FutureTech

BigBasket, a Tata Group-owned etailer, revealed on Saturday that it has acquired the enterprise business unit of deep-tech startup Agrima Infotech in an attempt to revolutionise offline retail. At the self-checkout counters of BigBasket’s retail outlets, Kochi-based company Agrima Infotech’s unique customer vision technology platform, Psyight, will be implemented. Psyight, developed by Agrima Infotech’s Anoop Balakrishnan, Arun Ravi, and Nikhil Dharman, enables identify all Indian fruits and vegetables from an image without the use of barcodes. Balakrishnan, cofounder and CEO of Agrima Infotech, believes that his company’s partnership with BigBasket…

DealShare, a newly-minted unicorn, has raised $45 million from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) in a series E funding round, valuing the company at $1.7 billion. With this, the company has now raised $393 million in total funding. The funds will be used to expand the social e-commerce company, hire new employees, and develop new products. DealShare had previously raised $165 million from Dragoneer Investments Group, Kora Capital, Unilever Ventures, and existing investors, Tiger Global and Alpha Wave Global, in the first close of its Series E fundraise in…

BYJU’S has decided to open 500 physical tuition centres in 200 cities by 2022, highlighting the blended learning ambitions of the world’s most valuable online tutoring startup. The BYJU’S Tuition Centre, which is aimed at students in grades four through ten, was announced on Tuesday. It combines offline and online learning experiences. “BYJU’S Tuition Centres address the needs of a large segment of parents and students who want a physical element in addition to online teaching support,” said Mrinal Mohit, chief operating officer at BYJU’S. “With positive feedback from the…

Edtech unicorn Lead School announced a $3 million Esop ( employee stock options plan) liquidation programme for its employees which comes on the back of it recent funding round which catapulted it into the unicorn club of companies valued at $1 billion or more. Esops have been distributed to 20% of the Mumbai-based firm’s employees. It has previously given performance Esops to reward employees for their efforts. Sumeet Mehta, cofounder & CEO, Lead, said in a statement, “ I’m delighted that we are in a position to offer significant wealth…

HealthySure, a Mumbai-based insurtech startup, announced today that it has raised $1.2 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by Gurugram-based angel investment firm Inflection Point Ventures. We Founder Circle, Dexter Angels, Campus Fund, HEM Angels, and other private investors also participated in the round. HealthySure is an employee welfare platform that targets SMEs to make insurance and healthcare affordable and accessible to the Indian workforce and their families. It was founded in April 2021 by IIM-B alumnus Anuj Parekh and ISB alumnus Sanil Basutkar. With curate health and…

Gurgaon-based Bitespeed, a SaaS company that provides e-commerce brands with chat-based commerce services, announced today that it has raised $1.9 million (roughly Rs 14.3 crore) in a Seed round led by Sequoia India Surge. A Seed financing round was also attended by First Cheque, Whiteboard Capital, and angel investors, including CRED founder Kunal Shah and Teachable founder Ankur Nagpal. Prior to this round, the Gurgaon-based firm had raised $275,000 from Whiteboard Capital in December 2020. BiteSpeed, founded in June 2019 by Vinayak Aggarwal, enables customer retargeting and retention via WhatsApp…