Funding Roundup: Five Startups Who Attracted Investors’ Eye Yesterday

Missed out your daily updates? Eager to know which investors has backed the startups? Entrepreneur India brings to you the latest update on the current funding scenario so that you don’t miss single news from the startup world.

Goalwise:

An online investment firm Goalwise has secured $1 million (Rs. 6.8 cr) from a bunch of High Net-Worth Individuals (HNIs). The venture plans to utilize the funds to scale up their technological, analytical and operations infrastructure.

Goalwise, founded by Swapnil Bhaskar and Ankur Choudhary, both IIT Kanpur alumni and Savitri Bobde, St. Xavier’s alumnus early this year, is the Bangalore-based startup that runs on its self-designed algorithms for investment advisory, mutual fund selection, as well as a goal tracking technology called GoalSense.

“It’s like having an intelligent personal investment manager available online for free, Goalwise does not charge users for advisory and investment services. We earn brokerage from mutual fund companies on the investments made with them. This is usually in the range of 0.5 – 1.00 per cent per annum for equity mutual funds and 0.1-0.5 per cent for debt mutual funds. Through our extensive use of data, we have established a scientific, performance driven fund selection strategy. The selection process is not biased by the brokerage we get,” said Bhaskar.

This fin-tech startup will look at raising about $5 million in the next three to four months.

AddressHealth:

The Bengaluru-based company, AddressHealth has secured $1.5 million in Series A funding led by Gray Matters Capital with participation from existing investor, Unitus Seed Fund.

Operated under, Primary healthcare network the company runs school-based neighbourhood clinics and school health programs. The venture plans to use this investment to expand the model to other schools in Bangalore.

Founded in 2010 by Doctors Anand Lakshman and Anoop Radhakrishnan, the company has reached more than 1 lakh children through on-site services and screening programs to identify health issues and them with intervention.

Commenting the recent investment Bob Pattillo, CEO and Founder, Gray Matters Capital, said “With its market-based model for pediatric healthcare, AddressHealth has served more than 100,000 children already; what I believe to be a fraction of their future potential.”

Cloudwell:

Aavishkaar Frontier Fund has invested $2 million in Bangladesh-based CloudWell Limited. It is the third transaction from its South and South-east Asia.

The company will utilize this investment to accelerate its growth and scale up its nationwide network.

Startup is a payment solution provider that enables agent-based last mile payment solutions to a host of service providers such as telecom operators, mobile financial services players and other billers under the brand name ‘PayWell’.

Eatonomist

An online food-tech startup, Eatonomist has secured an undisclosed amount of funding in its seed round led by MCube Capital Advisors Private Limited. This Gurgaon-based startup plans to utilized this funds for marketing and building brand.

Started by Dhar and Nupur Khanna in November 2014, the startup is operated under Fitmeal Solutions Private Limited. It is an online food technology venture that delivers meals prepared at its kitchens.

Hoppingo:

A Delhi-based fashion discovery platform, Hoppingo has secured $ 89,000 from vCommission, a subsidiary of Adways VC India Private Limited. Operated under Survar Media Private limited, Startup offers around 800 e-stores across categories like mobile, laptop, tablet, television, wearable tech, computer peripherals and accessories, kitchen and home appliances.

Stay Tuned to Entrepreneur.com to know the latest update of Startup World.

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8 Reasons to Launch Your Startup Outside of Silicon Valley

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In the second quarter of 2014, roughly  invested in startups was invested in those located in Silicon Valley. For startups not located at this epicenter of emerging companies, it might seem like an uphill battle, but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, tech has already undergone a substantial geographical shift from the core of Silicon Valley to San Francisco and beyond. Silicon Alley, Silicon Beach, Silicon Prairie are just a few of the startup hubs looking to entice entrepreneurs away from the “Valley.” And they have found success.

Here are a few advantages of launching your startup outside Silicon Valley.

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1. Avoid the herd.

