Global investment company Davidson Kempner Capital Management has reportedly issued a legal notice to Aakash Educational Services, the test-prep subsidiary of Byju’s. The legal notice claims alleged covenant breaches on the Rs 2,000 crore loan sanctioned to the company. According to a report in Economic Times, the legal notice said that it reserves the right to invoke Aakash’s pledged shares which were offered as collateral and potentially take control of the company. Incidentally, Byju’s too sent a notice to Aakash’s promoters recently. It has asked the promoters to honour the agreement to close the acquisition of the coaching centre that was first announced in 2021. It is not clear so far if Byju’s too has sent a legal notice to Aakash.Aakash promoters have said no to share swap Sources close to the matter told ET that the equity-swap part of the Byju’s-Aakash deal is still pending. Aakash’s promoters, the Chaudhry family and investment fund Blackstone informed the edtech major recently on the breach of terms and that they will not go ahead with the pending share swap. Sources claimed that there are tax implications to the equity swap because of which the promoters of Aakash have opposed completing the share swap. The resistance from Aakash promoters on equity swap comes at a time when Byju’s is facing increased pressure to furnish audited FY22 financials. Key investor Blackrock has also marked down its valuation to about $8.4 billion from the peak valuation of $22 billion last year. Some media reports also claim that Manipal Group chairman Ranjan Pai is in early discussions to invest in troubled Aakash.Aakash’s promoters and Blackstone hold about 30% in the offline coaching centre unit. The deal constituted 70% cash while the remaining 30% was in equity. As a part of the equity swap, Aakash promoters and Blackstone were allocated a stake in Byju’s parent firm Think & Learn.

BIS Research’s Gaurav Gaggar called for creating a special exchange where shares of deeptech companies could be listed for smaller investors Dhruva Advisors’ Vaibhav Gupta suggested a tax exemption on the licence fee for domestically registered patents in a bid to incentivise the creation of intellectual properties BosonQ Psi’s Aditya Singh called for streamlining paperwork and processing of government grants in the country, which take anywhere between six to seven months Industry stakeholders have welcomed the draft National Deep Tech Startup Policy (NDTSP), 2023 but have also raised concerns about its implementation. The draft was released for public consultation by the NDTSP Consortium on July 31. The proposal will be open for public feedback until September 15. The recommendations cover nine themes, which aim to strengthen funding avenues and intellectual property (IP) rights to foster a conducive ecosystem for deeptech startups. The policy also aims to address various complex challenges and suggests necessary policy changes to fuel the ecosystem. “… we welcome the Indian government’s new policy to spur further growth in this space, a move that reflects India’s great potential to blossom into the next global hub for deeptech. This is a natural next step to build upon the groundwork already laid by global tech companies, entrepreneurs, and many other leaders to develop the emerging Indian deeptech ecosystem,” said Arun Kumar, the managing partner of Celesta Capital, a deeptech-focussed VC firm. Deeptech-focussed VC firm Speciale Invest has also welcomed the policy, saying that it holds immense potential to shape the future of technological innovation in India and will provide a strong foundation for deeptech startups to flourish in the country.  Speaking with Inc42, managing partner at Speciale Invest Vishesh Rajaram said that the grant for product development and technology validation is a big plus because there’s not enough risk capital. Noting that the biotech department has been a lot more active in offering grants, he added that a similar offering for the deeptech space would level the playing field and offer more benefits.  “I think we’ll just have to put this policy to play, start going through the implementation and then pick up on the learnings that come from it. The policy is actually very positive, and it takes a lot more attention, care, capital, systems, and guardrails to scale the ecosystem. So, any help is most welcome,” Rajaram added.  Echoing similar sentiments, startup incubator T-Hub’s chief executive officer (CEO) Mahankali Srinivas Rao said, “Startups will reap the benefits of strengthened intellectual property rights, providing them with the confidence to push the boundaries of technology without fear of imitation. Access to funding will become more streamlined, facilitating the translation of groundbreaking ideas into tangible products and services that meet the needs of a dynamic market.” However, quantum computing startup BosonQ Psi‘s Aditya Singh, while lauding the draft, said that the government could be looking at leveraging the deeptech boom to further economic growth and make the country technology-ready via the policy.  