Yesterday, A former Google contractor filed a lawsuit against the company, stating that he was wrongfully fired. He says that the reason behind him getting fired is that he called out eccentric cult-like activity in the company. Kevin Llyod, the former employee in question, talks about a weird group in the lawsuit. (voiceoverherald.com) He claims that there are at least 12 members in this religious sect known as the ‘Fellowship of Friends’ (FoF).
🚨🚨🚨
There's a major story in the NYT today about one of our members & his lawsuit against Google. It's about a literal *cult* w/in Google that dominated his former team.
But it's not just a salacious story, this is really about workers' rights & TVCs.https://t.co/tkp0Q7wWlH
— Alphabet Workers Union (AWU-CWA) (@AlphabetWorkers) June 16, 2022
The lawsuit talks about how this group of people seems to have an extremely high level of influence in the company. Fellowship of Friends is a religious organization that is based in a tiny town in the Sierra Nevada. It seems that the organization has somehow found its way into the company as well. According to Llyod, there are around 12 fellowship members who have worked for the Google Developer Studio (GDS).
The religious group in question believes that higher consciousness can be achieved by embracing fine arts and culture. Due to these exclusive practices, the group has come under the radar of an investigative Spotify Podcast, which promises to reveal the cult’s secrets. Lloyd’s report talks about his wrongful termination because of calling these practices out, he mentions both Google and his contracting agency ASG in the lawsuit. He also specifically talks about the emotional distress he faced as well as the company’s failure to protect him against discrimination.
A Times report talks about how the fellowship members hold roles at Google’s company events. These roles include working the registration desk, taking photographs, playing music, providing massages as well as serving wine. It also alleged that Google buys this wine from a winery run by one of the members of the fellowship. With this news out, another contractor Erik Johanson told Times about Google’s partnership with ASG that helps the GDS team to hire more FoF members. Apparently, these contractors are hired with far-less scrutiny and a far less rigorous onboarding process.
Lloyd claims in his report how he was immediately fired after he complained about the group. His complaint was met with indifference and there was no help or explanation provided to him. Google, responding to Llyod’s claims says that he was fired for performance issues, refuting any other allegations. Lloyd has also spoken about his experience in a Medium post.
Education is irreplaceable, even though many people underestimate its value these days due to the “dropout” label. Instead of just acquiring a degree, people should update their talents.
Schools and universities are vital, but so are the skills that they do not teach us. India’s premier edtech startups are transforming the country’s educational landscape. They’re changing the way people learn. And this helps to ensure that Indian children and youth have a bright future.
India has a persistently unbalanced pupil-to-teacher ratio, which jeopardizes pupils’ learning opportunities in schools. Technology-driven learning apps are leveraging gaming features like point-scoring, interaction with others, personalization, and data-driven insights to enhance the learning process for students and refine their fundamentals in many disciplines to counteract this skewness. These apps are well-known for their services to help students perform better in class.
In India, edtech startups are becoming a key business sector. The Indian education sector was valued at $91.7 billion in FY18 and is predicted to grow to $101.1 billion in FY19, with the edtech market expected to grow to $4 billion by 2025. Here is the list of the top 9 edtech startups in India:
Byju’s
According to the company, 93 percent of parents noticed a significant improvement in their child’s grades after using the Byju’s app. Byju’s has 15 million registered users, 900,000 of whom have paid annual subscriptions, with an 85 percent renewal rate. According to the firm, the average app engagement rate is 53 minutes per day.
Byju’s is a Bangalore-based edtech business created by Byju Raveendran in 2011. It currently has $5.4 billion in total equity. BYJU’S has also received numerous accolades, including the CRISIL Emerging India Award and the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Award. It’s available for both Android and iOS.
Unacademy
Hemaash Singh started Unacademy as a YouTube channel in 2010, and it has since grown to become a household name in India’s education technology sector. It is a well-known e-learning startup and one of Bangalore’s leading edtech firms.
To date, Unacademy has taught more than 30,00,000 (3 million) students. It has partnered with some of the most knowledgeable teachers to provide tutoring to its pupils. There are approximately 2400 online courses available. The majority of the courses on this platform are free; however, certifications may need payment.
The purpose of Unacademy is to provide free education. It has also dabbled in a variety of industries, including banking, CA, CAPF, UPSC, CLAT, CAT, JEE, pre-medical, and others. Students can follow teachers to get direct courses from them, and the video tutorials are available in a variety of languages. Unacademy’s business plan is mostly focused on the platform’s plus subscription function.
