TENDERCUTS EXPANDS ITS FOOTPRINT IN BENGALURU!

Bengaluru, 15^th July 2021:TenderCuts, India’s first omni-channel and tech-driven fresh meat and seafood Company, sets foot in Bengaluru with the launch of its offline stores and online delivery.  

Currently, the residents in vicinities of JP Nagar, Koramangala and HSR Layout would be the first group of privileged customers to have an exciting purchasing experience of buying meat and seafood from an organized retail store, as this would be the first organized meat and seafood retail store in Bengaluru.  The brand would be strengthening its presence in Bengaluru with addition of more stores in the coming months across different neighbourhoods. 

Commenting on this milestone, Mr. Nishanth Chandran, Founder & CEO at TenderCuts stated, “Since our first launch in Chennai in 2016, our experience has been nothing short of extraordinary. We are humbled by the response we have received from our customers, which has helped us to grow and become as one of the most preferred brand for purchase of hygienic meat and seafood. With our expertise as the market leader in Hyderabad and Chennai, TenderCuts takes a leap ahead into the Bangalore market with constant passion towards delivering the highest quality of fresh meat and seafood. 

Currently, TenderCuts is the only meat and seafood start-up that follows an omni-channel business model (online and retail) which helps in maintaining absolute freshness in the products. Once a customer places an order for a meat product, the order is directed towards the nearest TenderCuts store in the neighbourhood and the butcher slices the meat/seafood only after the order is received and it is not cut and stored prior.  

We process our orders in compliance to WHO and FSSAI standards, and the order is delivered within two hours after the initial cut, to ensure that our customers are assured of freshly cut meat and seafood at any point of time. Our farm-to-fork approach has set new benchmarks in the fresh cuts meats industry, with a diverse application of food technology to the selection, processing, preservation, packaging, distribution of fresh cut meat and seafood” 

  

In continuation to its steady growth of expansion, TenderCuts has recently raised INR 110 crore (USD 15 million) in a round led by Paragon Partners, a mid-market PE fund with participation from NABVENTURES, an agri-food tech VC fund backed by NABARD. In addition to the capital received from NABARD, TenderCuts also leverages NABARD’s network of over 5000 plus farmer producer organisations which includes over 1 million farmers, which helps TenderCuts to augment its supply chain, by establishing direct partnerships with local farming and fishing communities and strong backward links to guarantee absolute freshness. 

Customers can opt to purchase products of TenderCuts from the stores directly or they can order online through the TenderCuts app (Available on app store and Google play store), website : www.tendercuts.in or reach +91 89390 91091. TenderCuts has also introduced Contactless retail services to help customers to pick a slot, book their order and pick up from the store directly and ensure social distancing is maintained. 

 

About TenderCuts:
Established in 2016 by Nishanth Chandran, TenderCuts is India’s first omnichannel meat and seafood brand with a vision to provide clean, hygienic, and quality meat and seafood to the customers. It begins its operations with one store in Chennai with one category chicken and today it has 25 stores across Chennai and Hyderabad and offers chicken, mutton, seafood, marinades, pickles, and eggs under one roof.
Customers can buy the freshly cut and freshly packed meat and seafood from their nearby stores or can order online via APP or website and get it delivered at their doorsteps. All their meats and seafood are halal certified and stringently follow the FSSAI and WHO guidelines from sourcing till last-mile delivery to the customer's doorstep. 

TenderCuts plans to expand its current operations and pursue organic and inorganic growth opportunities with the current funding. The funds will also allow the company to invest in scaling up its supply chain and technology infrastructure to support innovation and accessibility of its products and services. 

 

Aakash Institute student Pullela Lalit Ritwik from Bengaluru becomes State Topper by securing Karnataka Rank 1 in Indian Olympiad Qualifier in Biology (IOQB) Exam

 Bengaluru, 7^th July 2021:  In an impressive result, Pullela Lalit Ritwik from Aakash Institute’s HSR Layout branch in Bengaluru has topped the prestigious Indian Olympiad Qualifier in Biology (IOQB) Exam. He has secured Karnataka state Rank 1 in IOQB which is the second stage exam of the Indian National Level Science Olympiad. The examination is organized by the Association of Teachers in Biological Sciences in association with Indian Association of Physics Teachers and Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE). Each year over 30,000 students of 12th Standard or below, sit for this examination.  

IOQB is intended for students of 12th standard, though 11th standard students are also allowed to give the examination. There is a designated statewise quota according to which the students are selected for the next stage. Further all students scoring greater than 80% of the average of the top ten scores at national level (called as Merit Index Score) get automatically selected irrespective of the statewise quota.  

