Top startup stories of the day

Here are the top startup stories of the day.

OYO lays off around 300 employees; Claims The company is making changes to keep up with current business realities.

Hospitality unicorn and Softbank-backed OYO have laid off around 300 workers. According to sources close to the matter, the company has introduced some operational changes that are in line with the current business reality. Sources told CNBC-TV18 that OYO is streamlining some verticals and automating some of its business functions, resulting in some redundancies in a few functions. As a Financial control Reportedly, most of the workers come from the renovation and operation departments.

Tapping India’s Digital Potential: India Mobile Congress

India’s digital potential is unparalleled, says Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Mobile Congress. He added that the country has become the preferred country for the production of mobile and telecom equipment. Mukesh Ambani has called for a timely rollout of 5G.

Warburg Pincus in talks to acquire stake in BoAt Lifestyle

Private equity giant Warburg Pincus is in talks to invest in headphones and wearables brand boAt Lifestyle as the Delhi-based company looks to ride on a wave of online shopping and de-escalate operations from China amid border tensions.

Sources told Moneycontrol that Warburg could take a 40 percent stake in Imagine Marketing, which runs the boat, at a valuation of between Rs 1,500 and Rs 1,600. General Atlantic, another global private equity firm, was also interested, but Warburg could close the deal in the next few months, sources said. Warburg and Boat did not respond to requests for details. Financial controlGeneral Atlantic declined to comment.

BharatPe dethroned Google Pay to become #3 in UPI P2M.

Merchant payments company BharatPe has become the 3rd largest player in the Merchant UPI payment acceptance space. The company recorded a transaction value of 3,334 crores ($479 million) for the month of November, displacing Google Pay from the No. 3 position. The company shared that it has done 6.15 million transactions in November 2020.

BharatPe is growing the market and has doubled its market share in the UPI P2M merchant payment acceptance category since April 2020. . Last month, the volume of transactions done by BharatPay alone exceeded the UPI P2M transaction volume of JIO, Zomato, Swiggy, CRED, FlipKart, CashFree, IRCTC and MPL.

Financial assistance of the day

DealShare has raised $21 million in Series C funding led by Westbridge Capital

Ecommerce platform DealShare raises $21 million in Series C funding led by Westbridge Capital, along with Alpha Wave Incubation – led by Falcon Edge Capital, Z3Partners and existing investors Venture Fund Matrix Partners India and Omidyar Network India.

HDFC Bank invests in fintech startup Small Bag

Private lender, HDFC Bank has invested an undisclosed amount in investment startup Small Suitcases as part of its recently completed $14 million Series B funding round. Existing investors DSP Group, Sequoia Capital India and Blume Ventures participated in the round.

Desi Short Video Apps to 580 Million Users to Grow 16% in 5 Years: Redseer

According to RedSeer’s report titled ‘Short-form: Rising Amidst Cluttered Content Space’, the consumption of short video applications in the country will grow four times in terms of minutes spent and will show an overall growth of 16 percent. Users within five years. According to the reports, the largest in-house consulting firm, DailyHunt, Josh has emerged as the leader in the overall experience space with a maximum score of 56 out of 100. 38) respectively.

Every 2nd person in India uses the internet, according to a RedSeer study, with 45 percent of internet users using short form as the fastest growing content category. The report also mentions that India has the highest content consumption per user. In India, users spend about 5 hours a day on their smartphone, China spends 4.5 hours a day.

Also, in the last 3-4 years, India has seen the launch of several content apps like TikTok, Spotify, Netflix, MX, TT Player, etc., and some of these are focused on local content. Thirdly, with the increasing use of smartphones, the demand for entertainment on smartphones has become a major factor.

The report also highlights that monthly users (MAU) for short-form content have grown 9x in less than five years. Users of such content grew from 20 million users in 2016 to 180 million in 2020. However, after the TikTok ban, the market has seen a large gap, some of which have been quickly filled by new local players. 40 percent of TikTok’s market is captured by new players, with some users still reluctant to change due to the lack of quality and speed of content creation.

The number of Internet users in India is set to grow from 600 million to 970 million in the next 5 years, and the short-form market is estimated to grow 4x in terms of total time spent and reach 400-450 billion minutes per month. According to the report, 110 billion minutes.

Uber ATG sells self-driving business to Aurora for $4 billion

Uber is selling its autonomous driving unit, Uber Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), to self-driving car startup Aurora, accelerating the ride-sharing company’s goal of achieving profitability. The equity deal values ​​ATG at $4 billion, people familiar with the matter said. This marks a significant drop in value for ATG, which raised $1 billion from a consortium of investors including Toyota Motor Corp. and SoftBank Group Corp. last year at a $7.25 billion valuation.

Following the sale, Uber is investing $400 million in Aurora, valuing Aurora at $10 billion, the people added. Uber holds a 26% ownership interest in Aurora on a fully diluted basis, the company said in the filing.

China removes TripAdvisor, 104 other apps from stores in campaign

China has removed 105 apps from the country, including US travel company TripAdvisor Inc, in a new campaign to clean up sites it believes distribute content related to pornography, prostitution, gambling and violence. China’s Cyberspace Administration said in a statement on its website Tuesday that the apps violated one or more of the three cyber laws, without providing details for each app.

Australia to pay Facebook, Google news outlets for content

Australia plans to make Facebook and Google pay for its media outlets for news content, a move aimed at protecting free journalism in a world-first move that has drawn strong opposition from internet giants. Under legislation set to go to Parliament this week, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said big tech companies would have to negotiate with local publishers and broadcasters how much they pay for content that appears on their platforms. If they cannot reach an agreement, a government-appointed arbitrator will decide.

A second US judge has blocked business restrictions on Tik Tok

A second US judge granted a preliminary injunction preventing the US Commerce Department from imposing a ban on the Chinese-owned short video sharing app TikTok.

A U.S. District Judge in Washington filed the lawsuit against TikTok owner ByteDance, more than a month after U.S. District Judge Wendy Bittlestone in Pennsylvania blocked similar restrictions on Nov. 12 in a lawsuit brought by some TikTok users. A U.S. district judge on Sept. 27 blocked the Commerce Department from making Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google App Store available for download by new users.