Unacademy is a Bangalore-based edtech startup that acts as an online learning marketplace for courses. Heemash Singh, Sachin Gupta, and Gaurav Munjal founded it. In 2015, the YouTube channel was converted to an online learning platform. Unacademy’s YouTube channel still has a lot of videos.
iQuanta
The largest online CAT preparation community in India is iQuanta. Mr. Indrajeet Singh, the founder, and CEO of iQuanta is one of India’s top five young entrepreneurs. He was dubbed the “Wizard of Quants” for his ingenious shortcuts and unusual ways. iQuanta’s mission is to make high-quality education and its unique pedagogy affordable to anyone interested in taking competitive tests. iQuanta is a start-up Edtech firm.
iQuanta was founded in 2017 and has since grown to a community of 3.5 lakh+ aspirants from over the world, with 10,521+ IIM calls and 1000+ IIM converts in just 5 years.
TrainerCentral
TrainerCentral is a Zoho app that seeks to revolutionize how people educate online. This all-in-one online training platform gives solopreneurs, edupreneurs, and anybody else who wants to share their knowledge with learners all over the world the tools they need.
With extensive integration features, the platform provides tools to enable teachers to construct a fully prepared online training business. Trainers may use one unified platform to construct their own website, add content, develop course curriculum, host live classes, manage learner communications, and certifications, collect learner fees, and much more.
TrainerCentral aims to reduce inefficiencies created by fragmented products as well as the technical challenges of launching an online training firm. The built-in live classroom feature, which includes chat and payment gateway integration options, benefits both instructors and students. TrainerCentral is a hit with online trainers all across the world, as seen by its 30 percent month-to-month growth. TrainerCentral offers a free 15-day trial to let you get to know the platform.
UpGrad
UpGrad is an edtech portal that offers higher education courses online. It offers a fully immersive learning experience by utilizing cutting-edge technology to power well-designed courses. Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgum Komapalli, and Ravijot Chugh created UpGrad in 2015.
Next Education
Next Education is a Hyderabad-based learning website that caters to K-12 children through technology-based education solutions. It was created in 2007 by Beas Dev Ralhan and Raveendranath Kamath.
TeachNext, LearnNext, MathsLab, ScienceLab, and EnglishLab are just a few of the top products available on Next Education’s platform. More than 6,000 schools across the country use these items.
The study materials and products are written in 8 major Indian languages and cover the CBSE, ICSE, and 23 state boards’ syllabuses. The technology platform used by Next Education is built on Linux and open-source resources.
2D and 3D visuals, interactive content that meets international standards, voice-overs, clear sound, and a unique course design that is conveniently accessible via an included IR remote are among the other technological advancements on the app. The corporation has spent over Rs. 400 crores on R&D alone, as well as more than Rs. 30 crores on marketing.
Leverage Edu
In less than a year, Leverage Edu has evolved from a college admissions portal to a full-stack marketplace. Akshay Chaturvedi and Aman Arora established Leverage Edu in 2018.
Through mentorship products, end-to-end college entrance counseling, programmes to help students become first-job ready, and one-to-one virtual advisory for numerous career streams, the platform employs an AI tool to assist students in their careers.
The app features over 1500 mentors, including people from Ivy League universities and companies like Apple and Goldman Sachs. “The platform is in the process of executing an inspiring product plan,” the creator was reported as saying. “We will continue to aggressively scale and bring aboard amazing talent, invest in consistently bettering our experience, and do more of what we are strong at!”
NoPaperForms
NoPaperForms is a SaaS-based enrollment automation service firm to revolutionizes the admission process in Indian and international educational institutions.
The platform enables institutions to improve their outreach skills, recruitment efforts, customer service offers, and overall outcomes. The whole thing is completely transparent.
NoPaperForms claims to have worked with over 190 universities and processed over 350k queries. It has got more than 1.2 million applications and has risen to over Rs 100 crores in a year. After raising Series B funding in December 2018, NoPaperForms was able to achieve this valuation.
Quizizz
Quizizz is an interactive teaching tool that enables teachers to create interesting student-paced formative evaluations for students of all ages. Any browser, PC, laptop, tablet, or smartphone can access the website.
Teachers can use the platform to turn their students’ assignments and assessments into self-paced games by combining game design components. Then there’s the option of receiving immediate feedback. Teachers can build their own quizzes or choose from millions of quizzes provided by other educators.
Quizizz’s goal is to motivate students and assist them in their development. Quizizz has over ten million users, and its solution is widely used in schools in the United States.
