Wearable devices startup GOQii has named former Google executive Amit Singhal on its board. Singhal, who is also an angel investor in GOQii, resigned as head of Google’s flagship search business in February after spending over 15 years in the company.
It’s been a tough few months for Indian startups, but the bigger ones that been thought to be largely doing well. In a sign that even vaunted, highly funded startups are struggling, InMobi has become the latest company to let go of employees. It has fired 100 people from its headcount of around 1000 in Bangalore.
Facebook has just made a huge play in the Indian home services space by launching Facebook services. It’s created a separate section, Facebook Services, where it promises to “find local businesses with the best Facebook reviews and ratings.”
The Future Group has just acquired FabFurnish.com, which was one of India’s first home and furnishing online stores.
I am not even remotely involved with the Indian startup ecosystem. But unfortunately, I read a lot and try to make sense of it in equal measures. And from whatever I have been reading and observing regarding the Indian startup story, especially in the last 12 months, I feel something is not right. Let me cut to the chase right away. Here’s what I think:
After Uber had approached the Delhi High Court accusing the company of making fake bookings on its app to sabotage its business, Jugnoo has followed suit with similar claims of its own.
Jugnoo is a Chandigarh-based auto aggregator that competes directly with Ola, which also has its own auto booking service. It alleges that Ola employees have been creating fake accounts over the last 10 days to book and make cancellations on Jugnoo’s app leading to loss of revenue for the company and also affecting the income of auto-rickshaw drivers.
Last night, a prominent media house had reported that local services provider LocalOye was on the verge of shutting down. Today morning, LocalOye founder Aditya Rao posted a heartfelt 15-tweet tweetstorm talking about the report and the problems at his company. In an unusually honest and brutal assessment of his company, Rao admits that while Localoye is “wasn’t in the best of situations”, it will live to fight another day.
You know the time for green initiatives has truly taken off when the country’s prime minister lends his support to one.
In a major win for the environment, and Ola cabs, electricity powered E-rikshaws will now be available to book on commutech player Ola’s app in the Delhi NCR region.
Paytm’s tie up with Flipkart’s delivery arm is a pointer towards what the company’s priorities are going forward.