Congratulating Pullela Lalit Ritwik on the impressive results, Mr Aakash Chaudhry, Managing Director, Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL) said: “We are very proud of our student who has achieved an exemplary result even in this tough situation. We would like to congratulate him on clearing IOQB exam 2021. This is a huge step towards achieving his NEET/JEE dreams. We would also like to thank the parents for extending support. The credit goes to the hard work put in by our students and faculties as well as the quality test preparation imparted at the institute. I wish them all the best for the next round.” 

On the basis of performance in IOQB, the top students in the merit list are selected for Stage III Orientation Camp (OC) in biology. The selected team undergoes a rigorous training programme at HBCSE in theory and experiments. Special laboratories have been developed at HBCSE for the purpose of experimental training. Resource persons from HBCSE and different institutions across the country train the students. 

The Olympiad programme culminates with the participation of the Indian students (4-6 in each subject) in the International Olympiads.   

Aakash Institute aims to help students in their quest to achieve academic success. It has a centralized in-house process for curriculum and content development and faculty training and monitoring, led by its National Academic Team. Over the years, students from Aakash have proven selection track record in various Medical & Engineering Entrance Exams, Competitive and Olympiads. 

About Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL)



Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL) provides comprehensive test preparatory services for students preparing for Medical (NEET) and Engineering Entrance Examinations (JEE), School/Board Exams and Competitive Exams such as NTSE, KVPY, and Olympiads. The “Aakash” brand is associated with quality coaching and a proven student selection track record in various Medical (NEET) and JEE/Engineering Entrance Examinations, Scholarship exams & Olympiads.



With over 33 years of operational experience in the test preparatory industry, the company has a large number of selections in Medical & Engineering Entrance Exams and several Foundation level Scholarship exams/Olympiads, a pan India network of 200+ Aakash Centers (including franchisee), and an annual student count of more than 250,000.



The Aakash group has investment from Think & Learn Pvt Ltd (BYJU'S) as well as by world's largest Private Equity firm Blackstone.



www.aakash.ac.in

Airtel launches ‘Airtel Black’ – India’s first all-in-one solution for Homes

 

• Bengaluru, 2^nd July 2021: Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s premier communications solutions provider announced the launch of its latest innovation Airtel Black – India’s first all-in-one solution for homes.  
  
  In today’s world, the customer’s home has become the single place for both work life and personal life. The need for high speed data, the need for entertainment at home and the need for seamless connectivity on mobile, is now one holistic need.   
  
  Yet these services have historically been bought and managed, as individual services. Customers have expressed their frustration on multiple bills to be paid on different due dates across the months, services getting switched off due to forgotten recharges, and difficulty in managing services from multiple local service providers. We decided to innovate to solve this customer problem. 
  
  Airtel Black is the new program for the discerning, quality-seeking customers. A customer can bundle 2 or more of Airtel services (Fiber, DTH, Mobile) together to become Airtel Black – which entitles the customer for one single bill, one Customer Care number with a dedicated team of relationship managers, and priority resolution of faults and issues. All of this, also comes with amazing value of zero-switching and installation costs coupled with free service visits for life. 
  
  Airtel Black elevates the customer experience with a host of industry-first features: 

• Simplify your life: Airtel Black is super convenient and liberates customers from the hassle of managing multiple bill payment dates, navigating customer care IVRs, or interacting with separate service providers. 
• Get the Priority you deserve: A customer will connect to a care representative within 60 seconds of calling. The team of experts managing the customer relationship keeps in touch for all your requirements and solves them on a priority basis. All service visits needed for your service come to you on priority, and free of charge. 
• No TV service disconnection: Airtel Black also helps customers enjoy uninterrupted TV viewing, due to DTH being offered as a billed service. All the user needs is to pay their one bill monthly.  
• Customise it to your needs: Airtel Black offers a simple feature where users have full choice of selecting their suitable plans for each service, and then bundle them together for billing.   
  
  Says Shashwat Sharma, Director – Marketing and Communications, Bharti Airtel: “Airtel Black is another step in our obsession for solving our customer problems at Airtel. This squarely addresses the need for convenience and peace of mind for our customers, as they navigate their lives in the new normal. As an integrated operator, Airtel is uniquely positioned to deliver an exceptional experience on all home services –Fiber, DTH and Mobile, to our customers. And Airtel Black is focussed on doing just that.” 

Paytm launches Postpaid Mini, expands its Buy Now Pay Later service Paytm Postpaid, to offer small-ticket instant loans to help users manage monthly expenses

Bengaluru, 5th July 2021: India’s leading digital financial services platform Paytm announced the launch of Postpaid Mini,an extension of its Buy Now, Pay Later service, driving affordability amongst those new to credit. These small ticket instant loans will give flexibility to users and also help manage their household expenses to maintain liquidity during the ongoing pandemic. This service has been launched in partnership with Aditya Birla Finance Ltd.