While there’s great benefit to being in the hub of activity, sometimes, especially when you’re re-inventing an existing space, it helps to take a step away. Collaboration among tech vets can have a downside: groupthink. In some ways, that’s a big reason tech started moving up the Peninsula from Silicon Valley to San Francisco: really creative folks were doing new things just on the fringe.  

2. The workforce has become more urban.

Silicon Valley has already changed. Office parks and corporate campuses were the norm a few years back, but now workers want to be able to walk out for lunch or grab a beer after work. This draw of the dense city is another reason for the shift to San Francisco, but there are a lot of other urban settings that are attracting teams — from downtown Seattle to smaller towns such as Santa Monica, Calif. and Boulder, Colo.

3. Lower cost of living attracts young talent.

Few American cities are as expensive as , which can deter talent from making the trip. Outside of Silicon Valley (and Alley and Beach) are young people who are looking to take a chance and make a move. To a student fresh out of college, San Francisco’s median rent rate of $3,200 per month (three times higher than the national average!) can seem daunting.

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4. Less money on office space, more to spend on perks.

Acquiring talent in Silicon Valley can be expensive, and so can renting office space. In Palo Alto and Menlo Park, office space can be upwards of . If your company can avoid paying that kind of premium on space, then you will have more assets for innovation, perks to attract employees, and, of course, a lower overhead for your business.

5. Competition for talent in Silicon Valley is fierce.

In major tech hubs like Silicon Valley, startups have to compete with the likes of Google, Facebook and Apple for top talent. But, in other parts of the country, you can snag star talent without worrying about interference from the tech giants, who will offer senior software engineers $124,131 — almost $20,000 above the national average, according to . Yikes.

6. Not everyone wants to live in the Valley.

Let’s face it, not everyone wants to move across the state, country or world to be in Silicon Valley. There is homegrown talent around the U.S who want to live closer to where they grew up, near their families or in a geographical area that isn’t the Bay Area. Tap the local culture of your community rather than adopting the Valley mindset. That’s what being disruptive is all about.

7. Startup hubs are everywhere.

Silicon Valley used to be the place to be but now startup hubs are sprouting up all over the country, like in Santa Cruz, Calif., and Austin. And, with these new hubs are corresponding ecosystems that help foster the growth of other startups. The Internet and the cloud are scalable, opening new opportunities for expertise and innovation, anywhere.

8. Corner your regional market.

Yes, Silicon Valley is no doubt the center for tech startups, but it’s not the center for every industry. For instance, if your startup is planning on reinventing the healthcare industry, it might want to be close to Boston so that it can attract the best medical talent and expertise and have access to the companies and institutions that it will count as customers and clients. New York City is home to the media and financial worlds.

The bottom line is that when you found your company, you don’t have to relocate to Silicon Valley to find success. The most important things are the strength of your idea, your will to get it done and the talent and commitment of your people – all of which you can find and foster wherever you wish to be.

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7 Ways to Keep Hackers From Destroying Your Startup

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In all fairness, startups have a lot on its plates.

From raising capital to product development to marketing and public relations to just plain keeping sane, startups are typically very busy places. So while your startup may be struggling to balance key elements, like leadership, staffing, product development, market differentiation and customer acquisition, please understand that its only with the best intentions that we add one more item to your lengthy to-do list – security.

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While many factors, including cost, technical awareness and first-to-market races may make security look like an impediment to growth, it is most assuredly anything but. Some may even argue that by virtue of even claiming an InfoSec department or employee, your company is no longer a startup.

From the earliest stages, firms need to prioritize cybersecurity to ensure it organically evolves in tandem with business, splicing it into the cultural DNA, if you will. In order to develop and promote an organizationally comprehensive understanding of risk as well as policies that will grow with your business, here is a list of seven key security elements that any developing company and its leadership team should adopt.