Taking The Right Steps The draft envisages a minimum grant of INR 2 Cr at the proof-of-concept stage and a minimum of INR 3 Cr grant at the prototype stage.  On this, Singh flagged a slew of concerns saying that government grants in the country take anywhere between six to seven months at the minimum and involve a lot of paperwork. This, as per him, makes the process cumbersome compared to countries like the US and the UK where grants are processed much faster.  Singh noted that deeptech technologies are expensive to build due to high talent cost and steeply-priced embedded hardware and software in prototypes.  This is especially true for deeptech startups operating in the automotive and aerospace industries where the expenditure of a mere launch or building a product may cost millions of dollars. Singh said that it would bode well for the ecosystem if such grants come alongside collaboration with leading enterprises in the segment too.  Speaking to Inc42, deeptech-focussed global market intelligence firm BIS Research’s Gaurav Gaggar termed the policy a step in the right direction. Noting that deeptech startups generally have a long road to commercialisation, Gaggar called on the government to establish a framework to ensure push for deeptech companies is not linked to their financial performance.  “We should create a special exchange where shares of deeptech companies could be listed for smaller investors to partake in these companies, as opposed to waiting for VCs, which generally come very late into the picture,” added Gaggar.  He also called on the government to learn from the mistakes of other countries which have also implemented similar policies.  While highlighting the aspects of the draft related to creating favourable IPR regime in the country, Vaibhav Gupta, partner, Dhruva Advisors, suggested a tax exemption on the licence fee for domestically registered patents in a bid to incentivise homegrown intellectual property (IP) creation and ownership.  “ESOPs (employee stock option plans) form an important part of the compensation and talent retention strategy at such startups. Given the longer road to commercialisation, deferring the tax on ESOPs to the point of sale may help bring in equity for employees,” Gupta added.  He also called for expanding the list of AIFs (alternative investment funds) and investors exempted from Angel Tax for deeptech startups for a limited time frame to further fuel the capital inflow into the ecosystem.  Reacting on the policy, the founder and lead investor at Capital A, Ankit Kedia, said it was important to invest in both hardware and software solutions to achieve sustainable deeptech solutions.  “Investing in both hardware and software solutions should be viewed as a symbiotic relationship rather than a disjointed effort… Investors often overlook the significance of hardware development when allocating resources and investments. By focussing primarily on software solutions, we risk neglecting the foundation upon which these innovations are built,” Kedia added.  At the heart of the development is the recently unveiled draft National Deep Tech Startup Policy. The draft document claims to be aligned to the existing Startup India policies, programmes

The Government e-marketplace (GeM) registered its highest-ever Gross Merchandise Value of Rs 2,01,113 crore during the financial year 2022-23. GeM aims to bring transparency, efficiency, and fairness to the Government procurement process. It benefits stakeholders in several ways, allowing them to participate in a fair and equitable manner. According to the government, it helps encourage fair and equitable participation from all stakeholders in the Government procurement process, fostering a competitive and efficient marketplace. It enhances transparency, promotes inclusivity, and ensures that the best products and services are procured at the most competitive prices for the Government. Earlier this year, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel said in a reply to a parliamentary question that there are 13,18,192 sellers who have registered themselves in the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) to enable them to sell their products directly to various Government departments and organisations. What is a GeM There is no definition of an active supplier on GeM. Registered suppliers decide to participate in any bid depending on their interest, availability of products and other factors. All the registered sellers have equal opportunity to participate in the marketplace and bids. Successful award of an order is contingent on the requirement given by the buyer and the ability of the seller to meet the requirement by offering the most competitive price.GeM is claimed to have achieved a cumulative GMV of more than 4.5 lakh crore until 23 July 2023 (since inception). Hence, considering the saving estimates as reported above, GeM has facilitated savings worth more than Rs 40,000 crore since its start.

