Startup news and updates: daily roundup (December 6, 2024)

Funding news

Ranveer Singh’s SuperYou secures funding from Zerodha’s Rainmatter

Protein wafer bars maker SuperYou on Friday said it has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Nithin and Nikhil Kamath, co-founders of Zerodha-backed Rainmatter.

The funding comes after SuperYou, co-founded by Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh, launched its line of protein wafer bars and clocked in 2.5 lakh products sold within 48 hours of its launch.

The company plans to invest Rs 40-50 crore over time and aims to achieve Rs 500 crore growth within the next five years.

Other news

Infinity Learn partners with Google Cloud India to leverage AI for education

Sri Chaitanya’s Infinity Learn on Monday entered into strategic partnership with Google Cloud India to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) for education.

The hybrid learning platform will use Google’s AI stack to delivery hyper-personalised learning experiences, particularly in Tier II and III cities, helping K-12 learner’s to prepare for math, science and for competitive exams like JEE and NEET.

Under the model, AI agents will act as personal learning guides for students and identify a learner’s strengths and weaknesses to tailor their learning course. It will also offer real-time support, suggest study materials and adapt teaching methods to match the student’s pace and style.

Meesho’s Data Spotlight shines light on how Indians shop after payday

Ecommerce company Meesho on Friday posted a series of data points showing how Indians shop on its platform after they get paid their monthly salaries.

The platform found that customers shop the most at 3 PM and 7 PM with around 63 lakh orders being placed for clothes such as kurthis, t-shirts, and sarees.

Around 45% of all orders on the platform are from Tier IV areas, the findings note. Users from Delhi, West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Karnataka shopped the most on Meesho’s platform.

Swiggy Instamart adds more toys and merch with Hello Kitty

Swiggy’s Instamart, on Friday said it has introduced Hello Kitty toys and merchandise for delivery across India, marking the debut of Japanese fictional character in quick commerce space.

“With growing demand for pop culture and Kawaii collectibles in India, we are bringing Hello Kitty to Swiggy Instamart for the first time, just in time for the year-end celebrations and holidays,” said Hari Kumar G, Chief Business Officer, Swiggy Instamart.

Since introducing toys on Instamart, the platform has seen significant growth in orders, the company said. Hello Kitty products are priced between Rs 799 and Rs 999 on the platform.

Sify-built data centre for Indian Supreme Court goes live

NASDAQ-listed Sify Technologies on Monday said the data centre built for the Supreme Court went live and was inaugurated by 50th Chief Justice of India, Shri Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud on November 7th.

The smart-rack-row, concurrently maintainable data center is the latest step in a series of digitalisation measures adopted by the Supreme Court.

“This is an endorsement of our DNA in building comprehensive ICT ecosystems for more than two decades. I am elated that what started out as enabling digital transformation for different Enterprises is now being adopted by the highest echelons of the judiciary,” said Raju Vegesna, Chairman of Sify Technologies.

Also Read

Swiggy Instamart pilots new Shopping List feature

WhatsApp rolls out 'typing indicators' feature

Meta’s WhatsApp on Tuesday said it has rolled out a new typing indicator feature which is designed to show real-time engagement in chats.

The update is expected to be helpful in group chats and will allow users to quickly identify who is online and typing at any moment. The feature is already available on both iOS and Android.

Flipkart’s End of Season Sale to begin on December 7

Ecommerce giant Flipkart on Friday said its End of Season Sale (EOSS) will begin on December 7. 

The company said the week-long event will see a revamped app interface, expanded product collections, and a new immersive video forward destination called ‘Play’, among other features. 

Flipkart said amidst the enhanced focus on speed in delivery, more than 50 product categories will be available for quick delivery through Flipkart Minutes. 

The company’s last-mile delivery workforce will also have the opportunity to earn additional sources of income due to the increased scale of orders during the period. 

“With every new edition, Flipkart’s End of Season Sale becomes an even larger celebration of fashion and trends that brings joy to millions of our customers across India. Fashion enables us to express ourselves in very unique ways, and we are currently focusing on making Flipkart Fashion the chosen destination for Gen Z. This year, enhanced features are set to give existing shoppers a new reason to visit the app every day, while onboarding new customers,” said Pallavi Saxena, Senior Director, Flipkart Fashion. 

Telangana government adopts Workruit’s DEET platform 

AI-powered career and recruitment platform, Workruit, on Friday said it will now serve as exclusive technology partner to Telangana Government’s DEET (Digital Employment Exchange of Telangana) platform. 

The company will continue to work on cutting-edge solutions and advance its mission to connect job seekers with meaningful opportunities. 

“Technology can be a great equalizer, and through our collaboration with Telangana, we are making job opportunities more accessible for citizens, no matter where they live. This is just the beginning, and we are committed to bringing the DEET model to other states to drive nationwide economic progress,” said Manikanth, CEO at Workruit.

NetApp hosts the graduation of eight startups from 13th cohort

Data infrastructure company NetApp on Friday said eight startups graduated from the 13th cohort of its flagship accelerator program, the NetApp Excellerator.

The deep-tech companies include LEGO AI, Calibr, Pipeshift (formerly Xylem AI), CLIKA, BetterData, Syntonym, Enkrypt AI, and Portkey. These startups range across a wide array of fields including large language models (LLM) to edtech, and more.

With this cohort, 85 startups have now benefited from this flagship program and has enabled startups to collectively raise $380 million so far.

(This copy will be updated with the latest news throughout the day.)