One Thing Today in Tech

Speciale Invest, a VC firm in Chennai that focuses on early-stage deep tech ventures in India, has announced the final close of its second fund at $38 million. The fund was oversubscribed twice over since the firm announced its first close in April last year.

“This fund is 4X our first fund, and we are excited to play an active role in influencing the deep-tech entrepreneurial ecosystem in India,” Vishesh Rajaram and Arjun Rao, who founded Speciale in 2017, told Forbes India.

They have backed entrepreneurs in areas including enterprise software products emerging from deep tech in the cloud, voice and vision ML/AI, image analytics, AR/VR; and industrial hardware products in propulsion technologies, robotics, rocket engines, lithium technologies, microelectronics and optical communications.

Gupshup, a conversational engagement platform company, has acquired Active.Ai, a conversational AI platform provider to banks and fintech companies. The acquisition strengthens Gupshup’s customer experience (CX) solutions for BFSI customers, it said in a press release.

CynLr, a deep-tech startup developing a computer-vision-enabled robot to make ‘universal factories’ of the future a possibility, has raised $4.5 million in fresh funding. CynLr’s Visual-Robot Platform eliminates the trap of machinery customisation. CynLr envisions its Visual-Robots or Object Computers to ‘simplify’ manufacturing, just as the computers simplified data processing.

CynLr will be establishing its business presence in the US, expanding its team and building capacity to address the current pipeline of customers and deliver 100 Robots annually, the company said in a press release.

Futwork, a sales-as-a-service platform for companies looking to scale their outbound tele-calling operations, has raised $1 million in funding led by Blume Ventures and Simile Venture Partners. Other participants include Silicon Valley-based Riverside Ventures and various angel investors.

PhonePe plans to double its employee strength this year. The digital payments unit of Walmart’s Indian ecommerce business Flipkart, said in a press release. The company plans to fill 2,800 vacancies in engineering, product development, analytics, business development, and sales. The jobs are based in Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, and other parts of the country.

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Pixxel, a space-technology startup in Bengaluru, has launched its first commercial imaging satellite to space. The company launched its first full-fledged commercial satellite, named Shakuntala (Technology Demonstrator-2) onboard a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket on April 1, according to a press release.

Weighing less than 15 kg, Shakuntala (TD-2) is capable of capturing orbital images in more than 150 bands of colour from the visible and infrared spectrum with a resolution of 10-meters per pixel — far exceeding the specificity of 30-meter per pixel hyperspectral cameras on satellites from NASA, ESA, and ISRO, according to Pixxel’s release.

This launch also comes on the heels of Pixxel’s $25 million Series A funding from Radical Ventures, Seraphim Space Capital, Relativity Space co-founder Jordan Noone, Lightspeed Partners, Blume Ventures, and Sparta LLC among others. More than 50 customers have also signed pre-launch agreements with Pixxel from sectors including agriculture, oil and gas, mining, and climate monitoring.

Infosys, India’s second-biggest IT services company, will release its fiscal fourth-quarter results on April 13, for the year ended March 31, 2022 (FY22). The Bangalore headquartered company’s results are expected after markets in Mumbai, at around 4 p.m. IST, on the day.

Expectations are high that Infosys will continue to accelerate its growth on the back of the strong demand for digital transformation projects as its customers around the world invest more in shifting workloads to the cloud, and embrace technology for a secure, hybrid workplace.

In January, Infosys projected that it expects full-year revenues to increase by between 19.5 percent and 20 percent for FY22. Larger rival Accenture projected last month that it expects to grow revenues for its current fiscal year that ends on August 31, in the range of 24-26 percent, in local currency.

Ather Energy, an electric scooter maker in Bangalore, sold 2,591 scooters in March, posting a 120 percent increase from the same period last year, according to the company’s monthly sales report. Ather is also expanding its sales network, having added four new showrooms, including in Guwahati, Vijayawada, Tirupathi, and the third one in Bangalore.

