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VerSe Innovation appoints Sandeep Basu as Group CFO
, a Bengaluru-based local language technology platform, has appointed Sandeep Basu as Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective immediately. A seasoned business leader, Sandeep has over the past 30 years led and built several businesses as Group CEO and CFO.
Sandeep, in his new role as Group CFO, VerSe Innovation, said,
“Having been an entrepreneur myself in the latter part of my career, I appreciate the opportunity and responsibility as Group CFO to streamline the organization’s internal systems and processes and look forward to building a world-class finance team at VerSe.”
Sandip’s appointment to a growing leadership team at VerSe Innovation comes at a time when the unicorn is looking at an aggressive monetization strategy, expansion plans around its family of apps, and expansion of its broad technology platforms into other international geographies to serve unmet content needs of the local language audience globally.
Stan Lee’s Chakra The Invincible NFT Drop Sells Out of 12,265 Digital Collectibles in Less Than One Minute After Release
World-leading NFT entertainment studio Orange Comet, in collaboration with BeyondLife.club powered by GuardianLink.io, announced on Wednesday that its partnership with Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment and Graphic India to launch the limited edition Chakraverse NFT collection led to the most successful US and Indian NFT sale in history.
The first drop, which took place on December 27th, released 6,865 unique generative artworks based on characters and sold out at the staggering speed of 51 seconds, followed quickly by a second drop on the morning of December 28th with 5,400 NFT comics, all of which sold out even more -fast in 49 seconds — making them two of the fastest NFT sales worldwide.
A total of people from 14 countries participated in the auction, with 22 percent of the audience residing in India.
In 2012, Stan Lee discussed Chakra The Invincible saying, “I’ve always been fascinated by Indian culture. It is so philosophical and rich in traditions and morals. I have written countless superheroes from every nationality and every part of the world before, I have even created many heroes from other planets and galaxies, but Chakra The Invincible is the first superhero that I am creating specifically for the Indian market. My goal with Chakra is simple – I want to bring to the world an Eastern concept like chakras through the Western superhero genre.”
Widely regarded as one of the greatest creators of the 20th and 21st centuries, Lee is the writer and co-creator of the world’s most popular superheroes, including Spider-Man, X-Man, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, The Hulk , The Avengers, and more. Its characters have generated over $32 billion at the global box office and created some of the most beloved stories in history.
Anicut Capital appoints Adithya Bharadwaj as Vice President, Investments
Investment firm announced the appointment of Adithya Bharadwaj as vice president to lead the early stage and growth stage investment function.
Adithya will spearhead the expansion of Anicut Capital’s investments in the startup ecosystem based out of Bengaluru. He will work on the equity side at all stages and will also lead the Anicut Accelerator initiative in collaboration with PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, and Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai.
With more than a decade of experience in middle market private equity, business advisory and transaction advisory, Adithya has invested in the technology, financial services and healthcare industries. He previously worked with Axilor Ventures and Stakeboat Capital.
Speaking about his appointment, Aditya said,
“It’s great to join the Anicut family. These are exciting times for the Indian startup and investment ecosystem. Anicut Capital envisions working with founders and building transformation companies through multiple stages of investment to increase their scale, efficiency and profitability, along with continuous product innovation and customer experience commitments. Together, we will implement strategies to achieve these goals in the coming years.”
Chargeup appoints Ankur Madan as COO and co-founder
, a battery-swapping network for e-rickshaws, has appointed Ankur Madan, former product head of Spectra, as its COO and co-founder. Ankur will lead operations and technology at the startup and lead Chargeup’s product strategy.
With over 15 years of market experience across multiple sectors, Ankur has held key positions at Ubico Networks, Bharti Airtel, Haier Appliances and Spectra. He holds a BA in IT and an MA in Management from the London School of Economics. Ankur has also studied design thinking and innovation as part of MIT Sloan’s executive education program.