With the launch of Postpaid Mini, the company will offer access to loans ranging from Rs 250 to Rs 1000, in addition to Paytm Postpaid’s instant credit of upto Rs 60,000. This will help users pay for their monthly expenses, including mobile & DTH recharges, gas cylinder booking, electricity & water bills, shop on Paytm Mall and more. With this service, Paytm Postpaid is offering a period of up to 30-days for repayment of loans at 0% interest. There are no annual fees or activation charges, only a minimal convenience fee.



Through Paytm Postpaid, users can pay at online and offline merchant stores across the country and not have to worry about upsetting their monthly budgets. Paytm Postpaid is currently accepted at thousands of petrol pumps, neighbourhood kirana stores or pharmacy shops, popular chain outlets (such Reliance Fresh, Apollo Pharmacy, etc.), internet apps (such as Myntra, Firstcry, Uber, Dominos, Ajio, Pharmeasy, etc.) and popular retail destinations (such as Shoppers Stop, Croma, etc.) among others. Paytm Postpaid is available in over 550 cities in India.



Bhavesh Gupta, CEO - Paytm Lending said, "We want to help new-to-credit citizens start their credit journey and develop a financial discipline. Through Postpaid we are also making sincere attempts to help drive consumption in the economy. Our new Postpaid Mini service helps users manage their liquidity by clearing their bills or payments on time."

Sportz Village’s Active Club Ensures that Children can Play Anytime Anywhere and Remain Fit During the Pandemic

 Bengaluru, 5^th July 2021: Sportz Village, World’s No. 1 youth sports organization on a mission to get 100 million kids to play, ensures that children remain active and fit during the pandemic, through Active Club- A special virtual program targeted at children between the ages of 4 to 19 years. Close to 40,000 children have used the Active Club platform to get active and healthy.  

Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic as well as with continuous lockdowns, children are spending more time at home as schools remain shut. Covid or No Covid, physical activity and play are imperative for a child’s holistic development. Therefore, there is a requirement to make home a child’s new playground.  

 

 With the ongoing covid crisis in the country, Sportz Village was quick to adapt to the digital world and come up with a virtual program called Active Club for children between the ages of 4 to 19 years in 2020.  

 

Benefits of Active Club Program:  Better Physical Health  Better Mental Health  Opportunity to Interact with Peers

The program intends to include sports and fitness as a part of a child’s daily routine. The program not only ensures that children get to play and have fun but also lays a foundation towards their sports journey. The instructor-led program revolves around getting children and parents to subscribe to different online training modules wherein certified trainers would train the children on various age-appropriate, sports-specific fitness activities. Moreover, since the child would be performing the physical activities at a particular distance from the screen, the probability of straining one's eyes is reduced.  

 

Customized activities around martial arts, yoga and general fitness were well-received by children with Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune being the most active cities.  

 

Speaking about the Active Club program, Saumil Majmudar, Co-founder and Group CEO, Sportz Village said, “With an aim to revolutionize the way fitness and sports can be implemented in a child’s routine, we were quick to adapt to the new normal and conceptualize the idea of Active Club. We had an overwhelming response in the past year and hope to reach more children through our program. Holistic development of children has been the prime focus for Sportz Village and though Active Club we have tried to ensure that children stay active, healthy, and happy during these difficult times.” 

 

SIDBI rolls out developmental measures, celebrating ‘World MSME Day’ as a ‘Developmental Week’

 Bengaluru, 2^nd July 2021:Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), the principal financial institution engaged in the promotion, financing and development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), has rolled out various developmental measures for MSMEs celebrating the World MSME Day of June 27, 2021 in the form of a ‘Developmental Week’. 

Under its project SAHAS, SIDBI has soft launched “Swavalamban Chair for MSME Solutions”, at Government Engineering College, Thrissur. The Chair shall have action research and inducing entrepreneurship culture as its core thrust. It is supported by Swavalamaban Resource Facility which has been set up in partnership with Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, United Kingdom. It shall bring product/process solutions to enterprises in the region, support youth under mentorship of professors to map the local pain points, shape their solutions/idea, test, validate and launch their entrepreneurial ventures. The Chair shall also foster inter-college learnings.  

Shri Sivasubramanian Ramann, Chairman and Managing Director of SIDBI said, “Our role is to empower entrepreneurs and encourage entrepreneurship during these challenging times. Keeping this in mind, through the various initiatives, we are planning to support the enterprise development cycle comprising ideation, setting up, revive and thrive as also stepping up. On one hand we are working towards identifying more livelihood entrepreneurs and on the other hand we are taking steps to build their capacity for emerging stronger. With these measures fructifying, we hope to create a society with more job creators rather than job seekers.”  

