Tag: Pine Labs

Pine Labs launches a ChatGPT-like service for Indian banks

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Pine Labs-owned Setu has launched a large language model (LLM)—Sesame—designed especially for the banking and financial services industry (BFSI) sector. Developed in collaboration with homegrown GenAI startup SarvamAI, the LLM has been trained on custom local data relevant to the sector.

The company has touted the move as the ChatGPT moment in the financial sector. The fintech startup said that the model leverages financial data available both internally and externally to help enterprise customers improve their credit underwriting process, detect fraud, monitor loan performance and offer personal finance advisory.

Sesame will be both domain and region-specific and will be trained on custom data relevant to the BFSI sector, the firm added.

“We believe that the powerful combination of the Account Aggregator framework and transformative technologies like Large Language Models (LLMs) is the key to making this a reality. Just as India has led the way with groundbreaking innovations like Aadhaar and UPI, we are excited to build meaningful, compliant, and responsible AI applications that showcase India’s leadership in Applied AI,” said Nikhil Kumar, Co-founder of Setu.

Pine Labs acquired Setu in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $70-75 million in June 2022. Setu works with account aggregator partners and enables the consolidation of financial data of users at a single location and allows them to access services quickly.

SarvamAI was founded in July 2023 and aims to develop custom-made LLMs designed for India-centric use cases. It develops a full-stack offering for Generative AI, ranging from research-led innovations in training custom AI models to an enterprise-grade platform for authoring and deployment.

Sarvam was the first Indian AI startup to raise $41 million in its Series A funding round led by Lightspeed Ventures with participation from Peak XV Partners and Khosla Ventures in December of 2023.

“Generative AI represents a significant step change in the nature of computation. What can be done with one rupee of compute is now dramatically more valuable,” said Pratyush Kumar, Co-founder of Sarvam AI.

“Our collaboration with Setu is an example of bringing this technology to create value in the BFSI space. We showed that we can significantly increase the accuracy of identifying insights from financial statements. This is a template which we believe can be repeated across sectors where India has created foundational digital public goods,” he added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Excl: Pine Labs sees 3x rise in monthly transaction volumes since getting payment aggregator licence

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Merchant commerce platform Pine Labs has seen a 3x rise in the number of merchants onboarded on a monthly basis, and a similar rise in monthly volumes since getting the regulator’s nod for a Payment Aggregator licence, its chief executive officer Amrish Rau told CNBC-TV18.

The comments assume significance as Pine Labs, which only entered the payment gateway space in October 2020 with its offering “Plural”, has seen a significant increase in volumes on its platform. This follows a ban on its rivals Paytm, Cashfree, PayU and others from onboarding new customers after their PA licences were returned by RBI.

“Businesses want to connect to our platform, because we are not just a sturdy payments business, but because we are also one of the most compliant ones,” Rau told CNBC-TV18.

“Payments is a very responsible business, and working very closely with the regulator and regulatory guidelines is extremely critical..We have worked very hard over many many years to build a platform that conforms to what Reserve Bank of India wants to see..So we are quite delighted to be among the first few that have got the PA licence, it is a big responsibility,” Amrish Rau told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

Disadvantage Competitors = Advantage PineLabs?

“The number of merchants we are boarding on a monthly basis has actually gone up 3x, our volumes have gone up 3x on a monthly basis. We are almost getting to about a billion dollars of payment volumes on a monthly basis now,” Rau said.

Pine Labs was among a clutch of fintechs to get a PA licence from RBI. A Payments Aggregator license, allows companies to provide payment services for merchants (online businesses or e-commerce firms) by accepting payment instruments from customers.

A total of 185 fintechs and startups have submitted their applications for a license to operate a payment aggregator to RBI. So far, the regulator has granted an in-principle approval to 32 entities to operate as an online payment aggregator (PA), including Pine Labs, Google Pay, Amazon and others, rejected applications of 4 players including Paytm, Freecharge, and PayU, barring them from onboarding new merchants until advised otherwise. Another 28 applications are still under review.

“Look some of those (players) have to realise that RBI or any institution connected to the government, wants to ensure consumers are protected, money is under the control of the right set of people, and they will have to up their game to work in a very compliant manner,” Rau said, without naming any of the rival companies.

Also Read: STL announces adoption of science-based target initiatives to be net-zero by 2030

Pine Labs Business Outlook

Pine Labs closed FY2023 with over USD 200 million in annual revenues. When asked which verticals contributed most the revenues, Rau told CNBC-TV18, “We now have a fairly diversified revenue contribution..Today less than 30 percent of our revenues come from the classic terminals business.. Almost 20 percent of our business is now coming from global markets… We think our tech is relevant to the South East Asian markets, and Middle Eastern markets.. The remaining 50 percent revenues come from various software services we provide – issuing, instalment payments, online etc.”

