City Sequoia Financial News

Stripe has grown to a valuation of $65 billion, allowing some of its employees to sell their shares in the company, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal Wednesday.

ITC is evaluating the purchase of a 47% stake held by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital) in listed Prataap Snacks, said people with knowledge of the matter. This follows the failure of talks with Haldiram's owing to a valuation mismatch. Prataap is best known for Yellow Diamond chips and traditional Indian namkeen under the Avadh brand. Listed Bikaji Foods, another large snacks company, had also looked at the deal but those negotiations also fizzled out, said people in the know. Buyout funds KKR, TA Associates and Apax are among others that have been tapped since Peak XV initiated a plan to fully exit its nearly 13-year-old investment in Prataap and hired Deutsche Bank to sell the company. The transaction if successful will trigger an open offer for an additional 26% of the Indore-based company, which has been a laggard ever since its stock market debut in 2017 when it listed at a 33% premium. Prataap ended 1% down at ₹1,174.45 for a market value of ₹2,802.19 crore on Wednesday.

edtech have called for an extraordinary general meeting on Friday to oust its founder CEO Byju Raveendran and his family members over «mismanagement and failures» at what was once India's hottest tech startups, sources said. The shareholders, who have called the EGM, collectively hold more than 30 per cent stake in Byju's. Raveendran and family own about 26 per cent in the company.

Kirin Holdings is investing $25 million (about ₹205 crore) to buy an additional minority stake in B9 Beverages, the maker of craft beer Bira 91 and owner of pub chain Beer Cafe, executives aware of the development said. The transaction, made through purchase of fresh shares, will boost Kirin's holding in B9 Beverages beyond the current nearly 20%, the executives said requesting anonymity. Another American financial investor is also close to investing $25 million for an additional stake in B9 Beverages, which is expected to be closed in the coming weeks, said one of the executives cited above. The person did not identify the investor. The fresh investments of $50 million (₹410 crore) are being done at a pre-money valuation of $600 million. Tokyo-listed Kirin Holdings had invested ₹570 crore in the beer company in late 2022, raising its stake to 20%, valuing the beer maker at $600 million. Launched in 2015, B9 Beverages sells craft, lager and strong beer across brands like Bira White, Gold and Boom. It has a presence in 24 countries and operates six breweries. Ankur Jain, B9 Beverages chief executive, and Rahul Singh, chief executive and founder of The Beer Cafe, could not be reached for comments.

Fairfax, which owns multiple companies in India, has refuted charges that its Indian portfolio company Digit Insurance was falsely shown to be profitable in its annual report in 2021 at an investor conference call on Friday. The call was held to respond to the allegations of short seller Muddy Waters, who has accused the company of asset value manipulation. Fairfax’s Indian-Canadian founder Prem Watsa and the company’s management team answered queries refuting all the allegations of Muddy Waters.

₹28-55) or a packet of milk ( ₹27-106). Products beyond grocery can help increase the average order value on the platform. A Manyavar kurta set, for instance, sells at ₹2,999.

ElevenLabs, a startup that uses artificial intelligence software to replicate voices in more than two dozen languages, has raised a new round of funding that values the two-year-old company north of $1 billion. ElevenLabs said Monday that it raised $80 million in funding led by venture fund Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Smash Capital and SV Angel. The company has raised $101 million to date.  Chief Executive Officer Mati Staniszewski said the latest financing gives his startup a $1.1 billion valuation.

ElevenLabs has gained unicorn status after its latest round of fundraising, a person familiar with the matter said, as surging investor interest for generative AI technology sends startup valuations soaring. ElevenLabs on Monday said it raised $80 million in Series B funding from investors led by venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz along with entrepreneurs Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, with participation from Sequoia Capital among others.

Electric scooter company Bird Global announced Wednesday that it has filed for bankruptcy protection in an attempt to stabilize its wobbly finances

Vancouver-based blockchain infrastructure provider LayerZero Labs is coming up with its native token launch in the first half of 2024.

Web3Auth, a wallet-as-a-service infrastructure provider has teamed up with the smart contract-based multi-signature crypto wallet provider Safe (formerly known as Gnosis Safe) to launch “SafeAuth” a service which allows users to create wallets quickly without the need for seed phrases.

maker of Bira 91 beer and owner of The Beer Cafe pub chain, is set to raise Rs 400 crore ($50 million) of fresh funds, executives close to the development said. The money, from existing investors as well as a new one, will be used to expand business. This will be the third round of fund raising for B9 Beverages in 13 months.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI is unlikely to offer a board seat to Microsoft and other investors in the company, including Thrive Capital, Sequoia Capital and Khosla Ventures, many of whom played a pivotal role in forcing the artificial intelligence startup to reconsider its decision to fire Sam Altman as CEO. The six-day fiasco at OpenAI saw the company sack its most public face, and perhaps that of the AI industry, before reversing its decision and rehiring the 38-year-old to lead the company.

Hong Kong authorities reported on Nov. 27 that 145 users were affected in a scam by the unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange Hounax, resulting in a loss of 148 million Hong Kong dollars ($18.9 million), according to local media Shenzhen Commercial News. 

Surge, Peak XV Partners’ scale up-programme for early-stage startups. Other notable angels in the round include Naveen Kukreja, cofounder of Paisabazaar, Cred founder Kunal Shah, Zomato cofounder Mohit Gupta, Park+ founder Amit Lakhotia, among others.

The Brazilian neobanking unicorn Nubank is stepping up its crypto adoption drive, adding trading capabilities for five more altcoins to its banking app.

There has been a significant decline in publicly disclosed investment projects by crypto venture capitalists (VCs) during the month of October.

Web3 security company Blockaid said it has emerged from stealth with $33 million in funding to protect users from fraud, phishing, and hacks. 

BEIJING/SYDNEY (Reuters) — Bain Capital and Chinese industrial real estate developer and operator DNE Group said on Tuesday they formed a joint venture with a $250 million equity commitment, as the U.S. firm looks for investment opportunities in manufacturing park assets in China.

(Reuters) -Elon Musk's tunneling enterprise, The Boring Company, has sold shares owned by employees and investors at a price over 22% higher than in a funding round for the company last year, The Information reported on Monday.

Peak XV Partners’ scale-up programme for early-stage startups, has selected 13 ventures with a focus on deeptech, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and quantum computing as part of its ninth cohort. This is the first cohort of Surge since Peak XV Partners came into existence after the split of erstwhile Sequoia Capital.