<ul><li><keyword id="25725" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ronnie-Screwvala">Ronnie Screwvala</keyword>, who is a well-known name in Bollywood, and an entrepreneur who created a media conglomerate, has also set up a strong base in the Indian startup ecosystem.</li><li>He set up the edtech firm upGrad in 2015.</li><li>But even before that, Screwvala has been an active investor in Indian <keyword id="6362513" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="startups">startups</keyword> through his firm <keyword id="1126175" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Unilazer-Ventures">Unilazer ventures</keyword>.</li></ul>It seems like there’s no stopping Ronnie Screwvala, the media mogul and entrepreneur. Screwvala, who set up the media and entertainment company UTV Motion Pictures and sold to Disney for a whopping ₹2000 crore, went on to found another production house RSVP Movies in 2014. In recent years, RSVP has produced movies like The Sky is Pink, Kedarnath, Ghost Stories and more. But Screwvala’s popularity is not just limited to Bollywood; he has also set up a strong base in the Indian startup ecosystem. Along with being the co-founder of the edtech firm upGrad, he has also long been an investor in the startup ecosystem, having set up an investment firm – Unilazer Ventures. Here’s a look at how Ronnie Screwvala has solidified his startup presence Screwvala set up Unilazer ventures in 2012, after selling his stake in UTV. Since then, the investment firm has gone on to bet on over 30 Indian startups. Unilazer Ventures focuses on early-stage startups across sectors. Some of Screwvala’s investments <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; width: 468pt; table-layout: fixed;"></colgroup><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;">Lenskart </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;">Lido </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;">Easypolicy </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;">Niki.ai </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;">DailyObjects </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;">Arré </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;">Total Environment </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;">Career Guide </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;">EkStop </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;">OyeLife </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;">Premier India Football Academy </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;">ZipDial </td></tr></tbody></table> The latest to join the list of investments from Screwvala is the celebrity fan engagement portal TrueFan. The six-month-old startup founded by Nimish Goel, Nevaid Aggarwal, and Devender Bindal has raised $4.3 million in seed funding by investors like Ronnie Screwvala, Mayfield India, and Saama Capital. “When Nimish approached me on TrueFan, three things struck me: firstly, any product driven by technology is going to soar in the 2020 decade. Secondly, this is the perfect blend of gamification meets media meets content. Thirdly, the simplicity of the idea allows the product to seep through the wide, Indian user-base. For me, it is ideas like these that will really stay the course,” said Screwvala in a statement. Unilazer Exits Unilazer has marked three exits already, with its invested startups being acquired. <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; width: 468pt; table-layout: fixed;"></colgroup><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;">Startup, sector </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;">Acquired by </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;">Shopclues, e-commerce </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;">Qoo10 </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;">Micro Housing Finance Corporation, fintech </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;">Svatantra </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;">Zivame, e-commerce </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;">Reliance </td></tr></tbody></table> Building upGrad The five-year-old startup upGrad has made a mark in the edtech sector. The higher education platform claims to have impacted over half a million people globally and has collaborated with universities like IIT Madras, IIIT Bangalore, MICA, NMIMS Global Access, Jindal Global Law School, Duke CE, Deakin University, Liverpool John Moores University, and others. With the coronavirus lockdown boosting online learning, the startup now expects a ₹1,200 crore annual run rate with profitability. The startup also expects a 100% increase in repeat enrollments in the portal. “Last quarter around 15% of the revenue booked, has been solely driven by repeat purchase and evangelism by our existing alumni. As we scale our program portfolio and continue our alumni engagement initiatives like advanced certification program, exclusive leadership webinars, personalised career mentorship, regular community newsletters, subject-specific newsletters, we expect around 4000 enrolments to come solely through our alumni in the form of repeat purchase and referral this year,” Screwvala said about their growth plan, recently. upGrad’s latest funding was a ₹50 crore debt fund from IIFL Asset Management. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/meet-the-worlds-richest-in-100-billion-club-jeff-bezos-bill-gates-bernard-arnault-mark-zuckerberg/slidelist/77781044.cms">Meet the world’s richest in $100 billion club - Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Bernard Arnault, Mark Zuckerberg</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/audi-rs-q8-suv-pictures-price-features-specification-and-other-details/slidelist/77778282.cms">Inside pics of the new Audi RS Q8 — The most powerful SUV coupe in Audi’s fleet</a>

