IC Bytes of the Week: 27/12/20
By: Team Internclick
Tags: Ic Bytes, Tech, Snapdeal, Business, Funding

Welcome to IC Bytes, where we quickly sum up the hottest news of the week in tech and business — in layman terms that our young readers can easily understand.

⚡Top things that happened

Spotlight on regulations as Indian startups ‘flip’ base

Info Edge co-founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani not too long ago tweeted that Indian startups are ‘flipping’ their construction whereas elevating early-stage capital from overseas traders.

It instantly triggered a debate. Flipping refers to home startups housing their shareholding, mental property (IP) and at instances even different property in an agency abroad, and relegating the native entity to a subsidiary.

Bikhchandani, who has backed giant web startups like Zomato and PolicyBazaar via Info Edge, mentioned this results in lack of tax for the federal government, and lack of IP and total wealth creation for India. Bikhchandani went on to say that the state of affairs had shades of the East India Company.

Entrepreneurs TOI spoke to mentioned establishing a US entity to boost cash from traders like Y Combinator (YC) is less complicated than getting caught in prolonged processes in India to boost funds from a US-based investor. Bikhchandani’s tweet was in response to a tweet by an angel investor, Rajesh Sawhney, who questioned why YC was forcing Indian entrepreneurs to arrange US arms. Y Combinator sometimes invests in US-based entities of Indian startups, but it surely has made exceptions, a minimum of for 2 Indian startups, folks conscious of the matter mentioned.

2. Snapdeal clocks Rs 846.4 crore revenue in FY20

E-commerce marketplace Snapdeal on Thursday said its consolidated revenue from operations has grown marginally to Rs 846.4 crore in FY20. The company had registered Rs 839.4 crore revenue from operations in FY19, the firm said in a statement.

The total revenue dipped marginally from Rs 925.3 crore in FY19 to Rs 916 crore in FY20 on account of reduction in finance and other income, it added.

“In FY20, Snapdeal continued its investments in market expansion activities that have helped grow the market beyond only brands, urban centres and a primarily English-speaking audience. One-time investments booked by Snapdeal in FY20 on account of such initiatives are factored into the FY20 loss of Rs 274 crore from about Rs 186 crore in FY19,” it said.

Source: Moneycontrol

Snapdeal noted that it has invested in video, vernacular and other strategic projects, aimed at growing the online market among new user had shades of the East India Company.

3. TikTok India rival Mitron signs licensing deal with Zee Music

Mitron, a short video-sharing platform that surfaced amid TikTok‘s troubles in India, has signed a licensing deal with Zee Music.

The deal, which will give Mitron users access to thousands of songs from Zee Music’s catalogue, is in line with the platform’s efforts to provide a robust music library for creators, according to a statement Monday.

Source: Adgully

“We are delighted that Mitron users will now have access to the huge catalogue of Zee Music library including blockbusters from Bollywood,” Shivank Agarwal, co-founder and chief executive officer at Mitron TV, said. “We aim to provide a seamless experience to our millions of content creators to showcase their talent and make the most interesting content.”

Mitron said it is rapidly ramping up its music library, along with focusing on original in-app music.

4. ToneTag, CityCash Among Fintech Startups Added To RBI’s Retail Payments Regulatory Sandbox

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has added four more startups to its regulatory sandbox cohort for digital retail payments, taking the total number to six. Fintech startup ToneTag, Mumbai-based PoS smart card provider CityCash, voice biometrics authentication startup Ubona Technologies, and Delhi NCR-based Eroute Technologies have been selected for the cohort.

The four startups join Jaipur-based Natural Support Consultancy Services and Delhi-based Nucleus Software Exports in the cohort. Both companies had already begun testing their payments solutions under the sandbox framework in November this year.

Natural Support Consultancy Services’ product ‘eRupaya’ is a set of near-field communication (NFC)-based prepaid card and NFC-enabled point of sale (PoS) device, while Nucleus’ ‘PaySe’ helps connect with rural areas for e-payments. Both help facilitate offline transactions at merchants and retailers in remote locations.

