A year since launch, is Startup India yet to take off?
A year since launch, is Startup India yet to take off?.
A startup would be well advised to hire a lawyer to get through these tedious rules and make it simpler for the founders to understand.
Sources say that SIDBI has released Rs 1,400 crore of the Rs 2,000 crore earmarked to participate in the fund of funds by 2017.
This money is to be disbursed to VCs and incubation centres.
The CanBank fund, which is separate from the Rs 10,000 crore fund of funds of Startup India, is in limbo as well.
The Centre launched this ‘fund-of-funds’ with an aim to help startups from the electronics and IT sector to create intellectual property, expressing a willingness to invest up to Rs 2,200 crore in the initiative.
We ourselves had to understand a lot of things in regulations and law.
With SIDBI, if fund investors invest money in startups in the early stage, they cannot participate in the next round as the startup grows.
RBI announcement for cross-border borrowing The following regulatory changes for the easing of cross-border transactions, particularly relating to the operations of the startup enterprises, are proposed to be made, in consultation with the Government of India.
Please do let YourStory know if you have applied for Startup India, and what is happening with your application.
Japan’s SoftBank Invests $1 Billion in Satellite Startup OneWeb
Japan’s SoftBank Invests $1 Billion in Satellite Startup OneWeb.
The partnership gives Mr. Wyler’s team—which also counts British billionaire Richard Branson, Qualcomm Inc. and several other U.S. and foreign companies as backers—momentum to deploy the planned satellites while accelerating work on faster, more capable technology.
“OneWeb is a key strategic investment for us to connect many of our portfolio companies,” SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said in an interview.
OneWeb, which previously announced a joint manufacturing venture with Airbus Group SE, is building a highly-automated manufacturing facility in Florida intended to churn out modular satellites faster and cheaper—projected to be under $1 million each—than ever before.
In an interview over the weekend, Mr. Wyler said more than 90% of satellite components are already under contract and ground equipment designs have also have been completed.
A few months later, SoftBank said it would establish a $100 billion technology investment fund with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund and other partners, a vehicle Mr.
Son said.
“We need connectivity.
Son said he planned to invest $50 billion in U.S. startups, and said the money would come from the $100 billion fund, tentatively named the SoftBank Vision Fund.
Mr.
Is Your Business Vulnerable to an Attack From a Simplifier? Here’s How to Find Out.
Is Your Business Vulnerable to an Attack From a Simplifier?
Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes Are market leaders naturally vulnerable when faced with firms that start to simplify their markets?
On the one hand, a long and impressive roll-call of blue-chip firms have seen their market value and profits collapse almost overnight when challenged by simplifying insurgents.
Here are some examples: In the 1960s, IBM lost a large portion of its market when DEC introduced “minicomputers,” which, as the name suggests, were much smaller and simpler than mainframes.
There’s also the food industry, where giants such as General Mills and Kellogg’s don’t appear to be vulnerable to simplifying rivals.
The only safe assumption to make is that the new product will gain in performance and become even cheaper as volume increases and its business system develops.
This is a warning because it may discourage you from making the new product yourself.
The new product has the potential to cost much less to make than your rival product.
If you want to make a new product, you’ll find a way to do it.
The firm or firms are recent entrants to the market.
8 Accounting To-Dos for Your End-of-the-Year Checklist
A large-scale issue like this should be a warning to small businesses: Avoid the kinds of errors that carry implications for your company’s reputation and bottom line by making a year-end accounting checklist your new best friend.
It’s much easier to install an annual plan while the company is young and the tax requirements are relatively simple because filings get more complex as businesses grow.
Ensuring that your procedures are in place and working smoothly can help you maintain a solid year-end close as your company grows.
A strong push to collect as much as possible and clean up reconciliation issues will help you maintain better control over your company’s cash flow.
If your company’s financials are not already in line with accounting principles, they need to get there — now.
You can save yourself some trouble by collecting W-9s along the way and sending out 1099s early.
Plan for income tax.
Now is the time to identify tax needs and engage with a tax pro in order to minimize your payments and capture potential savings.