Ronnie Screwvala’s investments range from edtech to e-commerce and media

Founded in April 2014 in <keyword id="6357722" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="silicon-valley">Silicon Valley</keyword>, <keyword id="2947589" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Droom">Droom</keyword> has taken a completely innovative and disruptive approach to build trust and offer pricing advantages for cars, bikes, choppers and yachts. The online marketplace offers a great experience in buying and selling automobiles. With its technology driven marketplace approach, Droom enables transactions between buyers and sellers by bringing transparency, building trust, and mitigating information asymmetry. 
 Founded by <keyword id="197061" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sandeep-Agarwal">Sandeep Agarwal</keyword>, the mastermind behind Shopclues.com, the startup looks promising as it is also funded by some of the leading global venture investors. 
 
Not just that. The start up dealing in both new and pre-owned cars has a swanky office in Gurgaon. With a great work place culture, the office looks quirky yet elegant. Also the amazing office culture includes a company sponsored bachelor party if you are tying the knot. 
 
Let’s check it out.

This
start up dealing in preowned cars, choppers and yachts has an amazing workplace
culture. Check out their Gurgaon office

India is increasingly seeing a host of ingenious <keyword id="138263" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="startup">startup</keyword>s. While some may say the startup bubble would burst soon, as long as the money’s coming, the party’s on. 
 
Business Insider India ranks the top 10 most promising Indian <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=startup">startup</a>s. 
 
P.S: Flipkart and Snapdeal are excluded from the list as they’re too big to be considered ‘<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=startup">startup</a>s’ now. 
 
1. <keyword id="6362049" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ola-Cabs">Ola Cabs</keyword> 
Online taxi aggregator Ola is giving <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Uber">Uber</a> a hard time over who gets the biggest pie of the Indian market. This Mumbai-based startup has grown exponentially since it bought off rival <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=TaxiForSure+">TaxiForSure </a>for $200 million. 
 
2. <keyword id="6357120" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="PayTM">Paytm</keyword> 
What more do you need if you have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Alibaba">Alibaba</a> supporting you! <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Paytm">Paytm</a> has expanded from online recharge to become an online marketplace. While it’s retail business is a fraction of Amazon, Flipkart or Snapdeal, it’s undeniably the jack of all trades. 
 
3. <keyword id="1960231" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Housing-com">Housing.com</keyword> 
Housing.com has been in recent news for all the wrong reasons. However, with an aggressive marketing campaign and ambition to tap into global real estate business, investors clearly see a lot of muscle in the company’s claims. 
 
4. <keyword id="6381424" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Quikr">Quikr</keyword> 
This online classifieds website is doing pretty well. In April 2015, the company raised a whopping $150 million from Tiger Global and Steadview Capital Management among other existing investors. Valued at $1 billion, the company has also rolled out its special Quikr Cars ad campaign with Ranvir Singh. 
 
5. Mu Sigma 
This Bangalore-based analytics firm clearly breaks the list of internet-based startups. This one offers analytics to major companies across the world. 
 
6. InMobi 
This company, founded in 2008 is fighting against the likes of Google and Apple in the mobile advertising segment. The startup already has 750 million users across 160 countries. 
 
7. Zomato 
Zomato sits at top of the host of food tech startups India has seen. Its international expansion plans and venture into food ordering and transportation has ensured its leadership in the food-tech space. 
 
8. Zivame 
Zivame offered a niche choice for an already under-served segment. The unavailability of sizes, social discomfort and poor market penetration ensured Zivame.com took the market by storm. 
 
9. RedBus 
RedBus has made a mark on consumer minds, thanks to it’s targeted marketing campaigns and differentiation. Of course, it has now been sold off to the Ibibo group for a whopping $138 Million. 
 
10. ShopClues 
 
Founded in January 2011, Gurgaon-based ShopClues has big names like Tiger Global, Nexus Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners backing them up.