This brings the list of India’s top 9 edtech companies to a close. Although India’s education system is undergoing a seismic transition, Indians continue to face outmoded teaching methods and ineffective learning strategies. In addition, the system encourages unhealthy competitiveness among students. Edtech startups are slowly but steadily altering everything for the better.
Meta, Facebook & Instagram’s parent company, has decided to take TikTok heads on. Facebook is planning to redesign its feed and make it more videos oriented. They are also planning to tweak their algorithm a little bit. This does sound a lot like TikTok, and that’s what the company is trying to do here by competing directly with the Chinese media giant.
Currently, Facebook’s home page feed only focuses on showing the users, people, and pages they follow. They plan to tweak the app in such a way that the algorithm will push new types of content or new creators to the users. The promoted content will still be something that the user cares about. Reports state that Facebook’s goal here is to shift the app into a ‘discovery engine’, similar to TikTok’s ‘For You’ feed.
“a lot of where we’re going with Facebook is trying to bring you the best content that’s going to really cater to your interests, but then making it super easy to share that and discuss and connect with other people in your network over that.”
Tom Allison told The Verge.
This design change also looks to bring back Facebook and Messenger as one entity, as they were separated to be two apps, eight years ago. The interface of the app will be made more visual and appealing aesthetically as well as Facebook’s main tab will have a mix of stories and reels above recommended posts. Instagram has already taken this route and has started emphasizing on videos more. Recently, they extended the reel time and also introduced a new feature of pinning your posts on your profile.
Speaking about the same to CNBC, TikTok’s president of global business solutions, Blake Chandlee, spoke about this comparison and said, “ Facebook is a social platform. They’ve built all their algorithms based on the social graph. That is their core competency. Ours is not. We are an entertainment platform; The difference is significant.” Mr. Chandlee, before moving on to TikTok in 2019, was an executive at Facebook for more than 12 years, leading their global partnerships.
Tom Allison, Meta VP in charge of Facebook, believes that their company failed to take notice of just how big of a threat TikTok was becoming. It’s interesting to see this race between the top apps in the world, trying their best to get their user’s undivided attention. TikTok is smartly trying to avoid the situation by stating that they just want to entertain people and nothing else.
If you have a fashion bug in you and you have wondered, how would I dress the digital version of me, then Meta has the answer for you.
The CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company is going to start its own digital marketplace. This digital marketplace in Metaverse will sell clothes and will boast big brands such as Prada, Balenciaga, and Thom Browne. Coincidentally, when Meta changed their name they tweeted at Balenciaga saying “Hey @Balenciaga, what’s the dress code in the metaverse?”. And now that the brand is in partnership with Meta, Balenciaga CEO Cedric Charbit stated that
“When Meta tweeted, we were instantly into it. Web3 and Meta are bringing unprecedented opportunities for Balenciaga, our audience, and our products, opening up new territories for luxury.”
Meta is coming out with its online fashion store next week. Mr. Zuckerberg and Eva Chen who is Instagram’s vice-president of fashion partnerships even flaunted a few of the fashion options on Instagram Live. These clothes will be available for your digital avatar in the Metaverse and you can customize them as you want. Maybe a digitally-rendered, cooler version of yourself, the sky is the limit here.
The store will offer you branded clothes which you can buy for your character using real money. With this, your digital versions can be dressed the way you want, across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. Balenciaga, Prada, and Thom Browne are the first big fashion brands that are going to come aboard the Metaverse fashion ship when it’ll launch. Users will still be able to access the current free clothing items.
Image Source: Meta
The items in the store will range from $2.99 to $8.99 and of course the price fluctuates according to the brand name. Mark Zuckerberg talked about their new project and said, “We want to create a marketplace so creators, over time, can design clothing and sell it. A lot of the dream is to make it accessible to anyone.”
Users from The United States, Canada, Thailand, and Mexico will be the first ones that will get to use these features. Meta plans to expand with more brands and also bring the touch of virtual reality to it with the help of its Quest headsets.
We are all familiar with the conflict happening between Russia-Ukraine on the global front. Ukrainian property is being destroyed and it’s an ugly sight to behold. Amidst all this, the blockchain community of the country has taken it upon themselves to preserve the cultural heritage of their country, with the help of NFT technology.
Michael Chobanian, President of the Blockchain Association of Ukraine talked about how the country is planning to digitize every piece of art and history. Last weekend, the Consensus 2022 event was held in Austin, Texas. This is where Mr. Chobanian announced the new blockchain-related project.
