CPaaS provider Tanla Platforms partners with Microsoft to launch an edge-to-edge global blockchain network, ‘Wisely’ for sending encrypted SMSes directly from enterprises to telco operators, after WhatsApp’s privacy policy changes. The network for omnichannel communication includes SMS, email, voice, RCS, OTT apps. It would launch the ‘Wisely marketplace’, an Uber/Airbnb-like model. Tanla’s shares rose 3.91% to close at Rs 778.30 per piece on BSE.
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Citrix has announced it would acquire Wrike, a SaaS-based work management platform from Vista Equity Partners for $2.25 bn. Wrike caters to 18,000 customers across the world, offering companies to better manage and complete work at scale. The San Jose-headquartered company is expected to have 30% stand-alone growth to between $180 mn and $190 mn in unaudited ARR1. Its rivals are Asana, Trello, and Slack Technologies.
The Tata Group has finalised a $200-250 mn primary cash infusion in BigBasket and online pharmacy 1mg as part of its deal to acquire a majority stake in both the internet firms. Tata will shell out a total $1.2 bn, in a mix of a primary and secondary sale of shares, to acquire 60% stake in BigBasket. The conglomerate may provide a full exit to two of BigBasket’s biggest investors, Alibaba and Abraaj Group, having 27.58% and 18.05% stake, respectively.
Self-driving car maker Cruise and majority shareholder General Motors will join hands with Microsoft to speed-up the commercialisation of driverless automobiles. Microsoft will join GM, Honda Motor and other institutional investors in a combined new equity investment of more than $2 bn in Cruise, bringing the post-money valuation of the startup to $30 bn. The cruise will use Microsoft’s cloud computing platform Azure for its self-driving vehicles.
MeitY will collaborate with AWS to set up a quantum computing apps lab in India to help accelerate quantum computing-led research and development and enable new scientific discoveries. AWS will also provide quantum computing-as-a-service to ministries and govt departments, researchers, scientists, academia and developers to enable advances in areas such as manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture and aerospace engineering.
VideoMeet, the made in India VC app has added ‘close captioning’ for their users. As of now, the captions are available in Hindi and English only, but it will soon add regional languages. Besides, VideoMeet users can also customise their background and live Youtube Streaming. It has also features like waiting rooms, multi-definition viewing, multiple meeting modes, multiple audio support, VNOW- a replica event platform.
UST Global, a digital transformation solutions company, has announced a rebrand to its name, UST. The new brand theme is Boundless Impact, to empower its clients to break new ground. It would also consolidate its key sub-brands and subsidiaries under one UST unified brand. It provides the world’s leading brands with technical expertise like automation, experience design, data and AI to enable organizations to build business resilience with technology.
Salesforce has chipped in $15 mn into HR tech platform Darwinbox. The round saw participation from Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed India, Endiya Partners and 3one4 Capital. The company, including the latest round, has raised $35 mn. Darwinbox, the third-largest HR cloud provider after SAP and Oracle in India, wants to become the leader in the next two years. The platform services 500 firms globally, touching 1 mn employees in 60 countries.
ZingHR, a Microsoft backed Cloud HR Tech venture, has announced that it would collaborate with Times Network to provide HR Tech solutions. The strategic collaboration would merge Times Network’s existing HR practices with digital solutions and bring forth an organisational change to improve the work experience for its 1200 employees. ZingHR claims to have more than 365 employees and over 565 customers.