The company has previously said that it is currently fulfilling only a fraction of its orders due to a component shortage. It has also recently tied up with contract manufacturer Foxconn, to help ramp up production of its Ather 450 series of scooters.

Atlassian, which makes cloud software for collaboration, expects to expand its venture fund to support more SaaS startups that are looking to work with its products and platform, including in India, the Nasdaq-listed Australian company said in a press release last week. Atlassian has a global R&D centre in Bangalore with more than 1,000 engineers.

Over the last 18 months, the company has committed $110 million to Atlassian Ventures, and invested in 30 startups, according to the release.

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Roughly $625 million worth of cryptocurrency has been stolen from Ronin, the blockchain underlying the popular crypto game Axie Infinity, The Verge reports. A research team at Korea University has developed a software program that uses machine learning to determine the best way to treat soil with biochar, or thermally decomposed biowaste, to trap heavy metals. Plus, a raft of funding news.

Notes:

Roughly $625 million worth of cryptocurrency has been stolen from Ronin, the blockchain underlying the popular crypto game Axie Infinity, The Verge reports. Ronin and Axie Infinity operator Sky Mavis revealed the breach on Tuesday and froze transactions on the Ronin bridge, which allows depositing and withdrawing funds from the company’s blockchain.

A research team at Korea University has developed a software program that uses machine learning to determine the best way to treat soil with biochar, or thermally decomposed biowaste, to contain heavy metals and prevent them from moving up the food chain.

This work is significant because it can help improve the effectiveness of soil treatment with biochar to reduce or contain land pollution.

The machine-learning-based method has been developed by a team led by Yong Sik Ok and Kumuduni N. Palansooriya from Korea University. Their findings were recently published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Citymall, a local community-based ecommerce platform provider, has raised $75 million in Series C funding led by Norwest Venture Partners, Economic Times reported. The round values Citymall at around $350 million, according to ET. Citymall will use the money to add categories and locations and strengthen its back-end technology.

Classplus, a B2B ed-tech startup that helps educators and content creators launch and scale their online coaching businesses, has raised $70 million in a Series D round co-led by Alpha Wave Global and Tiger Global, the Noida company said in a press release. This new round follows a $65 million Series C investment in June 2021.

The latest investment values Classplus — founded in 2018 by Mukul Rustagi and Bhaswat Agarwal — at nearly $600 million.

LambdaTest, a cloud-based test orchestration platform provider, has closed a $45 million venture round, led by Premji Invest with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital India, Telstra Ventures, Blume Ventures, and Leo Capital, the Silicon Valley and Noida company said in a press release.

LambdaTest expects to mostly use this money for new product innovation. It is also looking to add multiple roles and in multiple locations.

Cloaked, a Boston startup that allows users to generate unique email addresses and phone numbers when creating online accounts has secured $25 million in Series A funding, TechCrunch reports.

Founded in 2020 by brothers Arjun and Abhijay Bhatnagar, Cloaked allows privacy-conscious individuals to create unique identifiers. The service, available as an app and a browser extension, creates “cloaked” identities — such as emails, phone numbers, passwords and credit card numbers — that can be unique to any given online service, according to TechCrunch.

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Apple plans to make about 20 percent fewer iPhone SEs next quarter than originally planned, in one of the first signs that the Ukraine war and looming inflation have started to dent consumer electronics demand, Nikkei Asia reports. HCL Technologies has been selected to provide global service desk and on-site support to Danish pharma company Novo Nordisk. Plus, Chalo, a bus-ride app provider, has acquired Vogo, a bike-rental provider.

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Notes:

Apple plans to make about 20 percent fewer iPhone SEs next quarter than originally planned, Nikkei Asia reports. Apple launched the iPhone SE as its first 5G-capable budget phone less than three weeks ago but is now telling multiple suppliers that it aims to lower production orders by about 2 million to 3 million units for the quarter.

