CEO Financial News

Ramp, a developer of financial management software, has raised $300 million in its latest funding round to accelerate expansion in new categories, the company said on Tuesday, notching up a valuation of $5.8 billion. The new funding is at a lower valuation from the $8.1 billion achieved by the New-York based startup in a funding round last year, a spokesperson of the company confirmed. Valuations of financial technology startups have been hit as interest rates remain high and investors fret over a looming economic slowdown, leading to a shift away from cash-burning firms and toward those with greater focus on profitability. The latest funding round was co-led by Thrive Capital and Sands Capital along with existing investors Founder's Fund and General Catalyst among others. Ramp, which offers a corporate card platform used by over 15,000 businesses, was founded in 2019.

Air India Express has chalked out an aggressive expansion drive deploying 50 Boeing 737 Max planes by the end of 2024. The airline is aiming to corner a firm second place, behind market leader IndiGo, in the cut-throat Indian domestic market, people aware of the development said. Air India Express, which currently has 25 aircraft, is in the process of being merged with AirAsia India, which has 28 Airbus A320neo planes.

Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has refused to grant any immediate relief to Eros International Media, its executive vice chairman Sunil Lulla, and CEO Pradeep Dwivedi from the Securities Exchange Board of India's (Sebi) interim order, which restrained them from buying, selling, or dealing in securities until further orders. While disposing of the appeals filed by Eros, Lulla, and Dwivedi on Tuesday, the appellate tribunal directed them to file a reply or objection along with a stay vacation application against Sebi's June 22 order within three weeks. «We do not find any reason to interfere with the impugned order at this stage, and we dispose of the appeal, directing the appellants to file a reply or objection along with a stay vacation application to the ad-interim ex-parte order dated June 22, 2023, within three weeks from today,» the bench of Presiding Officer Justice Tarun Agarwala and Technical Member Meera Swarup said in an order.

EDX Markets, a prominent institutional crypto exchange company, announced on Tuesday a collaboration with Anchorage Digital, a regulated crypto platform renowned for its comprehensive financial services and infrastructure solutions.

GST rules for online sellers, Softbank-backed Meesho aims to add 1 crore merchants on its platform by 2027, a top official of the company said on Tuesday. Meesho is the first e-commerce company in India to turn profitable at the group level (consolidated profit) and expects the momentum to continue, Meesho CEO Vidit Aatrey claimed. «We have 1.3 million (13 lakh) sellers on our platform. The recent change in policy to allow more sellers without GST is a big boost.

By Deborah Mary Sophia

Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser is weighing an overhaul of the firm’s most powerful committee of decision makers as she seeks to simplify the Wall Street giant. 

(Reuters) -Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it was launching the web version of its new text-first social media platform Threads, in a bid to retain professional users and gain an edge over rival X, formerly Twitter.

Evera), the company said on Tuesday. «The collaboration will feature an integration of 200 EV charging points super hub in Delhi.

The hospitality industry has been shaken by the pandemic's impact, one company stands out as an unwavering partner for hoteliers navigating these turbulent times. The global hospitality sector, initially projected to recover slowly and tentatively, has defied expectations. Surging back quicker than anticipated, it's even outperforming pre-pandemic levels in certain spheres.

Facebook parent company Meta Platforms on Tuesday released an AI model capable of translating and transcribing speech in dozens of languages, a potential building-block for tools enabling real-time communication across language divides. The company said in a blog post that its SeamlessM4T model could support translations between text and speech in nearly 100 languages, as well as full speech-to-speech translation for 35 languages, combining technology that was previously available only in separate models. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he envisions such tools facilitating interactions between users from around the globe in the metaverse, the set of interconnected virtual worlds on which he is betting the company's future.Meta is making the model available to the public for non-commercial use, the blog post said. The world's biggest social media company has released a flurry of mostly free AI models this year, including a large language model called Llama that poses a serious challenge to proprietary models sold by Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Alphabet's Google. Zuckerberg says an open AI ecosystem works to Meta's advantage, as the company has more to gain by effectively crowd-sourcing the creation of consumer-facing tools for its social platforms than by charging for access to the models. Nonetheless, Meta faces similar legal questions as the rest of the industry around the training data ingested to create its models. In July, comedian Sarah Silverman and two other authors filed copyright infringement lawsuits against both Meta and OpenAI, accusing the companies of using their books as training data without permission. For the SeamlessM4T model, Meta researchers said in a research paper that they gathered audio training

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:

Li Xiang, the CEO of Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI), initiated a collection of business startup courses on China's Dedao platform on Monday with a goal of tapping into a broader range of customers and demonstrate the company's expertise.

Here is your Pro Recap of the biggest analyst picks you may have missed since yesterday: Initiation at Restaurant Brands, and upgrades at AppLovin, Aramark, and Insulet.

Godawari Electric Motors has announced the launch of its first electric two-wheeler, the Eblu Feo. The Feo has debuted with an introductory price of Rs 99,999, ex-showroom. Armed with a 2.52 kWh battery, the EV promises a 110-kilometre range. The battery is also said to be water- and dust-resistant.

SanchiConnect, a community focused on deeptech startups, investors and corporations, unveiled its PreSeed Accelerator's latest milestone in driving innovation and sustainability. Six exceptional startups have been selected for acceleration and capital infusion of INR 75 Lac, coupled with 100 days of focused market access support, through the pioneering PreSeed Accelerator program. This initiative is set to catapult the development of innovative solutions in the realm of green mobility. The program received 552 applications from all over the country, of which 6 startups after 75 days of intense screening and diligence were picked for investments.

Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, announced Tuesday it served 41.6 million passengers in the first half of this year — exceeding figures for the same period in 2019 as travelers return to the air after the lockdowns of the coronavirus pandemic. The airport, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates in skyscraper-studded Dubai, long has served as a barometer for the aviation industry worldwide. The new figures at the airport known as DXB reflect figures offered by the International Air Transport Association that traffic worldwide is at 94% of pre-COVID levels. «As we recover with our (half-year) traffic surpassing pre-pandemic levels, we continue to remain committed to ensuring every guest who travels through our airport leaves with a smile,» Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said in a statement announcing the figures. The 41.6 million passengers is up some 50% from the 27.9 million recorded the same time last year, as airlines now have more planes and routes running again. Passenger traffic this year largely has been driven by the airport's standard travel destinations — India, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Pakistan.

The Kenyan government has formed a 15-member parliamentary committee to investigate the contentious Worldcoin project.

Godawari Electric Motors on Tuesday said it plans to invest Rs 100 crore over the next three years to develop new electric products and bolster its sales infrastructure across the country. The Raipur-based firm on Tuesday forayed into the electric two-wheeler segment with the launch of Eblu Feo tagged at Rs 99,999 lakh. «We have invested around Rs 100 crore on the business so far.

BEIJING — Chinese tech company Baidu on Tuesday reported better-than-expected revenue, up by 15% year-on-year in the second quarter and bolstered by growth in advertising.