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XOBOX aims to tackle residential last-mile delivery hurdles

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
XOBOX aims to tackle residential last-mile delivery hurdles
Medial

Last-mile delivery hasn’t been perfect. Not that the likes of Dunzos of this world haven’t tried to address this. Recently, we saw Zomato experimenting with last-mile delivery through a unique concept of ‘walkers’ for corporate parks. Bengaluru-based XOBOX is one of the few startups that is trying to fix the last-mile delivery challenges especially for people living in urban areas. The company handles packages for residents in apartment complexes. Some of the features are securing the packages in smart lockers and dropping them to customers’ doorstep when they are back to their homes, and home delivery of essential items. We spoke to XOBOX founder and CEO Kiran Shivappa about his startup, what distinguishes it from the competition and the roadmap ahead. Here are the edited excerpts: How did you come up with this idea? I live in an apartment complex and even before the Covid deliveries were left scattered in front of the door and stray cats use to destroy especially milk packet which cause everyone to talk about it hours in community Whatsapp group, this made me think to find/adopt a solution to secure the deliveries when residents not able to receive it or may be they are not around. How does the platform work? Please help simplify the process. When we started the service, we started taking the request from residents to handle their packages and we coordinated with delivery guys to take the package, pay them if it is a COD [Cash on Delivery], and secure them in the locker until they come back, then we deliver it to their doorstep. We went one step ahead and made a contract with 3PL [Third-party logistics] and ecommerce companies to take every delivery coming to the society and our dedicated resources would hand them over to the residents, if the resident is not available then secure the package in the locker and hand it over once they come back. What are the key challenges in the industry that have not been addressed yet? And how do you plan to address them? Ecommerce companies have tried many solutions to optimize the last leg of the delivery process and achieved the Kirana model also, but they never got a chance to be inside the society exclusively and take care of the deliveries and achieve the customer delight to bring the most convenience to them in their package receiving time. We have dedicated resources inside each society to carefully handle the package and interact with residents and elderly people and become familiar to them so they feel comfortable to receive us at the doorstep at any time and feel secured as well. Industry major players tried to introduce the lockers but these lockers operate as a complete unmanned and fully automated, for this reason the adaptation was a big challenge and education was also a challenge. We adopted a 70/30 model where, way the lockers were built, operated and how people would feel easy to adopt this because the “30” percentage is the resources we introduced along with “70” percentage technology, our dedicated resource will work with all stake holders in the gated community to educate and make every one understand how to use the service. What are your short-term and long term goals in terms of product and business expansion and diversification? In the short term, we are looking to expand the service to 35 more gated communities in Bengaluru in 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2024 and then go to other cities. As far as long-term plans go, we are going to sign contracts with major ecommerce and 3PL companies to increase the volume in each society and serve the needs of elderly population in the community. We would want to reach 700-1000 gated communities and generate 150-180 cr annually.

Favcy VB’s 10th anniversary drives Rs 40 Cr in startup investments

EntrackrEntrackr · 5m ago
Favcy VB’s 10th anniversary drives Rs 40 Cr in startup investments
Medial

Favcy Venture Builders (Favcy VB) has celebrated its 10th anniversary with the Favcy VB Summit 2025, held at Bharat Mandapam. The summit brought together over 150 VCs and investors, along with more than 30 founders from its portfolio. The attendees included prominent VCs and family offices such as AWE Funds, Stanford Alumni Fund, She Capital, Anay Ventures, and the Vineeta Surana Family Office, among others. Angel investors from its 1stCheque network and government dignitaries from organizations like MeitY and iStart Rajasthan also participated. The summit highlighted Favcy VB’s pivotal role in empowering over 10,000 founders. "Over the past decade, we’ve refined venture building into a science, ensuring startups have a strong foundation from day one. This is the future of entrepreneurship. The next unicorns won’t just be discovered; they’ll be built," said Pranav Chaturvedi, Founding Partner & MD of Favcy VB. The summit featured live pitches by 33 founders across sectors such as AI, SaaS, D2C, deeptech, and sportstech. Notable startups included Serri, a Gen AI product startup, and Maity's, an elder care services venture. Some of the startups secured funding commitments worth over Rs 40 crore, with leading VC firms and HNIs—including AWE Funds, Good Capital, and IIM A Ventures—participating in the funding rounds, backing high-growth ventures. "Favcy VB’s structured approach de-risks early-stage investing and ensures scalable success. The portfolio we saw today is a testament to their model," said Seema Chaturvedi, Managing Partner, AWE Funds. A key highlight of the summit was the 1to10 Demo Day, a platform where first-time investors actively participated in shaping the future of India’s startup ecosystem. This initiative aligns with Favcy VB’s broader mission to democratize access to venture building and early-stage investing. The summit also showcased Favcy VB’s cutting-edge Gen AI platforms—Favcy Navigator and Startup Nalanda—designed to empower founders at every stage of their entrepreneurial journey. Favcy VB is a venture-building platform dedicated to structured startup creation and investment opportunities. It aims to empower 10,000 founders and transform high-potential ideas into scalable, investor-ready businesses.