“Today we are announcing a new project [aimed at] how we can save the DNA of the Ukrainian people, Ukrainian culture, and Ukrainian history.”
Michael Chobanian said
“Right now, they are bombing museums, churches, and cultural sites. So before they are destroyed, we’ll digitize every piece of art or history we have in museums. We’re going to NFT it and put it on the blockchain,” he further stated.
Since the start of this invasion, hundreds of cultural heritage sites and objects have been damaged or completely destroyed, as per the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. The widespread damage is a huge concern for the country as Ukraine’s identity is at the stake here.
The above-mentioned blockchain project will provide interested people with a digital window into Ukraine’s cultural DNA. The main advantage of blockchain technology will be that, once all the heritage items are digitized, it’ll be impossible to destroy them. Chobanian states that not only will this help in preserving their heritage but due to the digitalization of these artifacts, a widespread of people will become aware of it. More importantly, Ukrainian citizens will have better access to their history and traditions.
Ukraine has already raised funds over $135 million in crypto from donors all around the world. This shows that they are using crypto and blockchain as a tool to finance their defense against Russia’s invasion. It’s also interesting to note that this is an initiative taken completely by the blockchain community of the country and the government is not involved in this.
This is also a good step toward the digitalization of these artifacts as NFT on a blockchain. This will be a testament to the fact that the artifact existed in the first place. Ukraine’s first government-led NFT project was MetaHistory NFT Museum.
TCS, Infosys, LIC, and HDFC were recently featured in Kantar Brandz, 2022 Most Valuable Global Brands report. These four Indian companies have joined the elusive list with companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.
TCS took the crown of the most valuable global brand coming out of India as they came in at the 46th spot on the list. Kantar Brandz made out the company’s brand value to be somewhere near $50 billion in their report. Significant progress can be seen here from the company as in 2021 they were ranked at 58. They have come up with 12 positions since.
Infosys, a debutant on the list was ranked at the 64th position. Its brand value is estimated to be close to $33 billion, 33 percent more than before. Wipro, however, was missing from the top 100 list. HDFC too saw an increase of 35 percent in its brand value while it ranked up five positions and stood at the 61st position as the second biggest brand in India.
Strangely, LIC lost its footing as it saw its rank falling by 19 positions and coming in at 92. The brand value of the life insurance company stood at $23 billion while its brand value was down by 4 percent compared to 2021.
“The presence of TCS and Infosys in the APAC Kantar Brandz Top 10 is not a fluke. Indian-born consulting companies have combined high-quality of human resources in India with innovative technological platforms, which unlock their employees’ capabilities. Today, India ranks number two on funded unicorns and number one in soon-to-be unicorns.”
Wayne Levings, President APAC, insights division, Kantar.
TCS was the second biggest brand in the Asia Specific Region, second only to Samsung. Samsung has a brand value of $54 billion. India, as a country has had a huge growth in stable and profit-generating home-grown businesses. The report talks about the Indian Detergent brand Ghari and talks about how they have used aggressive pricing and trust-building quality controls to become the biggest detergent brand in India. That too they achieved this feat in less than a decade.
It looks like Snapchat is likely going to be added to the list of social media platforms that provide you extra features for a paid subscription.
Liz Markman, the spokesperson of Snap (Snapchat’s parent company), confirmed on Thursday that they are going to introduce a new subscription plan to the service. According to Markman, the service is already under internal testing. The service is going to be called Snapchat Plus.
“We’re doing early internal testing of Snapchat Plus, a new subscription service for Snapchatters. We’re excited about the potential to share exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features with our subscribers, and learn more about how we can best serve our community.”
Liz Markman, spokesperson of Snap.
In a strange turn of events, it was not the Snap spokesperson but a mobile developer and reserve engineer named Alessandro Paluzzi who revealed more about the product. As stated in the information and pictures that he posted on his Twitter, Snapchat Plus will be giving you the ability to pin 1 of your friends as your “#1BFF.”
The company is planning to charge 4.59 euros for a one-month subscription and 45.99 euros for a one-year subscription. In this premium plan, Snapchat Plus also plans to give you exclusive Snapchat icons for your devices and a badge will be displayed on your profile, probably to distinguish your profile from others.
