Chennai has been hit by record levels of rainfall over the last few days. The rains have left thousands of people stranded, shut down offices and businesses, and 188 lives have been lost. But amidst the gloom, there’s some hope. Indian startups are going out of their way to help Chennai’s stricken populance in any way they can. Here are some Indian startups that have pitched in to help with the Chennai floods.
As startup founders would readily attest, hiring is never easy. You send messages to potential employees on LinkedIn, post on job portals, and pay recruiters large sums of money just to get that one hire. But if you run a large website with a dedicated userbase, you sometimes need to do none of that.
Earlier this week, Indian Tinder users browsing through their daily quota of eligible singles came up with a strange new match. It wasn’t quite the usual hottie with five selfies from five angles. This match meant serious business.
QikPod will launch a network of intelligent lockers for delivery of ecommerce parcels to online consumers across the metros. Parcel Locker is a unit that is installed alongside neighborhood delivery and collection box units or in conjunction with Post Office Boxes in a retail facility that is used for parcel delivery. The startup venture will be launched by serial entrepreneur Ravi Gururaj backed with a $9 million funding from Flipkart, Delivery, Accel Partners and Foxmobile.
From a cross category classifieds business, Quikr has now ventures into the entertainment industry, partnering with filmmakers. It has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with filmmaker Vivek Bohra and casting director Aadore Mukherjee, to launch a platform for actors, casting directors, and production houses. The new platform will unite the different entities which will o help meet the needs of the entertainment industry.
Grofers has wrapped up a $120 million (Rs.800 crore) funding led by Japan’s SoftBank, thus taking the ecommerce stores to a valuation of $400 million. Other investors included Apoletto Asia, the personal investment vehicle of DST Global’s partners, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, along with existing backers Tiger Global Management and Sequoia Capital India, according to Grofers CEO Albinder Dhindsa.
I experience Riddle Room, a live escape room, a form of physical real life interactive game in which players are locked inside a room and have to unearth clues, examine unassuming objects and discard decoys to successfully make it out within 60 minutes.
Uber’s taking rapid steps towards setting up its Hyderabad office. After announcing plans of setting up its largest non-US office in the city in July, the company announced that it has leased 150,000 square feet for its Hyderabad office.
If Flipkart does it, can Snapdeal be far behind? After Flipkart had launched its image search tool this July, Snapdeal has also come out with its own version. Called SnapSearch, the tool will allow desktop users to upload pictures of clothes they fancy, and will show up suggestions of similar products available on Snapdeal.
Flipkart CEO tweeted in defence of Snapdeal, saying that Snapdeal wasn’t responsible for Khan’s comments, and shouldn’t have had to face the backlash it did. Users had submitted hundreds of 1-star reviews on Snapdeal’s app on the Google Playstore, demanding that Khan be fired as Brand Ambassador following his comments about rising intolerance levels in the country.