Startup news and updates: daily roundup (July 28, 2022)

Bikayi appoints Upendra Dev Singh as head of engineering

Bengaluru-headquartered ecommerce enabling platform Bikayi has announced the appointment of Upendra Dev Singh as Head of Engineering. Upendra, who previously served as the Vice President of Engineering at ixigo, will be responsible for improving tech and product designing to drive efficiency, said a statement issued by the company. 

Upendra will also play a pivotal role in the development and implementation of innovative technological solutions. The appointment also comes on the heels of Bikayi’s marketing platform, BIK.ai. 

Founded in 2019 by Sonakshi Nathani and Ashutosh Singla, Bikayi has been looking to expand its global presence by tapping into global direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands. Backed by the likes of Sequoia Capital and Y Combinator, Bikayi has a team of over 200 employees. 

MemeChat introduces instant withdrawal for content creators

Mumbai-headquartered meme-based social media app MemeChat has announced instant monetisation for its content creators. On the app, creators can withdraw Rs 1,000 multiple times in a single day. 

Founded in 2019, the app incentivises users to create and distribute memes, apart from offering a MemeChat Keyboard to share memes on other messaging platforms and a brand solution under the MemeChat Studio offering.

The instant withdrawal feature can be accessed through the updated reward section which offers movie tickets, giveaways, scratch cards and brand vouchers, which creators can achieve by completing various tasks. This makes the withdrawal process almost immediate compared to NEFT- or IMPS-based withdrawals. 

The app claims to have a Monthly Active User (MAU) base of 1.2 million and works with brands like Hotstar, Amazon Prime, PVR, NiyoX, Paytm, and others for their user-generated memes. 

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Cashfree launches GSTIN verification product

Bengaluru-based payments and API banking solutions company Cashfree Payments has launched GSTIN Verification as part of its verification suite of products. This will enable businesses to verify the identity of vendors and partners in real-time, reducing the chances of fraud. The product is targeted at the likes of ecommerce marketplaces, business-to-business (B2B) reselling companies, the BFSI sector including lending platforms, and others. 

The suite includes other verification products including bank accounts, Aadhaar, PAN, UPI, and IFSC as well.

Founded in 2015 by Akash Sinha and Reeju Datta, Cashfree offers payment gateway integration, split payment solutions for marketplaces, bank account verification APU, and auto collect services to businesses.

PrepInsta launches new courses to Prime module

Upskilling platform PrepInsta has added new courses to its Prime module, including courses targeting placement in FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google) companies, as well as those targeted at placements in service-based companies, web development, data analytics, Power BI, and Salesforce.

Founded in 2016 by Atulya Kaushik, Aashay Mishra, and Manish Agarwal, PrepInsta offers over 150 courses as well as company-specific micro-courses for placement in target companies. The platform charges college students directly or the college for its premium membership called Prime Subscription. It claims an active subscriber base of over a lakh.

Fairexpay to facilitate cross-border payment in India

Fairexpay, the global aggregator platform for international payment transfers, has received approval from the RBI to conduct cross-border payments in India. The company said in a statement that it successfully completed the test phase under the regulatory sandbox scheme with the central bank.

Fairexpay has a presence across the US, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom, and offers payment services in 130 currencies. Fairexpay also offers its tech stack as a web application and API as a service model for integration with ERP, investments, and ecommerce applications. Earlier this year, Fairexpay also executed an equity swap deal with Indian treasury advisory and consulting firm, SaveDesk, to offer savings of up to 7 percent across use cases.

(This story will be updated with the latest news throughout the day.)