Apple also reduced orders for its AirPods earphones by more than 10 million units for all of 2022, according to the report.

HCL Technologies, India’s third-biggest IT services company, has been selected to provide global service desk and on-site support to Danish pharma company Novo Nordisk, according to a press release. Through the partnership, HCL will help Novo Nordisk transform its IT operations and create world-class end-user experiences and drive efficiency across its workforce.

Genpact, a professional services provider focused on delivering digital transformation, has been recognised as one of the most ethical companies in 2022, by Ethisphere, a leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, according to a press release. This is the fourth year that Ethisphere has recognised Genpact.

Amazon India will host the third edition of ‘Amazon Smbhav’ on May 18 and 19 this year. The two-day virtual summit will bring together policymakers, industry leaders, solution providers, startups and Amazon executives to discuss ways to bring online small local stores and businesses across India.

Loco, a game streaming platform, has secured Rs. 330 crore ($42 Million) in series A investment led by Hashed, with participation from Makers Fund, Catamaran Ventures, and Korea Investment Partners. All the investors from the company’s seed round including Krafton, Lumikai, and Hiro Capital also participated in this round. Loco will use the money to develop its tech and content further.

Chalo, a bus transport app provider, has acquired Vogo, a tech-enabled shared mobility startup that offered bike rides booked over a mobile app. Vogo will augment Chalo’s bus technology services by facilitating first and the last mile rides at major bus stops and other public places. This will help bus users to easily travel to and from bus stops, and further boost bus ridership as it becomes more convenient to take a bus.

Postman, an API platform provider, plans to open an API Lab at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, the alma mater of the company’s founders, to promote API literacy amongst students and aspiring developers as APIs become more critical in today’s digital world. The lab is set to open in December.

Paperplane, a Bangalore-based digital clinic, backed by 100X.VC, has raised nearly $400,000 in a follow-on funding round that was led by Cornerstone Venture Partners, while the rest included LV Angel Fund and other seed investors. Paperplane helps doctors and patients connect online more effectively, according to a press release.

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Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX, ranked “artificial intelligence going wrong” as one of the top three “existential threats” to humanity, Insider reports. The European Space Agency is funding a project called Camaliot to conduct scientific experiments on big data, collected from GPS receivers including smartphones. Plus, several Indian founders have banded up to start a pre-seed-stage fund.

Notes:

Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX, ranked “artificial intelligence going wrong” as one of the top three “existential threats” to humanity, Insider reports.

Musk, the richest man in the world who aspires to build a home for humans on Mars, said he fears religious extremism, a declining birthrate, and artificial intelligence going wrong. The declining birthrate in countries like the US is also a cause for concern, Musk said, adding he didn’t see it turning around, according to Insider.

The European Space Agency is funding a project called Camaliot to build the infrastructure for ingesting large volumes of observations from various kinds of GPS-capable receivers, including mobile phones, according to the project’s website.

With the proliferation of smartphones, wearables and the Internet of Things, observations acquired from such devices will become the next big data source. Therefore, the Camaliot project is laying the groundwork for exploiting this rapidly increasing source of data, according to the website.

Apple paid out special engineering bonuses worth up to $200,000 to retain top talent, Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman reports in his popular Power On newsletter. For the second time in three months, Apple is paying out special one-time retention bonuses. Last time, the bonuses went to select engineers in Apple’s virtual and augmented reality and chip engineering departments.

This time they went to some hardware and software engineers. The idea is to keep employees happy at a time of rising inflation, increased recruiting from rivals like Facebook owner Meta Platforms, and a move to get working-at-home staff back into offices, according to Gurman.

Google released a Chrome update for Windows, Mac, and Linux on Friday last that fixes a zero-day vulnerability, Android Police reports. In a Chrome Releases Blog post Google explains that there is one security update in the release, for zero-day exploit CVE-2022-1096, first reported to the company by an anonymous tip on March 23.

