Startup news and updates: daily roundup (March 10, 2021)

Paytm teams up with Ola, others, to apply for RBI's digital payments umbrella entity

Paytmchief Vijay Shekhar Sharma has confirmed that the fintech giant was applying to constitute a New Umbrella Entity in partnership with several players including Ola, aiming to develop innovative digital payments solutions. The consortium will also include a bank, a small finance bank, a payments bank, a fintech company, a tech startup, and an NBFC. The RBI, last August, had put together the idea to create a non-profit umbrella entity to manage and operate new payment systems, especially consumer-facing products.

Elon Musk sets new record, gains $25.1 B in one day

TeslaCEO Elon Musk made $25.1 billion in one day, setting a new record. This was facilitated by the 20 percent hike in Tesla Inc.'s share price. Earlier on Tuesday, March 10, Tesla Inc.'s shares jumped up by 20 percent - the biggest in more than a year. Elon Musk's overall wealth now stands at $174 billion, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Edtech startup Vedantu to hire 2,500 staff across functions to boost growth

Edtech startup Vedantuon Tuesday said it was planning to hire 2,500 persons between April and June to support the company's next phase of growth. Currently, the company's strength is 6,000, which will grow to 8,500 employees after the team expansion, Vedantu said in a statement. The hiring will be across functions including product, technology, academics, business, and marketing.

Flipkart launches third edition of ‘Girls Wanna Code’ programme

India’s leading ecommerce marketplace Flipkarthas launched the third edition of “Girls Wanna Code”, an initiative to encourage the next generation of women coders in the country. Launched in 2018, Girls Wanna Code programme of Flipkart aims to chart out a path for women in the field of technology and tap into various engineering colleges in the country.

Captain Fresh raises $3M led by Matrix Partners India, Ankur Capital (Funding)

Captain Fresh, the B2B marketplace for the seafood supply chain, has raised $3 million in seed capital led by Matrix Partners Indiaand Ankur Capital. The round also saw participation from Incubate Fund, along with marquee investors like Jitendra Gupta (Jupiter Money), Amrish Rau (Pine Labs), Asish Mohapatra (OfBusiness) and Revant Bhate (Mosaic Wellness), and ADB Ventures (the venture arm of Asian Development Bank). With this infusion, Captain Fresh will continue to expand operations and invest deeper in its sourcing and distribution capabilities, building a world-class team, and invest in technology.

OYO strengthens balance sheet with $200M term loan from SoftBank

Oyo Hotel & Casino Las VegasHotels and Homes has received a term loan of $200 million from SoftBank to scale and accelerate innovation across OYO’s core capabilities, including proprietary technology, revenue-management suite, and data analytics. According to the company's filings with the Registrar of Companies (ROC) at the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), OYO's Singaporean subsidiary has secured $200 million from SB Investment Holdings for enhancing liquidity through the pandemic and strengthening its balance sheet. The transaction was planned for 2020 and is being carried out now.

Bengaluru-based Vidal Health acquires rival Vipul Medcorp, eyes expansion

Bengaluru-based Vidal Healthcare Insurance TPA (third party administrator) announced 100 percent acquisition of its competitor Vipul Medcorp (VMC). While the financial details were not revealed, the official statement said that the companies will merge together to become one of the top three TPAs in India. “This merger will bring out the best from VMC and Vidal Health and set us up to deliver the best of the best services to customers. We are excited to be a part of this merger,” Vidal said in a statement.

Northern Arc raises $10M in ECB financing from Calvert Impact Capital (Funding)

Chennai-based digital debt platform Northern Arc Capital has raised $10 million in debt from US-based Calvert Impact Capital via External Commercial Borrowing (ECB). According to the company, this is Calvert Impact Capital’s largest debt investment in India so far. Northern Arc will deploy the funds towards on-lending to financial institutions as well as lending directly to retail customers and to mid-market corporates.

PLI scheme can generate Rs 35-40T incremental revenue in 5 years, says Crisil report

The production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme that seeks to push domestic manufacturing in as many as 14 sectors has the potential to generate additional revenue worth Rs 35-40 lakh crore over the next five years, a report said. The PLI scheme is offering over Rs 1.8 lakh crore of incentives/subsidies to manufactures to invest in local manufacturing. The scheme was announced at the peak of the pandemic-driven lockdown to attract investors leaving China.