Magicpin’s logistics arm MagicFleet crosses 1 million monthly deliveries

EntrackrEntrackr · 23d ago
Magicpin’s logistics arm MagicFleet crosses 1 million monthly deliveries
Medial

MagicFleet, the logistics vertical of Magicpin, has crossed one million monthly deliveries and aims to double that to two million by the end of FY26. Launched in September 2024, the AI-powered platform claims to have onboarded over 100,000 riders and is currently operational in seven major metros—Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, and Mumbai. Built to support micro and small logistics entrepreneurs, MagicFleet offers them a tech-enabled stack and consistent delivery demand through ONDC and Magicpin. It features AI-driven tools for smart rider allocation, real-time fleet tracking, surge pricing, RTO and CoD support, and full operational visibility. The platform provides riders with competitive base pay, bonuses, and daily payouts within 24 working hours, helping them earn better and grow their businesses faster. “We are already among the top three food delivery players in the country, and building logistics capabilities is a natural progression to drive more business to our merchant partners. MagicFleet was launched less than a year ago and has already onboarded 1 lakh riders, delivering 1.4 million orders monthly across India’s top cities,” said Anshoo Sharma, CEO and founder of Magicpin. MagicFleet is designed as a SaaS logistics layer for MSMEs and gig entrepreneurs, enabling fleets of any size to plug into food and grocery delivery demand and scale efficiently.

Specialty chemicals startup Scimplify raises $40 Mn in Series B round

EntrackrEntrackr · 4m ago
Specialty chemicals startup Scimplify raises $40 Mn in Series B round
Medial

Scimplify, a platform for sourcing and manufacturing specialty chemicals, has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Accel and Bertelsmann India Investments, with participation from UMI and existing investors, including Omnivore and 3one4 Capital. This funding brings Scimplify’s total capital raised to $54 million, following its seed and Series A rounds. The fresh capital will accelerate Scimplify’s export expansion beyond the 16 countries it currently serves while strengthening its presence in key industries such as life sciences, crop sciences, and industrial chemicals, the company said in a press release. Many manufacturers struggle with sourcing raw materials, navigating regulatory requirements, and scaling up production to meet global demand. Scimplify addresses these challenges by offering an end-to-end manufacturing ecosystem, combining in-house scientific expertise with a network of over 200 specialized manufacturing plants across cost-efficient regions in India. Founded by Salil Srivastava and Sachin Santhosh, Scimplify is a B2B fulfillment platform that operates across the product life cycle, from contract research to commercial chemical manufacturing, serving industries such as pharmaceuticals, personal care, and agrochemicals. The company’s plug-and-play model enables global buyers to leverage India’s cost-efficient production capabilities without the burden of setting up dedicated manufacturing facilities. “As global supply chains undergo rapid shifts, customers are actively seeking reliable partners who can provide enterprise-grade R&D and comprehensive solutions for their specialty chemical manufacturing needs. Over the past year and a half, we have built great momentum, and with Accel joining this partnership, we remain steadfast in building a global R&D-led manufacturing company that brings a new-age approach to the modern customer,” said Srivastava. The Bengaluru-based company serves major markets, including the US, Europe, and Japan. Scimplify competes with Mstack, Atomgrid, Covvalent, Distil, and Elchemy.

PhonePe acquires GSPay IP from GupShup for UPI on feature phones

EntrackrEntrackr · 1m ago
PhonePe acquires GSPay IP from GupShup for UPI on feature phones
Medial

PhonePe acquires GSPay IP from GupShup for UPI on feature phones PhonePe has announced an IP purchase of conversational engagement platform Gupshup’s proprietary ‘GSPay’ technology stack for enabling UPI-based payments for feature phones. GSPay is a mobile application built on top of NPCI’s UPI payment solution for feature phones (UPI 123PAY). According to PhonePe, it plans to customize and extend the recently acquired GSPay IP and launch its own feature-phone based UPI payment mobile app on new feature phones in India, over the next few quarters. PhonePe aims to provide all basic UPI features such as P2P transfers, offline QR payments, and receiving of money from any other UPI customer to their mobile numbers or self-QRs seamlessly. This move aims to create full payment interoperability between feature phone and smartphone users and bring crores of Indians who still use feature phones into the Indian digital payments ecosystem. “This segment of users has been historically underserved by the digital financial industry and the broader startup ecosystem. We hope we can enable crores of these feature phone customers to participate in India’s burgeoning digital payments market,” said Sameer Nigam, co-founder & CEO of PhonePe. PhonePe’s portfolio of businesses includes the distribution of financial products (insurance, lending, and wealth) as well as new consumer tech businesses (Pincode and Indus AppStore). As per market research, India had approximately 24 crore feature phone users in 2024, and an additional approx 15 crore feature phone shipments are expected over the next five years. Launched in 2016, PhonePe has over 60 crore (600 million) registered users and a digital payments acceptance network spread across over 4 crore merchants. It also processes over 33 crore transactions daily with an Annualized Total Payment Value (TPV) of over Rs 150 lakh crore.

