US Startup Lightmatter Looking To Speed Up Computing Via Light
Published on 11th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
The idea of using light instead of electricity in computing has been around for decades. Boston-based startup Lightmatter Inc. believes the technology’s time has finally come. It is pitching the solution to big data center operators, such as Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google, which is an investor via GV, venture capital arm of parent Alphabet Inc. The startup’s technology uses tiny structures called “Wave guides” that redirect light. Known as silicon photonics, turn the light into electrical signals that existing computing gear can understand. The system can send data between components 100 times quicker than the fastest PC and uses 10% of the energy, according to Lightmatter co-founder Nick Harris. With data centers forecast to account for more than 15% of global power use in the next five years, anything that saves electricity is valuable, Harris said. The Lightmatter system speeds this up immensely, he said.
Zomato raises $103 million from Tiger Global, looks to go public by mid-2021
Published on 11th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Bengaluru: Foodtech unicorn Zomato has raised $103 million from New York- based investment firm Tiger Global Management as part of its ongoing Series-J financing, according to regulatory filings. Swiggy raised $156 million in March quarter of 2020 from Naspers and others. As Zomato looks to attract new investors to the company, these funds raising efforts might be its last before it hits the public markets. This investment from Tiger Global comes a week after the Gurugram-based foodtech major closed $62 million from MacRitchie Investments Pte. The company in March raised $5 million from Pacific Horizon Investment Trust, which is managed by UK-based Baillie Gifford & Co. Ltd. Earlier in July, Zomato said that its revenues doubled to $394 million, although it recorded a loss of $293 million, for the fiscal year 2019-20. In FY19, the food aggregator unicorn reported a revenue of $192 million and a loss of $277 million. In its latest report, Zomato estimated that business for the food delivery industry will come back to pre-covid levels in the next 2-3 months, with 70% of restaurants on its platform delivering food at present.
Walmart To Test Drone Delivery Of Grocery, Household Items In Battle With Amazon
Published on 10th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Walmart Inc said on Wednesday it would run a pilot project for delivery of grocery and household products through automated drones, along with end-to-end delivery firm Flytrex, as the U.S. retailer looks to beef up its delivery business. Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart said the test would start on Wednesday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, with cloud-controlled drones picking up and dropping off select items. “We know that it will be some time before we see millions of packages delivered via drone. That still feels like a bit of science fiction,” Tom Ward, senior vice-president, customer products, said in a statement. The company has accelerated the expansion of its pick-up and delivery services in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, as virus-wary consumers increasingly prefer having items delivered at their doorsteps. Walmart, whose U.S. online sales doubled in the second quarter, has previously partnered with Ford Motor Co and self-driving vehicle startups Gatik and Nuro to explore delivery through autonomous vehicles.
Lightspeed Leads Hasura's $25 Million Round
Published on 10th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
BENGALURU: Developer tooling startup Hasura has raised $25 million in Series-B funding, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, along with participation from existing investors Vertex Ventures US, Nexus Venture Partners, Strive VC and SAP.iO Fund. Microsoft chairman John Thompson also participated in the new round as an angel investor. The investment comes roughly six months after the company raised $9.9 million in Series-A funding. The San Francisco and Bengaluru-based company has raised $36.5 million so far. Hasura said it will utilise funds to accelerate hiring and will invest in open source and commercial product development. The company has added GraphQL support for MySQL and early access support for SQL Server, extending support for all three major database technologies. “We want our users to be able to access that data instantly with Hasura’s secure, scalable data access infrastructure, so adding support for MySQL and SQL Server was our obvious next step. It opens up huge potential for all the developers who need to access the vast amounts of data that lives in MySQL and SQL Server today,” said Tanmai Gopal, cofounder of Hasura.
