Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu on the allure of ‘money’, Nandan Nilekani to chair RBI's digital payments committee

Sridhar Vembu, Founder and CEO of Zoho Corp, is a man with a mission. He is now looking to expand Zoho's operation into America’s heartland and Mexico. He also has a social vision for Zoho. In a conversation with YourStory, the illustrious CEO spoke about the ecosystem and why entrepreneurs need to resist the allure of raising money from VCs who are just looking at building shareholder wealth, rather than building institutions.

InnerChef raises Rs 43 Cr Pre-Series B funding

Another round for InnerChef! The online cloud-kitchen platform recently raised Rs 43 crore in a Pre-Series B funding from multiple investors including Mistletoe, Saha Capital, Das Capital, Brand Capital and M&S Partners. Founded by Rajesh Sawhney, Sanjeev Singhal and Bal DiGhent in 2015, the startup aims to strengthen its brand portfolio with the freshly raised funds.

“There’s a need for a deeper push towards mentoring different edtech startups”: Manish Upadhyay 

After 13 years of actively working in edtech firm LIQVID, co-founder Manish Upadhyay has now taken a step back to focus on mentorship, investing and advisory. Manish sheds light on the sector and the various key aspects of starting up in the edtech space. On being asked why the sudden change in role, he says, “I felt there was a need for a deeper push towards mentoring different edtech startups in the country.”

Arlan Hamilton and her journey of investing in startups with underrepresented founders

Inclusivity and representation: two areas where most industries seem to falter. When Arlan Hamilton, who built Backstage Capital from the scratch, started, it wasn’t a cakewalk for her. But Arlan set her heart on the venture capital circuit. She quit her job and learnt all she could about investing. And today, her company has invested more than $4 million in 100 companies founded by underrepresented founders.

Radware acquires ShieldSquare

Israel-based cybersecurity company Radware is all set to take over ShieldSquare, a Bengaluru-based startup in the bot mitigation and management space. The acquisition will help Radware expand its portfolio with bot management solutions. The transaction is set to close during the first quarter of this year.

BYJU'S, Duolingo record highest brand recall among education apps: Study

With the ongoing edtech boom, Gray Matters Capital (GMC) conducted a study to shed light on the key trends of the sector. As per the findings, BYJU'S and Duolingo have the highest brand recall among education apps. Incidentally, BYJU'S is also the world’s most-valued edtech company at $3.6 billion, a feat it achieved in 2018.

Nandan Nilekani appointed as chairman of RBI’s digital payments committee

The RBI has constituted a ‘high-level committee for deepening of digital payments’ and the five-member committee will be chaired by Nandan Nilekani, former UIDAI chairman and Infosys Co-founder. This committee has been set up to encourage the digitisation of payments and enhance financial inclusion through digitisation.

Now get the Daily Capsule in your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter today!