Koo to launch in US🐤; UPI Autopay for Play Store💸; RBI chooses five banks for digital currency🏦
Koo plans to launch in the US, Google launches UPI Autopay for Play Store, RBI chooses five banks for retail digital currency, Funding Deals and more.
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Top tech news of the day and daily motivation.
Koo plans to launch in the US, its first market outside India🐤
Homegrown microblogging platform Koo is harboring global ambitions. The world is looking for an alternative to Twitter and the app is preparing to fill that void by soon launching in the US.
The company has already started building tools and technology to tweak its India product for a global audience and will shortly begin an outreach aimed at enrolling world leaders and their followers.
It is also building tools that will allow people to not only get a verified handle for free but also import their tweets and followers.
With 50 million app downloads, Koo is larger than other global microblogging platforms such as Gettr, Truth Social, Mastodon, Parler and Gab.
Google launches UPI Autopay for Play Store subscriptions💸
Google said on Tuesday it is introducing UPI Autopay as a payment option for subscription-based purchases on Google Play in India.
Introduced under UPI 2.0 by NPCI, UPI Autopay helps customers make recurring payments using any UPI app that supports the feature.
After selecting a subscription plan, users need to simply tap on the payment method in the cart, select “Pay with UPI”, and then approve the purchase using their UPI app.
Hot Shorts⚡
Content management and experience platform Contentstack has raised $80 million as part of its latest round of funding, co-led by Georgian and Insight Partners.
Dubai-based prop-tech startup Silkhaus has raised $7.75 million in a seed funding round led by Nuwa Capital, Global Founders Capital, Nordstar, Yuj Ventures, Whiteboard Capital, and VentureSouq.
Roadside assistance startup ReadyAssist has raised $5 million as part of their ongoing Pre-Series A round led by Howen International Fund, SPC.
Instant meal bowl company Yu has bagged Rs 20 crore in its Series A funding round led by independent investor Ashish Kacholia.
RBI chooses five banks for retail digital currency pilot🏦
State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and IDFC First Bank are on a shortlist of at least five lenders that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has roped into work on the retail pilot of its central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The pilot for the retail digital rupee is expected to go live soon, and more banks could be included in it.
The RBI is deliberating on whether retail CBDC (also known as CBDC-R) should be interoperable (compatible) with current digital payments systems – like QR codes and the Unified Payments Interface – or built on an altogether new framework.
At the start of November, the RBI became one of the world’s first major central banks to launch a pilot project for its own virtual currency, which involved using the wholesale digital rupee to settle transactions in government securities.
Tweet of the day🐥
Other Top Stories
◀️ Twitter performing very slow in India, says Elon Musk
📜 New Data Bill draft to allow storage in trusted nations
"Be brave, you will not see the light at the end of the tunnel, until you walk through the darkness."
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