FutureTech

Ninjacart, a business-to-business agricultural produce marketplace, announced on Tuesday that it has implemented a 100 crore (approximately $13.4 million) employee stock ownership plan (Esop). Current and former employees who have vested ESPPs as of December 2021 are eligible to sell all of their ESPPs. The move is intended to assist the startup in attracting and retaining good talent, as well as to strengthen the company’s vision of developing technology and infrastructure for farmers, resellers, retailers, consumers, and supply chain participants. Ninjacart’s second Esop buyback, the first of which occurred in…

Zupee, a real-money gaming platform, announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with Jio Platforms Ltd and completed its Series B funding round for $102 million (760 crore), valuing the startup at $600 million. According to Dilsher Singh, Founder and CEO of Zupee, the strategic partnership with Jio does not involve equity investment and is based on a revenue-sharing agreement. “The partnership is a win-win for both parties. Jio gets access to the entire repertoire of our games and we get access to the Jio users. That gives us the…

Mayor’s Office of London has appointed local gaming startup Microgravity to establish an augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) gaming arena in the city. The deal is expected to be finalised within the next two weeks, according to Rahul Bhattacharya, managing director of Microgravity, in a recent interview. “We have received an expression of interest from a London-based fund to set up a gaming hub similar to our offering in Gurugram, Haryana — in London. We are raising £1.5 million with a London-based real estate investment trust (REIT) for this project.”…

Pine Labs Pvt Ltd, a payment solutions provider aiming for a US listing, announced on Tuesday that it has raised an additional $20 million (approximately Rs 150 crore) in new investment from the State Bank of India (SBI). Pine Labs stated that the new funds will be used to scale Plural, its newly launched brand of online payment products, with the goal of becoming merchants’ preferred omnichannel partner. We are thrilled to have the largest bank of India, the State Bank of India, place their trust in us and welcome…

The COVID-19 pandemic caused chaos on the supply chain ecosystem, wreaking havoc on micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and leaving them struggling to survive and build capital. Moglix, a Noida-based business-to-business (B2B) industrial goods ecommerce marketplace, saw the need for a financing platform at this time and launched Credlix. It is a digital supply chain financing platform that provides immediate collateral-free working capital solutions to the entire supply chain. “Unless MSMEs got paid, how would they produce goods to supply? Dwelling on this, we reached the point of realisation…

UpGrad, an edtech unicorn, is weighing non-linear growth options through acquisitions and plans to increase its focus on outcome and profitability this year. Mayank Kumar, co-founder and Managing Director, anticipates massive growth in the edtech sector, and his seven-year-old start-up will nearly quadruple its registered learners base to 7.5 million in the next two years. “In 2022, there will be a strong emphasis on the outcomes and profitability. We foresee accelerated university partnership expansions, tie-ups with global universities to offer diversified online programmes in regions including India, the Middle East,…