Nearly 6,000 compliance norms identified at state, central level: DPIIT Secy

As many as 6,000 compliance norms have been identified so far at the state and central level, and the work is going on to reduce these barriers to further promote ease of doing business for the industry. Guruprasad Mohapatra, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), said that a systematic exercise across the centre and states is being undertaken to eliminate or reduce compliances, which have an adverse impact on time and cost of businesses.

VerSe Innovation acquires photo, video sharing app startup Vebbler

VerSe Innovation, the digital and social media unicorn, has announced its second acquisition in a span of two weeks, by acquiring Vebbler, a community focused photo and video sharing app, for an undisclosed value. VerSe, which is the parent company of news aggregator Dailyhunt and short video platform Josh, expects the acquisition of Vebbler to help build stronger linkages with its customer base. This unicorn had earlier announced the acquisition of AI startup Cognirel Technologies on February 23.

E-invoice mandatory for MSMEs with over Rs 50 Cr turnover from Apr 1 

The government has made it mandatory for businesses with over Rs 50 crore turnover to generate e-invoices for B2B transactions from April 1. Under Goods and Services Tax (GST) law, e-invoicing for business-to-business (B2B) transactions has been made mandatory for companies with turnover of over Rs 500 crore and Rs 100 crore from October 1, 2020, and January 1, 2021, respectively. 

Google doodle pays tribute to Udupi Ramachandra Rao – India’s Satellite Man

Google on Wednesday paid tribute to ‘India’s Satellite Man’ Udupi Ramachandra Rao by dedicating a Google doodle in his memory. Rao, who passed away in 2017, was an Indian space scientist and the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He was also the supervisor of the team which launched ‘Aryabhata’ — India’s first satellite.

Top-100 brands risk losing $ 223B in brand value on data breach: Report

The world's top-100 brands could see a whopping $223 billion getting wiped off their brand value due to data breach, according to a report. A joint cybersecurity and brand value impact report by Infosys and Interbrand on Tuesday said the top 100 most-valued brands could face up to $223 billion of their brands value from a possible data breach. The report did not name the top-100 brands.

PUBG Mobile 1.3 patch update released: All you need to know

PUBG Mobile 1.3 patch update is being rolled out globally today. The latest patch brings forth a host of features to the gameplay, including new firearms and vehicles. The update requires Android users to have 640MB of free space, while iOS users will need to have at least 1.55GB of memory available. PUBG Mobile 1.3 patch update will also bring in several security updates to prevent hacks.

Aqua Security turns unicorn, raises $135M in Series E round (Funding)

Cloud-native security provider Aqua Security Software Ltd has become the latest startup to join the unicorn club after completion of $135 million Series E funding, putting Aqua’s valuation in excess of $1 billion. This round was led by ION Crossover Partners with broad participation from Aqua’s existing investors.

Oncology tech startup 4baseCare raises $2M in pre-Series A from growX Ventures, others (Funding)

Bengaluru-headquartered oncology technology startup 4baseCareon Wednesday raised $2 million in a pre-Series A round led by Mount Judi Ventures, growX Ventures, Season Two Ventures, First In Ventures, and a few strategic angel investors. The oncology startup will use the funding to expand its genomic tests portfolio and increase its geographic presence across Asia. Besides, it will also focus on strengthening its R&D and operations.

Hospital chain operator Max Healthcare raises Rs 1200 crore from global, domestic investors (Funding)

Private hospital chain operator Max Healthcare Institute Ltd (MHC) raised Rs 1,200 crores through its qualified institutional placement (QIP). The round saw participation from global and domestic investors. According to the official statement, MHC has issued 6,14,12,482 fresh equity shares at a price of Rs 195.40 per equity share. MHC revealed that post QIP, its issued and subscribed equity share capital now stands at 96,59,45,006 equity shares.

Govt approves creation of PM Swasthya Suraksha Nidhi as a single non-lapsable reserve fund for health

The Union Cabinet has approved the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Nidhi (PMSSN) as a single non-lapsable reserve fund for the share of health from the proceeds of health and education cess levied under Finance Act, 2007, an official statement said. The salient feature of PMSSN is that it is a non-lapsable reserve fund for health in the public account and proceeds of the share of health in the health and education cess will be credited into PMSSN, the statement said.