#Snapchat is working on a subscription plan called Snapchat+ 👀
ℹ️ Snapchat+ gives you access to exclusive, experimental and pre-release features such as the ability to pin 📌 the conversation with your Best Friend, the access to custom Snapchat icons, a special badge, etc… pic.twitter.com/VrMbyFlFvI
You will also have the ability to check who are the people that rewatch your stories and if a friend chooses to share their location with you, you will get access to their whereabouts over the last 24 hours. Telegram too, confirmed that it has been working on a premium subscription. This will also be the first subscription product for Snapchat.
Can you imagine a marketplace where you put in your desired specifications and price and buyers display options like that? The concept of reverse auction can also work on electronic goods, automobiles, etc. with the help of JingleBid.
JingleBid is an e-commerce platform where buyers can buy goods for a quoted price from their nearby retailers. The company is not only beneficial for buyers but also for sellers as they are getting enlightened with the power of data.
Team Sociobits connected with the Co-Founder of JingleBid to know more about how the company works. Apart from that, Mr. Srivas Anantharaman is also the founder of First Feet and is now planning to venture into the world of NFTs to utilize his expertise.
Team Sociobits: Could you tell us a little about yourself?
Mr. Srivas Anantharaman: I am Srivas and I run a couple of ventures. One of them is First Feet, which is an engineering company and we help manufacturing companies save cost by localizing their machinery and spare parts. I have a factory unit in Coimbatore and we operate from there. Another company that I am the co-founder of is JingleBid. We are India’s first reverse auction e-commerce marketplace wherein we help customers get the best price of the desired product they are looking for.
JingleBid Co-Founder- Mr. Srivas Anantharaman
Team Sociobits: Could you explain how reverse auction works?
Srivas Anantharaman: Suppose you need to buy anything, in today’s times, you will either search it online or go to the nearby retail store to purchase it. You compare the prices and try to negotiate the offer the online store offers with the retail store. You can do the same thing through our application as well.
So, if you are a customer looking for a particular product, you can select that item and start an auction with your desired specifications. You will receive the prices listed by the sellers that are near you and you can get the best price for it.
Team Sociobits: How does the concept of the reverse auction benefit the seller?
Srivas Anatharaman: As a retailer or a corner store, the biggest myth that we have as a consumer is that retailers cannot match the price of online stores. The corner store guy is not aware of the price at which products are being sold online and if you tell him, more often he will oblige and match the price or even offer you a better price. So, we are enabling these sellers by sharing the data and making them more intelligent about the products that are popular and the price they can sell them at. This is becoming a great marketplace. The sellers and the retailers who avidly want to be a part of this are our backbones. As of now, we are predominantly in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and we are looking to expand one step at a time.
Team Sociobits: How did you come up with the idea of JingleBid?
Srivas Anatharaman: One day, one of my founders wanted to buy a fridge so he went to the nearest retail chain in Chennai and found out its price. He went to another retail chain and negotiated the price, and he went again to the first store to ask why can’t they match their price so they agreed to sell him the fridge at this price.
“Our core aim is enabling the retailers so we are reaching major tier-two, and tier-three cities. On boarding maximum retailers from these places, we will similarly go about in different cities.”
-Co-Founder or JingleBid
That is when he realized that there is a big economy yet to be explored in this transaction and it could be done online. Another thing is, that the retailer was not aware of the price at which the fridge was being sold online. If he was aware, he wouldn’t have offered the product at that price. This is when they started ideating JingleBid.
I joined the team as one of the co-founders when they were launching the application to get going with the operational and strategic aspects. We are trying to support the ‘Vocal for Local’ cause by giving local stores the power of data and it is a decentralized platform. Today, we have 150-200 sellers on board with us and they have been able to utilize the data to get the extra turnover.
Team Sociobits: Do you have any competitors?
Srivas Anatharaman: For us, every e-commerce platform is directly or indirectly a competitor but in this specific business model, there are only two or three players. For the customer, it doesn’t matter as long as you offer loyalty, and to achieve that loyalty, is far-fetched as of now.
Team Sociobits:How do you plan to move forward with JingleBid?
Srivas Anatharaman: No we are moving forward with a two-pronged approach. Our core aim is enabling the retailers so we are reaching major tier-two, and tier-three cities. On boarding maximum retailers from these places, we will similarly go about in different cities. We are focusing on these cities because the power of the internet can be felt more in these cities as compared to tier-one cities.
“We are trying to support the ‘Vocal for Local’ cause by giving local stores the power of data and it is a decentralized platform.”
– Srivas Anantharaman
Team Sociobits: Apart from JingleBid and First Feet, what is new with you?