You don’t want to be among the estimated 40 percent of small businesses that rack up $845 per year in penalties.
Early-stage companies, especially, have much to do — including filing their taxes — and little time to do it.
How a Contest or Giveaway Can Attract Business Prospects
How a Contest or Giveaway Can Attract Business Prospects.
First, these attract a lot of attention for your business because people love the idea of getting something for nothing.
Contest to-do list Here’s a checklist for putting a contest together easily.
Decide if you’ll pursue sponsors to donate prizes, help spread the word or help in other ways.
Decide what you want to give away (more than one prize means more media and promotional opportunities).
Decide how the prize(s) will be awarded (Hint: Fanfare is a great way to get even more attention from prospects, maybe media and current customers).
You can: Barter your services with someone who has something that would make a good prize.
Get someone to donate the prize to you so you can give it away.
A modeling agency I worked for as a teenager asked everyone to submit their head shots.
The attention from prospects and hopefully media that you’ll get just for having the contest is one thing.
33 Gifts Entrepreneurs Actually Want for Christmas in 2016
33 Gifts Entrepreneurs Actually Want for Christmas in 2016. mediaphotos Christmas Day is drawing near, and you may still be faced with the challenge of finding the perfect gift for someone you care about.
If there is an aspiring entrepreneur within your cohort of friends and family, you might be wondering what kind of gift can also be helpful for them with their new business venture.
They might seem like they are on top of their game, but starting a new business is no easy task.
Chances are, they will very happily accept all the help they can get.
To help take the guessing out of shopping for the entrepreneur on your list, here are some thoughtful and inspiring gifts that can help them usher in a year of success.
Restaurant chain Freshii files for initial public offering of shares
Restaurant chain Freshii files for initial public offering of shares.
TORONTO — Restaurant chain Freshii Inc. is going ahead with an initial public offering of its shares.
The company says it has filed a preliminary prospectus with securities regulators in Canada for an initial public offering and secondary offering of class A subordinate voting shares.
Freshii says the offering will include a treasury offering by the company and a secondary offering by certain shareholders, including Matthew Corrin, Freshii’s chairman and chief executive.
The number of shares to be sold and the price has not yet been determined.
The offering will be managed by a syndicate of underwriters, led by joint bookrunners CIBC Capital Markets and RBC Capital Markets.
Freshii sells salads, bowls, burritos, wraps, soups, juices, smoothies and frozen yogurt.
The company, which opened its first store in 2005, had 244 stores across 15 countries and in more than 30 states and provinces in North America as of Sept. 25.
3 Tips for Female Entrepreneurs to Get VC Funding
3 Tips for Female Entrepreneurs to Get VC Funding.
According to Women Who Tech, only 7 percent of investor money “goes to women-led startups”.
But there is still a lot of work to do.
Start a Typical VC-Backed Business As this article published by Wharton University of Pennsylvania on why VCs aren’t funding women-led startups puts it: “ There are many reasons why women don’t receive their share of VC funding and interest.
Make sure your idea is a typical VC-backed up business and that potential investors have invested in related or similar projects before.
Although it is possible to start with your own personal savings, when the time to grow comes, you will do it much faster using early-stage venture capital.
However, according to a Kauffman Foundation survey of nearly 350 female tech startup leaders, women ask for money less: “Nearly 80 percent of the women in the study used personal savings as their top funding source, even though 31 percent of them had angel investors and 14 percent had venture capital funding.” Although rejection isn’t nice, it is necessary to try and learn from the experience.
So, do your research, nail your business plan or one pager, then build your confidence to get out there and raise the first round of investment for your business.
You can also search for funds that specialize in female talent such as Female founders fund.
You will find over 500 interviews, stories, experiences and advice from women in technology.
Burger King Will Let You Swap Unwanted Gifts for a Whopper
Burger King Will Let You Swap Unwanted Gifts for a Whopper.
Sometimes, in this season of giving, even the most well-intentioned presents can fall wide of the mark.
But instead of taking that present back from whence it came with a gift receipt in hand, Burger King wants to provide these unhappy recipients with another alternative.