Rau said the types of transactions at check-out counters have increased over the last few years, and Pine Labs’ devices are solving for that on the offline side. However, Rau said, a completely new set of consumers are getting into online payments now, and that’s where he sees the opportunity for the next leg of growth. “While PineLabs will be known for terminals at a Reliance or DMart or Chroma, we are also doing the same in the online space now…The whole wave around bill payments and BBPS is fantastic; we are now the second largest BBPS transaction processing company in India.”

When asked what Pine Labs would be known for, Rau said they “have the responsibility of building a fintech which the world will want to look at, and that business has to be strong in one space which is payments for us..Our payments biz will be online and offline, but we also want to be in the consumer space with cards.. We want to issue cards, because we want to close the loop between consumers and merchants,” he told CNBC-TV18.

More Acquisitions In the Pipeline?

Pine Labs acquired at least 4 startups in the last 12 months alone.The acquisitions were aimed at diversifying its revenue across software and value-added services, apart from its legacy payment and point-of-sale terminals businesses. So it acquired four fintech startups in the past year, inlcuding Qfix, Mosambee, Setu, and Saluto Wellness. And this trend may continue.

“I am a firm believer that M&A, strategic partnerships are extremely important for a company to grow..Liquidity around the world has tightened up, so M&A can be a significant play for scale in a company.. We do see ourselves doing more consolidation in the payments & fintech space,” he told CNBC-TV18.

Valued at over USD 5 billion, Pine Labs raised close to USD 1.2 billion in the last 12 months. While there is no need to raise more money to run the business, according to Rau, Pine Labs will require capital if it is to acquire more companies.

IPO Plans

“We raised about $1.2 billionn in the last 12 months, so purely in terms of money to run the business- we have enough. But for the company to continue to make acquisitions, partner with other players, it is important for us to have funding and IPO is a key piece for that.”

Pine Labs is also looking to go public to give its investors an exit. The fintech unicorn is backed by Sequoia Capital, Temasek Holdings, Actis, PayPal and Mastercard among other leading global investors.

“We also have investors who have been with us for a long time who’d want to see our shares become easily tradable..At the right time, we will go out to the markets. Global markets are at a difficult position as we speak.. We also need to figure at what scale and size we will be appreciated by investors not just in India, and the global market,” Rau said.

While the fintech was contemplating a US-listing, its plans may change. Rau said it would depend on the existing conditions at the time the company decides to go public. “I used to say, for an IPO or exit to happen, the stars have to line up; difficult to say when that will happen,” he said.

Also Read: With only 42 fund managers, women drastically under-represented in MF industry

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Sarvatra Technologies enables ICICI bank, IDFC First Bank, Pine Labs to extend UPI for G20 travellers

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Startup Digest: Pine Labs acquires Saluto Wellness, Zomato looking to hire 800 people & Spotify to cut 6% of jobs

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Pine Labs acquires Saluto Wellness to bolster its issuing business

Fintech major Pine Labs has acquired a proprietary enterprise platform Saluto Wellness for an undisclosed capital. With this acquisition, Pine Labs’ will boost its capabilities of Issuing Business under the Qwikcilver brand.

It will enable the firm to strengthen its offerings across employee rewards and recognition, customer loyalty programmes, and channel partner programmes for medium and large enterprises, a statement said.

“With Saluto’s platform, we expect to further enhance our leadership across Enterprise Rewards, Recognition, Incentive & Engagement programmes. Saluto’s multi-tenant, an enterprise-grade offering will give us additional capabilities to complement our strengths. Their solution, integrated with our offerings, will help us deliver more programmes to our existing enterprise clients — resulting in larger and more long-term engagements,” said Kumar Sudarsan, President, Issuing Business, Pine Labs.

Sequoia mulls auditing South Asia Investments after lapses at Zilingo & GoMechanic

Sequoia Capital’s regional arm in South and Southeast Asia is weighing special audits of several investments in the region following allegations of financial irregularities at firms such as Zilingo Pte and GoMechanic, as per a report by Bloomberg News.

The venture capital firm will work with Ernst & Young on some of these audits and will increase budget allocations to help investee companies put governance guardrails in place.

Also Read: How Shark Tank India gave startup brand TeaFit its biggest marketing lift

Sequoia Capital India will also be more selective when taking board seats at companies and, in some cases, might replace junior members from their team on boards with more senior partners, the report added. That’s a departure from previous practice where Sequoia limited due diligence to companies before investing.

“As a matter of practice, Sequoia Capital India & Southeast Asia conducts due diligence ahead of new, first-time investments. We may conduct diligence ahead of a follow-on round; at this juncture, we have not put a mandate for special audits,” a spokesperson for the company said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg News.

Zomato looking to hire 800 people: Deepinder Goyal

Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal has posted a slew of job vacancies at the company. For a particular role titled ‘Chief of Staff to CEO’, the advertisement says that it is a 24*7 job where the traditional employee mindset of work-life balance won’t work.

