ConsenSys raises $450 million Series D funding at $7 billion valuation

ConsenSys, a decentralised protocols and ethereum software firm based in the United States, has raised $450 million in funding, bringing its total worth to $7 billion. Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Microsoft, Anthos Capital, Sound Ventures, and C Ventures joined the round as new investors, including Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Microsoft, Anthos Capital, Sound Ventures, and C Ventures, who had previously invested in ConsenSys’ Series C round in November last year. Third Point, Marshall Wace, True Capital Management, and UTA VC, United Talent Agency’s venture fund, were among the…

Skye Air Mobility, Redcliffe Labs to begin drone deliveries in April

Skye Air Mobility, an Indian drone delivery and logistics firm, plans to launch its first commercial drone delivery project at scale in April, in collaboration with Redcliffe Labs, an Indian diagnostics service provider. While the two businesses are working on a commercial pilot project, Ankit Kumar, CEO of Skye Air, claimed the future initiative will be the first commercial drone delivery project beyond the testing phase. Kumar also claimed that the partnership with Redcliffe Labs is the first at this scale in India. “We will begin with select districts, and…

WhatsApp’s new update will make it easier for users to deal with long voice notes

Have you ever received a three-minute audio message from a friend and felt compelled to check your other texts because it was so boring? WhatsApp, on the other hand, will now make things easier for you, particularly when it comes to voice notes. Some Android beta users can now use the global voice player, which has shown in previous beta updates and was even tested on the WhatsApp desktop. The feature was previously given out to iOS beta testers, so they’ve already had a chance to try it out. The…

Shark Tank featured Growfitter raises $1M in a pre-Series A round led by IPV

Growfitter, a Mumbai-based incentivized health and wellness platform that was recently featured on Shark Tank India, said today that it has raised $1 million in a pre-Series A funding round headed by Gurugram-based angel investment firm Inflection Point Ventures (IPV). First Port Capital, Mumbai Angels, Startup Angel Network, DevX Accelerator Fund, Blockchain Founders Fund (Singapore), and JPIN also participated in the financing. Mohit Burman (Vice Chairman, Dabur India) and Aman Gupta, Co-founder and CMO of boAt, were among the angel investors who participated in the round. Sanmati Pande and Harshit…

Razorpay acquires payments tech startup IZealiant Technologies

Razorpay, a fintech unicorn, announced the acquisition of digital payments firm IZealiant Technologies for an undisclosed sum on Tuesday. Razorpay will absorb the whole crew of IZealiant Technologies as part of the deal. Razorpay has made five acquisitions since its beginning in 2014. Last month, the company made its worldwide debut by acquiring Malaysian financial provider Curlec. IZealiant is a Pune-based startup that offers banks and financial institutions mobile-first, API-enabled, cloud-ready payment processing tools. According to a release, the acquisition of IZealiant will boost Razorpay’s banking solutions arm, allowing it…

UpScalio raises $15 Mn in pre-Series B

UpScalio, an e-commerce roll-up firm, has secured $15 million in a pre-Series B investment headed by Gulf Islamic Investments in the United Arab Emirates (GII). Northern Arc and Unity Bank were among the lenders who took part in the round. After financing companies like 1-India Family Mart and Bombay Shaving Company, this is GII’s sixth investment in India. In 2021, GII announced that it would invest $500 million in the Indian market spanning consumer brands, consumer technology, and healthcare. This round of funding follows UpScalio’s $42.5 million Series A round…

Twitter rolls back its decision to force you into the out-of-order timeline

Twitter made one of its worst product decisions in a long time last week when it announced that the service would default to showing the algorithmically served Home feed, with the reverse-chronological Latest feed accessible in a different tab. The modification made it more difficult to view tweets in chronological order. It was first available on iOS and was set to arrive “soon” on Android and the web. Following widespread criticism, Twitter said on Monday that it would return to its previous state. “We heard you — some of you…

Microsoft is reportedly testing ads in Windows 11 File Explorer

Microsoft is reportedly testing advertisements in the Windows 11 File Explorer, which might be one of Windows users’ worst nightmares. This was identified in the most recent Windows 11 “Insider” release, which is available for everyone to test. On Twitter, a user noticed a promotion for Editor, a closed-source grammar-checking application developed by Microsoft. It is available in both free and paid versions, making its inclusion in the File Explorer even more aggravating. The advertisement notification appears directly below the address bar, above the files and folders list. The advertisement…

Zerodha founders, BoAt’s Aman Gupta and others invest $150 million in Licious

Licious, an online retailer of meat and seafood, revealed on Tuesday that it had raised $150 million. Amansa Capital, based in Singapore, led the Series F2 round, which also included Kotak PE and Axis Growth Avenues AIF – I. Nithin and Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha, Aman Gupta of BoAt, and Haresh Chawla of True North were among those who took part in the round. For the deal, Avendus served as Licious’s only financial advisor. Despite the fact that the company has not disclosed its worth, it claims to be India’s…

Zuckerberg-Backed Village Global Invests In Actor Rana Daggubati’s Metaverse Startup Ikonz

Ikonz, an Indian metaverse startup, has received undisclosed seed funding from Village Global, an early-stage venture capital firm, and Woodstock, a technology investment firm. The money raised would be used to hire top tech talent and ramp up artistic talent from around the world, as well as drop non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from its IP partners. Village Global is backed by Bill Gates of Microsoft, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Eric Schmidt of Google, Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn, Bob Iger of Disney, Mike Bloomberg of Bloomberg, and Diane…