ConnectedH cofounder Suresh Singh said that the startup ‘ran into certain market realities’ which could not be addressed Backed by Kalaari Capital and Incubate Fund India, the startup shutdown just two years after raising $2.3 Mn funding from marquee investors Founded in 2018 by Subham Gupta, Rahul Kumar, and Singh, ConnectedH was a full-stack B2B healthtech startup that offered CRM solutions and tools for diagnostic labs Kalaari Capital-backed ConnectedH has become the latest casualty of the funding winter as its founders decided to wind up the healthtech startup’s operations last month.  ConnectedH cofounder Suresh Singh, in a LinkedIn post, said that the startup shut shop and will return the remaining capital to the investors. He said that the startup ‘ran into certain market realities’ which could not be addressed.  “In the course, we ran into certain market realities which couldn’t be changed with the resources we had and our place in the ecosystem, which led to the decision,” added Singh.  On layoffs that occurred at the startup as a consequence of the shutdown, the cofounder noted that his ‘team members’ have been placed in their next roles.  Inc42 has reached out to Singh for a comment on the story. The article will be updated on receiving a response.  Founded in 2018 by Subham Gupta, Rahul Kumar, and Singh, ConnectedH was a full-stack B2B healthtech startup that offered CRM solutions, online report management tools and other services for diagnostic labs.  Reminiscing about his time as the cofounder of the startup, Singh said ConnectedH, over the course of five years, catered to more than 5 Lakh patients of 400-plus healthcare providers across 5 cities. The startup claimed to have built a database of 10 Mn health data points during the course of its run.  Citing numbers that nearly 95% of startups fail, Singh said ConnectedH defied ‘odds for five years’. As per Singh, the startup raised $2.5 Mn in funding during the course of its lifetime. The startup counted marquee names such as Kalaari Capital, Incubate Fund India and angel investors such as CRED’s Kunal Shah, Roman Saini of Unacademy, ShareChat’s Farid Ahsan, and OfBusiness’ Ashish Mohapatra and Ruchi Kalra among its backers. The decision to shut down came barely two years after the healthtech startup bagged $2.3 Mn in a seed funding round. Meanwhile, cofounder Singh, in his post, said he would iron out the idea of a new venture over the course of the next couple of months.  “Having been through the full spectrum of emotions and stages a founder goes through… has put me on a surer footing for what follows next. The journey shall continue. I want to be associated with this ecosystem and would be leveraging the learnings to figure out what shape and form it will take over the next couple of months,” he said.  With this, ConnectedH has joined a growing list of Indian startups that have shut shop in the past few months. Last month, Inc42 reported on how former Zynga India head, Shailesh Chaganlal Daxini, silently shut his startup Vah Vah after mass layoffs at the company.  Earlier, it emerged that Deepika Padukone-backed FrontRow shut shop in mid-June after failing to score an acquisition deal and laying off 90% of its workforce. Prior to that, Accel-backed crypto platform Pillow and coworking space provider Friyey also wound up operations.  The mass shutdowns have largely been attributed to the ongoing funding crunch in the Indian startup ecosystem. With investors focusing on profitability and sustainability now, the ecosystem has been witnessing a revamp of sorts for over the last year or so. 

