Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (October 29, 2021)

Facebook will now be known as Meta

After 17 years, social networking giant Facebook, which also has Instagram and Whatsapp under its umbrella, has renamed itself as Meta.

This new corporate identity comes at a time where the company envisions an alternate virtual existence of individuals, by employing AR and VR technologies

India’s gaming market is set to become $7B in FY 2026: RedSeer and Lumikai

India’s gaming market is set to become $7 billion in FY2026 (more than 3X of the market in FY2021) while in-app purchases are the fastest growing revenue streams of the market with an increasing number of paid users and their growing propensity to pay is driving the growth, according to a comprehensive report by Lumikai and Redseer titled “India Gaming Report 2021".

Clean beauty marketplace Vanity Wagon raises Rs 5.5 Cr (Funding)

Clean beauty marketplace Vanity Wagon on Friday announced that it has raised Rs 5.5 crore in a pre-Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures. The round also witnessed participation from Venture Catalysts, Lotus Herbals, the existing investors – Agility Ventures (led by Dhianu Das) and a consortium of HNI’s (advised by Instarto).

The funds raised will be used for further strengthening the tech platform, marketing, brand building, team expansion, and private label acquisitions. Vanity Wagon also plans to expand in the international market, the company stated.

Purplle closes Rs 555 Cr round led by Kedaara; crosses Rs 4,660 Cr valuation (Funding)

Purplle, an ecommerce platform for beauty products, on Friday said it has raised around Rs 555 crore ($75 million) in a funding round led by private equity fund Kedaara at an enterprise valuation of Rs 4,662 crore ($630 million).

The company will use the fund to grow six to eight times in the next five years through both organic and inorganic business developments, Purplle.com Co-founder and CEO Manish Taneja told PTI.

Meesho announces $5.5M ESOP liquidation programme

Ecommerce company Meesho on Friday announced a $5.5 million (about Rs 41.1 crore) ESOP liquidation programme, its second such initiative in less than a year.

In November last year, the company had announced a $5 million ESOP dilution programme.

Delhi HC rejects FRL plea for stay against arbitration order, seeks Amazon's response

The Delhi High Court Friday declined Future Group's plea for stay on an arbitration tribunal order refusing to interfere with the Emergency Award (EA) which restrained it from going ahead with the Rs 24,731 crore merger deal with Reliance Retail.