1. Insist on access management from the start.

No matter how horizontal or egalitarian an environment you strive to create, not everyone needs to be an admin for everything. The security rule most-oft recommended to startups is to thoughtfully assign services, and then individual logins, instead of sharing the same username and password across an entire company.

Why? Because all companies – no matter how generous your flex-time policy or innovative your technology — experience turnover. Founders should never be forced to scramble to change access for all personnel each time an individual departs, particularly in the case of a disgruntled employee – or soon to be ex-employee — who has access to your proprietary and critical IT, IP and other key data. When properly applied, access management allows startups to tailor permission levels, and our recommendation is to dole them out sparingly.

2. Enforce two-factor authentication (2FA).

Two-factor authentication is exactly what it sounds like – the requirement of a second level of authentication in addition to a username and password — usually in the form of a token with a numerical code, a smart card, a text message to a phone or even a biometric (think thumbprint) scan.

2FA is especially for critical systems like email, Git repos, databases and cloud providers. Requiring a password and a device – what you know and what you have — can halt a bad actor before they can break in, and let you know something is wrong early on. Imagine being able to thwart the damage caused by credential theft from a spear-phishing attack or malware — that’s the beauty of 2FA.

3. Use a password manager like 1Password.

It’s 2016. No two passwords should be the same, and there’s no reason to have a password with fewer than 25 characters – letters, numbers and characters. So in addition to 2FA, insert a into your company’s security policy. Password managers are software services that generate and securely store long, complex passwords in an encrypted virtual container. Its beauty is that employees need to remember only one – hopefully robust — password to unlock the manager, from which they can then cut-and-paste or auto-fill into individual sites and services. Password managers solve the problem of complex passwords for all the sites you use on a daily basis. Make sure everyone in the company uses one.

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4. Use your phone.

Train employees to call whenever a request for sensitive data or materials, like wire transfers, passwords or personnel data, are requested from another party. It doesn’t matter if the request is coming from the email address of someone you share a cubicle wall with. When someone actually does need access to a service – say, they need your 2FA code to get into Twitter — and they send a note to you asking for those credentials, call and speak to them. Especially at a small startup, where you know everyone’s voice, verbal confirmation is the most effective way to avoid getting phished.

5. Use GPG encryption for sharing sensitive information.

 works great for Mac, and you should be using encryption for more than just your emails. Even if your company communications are happening behind 2FA, and logins with complex unique passwords, bad things can still happen. If you’re sharing any sensitive information, encrypt it because if another party is phishing you, they get nothing without the intended recipient’s private key. And if the communications service provider – email, Slack, etc. — gets hacked, you don’t have to worry about your critical keys being stolen.

6. Use full-disk encryption.

Modern operating systems, such as macOS, Windows 10, iOS and Android, come with . Use it, and make sure everyone else in your company is using it.

iPhones get lost. People leave laptops alone on coffee shop tables. Tablets are stuffed into airplane seat pockets and forgotten. Stuff happens.

These machines have your company’s intellectual property, strategic plans and access to email, keys and communications, essentially the lifeblood of a tech company. Likewise, make sure your devices require passwords to turn on and wake from sleep. I’d encourage you to encrypt backups too. This comes as a feature on modern operating systems too so someone can’t pick up your external hard drive and wander off, or make a copy while you’re away from your desk.

7. Don’t lose your IP over a latte.

Startups, with their flex-time and work-from-wherever attitudes are awesome at giving employees the freedom to do their jobs from wherever they want. And hey, why not, since there’s free wi-fi practically on every corner – for a price.

Ever hear of ? It’s a free program that lets hackers grab cookies from non-encrypted code, and gain access to your private information. That means can potentially access that individual’s – or even their company’s — Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.

Worse, hackers will set up rogue-yet-legit-looking wi-fi hotspots – i.e. beware anything called “Free Public Wi-Fi” — so when you connect to the company VPN over a skim double-macchiato, they can see any data you share and receive over this connection. The solution – read the list above, paying close attention to 2FA, encryption and even tethering to your phone as a hotspot, if your data plan and battery can support it.

