Three-year-old New York-based software company Unqork, which is developing a no-code platform for enterprise insurance and financial services, today announced that it’s finalized its $131 million in series B financing led by Alphabet investment fund CapitalG, extending its series B by $51 million and adding to the $81 million Unqork raised in October 2019.

And it’ll be used to grow the Unqork community through large-scale events, including No-code on Tour and Unqork Live, Unqork’s first-ever user conference in May in New York City.

“Unqork enables progressive enterprises to quickly create and manage the most sophisticated, industrial-strength software using entirely no-code, visual tools.

“No-code in the enterprise has gained massive traction, thanks largely to Unqork’s adoption at the most complex organizations,” said CapitalG general partner Laela Sturdy.

“This round is further proof that Unqork has the product, team and customer demand to continue to change the economics of enterprise IT.” | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582723806.5992513/Unqork-raises-$51-million-more-to-expand-its-no-code-enterprise-app-development-platform?ref=audio_experience

Private labels are being introduced by etailers to increase margin and attain profitability.

Category focused platforms were early to enter and launch private labels, and currently have 25-40 per cent of sales contribution from such labels, while multi-category platforms have around 5-10 per cent of sales attributed to private labels.

Private label growth outperforms overall platform growth across categoriesWhile private labels compete alongside well-established external brands, they are able to gain market share by developing differentiated products on parameters such a price, ease of use, specifications etc.

Margin, margin and margin..

Private labels could offer higher margins than externalbrands on multi-brand online retail platforms. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582722019.8854454/Private-Labels-and-Etailers:-The-game-has-just-begun?ref=audio_experience

Klarna’s push for hyper-growth landed it in the red for the first time in its history according to the company’s 2019 annual report, published on Wednesday.

AdvertismentThe company reported it had surpassed 2m US downloads by December 2019, but growth there has been gruelling financially.

Indeed, the losses have come from Klarna’s newer geographies, with the company recording a 69m SEK ($7m) loss under a mixed regional category which included the US and the UK.

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It’s also unclear how much Klarna increased its customer base globally, but it has doubled its UK users in the last year. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582720208.1387694/Klarna’s-US-and-UK-expansion-take-their-toll,-as-fintech-posts-first-annual-loss?ref=audio_experience

Indian ride-hailing unicorn Ola recently announced that it has roped in Gautam Bambawale as Senior Advisor for Corporate and International Affairs.

Gautam Bambawale has served as India's Ambassador to Bhutan and China as well as the High Commissioner of India to Pakistan between 2016 and 2017.

He has also held several positions where he was directly involved with advancing India’s relations with Japan, China, and South Korea, amongst other Asian countries.

“I am very excited to welcome Gautam as a Senior Advisor to Ola.

Further, the Indian unicorn has raked in more than $3 billion in funding to date. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582718610.4094727/Ola-ropes-in-former-Indian-Ambassador-as-Senior-Advisor-for-Corporate-and-International-Affairs?ref=audio_experience

In his talk he also highlighted how FLAME University has been shouldering this responsibility through its various initiatives, such as the FLAME Center for Entrepreneurship and its FLAME Origins Program.

I am sure the entrepreneurship program that FLAME University has announced will enhance this ecosystem and create more entrepreneurs willing and eager to change the world."

Sharing success stories and learningsThe conference had panel discussions on interesting topics like creating high impact entrepreneurs, investing in high impact startups, entrepreneurship and innovation on campus, empowering women entrepreneurs, among others.

FLAME University announced a formal partnership with TiE Pune to promote entrepreneurship across India.

Making a big impactFLAME University's Postgraduate Program in Entrepreneurship and Innovation (PGPEI) aims to create high impact entrepreneurs. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582716605.613958/FLAME-University-calls-for-greater-collaboration-to-equip-India’s-job-demand-needs-at-its-conference-on-‘High-Impact-Entrepreneurship-and-Innovation’?ref=audio_experience

Wipro Consumer Care – Ventures, the venture capital fund of Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, has announced that it will invest in the men and women’s grooming products startup LetsShave.

In a statement, the Chandigarh-based startup said that Wipro Consumer Care – Ventures has acquired a minority stake and has signed an agreement to invest in the startup.

Sumit Keshan, Managing Partner, Wipro Consumer – Venture said,“LetsShave offers high-quality products and is a challenger brand in a space dominated by a single large player.

Founded in 2015 by Sidharth Oberoi, LetsShave sells razors, spare blades, shaving brushes, shaving foam, body scrubs, and travel bags.

It has recently entered into the shower, body care, beard products, and electric trimmers categories. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582714806.1764708/[Funding-alert]-Wipro-Consumer-Care-–-Ventures-to-invest-in-grooming-startup-LetsShave?ref=audio_experience

Ajay BangaMastercard (NYSE: MA) announced that Ajay Banga, President and Chief Executive Officer, will transition to the role of Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mastercard Incorporated on January 1, 2021.

Michael MiebachAs President of the company, Miebach will oversee the sales, marketing, products, services and technology organizations.

Mastercard’s current Chairman, Richard Haythornthwaite, will retire from the Board after more than a decade of exceptional service when Banga assumes the role of Executive Chairman.

Janow is a globally recognized expert in international trade and investment with extensive experience in government and regulatory bodies.

Her career and public board service provide significant insights on technology innovation and digital matters, including cybersecurity. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582713009.5785189/Mastercard-Announces-Leadership-Changes?ref=audio_experience

While meetings are largely held to motivate and boost employee productivity, they can have the exact opposite outcome in many cases.

What’s worst is that sometimes, work meetings are scheduled for an hour by default, even if the topic of discussion could’ve been well tended to in half the time.

It detrimentally impacts the workday, and any sense of urgency for catering to the day’s work is weaned away.

Of course, some people try to continue with their day’s work even during these meetings.

Work productivity essentially goes for a toss when you have intermittent meetings lined up throughout the day. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582711207.8525622/How-Pixar,-Google,-and-Facebook-Put-Bad-Meetings-To-An-End-(Infographic)?ref=audio_experience

Finnish venture capital firm Innovestor has today announced the first close of its new B2B Industrial Technology Fund at €30 million.

The fund, which will be capped at €100 million, is the first in the Nordics and Baltics to focus exclusively on early-stage B2B industrial technology companies.

Myron Seto, Partner at Innovestor, calls this a “crunch that creates opportunities to invest in comparatively de-risked but moderately valued companies“.

Within the Innovestor ecosystem, the company has witnessed disruption become an unavoidable challenge for industrial corporations.

The fund is backed by institutional investors such as Mandatum Life, family offices, and high net worth individuals. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582709407.9771566/Innovestor-closes-first-round-of-new-€100-million-fund-for-industrial-tech-startups-in-the-Nordic-and-Baltic-regions?ref=audio_experience

Critical personal data of the people must be kept within the country, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said here on Tuesday.

"On cross border data, I am quite clear that...there is vast amount of data and critical personal data must be kept within the country.

I am a great believer that the personalised critical human data definitely must be kept within the country," he said.

The most important thing that needs to be looked at is that renewable energy is subset of power sector, he said, adding unless some structural reforms in the power sector are done, there will be problems in all parts of value chain in power sector including renewables.

If the health of discoms does not improve then fundamentally we will not have healthy power sector. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1582707605.714672/Critical-personal-data-must-be-kept-within-country:-Niti-CEO?ref=audio_experience