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Researchers have discovered a previously unreported phishing campaign distributing info-stealing malware. According to a report by Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42, this malware can take over Facebook business accounts through malicious links masquerading as office tools like spreadsheet templates. Unlike the version Meta reported in May 2023, this new variant (NodeStealer 2.0, written in Python) can steal cryptocurrency and use Telegramto exfiltrate data as well.This indicates a growing trend of scammers targeting Facebook business accounts – for advertising fraud and financial gains. How this malware can affect usersIn December 2022, a phishing campaign was used for delivering two variants of malware. The attacker used multiple Facebook pages and users to post information luring victims to download a link from known cloud file storage providers. After clicking, a .zip file was downloaded, containing the malicious infostealer .exe files. The report has also shared an example of the Facebook phishing post luring victims to download the infected .zip file. The first variant creates various processes that could be considered abnormal activity indicators, including shutting pop-up windows on the graphical user interface (GUI). Meanwhile, the second variant is more discrete making it tougher to identify malicious activity. Both variants can steal Facebook business account credentials by connecting to the Meta Graph API with the victim’s user ID and access token. The Graph API is the primary way to get data in and out of Facebook and can be used to programmatically query data, post, manage ads and more. It is used to steal information about the target’s follower count, user verification status, whether the account is prepaid and send it to the command and control server (C2). They also attempt to steal the login credentials by checking the cookies and local databases of the most common browsers. In comparison, the second variant goes one step further by replacing the legitimate user’s email address with a mailbox under the cyberattacker’s control, thereby locking them out of the account indefinitely.

California headquartered SaaS automation startup Tekion laid off around 300 employees, or 10% of its workforce, earlier this week as part of a cost-cutting exercise, sources told Inc42. Of the 300 employees impacted by the layoffs, around 200 were from Tekion’s India office, the sources added.  The startup has offices in Bengaluru and Chennai and has a majority of its employees in India. In a town hall meeting on Monday (July 31), Tekion’s leadership team informed the employees that the startup would be conducting a restructuring exercise which would result in job cuts. Following the meeting, the impacted employees received mails about the layoffs, the sources said. The layoffs impacted employees from teams such as tech, sales, marketing, talent acquisition, human resources, among others, as per the sources.  Tekion confirmed the layoffs to Inc42 and hinted at “changing macroeconomic conditions” as the reason behind it. However, it didn’t comment on the number of employees who lost their jobs in the restructuring exercise.  “Building a large-scale business while keeping our mission intact requires us to make tough, but important business decisions; mainly organisational adjustments to navigate through changing macroeconomic conditions,” Marylou Hastert, vice-president of marketing at Tekion, told Inc42 in a statement. “This week, we have made the difficult decision to reduce a small percentage of our workforce in some areas of the business. We deeply empathise with these impacted colleagues and are working to support them with their career transitions with severance pay, outplacement assistance, and additional support through our Employee Assistance Program,” Hastert added. Multiple sources told Inc42 that Tekion failed to achieve the revenue targets which it projected to its investors earlier and this was the main reason behind the layoffs. Besides, the startup is also rebuilding some of its products as they failed to generate revenue, they added. Amid all these, Tekion also lost many of its clients over the last few months, as per the sources. Founded by former Tesla CIO Jay Vijayan in 2016, Tekion is a cloud-native SaaS platform that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to bring together original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), retailers/dealers and consumers on a single platform. The startup offers an end-to-end dealer management system, where dealers can review vehicle inventory and service department metrics.  The latest development comes almost 1.5 years after Tekion raised $250 Mn in a funding round, which tripled its valuation to $3.5 Bn. The funding round was co-led by Alkeon Capital and Durable Capital.  Tekion entered the coveted unicorn club in 2020 after it bagged $150 Mn from Index Ventures, Exor, the holding company of Ferrari, and FM Capital, among others. The startup has raised a total funding of $435 Mn till date and counts Hyundai Motor Company, General Motors, and BMW i Ventures among its backers.  The startup claims to work with lead vehicle manufacturers such as Lamborghini, Lexus, Mercedes Benz, Aston Martin, Lyft, among others.  The development comes at a time when multiple SaaS startups have laid off employees in the recent past amid the ongoing funding winter. Earlier this week, Inc42 exclusively reported that Increff laid off around 20% of its workforce. Prior to that Suumit Shah-led Dukaan laid off 30% of its workforce.  Amid macroeconomic headwinds and global economic slowdown, many global giants such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, and X (earlier known as Twitter) also undertook layoff exercises over the last year or so which resulted in many employees in their Indian offices also losing jobs. 

