BUSINESS
India’s UPI enters France: Who stands to benefit and what’s ahead
While UPI going global will accelerate cross-border transactions in a faster and easier way, experts also say that adoption of UPI globally will further accelerate the growth of fintechs and their penetration globally
BUSINESS
SaaS firm Zluri raises $20 million funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners
Zluri will utilise the funding to expand generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in enterprise SaaSOps
BUSINESS
Fintechs jump onto digital lending frenzy as disbursement volumes double in FY23
Lending-focused companies dominated startup funding this year, attracting approximately a third of all investments. Paytm and BharatPe have also bolstered their management leadership in the lending verticals, as a substantial portion of their revenue stems from lending operations
BUSINESS
PhonePe enters PoS device market to take on Pine Labs, Paytm and Razorpay
The PoS device market is presently dominated by players like Pine Labs, Razorpay and Paytm. As per RBI's data available as of May 2023, there are around 79 lakh PoS devices across India.
BUSINESS
Plum Insurance forays into business insurance space, targets startups and SMEs
The Tiger Global-backed firm is planning to clock a revenue of at least Rs 10,000 crores and take a time frame of three to five years before venturing to other countries
BUSINESS
Indian SaaS sector funding for H1 of 2023 plunges 81% year-on-year
Many investors are re-evaluating their bets and experts say that the time taken to complete deals has become longer.
BUSINESS
Uber India seeks support of Bengaluru users to legalise bike taxis
Uber has reached out to its users through an email campaign to sign a petition to lift the ban on bike taxis through the newly launched 'Brand Bengaluru's' website
BUSINESS
Flipkart veteran Anil Goteti’s Scapia raises $9 million led by Matrix Partners
The Bengaluru-headquartered Scapia was in stealth mode over the last year and was launched on June 15
BUSINESS
Lendingkart raises Rs 200 crore in debt financing, to clock disbursals of Rs 6,000 crore in FY24
Cofounder Harshvardhan Lunia said the firm is looking to raise another Rs 600 crore in equity to expand and grow its business and will be launching its credit on UPI product in the next three to four months
BUSINESS
Arkam Ventures launches Fund II, targets $180 million total corpus
With Fund II, Arkam expects to deploy more capital and back its founders and companies in follow-on rounds as well. Arkam expects to close the fund by the end of this financial year.
BUSINESS
Coming Soon! A prepaid card for the Bharat market from RuPay and Payworld
Payworld has so far disbursed around Rs 15 crore of loans presently and has a Gross Transaction Value (GTV) of around Rs 12,000 crore grown by around 30% year on Year. Payworld expects to grow at a rate of 50% and more in the coming years
BUSINESS
Freshworks taps generative AI wave, launches Freddy Copilot for developers
This new tool helps coders in eliminating mundane tasks, allowing them to focus on app development and other core functions.
BUSINESS
Ola co-founder Ankit Bhati opens up about his new SaaS startup Amnic
Bhati’s new cloud intelligence platform helps technology leaders, engineering heads, and CFOs in startups with a software tool that gives constant feedback on whether the investment made on a particular technology or software is adequate to meet business strategy goals. It could also save cloud costs for companies.
BUSINESS
Flipkart veteran Anil Goteti launches Gen Z and Millenial-focussed fintech startup
The Bengaluru-headquartered Scapia offers a co-branded credit card and an app for customers to turn their daily expenses into rewards that can be used for travelling within India and abroad.
BUSINESS
Bus mobility platform IntrCity clocks Rs 290 crore of revenue in FY23, plans to enter Kerala, MP and Maharashtra
The growth comes on the back of the company’s penetration into newer states post pandemic and presently operates in about 12 states
BUSINESS
Why fintechs are cheering RBI’s guideline allowing 5% default loss cover
Earlier, banks and NBFCs could not enter into default loan guarantee arrangements with unregulated lending service providers. Now they can, with judicious and reasonable risk sharing between the two
BUSINESS
SaaS firm Freshworks undertakes another round of performance-based layoffs
This is the third round of layoffs at Freshworks as the company is finding ways to survive the macroeconomic pressure and cut costs. Freshworks has around 5,000 employees on roll.
BUSINESS
Atlanta-based Greenlight sets up Development Centre in Bengaluru
Greenlight has so far hired around 40-50 people for the India office. It has a total headcount of around 500 employees.
BUSINESS
Ola Electric picks Stan Chart veteran Topsy Mathew as corporate finance head ahead of IPO
Mathew, who was the managing director at Standard Chartered India Bank, will oversee the EV two-wheeler firm’s finance operations as the start-up looks to launch an IPO in 2024
BUSINESS
Indian SaaS industry to reach $26 billion in revenues by 2026: Report
Indian SaaS companies are doubling down on growth (revenue generation) while ensuring operational and capital efficiency, the report said.
BUSINESS
EV startup River raises $15 million led by Al Futtaim Group
The fresh funding will be utilised for River's growth and working capital needs, priming its manufacturing and distribution networks for the August 2023 delivery that it had earlier announced
BUSINESS
India’s diamond city Surat is now mining SaaS startups for the world
Data sourced from Tracxn shows that Surat has more than 2,530 startups, of which 164 are SaaS-based startups offering services such as financial management, export-import management and cloud-based solutions. Together, they have raised nearly $224 million so far.
BUSINESS
Government agencies, enterprises keen on adopting Zoho's Ulaa web browser
Zoho may look at monetisation through add-ons from the Ulaa web browser as the product evolves and gains more adoption from enterprises.
BUSINESS
Capillary Technologies raises $45 million in Series D funding round
Founded in 2012 by Aneesh Reddy, Ajay Modani, and Krishna Mehra, Capillary Technologies has a presence across the United States, India, the Middle East, and Asia, in particular, Southeast Asia.