“As chief of staff to one of our CEOs (Zomato, Blinkit, Hyperpure), you will be nothing less than a force multiplier and mini-CEO for the organisation. You will drive priorities across the organisation to influence outcomes and maintain momentum,” the advertisement said.

Goyal said in a LinkedIn post that Zomato is looking to hire 800 people across five roles, including engineers, product managers and generalists.

Zomato pauses 10-Minute food delivery service, to pivot to different model: Sources

Foodtech major Zomato has paused its 10-minute food delivery service and it will pivot to a different model, sources told CNBC-TV18. In March 2022, Zomato had announced the 10-minute food delivery service called ‘Zomato Instant’.

“Instant is not shutting down. We are working on a new menu with our partners and rebranding the business. All finishing stations remain intact, and no people are impacted by this decision,” a company spokesperson told CNBC-TV18.

Zomato in March had said the company will fulfil quick deliveries out of a “finishing stations’ network” located in close proximity to high-demand customer neighbourhoods. The company in March also said its 10-Minute Delivery system was on track in Gurugram.

Amazon launches cargo service Amazon Air in India

Ecommerce major Amazon has launched air cargo network Amazon Air in India. For its operations, Amazon will use Boeing’s 737-800 aircraft’s cargo capacity. The aircraft will be operated by Quikjet cargo airlines. In 2016, Amazon Air was launched in the US with a network of 110 aircraft.

Amazon Air, which has a capacity of 20,000 shipments will first transport customer shipments to Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. The launch of Amazon’s dedicated air cargo operation in India will be its first outside of the US and Europe, thus enabling it to create an overnight delivery network here as well.

This comes amidst the backdrop when Amazon in India has sacked thousands of employees. The company’s chief executive Andy Jassy said more than 18,000 workers would be laid off globally.

FUNDING NEWS

Log9 Material raises $40M, aims to grow battery manufacturing capabilities

Advanced technology battery startup Log9 Material has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Amara Raja Batteries and Petronas Ventures. The round was also participated by other investors, including Incred Financial Services, Unity Small Finance Bank, Oxyzo Financial Services and Western Capital Advisors.

“The recent round of investments will allow us to grow our battery manufacturing capabilities to a 2 GWH capacity by the end of 2024,” Log9 Material Founder and CEO Akshay Singhal said in a statement. He further said it will also help the company to commission its first fully integrated Lithium Ion Cell production line. “Furthermore, over Rs 100 crore will be invested towards advancements in cell and battery technology stacks,” Singhal added.

Log9 said it also plans to invest a part of the raised funds into “budding start-ups and organisations that are solving challenges related to charging infrastructure, technology ancillaries and companies fighting climate change at large.”

FuelBuddy raises $20M from Naveen Jindal Group and others

Doorstep fuel delivery startup FuelBuddy has raised $20 million from Naveen Jindal Group, Ravi Jaipuria Group and Nilesh Ved of UAE-based Apparel Group.

The fresh funds will be used for expansion in India, overseas markets in the Middle East and North Africa region, and South East Asia, the company said in a statement. The funds will also be used to widen services to alternative energies such as electric vehicles and to enhance technology used, it added.

With over 45,000 customers and operations in over 130 cities, FuelBuddy claims to have served about 10 crore liters of diesel to an array of partners across the country.

Myelin Foundry raises $3M in Series A funding round

Deeptech AI startup Myelin Foundry has secured $3 million in its Series A funding round led by automotive electronics major Visteon Corporation. The round also saw participation from existing investors Endiya Partners, Beyond Next Ventures, and Pratithi Investment Trust.

As per the startup, the new round will consolidate Myelin’s platforms and expand into international markets. Myelin will further build capabilities and position itself as a leader in the edge AI space, it said in a statement.

Myelin has developed products for Media & Entertainment and Intelligent Mobility. The company said it has also established its product-market fit and built key customer relationships which include leading streaming services and automotive OEMs.

OnArrival gets $175,000 in Pre-Seed round from Antler India

Traveltech startup, OnArrival has come out of stealth mode after raising $175,000 in a pre-seed funding from Antler India. The firm aims to address gaps in customer experience by bringing 20+ ancillary services onto one platform via its proprietary APIs.

“Just like in the airline industry, ancillaries are responsible for all the profitability; anyone selling travel today has to figure out how to bundle products effectively to increase their profitability. We are here to help these B2B customers delight their end users much more, resulting in a healthier bottom line,” said Ankit Sawant, Co-Founder, OnArrival.

Post-Covid, the travel industry is coming back in a huge way. McKinsey estimates that flight ticket ancillary revenues constitute $105 billion, or 14.6% of an airline’s 2019 revenues.

Mumbai Angels lead Pre-Series A round in Falca

Rural agritech startup Falca has raised an undisclosed capital in a Pre-Series A funding round which was led by Mumbai Angels.

The startup will leverage the capital infusion to bolster its technology infrastructure, hire skilled Data Scientists and senior management professionals, and expand its geographical footprint, a statement said.