Groww Raises $30 Million In Series C Funding From YC Continuity, Sequoia, Ribbit Capital
Published on 10th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Bengaluru-based wealth management platform, Groww on Thursday said that it has raised $30 million in Series C funding, led by Y Combinator’s growth stage fund, YC Continuity. Groww is YC Continuity’s first investment in India. The fundraise comes exactly a year after Groww raised $21.4 million in Series B financing from Ribbit Capital, Sequoia India as well as Y Combinator. “We believe Groww is building the largest retail brokerage in India. At YC, we have known the founders since the company was just an idea and they are some of the best product people you will meet anywhere in the world. We are grateful to be partners with Groww as they build one of the largest retail financial platforms in the world,” said Anu Hariharan, partner at YC Continuity. “India is seeing increased participation of retail investors in financial markets – with 2 million new stock market investors added in the last quarter alone. In the last two years, Groww has expanded their product offering and built a strong team in its journey to make investing simple for Indians”, said Ashish Agrawal, Principal, Sequoia Capital India LLP. At present, 60% of Groww users hail from Tier 2,3 cities, with 60% of its user base being first time investors.
Happiest Minds: An IPO That Flew Under The Radar In Startup Land
Published on 10th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Happiest Minds, a company founded in 2011, has just listed on the bourses. About 4.2 million shares in the company were earmarked for retail investors but the company is seeing bids for more than 164 million shares. He’s taken companies from zero to IPO twice and zero to $100 million thrice. He’d quit as the Chief Executive Officer of Mindtree – a company he co-founded and took public – in a huff. He wanted Happiest Minds to become the fastest company to reach $100 million in revenue. At his home in Koramangala, where conducted most of his meetings then, he’d dribble out bits of information about the new company that he was building. After he’d left Mindtree, a lot of writing in the press was about how the relationship between him and the rest of the founders at the company had soured. With the public listing of Happiest Minds, Ashok Soota has cemented his legacy as one of the finest founders India has ever had.
Piaggio Partners With Financing Startup For Vehicle Leasing Plans
Published on 9th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
MUMBAI: Italian two-wheeler maker Piaggio has partnered with automotive financing startup OTO Capital to offer vehicle leasing plans to the customers of Vespa and Aprilia range of scooters. The facility, currently available for customers in Pune and Bangalore, allows leasing of Vespa or Aprilia scooters for low down payment and with 30 per cent discount on the EMI besides other benefits, Piaggio India said in a release. The company said that the merit of this new ownership model lies in the fact that one would have to pay only for the number of years they want to keep the vehicle and then return it anytime, thereby paying less and gaining more on their Vespa and Aprilia models. Further, through the leasing option, one can even upgrade to a more premium model of Vespa and Aprilia in the same EMI budget. “We see flexible ownership to be a desirable new trend amongst the youth of India and we believe Vespa and Aprilia would lead it to extend the premium experience to the aspirants,” said Diege Graffi, Chairman and Managing Director, Piaggio India.
We Will Be In 30,000 Societies By This Fiscal-End: MyGate
Published on 9th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
BENGALURU : Online learning platform Byju’s has raised $500 million in a fresh round of funding led by US-based private equity investor Silver Lake, along with participation from existing investors including Tiger Global, General Atlantic, and Owl Ventures. Silver Lake’s investment into edtech platform Byju’s comes shortly after the PE investor picked up a 0.93% stake in telecom major Reliance Jio for ₹4,546. The new round values Byju’s at $10.8 billion, up from its last valuation at $10.5 billion from its earlier Series F round that was closed in August, said a person aware of the deal asking not to be named. On 27th August 2020, the edtech unicorn also raised $122 million funding from DST Global, the investment fund headed by tech billionaire Yuri Milner. “We are delighted to lead this investment and partner with Byju and his impressive team of education technology pioneers in their mission to help children in India and around the world achieve their true potential,” addedGreg Mondre, Co-CEO of Silver Lake. Recently, Unacademy raised $150 million in funding from Japan’s Softbank, valuing the startup at over 1.4 billion.Edtech startup Toppr raised $50 million during the pandemic period, while Vedantu raised $100 million led by New York-based hedge fund Coatue, valuing it at $600 million.
