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Speed Kitchen raises undisclosed seed funding from Inflection Point Ventures

Speed Kitchen, a Delhi-based cloud kitchen startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Inflection Point Ventures and a group of HNIs and angel investors.

The funds will be used to expand presence across India and hire a team to lead the expansion, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

Founded in 2021 by Paurav Rastogi and Shamin Kapoor, Speed Kitchen helps brands with cloud kitchen needs from finding the ideal location for the culinary operation to building a food and beverage brand. It also provides brands with low capital expenditure and operating expenses and an easy expansion into new geographies. It competes with Rebel Foods and Curefoods.

In the last 18 months, the company has expanded across Delhi-NCR, Jaipur, Pune, Bangalore and Mumbai. It will focus on Tier II and III markets going forward, the statement said.

Other news

Migration assistance firm Leverage Edu launches operating system for universities

Leverage Edu, a Delhi-based migration tech platform, has launched a new operating system Univalley OS for universties. The SaaS solution will enable universities to streamline and automate their student recruitment processes, from application assessment to payment tracking to visa issuance.

Univalley OS leverages artificial intelligence to help universities assess applications faster, receive and manage student payments in international currency, and conduct automated credibility interviews powered by artificial intelligence, the company said in a statement.

Univalley OS can be integrated with almost every existing management platform available with universities traditionally and the company will offer free-of-cost migration for non-compatible software.

Myntra launches AI-based personal style assistant for recommendations

Fashion platform Myntra has introduced a new artificial intelligence-powered style assistant My Stylist for personalised recommendations. The digital style assistant will recommend the right outfits and suggesting a complete look to the users, the company said in a statement.

My Stylist will utilise artificial intelligence to offer customers complete shoppable outfit recommendations based on four different factors: uploaded images from their offline wardrobes, their purchase history on the app, browsing history on the app, and trends on the platform, thus giving instant access to styling options and enhancing a user’s shopping experience.

The feature throws recommendations from over 4.5 lakh styles from the fashion and lifestyle categories currently, which includes all topwear, bottomwear, footwear and accessories. Since the launch of the feature, the feature has witnessed good adoption, the Flipkart-backed company said.

Tide and Transcorp launch India’s-first recycled PVC RuPay Card

Tide, UK’s leading SME-focused business financial platform in partnership with Transcorp International Limited, a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulated Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) license holder, launched India’s first recycled (rPVC) Rupay card, along with MCT Cards & Technology Pvt. Ltd. and NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India).

The move reinforces Tide’s commitment to becoming a more sustainable company, including its pledge to make reaching Net Zero simpler for its members (customers) in India, and globally. Made from 99% recycled plastic, this is the first such move by a fintech company in India, the company said in a statement.

Each rPVC card will save 7g of carbon and save 3.18g of plastic, which would ordinarily be used in the production of a new card made with virgin PVC, it added.

Dunzo launches Project Swabhimaan to support financial literacy for women delivery partners

Quick commerce firm Dunzo has launched Project Swabhimaan, a financial literacy programme for women delivery partners and store pickers associated with the organisation.

The training will help the executives with access to information that can help them make sound financial decisions. This will benefit their financial-well being in the long term, irrespective of their employment with Dunzo, the company said in a statement.

In 2023, Dunzo aims to train over 100 women. In the long-term this will become an essential training available to all its partners as part of their onboarding sessions, it said.

slice appoints Venkatesan Vaidhyanathan as Chief Architect of Technology

Fintech platform slice has appointed former Razorpay executive Venkatesan Vaidhyanathan as Chief Architect of Technology.

Vaidhyanathan has nearly 20 years of experience in building and scaling technology platforms across industries. This appointment comes at a crucial time for slice as the company aims to strengthen its technological capabilities further and accelerate its growth in the highly competitive digital payments and financial services market, Slice said in a statement.

In the new role, Vaidhyanathan will be responsible for driving technology innovation at slice and will lead the development of its next-generation digital platform. He will work closely with the company’s leadership team to enhance slice’s technology infrastructure, strengthen its product offerings, and further improve customer experience.

(This article will be updated with the latest news throughout the day)