Manish Singh, Author at TechCrunch

Paytm secures license it needed to survive

Manish Singh — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 01:31:36 +0000

India’s Paytm has secured a vital license it needed to survive and maintain continuity of several core features of its eponymous payments app, a day before the firm’s banking unit is scheduled to cease operations because of regulatory clampdown. The National Payments Corporation of India, the firm that built the eponymous UPI rail in the […]

Reliance buys Paramount’s stake in Indian media Viacom18 for $517 million

Manish Singh — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 21:01:41 +0000

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance is buying Paramount Global’s 13% stake in Viacom18 for $517 million as Asia’s richest man broadens his entertainment business just weeks after striking a multibillion dollars deal with Disney. The new deal will increase Reliance’s stake in Viacom18, which operates dozens of TV channels as well as streaming service JioCinema, to 70.49%, […]

Teachers’ Venture Growth mints new unicorn in Indian fintech Perfios

Manish Singh — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 06:12:40 +0000

Teachers’ Venture Growth, the late-stage venture and growth investment arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, is investing $80 million in Perfios, an Indian fintech that provides real-time credit underwriting solutions to banks and other financial institutions. The new investment values Perfios at over $1 billion. Fifteen-year-old Perfios, which raised a $229 million funding round in […]

Peak XV to launch perpetual fund backed by own partners, other leaders

Manish Singh — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 10:37:02 +0000

Peak XV is creating an “evergreen” fund bankrolled by its investment partners and extended team, according to an internal memo and a source familiar with the matter. The venture firm seeks to become a significant LP in the firm’s future vehicles and to explore investment in different asset classes. The most influential venture investor in […]

Quick commerce is making fast inroads in India

Manish Singh — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 03:00:51 +0000

Even as quick commerce is slowly fading in many markets and several heavily funded startups have folded shop in the past two years, India is emerging as a striking outlier where the model — of delivering items to customers in 10 to 20 minutes — appears to be working. India’s quick commerce market has witnessed […]

Elon Musk says xAI will open source Grok this week

Manish Singh — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 09:06:25 +0000

Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI will open source Grok, its chatbot rivaling ChatGPT, this week, the entrepreneur said, days after suing OpenAI and complaining that the Microsoft-backed startup had deviated from its open source roots. xAI released Grok last year, arming it with features including access to “real-time” information and views undeterred by “politically correct” […]

Baron boosts Swiggy valuation to $12.16B, above prior private market value

Manish Singh — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 11:25:50 +0000

Baron Capital, an investor in Indian food delivery startup Swiggy, has increased the value of its stake in the Indian firm, implying a valuation of $12.16 billion, surpassing the $10.7 billion post-money valuation at which Swiggy secured funding in early 2022. New York-based Baron Capital disclosed in new fillings (PDF) that it has marked up […]

Free Fire India relaunch in limbo six months on

Manish Singh — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 04:33:31 +0000

Sea’s Garena has yet to launch its popular mobile title Free Fire in India, more than six months after announcing plans to do so, a prolonged delay that has raised concerns among entrepreneurs and investors who are closely watching Sea’s expansion strategy in the lucrative South Asian market. Garena, the gaming unit of Sea, announced […]

India’s Flipkart readies quick-commerce play

Manish Singh — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 05:51:48 +0000

The Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart is planning to enter the quick-commerce business, aimed at providing customers with the convenience of receiving their orders instantly after making their purchases, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The firm, majorly owned by Walmart, plans to make the instant-delivery service available in select locations as early as […]

OpenAI says Musk only ever contributed $45M, wanted to merge with Tesla or take control

Manish Singh — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 03:37:35 +0000

OpenAI, the most valuable AI startup, said Wednesday it intends to dismiss all claims made by Elon Musk in a recent lawsuit and suggested that the billionaire entrepreneur, who was involved in the company’s co-founding, didn’t really have that much impact on its development and success. In a blog post authored by the entire OpenAI […]

India reverses AI stance, requires government approval for model launches

Manish Singh — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 04:01:12 +0000