“The latest capital infusion will definitely propel our growth and achievement of our goals,” said Santosh Danegoudar, Founder and CEO, Falca.

The firm claims to have onboarded 1,50,000+ farmers, 60+ Input manufacturers and 100+ corporate buyers enabling transactions worth Rs 2,500+ million.

GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY & STARTUP NEWS

Spotify to cut 6% of jobs, content head to depart

Spotify plans to cut 6 percent of its workforce and would take a related charge of up to nearly $50 million, that would add to the massive layoffs in the technology sector in preparation for a possible recession.

“Over the last few months we’ve made a considerable effort to rein in costs, but it simply hasn’t been enough,” Chief Executive Daniel Elk said in a blog post announcing the roughly 600 job cuts. “I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth,” he added, echoing a sentiment voiced by other tech bosses in recent months.

It said Dawn Ostroff, the head of content and advertising, was leaving after an over four-year stint at the company. Ostroff helped shape Spotify’s podcast business and guided it through backlash around Joe Rogan’s show for allegedly spreading misinformation about COVID-19. The company said it is appointing Alex Norström, head of the freemium business, and research and development boss Gustav Söderström as co-presidents.

Google pauses green card applications from employees amid layoffs

Amid the layoffs come another bad news for employees, especially from India in the US, as Google has paused its Program Electronic Review Management (PERM), a key step in acquiring an employer-sponsored green card.

Google has sent an email to foreign employees, notifying them that the tech giant will pause any new filings of PERM, leaving foreign workers in a limbo.

“Recognizing how this news may impact some of you and your families, I wanted to update you as quickly as possible on the difficult decision we’ve had to make to pause new PERM applications. This does not impact other visa applications or programmes,” an email from a company executive read.

According to the Google email, with a number of tech companies announcing reductions in their workforce (hiring pauses / layoffs), “there has been an increase in people looking for jobs”. Google, however, said it would continue to support PERM applications already submitted.

Elon Musk to return to stand in fraud trial over 2018 Tesla tweet

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk will take the witness stand again on Monday, as he defends himself against fraud claims that he lied when he tweeted in 2018 that he had funding to take the electric carmaker private, Reuters reported.

Millions of dollars are at stake as well as the reputation of Musk, whose personal stature is a central asset of the Tesla brand. The trial will test whether Musk’s penchant for taking to Twitter to air his sometimes irreverent views misleads investors and damages the value of the company.

The case is a rare securities class action trial and the plaintiffs have already cleared high legal hurdles, with U.S. Judge Edward Chen ruling last year that Musk’s post was untruthful and reckless. Shareholders claim they lost millions after Musk tweeted that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private.

German cartel office initiates proceedings against PayPal

Germany’s cartel office regulator said it had initiated proceedings against payment company PayPal Europe over the possibility that it hindered competition.

The subject of the proceedings was PayPal’s rules for extra charges and the presentation of PayPal in the terms of use for Germany, the watchdog said. PayPal did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The regulator is investigating in particular rules that say merchants may not offer their goods and services at a lower price to customers who choose a cheaper payment method than PayPal.

Nokia signs new 5G patent deal with Samsung

Nokia has signed a new cross-license patent agreement with Samsung following the expiry of a previous agreement at the end of 2022.

“Under the agreement, which covers Nokia’s fundamental inventions in 5G and other technologies, Samsung will make payments to Nokia for a multi-year period beginning 1 January 2023,” the Finnish company said.

The terms of the agreement remain confidential, it added.

Also Read: Here’s a look at how 2022 panned out for the startup universe

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Pine Labs acquires enterprise platform from Saluto Wellness to bolster its issuing business

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Merchant commerce omnichannel company, Pine Labs, on Monday, announced that it has acquired a proprietary enterprise platform from Bengaluru-based Saluto Wellness Private Limited. This acquisition is said to boost the capabilities of Pine Labs’ Issuing Business under the Qwikcilver brand, which in turn should enable it to strengthen its offerings across employee rewards and recognition, customer loyalty programmes, and channel partner programmes for medium and large enterprises.

Pine Labs has a leading presence in India in prepaid, stored value, and gift card solutions through its 2019 acquisition of Qwikcilver, an entity that merged with Pine Labs in September 2022. Saluto Wellness was co-founded by Siva Kumar and Anoop Nambiar in 2017.

Commenting on the development, Kumar Sudarsan, President, Issuing Business, Pine Labs, said “With Saluto’s platform, we expect to further enhance our leadership across Enterprise Rewards, Recognition, Incentive & Engagement programmes. Saluto’s multi-tenant, an enterprise-grade offering will give us additional capabilities to complement our strengths. Their solution, integrated with our offerings, will help us deliver more programmes to our existing enterprise clients — resulting in larger and more long-term engagements. The leadership team at Saluto has over 40 years of collective experience across rewards, incentives, and loyalty.”