This particular vulnerability is a weakness in Chrome's JavaScript engine that can be used by hackers to inject their code into your browser. Google has said hackers have already exploited this weakness, according to Android Police.

Founders of Meesho, Rivigo, Lead School, NoBroker, and Cars24 are among the entrepreneurs and senior executives at several startups in India who have come together to launch Bharat Founders Fund, which will invest in pre-seed-stage ventures, Economic Times reports.

Some 65 founders are investing through the fund, which has made 20 investments so far. The fund will typically invest $100,000 to $200,000 in the pre-seed stage, including in entrepreneurs who’ve just started out with an idea, according to ET.

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Bharat Electronics and Airports Authority of India have entered into an agreement for the joint, indigenous development of systems for air traffic management and surface movement of aircraft at airports in the country, which were hitherto being imported. IBM has announced a collaboration with the Department of School Education, in the northeastern state of Nagaland, to introduce the IBM STEM for Girls programme.

Police in Britain have arrested seven people over suspected connections to the Lapsus$ hacking group, which has in recent weeks targeted tech giants including Samsung, Nvidia, Microsoft and Okta, TechCrunch reports.“The City of London Police has been conducting an investigation with its partners into members of a hacking group. Seven people between the ages of 16 and 21 have been arrested in connection with this investigation and have all been released under investigation. Our enquiries remain ongoing,” the London Police said in a statement to TechCrunch.

Bharat Electronics Limited and the Airports Authority of India have entered into an agreement for the joint, indigenous development of systems for air traffic management and surface movement of aircraft at airports in the country, which were hitherto being imported, BEL said in a press release. Under this Agreement, BEL and AAI will jointly develop a Civil Air Traffic Management System with Advanced-Surface Movement Guidance and Control System, a complex ground surveillance system that manages air traffic at airports and in Indian Civil Airspace for the safe operation of flights from take-off to landing.

IBM has announced a collaboration with the Department of School Education, in the northeastern state of Nagaland, to introduce the IBM STEM for Girls program in more than 250 secondary and higher secondary schools across 15 districts in the State, the company said in a press release. This program will help more than 12,000 girls studying between eighth and 10th grade.

Netcore Cloud, a SaaS company in the area of customer communication, engagement, and retention, has invested close to $100 million to acquire a majority stake in Unbxd Inc., a US-based, search-personalisation technology company, according to a press release. It will also be infusing additional funding into Unbxd to propel the company's growth in developed markets.

Bolt, an EV Infrastructure Provider, has installed 10,000 charging stations in India in the past six months, the company said in a press release. The company wants to install a million charging stations in 500 cities across India and other emerging markets. Bolt is on track to deploy 100,000 charging points in the next six months in cities including Jaipur, Nagpur, Nashik, Chandigarh, Surat, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar and Vijayawada.

Ather Energy, an electric scooter maker in Bangalore, has partnered with HDFC Bank and IDFC First bank to provide easy financing options to its consumers, the company said in a press release. These partnerships will allow Ather Energy customers to get instant loans from HDFC and IDFC First banks at low interest rates and with a maximum LTV (Loan-to-value). Ather Energy customers have preferred a 95 percent LTV option while choosing a financing option, with 2-3 years being the most preferred duration to repay the loan, according to the press release.

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A cyberattack in January on Okta, a company that provides network access to its customers, may have been more severe than it originally thought, BBC reports. Oxyzo Financial Services, a tech-enabled smart financing solution provider, has raised $200 million in Series A funding. Plus, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has been named to Scotland’s Royal Society of Edinburgh.

A cyberattack in January on Okta, a company that provides network access to its customers, may have been more severe than it originally thought, BBC reports. Hundreds of organisations that rely on Okta to provide access to their networks may have been affected by the cyberattack by the gang called Lapsus$.

