Youth bags job in Dubai; jailed for carrying neighbour's parcel

Chikkamagaluru, Jul 22: Nine staff of the Anti Naxal Force (ANF) in Koppa in the district were tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday.

Health officials said that these people don’t have any contacts outside as they were in the forest buffer zone. Now efforts were being made to find out how they contacted the Coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the Kalsa police station has been sealed down after four of its personnel tested positive.

Bengaluru, Jan 15: The Indian startups secured 12.7 billion in funding last year -- a 15% growth compared to 2018 - and Bengaluru startup community topped the list, with securing $5.3 billion across 267 deals, a new report said on Tuesday.

In total, the Indian startups attracted 766 deals in 2019, taking total deal count between 2014-2019 to 5,011, said DataLabs by Inc42 in its annual startup funding report.

Sequoia took the top spot as the most active VC in 2019 with 53 deals, followed by Accel that participated in 38 deals. Blume Ventures, Matrix Partners and Tiger Global were in the top five VCs in 2019.

"The Indian startup economy is entering new decade with over $58 billion in fundraising and 2,984 funded startups between 2014-2019," the findings showed.

With an average of $21 million, the ticket size value of funding increased by 15% in 2019.

Ecommerce and fintech -- with $2.6 billion funding each -- took the top slot with 93 deals and 125 deals, respectively.

"Ecommerce continued to remain at the top by the end of 2019. The growing investor confidence towards sub-sectors such as vertical ecommerce, social commerce and private label businesses is one major factor for ecommerce maintaining its lead," a DataLabs spokesperson said in a statement.

According to the estimates, the funding amount and deal count in 2020 will be around $12.6 billion at a 1% decline from 2019.

"Nevertheless, the investment activity is expected to rise in 2021," said the report.

The data suggests that 2019 had lowest number of startups funded (664) in the last five years, with seed-stage funding deals dropping by 53%, compared to 2016.

With $252 million in funding, seed-stage deal value fell by 44% (compared to 2018) as only 306 seed funding deals were recorded, the report said.

The enterprise tech had a blockbuster year with total funding of $1.15 billion across 114 deals in 2019. The sector recorded a 49% surge in total funding amount, compared to 2018.

The Indian startup economy saw 275 unique VCs participating in funding in 2019, said the report.

Mangaluru, Jan 8: A 23-year-old youth has been booked under the POCSO Act on charges of abduction and sexual abuse of a minor girl.

Police said on Wednesday day that the accused identified as Aneesh Dias, a resident of Chikkamadnur has reportedly gone absconding. The victim, who hails from Puttur, is a I PU college student.

The victim's parents had filed a missing complaint with Puttur Rural police as their daughter did not return home after leaving home for college. The police investigating the complaint traced the girl.