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On Friday, YourStory SheSparks 2023 saw a 10-hour-long celebration of women achievers. The event included intriguing fireside chats, diverse panels, captivating keynotes, and deeply moving personal stories.

While the day-long event is over, SheSparks will continue to tell the stories of women changemakers, committed to empower, enable and encourage women.

In other news, after touching record highs in January, both the transaction value and volume of payments made via the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) fell in February.

The Reserve Bank of India has imposed a penalty of over Rs 3.06 crore on Amazon Pay (India) Private Limited for non-compliance with certain provisions related to Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) and Know Your Customer (KYC) direction.

And, SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son could visit India next week. Founders of SoftBank portfolio companies in India, both public and private, have been asked to be on standby for a meeting with Son during his visit to Delhi.

ICYMI: Superfast charging, repairable phones, and improved foldable phones, Mobile World Congress, Barcelona offered a sneak peek into the direction in which smartphones are headed. 

Which mobile technology do you think will become mainstream in the near future?

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• SheSparks 2023 sparks winds of change
• How Zypp Electric found its niche 
• Gap’s plans for India

Here’s your trivia for today: 2023 is the year of which animal according to the Chinese zodiac?

SheSparks 2023

SheSparks 2023 ignites winds of change

YourStory’s SheSparks 2023 saw women from all spheres and walks of life make the case that women entrepreneurs can no longer be overlooked and underrepresented. The times they are a-changin.

Highlights:

• Vani Kola, Founder and MD of Kalaari Capital, unveiled the ‘CXXO State of Women Entrepreneurship Report 2023’. 
• G20 Sherpa for India and former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant underlined that for India to grow at 9%-10% each year, the participation of women is a must. 
• Organisations should explore the gender nuances of flexibility in terms of attracting and retaining women talent,” said Neha Jain of Akamai Technologies.

<Top Funding Deals of the Week>

Startup: SpotDraft

Amount: $26M

Round: Series A

Startup: Betterhalf 

Amount: $8.5M

Round: Series A

Startup: Evera 

Amount: $7M

Round: pre-Series A

Turning Point

How Zypp Electric found its niche 

Last-mile mobility has been at the core of Zypp Electric’s service. It began with a B2C mobility service offering electric scooters on rent/lease, and currently is used to deliver groceries, medicines, food, and ecommerce packages through a fleet of fully automated IoT and AI-enabled scooters.

A greener future:

• Zypp got into driver management and runs on an asset-light model. It operates a fleet of e-bikes for deliveries in partnerships with electric vehicle companies. 
• The startup says it has saved around 33 million kg of CO2 till now with 15 million deliveries.
• It plans to expand its fleet of e-bikes from 10,000 now to 2,00,000, and widen its footprint to 30 cities by December 2025. 

Fashion

Gap’s plans for India

Through a partnership with Reliance Retail, fashion retailer Gap entered the Indian market with its first store at Infiniti Mall, Mumbai. Crystal Henricksen, Senior Director of Denim Design for Gap Speciality, says the brand now plans to launch several free-standing stores in the country in the next year.

“Change of die”:

• Gap is focused on opening freestanding stores in key locations.
• The company is seeing the resurgence of Y2K and preppy fashion, celebrating nostalgia.
• Its Washwell initiative aims to achieve at least 20% water savings, compared to conventional wash methods.

News & updates

Made in India: The Telangana government and Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) have joined hands to set up the multinational Taiwanese electronics company’s manufacturing unit in the state. 

Lightning McClean: Universal Hydrogen Co. has successfully flown a 40-passenger regional airliner using hydrogen fuel cell propulsion. The aeroplane, nicknamed Lightning McClean, took off at 8:41am PST from Grant County International Airport (KMWH) and flew for 15 minutes, reaching an altitude of 3,500 MSL (mean sea level).

Pollution: A new disease caused solely by plastics has been discovered in seabirds. The birds identified as having the disease, named plasticosis, have scarred digestive tracts from ingesting waste, scientists at the Natural History Museum in London say.

2023 is the year of which animal according to the Chinese zodiac?

Answer: Rabbit.

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