We Will Be In 30,000 Societies By This Fiscal-End: MyGate
Published on 9th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
NEW DELHI : Backed by a strong set of investors like Tiger Global and Tencent, MyGate, a four-year old security software solutions startup, claims to be a part of over 2 million homes across 10,000 societies in the country. During the covid-induced lockdown, the startup tied up with various service providers, e-commerce platforms and now eyes – a three-fold growth, by expanding its services to 30,000 societies by the end of this financial year. By the end of September, we’ll be close to 12,000, closing 1500 societies every month. Aside from the growing importance of our solution to gated communities, we have been able to build a viable operations framework to onboard, train and service societies remotely. We’re now in just under 11,000 societies and are growing faster than we have ever before. This will be a space of tremendous growth for the foreseeable future, and we see ourselves in 30,000 societies by the end of this fiscal – in part, on the back of some headwinds offered by the current crisis.
Inflexor Ventures' New Fund Marks First Close At Rs. 230 Crore
Published on 9th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
BENGALURU : Venture capital firm Inflexor Ventures has raised ?230 crore, marking the first close of Inflexor Technology Fund. The fund’s target corpus is ?500 crore along with an additional Rs. 200 crore green-shoe option, over the next few months from domestic and international investors. Investors in the fund include SBICap Ventures, SIDBI, family offices and ultra-rich individuals. The fund, launched earlier this year, claims to have drawn significant interest from limited partners and capital being raised the midst of the covid-19 crisis. The fund eyes investment in startups at pre-series A to Series A+ stages. Venkat Vallabhaneni, managing partner of the fund said, “We see a huge opportunity for emerging new- age Indian technology companies given the availability of large young talent pool and the entrepreneurial spirit of founders.” Valuations too seem to have corrected by 10-15%. The fund will invest around ?5-7 crore on 3-4 shortlistedcompanies with follow-on funding of up to Rs. 15-20 crore based on performance, growth and capital requirements.
StartupXseed Makes First Close Of Rs 150 Crore Fund-II
Published on 8th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
NEW DELHI: StartupXseed Ventures has made the first close of its new investment vehicle – at 65 crore – and expects to raise its full 150 crore corpus over the next 6-9 months. Following StartupXseed Ventures’ first fund – a 2016-vintage 34-crore fund – the early stage focused Fund-II has been backed by a number of family offices and professionals from the information technology sector. It counts former Infosys senior executives, TV Mohandas Pai, who invested from his fund Aarin Capital, and V Balakrishnan, who has invested in his personal capacity, as general partners in the fund. According to Naidu, formerly a director with Software Technology Parks of India, the Sebi-registered, Category-I Alternative Investment Fund will look to make 15-odd investments, writing a first cheque of between Rs 3 crore and Rs 10 crore. “Our goal from the first fund was to stabilise the process, identify the thesis of our process and provide post-investment support. We had seen 1,200 companies, and finally ended up investing in just 12 of themThe success of the first fund has largely been due to the processes that we followed,” Naidu told ET in an exclusive interaction.
BluSmart Raises $7 Million In Pre-Series A Funding
Published on 8th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
MUMBAI : Delhi NCR-based all-electric ride hailing platform BluSmart Mobility Pvt Ltd has raised $7 million or ₹51 crore in pre-series A funding from multiple investors including Inflection Point Ventures, Venture Catalysts, Survam Partners, Mumbai Angels, Chhatisgarh Investments Ltd., JITO Angels, Lets Venture Fund and Kaplavriksh Fund, the company said on Monday. The company, which is also in talks to raise venture debt, said that the funds would be utilized in expanding its fleet, setting up electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and making technology related improvements while increasing its footprint. The startup also has appointed Anirudh Arun as COO and Rishabh Sood as the CTO. The startup, which is looking to forge strategic partnerships with automotive, infrastructure and energy companies, plans to add ‘thousands of electric cars and hundreds of charging stations’ toits platform in 2021, it said. “We are looking at augmenting the EV uptake by expanding fast electric car charging infrastructure for an easy charging practice,” said Goyal. Mitesh Shah, Cofounder, Inflection Point Ventures said that the venture capital firm, with its vast investor base of CXOs from diverse industries including EVs, automotive and banking, financial services and insurance, will help BluSmart in growing its fleet economically as well as expand its network.
