Hello Reader,
It was a busy day in fintech. While offline payments provider Mswipe received RBI’s in-principle approval for a payment aggregator licence, Microsoft became the first tech giant to join the Open Network for Digital Commerce–the Indian Government’s initiative to develop an open network for digital commerce.
But if you are like millions of Indians who are forced to be part of family WhatsApp groups, you may be more interested in the messaging app’s new updates. WhatsApp is rolling out a bunch of features that will help users stay under the radar–and possibly sneak away from pesky uncles and aunts. First, exits from group chats will no longer alert others. Second, messages can be deleted even after two days of being sent. Third, users can control who can see their online active status.
In sports, the India A team scripted history at the 44th Chess Olympiad by winning the country’s first-ever medal in the women’s section.
Meanwhile, it’s the end of an era in tennis as 23-time grand-slam champion Serena Williams has said she will retire from the sport.
Library by women entrepreneurs
Public libraries are essential to public education. To encourage reading among kids, Töölö’s cloud library platform gives them access to a large and varied selection of books, in regional languages as well as English.
The platform onboards women entrepreneurs as ambassadors and enables them to set up, operate, and grow their cloud libraries.
“We provide them with a library platform, a curated set of 500 books, branding materials, growth marketing tools, storytelling sessions, and other value-added services to make it a holistic reading experience for their young members,” says founder Sheetal Shah.
Reading footprint:
- Töölö powers 21 libraries, with 15 of them run by Töölö ambassadors in Bengaluru.
- Each physical library has 12-15 children as members.
- Launched in 2021, the Töölö digital library currently has close to 1,500 registered members.
A Töölö library with a young member.
Helping founders bag investments
All startups emerge from a great idea. However, many of them get rejected at the early stages simply because the founders did not provide the right information to the investors.
Enter Pitch Our Way, a Noida-based company that helps early-stage startups get their valuations and pitch decks right. It also mentors founders across different facets of their businesses, and supports them with financial valuations and projections.
Mentoring startups:
- One-on-one mentoring to understand the correct way to pitch for their business.
- Financial experts help founders determine a justifiable valuation.
- Pitch Our Way has worked with startups across 20 different sectors.
The Pitch Our Way team
Not an ‘organic’ skincare brand
Realising that many ‘organic’ products in the D2C market may not necessarily have organic ingredients, Seeza Bhardwaj decided to venture into entrepreneurship and launched her D2C skincare brand—The Green Loom.
Calling itself ‘quality natural’, The Green Loom offers products free from parabens, petrochemicals, sodium lauryl, synthetic colours, and dyes. The products use plant-based preservatives.
‘Quality natural’ brand:
- The Green Loom offers 31 products, starting from face packs and creams to cold pressed oils.
- The average shelf life ranges between 6 and 18 months.
- The startup earns an average revenue of Rs 3-4 lakh per month.
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