Startup news and updates: daily roundup (Dec 22, 2021)

Credence takes stake in Cumulative Ventures

Wealth management firm Credence Family Office will invest $500,000 in Cumulative Ventures, an investment banking and corporate advisory firm, over the next 18 months.

Cumulative Ventures seeks to address a wider spectrum of business families, tech entrepreneurs, and the celebrity circuit by offering services like consulting, raising capital, and business and finance-related activities.

"We intend to launch strategic investor relations for entrepreneurs, micro VC funds, and family offices, a novel idea which is certain of adding value in addition to offering a platform for informed investors," said Mitesh Shah, CEO of Credence Family Office.

NPCI empanels Udemy for employee development 

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) will partner with Udemy Business to encourage continuous learning and skill development for its employees.

The three-year association will entail courses on in-demand areas such as tech, domain, behavioural, and leadership skills for all NPCI employees.

NPCI has developed a Skill Index framework to identify training needs and tracks deeptech capability building year-over-year, it said in a press release.

Plum Lite for early-stage startups

Employee health insurance platform Plum has launched Plum-Lite, a group health-benefits membership for early-stage startups, SMEs and gig workers, freelancers, and consultants.

The membership will offer new-age health insurance covers, doctor consultations and COVID-19 treatment covers for companies with teams as small as two members, and for a lower monthly premium.

The membership covers health insurance up to Rs 5 lakh, unlimited doctor consultations, weekly wellness sessions, dental and vision checkups, mental wellness consultations, and COVID-19 treatment claims.

Mudrex launches ‘crypto as a service’

Mudrex, a crypto asset management platform, launched an API-based 'crypto as a service' on Tuesday. It enables traditional and crypto-specific brokers, portfolio management services, and fintechs, to provide reliable and secure crypto investment products to their user base.

‘Crypto as a service’ offers KYC, regulatory and compliance monitoring to brokerages, stated a press release from Mudrex.

The startup said it would administer custody, and processing of the cryptocurrency. Further, 'crypto as a service' enables users to transact in cryptocurrencies using their preferred fiat currency, allowing users to withdraw funds from a bank account to purchase cryptocurrency, and convert them back into fiat currency in bank deposits.

Through custody and wallet services, the APIs will enable businesses to build a user-friendly custodial wallet platform, the press release added.

Indira IVF adds two centres in Bengaluru

Indira IVF added two new centres — Kalyan Nagar and Whitefield — in Bengaluru to increase its nationwide presence to 104 hospitals.

Since its inception in 2011, Indira IVF has helped more than 90,000 couples conceive, according to a press release from the company.

“We are elated to extend our help to couples across Bengaluru in five centres now,” said Dr Kshitiz Murdia, CEO and Co-founder of Indira IVF. “In Karnataka, we have four main centres and five OPDs till date,” he added.

StarryNift launches NFT marketplace

StarryNift, a gamified creation platform and launchpad for digital collectibles, launched an NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace on Tuesday.

Having accomplished NFT collecting, mining, and gaming, StarryNift will activate more metaverse spaces for users to ‘play to earn’ and ‘create to earn’. It is aimed to boost liquidity and NFT adoption globally, stated a StarryNift press release.

“StarryNift firmly believes that the user is the co-builder of the entire metaverse, and wishes to construct a metaverse, where every player can generate creative content, making the players the real dominators of the metaverse development,” said Martha Zhang, Founder of StarryNift.