Bring your unwanted gifts to a local Burger King and donate them to charity in exchange for a free Whopper.
The offer is available at locations in London, Miami and Brazil.
Lousy holiday gift?
Exchange it for a Whopper.
Post a pic with #WhopperExchange and watch the video for more info.
pic.twitter.com/6OHsC4FpzR — Burger King (@BurgerKing) December 18, 2016 But if you aren’t in a city where the promotion is happening, starting today, Burger King fans who post a photo of themselves on Twitter or Instagram with the presents they want to offload with the hashtag #whopperexchange could be chosen to receive a $10 Burger King gift.
Breach of LinkedIn’s Lynda.com Affects 55,000
Breach of LinkedIn’s Lynda.com Affects 55,000.
Ever taken a course on LinkedIn’s online education site Lynda.com?
A spokesperson for the Microsoft-owned company confirmed the breach in a statement to PCMag and said LinkedIn has reset the passwords for around 55,000 affected Lynda.com users “as a precautionary measure.” “We’re also working to notify approximately 9.5 million Lynda.com users who had learner data, but no protected password information, in the database,” the spokesperson added.
Lynda.com offers more than 5,000 courses covering software and Web development, design, business, photography and more.
LinkedIn acquired the site in April 2015 for approximately $1.5 billion, according to ZDNet.
PCMag reviewed Lynda.com in September 2015 and called it an “outstanding resource for video-based, online learning, particularly if multimedia software or coding skills are what you need.”
Meanwhile, news of the Lynda.com hack comes after Yahoo last week announced a mega-breach affecting 1 billion accounts.
Fortunately, that breach reportedly happened after Election Day.
More from PCMag
Uber Lost More Than $800 Million in the Third Quarter of 2016
Uber Lost More Than $800 Million in the Third Quarter of 2016.
Image credit: Reuters | Neil Hall/Illustration/File Photo – RTX2P60S Privately held ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc. lost more than $800 million in the third quarter, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
The company’s $800 million in losses did not include its operations in China, Bloomberg said, citing a person it said was familiar with the matter.
In the previous quarter the company’s loss significantly exceeded $800 million, including its Chinese operations, Bloomberg said.
Uber generated about $1.7 billion in net revenue in the third quarter, up from $1.1 billion in the previous quarter, Bloomberg reported.
The company is on track to surpass $5.5 billion in net revenue in fiscal 2016, Bloomberg said.
Uber did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Gaurika Juneja in Bengaluru; Editing by Bill Rigby) Latest News and Headlines from Reuters
This workplace training start-up has raised $4 million in pre-Series A funding
Zoomcar Gets A Chinese Investor On Board Before Heading To Africa
Zoomcar Gets A Chinese Investor On Board Before Heading To Africa.
Bengaluru-based Zoomcar India Pvt Ltd. which offers self-drive rental services under the brand name Zoomcar, has raised additional investment from a Hong Kong based venture capital firm, Cyber Carrier CL.
Jessica Wong, the managing director of Cyber Carrier CL declined to give out the exact amount to BloombergQuint, but said it would be just less than $10 million, making it their “biggest investment made in India so far.” The fact that the Chinese market is 5-6 years ahead of where India is and now we have access to that knowledge base and capital base, and will be very well positioned as compared to the smaller competitors,” Moran added that the investment will help the company, now that its looking to enter the African market by the end of 2017, where the Chinese already have a strong presence.
Wong shares the sentiment.
The startup, which was founded in 2013 by Greg Moran and David Back, allows users to rent vehicles for as little as an hour at a time.
It started with seven Ford Figos and Mahindra cars in Bengaluru, and now has a fleet of more than 2,300 cars, with bases across 12 Indian cities.
The newly-launched marketplace ZAP, also allows users to purchase vehicles on Zoomcar’s behalf and make money by renting out these cars for self drives, when they aren’t using the vehicle.
Cyber Carrier is a Hong Kong based India focused venture capital fund with a corpus of $45 million (about Rs 300 crore).
Founded earlier in 2016, the fund has made 10 investments so far, including the recent joint investment in online lending platform Indialends with American Express Ventures.