 

With an objective to handhold budding entrepreneurs, SIDBI has provided support to Confederation of Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (CIMSME) for setting up ‘Swavalamban Suvidha Kendra’. The Kendra shall address information asymmetry challenges and render responsive solutions to inquisitive youth, serve anxious enterprises facing Covid challenges, assist in Udyam registration and enable Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) to go for digital solutions like Udyamimitra portal, Standupmitra portal, PSB Loans in 59 minutes etc.   

SIDBI has also felicitated Covid responsive MSEs and associations by sponsoring meals on their behalf through Akshay Patra Foundation for Covid impacted population. SIDBI has distributed 2.10 lakh meals during this Covid period.  Also, to showcase the emerging entrepreneurs and job creators, SIDBI has, under its Mission 10000 Swavalambis initiative, documented their stories. These inspirational stories are aimed at shaping dreams of aspirational Bharat and help them walk the job creator journey.  

SIDBI has also entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ‘Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship’ to help MSMEs address their challenges faced during the Covid crisis. The broad themes covered under the MoU include expanding credit access, increasing formalization, building competitive clusters, and improving the legal framework for ease of doing business. 

To identify entrepreneurial opportunities for migrant population impacted by Covid, rapid profiling in 11 states namely, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu has been carried out. In these states, SIDBI has setup Project Management Units based on the recommendations of the UK Sinha Committee on MSMEs. The inputs are expected to facilitate decisions on entrepreneurial ventures at local/regional levels. 

  

About SIDBI: Since its formation in 1990, SIDBI has been impacting the lives of citizens across various strata of the society through its integrated, innovative and inclusive approach. Be it traditional, domestic small entrepreneurs, bottom-of-the-pyramid entrepreneurs, to high-end knowledge-based entrepreneurs, SIDBI has directly or indirectly touched the lives of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) through various credit and developmental engagements. SIDBI 2.0 carries the vision of inclusive, innovative and impact-oriented engagements.   

To know more, check out: https://www.sidbi.in 

WinZO Raises $65 Million in Series C to “Accelerate Growth in the Indian Interactive Entertainment Industry”

 Bengaluru, 1^st July 2021:  WinZO, India’s top gaming and entertainment platform, has raised $65 million in a Series C funding round, led by California-based Griffin Gaming Partners, taking the total tally of capital raised by the Company to $90 million. Griffin is making its first ever investment in India in WinZO, India’s largest multiplayer gaming platform. This financing follows only eight months after the company raised its Series B from returning investors Makers Fund, Courtside Ventures, and Steve Pagliuca, Co-Chairman of Bain Capital. Phil Sanderson, Co-Founder of Griffin Gaming Partners, will join WinZO’s board of directors. 

  

With a focus on competitive multiplayer gaming experiences, WinZO’s mission is to create a culturally relevant mobile games platform with broad-based adoption. WinZO seeks to position itself at the forefront of Indian gaming culture with an expansive influencer network catering to more than 50 million registered users. The platform is currently offered in 12 languages, unlocking demographics that have historically gone underserved. 

  

WinZO’s Series C raise represents yet another meaningful milestone reached by the company since its establishment in 2018. The company has grown its revenues tenfold over the last 12 months, and has partnered with over 100 leading game developers to realize the full potential of the Indian mobile gaming market through in-game integration of WinZO’s social gaming framework.   

  

“We are super excited to partner with the Griffin team,” said Paavan Nanda, co-founder, WinZO.“Their incredible experience and precious insights across the global media & entertainment landscape shall be valuable as we continue to disrupt the Indian gaming ecosystem. With this raise, we plan to grow much faster and become an even more lovable product for our consumers. WinZO is poised and strategically well positioned to be one of the first 'Made in India' products that will rule the world in coming years." 

  

“We are excited to make Griffin Gaming Partners’ first investment in India backing WinZO, the company behind the largest social gaming app in the country,” commented Nick Tuosto, Co-Founder, of Griffin Gaming Partners and Managing Director and Head of Gaming at LionTree. “The company is led by best-in-class management with an extraordinary product vision. We saw in WinZO’s games incredible retention and monetization metrics we believe set the company up for continued explosive growth and are proud to support the team on the journey.”  

  

“WinZO’s growth is a testament to the value the company is unlocking in the Indian market.” commented Michael Cheung, General Partner, Makers Fund. “We are excited to continue to support WinZO and their leadership team who combine expertise and unique local insights with a strong vision to grow the Indian games and entertainment sector.”