In Brief: Ezetap’s kirana digitisation initiative, PES university’s deeptech fund

Fintech startup Ezetap has collaborated with retail technology startup SnapBizz to offer a full suite of grocery solutions and value-added services for mom-and-pop store owners. The partnership, as per a statement, will allow grocers to receive access to customised applications on a single platform. The solutions provided include Ezetap’s My Rewards and My Khaata -- the latter helps grocers keep track of credit sales given to customers, while the former helps retailers earn rewards by achieving their sales targets.

PES University, CoCreate launch fund

Bengaluru based PES University and CoCreate Ventures have partnered to launch a fund for industry professionals, student entrepreneurs and academicians working on products in the pre-prototype or pre-ideation phases. Dubbed PESU Venture Labs (PVL), the fund will back startups that are category creators and using deep-tech innovations as a differentiator, a statement said. It has so far incubated 10 startups in the space, four of which are set to hit the market in July this year. The firm provides capital of up to $150,000, resources to turbo start ideas and support for design, marketing and product management.

Anthill Ventures announces accelerator programme

Venture capital firm Anthill Ventures on Wednesday announced the launch of Indus X, an urbantech scaling programme. The firm, through the programme, will invest in and scale startups that use technology to solve citizen, corporate, and government challenges in urban centres, as per a statement. Indus X will be a six-month programme, where up to 10 startups in the pre-series A and Series A funding stage will be mentored to scale. The startups that achieve scale will receive $1-3 million capital infusion from Anthill and other co-investors.

PayPal automates FIRA procurement for Indians

Global digital payments major PayPal on Wednesday introduced an automated process for Indian sellers and freelancers to obtain monthly Foreign Inward Remittance Advice (FIRA) at zero cost. Earlier, users had to send a manual request to PayPal’s partner bank and pay a fee for the service. The bank would then issue FIRA as a physical statement, which would take up to 10 days to be processed and required the seller to visit the bank to collect it. With the new feature, PayPal merchants can download their monthly digital FIRA issued by the bank on their PayPal account. FIRA is a document that acts as proof for all inward remittances and payments received from abroad. This is issued by banks in India and is required by exporters of all sizes, individual or business.