Startup Digest: PeopleStrong sells subsidiary Wheebox, E-comm festive sales to begin from Oct first week & more

HRtech company PeopleStrong has sold its assessment and remote proctoring business, Wheebox, a non-profit educational research and measurement firm ETS.

The deal was led by ETS Strategic Capital, the private equity investment and merger and acquisition execution arm for ETS, its subsidiaries and its partners. The acquired business will continue to operate independently as a majority-owned subsidiary of ETS, a statement said.

“To keep up with the pace of business transformation it is important to have a skilled workforce that is ready to work. The partnership between Wheebox and ETS is set to empower organizations at scale with their comprehensive content and assessment solutions,” said Pankaj Bansal, Co-Founder and Group CEO, PeopleStrong.

Licious losses in FY23 has narrowed to Rs 525.3 crore, down 38 percent from Rs 851.8 crore FY22. This comes as the firm’s revenues continues to remain flat.

According to data from Tofler, the online meat delivery startup clocked an operating revenue of Rs 746.3 crore, which is less half of the Rs 1,500 crore topline the meat delivery startup had projected for itself, according to regulatory filings sourced via Tofler.

The revenue that the company clocked in FY23 represented a mere 9 percent growth from FY22 when Licious generated an operating revenue of Rs 682.1 crore.

Linen management firm Quick Smart Wash has raised $5.15 million in a fresh funding round led by Japan-based Elan Corporation. The company is planning to raise $10 million in its Series C funding round.

The funds raised will help the firm expand its capacity from the existing 35 Tons per day (processing 100,000/- clothes every day) to almost 55 Tons KG per day (processing 165,000 pieces every day) within this financial year.

QSW is aiming to increase its revenue by almost 2.5X – 3X in the next 24 months.  The company also has a plan to launch a hassle-free Inventory Management System thus digitizing the entire ecosystem of inventory management.

Amazon has announced that the 'Amazon Great Indian Festival’ (GIF) will start from October 8, with 24 hours of early access for Prime members. Customers will also get early access to more than 25,000 products till October 6 through Kick Starter Deals.

The Great Indian Festival will feature the latest smartphones starting from Rs 5,699 with 5G mobiles starting from Rs 8,999, electronics & accessories starting from Rs 99, up to 65 percent off on appliances, up to 60 percent off on TVs, up to 60 percent off on daily need items, up to 18 months no cost EMI on top mobiles, TVs, appliances, laptops, electronics, and more, the company said.

E-commerce platform focussed on Bharat market Snapdeal will launch first sale of the festive season, "Toofani Sale - Festive Dhamaka", starting from October 8 to 15.  During the sale period, shoppers can expect to enjoy remarkable discounts ranging up to a whopping 90 percent, including 50 percent to 90 percent Off on new deals on an extensive range of products across categories. This festive season, fashion and beauty will take center stage with 50000+ styles & top brands, the firm said.

Another e-commerce unicorn Meesho has announced its festive 'Meesho Mega Blockbuster Sale' beginning from October 6. The company said it will continue to boost accessibility, affordability, selection, and experience for its valued customers. With over 14 lakh sellers and 12 crore product listings across 30 categories, Meesho aims to ensure that customers across India have a plethora of affordable options to choose from this festive season.

DroneAcharya Aerial Innovations, a data-driven company, has received a $1.26 million contract to provide comprehensive drone sales, service, and software development solutions to Qatar’s Oil and Gas sector.

The order has been placed by Triconix Industrial Solutions QFZ LLC, a certified IMS (Integrated Management System) company, based in Qatar, for an end user in the Oil and Gas sector.

“The contract encompasses a wide range of services, including the sale of state-of-the-art surveying drones with multiple payload capacity, tailored to the specific needs of the Oil and Gas sector,” the firm said.

India is home to over 32 million pets, and the Indian pet healthcare industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.17 percent, with the potential to reach up to Rs 7000 crore, according to a report by Supertails, a tech-enabled pet-care startup.

However, the study suggests that the number of companion veterinarians remains significantly low, with just one vet for every 5,000 pets. The survey garnered responses from over 400 pet parents, revealing that 50 percent of Indian pet parents are inclined towards online vet consultations due to their convenience and accessibility.

Around 38 percent of Indian pet parents expressed dissatisfaction with current veterinary consultations, seeking alternative choices to provide better care for their pets. At present, only 16 percent of pet parents in India avail of online veterinary consultations, but this number is expected to rise as 51 percent of pet parents in Tier I cities and 33 per cent in Tier II and III cities expressed interest in online consultations, the report added.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is expected to testify on Monday as a witness for the U.S. Justice Department, according to a filing on the docket of its once-in-a generation court fight against Alphabet's Google.

The government is likely to ask Nadella about Microsoft's efforts to expand the reach of Edge and Bing, its browser and search engine, and the obstacles posed by Google's dominance.

Google will likely argue that the better quality of its products are the reason for its success rather than illegal behavior.

Apple staff met with Chinese officials in recent months to discuss concerns over new rules that will restrict the U.S. tech giant from offering many foreign apps currently available on its app store in the country, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The officials told Apple that it must strictly implement the rules which ban unregistered foreign apps, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

China's cyberspace regulator on Wednesday released names of the first batch of mobile app stores that have completed filing business details, signalling it has begun enforcing the new rules, but Apple's App Store was missing from the list.

Apple has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down an order requiring changes to its App Store rules stemming from an antitrust case brought by "Fortnite" owner Epic Games.

The iPhone maker has been in a legal battle with Epic since 2020, when the gaming firm alleged that Apple's requirement that developers distribute software through its App Store, where Apple charges up to 30 percent commissions on in-app payments on iPhones and other devices, violated U.S. antitrust rules.

Epic lost on those claims at trial in 2021, but a U.S. District Court judge ruled that Apple's practice of banning software developers from telling customers about alternative payment methods violated a California unfair competition law.

Meta Platforms used public Facebook and Instagram posts to train parts of its new Meta AI virtual assistant, but excluded private posts shared only with family and friends in an effort to respect consumers' privacy, the company's top policy executive told Reuters in an interview.

Meta also did not use private chats on its messaging services as training data for the model and took steps to filter private details from public datasets used for training, said Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg, speaking on the sidelines of the company's annual Connect conference this week.

The companies are weighing how to handle the private or copyrighted materials vacuumed up in that process that their AI systems may reproduce, while facing lawsuits from authors accusing them of infringing copyrights.

Sony Group is increasing its focus on the virtual production business where it is seeing market-beating growth, a company executive said, riding on the strength of the Japanese entertainment conglomerate's technology.

The business, which offers virtual production facilities to filmmakers and broadcasters, involves using a wall of light-emitting diode (LED) panels displaying images - a science-fiction landscape or a downtown cityscape - that are integrated into the scene as it is shot.

An alternative to green screens, where digital effects are added at a later stage, advantages of the system include more realistic reflections created by light from the panels and greater immersion for actors on set.