Classplus set to score $80 Mn in Series D round

B2B edtech startup Classplus is in late-stage talks to raise $80 million in a new round co-led by existing investors. This is the Noida-based startup’s fifth funding round in the last two years. “Alpha Wave Global and Tiger Global will lead the Series D round along with the participation of other existing backers and a Middleeast fund,” said one of the people requesting anonymity. Surge from Sequoia Capital, Times Internet, Blume, and GSV Ventures are among the company’s current backers. Tutors can use Classplus’s full-stack mobile solution to manage all…

Piyush Goyal calls upon startups to help India become self-reliant in energy, defence sectors

Piyush Goyal, the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, on Sunday called for startups to help India become self-reliant in the energy and defence sectors, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of a crisis turned opportunity. Every crisis, like Covid-19’s, can be turned into an opportunity. At the ET Startup Awards in Bengaluru, Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, and Textiles, said that Covid-19 is a big crisis and that the “biggest of the century” crisis was turned into an…

Ad-blocking YouTube Vanced app shutting down over legal threats from Google

YouTube Vanced, the popular ad-blocking tool, is shutting operations after getting legal threats from Google,. The app’s creator revealed the news with an official tweet. Vanced has been “discounted,” according to the statement, and the download links will be withdrawn soon. The ad-blocking app will continue to work for those who already have it installed on their phones, according to the same tweet. It will, however, cease to function at some point in the near future. The shutdown has yet to be given a definite start date. YouTube Vanced is…

Competition Commission approves Amazon’s acquisition of Prione

The acquisition of Prione Business Services by Amazon Asia-Pacific Resources has been approved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Prione was a joint venture between Catamaran, founded by Narayan Murthy, and Amazon. Cloudtail India, the company’s wholly owned subsidiary, is one of Amazon’s top sellers in the country. On March 9, CCI announced the launch of a microblogging site. In December, Amazon announced its intention to buy Prione. So far, Amazon and Catamaran have jointly controlled Prione Business Services, whose fully owned subsidiary Cloudtail India has been extensively scrutinised…

80 million people in Russia would lose access to Instagram on Monday

Russia is about to prohibit Instagram, and the country’s president, Adam Mosseri, is furious. According to internal emails to Facebook’s content censors, the move to block Instagram in the country comes a day after Facebook permitted posts calling for the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin in countries such as Russia, Ukraine, and Poland. “On Monday, Instagram will be blocked in Russia. This decision will cut 80 million in Russia off from one another, and from the rest of the world, as 80% of people in Russia follow an Instagram…

RBI directs Paytm Payments Bank to stop onboarding new customers

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked Paytm’s digital banking unit, Paytm Payments Bank, to halt new user onboarding on its platform. The RBI explained its decision, stating that it was prompted by “some serious supervisory concerns” in the bank. Furthermore, the bank has been ordered to hire an IT auditing firm to undertake a full system audit of its IT system. “Action against Paytm Payments Bank Ltd under section 35 A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. The RBI has today, in the exercise of its powers, inter alia,…

Byju’s closes $800 million pre-IPO fundraise at a valuation of $22 billion

The edtech company Byju’s announced on Friday that it had received $800 million in a pre-IPO financing. According to sources close to the situation, Byju Raveendran, the company’s founder and CEO, has personally contributed $400 million. According to people familiar with the matter, the financing, which comes ahead of the company’s anticipated initial public offering (IPO), values the Bengaluru-based firm at over $22 billion. It is India’s most valuable startup due to its massive post-money valuation. Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners, and BlackRock were the other investors who participated in the capital…

Unacademy looks at omni-channel retail, launches physical stores

Edtech platform Unacademy is branching out into the hybrid-retail model With the opening of experience stores across the country. Unacademy is now planning to open four storefronts that will serve as an experience zone for students and parents to learn about the company’s offerings and subscription models. The stores will cater to new users interested in enrolling in Unacademy courses. Existing Unacademy students can also visit these locations to see their teachers. The Unacademy store will have a learning counseling space, an in-house library with reading materials, and courses with top…

DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman launches new AI venture

DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman has joined two other high-profile industry figures in launching a new venture called Inflection AI. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman is joining Suleyman on the venture. “Reid and I are excited to announce that we are co-founding a new company, Inflection AI,” wrote Suleyman in a statement. “Inflection will be an AI-first consumer products company, incubated at Greylock, with all the advantages and expertise that come from being part of one of the most storied venture capital firms in the world.” Dr Karén Simonyan, another former DeepMind…

Darktrace adds 70 ML models to its AI cybersecurity platform

Darktrace has added 70 new machine learning models and over 80 new features to its flagship AI cybersecurity platform. The Cambridge-based company, which utilises self-learning AI to safeguard businesses across various industries, was created in 2013 by mathematicians and cyber defence professionals. As part of Darktrace’s Antigena autonomous response technology, machine learning is utilised to make thousands of “micro-level” decisions in the background. Antigena has been enhanced with 70 new machine learning models to boost its ability to neutralise threats automatically in real time. “The hallmark of a great AI…