Startup Digest: Pine Labs to acquire Setu, says report, GuardianLink.io's NFT collection of metaverse wedding & $320 mn stolen in crypto hack

All the co-owned workshops (hubs) will cover an area of around 4000 Sq.yards each, whereas spokes will expand over 2500 ~3000 sq. yards each, the company said in a statement. "There are many players that are only catering to the urban market. However, after testing waters, and getting a good response in the tier 2 market, we decided to explore it further. Hence, upon thorough analysis, we have decided to strengthen our foothold in the Eastern and Central part of the country, with 80 percent penetration in tier 2 cities itself,” said Ramana Sambu, co-founder and CBO, Automovill.

The startup claims to have registered a 20% Month-on-month growth. Automovill plans to hit 30 cities by the end of the current fiscal alone, and 40 percent of the same is intended to be company-owned and the rest will be based on partnered workshops. Automovill has already been delivering B2B services and is now gradually introducing a B2C set-up. It anticipates serving over 500 cars monthly in the Eastern region alone. The brand is currently servicing 3,000 vehicles per month and aims at reaching 1.5 lakh orders by the end of the current fiscal year.

GuardianLink.io, which offers an NFT ecosystem technology framework, has launched a metaverse wedding NFT collection on its marketplace platform, Beyondlife.Club. Via this, an Indian couple Dinesh Kshatriya and his fiance Janaganandhini Ramaswamy host their Hogwarts-themed virtual wedding in Metaverse on February 6, 2022.

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Sponsored by the crypto trading platform, CoinSwitch Kuber, the NFT collection will be an artwork featuring backgrounds and attires from the Harry Potter and cyberpunk era - in addition to the classic wedding attire featuring the bride, groom, and bride's late father, the firm said in a statement.

In addition, BeyondLife.Club has also created an NFT, themed around the movie The Matrix, in the Indian language showcasing the names of the bride and the groom.

This NFT collection comprises 12 NFTs of which 11 unique (ERC 721) NFTs are of the bride and groom’s virtual avatars, projected in traditional as well as western attire with and without the bride's late father and one NFT of the wedding invitation (ERC 1155) consisting of 50 copies.

"GuardianLink.io has been working on blockchain technology for the past few years and this wedding concept is just the beginning of a new arena in the fast-growing world of NFTs and Metaverse. This NFT launch is a testament to our commitment towards working on best-in-class technology to make our audience a part of this transformational era,” said Ramkumar Subramaniam, co-founder and CEO, GuardianLink.io.

The advertisements regulator has questioned hyperlocal delivery startup Zepto, over whether its ads in a newspaper promote rash driving by its delivery riders, said people familiar with the matter and documents Moneycontrol has seen.

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) issued a show-cause notice to Zepto, following a consumer complaint against a pamphlet ad supplied with The Times of India two weeks ago. “Isn’t it dangerous and not practical all the time? Dangerous because for achieving the time period the delivery person will take risk while riding on-road as he/she needs to reach in 10 minutes,” the unnamed complainant is quoted in the notice, which Moneycontrol has seen.

"We have received a complaint against Zepto; however, as the matter is still under process, we are unable to share more details at this stage,” an ASCI spokesperson said in response to Moneycontrol's queries. ASCI’s notice says that the 10-minute delivery ad promise could violate Chapter 3 of its code, which says ads should not “show or refer to dangerous practices or manifest a disregard for safety or encourage negligence".

Zepto told Moneycontrol that it is “committed to responsible advertising and consumer interests are always our top priority. Zepto replied to ASCI last week arguing that its dark stores-- warehouses optimised for quick delivery-- are conveniently located within 2-3 kilometres in high-density areas, due to which riders don’t ride long distances frequently, reducing road danger, a person aware of the matter said. Zepto may also amend its ads, saying that terms and conditions may apply for 10-minute delivery to be fulfilled, to avoid further legal issues, the person added.

Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal sold his personal stake in online grocery delivery firm Blinkit to New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global, Deal Street Asia reported, quoting Tiger Global's filing with Singapore's Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority. The move comes at a time when Blinkit looks to raise $500 million from the food delivery startup.

As per the report, Goyal's first investment in Blinkit was made in 2015 and assuming the share price of Blinkit's last fundraise of $67.48, Goyal is expected to have made $2.86 million through this deal. The deal happened over six months after Zomato signed up to invest $120 million in Blinkit (then Grofers) along with Tiger Global at a valuation of over a billion dollars. The company owns 9.3 percent of Blinkit where it invested $100 million. However, this deal was signed before the company got listed and announced its $1 billion war chest to invest in other startups.

Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment announced today the launch of ‘Sony Entertainment Talent Ventures India’ (SETVI), a new entertainment company focused on creating ventures for media talent in India.

This is the first cross corporation joint venture for the Sony Group in India. SETVI intends to build investment opportunities, partnerships, metaverse solutions, and more for talent, according to the press note.

