Rana Daggubati, a Telugu actor, has entered the Metaverse with Iknoz, a firm he co-founded with Indian American entrepreneur Abinav Varma. Ikonz seeks to use NFTs to introduce culture’s most iconic figures and IP into the Metaverse. Ikonz wants to increase IP aggression by bringing together half of India’s top entertainment IPs under one roof. This entails pursuing not only actors, athletes, and other public figures, but also social media celebrities, content providers, and even media companies that specialise in rights ownership. Rana Daggubati had earlier said, “As an IP…
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UC-Berkeley born data science startup looks at product by early next year
Ponder.io, a data science startup founded by University of California, Berkeley researchers, is working with early adopters to turn its open source project—a tool to help data science teams work with large data sets—into a product by early next year, according to Aditya Parameswaran, the company’s president. Downloads of Ponder’s open source projects Modin and Lux, a data visualization tool that can help with insight discovery, anomaly detection and more, have reached close to three million, said Parameswaran. “The early customers are helping us figure the features to be needed for…
Read MoreChina wants to dominate AI & Disney+ Hotstar is helping
Dominance in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is a priority for the Chinese government over traditional western competitors such as the United States. Surprisingly, one of the large companies lining up to benefit from this effort is India’s Disney+ Hotstar, which is rapidly recruiting new AI talent from a Beijing headquarters. “At present, our team has nearly 50 members, almost all of whom graduated from Tsinghua University, Peking University, Zhejiang University and other top universities in China,” a recruitment post in Mandarin distributed to students of Peking University said. The…
Read MoreTalentedge’s owner takes stake in upGrad at $2 billion value after integration
UpGrad, an edtech company, announced on Thursday that it has integrated all of Talentedge’s operations, which will now operate under its own brand, after its owner, Sekhsaria Family Office, purchased a $2 billion interest in the company. UpGrad stated in December of last year that it will buy Gurugram-based edtech rival Talentedge for Rs 350-400 crore. The near 100 percent share swap transaction was done at an upGrad value of $2 billion, while Talentedge was valued at Rs 205 crore. According to the company, Talentedge is on track to surpass…
Read MoreIndiQube raises $30 million from promoters, WestBridge Capital
IndiQube, a flexible workspace provider, announced on Wednesday that it has acquired $30 million in Series B funding from the company’s creators, existing investors WestBridge Capital, and Ashish Gupta, an angel investor, as it prepares for its next phase of growth. IndiQube’s promoters have put in $17 million of the $30 million. The Bengaluru-based startup was founded in 2015.Along with Ashish Gupta, the co-working startup raised Rs 100 crore in a Series A fundraising round from WestBridge Capital in 2018. “We are extremely thrilled to have a large PE firm…
Read MoreVisual robotic platform CynLr raises $4.5 million in funding led by Speciale Invest, growX Ventures
Speciale Invest and growX Ventures led a $4.5 million fundraising round for CynLr, a visual robotic platform. Anicut Capital, Infoedge, Java Capital, Venture Catalysts, and Arali Ventures were among the other institutional investors in the round. According to a release, CynLr will use the capital to establish a corporate presence in the United States, grow its team to more than 50 individuals, and build capacity to address the current pipeline of customers and produce 100 robots per year. “CynLr’s visual robots can instantaneously pick any object of any size, shape,…
Read MoreQureos raises $3M to grow its learn to earn platform
Qureos, a UAE-based edtech and remote work marketplace that is changing how people upskill and get jobs across the globe, plans to grow the uptake of its platform by 10 times this year in its race to create 100 million jobs over the next few years. The startup has today announced closing a $3 million pre-seed funding to accelerate this growth. Alexander Epure, Mehrad Yaghmai, and Usama Nini created Qureos in August of last year in order to make mentorship more available to people who are just starting out in…
Read MoreAavishkaar raises $130 mn for first close of latest fund
Aavishkaar Capital has raised more than 1,000 crore ($130 million) for the first close of its latest impact investing fund, which is the firm’s sixth India-focused fund and eighth overall. British International Investment (previously CDC Group Plc), Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets, Fund of Funds for Startups Managed by Small Industries Development Bank of India, and Self Reliant India Fund led investments in Aavishkaar India Fund VI, the group’s largest fund to date. The fund will primarily invest in medium and small enterprises that use technology as a key…
Read MoreRaise Financial Services acquires upskilling platform Valuationary
Raise Financial Services, based in Mumbai, has signed a definitive agreement to buy Surat-based online learning firm Valuationary for cash and stock, according to a prepared statement. Valuationary, together with its 15-member team, including the founders, will join and operate from Raise Financial’s headquarters in Mumbai following the acquisition. Valuationary is an online learning platform that helps young professionals in the financial sector upskill. It was founded in 2020 by Pratik Bajaj, Kunal Shah, and Mahip Gupta. Upskilling is possible through the startup’s courses and live sessions, which aim to…
Read MoreConversational messaging platform Gupshup acquires Active.Ai in all-cash deal
Gupshup, a conversational messaging platform, has paid full cash for Active.Ai, a conversational AI business. The financial information was kept under wraps. Gupshup, which provides businesses with conversational messaging services, expects the purchase to boost its customer experience solutions for banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) clients. Active is a Singapore-based company. Ai supports BFSI customers in 43 countries, including Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Capital, and IndusInd Bank. The company claims to have facilitated more than 300 million audio, video, and messaging interactions. Gupsshup has made three acquisitions…
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