Srivas Anatharaman: Apart from these ventures, I am currently a part of The Meta Renaissance which is in the space of NFT studio and marketplace. I thought of exploring the world of NFT because I feel NFTs are the future as they could be interlinked to any business, be it brick and mortar or online. The transaction economy five years down the line can be changed, at least that’s what the tech industry is portraying to us.
At the Meta Renassaince Labs, I am a part of the team as a mentor and I help the team to figure out strategies and achieve the targets set. We are also looking for another round of funding.
JingleBid is changing the way India shops by introducing a reverse auction concept in the market. Mr. Srivas also believes that the NFT space holds a lot of value in the future because of how the projections are being played.
Feeling low about yourself? Every one of us needs a push some time or the other. It is only with this vigor we are able to do justice to our existence.
What is better than starting up your day with a motivational quote? It keeps you alive for the whole day or at least freshens your mind to start the new day with new enthusiasm.
Here are 20 famous motivational quotes on Facebook which are sure to push your gear to the right stage.
Top Facebook Quotes
#1. Bill Gates was a dropout, Yeah but he dropped out of Harvard not 11th-grade intensive reading.
#2. I can. I will.
END OF STORY.
#3. Your past doesn’t decide you.
Each struggle is a STEPPING BLOCK to reach your true potential.
#4. Don’t blame people for disappointing you.
Blame yourself for EXPECTING too much.
#5. If you don’t like where you are, MOVE.
You are not a tree
#6. At any moment you have the power to say, this is not how the story is going END.
#7. Don’t let society manipulate you.
#8. The 3 C’s of life: CHOICES, CHANCES, and CHANGES.
You must make choice to take a chance or your life will never change.
#9. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the FIRST STEP.
#10. THINK BIG and don’t listen to people who tell you it can’t be done.
Life is too short to think small.
#11. If all you can do is crawl, START CRAWLING.
#12. The past is where you learned the lesson.
The future is where you apply the lesson.
#13. It’s time to breakout your shell and show the world who you really are and what you are really made of.
LIVE YOUR DREAMS.
#14. Some people came in your life to teach you valuable lessons.
Time teaches you why!
#15. Tough times don’t last but tough people do.
#16. STAND UP for what you believe in even if it means standing alone.
#17. There’s no need to be perfect to inspire others.
Let people get inspired by how you deal with your imperfections.
#18. MAGIC HAPPENS only when you fill up your own heart not when you wait for someone else to fill it up for you.
#19. Push through the pain because giving up hurts more.
#20. Destroy negative thoughts when they first appear, this is when they are weakest.
These are sure to create an impact on your mind and keep your mind stable.
So, here you go with boosted spirits and ready to face the challenges with greater zest.
Here are some more resources you could use to post on Facebook.
Recently, BharatPe’s Co-Founder and his wife were removed from the company after getting involved in a controversy. They were alleged of financial irregularities and governance issues. If you thought this is the end of Shark Ashneer Grover, then you are wrong.
On 15th June 2022, it was the 40th Birthday of the Founder and ex-MD of BharatPe. As uninteresting as it sounds, the brutal Shark of Shark Tank India Season 1 seems to be set to form his third unicorn and “disrupt another sector”.
In a tweet on the same day, Ashneer Grover mentioned, “Today, I turn 40. Some will say I’ve lived a full life and experienced more things than most. Created value for generations. For me, it’s still unfinished business. Time to disrupt another sector. It’s time for the Third Unicorn!!”
Today I turn 40. Some will say I’ve lived a full life and experienced more things than most. Created value for generations. For me it’s still unfinished business. Time to disrupt another sector. It’s time for the Third Unicorn !! pic.twitter.com/wb7ZQe41FY
Mr. Grover has played a major role in the formation of unicorns like Grofers and BharatPe and according to reports, now he is planning to raise around $200-$300 million for yet another startup. He may sell his 8.5% stake i.e. valued at $3 billion in BharatPe or raise funds for its new venture. According to two anonymous resources, he is currently in talks with US-based offices and private equity players to raise this amount. He also has buyers for his BharatPe stake.
“He may use some of his personal wealth to start with. Eventually, he may either sell a part of his stake in BharatPe or raise fresh capital by issuing a stake in the new company.”
The industry or any details about this startup is unknown but he has spoken to six investors for the same deal already. One of the people who chose to stay anonymous told the Mint, “He may use some of his personal wealth to start with. Eventually, he may either sell a part of his stake in BharatPe or raise fresh capital by issuing a stake in the new company. He has met at least six investors regarding his new venture. Discussions are preliminary right now.”
