UPI, RuPay Cards in France👏🏻, ShareChat valued at $5 Bn🤑, FB to be more like TikTok📹
UPI and RuPay Cards to be accepted in France, ShareChat’s parent firm raises $255 million, Facebook Will Soon Feel a Lot Like TikTok, Funding Deals and more.
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UPI and Rupay card services will be available in France soon👏🏻
In a major boost to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Rupay cards, the Union Communication minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has announced that UPI and Rupay card services will be available in France soon.
As per the ANI news agency, the National Payments Corporation of India's (NPCI) international arm has signed a memorandum of understanding MoU with Lyra Network of France for acceptance of UPI and Rupay in the country.
Countries like Singapore, UAE, Bhutan, and Nepal have adopted India's UPI payment system so far. The NPCI international is in talks to extend the UPI services in the US, European countries, and West Asia.
With the MoU between NPCI International and Lyra Network, Indian tourists will be able to make seamless payments during their travel to France.
ShareChat’s parent firm raises $255 million from Google, Times Group🤑
Mohalla Tech, which owns Indian-language social media network ShareChat and short-video platform Moj, has raised $255 million (Rs 1,990 crore) in a fresh round of funding from Google and the Times group.
ShareChat is now valued at $5 billion, 35% higher than in its previous round in December 2021, when it picked up $266 million from investors.
In February, Times Internet-owned MX Takatak merged with ShareChat’s Moj to create one of the largest short-video platforms in the country.
Across ShareChat, Moj and MX Takatak, Mohalla Tech caters to 400 Mn users.
Hot Shorts⚡
Ecommerce roll-up firm Goat Brand has raised $50 million in a mix of equity and debt financing. New investors Winter Capital, 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, Vivriti Capital and Oxyzo participated in the round.
Employee benefits and insurtech platform Pazcare has raised $8.2 million in a funding round led by Jafco Asia.
Deeptech startup Ecozen has raised Rs 54 crore ($7 million) of additional funding as the first tranche of its Rs 200 crore Series C round.
Institutional crypto and digital asset management platform Rooba Finance has raised $1.3 million in a seed funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures, LetsVenture, Endurance Capital, KubeVC, and other angel investors.
Cold chain solution provider Tessol has secured Rs 7.5 crore in a funding round led by Mela Ventures, along with 1crowdAngels, and 1Fund.
➡️ Check out our LinkedIn space for more on the funding deals.
Tweak algorithms to be more like TikTok, Facebook tells employees📹
Facebook plans to beat TikTok by becoming more like… TikTok.
According to an internal memo obtained by The Verge, the company’s executives have asked employees to tweak its algorithms to make it more like the Chinese short video platform.
"Rather than prioritise posts from accounts people follow, Facebook's main feed will, like TikTok, start heavily recommending posts regardless of where they come from," Meta executive in charge of Facebook, wrote in the internal note.
The company is also merging its Facebook and Messenger apps, eight years after splitting them, to mirror TikTok’s messaging functionality.
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