Better yet, subscribe to a Privacy-as-a-Service platform, like , which encrypts both data and connections for all employee daily browsing, email, file transfers, messaging and social media, segmenting and isolating each device from neighboring users.

And here’s a bonus tip. Not to be Captain Obvious, but please: Don’t click sketchy links or download weird things from the Internet, and do study up on your .

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This one should almost go without saying, but it’s really important so I’ll put it here anyway. The Internet is full of nasty stuff, and people with bad intentions.  is essential for keeping your data safe. Train all employees to cultivate a healthy amount of skepticism when downloading software. Keep an eye out to make sure website SSL certificates are valid. And install a high quality anti-virus scanner, even Mac users. You never know.

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4 Tips for Launching a Successful Midwestern Startup

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At this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit, Google co-founder Sergey Brin cautioned entrepreneurs that  may no longer be the best idea. The region’s cost makes building a “scrappy initial business that’s self-sustaining” difficult, if not impossible.

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Instead, Brin and other business leaders are advising young entrepreneurs to flock elsewhere. While cities like  and  are gaining popularity with startups, the most advantageous locations may actually be more centrally located.

Medium-sized cities throughout the Midwest are becoming go-to spots for young entrepreneurs looking to start businesses. Great ideas stand out more, and startup costs are typically lower in nearly every aspect,  for entrepreneurial success. But, how can entrepreneurs be sure their companies will see the success that others have found in the so-called ?

Medium-sized cities stimulate entrepreneurship.

The Midwest’s  means more affordable labor, office space and retail space. The ability to spend only one-third of what other cities average per square foot leaves more money to run your company during the early stages, when a business is most vulnerable and cash is king.

, for example, an internet-based social media platform, expanded from a small company in St. Louis to its current , which will reportedly create 300 new jobs. Other players in St. Louis’ influx of tech startups such as , which  and grew more than 200 percent between 2014 and 2015, have helped cement the Midwest’s reputation as a viable tech and startup hub.

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For companies that ship to consumers, more manageable shipping costs translate to more competitive pricing. These lower costs also mean it’s possible to attract top talent while keeping costs down from Silicon Valley levels. The recent startup boom in Midwest cities  also encourages collaboration among young companies, which can lead to highly beneficial relationships.

Ensuring entrepreneurial success in the Midwest

Business atmosphere , so building a startup there requires a different approach from starting a company elsewhere. Stick with these four basic steps for Midwestern startup success.

1. Embrace the community.

 with other local entrepreneurs and find neighboring startups with unique strengths. Chances are that different startups possess different skills, which provides the perfect environment for collaboration. Start or find a community that hosts startup-geared monthly events, which can be instrumental in forming these key relationships.

My company, , has enjoyed a number of competitive advantages by being located in St. Louis. From the beginning, the community embraced the unique nature of a healthy meal delivery company and took pride in it’s being an exclusively St. Louis business, rather than a franchise.

The city’s support made it possible for us to expand and begin delivering meals nationwide, which brought even more pride to the community.

2. Stop waiting for the perfect time.

Successful entrepreneurs know there is no perfect time to act. Don’t be reckless and forget to create a strategy, but do have the . Be willing to react and improve your plan along the way in order to move the business forward. The Midwest may not have as wide a variety of resources as Silicon Valley, but true entrepreneurs still see opportunity.

My company’s success would have been much more difficult to achieve in a bigger city. Developing a nutrition company in the middle of an agricultural hotbed provided easy access to high-quality meat and produce that allowed for a greater product. Rather than waiting to relocate to a city with a bigger potential clientele, my team recognized that it made more sense to build the company up with the resources around us.

3. Be wary of bad deals.

Early on, nothing stops a startup in its tracks faster than bad deals, from poorly structured leases, to low return on advertising, to inefficient hiring. Nobody possesses the ability to run a business without making a mistake, but every  to prevent disastrous fumbles. Avoid committing to extensive leases, expensive advertising and hiring directors, until the business is well-defined and its needs are clear.