Also Read: Here are some concerns regarding Reliance Industries earnings

“Our enterprise solutions are today being used across diverse industry verticals and we are excited to become part of a fast-growing, progressive fintech like Pine Labs and together scale our business further. We have already established a good working relationship with the Pine Labs team and look forward to being a driving force to further Pine Labs’ leadership in this space with innovative outcomes,” said K Siva Kumar, Co-founder and CEO of Saluto Wellness. 

The loyalty programme market in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of about 15 percent over the next decade, and is projected to reach $10.8 billion by 2031, from nearly $3 billion in 2022, as per Future Market Insights.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Also Read: Puravankara shares rise after highest ever sales volume in Q3

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Startup Digest: Pine Labs acquires Setu for $70-75 million, Sequoia’s Surge increases seed round ticket size to $3 million, Uber explored a sale of Indian ride-hailing arm: Report

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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IPO-bound Pine Labs acquires API infrastructure startup Setu for $70-75 million

IPO-bound merchant commerce platform Pine Labs has acquired fintech infrastructure specialist Setu to strengthen its diversified online payments and lending offerings. Sources have told CNBC-TV18 that the deal is valued somewhere between $70-75 million.

Setu’s founders will continue to lead the company and brand name and the 90-100 employee team of Setu will be retained, the company said in a briefing.
This is the third acquisition for Pine Labs in 2022 after picking up a majority stake in payments solution provider Mosambee in April and Mumbai-based online payments startup Qfix in February.

The deal comes at a time when Pine Labs is expanding its offerings beyond merchant payments. It is expanding its Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) offering in Southeast Asia and entered the consumer payments space with the acquisition of Fave in April 2021.

Sequoia’s Surge increases seed round ticket size to $3 million

Sequoia India and Southeast Asia are broadening the range of its check size for the Surge, its accelerator, and incubation programme. The venture capital firm’s check size for Surge, which previously made $1 million to $2 million investments in early-stage startups in the region, will now go up to $3 million.

Increasing the ticket size allows the early-stage founders the runway and time they need to find product-market fit and build a strong team before raising a Series A, Sequoia said in a blog post.

Also Read: ‘Worst of startup layoffs yet to come’

Notably, Surge will also remove the minimum $1 million floor and invest as little as $300,000-500,000 to make it more relevant for a large pool of founders. There’s also no floor size to the investment range, which can start from $300,000 or less, the firm added.

Sequoia, which kick-started Surge in 2019 to sharpen its focus on early-stage investing, has launched six cohorts and more than 20 percent of the selected startups were pre-seed when it partnered with them. This increase in the ticket size will apply to its eight cohorts that will be launched next year.

Uber said to have explored a sale of Indian ride-hailing arm: Report

Uber has explored options for its Indian ride-hailing business, including a sale, but suspended discussions after tech startup valuations cratered, sources told Bloomberg News.

The US-based company began weighing alternatives and reached out to several interested parties after recognizing it had limited potential for profitable expansion in the country, the report said.

It pondered a stock swap with local companies or even a pullout before a global equity market rout upended plans, the people added. A stock deal was favored in exploratory talks as that would allow Uber to retain a foothold in India, added the report. Uber disputed the idea it had considered retreating from India.

“Bloomberg’s reporting is categorically false. We have never explored exiting India — not even for a minute,” company spokesperson Ruchica Tomar said in an emailed statement. Uber remains committed to India and continues to hire people “aggressively.”

Oversight board raises concerns over Meta’s lack of investment to moderate non-English content

The Oversight Board, a semi-independent body established by Meta, has raised concerns about the social-media giant’s investments in moderating content in languages other than English on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

In its first annual report since being set up in 2018 as a body that keeps an independent check on Meta’s content moderation standards, the Board has pointed out that fewer user appeals have come from the Global South, including India.

Also Read: One-stop car service and repair startup Fixcraft acquires VMotive

Between October 2020 and December 2021, the Board received more than a million user appeals. The vast majority of appeals were to restore content on Facebook or Instagram concerning posts that supposedly violated Meta’s rules on bullying, hate speech, violence, and incitement.

More than two-thirds of such user appeals came from the Global North, with 49 percent of total appeals coming from the US and Canada, and 20 percent from Europe. Whereas, only two percent of the total appeals came from Central and South Asia, which includes India — the world’s largest user of Facebook and Instagram.

Ola CEO takes a dig at media after Tata Nexon EV fire

Ola founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal on Thursday had another opportunity to take a dig at the mainstream media after reports surfaced that a Tata Nexon EV caught fire in Mumbai.

In a tweet, Aggarwal said that EV fires will continue to happen. “EV fires will happen. Happens in all global products too. EV fires are much less frequent than ICE (internal combustion engine) fires,” he said in a tweet, tagging Hormazd Sorabjee, Editor of Autocar India.