Top 10 Indian startups that are going places

<div type="image" msid="56596796" hostid="261"></div>

 
 <keyword id="4058296" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="harshwardhan-zala">Harshwardhan Zala</keyword> is a 14-year-old student who isn’t just another teenager figuring out his life. This child prodigy from <keyword id="6354766" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gujarat">Gujarat</keyword> has just signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) worth Rs 5 crore with the state government at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, recently. 
 
Harsh, who is a Class 10 student, has designed a smart solution using which drones can not only detect but also diffuse landmines on war fields, saving many lives in the process. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/exclusive-shopclues-predicts-how-the-e-commerce-space-will-turn-out-in-2017/articleshow/56592792.cms">ALSO READ: Exclusive: Shopclues predicts how the E-commerce space will turn out in 2017</a> 
 The teenager has built three prototypes to clinch the deal with the <keyword id="154380" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="department-of-science-and-technology">Department of Science and Technology</keyword> in Gujarat. 
He is very efficient too, as he has spent about Rs. 5 lakh in building his prototypes and has also named his own company, ‎Aerobotics7 Tech Solutions. 
 
The drone solutions that the boy has been working on are outfitted with an infrared sensor, thermal meter and an RGB sensor with a 21-megapixel built-in camera. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/why-e-commerce-companies-focus-on-fashion-to-become-profitable/articleshow/56521828.cms">ALSO READ: Why e-commerce companies focus on fashion to become profitable</a> 
 
During a war, the army can potentially send these drones to survey minefields, pick up the locations of landmines, and submit their findings to the base-station remotely and the drones can also bomb landmines they spot. 
 
He also has very supportive parents that keep encouraging him in his scientific inventions. They spent Rs. 2 lakh to fund his first two prototypes before the government decided to help him. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/exclusive-app-relied-on-by-investors-shows-that-paytm-clearly-lead-the-e-wallets-pack-in-december-2016/articleshow/56519390.cms">ALSO READ: Exclusive: App relied on by investors shows that PayTM clearly lead the e-wallets pack in December 2016</a> 
 With the future looking so bomb, he might just be the innovator that <keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="India">India</keyword> has been lacking for some time now.

Meet Harshwardhan Zala, aClass 10 student making drones for the Gujarat government

For startups to grow they must garner funds from investors; and to gather funds, startups need to have a robust product-market fit along with a promising team and a solid business plan with the potential to scale. Then comes the role of angel investors and <keyword id="6357097" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="venture-capital">Venture Capital</keyword> (VC) <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> that usually surfaces when larger amounts are required to grow a business. 
 Lately, major <keyword id="982553" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-startups">Indian startups</keyword> have seen a tremendous boost from venture capitalists. To start with, we saw how Tiger Global Management, Softbank Corp., Morgan Stanley, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, IDG Ventures India and SAIF Partners managed to support promising Indian startups like that of Flipkart, Snapdeal, Ola, Zomato, ShopClues, Urban Ladder and many others. Moreover, it is not only the bigger firms who are eyeing VC funds, relatively younger and smaller firms like OYO Rooms, Swiggy and Grofers have also joined the race. 
 Apart from ruling the e-commerce and fashion industry, <keyword id="153868" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="VC-funding">VC funding</keyword> is now gradually moving into other sectors too, such as agriculture, healthcare and education. As per the data from the upcoming Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF), which is all set to launch the Wharton India Startup Competition (WISC) with over 500 entries, though majority of applicants (around 25%) belong to the e-commerce industry, the healthcare segment is not far away with around 22% applicants. Moreover, most of the participating startups already have pre-seeded and seeded funding arrangements and around 31% of them have listed themselves as social enterprises. 
 
The ecosystem for VC funding for Indian startups would be discussed at length at the Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF). WIEF is a two-day event starting from January 6, 2017, which will bring together the best entrepreneurs, investors, distinguished Wharton faculty, students and inspirational speakers. Attendees will not only have numerous opportunities for interaction and networking across the board but will also witness in-depth discussions in terms of understanding the evolving business landscape in India and the need for business model innovation from the government, various industry leaders, and distinguished Wharton faculty. 
 
