-tata-group-company-will-make-40-airbus-c-295-transport-aircraft-out-of-the-56-ordered-by-the-indian-air-force/articleshow/86473896.cms">A Tata Group company will make 40 Airbus C-295 transport aircraft out of the 56 ordered by the Indian Air Force</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/banks/news/how-good-is-indias-bad-bank-likely-to-be/articleshow/86473488.cms">OPINION: How good is a bad bank likely to be?</a>

Mumbai, Bangalore and London Named among World's top Startup Hubs

<ul><li><keyword id="6485927" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="realme" source="Orion">Realme</keyword> 9i 5G Starts at ₹14,999</li><li>The smartphone is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 810 5G SOC</li><li>Realme 9i 5G packs in a 5000 mAh battery with 18W flash charging</li></ul>Realme launched the 9i 5G - the 5G ready variant for the existing budget smartphone <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/realme-9i-smartphone-review/articleshow/89659079.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Realme 9i</a> . The brand's success with its numeric line-up is strong in its portfolio. After all, it’s the under ₹20,000 price bracket where you see the most action. The 9i 5G is an attempt to reintroduce a successful product with better SoC and other cosmetic changes. But is it enough to garner your attention? I tell you that in my in-depth review. Price &amp; Availability The Realme 9i 5G is available in 2 variants. A base variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage is available for a price ₹14,999. Then there is another variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage available for ₹16,999. You can buy the Realme 9i 5G from Flipkart &amp; Realme’s D2C website. Design <div type="image" title="Realme 9i 5G has a premium in-hand feel" msid="93641396" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Realme 9i 5G has a premium in-hand feel&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Realme 9i 5G doesn’t take a leap from the original 9i’s design, but there are some cosmetic changes that differentiate it from its predecessor and make it stand out. Like the flat-edged sandwich design. The curves are gone that we saw on the original 9i, and the 5G variant looks more premium. I personally like flat-edged designs, not only does it provide a better grip, but looks better as well. The 9i 5G is also fairly lightweight at 187 grams, and despite its big size, the phone is easy to carry. It’s also very slim at 8.1mm, given it packs in a 5000 mAh battery. <div type="image" title="The 9i 5G sports a flat edged design which makes it easy to hold" msid="93641350" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The 9i 5G sports a flat edged design which makes it easy to hold&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Realme is playing on the colour treatment on the 9i 5G. This new CD design is inspired by the theme of this year's MET Gala. Fashion is not my strong suit; maybe that’s why I am not a big fan of this Metallica Gold colour. It’s a bit over the top for my taste. But as they say, looks are subjective, so I took an opinion from my peers. It was a 50-50, with half of them liking it, and the rest were not very impressed. The back is plastic and registers a serious amount of smudges combined with the gold colour scheme that sometimes spoils the look of the smartphone. 9i 5G is also available in a soulful blue and rocking black colour, which I found to be much more subtle and appealing. That will be my suggestion if you are planning to get this device. <div type="image" title="Metallica Gold color retains noticeable smudges" msid="93641449" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Metallica Gold color retains noticeable smudges&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Where the brand has truly succeeded is in the treatment of the camera modules. There is no protruding camera bump here, instead, it’s a clean and minimalistic layout with the three sensors. Other design characteristics check all the boxes you expect from a device in this price range. On the right side of the device, you will find the power button doubling up as a fingerprint sensor. It’s worth mentioning that it is very snappy for a budget phone, as it registers and unlocks the phone in a jiffy. So far, I haven’t found a need to press the power button to unlock the device, a simple tap does the job. On the left side, you will find the volume rockers. <div type="image" title="There is a 3.5mm headphone jack on the device" msid="93641475" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;There is a 3.5mm headphone jack on the device&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> On the bottom, you will find a USB Type-C charging port, a speaker grill, and a microphone. Right next to them is a headphone jack. Yes, the beauty of this price segment is the having these endangered features. On the top left, you will also find the SIM card slot. This is a 3-in-1 unit that supports 2 Nano SIMS and a Micro SD card. Unfortunately, the device has no official IP rating, which is not surprising given the price point. So yes, you need to be careful with the device around water. Display <div type="image" title="There is a 6.6-inch FHD+ display on the 9i 5G" msid="93641493" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;There is a 6.6-inch FHD+ display on the 9i 5G&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Realme 9i 5G features a 6.6-inch display with FHD+ resolution (2400x1080p). While the display is big, I am not a big fan of