Homegrown

JioSaavn was the only homegrown service that scored over 8 out of 10 on an index we came up with on the coverage of western music. Global services ruled the top four, with Spotify and Apple Music sharing the top slot (9.3/10)—a sign of resource-rich global apps signing deals with more music companies to offer more western albums. Each app’s rating is the average of its ratings on 10 individual genres, which in turn are based on how successful we…

The Indian government is pushing smartphone makers to enable support for its NavIC navigation system in new devices sold in the country from next year, a move that has spooked the industry due to additional costs and tight time frame.Below are the details of NavIC's inception, why India wants smartphone makers to adopt it and how the system compares to other global or regional navigation systems.What is NavIC?NavIC, or Navigation with Indian Constellation, is an independent stand-alone navigation satellite system…

Homegrown Twitter rival Koo has laid off at least 40 people, mostly from its operations and backend teams, and the micro-blogging platform said on Thursday that it is realigning its workforce aceto the current business requirements".The development was first reported by leading startup news portal Inc42, which said that Koo CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna is currently abroad, seeking a fresh round of funding.A Koo spokesperson told IANS thatAthe platform is at a phase of rapid growth as it steers digital inclusion for native…

B2B digital marketplace for small businesses Solv on Monday said it has raised $40 million in its latest round of funding led by Japans SBI Holdings with participation from SC Ventures.The round took Solv's total funding to nearly $80 million to date. Solv said it has become India's fastest growing B2B marketplace, with more than 220,000 KYC-verified MSMEs base and a 10 times growth of gross merchandise value (GMV) with 60% repeats."This strategic partnership and investment will give us significant tailwinds and help us…

Homegrown electric vehicle (EV) charging network provider Statiq on Thursday said it has received $25.7 million in a Series A funding led by Shell Ventures.The company will use the funds to invest in product engineering and network infrastructure as well as reinforcing the core team."Securing the first closing of our Series A ensures delivering on value-enhancing growth options already secured by Statiq, as we set out to build India's leading EV charging services company," said Akshit Bansal, Co-Founder and CEO,…

Indian electronics and accessories maker, Noise, has launched its first pair of smart eyewear, called Noise i1. The product, priced at ₹5,999, is identical to what audio brand Bose had introduced in December 2018 with Bose Frames. It will allow users to stream music wirelessly and also attend phone calls. Noise i1 uses Bluetooth 5.1 to pair with smartphones and stream music through them. It also has touch controls integrated into one of the stalks of the frames, which…

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) company Mensa Brands on Tuesday said it has acquired homegrown smart wearable brand Pebble for an undisclosed sum.Founded in 2013 by Ajay Agarwal and Komal Agarwal, the acquisition will strengthen Pebble's online footprint in the country.Mensa Brands registered net revenue run rate of Rs 1,500 crore in the first 12 months of operations.It has become India's largest D2C tech-led house of brands with over 20 brands across fashion, beauty and lifestyle categories under its umbrella."In the…

NEW DELHI : Gurugram-based Gouri Sinha, 69, is impressed with her new smartwatch, which keeps track of walks, sleep quality and heart rate. The budget device made by China’s Amazfit supports Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa offers weather updates with voice commands, and a large collection of watch faces. Sinha is one among a growing number of users who prefer a budget wearable device. However, manufacturers realize the need to innovate and add more features even to the…