Siga OT Solutions, an Israeli cybersecurity startup that helps organizations secure their operations by monitoring the raw electric signals of critical industrial assets, has raised $8.1 million in Series B funding. Siga’s SigaGuard says its technology, used by Israel’s critical water facilities and the New York Power Authority, is unique in that rather than monitoring […]
India’s UpGrad enters unicorn club with $185 million fundraise
UpGrad, a Bangalore-based startup that specializes in higher education and upskilling courses, hit a valuation of $1.2 billion with a $185 million funding round Monday as global investors plow record capital into firms in the world’s second largest internet market. Singapore’s Temasek led the financing round while the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation and IIFL participated. […]
China roundup: Games are opium, algorithms need scrutiny
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch’s China roundup, a digest of recent events shaping the Chinese tech landscape and what they mean to people in the rest of the world. The question for the tech news cycle in China these days has become: Who is Beijing’s next target? Regulatory clampdowns are common in China’s tech industry […]
India’s Vedantu not in talks to sell to Byju’s, top exec says
Indian online learning platform Vedantu is not engaging to sell the firm to edtech giant Byju’s, a top executive said on Friday. A report by Indian news outlet Entrackr said early Friday that Byju’s had offered $700 million to $800 million to acquire Bangalore-based Vedantu, which counts Accel and GGV Capital among its investors. In a […]
India’s Supreme Court rules in favor of Amazon to stall $3.4B Future and Reliance deal
India’s apex court on Friday ruled in favor of Amazon to stall the sale of Future Group to Reliance Industries in a major victory for the American e-commerce giant in the key overseas market — and a blow to the nation’s richest man Mukesh Ambani. The Indian Supreme Court said the order by a Singapore […]
Nubank co-leads $45 million investment in Indian neobank Jupiter
Industry veteran Jitendra Gupta’s neobank for consumers in India has raised $45 million in a new financing round as the Bangalore and Mumbai-based startup gears up for Jupiter’s public launch in about a month. The new financing round, a Series B, was co-led by Brazil-based Nubank, Global Founders Capital, Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners. Mirae Assets […]
WhiteHat Jr founder departs a year after selling to Byju’s
Karan Bajaj, the founder and chief executive of WhiteHat Jr, is leaving the firm a year after selling the startup for $300 million to Indian edtech giant Byju’s. In an email to employees on Wednesday, Bajaj and Byju’s founder and chief executive Byju Raveendran said the departure follows a “mutually decided” decision made at the […]
India’s BharatPe valued at $2.85 billion in Tiger Global-led $370 million funding
Indian fintech startup BharatPe has raised $370 million in a new round of financing as it looks to aggressively scale its business in the next two years. It’s the nineteenth Indian startup to become a unicorn this year (up from 11 last year) as several high-profile global investors double down in the South Asian market. […]
Kenya’s Wapi Pay raises $2.2M pre-seed for cross-border payments between Africa and Asia
According to the World Bank, it is more expensive to send money to sub-Saharan African than to any region in the world. It is also the most expensive region to send money from. In Q1 2020, people spent an average of 8.9% to send money to the region, much higher than the global average of […]
India’s Infra.Market valued at $2.5B in Tiger Global-led $125M funding
Infra.Market, an Indian startup that is helping construction and real estate companies in the world’s second-most populated nation procure materials and handle logistics for their projects, said on Tuesday it has raised its third financing round in the past nine months. Tiger Global, which led the startup’s Series C round in February this year, has […]