400 crypto ads violated⚠️, Strong growth for Prosus in India💰, Gaming firms to leverage Web3🎮

Over 400 crypto ads violated ASCI guidelines, Prosus reports strong growth in India, Gaming companies plan to leverage Web3, Funding Deals and more.

Jun 28, 2022

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Over 400 crypto ads violated ASCI guidelines in five months🙀

More than 400 crypto ads on social media violated the Advertising Standards Council of India’s (ASCI) guidelines in the first five months of 2022, the ad body has said.

In February, ASCI issued guidelines for promoting crypto assets and crypto exchanges. The rules kicked in on April 1.

Of the 453 complaints ASCI took up between January and May, 419 violated a mix of crypto and influencer guidelines, with the majority of the complaints involving ads by social media influencers.

ASCI is a self-regulatory body, and its guidelines are not legally binding. In case of a breach, it publishes the names of violators and escalates these cases to the relevant government regulator.

Swiggy, Byju’s, Pay U drive ‘strong growth’ for Prosus in India💰

Prosus NV, the Dutch-listed arm of Naspers, said it has seen strong growth in its Indian portfolio, while announcing its results for the financial year 2021-2022 (FY22).

It said Swiggy contributed to $212 million of its almost $3 billion food tech revenues.

While Prosus remains bullish on quick commerce, it also said its overall revenues from edtech grew to $425 million in FY22 on account of increased demand for online learning among its portfolio entities.

The global internet group also operates its fintech arm PayU in India. It said PayU India revenues stood at $304 million in FY22, driven by merchant diversification, Prosus said.

Proptech startup PropShare has secured Rs 367 crore ($47 million) in funding led by WestBridge Capital, with participation from existing investors Pravega Ventures.
Solv, a marketplace for small businesses, has raised $40 million in a round of funding led by Japan-headquartered SBI Holdings, with participation from SC Ventures.
Electric vehicle (EV) battery swapping startup Battery Smart has raised $25 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global, with participation from Blume Ventures and Orios Ventures.
Business-to-Business (B2B) lending platform Progcap has raised $40 million in an extension of its Series C funding round. Existing backers Creation Investments, Tiger Global Management and Sequoia Capital led the round, with Google coming on as a new investor.

➡️ Check out our LinkedIn space for more on the funding deals.

Indian gaming companies plan to leverage Web3, play-to-earn🎮

Indian game publishers are looking to leverage the metaverse and play-to-earn (p2e) elements of Web3, influenced by blockchain-based games such as The Sandbox in the US and Axie Infinity in Southeast Asian nations.

In these games, players can own digital characters and virtual digital assets like the land, fire and wood in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or game-based tokens, industry executives and experts said. They can buy or sell these tokens inside the game’s universe using in-game cryptocurrency, which can be exchanged for cash later in the secondary market.

The time spent or the gamers’ accomplishments are directly proportional to the cryptocurrency that they earn.

According to a report by BCG and Sequoia Capital, India’s gaming market is worth $1.5 billion, or around 1% of the global pie, but is expected to more than triple in size to $5 billion by 2025.