Proxgy Launches Virtual Commerce Platform In India
Published on 8th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Proxgy aims to change the way people navigate through their daily outdoor tasks by hailing a Proxgy through the Proxgy user app which links the user to their Proxgy. The camera access is controlled by the user via a multidirectional joystick control within the Proxgy user app, giving users a real-time immersive experience of the Proxgy’s surrounding. Once a Proxgy accepts a user’s booking, the user is linked in an instantaneous ride-hailing manner to his or her Proxgy via two-way audio, one-way video. The user can then see and listen live to what their Proxgy is seeing and hearing in the place of Proxgy’s service, while the user sits at home and asks their Proxgy to perform the tasks of his choosing via audio commands relayed to the Proxgy through the Proxgy’s service app. “These cutting edge technological innovations have helped us create a truly immersive and exceptional augmented reality experience for the end-user. Proxgy is now using 360-degree rotation cameras on Proxgy smart helmets, 3D viewing options, VR head controlled camera movements and one to many broadcasting abilities to provide the end-user an ultimate mix of the real and augmented worlds right at their home.” added Pulkit Ahuja.
Meet The Indian Startup Founder Trying To Digitise Small Business In Indonesia
Published on 8th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Menon went to Indonesia in 2013, at a time when the rapidly growing Asian economy was. “There are 60 million micro merchants in Indonesia, while almost all of them use WhatsApp for social commerce, their businesses are still run manually,” said Menon, speaking with Moneycontrol over the phone from Jakarta. What Menon is trying to do in Indonesia, is being attempted by multiple startups in India too. Players like Khatabook, OkCredit are trying to digitise micro retail businesses, Bengaluru-based Open is trying to become a neo-banking platform for small businesses and JioMart is trying to leverage WhatsApp to enable local kiranas to accept orders digitally and deliver them at the doorstep of consumers. Indonesia gets a clear winner and a runner-up in every sector, said Menon. After landing up in Indonesia seven years ago, Menon worked with the Lazada Group for a year. “Businesses never shut down here due to the pandemic and the economy is still growing, albeit at a slow pace,” Menon said.
Gaja Capital: PE Firm Gaja Capital May Lead $100 Million Round In 1MG
Published on 7th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
BENGALURU: Amid the consolidation in the e-pharmacy space, 1MG is in talks with Indian and global private equity funds for a new fund-raise of around $100 million as it prepares to fight rivals – Reliance Industries, Amazon and PharmEasy-Medlife combine. Private equity firm Gaja Capital is in an advanced stage of talks to lead the round at 1MG, while Tata Capital and Europe’s Partners Group are also looking to participate in the deal along with another ‘global private equity major’, said three sources briefed on the matter. 1MG’s existing investors, which include Sequoia Capital and World Bank investment arm IFC, are also expected to participate. “It is looking to raise north of $100 million and the talks have accelerated following the Reliance-Netmeds deal as it would require capital as a standalone player. Around $70 million of new capital has been finalised but 1MG is negotiating for a bigger cheque,” a person aware of the matter said. When contacted, 1MG co-founder and CEO Prashant Tandon, spokesperson for Gaja Capital and Tata Capital declined to comment on the matter. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March, 6 million new households tried online medicine taking the total to 9 million households, a recent Ficci-Redseer white paper said.
Rooter: Gaming Platform Rooter Partners With AI Firm Stradigi
Published on 7th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
PUNE: Paytm and LeAD-backed gaming community platform Rooter today announced a strategic partnership with Stradigi AI, a North American AI software company. “Data analytics is critical for us to gain accurate user insights. Rooter has amassed a large amount of data, but a shortage of experience and infrastructure around AI and machine learning has held us back from implementing data-powered applications. Having an AI company like Stradigi AI will empower us to utilise our data and improve our product, personalise content, churn superior interactive content, create prediction models to help users to make fantasy teams, and enhance user experience.” Leveraging Stradigi AI’s Kepler AI platform will help Rooter accelerate the creation of multiple machine learning-driven features for the sports and gaming industry, improving user experiences through predictive capabilities for match play and fantasy content. “We are very excited about our partnership with Rooter and the opportunity to work with them to augment their platform with predictive capabilities.” said Basil Bouraropoulos, CEO, Stradigi AI. “These capabilities will create a more compelling experience for their users, further cementing their position as a leader in the online sports and gaming market. Kepler is designed to enable any business to rapidly benefit from advanced machine learning, maximize their data investments and ultimately generate value to their business and customers.”
