Startup news and updates: daily roundup (April 7, 2023)

Andreessen Horowitz-backed Navan acquires Bangalore-based Tripeur

Andreessen Horowitz-backed Navan, a travel and expense management super app, has signed an agreement to acquire Bengaluru-based Tripeur, a modern corporate travel management startup, for an undisclosed amount. 

Founded in 2015 by Thiagarajan Rajagopalan and Sajit Chacko, Tripeur enables businesses to manage their entire travel experience on a single platform. 

With Tripeur’s acquisition, Navan enters the Indian travel market. Tripeur will enable the team of Navan to scale up and localise its technology to serve its enterprise customers, the companies said in a statement.

“There is unprecedented demand for high-quality corporate travel solutions in India. Navan’s scalability, combined with Tripeur's localised technology, inventory, and support, ensures the group will offer unparalleled products and services in the region,” said Thiagarajan Rajagopalan, Co-founder and CEO of Tripeur. 

Cognizant, Microsoft expand healthcare partnership

Cognizantand Microsofthave expanded their healthcare partnership to bring the latter’s cloud-based technology solutions to the healthcare market.

The duo said the collaboration will give healthcare payers and providers easy access to cutting-edge technology solutions, streamlined claims management, and improved interoperability to optimise business operations.

As part of the expanded partnership, the companies will work together to build an integration roadmap between Cognizant's TriZetto healthcare products with Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare. 

The firms will also collaborate to develop and run Cognizant's current and future healthcare SaaS solutions on Microsoft Azure and migrate new and existing clients from on-premises environments to streamlined functions managed on the Microsoft cloud.

NSDC, SpeakIn partner to provide upskilling 

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and SpeakIn, a platform for coaching and group learning sessions, have partnered to provide upskilling to students and corporate professionals.

Under SpeakIn’s Pro programme, a series of 12 live-learning sessions are delivered over the year to help early career professionals and students ready to climb the corporate ladder. The sessions are delivered by top global CXOs and thought leaders.

These live sessions focus on people management, self-development, organisational understanding, and communication. 

With this partnership, NSDC and SpeakIn will jointly provide certification upon successful completion of the programme.

Practo lays off 41 employees

Health tech firm Practohas laid off 41 employees or about 2% of its workforce based on performance, it said in a statement. It has an employee strength of 1,600 according to its LinkedIn profile.

The Sequoia-backed company said the exits were based on routine performance and productivity practices and that it will provide required support to the impacted employees. It added that it has expanded the workforce by over 500 employees in the last year and aims to hire another 500 in the next 12 months.

"Our revenue, margins, and profits are at an all-time high. Upholding a high bar for performance and productivity is crucial to maintaining this level of growth. Therefore, as part of our continuous performance management and planning process, we had to part ways with 41 employees in accordance with their employment contracts. As always, we are and will remain fully committed to providing the requisite support to all employees who may be impacted," Practo said in a statement on Friday.

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