Snitch raises $40 Mn in Series B round; to enter quick commerce

EntrackrEntrackr · 1m ago
Snitch raises $40 Mn in Series B round; to enter quick commerce
Medial

Snippets Snitch raises $40 Mn in Series B round; to enter quick commerce D2C menswear brand Snitch has raised up to $40 million in its Series B funding round led by 360 ONE Asset. Existing investors IvyCap Ventures and SWC Global participated, along with the Ravi Modi Family Office and other angel investors. Entrackr had exclusively reported the development last week. This is the second major funding round for the Bengaluru-based fashion brand, following its $13 million Series A raised in December 2023. The proceeds will be used to expand Snitch’s offline retail footprint from 55 to over 100 stores by the end of 2025, enter quick commerce, and test international markets. The company also plans to expand into new apparel and lifestyle categories. Founded in 2020 by Siddharth Dungarwal, Snitch offers trendy and affordable apparel through its own website, mobile application, and an expanding network of offline retail stores. “With 120% YoY growth, 55+ stores with strong unit economics, and strong loyal customer base, we’re stepping into a bigger league, building a world-class brand with India at its heart and agility at its core. As we gear up for global expansion and soon enter the public markets, this marks a bold step towards creating one of India’s most iconic fashion stories,” said Dungarwal. Snitch featured during the second season of Shark Tank India and raised Rs 1.5 crore against 1.5% equity from Anupam Mittal, Aman Gupta, Namita Thapar, Vineeta Singh, Peyush Bansal, and Amit Jain at Rs 100 crore valuation. The firm is targeting scale across India and international markets and is preparing for a public listing. For the fiscal year ending March 2024, Snitch reported a 100% year-on-year increase in its revenue to Rs 241 crore with Rs 4.39 crore profits. The company has yet to release its annual results for FY25.

No hurry to sell, indefinite horizon on Zomato holding: Sanjeev Bikhchandani

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
No hurry to sell, indefinite horizon on Zomato holding: Sanjeev Bikhchandani
Medial