The relevance of this summit doesn’t end there. It is also known for hosting the Wharton India Startup Competition (WISC) which is giving Indian startups the opportunity to present themselves in front of an esteemed panel of judges and also win cash prizes of over $25,000 and unparalleled mentorship of up to 4 months from some of the most renowned names in the industry on strategy and funding. The jury for WISC comprises top-notch personalities with the likes of Bharati Jacob (Co-founder of Seedfund), Nipun Mehra (Investor at Sequoia Capital India), Rehan Yar Khan (Managing Partner of Orios Venture Partners), Tarun Davda (Managing Director of Matrix Partners), Aditya Nair (Investor at Nyca Partners), Ajay Hattangdi (CEO India &amp; Group COO of InnoVen Capital Group), Ankit Shah (Vice President at Unilazer Ventures), Sameer Verma (Director &amp; Junior Partner of Nexus Venture Partners), Saurabh Joshi (Strategy Manager at PayPal) and Shantanu Gangal (Head – Analytics at Fundbox). Also, past finalists of this prestigious event includes names such as Ketto, Haptik, Zoomcar, Zostel, Targeting Mantra, Qlicket, Samaan and Ambitioni. 
 
Needless to say, such competitions and summits go a long way in not only promoting upcoming startups but also in educating the audience and the participants regarding the funding scenario. Not many seem to be aware about the types and rounds of funding, the know-how of VC funding and even the right way to go about securing such funds, hence this is surely going to be one the most-sought after events at the start of the next year. 
 
(Image Credits: Thinkstock) 
 
(About the Author: This article has been authored by Aman Jain, Chairperson WIEF 2017)

How VC Funding Fuels the Indian Startup Ecosystem

<ul><li>India’s new e-commerce rules may be a setback for global players like Amazon and Flipkart. </li><li>The biggest beneficiary will be large Indian retailers and the largest of them all is Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail. </li><li>While his physical stores benefit from less pricing pressure, his e-tail venture will get a level playground to fight established giants, at no extra cost. </li></ul>E-commerce in India is gearing up for some <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/indias-new-e-commerce-policy-has-rivals-flipkart-and-amazon-teaming-up-to-counter-the-new-directive-and-the-republic-day-sale-will-probably-be-their-last/articleshow/67366996.cms">massive changes</a> from February 1. Foreign e-commerce players — like Amazon and Flipkart — will no longer be able to offer consumers ‘deep discounts’ or sell their own brands through their respective platforms. It’s a big blow to Jeff Bezos’ and Walmart, and not the best news for consumers in India. Local vendors are voicing their support for the new policy, hoping they can regain some market share, without having to lose more money by offering discounts. 
	
	
	
	
	
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 However, the biggest beneficiary of the new policy may not be a broke Snapdeal or the now-jaded Shopclues. It is likely to be India’s <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/e-commerce-wars-amazons-jeff-bezos-vs-mukesh-ambani-in-india/articleshow/67620116.cms">largest retail chain operator</a> Reliance Retail, owned by Mukesh Ambani — the richest man, not only in India, but in Asia. The facts Physical retailers — with the brick-and-mortar stores— are the immediate benefactors. The new rules are expected to boost sales for offline vendors by taking away the discounts available to consumers online. CRISIL estimates that it could increase revenue for offline retailers by ₹100 billion to ₹120 billion by 2020. Just as the loss of business for e-commerce is the gain for retail chains, the advantage is usually with the larger players in the space — because of the sheer scale, reach and resources at their disposal. And the largest of them all is Reliance Retail. “The impact on e-tailers would be largely in the electronics and apparel segments, which account for a bulk of their revenues,” says Anuj Sethi, the senior director at CRISIL Ratings. Coincidentally, 34% of Reliance Retail’s revenue comes from its electronics arm — Reliance Digital. It’s also the largest holder of foreign brand licences for apparel in India. Some of its top brands include Diesel, Hamleys, Kenneth and Steve Madden. Reliance Retail’s offline avatar served 3.5 million customers a week through 9,146 stores across 5,800 cities as of September 2018. Brokerage house CLSA further estimates that the company’s revenue may grow nearly 12-fold to $138 billion in the next 10 years. 
 
