Startup Digest: Myntra marketplace EBITDA profits since CY23 last quarter, Subko Coffee raises $10 Mn from Nikhil Kamath, Startup funding slumps in Q1 2024 & more

E-commerce platform Meesho is set to raise fresh capital from Tiger Global and SoftBank, sources have confirmed to CNBC-TV18. The investment details remain undisclosed.

However, as per a report by Moneycontrol, the company is looking to raise $300 million. Existing and other investors, such as Peak XV Partners and Mars Growth Capital, will also participate in the funding round.

According to sources, the fundraise is aimed at shifting Meesho's domicile from Delaware to India. The move is similar to $1 billion that PhonePe paid while flipping its base from Singapore to India in January 2023 ahead of its IPO.

Subko Coffee Roasters, a speciality coffee and cocoa startup, has bagged $10 million in a fresh funding round from Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath, valuing the company at approximately $34 million post-money.

This funding round also witnessed participation from Blume Founders Fund, The Gauri Khan Family Trust and actor John Abraham among others.

The startup will use fresh capital towards enhancing the talent pool, developing tech-enabled customer experiences, bolstering product and design R&D, improving farm level infrastructure for specialty green coffee and fine cacao beans, and launching new 'ready to drink' coffee products. According to the company, Subko is also mulling a roll out of flagship experience cafés in different formats across select cities in India and globally.

Avanse Financial Services, an education-focused non-banking financial company (NBFC), has raised primary capital of Rs 1,000 crore to fund business growth.

This round of funding was led by Mubadala Investment Company (Mubadala), the Abu Dhabi-based investment company, with participation from Avendus PE Investment Advisors Private Ltd via its fund Avendus Future Leaders Fund II.

The fund infusion will enable Avanse to strengthen its position in the rapidly evolving education financing segment by focusing on creating unique customer experiences and achieving sustained profitable growth, it said.

Logistics startup JustDeliveries, has raised $1 million in a Pre-Series A funding round led by NABVENTURES Fund. Other marquee investors including FAAD Network, Anay Ventures, Caret Capital, and Mahansaria Family Office, also participated in the round.

With the infusion of fresh capital, the company aims to deepen its logistics networks across key cities including Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, NCR, and launch operations in Hyderabad. Within the next 3-4 years, JustDeliveries plans to extend its presence to 8-10 cities across India, a statement said.

"In the last 2 years, 70+ F&B companies have outsourced their logistics to JustDeliveries, thus benefiting from last-mile efficiencies and reliability of operations,” added Mansi Mahansaria, Founder, JustDeliveries.

Kaarigar Mandi, a B2B footwear startup has secured Rs 1.75 crore in seed funding round led by Kyt Ventures, witnessing participation from Upaya Social Ventures, IIMA Ventures and IIM Calcutta Innovation Park.

With the fresh capital, Kaarigar Mandi plans to grow 10x in the next two years. The firm said that funds will used towards business development and the development of a robust AI-driven technology infrastructure.

Kaarigar Mandi claims to be the supply partner of brands such as Relaxo, Liberty and BIBA and said it has grown 5X in last three years.

Indian startups saw venture capital investments slip in Q1 2024 (until March 15), with $1.6 billion raised in funding after continuous growth in the previous three quarters of 2023, as per data from Tracxn. The funding slowdown comes at a time when the Indian startup ecosystem was witnessing some signs of spring.

VC investments had inched up from $1.6 billion in Q2 2023 to $1.9 billion in Q3 2023 and $2.2 billion in Q4 2023. To be noted, these figures were much lower compared to the same period in 2021 and 2022.

The report highlighted that India ranked fourth globally despite funding slowdown, with Retail, FinTech, and Enterprise Applications being the top-performing sectors in Q1 (until March 15) 2024.

The Tech Entrepreneurs Association of Mumbai (TEAM) on Friday concluded its first-ever elections and announced an eight-member Governing Council to be co-chaired by Dream11 co-founder Harsh Jain and Haptik co-founder Aakrit Vaish for a two-year term starting April 1, 2024.

