Start-up | Business Upturn

From “Itaewon Class” to “Mr. Queen,” here’s a list of 7 K-dramas with strong and empowering female leads

Siddharth Chavan — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 12:51:40 +0000

The attention has increasingly turned to dynamic and inspiring female characters that shatter stereotypes and reinvent traditional roles in the vibrant world of Korean dramas, or K-dramas. From “Itaewon Class” to “Vincenzo,” the small screen is seeing a resurgence of stories that highlight women’s strength, courage, and empowerment.

In this post, we’ll take you on a journey through 7 fascinating K-dramas with strong and inspiring female leads who are not only protagonists but trailblazers in their own right. Prepare to be captivated by these captivating stories that honor the spirit of females in the most beautiful way.

1) Itaewon Class

The stubborn protagonist of “Itaewon Class,” Sae-ro-yi, may be at the heart of this revenge-driven drama, but it’s Jo Yi-seo, as played by Kim Da-mi, who steals the show. Yi-seo is a clever, ambitious, and unapologetic young woman navigating the hurdles of a male-dominated professional world. Her persona shows the power that comes from accepting one’s individuality and standing up against conventional standards.

2) Vincenzo

Hong Cha-young, played by Jeon Yeo-bin in the action-packed universe of “Vincenzo,” is a force to be reckoned with. Cha-young, a sharp-witted lawyer with a flair for the unexpected, is not only a legal force but also a symbol of feminine tenacity in the face of adversity. Her transformation from a corporate lawyer to a woman pursuing justice on her terms is nothing short of inspirational.

3) Crash Landing on You

“Crash Landing on You” not only tells a lovely love story but also introduces us to Yoon Se-ri, a successful businesswoman stranded in North Korea, as played by Son Ye-jin. Se-ri’s strength is not only her commercial knowledge but also her capacity to adapt and lead in the most unexpected of situations. Her journey is a celebration of love, fortitude, and a woman’s indomitable spirit.

4) Hotel Del Luna

IU’s Jang Man-wol in “Hotel Del Luna” is not your normal leading lady. Man-wol is a multifaceted character with a secret past as the enigmatic owner of a guesthouse for ghosts. Her strength comes from her capacity to face her demons, both actual and metaphorical, and emerge as a strong and compassionate woman in control of her fate.

5) Start-Up

Bae Suzy plays Seo Dal-mi in the tech-driven world of “Start-Up,” a young woman with huge hopes of becoming the next Steve Jobs. Dal-mi’s journey is filled with ups and downs, and her resolve to achieve her goals makes her a standout character. “Start-Up” is more than just a business story; it’s a celebration of a woman’s path to self-discovery and achievement.

6) Strong Woman Do Bong-soon

In this amusing romantic comedy, Park Bo-young excels as Do Bong-soon, a young woman born with supernatural strength. While the premise is lighthearted, the underlying topic is about appreciating one’s physical and emotional talents. Bong-soon’s persona is a novel take on femininity, challenging societal norms with a blend of wit and heart.

7) Mr. Queen

“Mr. Queen” transports us back in time as a modern cook, played by Shin Hye-sun, becomes stuck in the body of a Joseon Dynasty queen. This fusion-historical drama is a comedy treat as well as a story about a lady negotiating the challenges of the past with perseverance and humor. The ability of the character to adapt and question old norms adds a degree of empowerment to the story.

Legal troubles mount for Rahul Yadav and his company

Vanshika Lodhi — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 05:40:34 +0000

Rahul Yadav, the controversial founder of 4B Networks, is currently caught up in multiple legal issues, including two arbitration cases and a criminal case. One of the arbitration cases involves co-working company Innov8, which is seeking unpaid dues of Rs 1.08 crore. The dispute arose when 4B Networks rented office space from Innov8 in Mumbai but failed to make the necessary rent payments. As per the agreement, Innov8 had to undergo arbitration proceedings before pursuing a criminal case. So far, three arbitration sessions have been held, but an arbitrator has yet to be appointed. The next hearing is scheduled for August 28.

Yadav’s delaying tactics persist as 4B Networks seeks additional time for arbitration proceedings not only with Innov8 but also with Info Edge. Info Edge, the majority owner of 4B Networks, has written off its investment of Rs 288 crore in the startup. They initiated a forensic audit after Yadav failed to provide the required information regarding the company’s operations and finances. Yadav refused to allow Deloitte to conduct the audit, leading to arbitration proceedings between Info Edge and 4B Networks.In addition to these arbitration cases, Yadav is facing a criminal case filed by an ad agency over unpaid dues totaling Rs 10 crore. The Mumbai police have interrogated Yadav twice this week, and searches have been conducted at his residence by the Economic Offences Wing. The FIR alleges that Yadav engaged in deceptive practices, resulting in a loss of Rs 10 crore to the complainant’s company.

The case was filed by Vikas Om Prakas Nowal, a member of Interspace Communication Private Limited, and Sanjay Saini, one of the founding members of 4B Networks, is also implicated in the FIR.To summarize, Rahul Yadav, the controversial founder of 4B Networks, is currently facing significant legal challenges, including two arbitration cases and a criminal case. The arbitration proceedings with Innov8 and Info Edge have experienced difficulties, with Yadav seeking more time to comprehend the cases and find a resolution. Allegations of non-payment of dues and salaries from employees and vendors have been leveled against Yadav and 4B Networks.

A chatbot from an AI startup with backing from Google can read novels in seconds

Avinash Ram — Fri, 12 May 2023 15:55:32 +0000

Chatbots that use artificial intelligence (AI) are getting increasingly effective as the use of this technology spreads. One such instance is Claude, a chatbot created by Google-backed AI startup Anthropic. The business, which was established by former OpenAI engineers, asserted that their chatbot can now read about 75,000 words in a matter of seconds.
Anthropic claimed to have enlarged the context window of Claude from 9K to 100K tokens, or roughly 75,000 words, in a statement about the enhanced functionality of Claude.

The fundamental text or code building blocks that a large language model (LLM) AI utilises to process and produce language are known as tokens. Characters, words, subwords, and other text or code fragments can all be used as tokens.

Businesses can now send hundreds of pages of content for Claude to read and assess thanks to an expanded token context window. Additionally, it implies that discussions with Claude can last for several hours or perhaps days.
According to a report from The Verge, ChatGPT has a token restriction of approximately 3,000 words. Additionally, it stated that a limited-release edition of OpenAI’s GPT-4 can handle up to 32,000 tokens and processes about 8,000 tokens.

The Great Gatsby was read by Claude in 22 seconds

The complete text of The Great Gatsby novel, according to Anthropic, was put into Claude-Instant, which handles 72,000 tokens, and one line was edited. The model gave the right response in 22 seconds when asked to identify the differences between the original text and the updated text.

According to a study published in Science Direct, the average human can read 100,000 tokens of text in roughly 5 hours. Additionally, it takes humans longer to process, retain, and think critically about that data.
Anthropic recently released the guidelines for their “Constitutional AI” training approach, which aims to allay worries about the decision-making, transparency, and safety of AI systems.

Indian Angel Network to invest over ₹100 cr in Indian Start-ups

Chirag Jha — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 05:17:08 +0000

According to a governance committee member, venture capital (VC) consortium Indian Angel Network (IAN) is planning to invest over ₹100 crore in start-up firms across sectors in 2021. IAN has invested in start-ups like FarEye, Fab Alley, HungryZone, Staqu etc. in 2020. Howevber, IAN also exited 3-4 companies after registering 15 times growth on the invested capital.

IAN co-founder Padmaja Ruparel told PTI, “We will invest and we will exit both, and we will give returns. I think we will do much better than what we have done this year. I think more than ₹100 crore we should look at.”

“I think the other piece is anything driven by data and Analytics. Anything driven by brand, IT. What we are looking at is innovative ideas with good entrepreneurs,” Ruparel further added.

IAN funded about ₹100 crore in 45-50 companies in 2020. Currently, IAN is present in different segments of market including healthcare, biotechnology, medical devices, and wellness.

“To me 2021 looks very interesting. I think what 2020 has done will obviously impact 2021, also but we will continue to invest at the same pace or I would say higher pace actually. I think a lot of the new areas will come up. The reality is that online and technology are now here to stay,” Ruparel concluded.

India’s Silicon Valley looking to expand overseas

Arnav Dogra — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 05:18:41 +0000

As the Union Budget remains only a few days from being delivered, Indian tech startups like Paytm, EtechAces Marketing & Consulting (parent company of Policy Bazaar), wait in anticipation for the new tax regime so that the guidelines regarding the listing flexibility are out in the open.

Paytm has already been having company meetings on the issue of expanding to international markets which may include a foreign listing. No conclusion has been come to regarding when and where the company will be releasing its public offer. An insider from Paytm stated that no tentative date/time-period has been fixed as to when the IPO will be issued but that the company is continuously looking at any changes in the rules regarding IPO listing, the Economic Times reported.

Any conclusive decision will only be taken once the Union Budget is out.

EtechAces Marketing & Consulting, the parent company of Policy Bazaar reportedly working on getting an IPO release sometime during October. A recent secondary share sale had happened by which a Dubai-based fund became in investor, valuing the company at a massive $1.5 billion.

In another secondary share sale, SoftBank purchased more stake in the company by putting in $130 million.

Alok Bansal, Policy Bazaar director and co-founder commented that the company was more interested in the domestic listing of the company but will wait for the Union Budget to be released before they make a final decision.

Bengaluru ranks world’s fastest-growing mature tech ecosystem, Mumbai positions sixth

Devanshu Singla — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 06:29:42 +0000

According to new research released in London, on Thursday, Bengaluru has emerged as the world’s fastest-growing mature tech ecosystem in the world since 2016, followed by the European cities of London, Munich, Berlin and Paris, with India’s financial centre of Mumbai in sixth place.

Dealroom.co data analysed by London & Partners – the Mayor of London’s international trade and investment agency – reveals that investment in Bengaluru grew 5.4 times from $1.3 billion in 2016 to $7.2 billion in 2020, with the Mumbai growing 1.7 times from $0.7 billion to $1.2 billion in the same period.

The UK capital of London registered an impressive three times growth between 2016 and 2020, rising from $3.5 billion to $10.5 billion.

“London has a strong trade and investment relationship with cities across India and today’s figures show the opportunities for future partnerships between the UK and India on technology. Despite the pandemic, tech companies in London and India are continuing to lead the way in creating game-changing technologies – especially in high growth sectors such as EdTech and Fintech,” said Hemin Bharucha, Chief Representative of India at London & Partners.

Bengaluru is also ranked sixth for the world’s tech venture capitalist (VC) investments, on a global list topped by Beijing and San Francisco, New York, Shanghai and London making up the top five. Mumbai comes in at No. 21 in the worldwide ranking, with Boston and Singapore among the other high-ranking cities.

Skillmine, a Bengaluru-headquartered tech company offering new generation IT consulting and managed services which expanded to London last year, highlighted access to “like-minded tech entrepreneurs alongside a deep tech talent pool” as the highlight of what has been referred to as India’s Silicon Valley in the past.

Google, Snap to invest in Indian start-up ShareChat

Ruchira Sonawat — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 06:15:41 +0000

Indian social media startup ShareChat to get investments from American tech giants Google and Snap. The Bangalore-based social networking app added Twitter as an investor in 2019.

According to a TechCrunch report, ShareChat will host a Series E financing round seeking over $200 million from Google, Snapchat, as well as its existing investors. Google alone will invest over $100 million in the Indian social media app.

Post the Series E round, ShareChat’s valuation will be more than $1 billion. The company has, so far, raised more than $264 million at a valuation of $700 million. The report further states that the terms of the deal could change and the terms may not even materialise in an investment.

Google has been investing heavily in India and plans to invest a total of $10 billion. Whereas, it will be Snap’s first investment in an Indian startup if the deal is signed.

ShareChat has seen a significant rise in its active user base and has more than 80 million monthly active users after the government banned several Chinese apps in India last year. The app’s active monthly users crossed the 160 million mark and it serves 15 Indian language markets. It also owns a short-video app called Moj, which is an Indian alternative to the banned TikTok.

Two new retail payment startups begin testing products under RBI’s regulatory sandbox programme

Shlok Arya — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 09:21:01 +0000

Jaipur-based Natural Support Consultancy Services and Delhi-based Nucleus Software Export have begun testing their payments solutions. Natural Support Consultancy Services’ product ‘eRupaya’ is a set of NFC-based prepaid cards and NFC-enabled Pos devices to facilitate offline transactions.

Over a year, the Reserve Bank Of India set up a regulatory sandbox for fintech startups to boost innovation. In this, two entities have begun testing offline e-payment facility for remote locations in the country.

On Tuesday, the Central Bank announced that the Jaipur-based Natural Support Consultancy Services and Delhi-based Nucleus Software Exports have begun testing their payments solutions under the framework.

The regulatory sandbox allows the regulator, innovators, financial service providers, and customers to conduct field tests to collect evidence on the benefits of new financial innovations. In August 2019, the RBI had released the framework for its regulatory sandbox where multiple companies would be allowed to develop and test their products under limited authority controls and supervision.

RBI also made it compulsory for the companies to have insurance cover and a minimum net worth of INR 25 lakh, among other criteria, and need to be accepted for testing under the regulatory sandbox. The government advisory, Niti Aayoy, Digital Payments – Trends, Issues, and Opportunities, the digital payments industry is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2023.

Aiming at underbanked users in India, True Balance, South Korean startup raises $28 million

Divya Joyce — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 07:57:42 +0000

True Balance, a South Korean startup that runs an eponymous financial service appraised $28 million in a new financing round as it aims at tens of millions of users in small cities and towns in India.

True Balance began as an app to help users easily find their mobile balance, or top up pre-pay mobile credit. But in its five-year journey, the startup has added a range of financial services including online lending and the ability to pay utility bills. Online lending is its core business today.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Charlie Lee, founder, and chief executive of True Balance, said the startup has disbursed over $13.5 million in small loans to over 6.7 million consumers. The size of these loans vary from $6.75 to $675, he said. SoftBank Ventures Asia, Naver, BonAngels, Daesung Private Equity, and Shinhan Capital financed the five-year-old startup’s Series D financing round. The startup, which has headquarters in Seoul and Gurgaon, has raised about $90 million to date.

Its customers don’t have a credit score, which makes it complicated for them to get a loan from financial institutions such as banks. Scores of startups in India and Southeast Asia are experimenting with alternative data such as a phone a consumer owns and the transactions she makes and hundreds of other data points to determine these users’ creditworthiness.

Lee did not reveal how many users it has lent money to have returned the amount but said the figure was so high that the startup is open to engaging with other firms who are looking to make use of alternative data but don’t have the tech stack.

Last year the startup was nearing profitability — a milestone it now hopes to reach by the second quarter of next year. Lee said the Coronavirus, which has severely impacted the financial services sector, also hurt True Balance’s business.

“Before the coronavirus, our business was growing very fast,” said Lee. “The coronavirus and moratorium (enforced by the nation’s central bank) hit us. We utilized this time to improve our collection process and other aspects of the business.”

“We will continue focusing on non-online payment users, non-credit score users, people who deserve our help, but need a way to get to it,” he said. The fresh capital will be deployed to make the startup reach the break-even point and then profitability, he added. True Balance is also working to reach more underbanked users in India.

Indian startup Alpha Vector launches first e-bicycle, Meraki

Shlok Arya — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 13:20:34 +0000

Alpha Vector, an Indian startup announced the launching of its first e-bicycle Meraki by Ninety-One in India. Launched at Rs 29,999, the e-bicycle will not need any license.

Alpha Vector aims to set its foot into the global e-bicycle market which will cross $38.6 billion market capitalization by 2025. The company press release states that they have received over 100 pre-booking registrations from cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi.

The bike comes with a 250 watt, IP 65, BLDC Motor, and sports a top speed of 25kmph. The cycle will be installed with a lithium-ion battery with 6.36AH and will last 750 cycles of charging. The users can charge the battery within 2.5 hours.

Meraki is equipped with e-brakes and supports automatic brake cut off and comes with 4 driving modes – Pedal Assist, Throttle, Cruise, and Pedal. It will be available in more than 350 cities in India through 700 retail stores in Black-Red and Silver-Grey colours. The bike will have a screen that will display battery level indication, PAS mode control, and an ergonomically designed button.

The company has witnessed a growth of 2.5x in its monthly revenue rate from March 2020 till September 2020. It plans to achieve a target of 300CR annual revenue rate by ramping up supplies over the next few months. Alpha Vector is financed by Fireside Venture, Avaana Capital, and Titan Capital.

Mr Vishal Chopra, Co-Founder, Alpha Vector, said, “We are excited to announce the launch of our flagship e-bicycle in India, which we believe is going through a ‘Cycling Revolution.’ While the pandemic has piqued consumer interest in bicycles, innovation and customer-centricity will be the game-changers in this industry. With the launch of this e-bicycle, we are pedalling the extra mile for each of our rides to make their every ride better than the last.”

FAMGA sets funding record for startups despite the pandemic

Aditi Swarup — Sun, 13 Sep 2020 13:19:11 +0000

Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Apple (also known as FAMGA) the five big global tech giants have set records in terms of start-up funding.
According to a report, the companies have invested 44% in the US, 33% in India, 11% in the UK and 11% in other countries.
A huge chunk of the investment has gone to Reliance’s Jio. Google, Facebook, Amazon also happen to be Reliance’s strategic investors.
Other recipients of these funds have been Unacademy, Capital Float and BankBazaar.

In Q3’20, quarterly equity funding with FAMGA participation again hit a record high of $7.9B across 9 deals. 2020 annual funding has already far surpassed 2019’s total, making this a record year despite the coronavirus outbreak." https://t.co/L9xEoyuxcB

— Halim Özberrak (@halimozberrak) September 13, 2020

Kerala bags ‘Top Performer’ rank in the States Startup Ranking 2019

Aditi Swarup — Sat, 12 Sep 2020 11:03:50 +0000

The Centre announced the States’ Startup Ranking 2019. For the year 2019, Kerala has bagged the “Top Performer” honour.

Kerala has emerged as one of the top performers in the States' Startup Ranking Framework 2019. The ranking is based on 7 broad reform areas consisting of 30 action points. The State has made it a priority to support startups; and it now has a thriving & vibrant startup ecosystem.

— CMO Kerala (@CMOKerala) September 11, 2020

The rankings were declared in the presence of Piyush Goyal(Railways and Commerce Minister), Hardeep Singh Puri(Minister of State for Civil Aviation) and Som Parkash(Minister of State for Commerce and Industry).
Recognition was also given to Business Development Head of Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), Ashok Kurian Panjikaran and CEO Kerala Startup Mission, Dr Saji Gopinath.
This recognition was given to Kerala for the second consecutive year.

A comprehensive National Report on the States’ Startup Ranking 2019, is now live on the Startup India Portal at https://t.co/BekbWT1fh9. The report details the framework, assessment process, feedback from stakeholders, & the results of the exercise, along with the impact created. pic.twitter.com/gbwUtr5eR2

— Startup India (@startupindia) September 11, 2020

Young India’s collaboration with Rural India and a quest for stability and growth!

Aditi Swarup — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 11:49:46 +0000

While the pandemic has created huge difficulties for all of us, some have sought to transform the crisis into an opportunity, not just for themselves but also for their communities. The four student entrepreneurs behind Rural Invest, Naman Tekriwal, Madhav Sharma, Satyam Mehta and Raghav Sharma are trying to achieve something similar.

Rural Invest is an organization aiming to spread financial literacy amongst India’s rural population. The following are snippets of a rivetting conversation I had with the CEO and Co-Founder of Rural Invest, Naman Tekriwal.

How did the idea of rural invest come about and what is its genesis?

Back in 2017, all four founders of this company Rural Invest were involved in another venture called High School Investors. What High School Investors did was promoting financial literacy amongst high school students in India and we went from school to school promoting financial literacy. The idea was that if high school students could invest money (their pocket money and such) in mutual funds they would be able to save for their future educational goals. That is how we got exposed to the mutual fund industry. We became quite successful and we were able to amass asset management of about $300,000. We were also listed as one of the top 25 startups in India by NASDAQ’s Milestone Makers program.

So the seed and the idea of Rural Invest was sown back in 2017 but in December 2019 when I flew back from Hong Kong and we started experiencing the effects COVID-19, that became a catalyst for Rural Invest. Seeing the interviews and stories on migrant workers and how they did not have the money to eat and for other necessities, we got thinking that if they would have invested in mutual funds let say 2-3 years back they would have had the liquidity to survive through these times.

The Prime Minister’s vision of having a Digital India, a financially literate India and an Aatmanirbhar Bharat only depend on how much we can tap the potential of the untapped rural population.

Because 60% of the country is still rural which is why we are not able to tap the next billion users. The focus of ‘the next billion users’ movement is in India and most of that population does not have access to basic literacy so the question for us was how can we make a simplified digital portal which can let them know what it is they’re doing, which becomes financial literacy, and then include them into the financial system by allowing them to invest in financial instruments making sure that they get access to financial stability and security for their future.

There are a lot of policy changes that have been introduced in the country over the last few years particularly since 2014. According to you and specifically regarding your prospective market base would you characterize these changes as mostly positive or negative?

Honestly, it is a mix of both. In terms of policies, some great changes have been introduced for example Digital India. Rural Invest completely alines itself with the idea of Digital India because we understand that unless India becomes 100% digital we won’t be able to have the same impact that other established, developed economies have had, so Digital India we completely agree with but the process of getting involved with financial instruments needs to be further simplified because there are so many rules and regulations around them that it can be almost intimidating for laymen.

We have partnered with National Payments Corporation of India and their attention has been on promoting the fact that you need to make digital payments and you need to have access to basic digital and financial literacy and that is great but a lot of groundwork has yet to be done. A lot of people that are making these policies might not be completely aware of the ground reality.

In Urban India, we have gone through a transition from paper money to plastic and now to applications like Paytm but rural India has skipped a lot of the intermediary steps between cash transactions and digital transactions. Do you think that this will affect their ability to adapt to new financial transaction systems?

Today, 70% of the Metropolitan cities are using a mobile application like Paytm but what we have to remember is that the rural people did not get such exposure. Even though digital literacy may be increasing, in terms of the use of smartphones etcetera, there is a lot of mistrust in these new payment mechanisms. For them, cash is still the primary mode of saving money. I think what they need to understand is that your cash will not multiply and your cash will not give you more money unless you invest it into a money-making instrument which could be a financial institution or the financial market.

How can Rural Invest help with this?

At Rural Invest, we intend to target 3 tiers of people. The first would be blue-collar workers or first-generation urban population that hasn’t had much education. The second-tier, people living in like small cities where there is some digital literacy and they might even have bank accounts but they might not know how to completely operate them. The third tier is rural and remote population and I have to admit that this tier is the most difficult to reach out to, especially during the time of COVID-19. Before this happened we reached out to 15 villages in Haryana and Punjab that we would go to and run a pilot project and start with basic financial literacy and tell them as to why is it important to invest in financial instruments but all that has now been put on hold.