Manish Singh
TechCrunch
India
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Recent articles by Manish:
MoHash raises $6M seed funding to bring sustainable, stable yields to DeFi –
The recent collapse of UST has once again demonstrated that many of the so-called stablecoins in the web3 world today are tied to high-risk and often unsustainable assets. As decentralized finance attempts to expand its reach, it appears to be in dire need to find alternative sources of yields. During the last DeFi summer, the […] → Read More
Lenskart acquires majority stake in eyewear brand Owndays in $400 million deal –
India’s Lenskart is buying a majority stake in Japan’s Owndays, the two firms said, creating one of Asia’s biggest online retailers of eyewear. The firms did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, but a person familiar with the matter said the merger values 32-year business Owndays at $400 million. The 12-year-old Bengaluru-headquartered startup […] → Read More
Byju’s cuts over 600 jobs, pushes back payments for $1 billion acquisition –
Byju’s, India’s most valuable startup, has eliminated over 600 jobs in recent days and pushed back on payments for a $1 billion acquisition it announced last year. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup, valued at about $22 billion, has cut over 300 jobs at Toppr, an online learning startup it acquired last year for $150 million, and another […] → Read More
Arzooo raises $70 million to bring ‘best of e-commerce’ to physical stores in India
Arzooo, an Indian startup that is attempting to bring the “best of e-commerce” to physical stores, has raised $70 million in a new financing round. → Read More
Byju’s unit WhiteHat Jr cuts 300 jobs –
WhiteHat Jr, the kids-focused coding platform that edtech giant Byju’s acquired for $300 million two years ago, has eliminated about 300 roles in recent days, the latest in a series of startups globally to cut workforce amid the market downturn. The layoff impacts the startup’s teams globally, including in Brazil. The parent firm Byju’s, India’s […] → Read More
Mukesh Ambani steps down as Reliance Jio director, son named as chairman –
Akash Ambani, the eldest son of Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani, has been named as the chairman of Reliance’s digital empire Jio Platforms in what analysts view as a leadership transition in one of Asia’s wealthiest families. Reliance Industries said in an exchange filing that Mukesh Ambani has resigned from his director role at Jio Platforms, […] → Read More
India delays strict new VPN rules by 3 months –
India will give VPN providers and cloud service operators an additional three months to comply with new rules that require they maintain names and addresses of their customers and their IP addresses, giving some relief to firms as many scramble to follow the new guidelines and some explore the option of leaving the South Asian […] → Read More
Google backs Progcap, a startup delivering working capital to small retailers in India –
The investment is part of a $40 million fresh funding Progcap has raised, said the startup, which also counts Tiger Global and Sequoia India among backers. → Read More
Indian fintechs request central bank to treat full-KYC PPI same as bank account to survive crackdown –
Payments giants and fintech startups in India on Saturday requested the central bank to treat widely used prepaid payment instruments on par with bank accounts for customers who have undertaken certain verifications, days after the monetary authority signalled industry-wide crackdown. The Payments Council of India, a unit of influential industry body IAMAI, said in a […] → Read More
Zomato acquires Blinkit for $568 million in instant-grocery delivery push –
Zomato is acquiring Blinkit, a struggling 10-min grocery delivery startup, in a $568.1 million all-stock deal as the loss-making food delivery firm looks to broaden its offerings. → Read More
India’s central bank cracks down on fintech startups
For fintech startups, lending has long been the end game. A notice from India’s central bank this week has thrown a wrench into the ecosystem, scrutinizing just who all can lend. → Read More
Uber rejects claim that it explored exiting India –
Uber said on Thursday it has never explored exiting India, a key overseas market for several tech giants, dismissing a claim that it has had held discussions to sell the local unit. Bloomberg reported earlier in the day that the San Francisco-headquartered firm had explored selling the India business, but “suspended discussions after tech startup […] → Read More
Sequoia India and Southeast Asia broadens check range for early-stage Surge program –
Sequoia India and Southeast Asia is broadening the range of its check size for the Surge program as the storied venture firm attempts to make its seed investments more “relevant for a larger set of founders,” it said Thursday. The venture firm’s check range for the three-year-old Surge program, which previously made $1 million to […] → Read More
Smartphone re-commerce platform Cashify bags $90 million in new funding –
Cashify, a marketplace for gadgets trade-ins and buybacks in India, has raised $90 million in a new financing round as it looks to expand its business in the world’s second largest smartphone market. Prosus Ventures and NewQuest Capital Partners led the seven-year-old Indian startup’s Series E funding, Cashify said on Thursday. Paramark Ventures and existing […] → Read More
Neobank Stashfin raises $270 million, tops $700 million valuation –
Singapore-based Stashfin has raised $270 million in a new funding round as the neobanking platform, which currently only serves customers in India, looks to expand to Southeast Asia and other South Asian markets, it said Tuesday. The startup has raised $70 million against equity and $200 million as debt as part of its Series C […] → Read More
SaaS platform LeadSquared becomes unicorn with $153 million fresh funding –
LeadSquared, a SaaS startup that is helping sales teams become more efficient with its CRM platform, is the latest Indian startup to become a unicorn. LeadSquared said on Tuesday it has raised $153 million in a Series C funding round that valued it at $1 billion (post-money). The round was led by WestBridge Capital, the […] → Read More
Matrix Partners is raising $450 million for new India fund –
Matrix Partners India is raising $450 million for its fourth India fund, doubling down on the South Asian market where scores of investors including Sequoia, Lightspeed, SoftBank, Elevation, Accel, Alpha Wave Global and Tiger Global have increased the pace of their investments in recent years. The firm, which counts Ofbusiness and Razorpay among its portfolio […] → Read More
Cloudflare outage knocks popular services offline –
A Cloudflare outage, which began about 15 minutes ago, has hit several popular services including Discord, Omegle, DoorDash, Crunchyroll, Feedly, Zerodha, Upstox and Social Blade. The internet infrastructure firm said it is investigating the “wide-spread” issue. “Users may experience errors or timeouts reaching Cloudflare’s network or services,” said the firm, which suffered an outage in […] → Read More
Indian market regulator fines Reliance for not properly disclosing Facebook deal –
India’s market regulator fined Reliance and two of its officers on Monday for not properly disclosing Facebook’s $5.7 billion investment into Jio Platforms in April 2020. The Securities and Exchange Board of India said that media had reported about the then-impending deal in March itself, which prompted the shares of the group company to rise. […] → Read More
Telegram tops 700 million users, launches premium tier –
Telegram has amassed 700 million monthly active users and is rolling out a premium tier with additional features as the instant messaging platform makes a push to monetize a portion of its user base. Telegram did not disclose how much it is charging for the premium tier, but the monthly subscription appears to be priced […] → Read More