the teardrop notch. More so because we get a punch-hole treatment on the regular Realme 9i. This is a bit of a downgrade, in my opinion Apart from this, the display performs like a standard LCD panel, as one might expect. It is adequately bright with 400 nits of peak brightness, but viewing the display outdoors can be a struggle, especially with text. Otherwise, it’s a good screen if you like to watch videos on your smartphone as it produces vivid colours and ample details - a favourable setting for watching movies on it. It’s worth noting that it doesn’t support HDR content on streaming applications. Yet, I would say that this is a good display at its price and will not disappoint you. Unfortunately, there is no always-on display option here. Where Realme truly surprised me was the refresh rate on the panel. It peaks at 90Hz, but that’s not it; it features an auto-select feature. This feature allows the smartphone to switch refresh rates between 60 and 90Hz as per what’s happening on the screen. I switched between gaming, web browsing, and social media apps and did not feel any sudden shift in visuals like animations. Realme UI software <div type="image" title="9i 5G runs on Android 12 with Realme UI skin" msid="93641639" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;9i 5G runs on Android 12 with Realme UI skin&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The Realme 9i 5G edition runs on Android 12 with Realme UI skin out of the box. My previous experience with Realme UI had prepared me for what to expect. Yes, the bloatware. The usual suspects like MX TakaTak, Josh, and ShareChat are here. These apps can be uninstalled, but removing them is just one extra step you need to do when you boot up a brand-new device. After getting rid of them, the actual user experience is intuitive. Realme UI is one of the better skins in the market today. The colours and app icon designs pop out and should pander to a minimal and flashy audience. <div type="image" title="bloatware on the UI stands out like a sore thumb" msid="93641655" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;bloatware on the UI stands out like a sore thumb&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> There are basic options, like switching to dark-colour themes. You can also go full custom by choosing from the set of themes available on board. There is a buffet of options from cookie dough to a party. For me, however, the default skin did the job. Then there are other usual features like multi-window that comes in handy on the 6.5-inch panel. Additionally, there are also flexi-windows on the phone, which are basically floating windows. You can pin an application on the display while working on another application. I often pounded the calculator and calendar on the floating window, which added to my productivity. There is also a smart sidebar, giving you a shortcut for apps. This is also customisable. Realme has also promised two years of Android updates and three years of security updates on the 9i 5G. This actually does add to the longevity of the phone. Performance Realme 9i is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 810 5G chipset. This is what differentiates this device from its 4G avatar. The 5G variant definitely outperforms the 4G sibling powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chipset. If we strictly go by the Geekbench (benchmarking software) numbers, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 SOC’s single-core score is 372, while the multi-core score is 1552. The performance in the 5G variant is increased, with a single-core score of 601 and a multi-core score of 1781. This is not a substantial increase with respect to performance but it does put things in perspective. <div type="image" title="Geekbench score for Realme 9i 5G" msid="93641701" hostid="261" sizebytes="8142" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Geek bench score for Realme 9i 5G&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Coming to my user experience now. In my four days of usage, the 9i has been satisfactory. The device has cut through almost all the tasks I have thrown at it. Starting with everyday duties like emails, calls, and social media - this device can handle most of it. Since my unit is still fresh and not loaded with tons of files, there are no lags, but these devices tend to lose the freshness after a few months of usage, especially if you are an aggressive user. The variant with me packs in 6GB of RAM, which is more than enough to handle all the tasks if you are a light user. Coming to performance-hungry tasks, the phone takes a soft blow. Case in point gaming - you can’t expect a device of this nature to give you blown-out performance in gaming. And it does not. During my sessions of call of duty, the game was set on a respectable - HD setting for the best performance. There were no serious frame drops, and the device does its job well for a fun half-hour gaming session. But if you are a serious gamer who spends at least an hour, you will notice heating and, eventually, frame drops. To churn out better performance, you can tap on the RAM expansion. 