Earlier this year, Aggarwal called a senior auto journalist “Petrol Media”, and mockingly shared pictures of Burnol in response to the criticism he faced on Twitter. Meanwhile, Ola Electric is also planning to launch its own electric car in a couple of years and recently displayed a prototype.

MakeMyTrip to increase all-women team of holiday experts

Online travel firm MakeMyTrip plans to increase its all-women team of ‘holiday experts’ boosted by consistent growth delivered and highest-ever packages sold by them last fiscal.

In FY22, the team of women freelancers, serving as holiday experts, helped curate packages for nearly two lakh travellers – closing the year with the highest-ever packages sold by these experts in over 10 years, MakeMyTrip said in a statement.

Also Read: Indian skincare startup Mamaearth eyes $3 billion valuation in 2023 IPO: Sources

“Spurred by the consistent growth, in the coming months, MakeMyTrip is now aiming to expand the franchise network and increase its pool of holiday experts across the country,” it added. The company, however, did not elaborate on how much the number of its all-women team of holiday experts would be increased.

AI adoption to add $500 billion to India’s GDP by 2025: Nasscom Report

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and data utilisation strategy can add $500 billion to India’s GDP by 2025, a new Nasscom report showed. The AI adoption in four key sectors — BFSI, consumer packaged goods (CPG) and retail, healthcare, and industrials/automotive — can contribute 60 percent of the total $500 billion opportunities, according to “AI Adoption Index” Nasscom, EY, and Microsoft, EXL and Capgemini.

Though the current rate of AI investments in India is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.8 percent and poised to reach $881 million by 2023, it will still represent just 2.5 percent of the total global AI investments of $340 billion. For India to achieve its $1 trillion GDP goal by FY 2026-2027, it needs to have a strong correlation to the maturity of AI adoption, the report noted.

KredX allocates Rs 1,500 crore to power MSMEs

KredX, a supply chain finance platform, has announced its plans to disburse Rs 1,500 crore in working capital, over and above the usual disbursement, to cater to the increasing working capital needs of MSMEs.

This additional allocation comes at a time when this sector, which accounts for 27 percent of GDP and is crucial to the functioning of the economy, is staring at an acute credit gap of about $380 billion.

According to a study conducted by KredX, of the 63.05 million estimated MSMEs in India, about 71 percent experience a significant increase in sales during the festive season, with 42 percent comprising online businesses. Almost 57 percent of the working capital demand arises from Tier-1 cities with Bangalore leading from the front, followed by Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Pune, Chennai, and Hyderabad.

The remaining 43 percent of the demand arises from Tier 2 and 3 cities with Nasik, Guwahati, Coimbatore, Vadodara, and Bhopal leading the demand. KredX said it has disbursed an additional Rs 554 crore in working capital over a period of 3 months to about 450 MSME players.

Climate Angels selects 7 startups in the F&B Industry under the ‘Zero-Single-Use Plastic Challenge’

Seven startups have been selected by Climate Angels for the ZeSUP- Zero Single-Use Plastic Challenge to deploy their solutions with the incubators’ F&B partners which include Rebel Foods, Burger Singh, and The Beer Café.
The selected startups include Qudrat, Imaga, Sunbird Straws, Cupable, Embuer Health, Refillable, and Biogreen biotech.

The selected startups are currently gearing up for a six-month Bootcamp program which would run alongside the pilots, a statement said. The program aims to support these ventures throughout their entrepreneurial journey, from curating sessions on the stepping stones of the business world to crafting the perfect story while pitching to investors the program would leave no stone unturned in helping these pioneering startups on their journey to eradicate Single-Use Plastics from India, it added.

Lissun partners with dialysis center network NephroPlus

Mental and emotional wellness company Lissun has collaborated with NephroPlus to provide solutions to its dialysis guests and caregivers for their mental and emotional well-being needs.

This initiative will include one-on-one and group interventions by trained psychologists on issues such as sleep, pain management, stress relief, and mental well-being. Patients and caregivers will also be provided with online resources to assist and understand their wellness journey, as per a statement.

Exotel growing at a CAGR of 70%; to hire 500 professionals

Exotel, a customer engagement platform, aims to hire 500 new professionals across growth and technology functions as the company achieved annual recurring revenue of $60 million with a CAGR of 70 percent for FY22.

According to the company, its focus on sustainability and strong unit economics have been its defining culture across the organisation. With its recent merger with Ameyo, acquisition of CognoAI, and a new virtual telecom operator licence, Exotel is now aiming to achieve an ARR of $200 million in the next four years.

The Hosteller plans to expand into 50 new locations

The Hosteller, a chain of backpacker hostels, said it will be extending its presence from 10 locations to 50 locations across the country. The startup currently is largely present in the Northern part of India and plans to enter into the states of Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu in the southern region. It also aims to have around 15,000 beds in South India with a presence in over 100 places by 2024.

