FutureTech

SoftBank-backed GlobalBees Brands Pvt Ltd, a Thrasio-style direct-to-consumer (D2C) venture that aggregates and invests in e-commerce brands, announced on Wednesday that it had raised $111.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Premji Invest at a unicorn valuation. Unicorns are private companies that have a market capitalization of $1 billion or more. The funding round was led by Steadview Capital, with participation from existing investors SoftBank and e-commerce baby products company FirstCry, according to the company. GlobalBees is now valued at $1.1 billion, making it the 44th Indian…

Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated on Tuesday that India has emerged as the world’s second largest startup hub, thanks in large part to students from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). The Prime Minister during the 54th convocation ceremony of IIT Kanpur said, “In this 75th year of independence, we have over 75 unicorns, over 50,000 start-ups. Of these, 10,000 have come only in the last 6 months. India has emerged to be the second biggest startup hub in the world, and this feat has been achieved majorly with the help…

Awais Ahmad, co-founder of the Indian geospatial technology startup Pixxel, is excited for the New Year. His startup is finally set to launch the first of its planned low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, after multiple delays due to operational issues and a variety of other factors. Similarly, GalaxEye, another startup developing its own satellite constellation, has stated that the first member of its 15-satellite constellation will be launched in early 2023. Back on the ground, the geospatial survey company Genesys International recently announced a plan to create high resolution 3D maps…

Neobank Jupiter has raised $86 million as part of its Series C fundraise according to regulatory filings accessed through Tofler, The round was led by US-based QED Investors and Sequoia Growth Fund, and other existing investors such as Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, 3one4 Capital, and BEENEXT participated. This is Jupiter’s second round of funding in 2021, a year that saw an unprecedented surge in startup funding. Jitendra Gupta, the startup’s founder and CEO, confirmed the funding and stated that the company’s valuation has now increased to $710 million. This represents…

Total funding for Indian startups increased threefold over last year, reaching $39 billion by 2021. While the total number of startups founded during the period was 3,476, approximately 1,700 companies saw 2,055 funding rounds, according to the most recent data from Tracxn, a company that tracks startups and private companies. This year, 40 of India’s 76 unicorns (each worth more than $1 billion) joined the club. In 2021, approximately 40% (85) of the total number of’soonicorns’ (companies with the potential to become unicorns in the near future) were created. Companies…

Serving a notice period can be difficult for many employees for obvious reasons, but one startup is taking a different approach than its peers in the industry. At a time when many companies’ notice periods can last up to three months, Kartik Mandaville, CEO of blockchain-based HR startup Springworks, has tried to change that by announcing that his company’s notice period will be reduced to just two weeks. In a statement issued on December 23, Kartik Mandaville stated that Springworks will reduce the notice period to two weeks effective immediately….