India has waded into global AI debate by issuing an advisory that requires “significant” tech firms to get government permission before launching new models. India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT issued the advisory to firms on Friday. The advisory — not published on public domain but a copy of which TechCrunch has reviewed — also […]

Camshaft says Byju’s unit is beneficial owner of $533M funds

Manish Singh — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 17:30:27 +0000

Camshaft disclosed in court filings this week that some $533 million it managed for Byju’s Alpha, a U.S. unit of Indian edtech group Byju’s, was transferred to another 100% and U.S.-based subsidiary of Byju’s, thereby refuting allegations that the Indian firm used the wealth manager’s services to siphon off money. In the court filings, Camshaft […]

Elon Musk sues OpenAI and Sam Altman over ‘betrayal’ of nonprofit AI mission

Manish Singh — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 10:30:12 +0000

Elon Musk has sued OpenAI, its co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, and its affiliated entities, alleging the ChatGPT makers have breached their original contractual agreements by pursuing profits instead of the nonprofit’s founding mission to develop AI that benefits humanity. Musk, a co-founder and early backer of OpenAI, claims Altman and Brockman convinced him […]

Google pulls popular Indian apps from store over fee dispute

Manish Singh — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 05:08:25 +0000

Google pulled more than a dozen popular apps from Play Store in India on Friday after warning that it will be taking actions against developers who have persistently not complied with its billing policies, escalating a three-year dispute in what is the company’s largest market by users. Google said that 10 companies in the country, […]

Reliance-Disney India media merger to control 85% of streaming, half of TV audience

Manish Singh — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 05:13:24 +0000

The merger of Indian media assets of Reliance, its portfolio Viacom18 and Disney will create an entity that captures 85% of the country’s on-demand streaming service audience and about half of the TV viewers, analysts said, posing bigger challenges to Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video, Apple, Sony and Zee. The merger, which is scheduled to complete […]

Ambani’s Reliance and Disney merge India media assets to form $8.5B joint venture

Manish Singh — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 03:55:00 +0000

Reliance, its portfolio Viacom18 and Disney are merging their media businesses in India, creating the largest media entity in the world’s most populous nation. Reliance, which will control the joint venture, directly owns 16.34% of the merged entity, which it has valued at $8.5 billion. Disney will own a 36.84% stake in the merged entity, […]

Dailyhunt in talks to acquire social network startup Koo

Manish Singh — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 02:56:36 +0000

Media startup Dailyhunt is in advanced stages of talks to acquire the Bengaluru-headquartered social network Koo, two sources familiar with the matter told me. The potential deal under discussion involves a share-swap agreement and could be finalized within weeks, the sources added, requesting anonymity as the matter is private. The deliberation follows Koo, which has […]

Shadowfax confirms $100M round to fuel instant delivery push

Manish Singh — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 09:50:00 +0000

Shadowfax, one of the largest logistics service providers to hyper-local and on-demand delivery businesses in India, has raised $100 million in a new funding round as it clocks a yearly growth of 35%. TPG NewQuest led Shadowfax’s Series E financing round, which includes some secondary transactions, the startup said on Tuesday. TechCrunch reported last year […]

Paytm Payments Bank founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma resigns from board

Manish Singh — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 14:54:38 +0000

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and majority owner of Paytm Payments Bank, has stepped down from the board of the troubled unit days after the Indian regulator signaled continuity at the financial firm Paytm. Paytm Payments Bank said Monday it was reconstituting the board of directors at the Paytm Payments Bank, an associate of Paytm, with […]

Interview Kickstart, a profitable startup, raises maiden funding to tackle tech talent crunch

Manish Singh — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 11:04:53 +0000

Interview Kickstart, a profitable startup helping tech professionals acquire career-advancing skills, has raised $10 million in its maiden funding from Blume Ventures, the companies said on Monday. The San Francisco–based startup, founded in 2014, helps engineers learn from employees of top tech companies or their alumni. Last year, 2023, was pivotal for Interview Kickstart after […]