5. Apple’s Electric Car Coming In 2024

That tech giant Apple is developing a car has been an open secret for years now, and the project is reportedly back on track. According to a new Reuters report, the Apple car — known internally as Project Titan –could go into production by 2024, and is set to feature radical battery technology as well. Apple’s battery tech is aimed at lowering cost and boosting range. Exactly who will manufacture the Apple car remains unclear.

It is well known that while Project Titan had started off with Apple envisioning building an electric vehicle of its own, the tech major had also scaled back its aspirations and decided to instead focus its energies on the development of autonomous driving technology. Now, however, it appears Apple has changed plans once again and is seriously looking at the creation of a new EV.

The biggest reason for this shift in plans is a new design that could slash battery costs and also boost range at the same time, according to a source that has seen the battery design. Described as a unique ‘monocell’, this new design is said to bulk up the individual cells, freeing up room by eliminating pouches and modules that hold battery materials to pack in more active material inside the battery, providing a vehicle with a potentially longer range.

6. Funding: Glance raises $145 Mn funding, Dailyhunt’s $100 Mn round, RapiPay gets $9 Mn, Skuad raises $4 Mn

Glance, the world’s leading lock-screen platform owned by Bengaluru-based mobile ad network InMobi Group, has raised $145 million from technology (tech) giant Google and Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel’s Mithril Capital, an existing investor in the company. A co-founder of PayPal and Big Data firm Palantir Technologies, Thiel is known to have invested in Facebook, Airbnb, and SpaceX. The new financing round has helped the 18-month-old Glance to become the fastest company to reach unicorn status or a start-up valued at more than $1 billion, revealed industry sources. InMobi itself became India’s first unicorn when it received an investment of $200 million from SoftBank in 2011. Glance will use the new investment to deepen its artificial intelligence (AI) capability, including Roposo, a fast-growing video-sharing social media platform, owned by the firm. It will expand its tech team, launch services on the platform, further strengthen the brand, and drive expansion into global markets, including the US and South America.

Bengaluru headquartered VerSe Innovation, which operates news aggregator and content platform Dailyhunt and short video platform Josh, has announced the completion of its staggered $100 million fundraise. The closure of the round has valued the company at over $1 billion, a statement said. New investors Google, FalconEdge Capital-backed Alpha Wave and Microsoft infused an undisclosed amount in the lastest tranche of the growth funding round. Returning investors Sofina Group and James Murdoch-led private equity firm Lupa Systems also participated in the round, the statement said. Google made the investment through its $10 billion Google for India Digitalization Fund, which has also backed Jio Platforms and lock-screen content platform Glance. In April, FalconEdge Capital invested $9.4 million in the company alongside Chinese technology company ByteDance, investment bank Goldman Sachs and private equity firm Advent Management in a $22.5 million growth funding round, dubbed a Series G round. However, it is not immediately clear whether it was part of the latest $100 million round.

RapiPay bagged $9 Mn funding To Push financial inclusion through its agent Network Dabur, Havells promoter Sheela Foam and noted surgeon Naresh Trehan participated in the Series A round. RapiPay provides agent-based payment solutions for businesses and plans to deploy five lakh micro ATMs in the country over the next two years. RapiPay claims to have recorded transactions worth INR 3,693 Cr in Q4 2020 till November.

With remote working and distributed teams coming to the fore in 2020, enterprise tech solutions catering to this segment are seeing major interest from customers and investors. HRtech startup Skuad, which enables payroll and talent management for distributed teams, has secured $4 Mn funding in a seed round led by BEENEXT and Anthemis Group. Alto Partners Multi-Family Office and Zenius Education CEO Rohan Monga also participated in the round, among other investors. With the fresh capital, the company plans to expand its remote employee management infrastructure and scale its team for growth in multiple geographies. Founded by Sundeep Sahi, Naman Singhal and Dave Fal in 2019, Skuad is a digital payroll management platform that targets companies with distributed or remote teams for onboarding and managing talent across continents.