OneWeb, ISRO strike partnership; 100x.VC calls women founders to pitch; and a chat with the CEO of Mihup Communications

OneWeb, a satellite communications company backed by India’s Bharti Airtel, has partnered with NewSpace India—the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation—to use ISRO’s PSLV rockets and the heavier GSLV-MkIII launch vehicles to place its satellites in space in 2022. VC firm 100x.VC is calling on women founders to pitch for funding. In our tech conversation, we speak to Tapan Barman, CEO of Mihup Communications on the company’s latest virtual interactive analyst.  OneWeb, a satellite communications company backed by Bharti Airtel, has partnered NewSpace India—the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation—to use ISRO’s PSLV rockets and the heavier GSLV-MkIII launch vehicles to place its satellites in space in 2022, the Financial Express reports. A non-binding letter of intent between OneWeb and NewSpace India was unveiled at the launch of the Indian Space Association in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, according to the report. OneWeb is building a constellation of nearly 650 satellites and has already put 322 satellites into orbit. Services will begin this year in the Arctic region including Alaska, Canada, and the UK. By late 2022, OneWeb will offer its high-speed, low latency connectivity services in India and the rest of the world, according to FE. 100x.VC, a Mumbai venture capital firm and accelerator for early-stage startups, is calling on women founders looking for backers to pitch to the firm’s partners on October 18th at 5 pm. Interested women entrepreneurs can register themselves with the firm for the event, according to a post on LinkedIn by Shashank Randev, one of the partners at the firm. Shashank’s post has a link to a Google form as well, which interested candidates can use to register themselves. GramCover, an insurance startup, has raised $7 million co-led by Siana Capital and Inflexor Ventures in a Series A round. The fundraise also saw the participation from Stride Ventures along with existing backers Omidyar Network India, Flourish Ventures and Emphasis Ventures. The five-year-old startup specialises as a tech-enabled marketplace for insurance focused on rural India. It facilitates policy purchases for crops, motor, livestock, and health. The company has sold insurance covers worth Rs 1.10 billion in premiums. The fresh capital will be used to strengthen its technology and products and scale up the business and support functions, the startup said in a press release. Unitus Capital was the financial advisor to the company on the transaction. Lunchclub, a video-based professional networking platform provider, is looking to expand into India, Economic Times reported. The company uses AI and machine learning algorithms to match people based on their professional interests. Users can accept weekly one-on-one video meetings with new connections via a mobile app and the website. Lunchclub aims to add 100,000 users by December, according to ET. (3:30) Conversational AI is making inroads into several sectors, from cars to call centres. I spoke to Tapan Barman, co-founder and CEO of Mihup Communications—a Kolkata startup that offers its voice AI technology to companies including Tata Motors, ICICI and Swiggy—about the company’s latest version of a virtual interactive analyst.