Reliance invests Rs 30,000 crore in retail in FY22
In FY22, Reliance Retail made investments worth almost Rs 30,000 crore, per the company's annual report. Just Dial's majority stake was acquired by Reliance Retail. Additionally, it bought Milkbasket and bought stakes in several Indian designer labels, including Ritu Kumar and Manish Malhotra.
Reliance also bought Kalanikethan to expand its line of ethnic clothing. Grocery retail, Jaisurya. It invested $200 million in Dunzo. It launched new house brands like the gourmet brand Freshpik and the saree brand Avantra.
According to the report, merchant partnerships and digital commerce now account for about 17% of revenues, up from 10% the year before. In FY22, the business added 11.1 million square feet of warehouse space and 2,500 additional stores.
Reliance NSE 1.62 % Retail total store count stood at 15,196, up from 12,711 stores at the end of FY21. The company's registered customer base grew 24% to 193 million.
upGrad raises $210 mn funding, eyes acquisitions in the US, Southeast Asia
According to insiders, the funding helped the company double its valuation to $2.25 billion. Simplilearn, Unacademy, Byju's, and Amazon Academy are competitors of upGrad. According to experts, the funding is assisting the company in advancing its M&A (mergers and acquisitions) strategy. During Q2 CY22, the overall funding for the Indian startup ecosystem decreased by 40% to $6.8 billion. A worldwide recession, a drop in the value of tech stocks, inflation, and geopolitical unrest are all reasons for the downturn. The $3.1 billion in funding that went to SaaS and FinTech startups was the largest share.
Google Takes On Apple, Says It Needs To Fix Messaging By Adopting RCS
Google accuses Apple of operating its iMessage service in a walled garden. In its own unique method, Google urges Apple to implement Rich Communication Services, or RCS, the modern SMS or MMS service for smartphone users, in order to fix the messaging issue.
Therefore, iPhone users must still rely on SMS or MMS, which is a technology from the 1990s and is risky to use today, in order to message an Android smartphone user, even if iMessage users get encryption, support for group calls, and sharing of rich information.
Web3 startup Lysto raises $12 million in funding
A Web3 startup called Lysto has raised $12 million (about Rs 95 crore) from investors including Square Peg, Beenext, Hashed, Tiger Global, and others. The investment round comes from a $3 million seed round that was completed in November 2021.
Additionally, the business announced the introduction of the "Proof of Play Protocol (PoPP)," which intends to standardise gamer reputation and credentials throughout the sector.
"We envision a world where billions of such on-chain attestations across games and tournaments can serve as the fundamental building block of Gamers' profiles," said Sadiq Ahamed (founder and CEO). Using this, we aim to create the biggest gaming community on the planet.
Indian fintech firms will handle $1 trillion in assets by 2030: report
In 2021, funding for fintech startups in India reached $7.8 billion, and by 2030, the industry is estimated to handle assets worth $1 trillion.
Fintech models are becoming "pervasive" throughout most industries, including supply chains, e-commerce, and agriculture.
"Financial services are the infrastructure's plumbing. Fintech will grow increasingly horizontal and support itself in the nexus of agri-tech, proptech, and B2B supply chain.
Fintech companies that specialise in digital lending will power half of the trillion-dollar AUM anticipated by 2030. In 2021, Indian lending startups received close to $1.2 billion, an increase of 71% from the previous year.