Okta said the "worst-case" was 366 of its clients had been affected and their "data may have been viewed or acted upon." Its shares fell 9 percent on the news. Okta has more than 15,000 clients. Okta had initially said the attack involved a third-party contractor, a "sub-processor", and "the matter was investigated and contained”.

Oxyzo Financial Services, a tech-enabled smart financing solution provider, has raised $200 million in Series A funding from investors including Alpha Wave and Matrix Partners India, Tiger Global, Norwest Venture Partners and Creation Investments.

It has grown to an AuM of $350 million with 100 percent Y-o-Y growth while maintaining its GNPA at 1.2 percent, even through the Covid-19 period.

Icertis, a cloud software provider for contract lifecycle management, has released an AI Studio, a self-serve, self-learning cognitive tool. AI Studio utilises artificial intelligence models to analyse large sets of documents and generate contract intelligence for real-time insights and decision making. AI Studio’s availability coincides with the latest release of the company’s ICI platform.

The traditional PC market (Desktops, Notebooks, and Workstations) in the Asia/Pacific (including Japan and China) region posted a 15.9 percent year-over-year increase in 2021, reaching 120.3 million units, according to the International Data Corporation’s Quarterly Personal Computing Devices Tracker, Q4 2021. PC shipments are expected to remain robust in 2022—following a strong 2021 that experienced better supply and solid demand for PCs, IDC said in a press release.

Capco, a global management and technology consultancy, has announced it is undertaking a major recruitment drive in India to meet the rising demand for its services from locally-based global financial services institutions, the Wipro company said in a press release.

As these clients continue to focus on optimising customer experiences, operating models and internal automation, Capco is looking to fill over 500 roles in the coming months in a broad range of specialist areas across consulting, data, digital and technology. The roles are variously based in Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, and Chennai.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson of Biocon and Biocon Biologics, has been elected as the Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy established in 1783, for the advancement of learning and useful knowledge, the company said in a press release.

Kiran will be joining RSE’s current Fellowship of around 1,700 Fellows who are recognised for their accomplishments in physical and life sciences, arts, humanities, social sciences, education, professions, industry, business and public life.

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Google’s parent Alphabet’s quantum technology unit, Sandbox, is spinning off into an independent company, the company said yesterday, CNBC reports. A few of Apple’s services experienced another outage yesterday, just one day after various services and online infrastructure went offline on Monday, The Verge reports. Plus, Mfine has added blood pressure and glucose monitoring features to its mobile app.

Infosys has been recognised as one of athe World’s Most Ethical Companies for 2022, the second year in a row, by Ethisphere Institute, which works in the area of defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices. A clarification on disallowing offset of loss against profit in crypto transactions in India has caused much consternation among startups, TechCrunch reports. Plus, ecommerce automation SaaS company CommerceIQ turns unicorn.

Infosys has been recognised as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for 2022, the second year in a row, by Ethisphere Institute, which works in the area of defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices. It is also the only company from India, and one of four such honourees globally, in the software and services industry, the company said in a press release. In 2022, 136 honourees were recognised from 22 countries and across 45 industries.

India’s proposed taxation law of virtual digital assets won’t permit individuals to offset the loss from one asset against the profit of another, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday, causing dismay among the country’s crypto startups, TechCrunch reports.

This move is “detrimental for India’s crypto industry and the millions who have invested in this emerging asset class,” Ashish Singhal, co-founder and CEO of CoinSwitch, one of India’s largest crypto exchanges, said in an email.

CommerceIQ, which helps retailers automate various ecommerce processes, has raised $115 million in a funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, at a value of more than $1 billion, making it the 12th Indian startup unicorn of this year, Economic Times reports.

Qualcomm has launched a Snapdragon Metaverse Fund, established to invest up to $100 million in developers and companies building unique, immersive XR experiences, as well as associated core augmented reality and related artificial intelligence technologies, the company said in a press release.

nurture.farm, a digital platform for sustainable agriculture, has generated and forward-sold 20,000 carbon credits through its alternate wetting and drying and dry seeded rice project, the company said in a press release. Its benefits included 15-30 percent of water savings, according to the release.