Imagine a startup company called NP that is run by John, a charismatic but unproductive entrepreneur. John had lofty aspirations, but his management approach was far from ideal. He frequently took important decisions without consulting his team, which caused uncertainty and discontent among them. Low morale and an unpleasant work environment were the results of John’s lack of transparency and communication. As a result, NP found it difficult to realize its full potential and struggled to find and keep outstanding personnel. This story serves as a reminder that successful startups need more than just a clear vision; they also need motivating leaders who can create an environment where their people may flourish. In this article, we will explore seven essential tips for startup founders to inspire success and build a strong organizational culture. Tip #1: Lead by Example Great leaders motivate their teams by leading by example. Display your commitment to the startup’s objective, your work ethic, and your passion. Show your colleagues that you are not afraid to tackle obstacles and get your hands dirty. Employees will be more inspired to follow your lead and put up their best effort if they observe you leading from the front. Additionally, setting a positive example for your team builds mutual respect and trust, which promotes candid dialogue and a cooperative work atmosphere. Tip #2: Communicate Transparently Building trust and promoting a positive workplace culture both depend on open communication. Inform your group on the startup’s objectives, developments, and difficulties. Encourage open dialogue and pay attention to the opinions and suggestions of your staff. Transparency not only enables team members to take responsibility of their roles and duties but also aids in everyone’s understanding of the wider picture. Tip #3: Nurture a Positive Work Environment Team motivation and productivity depend on a positive work environment. Encourage an environment where staff members feel appreciated, backed up, and recognized for their accomplishments. Celebrate success, no matter how minor, and offer helpful criticism to promote development. Provide opportunities for skill growth and foster a sense of community among the team members. Tip #4: Encourage Innovation and Risk-Taking Encourage the creative problem-solving and calculated risk-taking of your team. Startups thrive on innovation, and encouraging people to try new things and learn from mistakes can result in ground-breaking concepts and solutions. Recognize and honor creative thinking in order to promote a culture of continual growth. photo credit: Ketut Subiyanto / Pexelsleadership Tip #5: Set Clear Goals and Expectations Your team will have direction and drive from clear, attainable goals. Engage your staff in the goal-setting process by breaking down larger objectives into more attainable tasks. Everyone is more likely to stay focused and in line with the company’s goal when they are aware of their responsibilities and how they contribute to the success of the company. Tip #6: Foster a Growth Mindset A growth attitude is essential for the success of startups. Encourage your staff to view obstacles as chances to improve and learn. Establish a culture that encourages education and skill advancement, whether it be through workshops, classes, or mentorship initiatives. A team that prioritizes growth will be more flexible and resilient when faced with change. Tip #7: Prioritize Work-Life Balance For employee well-being and productivity, it’s crucial to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Encourage your employees to emphasize self-care and take breaks. By setting an example in your own life, you can inspire others. Employees are more likely to perform at their highest level at work when they feel supported in their personal lives. Takeaway By adopting these seven suggestions into your leadership style as a startup entrepreneur, you will greatly boost the possibility of motivating success in your startup. You can create an environment where your team is motivated, engaged, and prepared to take on any challenge by setting an example, communicating openly, cultivating a positive work environment, encouraging innovation, setting clear goals, cultivating a growth mindset, and placing a priority on work-life balance. Remember that your leadership sets the tone for the whole company, so put these suggestions to use and watch your startup succeed. Don’t be like John.