Luckily, the lower costs of the Midwest can provide a cushion for financial mistakes. More and more companies are starting up in centrally located cities, thanks to the fiscal opportunity a smaller home base provides. Some even believe the  than Silicon Valley.

4. Don’t try to be the next Facebook or Uber.

Self-awareness is as important as ambition, and the idea that any company will be worth $10 billion in three years is almost laughable. Unicorn startups like Uber are becoming even more rare as . But leading a startup outside of Silicon Valley increases the chances of financial success even without creating the next Airbnb.

While residents of San Francisco must make  to be in the top 10 percent of earners, the national average for the same ranking  annually. But nothing’s wrong with making a solid living below that benchmark, and that’s  setting up shop in the Midwest. Starting a business is hard work, and to be successful, entrepreneurs need to be ready to settle in and put in some serious time.

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Unlike the typical, larger startup cities where the atmospheres are often cutthroat, Midwest communities have more cooperative approaches. After all, when local companies grow successfully, their communities prosper, too. That shared success is what makes a future in the Midwest worth building.

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Mark Zuckerberg Just Invested $50 Million in This Startup

Mark Zuckerberg has invested in , an Indian education startup that teaches kids subjects like math and science with a mobile app.

Zuckerberg’s philanthropic organization, the , is leading the $50 million investment along with other venture capital firms.

It’s the second investment Facebook’s CEO has made through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a company he owns with his wife, Priscilla Chan.

Byju previously raised $75 million in March.

“I’m optimistic about personalized learning and the difference it can make for students everywhere,”  on Thursday. “That’s why it’s a major focus of our education efforts, and why we’re looking forward to working with companies like BYJU’s to get these tools into the hands of more students and teachers around the world.”

Byju’s app, which offers interactive courses and exams on a range of subjects, has been downloaded over 5.5 million times to date and boasts 250,000 annual subscribers in India.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative previously , an African startup that teaches people how to code.

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NYUAD And Flat6Labs To Kick Off Startup Series 2016 In Abu Dhabi

New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) and Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi have come together to organize the newest edition of a four-month-long program comprising of panel discussions and group activities aimed at promoting a culture of entrepreneurship among its students as well as the community at large. As part of NYUAD’s entrepreneurship initiative, the Startup Series talks aim to create an “interactive educational experience” with expert speakers sharing technical advice and experiences with existing and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Structured as 90-minute talks, the Startup Series and other startAD community education programs are designed to function as a source of guidance for aspiring entrepreneurs and also “engage public and private organizations.” The Startup Series sessions will be held at NYUAD during September to December, and they will cover topics such as team dynamics in business, customer development, crafting a pitch, and managing burn rates, among others. The series will get kicked off on September 20, 2016 with Startup War Stories, a panel discussion on entrepreneurial journeys featuring Magnus Olsson, co-founder, Alborz Toofani, founder, SnappCard and Haitham Al-Khatib, co-founder and CEO, Sakkini, and moderated by Founding Editor in Chief, Entrepreneur Middle East.

Besides the Startup Series, the startAD initiative also includes other concept programs open to all, such as Tech Tuesdays, a tech startup community meetup, Legal Clinic, sessions connecting the startup community with legal professionals, and others. For more information on upcoming events and courses part of Startup Series, visit their

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This Fast-Growing Startup Wants to Make Visiting the Convenience Store Obsolete

Rafael Ilishayev and Yakir Gola know the exact moment that they had a business model that resonated.

The pair of now 23-year-olds met on the first day of business school in 2011 at Philadelphia’s Drexel University and quickly became friends. The following year they were living together with four other roommates, and Gola, the only one with a car, found himself always offering to run errands, especially since none of the on-demand platforms had what they wanted when it came to speed and price.

