PhonePe raises $200M from Walmart; Univest secures $1.5M in seed funding

PhonePe raises $200M in additional funding from Walmart

Payment and financial services unicorn PhonePe has raised an additional $200 million in primary funding from Walmart at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. With this, the company has raised $650 million from several global investors.

The company expects further investments will be announced in due course. The fresh funding is part of PhonePe’s ongoing fundraise of up to $1 billion following its domicile shift to India last year.

The company plans to deploy the funding to build and scale new businesses like insurance, wealth management, lending, stockbroking, ONDC-based shopping, and account aggregators. It will also help PhonePe fuel the next wave of growth for UPI payments in India, including UPI Lite, and Credit on UPI.

Earlier in January, the fintech company said it raised $350 million in funding at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion from private equity firm General Atlantic. Other Indian and global investors also participated in the round.

Investment platform Univest raises $1.5M in seed funding

AI-driven investment platform Univest raised $1.5 million in a seed round of funding led by US-based Trinity Media group, with participation from McKinsey, Reliance Industries, Tata AIA, Raheja Group, OYO, and Envision Learning based in Canada and a few existing investors.

Founded in October 2022 by Pranit Arora, Avneet Dhamija, and Vikash Agrawal, Univest is a wealth management platform that uses artificial intelligence to enhance returns on investment by providing exit signals that identify underperforming investments in their portfolios and suggest converting them into lucrative opportunities based on the user's investment style.

The new funds raised will be utilised to strengthen the company's financial product distribution business and scale up talent, Univest said in a statement. It has also partnered with Faircent to introduce inaugural low-risk, high-yield investment products on the platform.

"I am excited about the platform's use of cutting-edge AI technology to provide personalised recommendations to help investors exit bad investments and capitalise on high-yield opportunities. We see Univest as a valuable tool for maximising return on investment and avoiding missed opportunities for retail investors globally. I have high hopes for Univest's future growth and am thrilled to be a part of their journey," Gurjot Batra, President and CEO, Trinity Media Group, said.

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AI startup Adept raises $350M in Series B round

Artificial intelligence (AI) startup Adept raised $350 million in a Series B funding round led by General Catalyst and Spark Capital, the startup said earlier this week. The company plans to use the new funds to launch its initial products, train models, and recruit more AI talent, according to an Economic Times report.

Founded by former Google researchers, Adept focuses on training a neural network to perform general tasks for enterprise clients. It has been working with companies to use its data to help create a natural language interface to access existing software such as Adobe Photoshop and Airtable.

Earlier in April 2022, the startup had raised $65 million in funding. Adept didn't disclose its valuation, but sources familiar with the matter told ET that the company was a unicorn.

ZingHR invests in Silicon Valley-based automation firm LokiBots

HR tech company ZingHR has invested an undisclosed amount in Silicon Valley-based AI automation startup LokiBots. Through this investment, ZingHR will leverage cutting-edge AI-based software bots, Conversational AI and Document AI to add new capabilities and features to its Human Capital Management (HCM) offerings.

It will enable ZingHR to expand its AI-based products and services in its rapidly growing network of 1,000+ clients and 1.6+ million active users worldwide, the company said in a statement.

"Our aim with such strategic relationships is to set a new standard in speed, efficiency, and productivity in the HR tech industry and deliver unparalleled value to our clients This can be also leverage by our customers for many of their non-HR processes like accounting, sales, procurement and many others," Prasad Rajappan, Founder and MD of ZingHR, said.