Talent represented by SETVI will also benefit from potential partnerships and global opportunities across the wider Sony Group, such as Sony PlayStation and Sony Electronics, the company said in a statement. "SETVI will leverage our expertise, deep local relationships, and global reach to give talent the potential to scale, become household brands and fully realise their creative and commercial potential,” said Shridhar Subramaniam, President of Corporate Strategy and Market Development in Asia and the Middle East, Sony Music Entertainment.

Also Read: India home to over 61,000 recognised startups, Delhi takes over as startup capital: Economic Survey

Shridhar Subramaniam, Sanford Panitch, and NP Singh, managing director and chief executive officer, Sony Pictures Networks India, comprise SETVI’s board of directors, and Vijay Singh will lead the new company as CEO. Singh joins having been CEO at Fox Star Studios for over a decade from 2010 to 2020.

myTutorHub, an online tutoring platform has launched ClassInApp, a mobile application to empower schools with the right software for a virtual classroom.

This application aims to provide a smooth remote learning experience for all the students where they can interact and learn from the teachers and peers, the firm said in a statement.

The app offers live classes, digital whiteboards, presentations, videos, lecture slides and online assessments. Accessing data of fees becomes easy that are collected through various modes of payment and generate diversified reports using ClassInApp ERP software, the edtech startup added.

Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA), a platform to assess and certify teachers' competencies, connect teachers to opportunities and support their upskilling, has announced that 6,00,000 active teachers are using its platform. The growing roster of teachers has increased to 6,00,000 across India and 40,000 across the Philippines, Nigeria, Bangladesh, UAE, and the UK.

CENTA claims it has the potential to add $2 billion to the economy by providing a consistent, high-quality teacher supply. It plans to continue its rapid growth rate and has projections to be at least a 2 million teacher community in 2022.

Home interiors startup HomeLane has appointed Udit Mediratta as its chief marketing officer. With over 14 years of experience, Mediratta was associated with AB InBev for over six years. His last role was in Singapore, where he was the director of marketing and Commercial Operations in the South East Asia region.

Mediratta will lead the brand innovation and customer acquisition strategies for the company. He will report to HomeLane's co-founder & COO, Tanuj Choudhry, the company said in a statement. In his new role, Udit will also focus on HomeLane’s go-to-market strategy, brand building, lead generation to drive growth and increase customer mindshare through integrated marketing communications.

Facebook owner Meta Platforms shares plunged more than 20 percent after the social media company posted a weaker-than-expected forecast, blaming Apple's privacy changes and increased competition for users from rivals like TikTok. Facebook’s global daily active users declined from the previous quarter for the first time, to 1.929 billion from 1.930 billion, according to Reuters.

Meta said it faced hits from Apple’s privacy changes to its operating system, which have made it harder for brands to target and measure their ads on Facebook and Instagram. It also cited macroeconomic issues like supply-chain disruptions. The tech giant, which also faces pressure from platforms like TikTok and Google's YouTube, said it expected slowing revenue growth in the coming quarter due to increased competition for users' time and a shift of engagement toward such features as its short video offering Reels, which generate less revenue.

Facebook reported 2.91 billion monthly active users in the fourth quarter, showing no growth compared with the previous quarter. Meta forecast first-quarter revenue in the range of $27 billion to $29 billion. Analysts were expecting $30.15 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. The company's total revenue, the bulk of which comes from ad sales, rose to $33.67 billion in the fourth quarter from $28.07 billion a year earlier, beating analysts' estimates of $33.40 billion.

Google parent company Alphabet advanced nearer to joining peers Apple and Microsoft in the elite $2 trillion market valuation club as the search giant's shares surged more than 8% following a blowout quarterly report, Reuters reported. The last trading at about $2,975, Alphabet's stock was on track for its largest one-day percentage gain in almost two years, easing concerns around owning Big Tech following a sector-wide selloff in the past few weeks.

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Alphabet's stock market value peaked just above $2 trillion after the start of the trading session and was last at $1.97 trillion. That includes class B shares that do not trade on the stock market and are held by insiders. A close above $2 trillion would be the first-ever for the Mountain View, California-based company. Alphabet also announced a 20-to-1 stock split, which will give shareholders 19 shares for every share they hold.

A flaw in Apple's software exploited by Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group to break into iPhones in 2021 was simultaneously abused by a competing company, sources told Reuters. QuaDream, the sources said, is a smaller and lower-profile Israeli firm that also develops smartphone hacking tools intended for government clients.

The two rival businesses gained the same ability last year to remotely break into iPhones, according to the five sources, meaning that both firms could compromise Apple phones without an owner needing to open a malicious link.

That two firms employed the same sophisticated hacking technique – known as a “zero-click” – shows that phones are more vulnerable to powerful digital spying tools than the industry will admit, one expert said.

The analysts believed NSO and QuaDream's exploits were similar because they leveraged many of the same vulnerabilities hidden deep inside Apple's instant messaging platform and used a comparable approach to plant malicious software on targeted devices, according to three of the sources.

ForcedEntry is viewed as "one of the most technically sophisticated exploits" ever captured by security researchers.

