Opportunity : Turbostart to invest up to Rs 50 crore in 25 startups

New Delhi  :  Turbostart, a sector-agnostic business acceleration platform, on Thursday said it will invest up to Rs 50 crore in 25 start-ups under the second edition of its Founders' Fellowship programme that will go live on August 15.
The top 25 most promising start-ups stand a chance to win up to Rs 2 crore each in funding and Turbostart will also aid them in business model validation, product strategy and positioning, market support, product-market fit, technology, architecture, scalability and access to customers, a statement said. The programme, conducted bi-yearly, invites early-age start-ups that are looking for funding to kick-start their businesses coupled with all-encompassing mentorship. 
We received over 1,000 applicants from over 30 countries globally and 300 cities, including start-ups from different sectors like edtech, healthtech, IoT and others during last year's programme. Taking into account the current dynamic situation of the start-up ecosystem, funding has become even more challenging," Turbostart founder and CEO Ganesh Raju said.

Unacademy forays into non-test prep space with launch of chess subscription
E-learning platform Unacademy on Thursday said it is foraying into the non-test prep space with the launch of a subscription for learning chess. 
The course will include lessons, tips and tricks, and will be taught by 13 international Grandmasters including Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Pravin Thipsay, Sriram Jha, Vijaylakshmi Subbaraman, Romain Edouard, Girish Koushik, Abhijeet Gupta and Sahaj Grover through interactive live classes, a statement said.
The live classes are designed to cater to all learners interested in chess, from beginners to those in advanced stages and even those looking to improve their game for competitive purposes, it added.  The live classes will be accompanied by in-class quizzes, personalised and immediate feedback to help improve each learner's game, along with frequent mini tournaments to test one's proficiency level. 

DaveAI raises funding from Mumbai Angels, GHV Accelerator, others
Bengaluru-based DaveAI on Thursday said it has raised funding from Mumbai Angels Network, GHV Accelerator, IIIT Technology Venture partners and Mohan Kumar, CEO of Crestere Technologies. It, however, did not disclose the amount raised.
This investment will help us enter new markets and sustain this growth at a global scale," Sriram, co-founder and CEO of DaveAI, said. 
From replacing chat bots with virtual avatars to creating contactless experiences in physical spaces, the start-up's patent-pending Empathetic AI technology is creating a new dimension for product discovery moving away from the traditional websites and four walls of stores and banks.  DaveAI's avatars can be deployed on web, kiosks, virtual reality and augmented reality.