Info Edge, India’s largest and most storied recruitment portal, has had a stellar run in the last three years with its portfolio company Zomato’s market cap surging almost 2.3X since its stock exchange debut. The firm’s bet on fintech unicorn Policybazaar is also paying off well. The company has made it clear it is in no hurry to book profits on these investments, even as it continues to nurse its own brands beyond Naukri to profitability. The firm, one of the few to survive the dotcom boom and bust cycle of 2000, has been led by founder and chairman Sanjeev Bikhchandani for a large part of this journey. And today, Bikhchandani has earned the right to be looked up to as the statesman for the sector. Entrackr caught up with Bikhchandani in his Gurugram office and he spoke on a range of topics including Naukri, Info Edge’s investments, serial entrepreneurs and corporate governance. Here are the edited excerpts. As a listed firm that carries a heavy overhang from its investment portfolio, does it worry you that it might impact the valuation of the core Naukri business? Not really. Institutional investors are smart. We give them adequate data so that they analyze Naukri thoroughly before making a conclusion about valuation. We don’t run Naukri for valuation every day or month or quarter. We look at how we create value for our shareholders in the long run. And that’s how we run our businesses. So, this hypothesis about our core or even group business doesn’t stand. Info Edge has been an investor in Zomato for over 14 years and despite the latter’s share price rising nearly 14o% from its listing price, Info Edge didn’t sell its shares. What level of return are you anticipating from Zomato? Actually, we don’t calculate Investment Return Rate (IRR). Info Edge invested in Zomato because of our conviction that it could become a great company. And if you are convinced about your conviction then it will happen. So, IRR is the happy incidental outcome of investing early behind companies that you want to help. That’s my belief. We are not in any hurry to sell and have an indefinite horizon. Every VC firm has a fund cycle and pressure to return capital to their limited partners but that’s not the case with Info Edge as you are investing from your own balance sheet. Could you elaborate on this? That pressure does not make this choice. We have a long term horizon and we call it patient capital. To be a successful early stage investor in India, you have to be quite patient because companies take anywhere between 10-15 years to go to IPO from seed stage. So if you have funds for only 6-10 years, you will not realize the full fruits of your investment. If you have a 20 year fund, you tend to perform better. However, such a horizon could be possible only when you’re investing from your own whole balance sheet. Do you believe that Blinkit could become bigger than Zomato? I think both are large but Blinkit is going to be fairly large. If we look at Zomato’s quarter-on-quarter numbers, online food ordering appears to have stagnated in top 10-15 cities. What’s your take on this? Obviously, there is the base effect. But, we don’t see stagnation. Also, you need to compare year-on-year, not quarter-on-quarter. When YoY numbers are compared, there is growth. I think full fiscal year performance is more important than quarter. We used to commonly hear about Naukri’s recruitment business that it was not the online presence, but your sales force or feet on the street that made the difference. Does that still hold true? Online sales have never been a big part of our strategy. When you want to sell more expensive products, you need face-to-face contact. At Naukri, we have clients whom we bill several crore rupees for annual subscription and such accounts need heavy offline touch. While the product will be consumed online, the stuff around it very often will be offline. Over the years, several players have tried to crack the recruitment business in the blue collar segment but most of them died. What are the challenges in the segment? Blue collar segment has broadly three challenges. First, it’s hyperlocal. The job seekers in this segment don’t move to different cities as they look for opportunities in and around their locality. Second, very often there isn’t a detailed text CV which makes the process slow and inefficient. Third, potential workforce in the segment do not search for jobs on the laptop and use vernacular languages. They are mostly on mobile. So you’ve got to adapt to all these things and still somehow get revenue and profit. We have been trying to get inroads in the blue collar segment for over two years now but we have just started monetizing it. Our future position in the segment depends on monetization. Some of the celebrated entrepreneurs are launching a second or third company without their first startup churning profit. How do you see this trend? I think this isn’t a progressive trend. As an entrepreneur, you need to focus on one thing and do really well. Once you’ve cracked that you can add on a second thing in the same company. Over the past couple of years, we have witnessed corporate governance issues with some startups. Even Info Edge saw serious lapses at 4B Networks. What’s your opinion about this? By and large, my belief is that 95-98% of Indian founders are genuine but there will be a few bad examples. Investors make sure that when something wrong happens in their portfolio, it is highlighted and actions are taken to ensure that such incidents do not repeat. Any governance issue isn’t good for anyone including limited partners, investors, founders and the startup ecosystem. What factors contributed to the lack of success with Info Edge’s e-commerce investments 99labels, MyDala, and Happily Unmarried? Limitation of raising foreign direct investment (FDI) and heavy investment into competition were two major reasons for failure of 99labels while MyDala had a product market fit (PMF) issue. Happily Unmarried is now a part of VLCC and we are still a shareholder there.

Titan Capital launches ‘Indicorns 2025’ to highlight India’s profitable startups

EntrackrEntrackr · 2m ago
Titan Capital launches ‘Indicorns 2025’ to highlight India’s profitable startups
Medial

Titan Capital, a seed-stage venture capital firm founded by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, has released the ‘Indicorns 2025 List’ at India Internet Day. The list highlights startups in India that have crossed Rs 100 crore in annual revenue and achieved profitability, emphasizing long-term business sustainability over high valuations. The Indicorns initiative recognizes companies that focus on financial stability, operational durability, and consistent value creation. These startups reflect a shift toward building scalable businesses with a focus on long-term viability. All 202 companies on the list were founded within the last 15 years. Some have scaled without external funding, while others have been acquired or listed. Collectively, they reported a revenue of Rs 1,51,137 crore and profits of Rs 7,393 crore in FY24. Delhi NCR leads with 51 Indicorns, followed by Bengaluru with 42 and Mumbai with 35. Eight startups reached Indicorn status in under five years, 92 within ten years, and 102 within fifteen years. The top sectors include Fintech (50 startups), E-commerce (16), and Logistics (13). Notable names include OfBusiness, OYO, Razorpay, Unicommerce, and Beardo. “For too long, success in the startup ecosystem has been linked to valuations,” said Kunal Bahl, Co-founder of Titan Capital. “With Indicorns, we are recognizing companies built on profitability, steady growth, and long-term impact.” The Indicorns platform provides insights into these companies' financial data and growth strategies. These 202 startups have created over 1,46,705 jobs, reflecting their role in India’s economic development. By prioritizing profit and sustainability, Indicorns aim to redefine what successful entrepreneurship looks like in India. The list will be updated annually based on business performance and market trends.

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