 
 
 
 
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 If CLSA’s estimate were to come true, Reliance Retail alone will be making over a quarter of all revenue from retail — both online and offline — in India, expected at about $550 billion, in the next decade. The timing There is no doubt that online retail still has a lot of potential in India. Nasscom and PricewaterCoopers (PwC) estimate that the market will balloon to $150 billion by 2022. Online players still make for <a href="https://www.livemint.com/Industry/9iUxlQZ4iHwPiXRKscx3LK/Indias-ecommerce-market-to-grow-30-to-200-billion-by-202.html">only</a> 3% of the total retail market in India, and the prospects are still huge. So for Mukesh Ambani, as the chairman of Reliance Industries, it’s an unavoidable opportunity. One part of Reliance Retail— the apparel brand Ajio — is already online. Now, he is looking to expand the offerings beyond apparel, with a pilot programme in the state of Gujarat. Before Ambani’s entry, Amazon had <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/amazon-takes-the-fight-to-walmart-by-investing-another-27-billion-in-india/articleshow/65404423.cms">invested over $4.7 billion</a> in India over the last six years, primarily because it identified the potential of a market with a population of nearly a billion and half people. For the same reason, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/indian-unicorn-flipkarts-board-approves-15-billion-deal-with-walmart/articleshow/64027810.cms">Walmart bought Flipkart</a> in 2018 for a whopping sum of $15 billion, paying a heavy premium for joining the game late. Over the years, Amazon, Flipkart and other early birds have burnt billions of dollars giving discounts, getting people used to shopping online and creating a market. Then, the government revised its policy on foreign direct investment (FDI) in e-commerce on December 26, 2018, changing the rules of the game, which would bring the likes of Amazon and Walmart on a level playing field with new entrants. Less than a month later, Mukesh Ambani took the stage at the investor summit Vibrant Gujarat and unveiled his plan to expand his online retail business. The government’s new e-commerce rules are essentially trying to protect India’s retailers — including Reliance Retail — from the deep discounts offered by e-commerce giants. That is how Ambani’s physical stores gain. What’s more, as a new entrant to e-commerce, going against established players with equally deep pockets, Ambani will not have to burn money through discounts. In fact, he is not allowed to. He gets a level-playing field to fight established giants like Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart, at no extra cost. The spin Ambani had his own spin on why the change in rules was justified. "In this new world, data is the new oil. And data is the new wealth. India's data must be controlled and owned by Indian people and not by corporates, especially global corporations,” Ambani said at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in January 2018. He was alluding to the fact that two biggest e-commerce companies in India are owned by foreigners, and they have access to priceless data on Indian consumer behaviour. Even people from the government echoed the ‘nationalistic’ spin to the story that Ambani offered. “We don’t want to build walls, but at the same time, we explicitly recognize and appreciate that data is a strategic asset,” Aruna Sundararajan, the nation’s secretary of telecommunications said last year at a press conference. The other view can be equally convincing to Ambani’s critics. John Elliott, the author of “Implosion: India’s tryst with reality” begs to differ. “The idea that Reliance is any safer at protecting Indian people’s data than Amazon or Walmart is ludicrous,” Elliott told Business Insider. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/indias-new-e-commerce-policy-has-rivals-flipkart-and-amazon-teaming-up-to-counter-the-new-directive-and-the-republic-day-sale-will-probably-be-their-last/articleshow/67366996.cms">India’s new e-commerce policy has rivals Flipkart and Amazon teaming up to counter the new directive — and the ‘Republic Day’ sale will probably be their last</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-indian-government-just-dealt-a-serious-surprise-to-amazon-and-flipkart-heres-what-that-means-for-online-shoppers/articleshow/67272151.cms">The Indian government just dealt a serious surprise to Amazon and Flipkart — Here’s what that means for online shoppers</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/e-commerce-wars-amazons-jeff-bezos-vs-mukesh-ambani-in-india/articleshow/67620116.cms">Amazon's newest challenger may be the richest man in Asia</a>

Mukesh Ambani may be the surprise winner from India's new rules hurting Amazon and Walmart

Companies and startups are ready to raid engineering and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=B-school+">B-school</a> campuses across India this placement season, adding to the fierce war for talent already raging between large e-Commerce companies and established old-world recruiters. 
 
