| June 22nd, 2022 |  | | Hello,
The first lady of India could be a Santhal tribal woman. Droupadi Murmu’s candidature for the presidential poll was announced last night by the ruling BJP-led NDA. In a separate announcement, US President Joe Biden nominated Indian-American scientist Dr Arati Prabhakar as Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. If confirmed by the Senate, she will be the first person of colour to hold the office.
Did someone say taking a go at the glass ceiling?
Keeping the pitch unprecedented, news of growth rounds and growth stage funds continues. Neobanking startup Stashfin announced its Series C round recently and US-headquartered venture capital firm Accel which has backed multiple Indian unicorns including Freshworks, Flipkart and Swiggy announced its $4 billion late-stage fund. That should be enough to keep the deals mill running.
Here are the other top stories of the day: | | |
| Funding Alert | | Stashfin raises $270M |  | | Singapore-based neobanking platform Stashfin has raised $270 million in equity and debt in Series C round led by global investors, including Uncorrelated Ventures, Fasanara Capital, and Abstract Ventures.
What else do we know ?
Existing investors including Altara Ventures, Kravis Investment Partners, and Snow Leopard also participated in the round. The new round values Stashfin between $700 million and $800 million. | | Read More | | |
| In the news | | Accel announces $4B late-stage fund | | Global venture capital firm Accel announced a new $4 billion global late-stage fund as it aims to double down on investing in companies within its portfolio and new startups.
The fund will complement its early-stage and growth-stage funds, even if it remains focused on investments at the seed to Series A stage. | | | | Mamaearth sets sights on $3B IPO in 2023 | | Mamaearth is reportedly planning to go public in 2023. The skincare unicorn is aiming to raise at least $300 million at a valuation of $3 billion.
The company plans to file draft papers for their IPO later this year. It is reportedly talking to JP Morgan Chase, JM Financial, and Kotak Mahindra Capital to help with the book-running process. | | | | Tech firms form metaverse standards body | | Meta, Microsoft, and other big tech firms have joined together to create a new metaverse standards body. W3C, which was the standards body for the earlier iterations of the internet, will also participate in the new project.
Neil Trevett, an executive at Nvidia, is chairing this newly-formed "Metaverse Standards Forum". | | |
| Funding Alert | | CredAvenue rebrands as Yubi |  | | Online debt marketplace CredAvenue, which turned unicorn earlier this year, has rebranded itself as Yubi as it gears up for international expansion.
What does this mean?
“Yubi represents the beginning of our global ambitions as we prepare to launch our first international office in UAE, successfully debuting in the MENA (the Middle East and North Africa) region,” said Founder and CEO Gaurav Kumar. | | Read More | | |
Other Startup Updates | | | -
Delhivery expands infrastructure - Delhivery has announced plans to expand its infrastructure in Bhiwandi in Greater Mumbai and Bengaluru by setting up fully-automated large integrated trucking terminals. -
Fixcraft acquires VMotive brand from Vogo - Gurugram-based car repair and service startup Fixcraft has acquired Vogo-owned automotive spare parts brand VMotive. The VMotive team will join Fixcraft as part of the deal. -
IAMAI announces formation of a venture capital committee - IAMAI has announced the formation of a venture capital committee to work on public policy consultations, stakeholder engagement, ecosystem enhancement & much more. | | Read More | | |
| What do we have for you? | | |  | | As part of the Banking on Ecosystem Thinkathon organized by Oracle and YourStory, prominent leaders from the fintech space discussed the many challenges that are emerging with regard to digital transformation, and how the industry can accelerate innovation with collaboration and co-development. | | Know more | | |  | | Microsoft and YourStory latest masterclass — Cloud-native pathways for Startups: Discovery to deployment — covered challenges faced by new customers while exploring and trying to leverage cloud-native services on Azure. The live online masterclass was conducted by Maheshkumar R, Cloud Solution Architect, Microsoft India. | | Read Here | | | | |
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