Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI which created ChatGPT, said that he "failed pretty hard" at his first startup and "it sucked". The 37-year-old tweeted, "I wish someone told me during the first one...that no one else thinks about your failures as much as you do." Altman co-founded a location-based social networking app called Loopt at the age of 19.

Binance has announced that WazirX can no longer use its wallet services after the crypto exchange failed to "retract false public statements" over its ownership. "Since Zanmai (WazirX operator) has refused to clarify their misleading statements, Zanmai has till 3 February...to remove...funds," Binance said. The dispute started when Binance stated last year that it didn't own any equity in WazirX.

Infosys Co-founder NR Narayana Murthy urged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to bring back the old regime which allowed non-resident Indians (NRIs) to stay in India for a maximum of 182 days a year, instead of 120 days at present. Murthy said that NRIs add value to the country, "do not ask for anything in return" and positively impact Indian startups.

Paytm reported its first-ever operating profit in the quarter-ended December 2022, three quarters ahead of its target. The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA), without accounting for employee stock option costs, stood at ₹31 crore for the quarter. Meanwhile, Paytm's loss narrowed to ₹392 crore as revenue from operations surged to ₹2,062 crore.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a Twitter post said that "generative AI" is a "dumb term" and he hopes "it doesn't stick". He added, "'GenAI' is obviously even worse." OpenAI is the company behind the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, which has been regarded as an example of generative artificial intelligence that can generate new content based on prompts.

Shark Tank India judge Anupam Mittal took to Twitter and said 'Generative AI' is "the latest term to make it into every pitch deck". "Early signs of the beginning of the next bubble," the Shaadi.com Founder further wrote. His statement comes as a study by UBS said OpenAI's viral AI chatbot ChatGPT has become the fastest-growing consumer application in history.

Crypto exchange WazirX on Friday said it has started transferring funds held with Binance to other wallets. "Users can continue to trade, deposit & withdraw funds as usual. Your funds are safe with us," it said. This comes after Binance said it's ending wallet services to WazirX over the exchange's "misleading claims related to Binance's alleged role" in operating WazirX.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has launched a Stockholm-based healthcare startup Neko Health. As per the startup's website, its non-invasive full-body scanner can detect and measure the growth of birthmarks, rashes and age spots. Neko says its 360-degree body scanner comes equipped with over 70 sensors. It was founded by Hjalmar Nilsonne and Daniel Ek.

Google has invested around $400 million in AI startup Anthropic, which is developing a chatbot called Claude to potentially compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT, Bloomberg reported. The startup's Co-founders Daniela and Dario Amodei previously worked with OpenAI. While the firms have not commented on the investment, they announced a partnership wherein Anthropic will use Google's cloud services.

A US judge on Friday released a ruling denying Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) request to stop Meta from acquiring virtual reality startup Within Unlimited. FTC filed the case against the deal last year, saying it would "tend to create a monopoly". A Meta spokesperson said the company is "pleased" with the ruling and looks forward "to closing the transaction soon".

IIT Kanpur on Friday announced the launch of a "haptic smartwatch for the blind and visually impaired" in association with Ambrane India for mass manufacturing. Director Abhay Karandikar said this touch-sensitive smartwatch overcomes the limitations of conventional watches for the visually impaired. "It provides a private and accessible way to display time and health information," he added.

Elon Musk-led SpaceX is part of a payload contract NASA has awarded for as much as $100 million over a decade. SpaceX will share the contract with Lockheed Martin's Astrotech Space Operations, NASA said. The missions that SpaceX and Astrotech will work on involve launching satellites to observe the Earth or spacecraft that visit deep-space destinations in the Solar System.

Union Minister Anurag Thakur claimed that India has become the world's biggest exporter of vaccines, mobile phones and defence equipment. He said that the country is now the hub of the startup ecosystem in the world, ranking third with 90,000 startups and 107 unicorn companies worth $30 billion. He gave credit to the country’s youth for the achievement.

One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, informed in a regulatory filing that its Non-Executive, Non-Independent Director Douglas Feagin has resigned from the board. Feagin, who's Ant Group's Senior VP, joined the board ahead of Paytm's IPO in 2021. Feagin said his resignation is in recognition of Paytm's "growth as a publicly-listed company and the maturity of the business".

Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Parkash said over ₹477 crore have been approved to 133 incubators under Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) as of December 31, 2022. Of the approved amount, around ₹211 crore has been disbursed. On a regional basis, Maharashtra-based incubators were allocated the highest amount at ₹74.5 crore, the government data showed.

Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Parkash said that ₹7,980 crore has been committed to 99 Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) as of December 31, 2022, under the Fund of Funds Scheme (FFS) for startups. He further added that ₹3,400 crore has been disbursed to 72 AIFs, which have in turn made investments of ₹14,077 crore in 791 startups.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said that funds are waiting to see more innovative startups from India and there is no scarcity of funding. "It's not as if there is a funding winter or scarcity of funds," Sitharaman said. Private equity and venture capital (PE/VC) funding to Indian startups fell to a 63-month low in January.

Kerala Finance Minister KN Balagopal on Friday presented the state government's Budget for 2023-24 in which ₹120.52 crore was allocated to Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM). The fund includes ₹20 crore for Kochi Technology Innovation Zone and ₹70.52 crore for Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programmes. The government will also support agritech startups through 'Make in Kerala' initiative.

Mamaearth Co-founder Ghazal Alagh said it's important to ask one question while brand building and that is, "Why do you exist?" "This is an era of 'why' based brands. It's lesser about 'what' you're selling and more about 'why' you're selling," Alagh stated, adding, "Define your why and add value to every product you sell."

Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma took to Twitter after the company reported its first-ever operating profit in the quarter ended December 2022. "From our first app release to becoming a verb in India to operating EBITDA profitability milestone - all in 10 years," Sharma wrote. He added, "Paytm [was] built from scratch with conviction on Digital India."

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said the firm may attempt a Starship launch next month. "If remaining tests go well, we will attempt a Starship launch next month," Musk said, in response to a tweet asking about Starship. In January, Musk said there was a "real shot" at launching Starship in late February.

Zerodha Co-founder Nikhil Kamath took to Twitter and said, "The trend of increasing borrowing to purchase consumer durables, vehicles [and] credit cards is worrying." "[Is this] COVID-19 effect, or is this normalising now?" Kamath questioned. "Habits inculcated around overspending through COVID-19 might prove costly with interest rates climbing higher," he further added.

Freightify, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for freight rate management, has raised $12 million in Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital India. The round also saw participation from TMV, Alteria Capital, Nordic Eye Venture Capital and Motion Ventures. Founded in 2016 by Raghavendran Viswanathan, the startup has secured $14.5 million in funding to date.

Startups recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) won't attract angel tax, Secretary Anurag Jain said. The Budget 2023 extended the angel tax provisions to transactions involving foreign investors which were previously applicable only to local resident investors. The angel tax is charged on amount raised by startups in excess of their fair market value.

Microsoft-backed logistics startup FarEye has laid off 90 employees citing macroeconomic challenges, Inc42 reported. As per the report, the layoffs impacted employees across departments, including tech, sales and product. The latest round of layoffs comes eight months after the startup laid off around 250 employees in June 2022.