Paytm's loan biz rise 374%💰; Shikhar Dhawan's $75 Mn sports tech fund🏏; Musk dissolves Twitter's Trust and Safety Council⚖️

Paytm's loan disbursals rise 374% YoY, Shikhar Dhawan announces $75 Mn sports tech fund, Musk dissolves Twitter's Trust and Safety Council, Funding Deals and more.

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Dec 13, 2022

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Paytm's loan disbursals rise 374% YoY to Rs 6,292 crore in Oct-Nov period💰

Vijay Shekhar Sharma-backed Paytm touched a new milestone in offline payment leadership with more than 5.5 million merchants now paying subscriptions for payment devices by end of November month.

The fintech sustained growth in payments and loan distributions. Its loan disbursals came in at an annualized run rate of ₹39,000 crores ($4.8 billion) in November.

The digital payments company’s monthly update comes a day ahead of its board meeting on Tuesday, where the board will consider Paytm’s first-ever share buyback.

Paytm said that the total merchant GMV processed through its platform for the two months ended November 2022 aggregated to Rs 2.28 lakh crore ($28 billion). The company had said last month that its GMV for October was Rs 1.18 lakh crore ($14 billion).

Shikhar Dhawan announces $75 million global investment sports tech fund🏏

Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan has become the first Asian sportsperson to launch a venture capital fund that will focus on backing sports-related startups.

"I am elated to start new innings and embark on this journey in the world of venture capital," Dhawan said in a release.

With a target corpus of $75 million, with a greenshoe option of $25 million, the fund seeks to invest in startups across the spectrum of sports, including gaming, e-sports and Web3.

Named Da One Global Ventures (DOGV), it is targeting deployment in Q1 2023-24, Dhawan said in a statement.

Angel investor network — FAAD — gets SEBI approval for its Rs 300 crore Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) to back early-stage startups.
Seed-stage fund Java Capital, which has backed firms including aerospace startup Agnikul Cosmos and fintech firm BharatX, has launched its first fund with a corpus of Rs 75 crore (about $9 million).
Contlo, a Delaware & Bengaluru-based customer data and marketing platform for D2C brands, has raised $3.5 million in its seed funding round.
Kae Capital led the round with participation from Better Capital and Titan Capital.
In-Med Prognostics, an AI-based image processing platform for healthcare, has raised $2.13 million in a funding round led by Exxora.

Funding Deals 💰

Elon Musk dissolves Twitter's Trust and Safety Council⚖️

Elon Musk's Twitter has dissolved its Trust and Safety Council, the advisory group of nearly 100 independent civil, human rights and other organizations.

The council was an advisory group of nearly 100 independent civil, human rights and other organizations that the company formed in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm and other problems on the platform.

But Twitter informed the group via email that it was disbanding shortly before the meeting was to take place on Monday, according to multiple members.

The council members, who provided to the Associated Press and other outlets images of the email from Twitter, spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fears of retaliation.