Homegrown food delivery startup Zomato's board on Friday approved the acquisition of quick commerce company Blinkit, formerly known as Grofers, for ₹4,447 crore in an all-stock deal. Prior to the acquisition, Zomato held a more than 9% stake in the startup. Notably, Blinkit became a unicorn after Zomato invested $100 million last year at a valuation of over $1 billion.

Ola has confirmed that it has shut down its quick commerce business, Ola Dash, after "reassessing its priorities". The company is also reorienting its used cars business, Ola Cars, to focus on its electric vehicle unit. Notably, Ola had launched its used cars business less than a year ago. Ola Cars' CEO Arun Sirdeshmukh had quit the company in May.

A fire broke out at Okinawa's electric scooter showroom in Mangaluru due to an electrical short circuit on Friday. As per a report, Okinawa Autotech said that it is in touch with the dealership and extending all necessary support. Earlier, an Okinawa Autotech dealership in Chennai was burnt down to ashes, reportedly due to a short-circuit at the outlet.

Cryptocurrency exchange WazirX is cutting down on all its non-critical costs amid plummeting crypto prices. "We are hiring only critical hires, we aren't spending money at all. It's literally crypto winter here," the company's Vice President Rajagopal Menon told Bloomberg. 'Crypto winter' refers to a phase when crypto prices decline and remain low for an extended period.

The world's richest man Elon Musk was inspired to start his spacecraft manufacturing company SpaceX after a Russian rocket designer spat on his shoe, former Deputy Administrator of NASA, Lori Garver, claimed in her new book. "This act so completely offended Elon that he decided...he would start his own rocket company to compete with them," Garver wrote in her book.

PM Narendra Modi during his 'Mann Ki Baat' address on Sunday said people hardly thought of startups in the space sector in India, however, the number of such startups has crossed 100 today. He went on to mention a few startups such as Agnikul, Skyroot, Dhruva Space and Dignatara and what they are doing in this arena.

Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal, on being asked about his thoughts on rival edtech startup PhysicsWallah, said its Founder Alakh Pandey is a "really good guy". He added, "I like him. Except the fact that he made his funding announcement about our offer which he didn't take." Munjal was referring to reports that Pandey refused ₹40-75 crore offer to join Unacademy.

Edtech unicorn Vedantu's net loss quadrupled to ₹604.3 crore in FY21, as compared to the ₹150.1 crore it reported in FY20, the firm's filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs showed. Vedantu's consolidated revenue, however, rose to nearly ₹135 crore in FY21. It reported a fourfold increase in expenses to ₹744 crore for FY21 from ₹186 crore a year earlier.

Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath has said his brother and Zerodha Co-founder Nikhil Kamath's stock trading profits helped them build Zerodha without VCs initially. Nithin also discussed why he has stopped trading stocks actively, adding, "Zerodha is by far the biggest trade of my life." "When we started, idea was he would trade and I attempt to build Zerodha," Nithin said.

Amid the backlash that Ola has been receiving over recent electric scooter fire incidents, CEO Bhavish Aggarwal on Thursday said "EV fires will happen". Sharing a clip of a Tata Nexon EV which caught fire in Mumbai, he added, "Happens in all global products...EV fires are much less frequent than ICE fires." He also tagged an auto journalist.

Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal in response to Autocar India Editor Hormazd Sorabjee saying firms should aim to reduce fire risk as much as possible in both ICE and EV, said, "Fully agree." "Lithium [is] a tricky material and has fire risks," Sorabjee had said. Aggarwal had earlier responded to a Tata Nexon EV catching fire, saying, "EV fires will happen."

Statiq, an Electric Vehicle (EV) charging network announced that it raised $25.7 million in its Series A funding round led by Shell Ventures. The firm will use the capital to invest in product engineering and network infrastructure. Akshit Bansal, Co-founder and CEO, Statiq, said, "Shell and Statiq share a vision of actively driving the transformation towards sustainable modes of transport."

WayCool, an agritech startup, has raised $25 million through equity led by 57 Stars. The company is raising $40 million from 57 Stars and other existing investors, and this investment is part of that with the remaining being raised as debt. Founded in 2015, WayCool is a platform which aims to deliver fresh produce to consumers while positively impacting farmers.

Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India's accelerator and incubation programme Surge has increased its seed-level funding range investments to $3 million. The maximum investment ceiling was $2 million. "Raising the ceiling gives early-stage founders the runway and time they need to find product-market fit and build a strong team before raising a Series A," Sequoia said in a blog post.

IPO-bound merchant commerce platform Pine Labs has acquired fintech infrastructure company Setu for $70-75 million. Addressing the media, Setu's co-founders said that they will retain the brand identity and 90-100 workforce while continuing to lead the company. Setu offers Application Programme Interface (APIs) across four categories for software applications to interact with each other.

Digital payments unicorn PhonePe reported a 2.4% YoY drop in its net loss in FY21 to ₹1,728 crore against an 85% YoY rise in revenue from operations to ₹690 crore, according to data accessed by business intelligence firm Tofler. PhonePe halved its advertising and promotional expenses to ₹535 crore. It currently holds a market share of 47% in monthly volumes.

Mumbai-based financial research and analytics startup Decimal Point Analytics raised $4.7 million from an unnamed company. The capital will help the company create a technology platform to ease client operations. Decimal Point Analytics CEO Shailesh Dhuri said, "With the investments, we are looking to expand our services in risk management, catastrophe modelling, actuarial services and others."

HouseEazy, a Delhi-based proptech firm, has raised $3,75,000 in a pre-seed round. The round saw capital being raised from investors such as Deep Bajaj (Co-founder at Sirona Hygiene) and Neeraj Jindal (Director at Safex). Tarun Sainani, Co-founder, HouseEazy said, "We offer a super-quick, smooth, and hassle-free transaction for both sellers and buyers across the country."

In a meeting arranged by the Digital Lenders Association of India, fintech firms have sought a six-month extension for RBI's recent mandate on PPI lending. Earlier, RBI barred non-bank wallets and pre-paid cards from offering credit lines on fintech platforms. The DLAI said it hopes to work with the RBI to safeguard the needs of all existing fintech customers.

New Delhi-based tea chain startup Chaayos has raised $53 million in its Series C round led by Alpha Wave Ventures. Other investors who participated in the round include Elevation Capital, Tiger Global Management and Think Investments. At present, Chaayos runs 190 stores across six cities and reportedly plans to add 100 more by 2022-end.

Silver jewellery start-up GIVA has just closed its Series B funding round led by Aditya Birla Ventures and A91 Partners, along with Sixth Sense Ventures. The raised amount was not disclosed, but the capital will help the company increase its digital and physical presence. Founded in 2019, GIVA offers 925 hallmark silver jewellery.

Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath took to Twitter to reveal that he does not have term insurance. "I have savings set aside to cover my dependents, which I cannot touch. This was possible only because I got supremely lucky, otherwise, almost everyone needs a term plan to ensure the dependents are protected," he added.

Tesla-rival Nikola's billionaire Founder Trevor Milton, who is already facing fraud charges, is facing a new charge related to buying a Utah ranch, a purchase he paid for in part with an option to buy Nikola stock. As per the complaint, Milton misrepresented the state of Nikola's business to convince the seller to accept an option to buy Nikola stock.

Re-commerce marketplace Cashify has raised $90 million in Series E funding round. The round was led by NewQuest Capital Partners and Prosus and also saw participation from existing investors Bessemer, Blume Ventures, Olympus Capital and Paramark Ventures. On Cashify, old phones can be sold and refurbished phones can be purchased. The funding will help the firm expand into new markets.