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“We wish to establish our presence in 12+ states pan India and five countries globally and achieve 40 percent+ operating margins, enabling young entrepreneurs to participate,” said Pranav Dangi, founder and CEO of The Hosteller.

GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY & STARTUP NEWS

MasterClass cuts 20% of its workforce

US-based celebrity-driven learning provider MasterClass has announced it is reducing its workforce by 20 percent. MasterClass CEO David Rogier said the decision was taken to “adapt to the worsening macro environment and get to self-sustainability faster”. The layoff impacts nearly 120 people across all teams from its 600-strong workforce.

“It was the most difficult decision I’ve had to make since we launched 7 years ago because our team poured their heart and soul into MasterClass. They are some of the most creative, curious, caring, and dedicated people in the world,” Rogier tweeted.

He said that this very tough step will “strengthen our position both financially and strategically, allowing us to serve our members, employees and instructors for many years to come”.

Facebook Pay now becomes Meta Pay

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed that the company is changing the name of Facebook Pay to Meta Pay. Meta Pay will stay the same easy way to shop, send money, and donate to causes users care about on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and anywhere else they could use Facebook Pay.

“But beyond the current features, we are working on something new — a wallet for the metaverse that lets you securely manage your identity, what you own, and how you pay,” the CEO said in a Facebook post. Zuckerberg mentioned that proof of ownership will be important, especially if users want to take some of these items with them across different services.

Amazon has a plan to make Alexa mimic anyone’s voice

Amazon wants to give customers the chance to make Alexa, the company’s voice assistant, sound just like their grandmother — or anyone else, as per a Reuters report.

The online retailer is developing a system to let Alexa mimic any voice after hearing less than a minute of audio, said Rohit Prasad, an Amazon senior vice president, at a conference the company held in Las Vegas. The goal is to “make the memories last” after “so many of us have lost someone we love” during the pandemic, Prasad said. Amazon declined to share when it would roll out such a feature.

Musk says Tesla’s new car factories are losing billions of dollars’

Tesla new car factories in Texas and Berlin are “losing billions of dollars” as they struggle to increase production because of a shortage of batteries and China port issues, chief executive Elon Musk said in an interview.

“Both Berlin and Austin factories are gigantic money furnaces right now. Okay? It’s really like a giant roaring sound, which is the sound of money on fire,” Musk said in an interview with Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley, an official Tesla-recognized club, in Austin, Texas, on May 31.

Musk said Tesla’s Texas factory produces a “tiny” number of cars because of challenges in boosting production of its new “4680” batteries and as tools to make its conventional 2170 batteries are “stuck in port in China.”

“This is all going to get fixed real fast, but it requires a lot of attention,” he said.
Tesla plans to suspend most production at its Shanghai plant in the first two weeks of July to work on an upgrade of the site to boost output, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

NBCUniversal, Google top contenders for a tie-up with Netflix for the ad-supported plan: WSJ

NBCUniversal and Google are leading the race for a tie-up with Netflix to help it create an advertisement-supported subscription plan, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Comcast’s video advertisement division, Freewheel, can help Netflix with technology to deliver ads, while NBCUniversal’s sales team can assist the streaming service provider with selling advertisements in the United States and Europe, the report added.

Google, which already has a relationship with Netflix as a provider of ad-buying tools, could pursue an exclusive deal with the company, the report said.

Twitter tests long-form text feature called ‘Notes’

Twitter said it was testing a new feature called “Notes” that would allow users to share essay-like write-ups as a link both on and off the social media platform. The company also said newsletter firm Revue, which it bought last year, would now be part of Twitter Write along with the “Notes” feature.

The long-form feature is being tested by a small group of writers and Twitter did not give more details on its wider roll-out. The company currently has a 280-character limit on tweets, a feature it began testing nearly five years ago.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

IPO-bound Pine Labs acquires fintech interface startup for $75 million

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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IPO-bound merchant commerce platform Pine Labs has acquired fintech infrastructure specialist Setu to strengthen its diversified online payments and lending offerings. Sources have told CNBC-TV18 that the deal is valued somewhere between $70 million and $75 million.

Setu’s founders will continue to lead the company and brand name, and the 90-100 employee team of Setu will be retained, Pine Labs said in a briefing.

​Founded in 2018, Setu offers API (Application Programming Interface) integration for fintech players to work closely with regulated entities like banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and others. In August 2021, the company partnered with Google Pay to offer fixed deposits through Equitas Small Finance Bank.

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“Embedded financial services and open banking are going to be the way forward and the embedded finance market value is expected to exceed $138 billiob by 2026 as APIs are intensifying the competitive fintech landscape,” said Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs.

“Setu helps its customers, merchants, and brands build beautiful experiences, so consumers can engage with payments and financial services on their terms. We are in the golden phase of digitisation in India, and Setu is a pioneer in supporting innovation on the India stack — their work on UPI and in the account aggregator space,” he added.

