Musk takes control of Twtr, fires CEO🔥; Udaan raises $120 Mn💰; Insta crosses 2 Bn users📈
Musk takes control of Twitter, fires CEO Parag Agrawal, Udaan raises $120 million, Insta crosses 2 billion users, Reels hits $3 bn, Funding Deals and more.
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Elon Musk takes control of Twitter, fires CEO Parag Agrawal👑
Elon Musk took control of Twitter and fired its top executives, US media reported late Thursday, in a deal that puts one of the top platforms for global discourse in the hands of the world's richest man.
Musk sacked chief executive Parag Agrawal, as well as the company's chief financial officer and its head of legal policy, trust and safety, the Washington Post and CNBC reported.
Agrawal went to court to hold the Tesla chief to the terms of a takeover deal he had tried to escape.
Musk tweeted on Thursday that he was buying Twitter "because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner."
Udaan raises $120 million via convertible notes, IPO delayed💰
Business-to-business ecommerce startup Udaan has raised $120 million through convertible debt notes and debt from existing shareholders and bondholders, the company’s chief financial officer Aditya Pande said in an internal email to employees.
“With this round, the total funds raised by Udaan through convertible notes and debt in the last four quarters have crossed $350 million, making it one of the largest structured instrument fundraises in the country,” the CFO wrote in his mail.
Pande said in the note that the company is planning to go public in the next 12-18 months, signalling a delay in its plans for the initial public offering (IPO).
Hot Shorts⚡
Direct-to-consumer (D2C) audio products and wearables brand Boat has closed a $60-million (about Rs 500 crore) financing round through convertible notes from existing investor Warburg Pincus and new investor Malabar Investments.
Full-stack cybersecurity platform BluSapphire Cyber Systems has raised $9.2 million in its Series A round led by Barings Private Equity India.
Business-to-business SaaS product firm Serosoft has secured Rs 30 crore led by SIDBI Venture Capital limited (SVCL).
Edtech giant Byju’s has raised a collateral-free loan of Rs 300 crore or $36.5 million from its wholly-owned subsidiary Aakash Educational Services Limited for its core business activities.
Instagram crosses 2 billion users, Reels hits $3 billion annual revenue rate📈
Reels, Instagram’s short-format videos, hit an annual revenue run rate of $3 billion, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said after the company reported a loss in revenue for the second successive quarter. Instagram is a subsidiary of Meta.
The video format was introduced by Instagram in late 2019 to counter rival TikTok’s popularity.
Reels have become Meta’s major engagement tool, with more than 140 billion plays across Instagram and Facebook, up 50% from six months ago, according to Zuckerberg.
Meta has been constantly working on changing and transforming Reels since its introduction to make them more engaging. In the latest update, Instagram allows users to watch Reels together and interact with each other.
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"Life is a balance between holding on and letting go."
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