Delhivery enters unicorn club; Facebook pivots towards ‘privacy’

Friday March 08, 2019 , 3 min Read

Delhivery has raised $395 million in its Series F round to become the first Indian unicorn of 2019. The company raised $350 million from SoftBank Group alone, while existing investors Carlyle Group and Chinese conglomerate, Fosun International also participated in the round. With this latest round of funding, Delhivery is now valued at $1.6 billion.

Facebook to be more personal like a “living room”

Mark Zuckerberg has had a tumultuous few years with Facebook, to say the least. But with all the bad press over data privacy and Cambridge Analytica scandal behind him (sort of), he is finally ready to pivot to a "privacy-focused" platform. From a “town square”, Zuckerberg intends to take his social media platform to being more personal, like a “living room”. The Facebook CEO outlined his vision towards making the 15-year-old social network more private in a 3,200-word note posted on Wednesday.

NPCI issues over 64M RuPay Global Cards

On Thursday, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said it had issued over 64 million RuPay Global Cards since it started issuing them in 2014. According to NPCI, which manages the RuPay card network in India, 41 million-plus merchants across 190 countries currently accept RuPay Global Cards. When outside India, these cards operate on the Discover Network. With this partnership, Discover hopes to provide “more people the ability to use their card of choice while out of the country.”

Meet edtech startups taking quality education to non-metro cities

India’s small towns and cities harbour big dreams and ambitions. But often, students from these cities are at a disadvantage as they don’t have access to the quality education their counterparts in metros do. But thanks to some new players in the edtech sector, students in Tier II, III, and IV towns now stand to benefit. Startups like ConceptOwl, TareZameenPar, Testbook, and GuruG Learning are offering a key advantage - a level playing field.

Why Brandie bets big on micro-influencers

Founded in 2013 by serial entrepreneurs Pranav Kosuri and Douglas Andersson in Stockholm, Sweden, Brandie wants to help brands make the most of the not-so-well-known people on social media. Those whose follower counts aren't in the tens of thousands, but whose opinions are highly valued - the micro-influencers, as they are known today. As opposed to spending marketing dollars on “discount-hunters”, the platform allows brands to reward their loyal customers.