The startups which are looking for fresh talents include ShopClues, LocalOye, Urban-Clap, PropTiger, Indus Insights, MyRefers, CodeNation, Embibe, Jombay, Lybrate and ShadowFax. 
 
Moreover, a survey of 11 startups suggests they will step up overall <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=campus+hiring+">campus hiring</a> to 770 students from the Class of 2016 compared with only 250 that they hired from the last batch. 
 
Bulk of this hiring will be across top engineering colleges and B-schools, including Indian Institutes of Technology, National Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management. 
 
Don’t be disappointed if you are not studying in the above mentioned institutes as a handful will also recruit at leading undergraduate colleges including Shri Ram College of Commerce, Lady Shri Ram College and St Stephen's, and design schools such as National Institute of Design and National Institute of Fashion Technology. 
 
Now comes the most interesting part- salary! Average salaries offered by these startups range between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 18 lakh at engineering colleges and B-schools, say campus sources. Prop-Tiger, for instance, is paying upwards of Rs 15 lakh plus benefits at tech schools; CodeNation will pay around Rs 24 lakh. 
 
At least three of these startups — Lybrate, LocalOye and ShadowFax — are first-timers on campus while others, at the very least, are doubling last year's numbers. In some cases, hiring targets are going up five-fold or even 16-fold compared with last year. 
 
The strategies behind the hiring are discussed below: 
1. Depending on the kind of institutes, students are being hired for a variety of roles: from <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=software+development+engineers">software development engineers</a>; core management &amp; data scientists; product, operations and marketing; merchant acquisition and servicing, to human resource management, product and graphic designers and even entrepreneurs in residence. Sanjay Mehta, a Mumbai-based angel investor who participated in and led 11 angel deals in 2015, says the reason why startups are so gung-ho about <keyword id="511161" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="campus-hiring">campus hiring</keyword> is because they want to put this talent to work on cutting-edge technology and new delivery models. Not surprisingly, several institutes where placements have started, including Birla Institute of Technology &amp; Science-Pilani and <keyword id="75110" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="NITs">NITs</keyword>, are seeing these startups go head-to-head with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=traditional+recruiters+">traditional recruiters</a> to hire talent. At other B-schools and <keyword id="49737" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="IITs">IITs</keyword> where pre-placement offers (PPOs) have started flowing in, it is again the startups that are leading the pack. 
 
2. Much high in numbers: The numbers speak for themselves. If ShopClues is revising its hiring intake from around 100 last year to 180-250 this time, realty portal PropTiger is doubling its target to 50. Even five-month-old B2B (business-to-business) hyperlocal delivery startup ShadowFax, which raised $300,000 from <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Snapdeal">Snapdeal</a>'s founders and others in August followed by a $8.5-million Series A round by Fidelity's proprietary investment arm Eight Roads Ventures barely a month later, is looking to hire from IITs, <keyword id="46923" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="IIMs">IIMs</keyword> and other leading management institutes for its technology, data science and operations teams. 
 
3. Tapping more institutes: In the process, these companies are reaching out to many more institutes this year. "If there is a campus that attracts bright minds of the country, we want to be there. This includes other engineering colleges as well as top colleges in economics and commerce," says Saurabh Sharma, founder &amp; chief executive officer of Indus Insights. The Big Data firm made 40 offers last year, mostly at the top IITs (Bombay, Delhi, Madras). This year, it plans to make 100-plus, including at NITs (Trichy, Warangal, etc), SRCC, LSR, Christ College and Indian School of Business. 
 Similarly, Delhi-based mobile services marketplace UrbanClap, which hired 30 business development and operations specialists from <keyword id="6360099" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Delhi-University">Delhi University</keyword> last year, is extending its reach to several new institutes, including <keyword id="6431668" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="IIT-Delhi">IIT-Delhi</keyword> and IIM-Ahmedabad as it gears up to take on 80-100 this year. 
 
Salaries apart, the other drawing factors include the opportunity to work on challenging problems. "We don't have any glass ceilings. Freshers could be running entire teams within six months of joining," says Aditi Avasthi, founder and CEO, Embibe. "Students are opting for startups aggressively as some of the roles offered by them are quite challenging and inclined with their aspirations," sums up Rahul Katyal, placement manager at IIT-Bombay. 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

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