Nadella invests in Groww📈, RBI's fintech dept💸, Ola cofounder's SaaS startup👨🏻‍💻

Microsoft CEO Nadella Invests In Groww, RBI to set up new fintech department, Ola Cofounder Ankit Bhati To Launch SaaS Startup, Funding Deals & more.

Jan 10, 2022

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Invests In Indian Fintech Unicorn Groww📈

Online investment platform Groww’s founder Lalit Keshre said that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has joined the company as an investor and advisor.

Groww gets Satya Nadella as investor and advisor, announces CEO

In April last year, Groww raised $83 million led by Tiger Global, making its way into the coveted unicorn club. Within the next six months, the investment platform raised another $251 million in a new round of funding, tripling its valuation to $3 billion, or about Rs 22,500 crore.

Lalit Keshre @lkeshre

Groww gets one of the world’s best CEOs as an investor and advisor. Thrilled to have @satyanadella join us in our mission to make financial services accessible in India.

Groww joined the likes of leading fintech unicorns like Razorpay and Pine Labs which grew their valuation to $7.5 billion and $3.5 billion, respectively, through successive fundraises, last year.

Founded in 2016 by former Flipkart executives Keshre, Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh and Ishan Bansal, Groww enables retail investors to access financial products and services through the web and mobile.

RBI to set up new fintech department to push innovation💱

After setting up a financial technology unit back in 2018, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it will now put together a separate fintech department in view of the sector’s rapidly changing landscape.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set up an internal fintech department to focus on the dynamically changing financial landscape in the country. As per a recent internal RBI circular, the fintech department was created on January 4, 2022.

RBI sets up fintech dept to focus on the fast-growing segment in India

"With a view to give further focus to the area and innovation in the fintech sector in keeping pace with the dynamically changing landscape, it was decided to set up a fintech department in the bank," states the circular.

Apart from giving a thrust to fintech innovation, the new department of the central bank will look into regulations as well.

The circular further states that the new department will not only promote innovation in the sector but also identify the challenges and opportunities associated with it and address them in a timely manner.

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Ola Cofounder Ankit Bhati To Launch SaaS Startup Amnic👨🏻‍💻

IPO-bound Ola’s co-founder Ankit Bhati is reportedly set to launch a new SaaS venture. Dubbed as Amnic Technologies, the startup also counts ex-Ola employees Satya Narayan Nagarajan (he was the VP of Software & AI at Ola) and Star TV head Nimish Joshi (he was the VP of Communications at Ola) as cofounders.

According to a Moneycontrol report, the SaaS venture will raise $15 Mn- $20 Mn from Sequoia Capital as part of its seed round.

Ola Cofounder Ankit Bhati To Launch SaaS Startup Amnic — Ankit Bhati

The global SaaS market was worth $225 Bn in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.5% to reach $436.9 Bn in 2025. Meanwhile, according to a Nasscom report, the Indian SaaS market crossed revenues of $3.5 Bn as of March 2020. The industry is further expected to grow 6X to be worth $13 Bn – $15 Bn by 2025.

In the last five years, the number of Indian-funded SaaS startups have doubled and the number of startups drawing Series C or later stage funding has quadrupled.

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