Snowflake, a data cloud provider, has launched a healthcare and life sciences data cloud to offer customers a single, integrated, and cross-cloud data platform that eliminates technical and institutional data silos.

PhonePe, a payments platform provider that is part of Walmart’s Flipkart unit, has acquired GigIndia, a network for freelancers, to help corporates and enterprises acquire more customers and scale up their distribution channels, the company said in a press release.

Bizongo, a B2B trade enablement platform provider, has acquired Mumbai based IoT and location services provider Clean Slate Technologie. Bizongo aims to equip more than 100 Indian factories with its IoT powered cloud factory solution by 2023.

PolygonLEAP 2021 Accelerator has announced its first cohort of 31 startups. It will support the 31 solutions, selected from over 270 applicants globally, in building their innovative decentralised ideas in the boot camp phase.

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Reliance Retail, part of the Reliance Industries conglomerate, is acquiring an 89 percent stake in direct-to-consumer brand Clovia for $125 million. Indian Institute of Science has entered into an MoU with Ajit Isaac, founder and chairman of Quess Corp, and his wife Sarah Isaac, for establishing a Centre for Public Health at the IISc campus. Plus, Sri Lankan Cricketer Mahela Jayawardene co-founds a cyber security venture. 

Reliance Retail, part of the Reliance Industries conglomerate, is acquiring an 89 percent stake in direct-to-consumer brand Clovia for $125 million as the largest Indian retail chain looks to expand its footprints in the apparel and innerwear categories, TechCrunch reports.

Eight-year-old Clovia, which operates a ‘bridge-to-premium D2C brand’ and sells over 3,500 products across innerwear and loungewear categories for millennial women, had raised about $25.8 million before Sunday’s announcement.

India’s Income Tax Department has found and seized “a large number of incriminating pieces of evidence” that reveals a Pune and Thane-based unicorn startup, referring to Infra.Market, “booked bogus purchases” and disclosed an additional income of more than $29.4 million, TechCrunch reports.

Infra.Market’s investors include Tiger Global, Nexus Venture Partners and Accel, and is valued at $2.5 billion. The startup helps construction and real estate companies procure materials and handle logistics for their projects.

The company “made huge unaccounted cash expenditure and obtained accommodation entries, aggregating to the tune of over Rs 400 crore ($52.7 million),” the department said in a statement, according to TechCrunch.

The Indian Institute of Science has entered into an MoU with Ajit Isaac, founder and chairman of Quess Corp, and his wife Sarah Isaac, for establishing a Centre for Public Health at the IISc campus.

The Isaacs have committed a sum of Rs. 105 crore towards setting up this Centre, which will be called the Isaac Centre for Public Health (ICPH), and will be a part of the postgraduate Medical School, soon to be established on campus. The Centre will be operational by 2024.

Sri Lankan cricketer Mahela Jayawardene has teamed up with technology entrepreneurs Chandita Samaranayake and Stefano Harding, to co-found Dygisec, a Singapore based cyber security company, according to a press release from the company.

With operations in Sri Lanka, Singapore, the US, and with plans to expand into Australia and the UK, Dygisec will offer its agent-less, data-driven cloud compliance policy engine called Triton.

The company also plans to form a Cloud Security Academy to train and certify 5,000 cloud security experts representing women, financially-challenged and differently-abled individuals in Sri Lanka over the next three years.

Loop, a startup building a user research tool for software product development teams, has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding led by VC firm Speciale Invest. Additional funding for the startup, founded by Kritika Oberoi and Akash Tandon, is coming from First Cheque, angel investors and a grant from Sequoia Capital India as part of the Sequoia Spark program.

Looppanel allows product and design teams to analyse and share insights from Zoom-based user interviews in minutes. Product managers and designers can quickly test their assumptions and prototypes with their own customers.

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