1947 Tech 🇮🇳: 133

Once a week newsletter: Insights on Tech, markets, startups, venture capital, and foreign investments in India

1. Google reportedly sets its eyes on Twitter-backed Indian social media startup Sharechat

This would be massive.

The acquisition of Flipkart in 2018 brought an inflection point to the Indian startup ecosystem.

The sharechat’s acquisition could bring inflection point 2.0 to the Indian startup ecosystem?

What could Google get out of Sharechat

The Indian social media platform Sharechat has built a strong base for itself in India. As a conscious decision, Sharechat isn’t going after the first adopters of the internet in India — the English-speaking audience which consumes content similar to the West. Sharechat has a presence in over 15 Indian languages.

Google reportedly sets its eyes on Twitter-backed Indian social media startup Sharechat

2. With $200 Mn round, Cars24 becomes the first unicorn from used car space

Here comes another one.

Online used car marketplace Cars24 has entered the club of unicorns with a $200 million worth Series E round led by DST Global. Existing backer Exor Seeds, Moore Strategic Ventures and Unbound also participated in the latest round.

Cars24 will join the likes of Razorpay, Unacademy, Zerodha, Postman, Nykaa, FirstCry and Pine Labs which became unicorn from India in 2020. Importantly, it has become the first firm from the used car space to be valued over $1 billion.

Cars24 becomes the first unicorn from used car space

A tweet:

Madhav Chanchani @madhavchanchani

Snack Video - which has been topping India's app store charts since TikTok ban and is owned by China's Kuaishou - is on the new ban list So are Alibaba owned Aliexpress and Dingtalk among 43 other apps

Asia News @asianewsteam

India bans 43 Chinese apps on cyber security reasons: #India #China https://t.co/msWBNzA6so

Worth your attention:

1. Indian talent today touches almost every part of Amazon’s global offerings: Amit Agarwal Link

2. UPI set to create a new record in Nov; processes 1.12 Bn volume in first 15 days Link

3. Lendingkart expands ESOP pool by adding Rs 42 ($5.8M) Cr worth stock Link

4. Recovering economy: Companies looking to hire employees they had laid off seven months ago Link

Funding:

1. India approves Reliance’s $3.4 billion deal with Future Group, brings new headache to Amazon Link

2. Edtech unicorn BYJU’s to raise $200M from BlackRock, T Rowe Price Link

3. PolicyBazaar To Raise At Least $50 Mn From Alpha Wave Incubation Link

4. Country Delight raises $25M in Series C round led by Elevation Capital, IIFL AMC Link

5. Sequoia leads Series A round ($7M) in Animall; valuation jumps 7X in 6 months Link

Thank you for reading. Please share any feedback, questions or comments with me on Twitter :)