Rau further called Setu “a team of builders and entrepreneurs”, and “together with the Pine Labs team, will tackle hard problems to solve in the ecosystem.”

Also read: Vodafone Idea board approves raising up to Rs 436.21 crore

This is the third acquisition for Pine Labs in 2022, which picked up a majority stake in payments solution provider Mosambee in April and Mumbai-based online payments startup Qfix in February.

The deal comes at a time when Pine Labs is expanding its offerings beyond merchant payments. It is expanding its Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) offering in Southeast Asia and entered the consumer payments space with the acquisition of Fave in April 2021.

“Pine Labs’ network of merchants and issuers coupled with our API integration prowess will help achieve great results in personal finance management, monitoring loans to predict default rates, credit underwriting, and several other areas,” said Sahil Kini, Co-founder and CEO, Setu.

Backed by Sequoia India and Mastercard, Pine Labs is said to have confidentially filed for a US listing, seeking to raise about $500 million, as per a Bloomberg report.

Also read: Kellogg to split into 3 companies — snacks, cereals, and plant-based food

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Google Pay launches Tap to Pay for UPI, in collaboration with Pine Labs

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Google Pay in collaboration with Pine Labs on Wednesday announced the launch of Tap to Pay for UPI – a functionality that aims to bring the seamless convenience of Tap to Pay to UPI.

So far, Tap to Pay was only available for cards.

To complete a payment, all a user will need to do is tap their phone on the POS terminal and authenticate the payment from their phone, using their UPI PIN, making the process virtually instantaneous, as compared to scanning a QR code, or entering the UPI-linked mobile number.

“Fintech growth in India is writing the playbook for the world, first with enabling real time payments with UPI, and further, by innovating with flows that make the transaction time virtually zero. Tap to Pay for UPI has profound implications for high traffic retail outlets, with queue management hassles poised to be greatly reduced, and taking digital payments at POS well beyond cards,” Sajith Sivanandan, Business Head – Google Pay and Next Billion User initiatives, Google PAC said in a statement.

The functionality will be available to any UPI user who wants to use their NFC-enabled Android smartphone to transact using any Pine Labs Android POS terminal across the country. This was piloted with Reliance Retail and will now be available at other large merchants such as Future Retail and Starbucks.

“With Rs 8.26 lakh crore worth of transactions in just the month of December 2021, UPI has taken off in a big way in India. Today, we are pleased to partner Google Pay and enable tap to pay for UPI transactions on Pine Labs Android POS terminals. We believe this will further strengthen UPI acceptance in India and appeal to consumers, especially the youth population who have taken a liking for contactless and digital payments,” Kush Mehra, Chief Business Officer, Pine Labs added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Pine Labs raises $50 million from Vitruvian Partners

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Fintech firm Pine Labs has raised USD 50 million (about Rs 380 crore) from London-headquartered international investment firm Vitruvian Partners. Pine Labs CEO B Amrish Rau said the company aims to further strengthen its foray into online payments with Buy Now Pay Later offering to new markets through strategic collaborations.

“We welcome Vitruvian Partners in this journey and thank them for the trust shown in us,” Rau said. Vitruvian Partners, Partner, Peter Read said that the investment in Pine Labs follows several investments that it has made in the digital payments space.

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“We are excited to partner with the management team as they continue to drive digital transformation within the rapidly growing Indian payments market,” Read said. Pine Labs is expanding its BNPL offering in Southeast Asia, it said in a statement.

In April 2021, Pine Labs acquired Fave, a consumer fintech platform that provides a smart payment app to consumers looking to pay and save. Fave is currently available in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia with a planned rollout in India in the near term.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Pine Labs secures $150 million from Alpha Wave Global in pre-IPO round

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Pine Labs has secured $150 million in a pre-IPO round from Alpha Wave Venture. In 2021, the firm had raised over $600 million across multiple rounds separately led by investors such as Fidelity, Invesco, SBI and more.

While the current valuation of the fintech company is unknown, it was last valued at over $3 billion dollars. According to regulatory filings filed by the startup in Singapore, which was seen by Dealstreet Asia, it has already received the first tranche of $75 million from Alpha Wave.

Confirming the fundraise to CNBC-TV18, CEO Amrish Rao said “We are happy to bring a marquee investor on board. Our Omni-channel strategy is showing strong revenue growth. We are also seeing strong growth in international markets.”

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This development comes after the digital payments and financial service provider acquired online payments startup — Qfix Infocomm, to add more thrust to its foray into online payments in order to diversify ahead of its US IPO later this year. It is also reportedly in talks with fintech infrastructure company Setu for acquisition.

According to a Bloomberg report, Pine Labs has confidentially filed its IPO papers with US Securities and Exchange Commission, seeking to raise $500 million at a valuation of about $5.5 billion to $7 billion.

Also read: Social e-commerce unicorn DealShare gets $45 mn from ADIA, aims to reach $3 bn gross revenue run-rate in 12 months

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow