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Picsart Raises $130 Million at More Than $1 Billion Valuation

1Sep By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

Picsart Raises $130 Million at More Than $1 Billion Valuation

SAN FRANCISCO, 1st Oct 2021-- Picsart, the world’s largest creative platform has raised $130 million in Series C funding. The round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with participation from new investors G Squared and Tribe Capital, as well as existing investors Sequoia, DCM, Graph Ventures, and Siguler Guf & Company. With over $100 million in annual revenue run rate, Picsart is now valued at over $1 billion. The company has raised a total of $195 million in capital since its founding. “Picsart is powering visual culture and breaking barriers between inspiration and creativity,” said Hovhannes Avoyan, Picsart’s founder and CEO. “We want to make the world more creative and have users in every country of the world designing, remixing, editing, and sharing on Picsart and beyond. This ...

Facebook offers Loans to Small businesses in India

20Aug By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Facebook offers Loans to Small businesses in India

New Delhi, 20 Aug 2021: Facebook India announced an initiative known as the ''Small Business Loans Initiative'' in partnership with Indifi to help small and medium businesses (SMBs) get quick access to credit through independent lending partners. India is the first country for Facebook where this program is getting rolled out. The program is open to businesses registered across 200 towns and cities of India. Through Facebook's partnership with Indifi, small businesses that advertise with Facebook can get loans between Rs 5 lakh ($6,720) to 50 lakh ($67,200) at a predefined interest rate of 17-20 percent per annum, and applicants will not be charged a processing fee. Indifi will also disburse the loan amount within five working days of the borrower completing all documentation for...

Bhavin Turakhia Led Titan raises $30mn from WordPress Parent Company

4Aug By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

Bhavin Turakhia Led Titan raises $30mn from WordPress Parent Company

Dubai, 4t Aug 2021: Titan, a professional email startup founded by serial entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia has secured a USD 30 million (about Rs 222.7 crore) investment from Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com. This is the largest investment made by Automattic and values Titan at USD 300 million. "(The investment has been made) with the goal of jointly working with us in a deep strategic relationship to both enable Automattic users to benefit from Titan and vice versa, as well as to work with us to achieve this vision of creating an outstanding email product for professionals and business users," Turakhia told Pixr8 News in a virtual briefing. He added that people signing up on Wordpress.com with Automattic for a WordPress hosting website will have the ability to use Tit...

30Jul By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

WASABI RAISES $1.8Mn SEED FUNDING LED BY ANKUR CAPITAL

India, July 30th, 2021: Bengaluru-based tech startup, Wasabi (Truegrit Technologies Private Limited) has raised $1.8 Million in a seed round led by Ankur Capital. The round also saw participation from Binny Bansal backed 021 Capital, Sparrow Capital, and notable angels like Ankit Bhati (Ola), Mekin Maheshwari (Udhyam Learning), Lalit Keshre (Groww), Revant Bhate (Mosaic Wellness), Abhishek Goyal (Tracxn), and Ashish Goel (Urban Ladder) among others. The funds raised will be utilized to build a strong engineering team, develop their product offering and create early customer traction. Founded in January 2021 by Pradeep Dodle and Nikhil Goenka, Wasabi is building easy-to-use communication and growth platform for small and medium businesses in India to help them manage customer relations...

Square launch banking services for Small Businesses

20Jul By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Square launch banking services for Small Businesses

SAN FRANCISCO, 21st July 2021-- Square launches Square Banking, a suite of financial products purpose-built to help small business owners easily manage their cash flow and get more out of their hard-earned money. Coming on the heels of Square’s industrial bank, Square Financial Services, beginning operations in March, Square Banking represents a major milestone in Square’s continued efforts to expand access to financial tools for underbanked populations and marks the beginnings of the company’s journey to provide more banking solutions to small businesses. “Small businesses are the heartbeat of our communities and our economy. From our earliest days, Square has focused on building easy-to-use tools and services to empower entrepreneurs to succeed on their own terms,” said Christina...

Pine Labs raises $600 mn at $3 Billion Valuation

6Jul By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

Pine Labs raises $600 mn at $3 Billion Valuation

Singapore, July 6, 2021 - Pine Labs, one of Asia’s leading merchant commerce platforms raises $600 million with the entry of new investors Fidelity Management, BlackRock, Ishana, Tree Line, and a fund advised by Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC at $3 billion valuations. IIFL AMC via its ‘Late-Stage Tech Fund’ and Kotak are also participating in this investment round. Pine Labs continues to be well-financed and has been EBITDA profitable for several years. The company is backed by Sequoia Capital, Temasek Holdings, Actis, PayPal and Mastercard amongst other leading global investors. “Over the last year, Pine Labs has made significant progress in its Offline to Online strategy in India and the direct-to-consumer play in Southeast Asia. Our full-stack approach to payments a...

Facebook launches Clubhouse like Podcasts & Live Audio Service

22Jun By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Facebook launches Clubhouse like Podcasts & Live Audio Service

San Francisco, CA, 22nd June 2021: Social media network platform Facebook launched podcasts and live audio streams service in US to keep users engaged on its platform and to compete with emerging rivals. Facebook says it is allowing public figures with verified accounts to start live audio rooms and invite anyone else to speak. A handful of podcasts will be available to people in the U.S. at first and the company plans to add more down the line. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has appeared on the video streaming app Clubhouse in the past, hosted his own live audio room on his Facebook page last week. “Live Audio Rooms and podcasts rolling out in the US is just the beginning of our audio journey," wrote Fidji Simo, head of the Facebook app, in a blog post. “Looking ahead, we are working ...

General Atlantic leads $100 million investment in Fresha

16Jun By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

General Atlantic leads $100 million investment in Fresha

NEW YORK, June 16th, 2021-- Fresha, a top beauty and wellness software platform raises $100 million Series C investment led by General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm, with strategic participation from Huda Kattan of HB Investments and the founder of Huda Beauty, as well as Michael Zeisser of FMZ Ventures, former Chairman Investments at Alibaba Group, and Jonathan Green of Lugard Road Capital. Fresha's existing global investors Partech, Target Global and FJ Labs also participated in the round, bringing the company's total fundraising to $132 million to date. Fresha will leverage the new funds to further broaden its global community of partner salons and spas, scale product development, deepen its marketplace bookings and pursue strategic M&A. Fresha allows con...

Amazon to acquire MGM Film Studio for $8.45 Billion

26May By AnkitaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Amazon to acquire MGM Film Studio for $8.45 Billion

SEATTLE & BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., 26th May 2021-- Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has announced that they are going to acquire MGM Holding for $8.45 billion. MGM has nearly a century of filmmaking history and complements the work of Amazon Studios, which has primarily focused on producing TV show programming. “MGM has a vast catalog with more than 4,000 films includingJames Bond, Robocop, Rocky, The Pink Panther, etc. as well as 17,000 TV shows that have collectively won more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmys,” said Mike Hopkins, Senior Vice President of Prime Video and Amazon Studios. “The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team. It’s very exciting and provides so man...

Foursquare Acquires Geospatial Analytics Platform Unfolded

20May By AnkitaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Foursquare Acquires Geospatial Analytics Platform Unfolded

NEW YORK, 5/20/2021-- Foursquare announced the acquisition of Unfolded a next-generation platform for geospatial analytics. With the addition of Unfolded’s capabilities to the Foursquare technology stack, enterprises and brands can soon come to Foursquare to not only access its industry-leading location data, but work with that data in an integrated platform for merging, enriching, analyzing, and visualizing spatial data - in whatever environment they choose. “Welcoming Unfolded to the team makes the Foursquare platform more powerful, robust, and accessible to our clients and partners,” said Gary Little, President and CEO of Foursquare. “This acquisition accelerates us toward our ambitious goal of bringing Foursquare Everywhere, and enabling businesses to unlock the true potential of l...

Adani Green Energy to acquire SoftBank Energy India 5 GW Plant for USD 3.5 billion

19May By AnkitaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Adani Green Energy to acquire SoftBank Energy India 5 GW Plant for USD 3.5 billion

AHMEDABAD, India, May 19, 2021-- Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) led by Gautam Adani has acquired 100% stakes in SB Energy India from Soft bank group (80%) and Bharti Group (20%). SB Energy India has a total renewable portfolio of 4,954 MW spread across four states in India. The transaction marks the largest acquisition in the renewable energy sector in India. The total deal valuation is approx USD 3.5 billion. The target portfolio consists large scale utility assets with 84% solar capacity (4,180 MW), 9% wind-solar hybrid capacity (450 MW) and 7% wind capacity (324 MW). The portfolio comprises of 1,400 MW operational solar power capacity and a further 3,554 MW is under construction. All projects have 25 year PPAs with sovereign rated counterparties such as Solar Energy Corporation o...

Venture Capital funding in Green Energy Raises $1.3 billion in Jan-Mar 2021

30Apr By AnkitaNo Comments

BUSINESS

Venture Capital funding in Green Energy Raises $1.3 billion in Jan-Mar 2021

Paris, Apr 30th, 2021: Global venture capital funding in energy storage, smart grid, and energy efficiency rose to USD 1.3 billion during January-March 2021, registering a whopping 410 percent year-on-year growth, a report released on Friday said. According to the report by Mercom Capital Group, the said segments had saw a combined funding of USD 252 million in same period of 2020. The venture capital (VC) funding (including private equity and corporate venture capital) raised by battery storage companies in Q1 or January-March quarter of 2021 came to USD 994 million in 13 deals compared to USD 164 million in six deals in Q1 2020, it said. The report said 33 VC investors participated in battery storage funding during the said quarter. The VC funding for smart grid companies in...