New day, new unicorn

For the Indian startup ecosystem, 2021 is turning out to be the year of the unicorn. The latest entrant is B2B manufacturing startup Zetwerk, which raised $150 million in the Series E round at a valuation of $1.33 billion.

The round was led by New York-based D1 Capital, with venture capital firm Avenir and Mumbai-based IIFL Asset Management Ltd joining in as new investors. Existing investors including Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Greenoaks Capital also participated in the round.  

The Bengaluru-based firm will invest the funding into research and development, team development, and expanding into new geographies — which Zetwerk's Co-founder and CEO Amrit Acharya had talked about in an earlier conversation with YourStory.

2021 has surpassed all projections in funding and the emergence of unicorns. This month even saw CoinDCX become the first Indian crypto startup to turn unicorn.

Last month, the capital inflow touched $6 billion, which is 60 percent of the amount raised in the first six months of the year. 

Read all about how the Indian startup ecosystem is battling the second wave of COVID-19 here.

Here are some useful tools to help you find the nearest vaccine centres in real-time.

You can also share a tribute to COVID-19 warriors, saviours, and survivors here.

The Interview

While ecommerce has been growing at an exponential rate, the pandemic has given a silver lining to the sector and accelerated the pace of growth.

Three seller representatives of the 3,50,000+ community of MSMEs on Flipkart along with Jagjeet Harode, Senior Director and Head - Marketplace, Flipkart, give insights into the changing dynamics of the digital commerce landscape and why the pandemic has reinstated the value of online commerce for small and medium retailers across India.

Editor’s Pick: Techie Tuesday

For Devang Mundhra, technology is just a tool to solve real-world problems, which is what he focuses on while developing expertise.

Joined fintech startup KredX as VP - Engineering, he is now its Chief Technology and Product Officer (CTPO), working towards becoming one of India’s biggest cash flow solution providers. Read more.

Startup Spotlight

Using wearable tech to enhance muscle strength

In 2016, Anmol Ajay Saxena struggled with knee pain, which led her to realise the potential of physiotherapy in helping people with chronic skeletomuscular conditions or injuries.

So, she founded Hyderabad-based Ashva WearTech (Ashva Wearable Technologies) in 2019 to democratise musculoskeletal healthcare using wearable technologies. Its product Fitknees is a sensor-based knee injury monitoring platform that helps patients track progress. Read more.

News & Updates

• Amidst an ongoing cryptocurrency market recovery, the largest virtual coin Bitcoin (BTC) reclaimed $50,000 for the first time since May 2021, bringing its total market cap to $946 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.

• Paytm and HDFC Bank have entered into a strategic partnership to launch digital payments, lending, and PoS-related products, in a bid to accelerate fintech adoption in semi-urban and rural parts of the country.

• IIT Madras developed India’s first indigenous motorised wheelchair vehicle that can be used on roads and also on uneven terrains. With the motor-powered attachment called ‘NeoBolt’, the wheelchair, called ‘NeoFLy’ can get a maximum speed of 25 kmph and can travel up to 25 km per charge.

• Visa announced it has entered the world of non-fungible token (NFT) commerce with its purchase of CryptoPunk 7610 - an NFT of a female digital punk character launched by creative technology project Larva Labs.

• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched the National Monetisation pipeline (NMP), which will list out the government's infrastructure assets to be sold over the next four years, according to the finance ministry.

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

“A company is nothing but a collection of people. We build technology, intellectual property etc, but it's ultimately the people who drive the company forward.”

— Amrit Acharya, Co-founder and CEO, Zetwerk

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