So similar were the two versions of ForcedEntry that when Apple fixed the underlying flaws in September 2021 it rendered both NSO and QuaDream’s spy software ineffective, according to two people familiar with the matter.

In a written statement, an NSO spokeswoman said the company "did not cooperate" with QuaDream but that "the cyber intelligence industry continues to grow rapidly globally." Apple sued NSO Group over ForcedEntry in November, claiming that NSO had violated Apple's user terms and services agreement. The case is still in its early stages.

South Korea's telecommunications regulator wants better compliance plans from Apple and Google before finalising rules for a law banning app store operators from forcing software developers to use their payments systems, Reuters reported. South Korea passed the law, an amendment to the Telecommunication Business Act, last year. The rules, due to be drawn up by March 15 and called the enforcement ordinance, will lay out what constitutes compliance with the law.

Although the ordinance has not been finalised, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) believes that a compliance plan Apple submitted "still lacks concrete detail", a KCC official told Reuters. The KCC was in contact with Apple representatives for a more detailed compliance plan that goes beyond the general intention of allowing alternative payment systems, the official said.

As for Google's plan, the official said the KCC was aware of the concern over Google's planned policy of only reducing its service charge to developers by 4 percentage points when users choose an alternative billing system, and the regulator is waiting for additional information from Google.

"As a result of any policy, if app developers find it realistically difficult to use an alternative payment system and resort to using the dominant app store operator's payment system, it would not fit the law's purpose," the official said, adding that this stance would likely be reflected in the final ordinance.

Tesla is recalling more than 817,000 vehicles in the United States because an audible alert may not activate when a vehicle starts and the driver has not buckled the seat belt, a US auto safety regulator said.

According to a Reuters report, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that the vehicles, 2021-2022 Model S and Model X, 2017-2022 Model 3, and 2020-2022 Model Y, fail to comply with a federal motor vehicle safety standard on "Occupant Crash Protection" because the chime does not activate. Tesla will perform an over-the-air (OTA) software update to address the issue.

Tesla told NHTSA that as of January 31 it was unaware of any crashes or injuries related to the issue. Tesla said in a document filed with NHTSA, the South Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute (KATRI) on Jan. 6 brought the condition to Tesla’s attention.

Tesla said on the recalled vehicles a software error may prevent the chime from activating upon vehicle start under certain circumstances. The automaker said the issue was limited to circumstances where the chime was interrupted in the preceding drive cycle and the seat belt was not buckled subsequent to that interruption.

Tesla added the issue does not affect the audible seat belt reminder chime from activating when the vehicle exceeds 22 km/h and the driver seat belt is not detected as buckled. The condition does not impact the accuracy of the accompanying visual seat belt reminder.

Tesla said it was recalling 53,822 US vehicles with the company's Full Self-Driving (Beta) software that may allow some models to conduct "rolling stops" and not come to a complete stop at intersections posing a safety risk.

Tesla will perform an over-the-air software update that disables the "rolling stop" functionality, NHTSA said.

Decentralised finance site Wormhole said on its Telegram channel that "all funds are safe" after it was rocked by a $320 million hack, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency heist on record. Wormhole, which allows the transfer of information from one crypto network to another, said on Twitter that it was "exploited" for 120,000 units of a version of the second-largest cryptocurrency, ether.

At the time of the announcement, the market value of the tokens totalled just over $320 million. The theft was the latest to shake the fast-growing but mostly unregulated decentralised finance (DeFi) sites, which allow users to lend, borrow and save - usually in cryptocurrencies - while bypassing traditional gatekeepers of finance such as banks.

Wormhole said further that "the vulnerability has been patched" and it was working to get the network back up. A message on Wormhole's Telegram channel later said: "A fix has been deployed and all funds are safe," without giving further details.

London-based blockchain analysis firm Elliptic said that attackers were able to fraudulently create the wETH tokens, almost 94,000 of which were later transferred to the Ethereum blockchain, which powers transactions for ether, as per a Reuters report.

Elliptic added that Wormhole has offered the attacker a $10 million "bounty" to return the funds, citing messages embedded within ether transactions sent to the attacker's digital address.

Philippines lawmakers have approved legislation requiring social media users to register their legal identities and phone numbers when creating new accounts, a senator said on Thursday, in an ambitious move to thwart online abuse and misinformation.

As per Reuters, the bill is a rare push by a legislature to compel users to disclose details that would allow them to be traced, in a country notorious for online trolling, disinformation and use of anonymous social media accounts.

"It is our little contribution to fight the anonymity that provides the environment for trolls and other malicious attacks to thrive in the age of social media," said Senator Franklin Drilon, one of the authors of the bill, which was passed by the lower house and senate but still requires presidential approval.

"This new provision will prevent anyone from making anonymous accounts online so they could attack anyone endlessly and viciously." It was not immediately clear from the bill how social media companies would know if a name or number used to register an account was false. The law prescribes punishments of jail or large fines, or both, for providing false information.