Other members of the elected Governing Council for 2024-26 are: Vishal Gondal (Co-founder & CEO, GOQii), Dhruvil Sanghvi (Founder & CEO, LogiNext), Akanksha Hazari (Founder & CEO, LoveLocal), Mayank Kumar (Co-founder & MD, upGrad), Naiyya Saggi (Co-founder, The Good Glamm Group), and Vivek Khemani (Co-founder, Quantiphi).

The elections saw the participation of 46 Mumbai-headquartered unicorn and soonicorn founders, including BillDesk, BookMyShow, Games24x7, LEAD School, Nazara Technologies, Shaadi.com, PharmEasy, Pine Labs, Purplle, Rebel Foods, The Good Glamm Group and Zepto.

The Delhi Consumer Court has pulled up e-commerce giant Amazon for "deficiency of service" and "unfair trade practices". The court directed Amazon to share the contact details of the grievance officer for a transparent grievance redressal mechanism.

The court's directive follows a plea regarding Amazon's prolonged delay in issuing a refund for a defective laptop, stretching over a staggering 17-month period. The court imposed a penalty of ₹45,000 on Amazon and a retailer for taking nearly a year and a half to issue a refund for the faulty laptop.

During the proceedings, the Consumer Court underscored Amazon's role not merely as a neutral intermediary but as an active participant in the transaction process. It highlighted Amazon's practice of accepting orders, placing them with third-party sellers, and ultimately concluding contracts, thus dismissing any notion of it being a mere facilitator.

Meta's oversight board has called on the company to end its blanket ban on the Arabic word "shaheed," or "martyr" in English, after a year-long review found the Facebook owner's approach was "overbroad" and had unnecessarily suppressed the speech of millions of users.

The board, which is funded by Meta but operates independently, said the social media giant should remove posts containing the word "shaheed" only when they are linked to clear signs of violence or if they separately break other Meta rules.

The ruling comes after years of criticism of the company's handling of content involving the Middle East, including in a 2021 study Meta itself commissioned that found its approach had an "adverse human rights impact" on Palestinians and other Arabic-speaking users of its services.

Apple, Alphabet's Google and Meta Platforms, will be investigated for potential breaches of the EU's new Digital Markets Act, European antitrust regulators said, potentially leading to hefty fines for the companies.

The European Union law, effective from March 7, aims to challenge the power of the tech giants by making it easier for people to move between competing online services like social media platforms, internet browsers and app stores. That should in turn open up space for smaller companies to compete.

Violations could result in fines of as much as 10% of the companies' global annual turnover. U.S. antitrust regulators are also challenging Big Tech over alleged anti-competitive practices in a crackdown that could even lead to companies being broken up.

Microsoft had named Pavan Davuluri as its new chief for Windows and Surface, The Verge reported, citing an internal memo.

fter Panos Panay’s surprise departure to Amazon last year, Microsoft split up the Windows and Surface groups under two different leaders. Davuluri took over the Surface silicon and devices work, with Mikhail Parakhin leading a new team focused on Windows and web experiences.

Now both Windows and Surface will be Davuluri’s responsibility, as Parakhin has “decided to explore new roles”, the report added.

Tinder-owner Match Group has named Instacart executive Laura Jones and Zillow co-founder Spencer Rascoff to its board, after talks with activist investor Elliott Investment Management to improve its performance.

Jones is the chief marketing officer at Instacart, while Rascoff has served as Zillow Group's CEO for a decade after co-founding the real estate firm in 2006.

Match disclosed for the first time that it has an information-sharing deal with Elliott, whose push for change at the dating firm follows a big win for the hedge fund at wireless tower operator Crown Castle in December.

Alibaba Group has said it was offering to buy the 36% of Cainiao it does not already own for up to $3.75 billion, abandoning plans for an initial public offering (IPO) of the logistics business in Hong Kong.

In the Chinese e-commerce giant's latest u-turn of its restructuring plan, Alibaba, which holds a stake of around 64% in Cainiao, said it was offering to acquire the remaining stock.

"Given the strategic importance of Cainiao to Alibaba and the significant long-term opportunity we see in building out a global logistics network, we believe this is an appropriate time to double down," said Alibaba Group Chairman Joe Tsai.