POPxo, Hasura raise funds; Uber to conduct medical tests for 4.5 lakh driver partners

The digital community platform for women POPxo raised Rs 37 crore in funding. The round was led by Neoplux of Doosan Group from South Korea and OPPO from China. The round also saw participation from existing investors Kalaari Capital, IDG Ventures India, GREE Ventures, and Summit Media. Priyanka Gill, Founder and CEO of POPxo, said there has been a build-up of positive international interest in the platform. She said having the likes of Neoplux and OPPO on the board opens up a lot of markets for POPxo. 

Hasura announced it has raised seed funding of $1.6 million. Based in San Francisco, and with operations in Bengaluru, Hasura is a developer tools startup. The funding round was led by Nexus Venture Partners, and GREE Ventures participated. The funds raised will primarily be used to bring Kubernetes to app developers. Kubernetes refers to an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of applications. Rajoshi Ghosh, Co-founder and COO of Hasura, says the company plans to use these funds to accelerate product development to make sure the offerings continue to remain cutting edge and to strengthen the marketing and developer relations teams.

Noida-based fintech startup PayMe India has raised $2 million from Singapore-based angel investors. In a statement, the firm said the investment round includes a line of credit from multiple NBFCs and fresh cash in an equity round. Founded by Mahesh Shukla and Sandeep Singh in 2016, PayMe India offers lending support to salaried employees on short-term as well as long-term basis.

Cab aggregator Uber announced a slew of initiatives for its driver partners to spread road safety awareness on account of the 29th National Road Safety Week. Validating its commitment to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the company will conduct free medical and eye check-ups for more than 4.5 lakh driver partners over the next six months in resonation with this year’s theme, ‘Sadak Suraksha – Jeevan Raksha’.

Chinese hotel operator and franchisor China Lodging Group said it has acquired a one-percent equity stake in Oravel Stays Private Limited, which runs OYO Rooms, by investing its first tranche of the total $10 million committed to the online hotel aggregator. In a recent US Securities and Exchange Commission filing by the company, it states it has agreed to invest a total of $10 million over a span of five years, acquiring a total five percent stake in OYO. The Chinese hotel operator bought the one-percent equity stake in OYO for RMB 66,467 (approximately $10,512).

The first of two social media giants to announce their quarterly earnings reports on the same day, Facebook surprised a lot of people by posting better-than-expected results despite the Cambridge Analytica episode. The social media giant made $11.97 billion in total revenue in Q1 2018, and its profits increased by 63 percent year-on-year. The company also saw its Daily Active Users (DAUs) and Monthly Active Users (MAUs) increase by 13 percent each year-over-year.

Twitter, announcing its quarterly earnings report on the same day as Facebook, posted its second consecutive profitable quarter (also only the second profitable quarter in the firm’s history). After no user growth last quarter, Twitter’s MAUs increased by six million in Q1 2018, reaching 336 million, and the company earned $665 million in total revenue, with net profits of $61 million at a net margin of 9 percent.

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