Hello,
US-based retail giant Walmart has invested close to $600 million in the ecommerce platform Flipkart. It marks Walmart’s first direct investment in Flipkart this year after it bought investment firm Tiger Global Management’s stake in the company for $1.4 billion in July, increasing its shareholding to 80.49%.
Speaking of capital, Thursday saw two massive funding deals, with warehouse and retail automation company GreyOrange securing $135 million while mobility startup BluSmart raised $24 million.
In other news, PhonePe has launched a new ‘Credit’ section on its platform where users can view their credit bureau score at no extra charge, manage their credit/Rupay cards, and repay loans and credit card bills.
Meanwhile, social media platform X was restored globally early Thursday after a brief outage. Users in Canada, Britain, France, and other countries reported issues accessing both X and X Pro, earlier known as TweetDeck.
ICYMI: An international astronaut will join the US astronauts on the Moon by the decade’s end under an agreement announced by NASA and the White House.
Oh, and did you know that “kkkk,” “www,” “mdr,” and “askfhsjkd” are ways to express laughter? While many English speakers go with “hahaha” and “LOL,” different languages have unique expressions for laughing on social media.
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- GreyOrange raises $135M in Series D round
- Layoffs affecting women in the workforce
- Illegal immigrants and an SRK romance
Here’s your trivia for today: When was the first emoji created?
Funding
GreyOrange raises $135M in Series D round
US-headquartered GreyOrange raised $135 million in the first tranche of its extended Series D funding round led by New York-based growth investor Anthelion Capital in a mixed debt and equity round.
Returning investors, including Mithril Capital Management backed by Peter Thiel, 3State Ventures, and Blume Ventures, also participated in the round.
Highlights:
- GreyOrange will use the capital to accelerate technology hiring, its global expansion, and support the adoption of its fulfilment orchestration platform across warehouses, distribution centres, and retail stores.
- Founded in 2011 by Samay Kohli and Akash Gupta, GreyOrange started with mechanical bots for warehouse functions for retail companies.
- The warehouse and retail automation company had previously raised $110 million in a growth financing round in May 2022.
In-depth
Layoffs affecting women in the workforce
According to HerKey (formerly JobsForHer), a leading career engagement platform for women, at the end of this year, out of the 82% of women who aim to re-enter the workforce, 57% either left or lost their jobs, and 45% are actively seeking full-time employment.
This number points to the fact that a large number of women were among those laid off this year, and the numbers point out an alarming and disturbing trend.
Trends:
- Neha Bagaria, Founder of HerKey, attributes it to the technology sector witnessing a persistent wave of layoffs.
- Most companies attributed organisational restructuring and cost-cutting to their decisions. The influx of AI technologies may have also impacted organisations, rendering several jobs futile.
- More women than men are often forced to take a career break due to personal reasons, including but not limited to pregnancy, childbirth, taking care of children, or the elderly. Another reason is the lack of expected career growth or development.
YS Reviews
Illegal immigrants and an SRK romance
Leaving your country to pursue a better future elsewhere is not easy. The journey becomes unimaginably hard and unrewarding if you’re migrating to the West illegally.
Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani explores the immigrant Indian experience and digs out the ugly side of the NRI dream through the premise of a heartfelt romance in Shah Rukh Khan starrer Dunki.
Plight and drama:
- The story is set in Lalto, a village in Punjab, where the poor and underprivileged aspire to go to England to build a future.
- In Dunki, Hirani’s ability to draw laughs around touchy subjects like death, the national anthem, or the examination system to get a visa, or place of worship remains intact.
- The world would be a beautiful place if it didn’t have borders, and Dunki’s cinematography shows this.
News & updates
- Megacorp: Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Global are reportedly in early-stage talks about a merger that could bring two of the world’s largest media firms under one roof with a combined market value of $38 billion.
- Retreat: Worldcoin is no longer offering its Orb-verification service in India, Brazil and France, just months after the crypto startup expanded the helmet-shaped eyeball-scanning device to those markets.
- A record: One of the world’s most widely used cargo planes completed an entire flight with no one on board for the first time. Lasting about 12 minutes, the flight departed from Hollister Airport in Northern California and was operated by Reliable Robotics.
When was the first emoji created?
Answer: 1999. The earliest emojis are attributed to Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita, who designed a set of 12-by-12 pixel drawings in 1999. They were created for Japan’s main mobile carrier, NTT Docomo.
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