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They decided they could do better, and the following year launched goPuff, an on-demand delivery service that seeks to make the convenience store obsolete. The founders set up the beta version of the app, bought a 1999 Plymouth Voyager, and no sooner had they affixed the goPuff logo to the vehicle did they get their first order — a good month before they were officially ready to be up and running.

Their fellow student ordered Gatorade, M&Ms and Cheetos. The pièce de résistance: their first customer’s apartment shared a wall with a 7-Eleven.

“I asked him, why would you order from an app when you literally have 7-Eleven right next door?” Ilishayev said. “He said, ‘why do I need to go to 7-Eleven when I can order from an app?’ I ran back to the car and I said, ‘Yakir, we have something here, we need to get to work.”

And get to work they did. They officially launched on Dec. 25, 2013. During the first six months, Ilishayev and Gola worked alone for 17 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week in their Philadelphia warehouse taking orders and making deliveries in between classes.

Maintaining their sanity was a challenge, but the duo say that their friendship is more than intact — it’s stronger because of the experience. Today, they have a staff of 80 and a presence in 12 cities, including New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Seattle and Chicago. And while 85 percent of goPuff’s customers were 18 to 24 when the company began, that cohort now makes up only 50 percent, they said.

Ilishayev says that as the company expanded, learning how to step back and delegate was a bit tough, but now his motto is, “Don’t stress the little things. Done is better than perfect.”

Of course, the founders also had to deal with the doubts of the people closest to them. “If someone tells you it can’t be done, don’t believe that,” Gola says. “In the beginning we asked our friends and family, ‘what do you think of this idea?’ [Most] people said that they wouldn’t use a service like that and they would rather go to the convenience store. People don’t want to hear something that they aren’t used to. If someone is going doubt you, don’t listen to them.”

Going into 2017, they have plans to expand to a new location every three weeks, with their eyes on cities such as Columbus, Ohio, Nashville, Tenn., and Minneapolis.

Gola says that a number of factors come into play when choosing a new location. They have to buy a new warehouse, hire contract drivers and develop relationships with suppliers in the area. If one piece isn’t there, the launch falls apart.

All those elements are necessary to make good on the company’s promise that when you place an order with goPuff, which features a selection of more than 3,000 items, your delivery will be there in 30 minutes or less. If your order is $49 or more, the delivery is free. Otherwise, there is always a $1.95 flat fee. The pair’s main goal is to get the delivery time down to 10 minutes.

Ilishayev says that goPuff doesn’t view companies such as Postmates, Instacart or DoorDash as goPuff’s chief competition, because the company is dealing in different markets. While those businesses focus on grocery and restaurant delivery, goPuff’s stock and trade are convenience store items. The concept of the convenience store is the company’s chief competitor, Gola says.

Donna Harris, the co-founder and co-CEO of Washington, D.C.-based startup incubator 1776, says convenience-oriented companies like goPuff are laying the groundwork for an on-demand economy where more established businesses are inspired to apply the models that these startups have perfected to do things such as cut costs and change how they hire.

“We’ve been ordering pizza for decades, so on-demand is not that new, it’s just in a completely new format, which is that I’m not just calling up Dominos. I can order from any new restaurant, because there is a tasker to go pick it up,” she says. “It’s a simplistic business model. There are no regulations, there are no big incumbents, I just need people who want the extra income, and I need people who want the convenience, who value their time and are willing to pay people to take on a task to save me time.”

Gola and Ilishayev say customers tweet at them all the time asking if they can offer a given item. If one of their suppliers has it, they will try to start carrying it the next week, noting that relationships with their users is what their business model depends on.

“Last year we had a state of emergency in Philadelphia, and we stayed open until we couldn’t operate anymore. We were open even after Uber closed.” Ilishayev says. “It doesn’t matter how much money you make that day — revenue isn’t relevant, it’s about being there for your customer. They know that everything else is unavailable, the convenience store is closed, but goPuff is your lifeline.”

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