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Happy Independence Day,

On the eve of the 75th Independence Day, President of India Droupadi Murmu, in her address to the nation, said she “bows to all those men and women who made enormous sacrifices to make it possible for us to live in a free India.”

In other news, one of India’s veteran investors Rakesh Jhunjhunwala passed away from cardiac arrest on Sunday. He was the co-founder of Akasa Air, India’s newest airline which began commercial operations last week.

In search for location data gold 

Location data and insights can unlock several business opportunities for companies. But good data models need quality data to give the desired results. While a gold mine of data lies outside company databases, it is scattered, unorganised, and incomplete. 

Enter GeoIQ, a location intelligence platform that helps businesses make pinpointed decisions using bespoke location AI (artificial intelligence).

For better optimisation:

• GeoIQ says it uses proprietary algorithms to layer data from over 600 government and public data sources, satellite imagery, and more to create highly granular datasets.
• Currently, GeoIQ has 30 clients, primarily in fintech, insurance and retail. 
• In May this year, the startup raised $2.25 million from Lenskart. Existing investors, including 9Unicorns and Ecosystem Ventures, participated in the round.

A kulfi brand from Delhi-6

Kuremal Mohanlal Kulfi in Delhi’s Chawri Bazar is a century-old brand.

Started by Kirorimal in 1906, the kulfi brand has maintained its presence in the market despite competition from local and international brands. According to the fourth-generation member of the family business, Vishal Sharma, Kuremal kulfis are still made by hand. 

A sweet tale:

• Kirorimal started the business in the early 1900s. He would sell kulfis during the summer months and then return to his village where he would work on farms for the rest of the year.
• In the 1980s, he introduced stuffed kulfis, a category that went on to become one of its unique selling points (USP).
• Vishal says the sales were down in all the outlets by about 40% during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Upskilling platform for gig workers 

Betterplace, a Bengaluru-based HRMS (Human Resource Management Software) platform for workforce management, has launched its platform Rocket for upskilling gig workers or part-time workers.  

The platform was piloted in Bengaluru and Mumbai in March 2022 and has close to 50,000 users so far. It offers over 50 different courses and caters to job roles in logistics, ecommerce, retail and shop-floor, BFSI customer care as well as entry-level sales roles which require feet-on-street. 

Key takeaways:

• The platform currently works with a handful of employers including online meat retailer, Licious.
• BetterPlace has raised over $40 million across multiple rounds of funding since its inception. 
• It has also made four acquisitions since 2021 to strengthen its portfolio of offerings, with training platform Oust Labs, blue and grey-collar staffing and recruitment service provider OLX People, gig-work platform OkayGo and no-code workflow builder platform, EzeDox. 

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