Their first investment in India was in the student loan platform Krazybee.
Fitness Guru Jillian Michaels’s Best Advice for Young Entrepreneurs
In this video, Entrepreneur Network partner Bryan Elliott meets with fitness guru, author and TV personality Jillian Michaels and asks her what advice she would give her younger self. “Don’t live the life you’re told you should,” Michaels says.
Many people may shame you or call you irresponsible when you follow your passions, but authenticity, truth and passion are at the core of every successful entrepreneur.
Don’t get discouraged by setbacks.
Rather, use them as a learning tool, Michaels advises.
But don’t be afraid to ask for help along the way.
To learn more, click play.
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13 Pakistani startups that raised investments in 2016
13 Pakistani startups that raised investments in 2016.
Zameen.com closed its Series C funding round with a USD 20 Million investment from one of its previous investors, this year.
The seed investment round was led by Crescent Ventures as the lead investor and was followed by The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE) Islamabad Chapter and DotZero Ventures.
Well.pk Well.pk, a health and lifestyle e-commerce startup, disclosed earlier this year that they have secured funds close to USD $1 Million from their initial seed funding round.
The deal valued Sabzi.pk at USD 7.5 Million, which was being called as the highest value ever attained by an LCE alumnus for seed round funding.
11.BeautyHooked BeautyHooked, a beauty services providing platform which had grown right from home, closed their seed funding round with a USD 280,000 funding.
The startup soon started making waves and won the Startup Weekend Lahore.
The startup had raised USD 115,000 in a seed funding round.
The seed funding round was backed by Fatima Ventures, which already had invested in BeautyHooked.
STC Venture is a KSA Government-backed enterprise which has already been investing in Careem since 2013.
7 Ways to Regift Sincerely and Without Getting Caught
She had forgotten to remove the card and put a new card inside.
If you’re going to regift, be sure to dig deep inside the package and remove all evidence that the gift was given to you, including cards and notes.
Keep all the seals intact If you suspect that you won’t like or use a gift, don’t bother opening it.
If a co-worker gives you a gift that you don’t want or can’t use, don’t give it to another co-worker.
Give it to a cousin, a friend, or someone outside of work who doesn’t know the person who gave you the gift.
Be sure to check the label for an expiration date if you give a consumable product like a food gift basket.
Only regift it if it’s a good gift.
Never give a gift just to be giving something.
The person who loves to read will most likely enjoy that miniature book light.
Most people have more coffee cups than they already want or need anyway.
10 Awesome Online Courses for Only $10
10 Awesome Online Courses for Only $10.
Shutterstock Entrepreneur has affiliate partnerships so we may get a share of the revenue from your purchase.
$10 Course Deal Expires at 11:59pm EST, December 23, 2016.
We thought that might get your attention.
Udemy offers thousands of online courses that movers, shakers, and entrepreneurs like you can enroll in to better themselves and their businesses.
There’s something for every type of entrepreneur: writers can sharpen their pencils with journalist Shani Raja, business owners can build their personal brand with Gary Vaynerchuk, day traders can sweeten their stocks with Jeff Tompkins, and many more!
Even better, most of these courses are great for all skill levels; so whether you want a thorough refresh or an in-depth crash course, you’ll find what you’re looking for.
Act fast because this deal ends December 23rd.
If you purchase them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.
Food
Micromanagement Is Murder: So Stop Killing Your Employees
Early in my career, when I first had employees working for me, I was a micromanager.
Only 30 percent of respondents were satisfied with how their work contributed to the overall success of the company.
That will give the team more independence and ownership over the value of their accomplishments.
And employees might even know the best way.
But the truth is that most employees are more productive when they’re given the freedom to work where they’d like.
Rewards are chosen by management or other company leaders, making these honors less than meaningful to employees.
Instead of acknowledging employees in a way that management dictates should make them feel good, they can choose their own satisfaction.
That makes the recognition more personal and more motivating.
If a manager simply says, “You need to do things this way instead,” employees feel controlled.
Remember that before getting overly involved with how employees work.