TWTW Weekly Wrap Up: 8-14 Jan

Last Week’s Latest

•Hack the Box, a gamified cybersecurity training platform with 1.7M users, raises USD 55M

•Investment giant Fidelity announced on Wednesday, 12 January, 2023, that it has acquired Shoobx, a venture-backed fintech startup, for an undisclosed amount.

•LSQ and Calculum, on 11 January 2023, announced an agreement to collaborate and combine LSQ working capital and Supply Chain Finance solutions with Calculum's data analytics services as well as their technical expertise. 

•Overjet, a leader in dental artificial intelligence solutions for providers and payers, on 11th January 2023, announced a partnership with DECA Dental Group. 

•TTEC Holdings, 11 January 2023, announced the expansion of its partnership with Google Cloud that will allow customers to use Google's AI-powered Contact Center-as-a-Service (CCaaS) capabilities to strengthen the real-time interactions with customers across digital and live channels.

•Bengaluru-based connected health tech platform Eka Care will now bring its comprehensive and personalized practice management platform to the doctors of Nagpur.

•EdTech startup LEAD has raised Rs 160 crore in funding through a mix of long-term capital from Alteria Capital and Stride Ventures and working capital financing from banks — Standard Chartered Bank, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank. 

•ERANGTEK signed an MOU with India's VVDN Technologies to develop and cooperate with 5G Multiplexer Cavity Filter by participating in CES 2023.

•India will spend nearly USD 320 million to promote cards on RuPay and for low-value UPI transactions, the latest in a series of moves by New Delhi to fuel the growth of its homegrown payments network.

•Microsoft plans to collaborate with the Indian space agency to give Indian space tech startups free access to cloud tools.

Focused Story Of The Week #1: Corporate And Startup Collaboration Making India Global

Large organisations are looking for ways to collaborate with startups as technology disrupts business models and breaks silos. Startups need funding, resources, and access to customers, but corporations need innovation to stay one step ahead of industry rivals. In reality, as numerous studies have demonstrated, access to broader markets is the primary motivation for startups to work with established corporations rather than capital. To accelerate the pace of innovation and product creation, well-established corporations are looking to collaborate with startups.

Startups are usually proficient at swiftly actualising their concepts. On a budget, they provide "proof of concept." However, creating and scaling are not the same. Startups frequently make mistakes as they advance up the ladder. Cascading the proof of concept is challenging due to insufficient experience. Established businesses, on the other hand, frequently have difficulty developing new products from scratch since they are not accustomed to doing things differently. Therefore, there is a natural fit when startups partner with established businesses.

In India, the potential for a mutually beneficial partnership between big businesses and startups has been realised not just at the level of specific partnerships but also in terms of the co-evolution of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the partner ecosystems of those businesses. Therefore, the new MoU between Microsoft and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to support the development of space tech firms in India is a positive development for the Indian startup ecosystem.

"Bringing startups and corporates together will lead to sustainable and equitable growth of the Indian economy."

Focused Story Of The Week #2: CyberContact Center-as-a-Service – Redefining Customer Experience

On 11 January 2023, TTEC Holdings announced the expansion of its collaboration with Google Cloud, enabling customers to take use of Google's AI-powered Contact Center-as-a-Service (CCaaS) capabilities to improve real-time interactions with customers across digital and live channels. Businesses have been accepting the truth that in the contemporary marketplace, differentiation is no longer achieved through pricing or usefulness.

To succeed in the current market, one must create compelling interactions with customers wherever they may be. Modern firms must adapt to changing client needs. Multigenerational clients looking for connections through countless platforms and gadgets cannot be served by a static, immovable contact centre. They require something flexible, adaptable, and always changing, just like them.

With the aid of CCaaS solutions, businesses can have dialogues with their customers across all platforms and marketing tactics. With CCaaS, businesses can offer their clients everything from SMS and chat to video, self-service, and more. The cloud's ability to be extended allows the contact centre to connect to collaborative tools, CRM platforms, analytics, and more. Today's market for cloud contact centres is more competitive than ever. As more flexible and scalable solutions take the place of on-premise implementations, CCaaS providers have experienced growth of up to 40–50 per cent annually.

Digital transformation is no longer just a trendy phrase or idea. It is now crucial to maintaining competitiveness in a dynamic economy. Multi-channel communication settings have started to replace traditional call centres, improving the entire customer experience.

"With a proven migration path to the cloud, companies can propel customer experience initiatives forward and access new technologies that produce truly transformative results."