Elon Musk's Option Haul Swells To $8.5 Billion With Third Payout
Published on 7th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Tesla Inc.’s stock setback this week wasn’t enough to hinder Elon Musk’s improbable payouts, now amounting to a staggering $8.8 billion. On Friday, Musk cleared the final threshold for a third tranche of his moonshot award, pegged to Tesla’s financial and market value. A Friday afternoon rally in the automaker’s stock price ended a three-day rout that saw the company’s market capitalization drop by almost $90 billion from its all-time high on Monday. The latest sum, which is roughly worth $2.9 billion after accounting for the cost of exercising the options, is more reminiscent of the hauls collected by hedge fund managers in rare blowout years than the $15-million-a-year packages awarded to the typical S&P 500 chief executive officer. Its market value stands at more than $380 billion, far above that of its global rivals, despite producing far fewer vehicles. His latest tranche was unlocked after Tesla’s 6-month and 30-day average trailing market value both exceeded $200 billion. Another performance goal – logging a combined $3 billion of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization topping $3 billion over four quarters – was achieved as of June 30, a filing shows.
Harsha Bhogle invests in gaming startup Fantasy Akhada
Published on 7th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle has invested an undisclosed amount in gaming startup Fantasy Akhada, and will be the brand’s face for the next two years, the company said on Friday. Fantasy Akhada founder Amit Purohit said that onboarding of Bhogle as an investor will boost subscribers’ confidence towards the platform, while the startup will continue building technology to serve the gamers on the platform “I have realised that during a cricket match, everyone wants to join the game. While limited people can play on the ground, several fans engage in the game online through various sort of games. There fantasy gaming is growing and it is good to invest in something which is growing,” Bhogle told PTI. The company did not disclose the investment details. “Besides the growth potential, I like to work with young people who want to make a difference in society with their energy. I was comfortable with people involved in Fantasy Akhada hence I decided to make an investment in the platform,” Bhogle said. Fantasy Akhada claims to be growing by more than 100 per cent month on month post the lockdown.
Wework India Raises $100 Million From Wework Global
Published on 5th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
BENGALURU: US-based office space provider WeWork Global has bought 20 per cent stake in Wework India, a fully-owned subsidiary of Bengaluru-based estate developer Embassy Group, for $100 million as the company looks to scale up India operations over the next 36 months. Embassy Group had 100% rights over WeWork India, which is an independent entity with the right to execute WeWork’s business in the country. WeWork entered into a partnership with Embassy Group in 2017 and started operations in the Indian market. “India is one of the key markets for WeWork.The fresh round of capital from our long-term partners at WeWork global represents a vote of confidence in our strategy and in India operation. Sandeep Mathrani, global CEO of WeWork will also have a board seat in the India operation,” said Karan Virwani, CEO of WeWork India. The transaction valued the WeWork India business at around $500 mn. WeWork India had earlier told ET that it plans to raise $200 million to expand its India operations. WeWork India, which had earlier planned to increase the number of desks to 90,000 by the end of 2020, said the focus is now on profitability rather than growing the number of seats.
Agri-Tech Startup Aibono Raises Rs 15 Cr For Business Growth, Expansion
Published on 5th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Agri-tech startup Aibono has raised USD 2 million from investors to fund expansion plan and growth of the business, its founder Vivek Rajkumar said on Friday. With the help of its AI powered full-stack farm services and demand-supply syncing technology, Aibono helps farmers from the Nilgiris and surrounding villages in Tamil Nadu to grow premium perishable and herbs with better yields. After procuring farm produce from farmers, the company sells it to retailers in Bengaluru city. “Aibono leverages data science driven demand-supply synchronisation, farm analytics and”just in time engines to prevent food wastage, improve agricultural efficiency as well as stabilise livelihoods of farmers specialising in perishable. “In Aibono, we see a balance of scale and profitability, with equal emphasis on farmer and retailer growth alongside a sustainable business model.” Audrey Selian, director of Lesing Artha associated with Rianta Capital said: With this infusion of funds, agri-tech enablers like Aibono with experience in JIT harvest and demand-supply synchronisation will make significant social impact for farmers possible.