CNBC-TV18’s Flagship Show On Startups Young Turks Turns 18
This week was special one for us here at CNBC-TV18 as we hit a new milestone. Our flagship show Young Turks which is India’s longest running on startups and entrepreneurship completed 18 years.
Shereen Bhan, CNBC-TV18's managing editor and Young Turks’ Series Editor said, "The search for value, that's been the mantra for the Young Turks show over almost two decades. The show was started as an experiment to focus on younger entrepreneurs, new ideas and emerging Indian brands back in 2002. We have never chased valuations, we have always chased values and that’s what the show is about."
Through the course of the show, Young Turks has seen the startup ecosystem evolve not just in India but across the world. To celebrate its 18th year anniversary, the
show brought together founders and investors to drive down the memory lane, talk about India's journey to become the world's third largest startup ecosystem and the road to big ticket IPO.
In terms of what made headlines in the world of startups this week, here’s a look at top 5 stories of the week
#1. MyGov’s Tiktok account hits 1 million followers
Anti-China sentiments has not only impacted the Indian startups but also called for boycott Chinese products and even apps by various fractions. Amidst the tension rising at the Line of Actual Control, it is interesting to note that the government has set up an official MyGov account on TikTok. While the account creation dates back to April 12, as of today MyGov has hit more than 1 million followers and garnered over 7.5 million likes on the platform.
#2. India-China tension | Chinese funding in Indian startups slows down
According to Venture Intelligence, Chinese investors have so far invested $263 million in Indian startups in the first half of 2020 across 15 deals, which is less than a quarter of the $1.23 billion they raised in 2019 through 47 deals. The funding has been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis as well as the change in the
foreign direct investment (FDI) policy for Chinese capital into the country announced in April.
According to a February 2020 report by think tank Gateway House, 18 of India’s 30 unicorns are Chinese-funded. The unicorns that have attracted Chinese funding over the years include Ola (Tencent, Sailing Capital), Flipkart (Tencent, TR Capital), Paytm (Alibaba), BYJU’S (Tencent), Delhivery (Fosun Group), among others.
#3. Google For Startups launches a new batch for its accelerator
On the other hand to support startups, the tech giant Google has opened applications for the new batch of Google For Startups Accelerator and is on a hunt for startups who are working on solutions that are oriented towards the new normal, with a special focus on health-tech, fintech, edu-tech, agri-tech, retail and saas startups.
#4. Softbank to invest $2 million in US startups led by minorities
After Google, the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp announced that it will
invest $2 million or more in 14 US startups led by black founders and other under-represented groups, as part of its effort to fund more a more diverse array of entrepreneurs.
The investments will be a part of the Emerge Accelerator Programme which partners with Softbank Investment Advisers & WeWork, and focuses on underrepresented founders. The first class of the Emerge program, pitched their companies to the investors in an online video presentations on June 18.
Koniku, Moment AI, Ojha Express are some of the startups representing the minority in the programme.
#5. Livinguard launches face mask: Claims to inactivate 99.9% of COVID-19 virus
No news bulletin is complete without COVID-19, this time it’s a refreshing one.
Swiss hygiene company Livinguard, with operations in India, Germany, USA, Singapore, Japan and South Africa, has come up with a
revolutionary and first of its kind face mask, that can directly inactivate bacteria and viruses, including 99.9 percent of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
The globally patented technology was invented by Sanjeev Swamy, an entrepreneur of Indian origin, who also heads the company. Available in three versions the price of the mask starts from Rs 1,490 and goes up to Rs 1,990
Before wrapping up, here’s a shout-out to Indian startups who made a mark starting with consumer leading startup Zestmoney and milk-tech startup Stellapps who found a spot on World Economic Forum’s list of Technology Pioneers 2020. Some of the companies that have been earlier a part of this list are Google, Airbnb, Twitter and Spotify.
This week we also saw startups like Hoi Foods (Cloud kitchen platform) raise $2 million in pre-Series A round led by 1Crowd fund, Edvizo (ed-tech) raise $150,000 in seed round from Inflection Point Ventures and wellness startup SARVA raise an undisclosed amount from cricketer Shikhar Dhawan.
First Published: Jun 20, 2020 12:48 PM IST
