E-commerce giant, Flipkart to enter Metaverse this Diwali

Flipkart to soon enter the metaverse

The Decrypting Story reported earlier this week that Flipkart is soon launching Flipverse, an interactive, metaverse-themed virtual shopping destination, in India. 

Sources close to the development confirmed that the ecommerce player has teamed up with social media platform Meta and Ethereum scaling solution Polygon for the project.

Flipkart is expected to make an official announcement of its Flipverse during Flipkart's Big Billion Day sale.

What is the Flipverse?

The Flipverse shopping experience is expected to transform ecommerce from 2D static product catalogs into real-time experiences that enable users to ‘walk’ around a store, enjoying 3D-rendered store displays. 

Flipverse will host games, contests, drops, NFTs, brand activations, product launches, and mystery boxes. It will also reportedly be accessible through any phone device or browser. 

Metaverse as a Service

Noting an opportunity to help brands build a presence in the metaverse, Anshul Agarwal and and Shrey Mishra co-founded XR Central, an interactive technology studio, in 2020, during the pandemic. 

The Gurgaon-based startup offers ‘metaverse as a service’ by ideating, offering consultation, and preparing storyboards for companies to reach out to customers or connect with employees.

How it works:

The startup has launched MetaQube—a DIY no-code SaaS platform, where creators and enterprises can choose from a library of 3D templates, drag and drop them, upload their branding, add interactivity, and create a metaverse experience within minutes. 

XR Central has already partnered with 25 brands, including SpiceJet, Mercedes Benz, Accenture, HCL, Siemens, Axalta, CESC, Forevermark, RP Goenka group, Lucknow SuperGiants, India Art Fair, and De Beers. 

FTX in talks to raise $1B

Crypto exchange FTX is reportedly in discussions with investors to raise $1 billion fresh capital in the next funding round at a valuation of $32 billion.

As per media reports, the additional funds would be used to sign financial acquisitions during the bear market. Investors including Singapore’s Temasek, SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 and Tiger Global have been backing the firm.

Previous fundraises:

In January, the crypto exchange raised $400 million in a Series C round and was valued at $32 billion. In October 2021, it raised $420.69 million in a Series B-1 round at a valuation of $25 billion. Prior to that, FTX announced a $900 million Series B raise in July 2021 that was later revised to $1 billion, with a valuation of $18 billion.

Expert-built strategies for crypto investing 

Founded in 2022 by Archit Nanda and Rachit Bansal, CoinMint helps users invest in curated cryptocurrency strategies put together by experts.

Coinmint offers investors—amateur and seasoned alike—the option to let experts handle cryptocurrency investments on their behalf via curated portfolios. Investors can review these expert-curated portfolios and pick strategies that fit their risk profiles best.

How it works:

Accessible via a mobile app, CoinMint has a user-facing platform, as well as an expert-facing platform. Cryptocurrency experts and influencers use the strategy-builder platform to publish strategies, as well as rebalance their strategies from time to time, while the user-facing app helps people invest. 

The platform will launch as early as next month.

Crypto tax reporting app Binocs raises $4M

Crypto taxation and Web3 portfolio tracking platform Binocs has raised $4 million in a Seed round led by BEENEXT. Firms such as Arkam Ventures, Accel, Saison Capital, Premji Invest, Blume Ventures, and Better Capital too participated in the round.

Binocs intends to use the capital raised to expand its product, engineering, growth, and marketing teams.

What does it do?

Tonmoy Shingal and Pankaj Garg co-founded Binocs in July 2022 to simplify taxations and compliance for crypto investors. The firm helps crypto investors to simplify their accounting and aggregates various Web3-based investments such as NFTs, DeFi protocols, and smart contracts.