Industry News

The Probability of Raising Funds for Your Startup

by The Brio Team | Jan 10, 2017 | Getting Funded

The Probability of Raising Funds for Your Startup.
2017 is our seventh year.
And one particular trend keeps me awake at night.
We can’t help them, regardless of how powerful our investor connections are.
We can’t help a startup get funding before they become fundable.
Watching this 2 minutes 53 second video would be a very good start if you need a crash course in fundability.
A fundable and validated business is a must.
A fundable business with warm introductions is the fastest way to get funded.
We can introduce you to angels and VCs, if your idea is fundable and validated.
I have nothing against funding.

U.S. Army Asks for Biodegradable Ammo

by The Brio Team | Jan 10, 2017 | Startups

The U.S. Army goes through a lot of ammunition thanks to the amount of training it carries out.
But that ammunition doesn’t come without waste which slowly degrades over hundreds of years polluting whatever ground (and nearby water sources) it happens to fall upon.
The request was made via the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
Specifically, the DoD wants “biodegradable training ammunition loaded with specialized seeds to grow environmentally beneficial plants that eliminate ammunition debris and contaminants.”
There’s also cartridge cases and sabot petals, which can either lay on the ground or end up buried beneath it.
Sourcing the seeds for use in this new ammunition won’t be a problem as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) already bioengineered them so as not to germinate for several months, allowing time for the materials containing them to sufficiently biodegrade.
Any contractor attempting to produce these bullets for the DoD will need to progress through a three phase SBIR process.
Phase one involves demonstrating a production process for the biodegradable materials for 40mm-120mm training rounds.
If successful, the use of biodegradable ammunition will lead to less ground contamination while at the same time ensuring anywhere training exercises are carried out will be left rich in plant life.
More from PCMag

Exclusive: Online lending startup Loan Frame raises $2.25 mn seed investment

by The Brio Team | Jan 10, 2017 | Startups

Exclusive: Online lending startup Loan Frame raises $2.25 mn seed investment.
Gurgaon-based fintech startup Loan Frame Technologies Pte Ltd has raised $2.25 million (Rs 15.3 crore) in seed investment led by Vedanta Capital, a top company executive told Techcircle.
Other investors who participated in the round include William Campbell, former chairman of Chase Card Services, and Toos N Daruvala, co-CEO of MIO Partners, Inc., McKinsey Investment Office.
Loan Frame provides a range of products to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), including secured and unsecured loans worth Rs 5 lakh-50 crore.
Jacob was previously part of the core management team at financial research and analytics firm Copal Partners, which was backed by investors such as Deutsche Bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup.
Arya, who is CFO at Loan Frame, has previously managed investments at listed banks and NBFCs for Canara HSBC OBC Life, a fund with assets under management of over Rs 10,000 crore.
We are expecting to disburse Rs 1,000 crore in the next 24 months,” says Jacob.
A recent Credit Suisse report said the online lending space offers a $600-billion opportunity globally, and that is expected to grow 5x in the next 10 years and reach $3 trillion.
Last month, Gurgaon-based fintech startup Indifi Technologies Pvt Ltd, floated by angel investor and venture capital firm Canaan Partners’ former India chief Alok Mittal, had raised $10 million (Rs 66.5 crore) in a Series B funding round led by Omidyar Network—an investment firm founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
In June 2015, SME lending firm Lendingkart raised $32 million in a Series B round led by Bertelsmann India Investments and others, and Bengaluru-based KrazyBee.com, which offers loans to students with no credit history or credit cards, raised $2 million in seed funding from two Chinese firms.