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Bits and Bytes: Know about startup, business news in Pune
Syngenta India partnered with IoTechWorld Avigation for facilitating introduction of drone spraying across India
Clean-tech Startup PadCare closes Rs.5 crore seed funding round to boost growth
PadCare Labs, a Pune-based startup for sustainable sanitary waste processing and recycling, has closed on R 5 crore seed funding round led by Social Alpha with strategic investments from Lavni Ventures, 3i partners, Rainmatter, and Spectrum Impact.
PadCare plans to utilise the seed capital to expand the operating geographies in India and beyond in the next 24 months, majorly to set up decentralized material recovery centres. The clean-tech startup will also continue to invest heavily in advancing its patented 5D recycling technology and for product commercialisation.
Ajinkya Dhariya, ounder and CEO, PadCare said, “Our special sanitary pad disposal bins and vending machines are already serving 1 million menstruators in the country. With the seed investment, we look forward to expanding our sustainable menstrual hygiene management services to residential buildings and communities. We have set up two sanitary waste material recovery centres now and aim to commission six more by FY2023.”
Syngenta, IoTech join hands to facilitate drone spraying
Syngenta India partnered with IoTechWorld Avigation for facilitating introduction of drone spraying across India. Under this agreement, the two companies will work on creating employment opportunities for rural youth by training and preparing them for using drone technology.
In the first phase, 200 rural youth will be trained and employed for spraying. Large-scale trials over 400 acres were conducted and data submitted to regulators for 20 crops, informed Susheel Kumar, MD, Syngenta India. IoTech’s drone Agribot is being used across all of Syngenta’s spray services and products.
Syngenta and IoTech will work together to encourage 200 agri-entrepreneurs and village-level entrepreneurs developed by Syngenta Foundation India to partner in this program. IoTech will provide drone pilot training and help obtain pilot license to interested individuals, support Syngenta in Drone Fleet Management, as well as promote spray services using only approved Syngenta chemicals.
Deepak Bhardwaj, director, IoTechWorld Avigation, said, “We are revolutionising the way spraying is done in India and helping rapid and advanced mechanisation of Indian agriculture. Along with Syngenta, we want to help farmers in getting best utilization and results of plant protection chemicals, save cost, and get better output. We also want to contribute to generating employment in rural areas by developing agri-entrepreneurs.”
Defence MSME Conclave held at Khadki Ammunition Factory
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in association with Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence, Govt of India organised a Defence MSME Conclave under the MoD Scheme for Promotion of MSMEs in Defence at Ammunition Factory, Khadki, MIL, Pune. Several policy initiatives undertaken by the Government in the past few years to encourage indigenous design, development, and manufacture of defence equipment, to promote self-reliance in defence manufacturing & technology along with rise of future smart technologies present MSMEs and Start-ups with huge opportunities opined various experts at the conclave.
The half day programme brought all relevant stakeholders together on a common platform to develop Defence MSMEs /startups Industry which in turn could strengthen India’s indigenous defence production and defence exports.
Surendra Prasad Yadav, joint secretary (land systems), DDP, MoD, Government of India, said “Self-reliance in defence is non-negotiable. A durable national security requires credible defence capabilities, development of infrastructure, strategic technology management and establishment of a self-reliance defence industry at the forefront of government policy. The country has aggressively moved in the direction of being self-reliant and a global supplier. Product linked Incentive schemes have been launched by the government to increase the production in the country and this offers great opportunity to MSMEs.”
Blockfenders secures ₹12.5 crore pre-seed funding round
Data analytics startup Blockfenders announced ₹12.5 crore pre-seed funding round from a range of institutional and angel investors. The round saw participation from investors including Blume Ventures, Together Fund, Veda VC, Behind Genius Ventures, Better Capital, Arka Venture Labs, Global Devc, FortyTwo, Eximius, GSF Fund, Pointone, Upsparks, and industry leaders like founder and chairman of Persistent Systems, Dr. Anand Deshpande, etc.
Headquartered in Palo Alto and with an operational office in Pune, Blockfenders was co-founded in 2022 by Viraj Phanse and Niranjan Ingale with the aim of making it easier to securely exchange data across borders. In just nine months, Blockfenders has grown to a team of 10 and plans to use its pre-seed funding to grow the team further, build new capabilities like supporting multiple data sources and tokenization.
Blockfenders co-founder Viraj Phanse commented: “Enterprises, healthcare and financial services organizations want to share data internally and externally to meet their business and operational goals. Although this is a top priority of their IT, data and security leaders, data sharing while enhancing data privacy and security, is not easy and secure. Blockfenders solves these challenges by making data sharing as simple as sharing photos on the phone. We are democratizing data sharing by enabling business, research, and non-technical folks to share data from their own environment without writing any code or worrying about privacy, security, and implementation.”
HR Tech platform JobStrot launches operations in Pune
Adhaan Solutions’ JobStrot, a recruitment platform that utilizes advanced technology to help freelancer recruiters, launched its operations in Pune region. The platform digitises the process of finding candidates and offers numerous benefits to freelancers and recruiters by adding dashboard-based updates, transparency, and an opportunity to drastically enhance their income due to the 40 per cent revenue-sharing mechanism.
Bhavna Udernani, MD of Adhaan Solutions, commented, “JobStrot has onboarded independent recruiters all around India, allowing clients to find recruiters who specialize in their industry. JobStrot is beneficial for small and medium-sized businesses that may not have the resources to conduct a nationwide search on their own. The platform utilizes advanced technology to make the job search process easier. Intuitive dashboard, auto invoice generation, automatic agreement generation, duplicity removal, security and cloud-based tech features are the pillars for JobStort to make it scalable, easy to use, and secure.”
