MMT's Deep Kalra invests in Dunzo; after Saudi Arabia OYO says hello to Japan

Saturday February 23, 2019 , 3 min Read

Hyperlocal concierge app Dunzo has raised a funding of Rs 3 crore from Deep Kalra, the founder of MakeMyTrip. This funding round is part of Dunzo's $30 million Series C funding. Founded in 2015 by Kabeer Biswas, Ankur Aggarwal, Dalvir Suri, and Mukund Jha, the business has evolved from being a WhatsApp-based model to a rudimentary app, and now one where over 80 percent of the tasks are run by machines and algorithms.

OYO launches operations in Japan with Yahoo Japan Corporation

After Saudi Arabia, OYO Hotels and Homes announced the launch of its operations in Japan through a joint venture with Yahoo Japan Corporation (Yahoo! JAPAN). With this, OYO plans to bring OYO Living, its housing rental product from India, to Japan as OYO LIFE from March this year. The hospitality chain has also appointed Hiro Katsuse, Japanese entrepreneur and former Japan market leader for Handy and Booking.com, as the CEO of OYO Technology & Hospitality Company.

How to get your startup listed under Government's Startup Runway programme

With the launch of its new programme - Startup Runway - on the national procurement portal Government eMarketplace (GeM), the government is looking to rope in more and more startups. Startup Runway will enable startups to conduct market trials with government buyers, seek time-bound feedback and gain realistic product and price comparison and market valuation from potential buyers and investors.

SpotDraft raises $1.5 million from Binny Bansal’s 021 Capital

SpotDraft has raised $1.5 million (around Rs 11 crore) in pre-Series A funding from 021 Capital, a VC fund led by Sailesh Tulsan, and backed by Flipkart Co-founder Binny Bansal. Others participating in the round were Girish Mathrubootham, Co-founder of Freshworks; Karanpal Singh, Founder of Hunch Ventures; Indus Khaitan, Chief of Growth of Chargebee; Peeyush Ranjan, VP Engineering of Google, and Singapore Angel Network. With this fundraise, the AI and Ml-based legal-tech startup will look to expand its global footprint.

Twitter is tweaking replies to look more like text messages

Microblogging site Twitter is exploring newer ways to make conversations on the platform engaging, and easier to understand and join. For that, the company has launched a public test of its redesigned replies layout, and users are welcome to join the survey and share feedback. If the redesigned interface passes user trial, Twitter might even have colour-coded replies, a more rounded appearance of the replies, and a text message-type look to its threads.

OakNorth Co-founder Joel Perlman spills the beans on India plans

Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman are certainly not new to the entrepreneurial circuit. They had set up Copal Partners in 2002, and more recently, OakNorth, a commercial bank in the UK. Their venture has made headlines becoming the fastest growing lending ‘unicorn’ in Europe and securing a $440 million funding led by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. Talking to YourStory, Perlman spills the beans on funding from SoftBank, setting up in the US, and how this young ‘unicorn’ is planning to outpace itself.