Credit: Giphy
Also in this letter:
■ Global crypto firms set to launch or expand in India in 2022
■ Meesho hires former Disney+Hotstar exec for monetisation
■ Nykaa’s Adwaita Nayar criticises male-dominated VC
CommerceIQ turns unicorn in $115 million funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund
CommerceIQ CEO Guru Hariharan
CommerceIQ, which offers software to brands that helps them sell better on ecommerce platforms, said it has raised $115 million in a funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund, valuing it at over $1 billion. This makes CommerceIQ the 12th Indian startup unicorn of 2022.
Insight Partners, Trinity Ventures, Shasta Ventures, and Madrona Venture Group also participated in the round.
The latest investment will be used to expand CommerceIQ’s business in India and around the world, add more platforms, and develop more tools and products. The company currently operates in the US, Canada, Europe and India.
What does CommerceIQ do? Brands hire dedicated executives to handle ecommerce platforms to manage sales and advertisements, but even the best of experts now require the help of software to manage ecommerce businesses, said Prasun Kumar, VP of engineering and head of India operations.
“There is no human relationship between brands and Amazon. It is algorithms and machines that make decisions,” he said. “Their job is to build products for the masses. They are not tech companies,” he added, which is where CommerceIQ’s software solution comes in.
Other Done Deals
■ Electric vehicle maker Ola Electric said that it has made a strategic investment in Israeli battery technology company StoreDot. The company said StoreDot is a “pioneer in batteries with extreme fast charging technology”. As part of the investment, Ola Electric will have access to the company’s battery technology and exclusive rights to manufacture batteries using the technology in India.
■ Bizongo, a business-to-business (B2B) platform for customised goods, said it has acquired Mumbai-based internet-of-things (IoT) startup Clean Slate Technologies for an undisclosed amount. Clean Slate’s IoT technology helps improve efficiency at factories.
■ Digital payments major PhonePe has acquired GigIndia, a marketplace for gig workers, to strengthen its offerings for corporate and enterprise partners, the company said on Monday. GigIndia will integrate with PhonePe as a part of the deal.
■ Tata Consultancy Services said it has won a deal from New Zealand-based real estate development company Fletcher Building to build a flexible, Google cloud-based enterprise platform to support long-term growth and innovation.
Global crypto firms set to launch or expand in India in 2022
Global crypto players are set to launch or expand operations in India this year.
Driving the news: Nasdaq-listed Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is hiring for multiple senior roles, including in business and policy.
- FTX, a US-based cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, is looking to expand its user base in India.
- Other global players are also eyeing the Indian market even though the government is yet to provide clear rules for the nascent industry.
Between the lines: According to experts we spoke to, India’s crypto space has so far been dominated by local players and the entry and expansion of international players signal a maturing ecosystem.
Details: Coinbase is hiring for the position of managing director, India and South Asia, to drive business growth in the region, “with an emphasis on identifying and executing on opportunities to move the needle on users and revenue”, according to a job posting on the professional networking platform LinkedIn.
It also has a live job posting for a director for international policy in India to “interface for all government relationships”.
While Coinbase began recruiting in India last year, it is now looking to recruit for roles to expand its user base and revenue and build policy muscle in the region.
FTX, which was valued at $32 billion after it raised $400 million in January, is also recruiting for a marketing role to build its business in India, according to a posting on a crypto job portal.
Investments will continue: Web3 (that is, blockchain-based) companies in India raised more than $500 million in 2021 and this year the inflow looks set to increase. Coinbase’s investment arm Coinbase Ventures, which has backed crypto selling platforms CoinSwitch Kuber and CoinDCX, is also looking to intensify dealmaking in the region, according to a source familiar with its plans.
Meesho hires former Disney+ Hotstar exec to lead monetisation efforts
Ecommerce firm Meesho said it has hired former Disney+Hotstar executive Harsh Chaudhary as its chief monetisation officer in an effort to bulk up its revenue.
Tell me more: Chaudhary will lead the team that will look to bulk up revenue generation from Meesho’s various business units, the company said. He will be responsible for designing and executing the blueprint for monetising Meesho’s business model.
- He has also held leadership positions at ecommerce platform Myntra and management consulting firm Mckinsey & Company.
- In his previous role, Chaudhary was leading teams across growth partnerships, strategy and analytics and helped build the video subscription model at Disney+Hotstar.
Business model: Meesho operates a zero-commission model wherein it does not charge any commission from vendors who sell on its platform, making it attractive for sellers. Ecommerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart are known to charge commissions.
Nykaa’s Adwaita Nayar criticises male-dominated VC
Nykaa management (from left) Falguni Nayar, AdwaitaNayar and Anchit Nayar
Venture capital firms that do not have women in decision-making positions find it difficult to understand a women-centric business, a top official of beauty and wellness e-commerce platform Nykaa said.
Nykaa Fashion CEO Adwaita Nayar said at a FICCI event that the founders of her company approached several investors but were rejected. She put this down to the lack of women in key positions at many VC firms.
Quote: “We must have spoken to over a 100 investors in the early days. All of them said no, we are not interested. The same investors who now are super interested. I think a large part of the problem is that a lot of these venture capital firms don’t have women in investment positions. If you don’t have women making decisions on the other side then you don’t really understand women-centric business,” Nayar said.
Australia to make Big Tech hand over misinformation data
Australia’s media regulator will be able to force internet companies to provide internal data about how they have handled misinformation and disinformation, the latest measure by the country’s government to crack down on Big Tech.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will also be able to enforce an internet industry code on uncooperative platforms, the federal government said on Monday, joining governments around the world seeking to reduce the spread of harmful falsehoods online.
Rising concerns over misinformation: The planned laws are a response to an ACMA report that found four-fifths of Australian adults had experienced misinformation about Covid-19 and 76% thought online platforms should do more to cut the amount of false and misleading content shared online.
The laws broadly align with efforts by Europe to curb damaging online content, which are due to take effect by the end of 2022, although the European Union has said it wants even tougher measures to stop disinformation given some claims by Russian state-owned media during the invasion of Ukraine.
Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Arun Padmanabhan in New Delhi and Zaheer Merchant in Mumbai. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.
