Funding activity almost grinds to a halt; PhonePe crosses 1B transactions in over 2 years

The second full week of November will probably go down in startup history as the week that Flipkart was left without a founder at the helm. It was a shocking development, to say the least. In contrast, this week saw just $8.95 million raised across nine deals, an 86 percent drop from last week’s already paltry $65 million across four deals. Further, this week predominantly saw early-stage funding with seven of the nine rounds going into Pre-Series and Series A deals.

Flipkart-owned PhonePe on Friday announced that it has crossed 1 billion digital payment transactions on its mobile app 26 months after it was launched. It claims to be the fastest growing payment app in the country. Launched in September 2016, PhonePe earlier in June also announced that it has crossed the 100 million users mark. The company also announced that it had hit an annualised total payment volume (TPV) run rate of $38 billion last month.

Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan is next in line to leave the storied ecommerce company, just days after Flipkart Chairman and Group CEO Binny Bansal's sudden exit resulted in a reshuffle of the top management, sources close to the matter told YourStory. However, a company spokesperson, while not replying directly to our questions, only said, "Ananth Narayanan continues to lead the team." The statement also said that Myntra's independence as a business would be preserved.

California-based robotic process automation company (RPA) Automation Anywhere announced that it has raised $300 million from the SoftBank Vision Fund. According to the company, this funding is an expansion of its July Series A round where it raised $250 million from other investors, that raised its valuation to $1.8 billion. The company said the latest funding from SoftBank is expected to accelerate the company's expansion plan.

India-focused venture growth investor Iron Pillar's venture capital network just got bigger. Iron Pillar joins Draper Venture Network, which includes hallowed VC names like Draper Associates. The move will bolster the India-focused growth fund’s global network for its growing portfolio of enterprise and consumer technology companies.

With the #MeToo movement resonating across the country over the past two months, the legal aspects of protecting women and serving justice have been up for examination. The National Commission for Women (NCW) has finally decided to review the law against sexual harassment at workplace. NCW announced that it will review the act and examine whether its existing provisions need amendments.

At HealthifyMe's annual event Ignite, the health and fitness startup announced plans of expansion into SouthEast Asia and launched its curated online foods marketplace EatBetter. It also announced that it raised $6 million from existing investors and InnoVen Capital as an extension to the $12 million raised earlier this year to fund the new initiatives.

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