9i 5G lets you expand the internal RAM by 5GB. There is a notable performance boost for gaming memory, but the graphic capabilities remain the same. The internal storage on my review variant is 128GB which is enough for most consumers. I strongly recommend this variant if you plan to go for the 9i 5G. It offers you more internal storage and better RAM. Battery performance on the 9i 5G is satisfactory. The 5000 mAh battery should last a day and a half if you are a light user. On working days, when I wasn’t on Youtube or watching short videos, the phone would not die. As expected, the battery life drops with constant content consumption. In this situation, you would have to plug the device in by the end of the day. <div type="image" title="9i 5G supports 18W flash charging" msid="93641741" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;9i 5G supports 18W flash charging&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> With the 18W fast charge support 9i 5G takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes to go from 0 to 100%. This is with active internet connection. This might feel like a long time, but then devices in this price bracket usually don’t go beyond 18W fast charging. Camera There is no on-paper change in the camera setup for the Realme 9i 5G from the original 9i. A 50MP primary camera with phase detection autofocus is paired with a 2MP macro sensor and a 2MP depth sensor. <div type="image" title="primary camera performs decently under natural lighting conditions" msid="93641828" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;primary camera performs decently under natural lighting conditions&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The camera output has not substantially changed, but the processing speed has a significant bump thanks to the new SOC. <div type="image" title="HDR in images is well maintained for brighter frames" msid="93641942" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;HDR in images is well maintained for brighter frames&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The daylight shots from the camera retain great amounts of detail, and it does tone down on the post-processing I noticed on other Realme offerings. Like the Realme 9 Speed edition. <div type="image" title="Lack of an ultra-wide sensor pains when trying to cover a bigger room" msid="93641999" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Lack of an ultra-wide sensor pains when trying to cover a bigger room&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> I noticed some over-saturation in images, especially when clicked in low or artificial lighting conditions. But nothing that would spoil your picture. The night mode on the camera puts out better results than regular clicks. It retains a tad bit better details and makes the images less grainy. Unfortunately, there is no ultra-wide sensor on the 9i 5G. Which I feel would have added some serious value to the device. What we get in its place is a 2MP depth sensor. Portrait shots on the smartphone are decent, with satisfactory edge detection. They don’t feel super crisp, though, something we see on Samsung Galaxy F23 available in the same price range. <div type="image" title="The dedicated depth sensor provides neat edge detection" msid="93642445" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The dedicated depth sensor provides neat edge detection&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> <div type="image" title="Night mode increases the brightness of the frame but loses out on details" msid="93642159" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Night mode increases the brightness of the frame but loses out on details&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The 2MP macro sensor is the weakest link. Macro shots from the sensor are bad, failing to retain detail. So it feels more like a gimmick of having this. If you are patient with it, this might get some usable photos in daylight. <div type="image" title="Macro shots lose detail and there is a change in color tone" msid="93642414" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Macro shots lose detail and there is a change in color tone&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> In terms of video performance, the 9i 5G can record 1080P &amp; 720P videos. It holds up well for casual videos, but if you are a content creator, then the quality might not suit your requirement. Here I would like to mention that the audio recorded on the video feed is crisp. In the front, we get an 8MP AI selfie camera. This is not the 16MP sensor we get on the regular 9i. The performance was in-line, though. Images were under-saturated, and skin tone was a miss. As expected here as well, you get multiple filters. The AI beauty selfie retains its classic features. It lets you retouch your facial features. From nose size to cheeks. So if you like such features, you are in for a treat. <div type="image" title="Portrait selfies have decent edge detection but the shadows are off" msid="93642193" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Portrait selfies have decent edge detection but the shadows are off&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Verdict Realme 9i 5G does not come with substantial changes compared to the regular 9i. However, if I look at it strictly as a 5G device, it is a solid choice in this price bracket. It’s priced lower than its siblings, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/realme-9-speed-edition-smartphone-review/articleshow/90145143.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Realme 9 Speed Edition</a> and regular Realme 9, yet offers a similar experience. If you are on a tight budget and want a future-proof device with 5G compatibility, then you can consider the 9i 5G. You will get a device with a premium build, a catchy eye design, stable everyday performance and enough power for some light gaming or prolonged instagram sessions.

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