EoW probe reveals Ashneer Grover family generated backdated invoices to siphon off money from BharatPe
The invoices of recruitment firms linked to BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover’s family gave bank account numbers that were created after the date of issue, according to a preliminary report of an investigation by the Economic Offences Wing accessed by Moneycontrol.
“These invoices were provided by the vendors as well as complainant company to the investigating agency, which established that these fake invoices were created at a later stage after the opening of bank accounts of these firms," noted the status report submitted to the Delhi High Court.
"These firms were established and their bank accounts were opened only for the purpose of siphoning off funds and for causing wrongful gain to the alleged persons,” the report added.
Last year, BharatPe had filed a criminal complaint with the Economic Offences Wing on 17 counts, including embezzlement, forgery, and criminal breach of trust, which could land the Grovers in jail for up to ten years if proven guilty.
Razorpay's reverse flipping to India may cost the payments unicorn $250-300 million
Digital payments unicorn Razorpay's plans to move its parent firm to India may result in a tax payment of $250-300 million in the U.S., where it is currently domiciled, according to an Economic Times report.
The plan to merge the U.S. arm with the Indian unit at Razorpay's last valuation at $7-7.5 billion pegs the tax outgo at about $250-300 million, the report said citing sources.
In a similar case earlier this year, Walmart-owned PhonePe's investors had to cough up almost Rs 8,000 crore in taxes as the firm decided to domicile in India.
OYO to prepay part of Rs 1,620 crore debt through buyback process
Travel tech unicorn OYO is set to prepay a significant chunk of its debt amounting to Rs 1,620 crore through a buyback process.
The buyback will involve the repurchase of 30% of the outstanding Term Loan B, as per an announcement by the company on the Bloomberg terminal.
The move comes shortly after the IPO-bound startup reported its first-ever profit of Rs 16 crore in Q2FY24.
Whatfix CEO accuses Israel-based rival WalkMe of being a serial offender in the mail to staff
“We believe that our success in the marketplace has led to this litigation... This legal matter does not impact our day-to-day operations or our ability to serve our customers,” Whatfix's cofounder and CEO Khadim Batti told employees as per a Moneycontrol report.
The comment comes as the Indian SaaS company is fighting a lawsuit in the U.S. with the Israeli-origin and NASDAQ-listed WalkMe.
Softbank and Peak XV-backed Whatfix were dragged to the United States District Court in August 2023 for breach of contract of accessing customer details and for violating California's competition laws.
Slice raises $9 million in debt funding from Stride Ventures
Fintech unicorn Slice has raised $9 million in debt funding from Stride Ventures in what was its first funding round in 2023.
As per an Entrackr report, this debt round may go up to Rs 300 crore or $35 million. Founded in 2016, Slice has raised over $340 million so far and is currently valued at over $1.5 billion.
The debt infusion also comes shortly after the startup merged with North East Small Finance Bank to enter banking after facing some regulatory bottlenecks in the digital lending business.
Dehaat acquires the export business of Freshtrop Fruit
Agritech startup DeHaat has acquired a part of Freshtrop Fruit, absorbing its export network and grading, packing and precooling centres and the top leadership team, in an all-cash deal.
Founded in 1992 by Ashok Motiani and his family, Freshtrop Fruits Ltd is an exporter of grapes and other fruits like pomegranate and mango from India to supermarket chains in the UK, European Union and other countries. The company is publicly listed and is based in Ahmedabad.
This is DeHaat’s seventh acquisition deal overall and fourth in the output domain post the twin acquisitions of YCook India and FieldFresh Foods last year.
Keychain bags $18 million to build a global platform for consumer packaged goods manufacturing
New York-based Keychain has raised $18 million in a seed funding round by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Box Group, Afore Capital, SV Angel and over 20 consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry professionals.
The startup says its proprietary technology helps retailers and brands quickly identify the best manufacturing partners for consumer goods packaging. It is currently working with a network of over 10,000 manufacturers around the world.
Founded by Oisin Hanrahan and Umang Dua, Keychain is looking to streamline the $3 trillion global consumer packaging industry, which is serviced by more than ten million factories, that operate in a fragmented landscape dominated by trade shows, brokers, and manual, time-intensive vetting.
Hanrahan and Dua had earlier founded a home-services marketplace named Handy, which they sold in a nine-figure exit to the NASDAQ-listed ANGI in 2018. Prior to the acquisition, Handy had raised over $100 million and was last valued at about $360 million, as per Pitchbook.
Breathe ESG Raises $315,000 in pre-seed funding led by 100X.vc
Breathe ESG, a startup offering enterprise SaaS solutions for sustainability management has raised $315,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by 100X.VC.
Post 100X.VC pitch day, KANJ Realty Ventures and Hyderabad Angels, notable angel investors like Vipul Jain (Chairman, Kale Logistics and Partner, Hearth Ventures) Pradeep Lala (Managing Director & CEO at Embassy Services) and Prashant Naik (Managing Partner, GRICAA) invested in the company.
Founded in July 2022 by Karantaj Singh and Shaayak Chatterjee, Breathe ESG plans to use fresh funds to expand product capabilities, improve the suite of offerings, and expand into global markets, the company said in a statement.
GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY & STARTUP NEWS
Companies & VCs sign voluntary Responsible AI commitments
Over 35 venture capital firms and more than 15 artificial intelligence companies, representing hundreds of billions in capital, have signed the voluntary Responsible AI commitments, General Catalyst's Hemant Taneja announced in a tweet.
Among the leading signatories include Generative AI frontrunner Inflection AI while General Catalyst, Softbank, General Atlantic, Bain Capital and Ford Foundation were among the VCs making a "general commitment to responsible AI including internal governance".
The other commitments include appropriate transparency and documentation, risk & benefit forecasting, auditing and testing, feedback cycles and ongoing improvements.
In addition to the commitments, the group is publishing a 15-page Responsible AI Protocol, a practical how-to playbook to help investors and start-ups alike fulfil the commitments.
Alphabet pays Apple 36% of Safari search revenue, Sundar Pichai confirms
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai on Tuesday confirmed that Google pays Apple 36% of Safari search revenue, under the terms of a default search agreement that is core to the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust claims, CNBC reported.
In his second testimony on behalf of Alphabet in two weeks, Pichai was testifying in a separate lawsuit filed against Google by Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, for monopolistic practices on the Google Play Store.
Google is also battling two separate antitrust suits from the DOJ, concerning alleged anticompetitive practices.
OpenAI pauses ChatGPT Plus sign-ups amidst soaring demand
OpenAI is hitting a pause on new sign-ups, for its paid ChatGPT Plus service due to overwhelming demand, Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said in a tweet.
The company introduced new features and upgrades at its first-ever developer conference last week, allowing users to build custom versions of ChatGPT to accomplish specific tasks. The announcements triggered a rise in demand for OpenAI’s artificial intelligence tools and services.
“The surge in usage post dev day has exceeded our capacity and we want to make sure everyone has a great experience,” Altman posted on X (formerly Twitter).
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