Last year, X (previously Twitter) sued the government, challenging some of the block orders on tweets and accounts that the central authorities alleged were spreading misinformation about anti-government protests by farmers. A year later, Karnataka High Court dismissed Twitter‘s plea challenging the government’s orders and fined the company Rs 50,00,000.Now the company has sought to quash the decision by the Karnataka court. According to a report by news agency Reuters, X argued in a 96-page filing that if its appeal is rejected, the government “will be emboldened to issue more blocking orders” that violate law. It added that there must be “discernible parameters” on what mandates the blocking of an entire account instead of a specific post, otherwise, the government’s “power to censor future content is untrammelled”. In its original lawsuit, the company claimed that some block orders by the government “pertain to political content that is posted by official handles of political parties” and even alleged that New Delhi threatened to open criminal proceedings against its chief compliance officer in the country if Twitter didn’t comply with orders.“Blocking of such information is a violation of the freedom of speech guaranteed to citizen-users of the platform. Further, the content at issue does not have any apparent proximate relationship to the grounds under Section 69A,” it argued.Ex-Twitter CEO’s ‘threats’ claimsIn an interview earlier this year, Twitter’s former CEO Jack Dorsey claimed that the government had many requests to take down content “around farmers’ protest, around particular journalists that were critical of the government.” He also alleged that the company was threatened with shutting down Twitter in India and raid the homes of employees.His remarks drew immediate criticism from the government and IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar termed Dorsey’s claim as an “outright lie”. The minister also said that Twitter “behaved as if the laws of India did not apply to it.” The court ruled that Twitter was served notices, to which it did not comply, Chandrasekhar said in a tweet.

“In this industry, it’s like you’re starting this company, but the company solely relies on this one individual to be able to perform,” he says. “And that is absolutely a horrible business model. It’s way too high-risk.” Van Den Bussche and his creative team began trying to reverse engineer what made creators successful. “We started testing a lot of theories on this,” he says. “We needed evidence: How much does the voice influence the performance with the fans? How much does the face influence it? How much does the content influence it?” In April 2021, Van Den Bussche launched a YouTube channel with a virtual YouTuber (vtuber) called Bloo that he developed, powered by AI. Since then, Bloo has gained 775,000 subscribers, with each video watched by tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of viewers. “He’s a completely virtual influencer with a protocol and set steps and a bunch of AI and machine learning applications involved in the system,” he says. “Now we’re applying that model to my IP and my friends’. It includes voice cloning, so it sounds like me.” The Kwebbelkop videos made by AI—the first of which dropped on Tuesday—are powered by models trained on Van Den Bussche’s existing content. “It’s modeled after me and my creativity and my input,” he says. “Everyone thinks I’m retiring as a creator and letting this AI run, but I’m not retiring as a creative.” While not retiring, Van Den Bussche is happy to replace himself in the creative process with the AI he’s been working on. “We’ve seen a lot of success with these systems,” he says. “I’m very confident that they can reproduce creativity—so much so that I’m willing to bet my entire business on it.” As of this writing, the AI video he released Tuesday has nearly 3,000 views. He claims to have a wait list of 500 influencer friends within the industry eager to adopt his AI tools, though he can’t give them access until the cost of creating new videos drops to an economical level, which he believes will happen as technology advances. “This presents an entirely new option for creators to essentially clone themselves and continue without worrying about aging, gaining weight, or otherwise evolving in any way that could alienate certain segments of their audience,” says Lia Haberman, an influencer marketing expert and instructor at UCLA. However, Haberman isn’t fully convinced audiences will want to embrace AI-generated creators as readily as the creators themselves are. Their appeal “is their humanity and ability to create these parasocial relationships with their audience where people either relate to them or aspire to become them,” she says. “A virtual influencer will only ever present as entertainment, at least until we get to sentient beings.” Nevertheless, Van Den Bussche hopes that it’ll encourage those who previously stepped away from online video because of the stresses involved. “That’s the one really big use case we’re focusing on right now,” he says. “People who have an existing brand, want to continue this existing brand, but are facing a human problem like the one we had. Every YouTuber and every influencer who has ever retired has experienced that,” he says.