Vitruvian Partners, a London-based international investment firm, led a $50 million funding round for Noida-based merchant commerce platform Pine Labs. The business was allegedly valued at $5 billion in the financing. The announcement comes after it paid an undisclosed sum for Mumbai-based Qfix Infocomm Pvt. Ltd., an online payments startup. Pine Labs said earlier this year that it would raise $200 million in capital from India’s largest public sector bank, State Bank of India (SBI). Pine Labs started as a provider of card-based payment and loyalty solutions to the retail…
Read MoreMonth: March 2022
Entrepreneur First announces investments in six Indian tech startups
Entrepreneur First (EF), a UK-based global talent investor, announced early-stage investments in six tech startups in India in its latest ‘Investor Reveal’, the company said in a statement. Amikus AI automates contract review and drafting; Grabbit Live, a live online shopping marketplace for independent retailers; Capitall, which unlocks new debt assets for retail investors; unScript AI, which creates hyper personalized marketing videos at scale; Coupl, which provides banking solutions for millennial couples; and FloWorks, which helps businesses better manage their operations through WhatsApp. Since its inception in 2019, EF has invested in 42 innovative firms in India, according to the announcement. Vivek Kumar, funding manager, India, at…
Read MoreSaaS startup OSlash raises $5 million in funding led by entrepreneurs, operators
OSlash, an enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, has raised $5 million in a round led by Indian and American entrepreneurs, including Kunal Shah, founder of Cred, Christian Oestlien, vice president of YouTube’s product, Kevin Weil, president of Planet and former head of product at Instagram, Akshay Kothari, chief operating officer of Notion, and Cristina Cordova, partner at First Round Capital. The new funds will be used to hire in the United States and Europe, as well as expand the company’s search tool, which gathers data from a variety of sources. OSlash…
Read MoreNvidia’s new AI converts photos into a 3D scene within seconds
We can capture moments in the world around us in the form of photographs thanks to the technology we use in our daily lives. However, the method can only produce a 2D representation of the 3D world we observe. Scientists have been attempting to generate 3D instances from these 2D images, and Nvidia may have developed game-changing technology in this regard. The new capability, dubbed Instant NeRF, was unveiled at Nvidia GTC, a global conference for AI developers. The technology is a step forward from NeRF, or neural radiance field,…
Read MoreEdtech startup Classplus valued at $600M in a $70M Series D round
Noida-based Classplus, an edtech startup that assists teachers and content creators in launching and scaling their online coaching businesses, has raised $70 million in a Series D fundraising round, valuing the company at roughly $600 million. The new round was co-led by Alpha Wave Global and Tiger Global. Chimera Ventures and RTP Global, both based in Abu Dhabi, also took part in the financing. Prior to this transaction, Classplus had raised $65 million in a Series C investment headed by Tiger Global, RTP Global, and others in June of last…
Read MoreClean-tech startup EdgeGrid raises $6 million funding led by Lightrock
EdgeGrid, a B2B corporate clean-tech platform, has raised $6 million in a round headed by Lightrock India, with Theia Ventures and other angel investors also participating. The cash will be used to improve the company’s technology, beef up its workforce, and expand the company, which provides a digital platform for managing last-mile delivery of energy-saving consumer utility bills. EdgeGrid is a technology platform that enables the energy transition for last-mile customers, such as households, small businesses, commercial building owners, and electric vehicle charging networks. It was founded in 2020 by…
Read MoreQure.ai raises $40 million to expand its presence in US and Europe
Qure.ai, a healthtech startup that uses artificial intelligence to diagnose medical images, has secured $40 million in a round headed by Novo Holdings and HealthQuad. This round was also attended by MassMutual Ventures. The latest money will be used to expand the company’s global presence, particularly in the United States of America (USA) and Europe. In addition, the company plans to ramp up product development for critical care and community diagnostics. Qure.ai, founded in 2016 by Prashant Warrier and Dr. Pooja Rao, has developed technology that interprets X-rays and other…
Read MoreInstagram starts testing new feature to support social movements through hashtags
Instagram, which is owned by Meta, has revealed that it is testing a new feature that will allow users to discover and fund social causes directly through hashtags. The firm said it is developing a new feature to help consumers discover global and Instagram-based social movements, as well as opportunities to get involved. “We are rolling this out first to a handful of hashtags that are focused on popular and long-standing movements on Instagram and in the world, like #BlackLivesMatter, #womensrights and #climatecrisis,” the company said in a blogpost. “We…
Read MoreGAISA: An event acclaimed for providing insights into AI
The Global artificial intelligence summit and awards organized by the All India Council for robotics and automation to be held on September 14th and 15th 2022 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The GAISA event is acclaimed for its highly interactive sessions with industry experts and addresses the prominence of artificial intelligence in different industry verticals such as Healthcare, Agriculture, Education, Smart Cities, and Transportation. The event will be the largest global AI summit that allows AI practitioners to discuss the technology through its various use cases. The GAISA event provides…
Read MoreIndia might be building a super app for its farmers, combining weather, market updates, advisories and more in one app
The Indian government is seen to be working on a super app for farmers in the country, which would combine various important elements such as weather and market information, advisories for different zones, government initiatives, and more. This super app, according to the Economic Times, will merge many apps produced by several government departments under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. AgriMarket is one of these apps, which allows farmers to get the market price of commodities within 50 kilometres of their current location. Agriculture officers can use the…
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