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Hello,

Ahead of the National Startup Day celebrations on January 16, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) will organise Startup India Innovation Week next week (January 10 to 16). 

The week-long event—celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation in the country—will consist of knowledge-sharing sessions for entrepreneurs and enablers of the Indian startup ecosystem. 

In other news, Paytm Payments Bank has received the Reserve Bank of India’s approval to appoint Surinder Chawla, the current Head of Branch Banking, RBL Bank, as its new CEO, The Mint reported. 

After the departure of Satish Kumar Gupta, the former CEO of Paytm Payments Bank, in October last year, Paytm said it would onboard a full-time CEO once it received “regulatory approvals”. 

Now, very little is truly known about how early humans clothed their bodies and survived harsh winters. So, when did humans first start wearing clothes? Well, it was 300,000 years ago!

Archaeologists in Germany have uncovered some of the earliest evidence of the use of clothing, with newly discovered cut marks on a cave bear paw suggesting the prehistoric animals were skinned for their fur. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Opportunities for fintech in 2023
• Folktales through kids clothes
• A digital gold savings app

Here’s your trivia for today: Which country’s film industry is known as ‘Nollywood’?

Investor

Opportunities for fintech in 2023

2022 has been a challenging year for the Indian startup ecosystem and tech in general. But in 2023, a whole new world awaits, especially for the fintech sector. 

In this holiday special episode, Sanjay Swamy and Shripati Acharya, the Managing Partners of Prime Venture Partners, discuss the exciting possibilities awaiting the sector and how entrepreneurs can grow in it. 

Fresh start:

• For a fintech to work, a strong, dependable, and trusting bank partnership is a core requirement. What fintechs need is distribution, product innovation, and collection efficiency to distinguish themselves and create trust. 
• Besides the team, startups need to build products by taking expectations of data privacy, PCI DSS compliance, software compliance, etc., into account from day zero. 
• As fintech in India is going to be a massive space, Sanjay urges startups and founders to not wait; make some iterations and get something going.

Startup

Folktales through kids clothes

It’s interesting how living in a joint family and hearing traditional folktales passed down through generations can generate a startup idea. That’s precisely how Krishna Siddhapura and her artist husband Bhautik started Story Tailor, a comfortable, eco-friendly clothing brand for children, hand-printed with designs inspired by stories of the Panchatantra.

Clothes with a tale:

• Story Tailor was launched in 2021. Its target audience is children between 0-8 years old and offers both comfort and festive wear for boys and girls. Krishna claims their idea is unique.
• Every dress/outfit comes with a flip book in which the story is written and illustrated, which can be used for colouring.
• The clothes are available on their own website, First Cry, Nestery, and Myntra. All clothes are produced in-house, including designing, printing, and sewing. Prices start from Rs 999.

Startup

A digital gold savings app

In today’s age, when investments can be made at a click, Nishchay AG and Misbah Ashraf are tapping India’s propensity for gold with Jar, an app that helps people invest in digital gold. 

Founded in 2021, the Bengaluru-based app enables users to make daily savings by taking spare change from their online transactions and automatically investing it in digital gold.

Shine away:

• When a Jar user spends, they also save. The application rounds off their spends to the nearest 10 and invests it in gold. 
• Users also have the option to choose a fixed amount that Jar will invest in gold on a daily basis. 
• The investments in digital gold are backed by physical gold of the same amount, and investors can choose to withdraw their gold or liquidate it at any time. 

News & updates

• Giving up: Jack Ma is giving up controlling rights of Ant Group Co., as the billionaire further retreats from his online empire following China’s unprecedented tech crackdown. The company is offering 10 individuals, including the founder, management, and staff, voting rights independently, effectively removing Ma’s control of Ant. 
• Netflix ads: At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Netflix President of Worldwide Advertising, Jeremi Gorman, offered some initial insight into how its ad-supported tier has been performing and the streamer’s future plans. 
• Best of EVs: Besides TVs, laptops, smart home gear, and all sorts of wacky miscellaneous gadgetry, the annual Consumer Electronics Show is also a huge car tech show. And with people more environmentally aware than ever, here are some of the best electric vehicles and related innovations at CES 2023. 

Which country’s film industry is known as ‘Nollywood’?

Answer: Nigeria

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