Commenting on his appointment, Chargeup CEO and co-founder Varun Goenka said,
“Ankur has vast experience in product strategy and developing and managing various commercial aspects in the customer and business facing arenas. With his expertise, I foresee Chargeup moving faster towards its next step in product development and market expansion in India.”
Chargeup provides a two-minute battery change within a 2km radius to effectively double revenue for drivers and dealer partners. Starting with two stations, Chargeup has now expanded the network to 70 stations and serves over 700 drivers daily. The startup does 20,000 swaps per month and has already covered 10 million kilometers since launch.
Classplus celebrates its people in Times Square
Classplus, a mobile platform for educators and content creators to launch their online teaching business, launched a unique campaign in Times Square, inviting people from around the world to join their team.
team members are seen celebrating the New Year and its 4th anniversary in a short video at the Nasdaq Tower, eventually inviting people to join in the festivities using the words “Join the Clan”.
This is one of the rare cases where an Indian startup has gone out of its way to feature its team members on the famous digital billboard and celebrate with them.
“We are there to build a legendary company that outlives generations. The video is a reflection of our culture of celebrating both big and small milestones. As we turn four and enter the new year, we wanted to send that message out to the world and invite them to the party. And what better stage than Times Square for that!” said Mukul Rustagi, Co-Founder, Classplus.
Classplus is known for its work culture and employee-oriented initiatives. It has been in the news for its employee wellness program that promotes mental and emotional well-being through one-on-one counseling, its ESOP buyback program, and recently a unique referral policy in which it awards stock options to employees with a one-year vesting schedule. acquisition, also known as “ReSOP” for each successful referral.
Classplus claims to have shown spurred growth over the past 18 months by raising four rounds of funding and enabling digital identities for 100,000 teachers who use the platform to teach over 25 million students across over 3,000 cities in India. It raised $65 million in a Series C round led by Tiger Global and GSV Ventures, and Alpha Wave Global in June.
Cashless payments aim to double headcount by 2022
Payment and API banking solutions company, (Cashfree), said it plans to double its headcount in 2022. The startup aims to go from 600 by March 2022 and 950 by December 2022, while sticking to a schedule with evaluations, bonuses and promotions for the current team.
In 2021, Cashfree Payments strengthened its workforce to over 475 employees, digitally onboarding over 300+ new hires, including key leadership roles in the engineering, product management, strategy and growth teams.
In December 2021, Cashfree Payments launched over 100+ offers for freshers from reputed engineering colleges including IITs and NITs and will continue to expand its workforce.
Akash Sinha, CEO and Co-Founder of Cashfree Payments said, “Cashfree Payments is in an exciting phase of growth and we are delighted to be growing our teams at such an accelerated pace. Increasing e-commerce penetration and widespread adoption of digital payments has allowed us to scale significantly. Building innovation is at the heart of what we do, and we are investing in skilled and talented people who will drive innovation and build a seamless payments ecosystem.”
Cashfree Payments has also launched various training and development and care programs to enable the current workforce to thrive in these unprecedented times. Recently, India’s largest lender State Bank of India invested in cashless payments, highlighting the company’s role in building a robust payments ecosystem.
Global same-day delivery service Borzo acquires NOW Delivery
Borzo, a global delivery service that enables same-day delivery within the city, available in EMEA and Latin American countries, on Wednesday announced its first startup acquisition in India.
The firm acquired India-based NOW Delivery, an express delivery platform for local cash-and-stock retailers. Borzo was previously known in India as WeFast.
NOW, with its fleet of over 1,500 riders, fulfills over two million orders annually for QSR, Pharma, retail chains and many other companies. The company is present in nine cities, allowing brands to quickly deliver orders to their own customers. NOW provides transparent advance pricing at the time of placement, real-time delivery tracking for customers and consignees.
Borzo said this deal will bring NOW Delivery’s B2B express last-mile expertise to complement Borzo’s same-day delivery services.
Maple Capital Advisors advised on the transaction.
With this acquisition, NOW will continue to operate as an independent brand under the current leadership of its co-founders Vivek Pandey and Bharat Khandelwal and will continue to invest in product development and new markets.
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