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Hello,

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday granted in-principle authorisation for 32 existing payment aggregators to act as online payment aggregators. 

These include Amazon (Pay) India, Google India Digital Services, Infibeam Avenues, Pine Labs, Reliance Payment Solutions, and Zomato Payments, among others. RBI added that applications for 18 more existing payment aggregators are under process. 

ICYMI: ChatGPT got mixing and made some cocktails. Ain’t no party like an AI party, amirite? 

Last but not least, two companies are using fake Moon dirt to make solar cells. And if this works, it could become possible to build human outposts on the Moon.

And one of the companies is Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Travis Kalanick’s CloudKitchens exits India
• Track workflow pain points in real-time
• Push Protocol + BNB Chain = DMs 

Here’s your trivia for today: Before the Ford Motor Company, industrialist Henry Ford founded which automobile firm?

Foodtech

Travis Kalanick’s CloudKitchens exits India

Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick’s venture CloudKitchens has shut its business in India and laid off its entire staff of about 40 members in the final week of December. Sources told YourStory that the business became unsustainable after failing to generate revenue for three years.

Tough business:

• Branded KitchenPlus in India, it provided kitchen infrastructure and services to marquee brands including Theobroma, Mamagoto, Burgerama, Fat Lulu’s, and Smoor.
• KitchenPlus, through its six centres in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru, offered fully furnished kitchen infrastructure to more than 20 food brands.
• Restaurant partners said that rentals plus the cost of utilities were 50-70% higher than the industry average.

Funding Alert

Startup: Venwiz

Amount: $8.3M

Round: Series A

Startup: HireSure.ai

Amount: $2.5M

Round: Seed

Startup: Cookr

Amount: $1M

Round: Pre-Seed

Startup

Track workflow pain points in real-time

Ultra-wideband (UWB) radio technology can transmit data at a rate of up to 1 GB/s within shorter ranges. Tokyo- and Kochi-based Pinmicro uses the tech to help companies track their business processes, find bottlenecks in business workflows, and address them in real-time.

Operational accuracy:

• Pinmicro uses highly accurate real-time location systems (RTLS) and IoT (Internet of Things) data.
• Its real-time location solution dSense.io helps enterprises scale their operational efficiencies and earn higher RoIs.
• It helped a client in the railway industry to increase the efficiency of its operations by 20% and reduce maintenance cycle time by 25%.

Web3

Push Protocol + BNB Chain = DMs

Web3 communication project Push Protocol (previously EPNS) is launching on BNB Chain to expand its reach across new ecosystems. The BNB Chain—with over 230 million unique wallet addresses—will allow its users to access Push.

Decentralised communication:

• Web3 apps currently rely on emails or other ways to communicate with users. Push will allow decentralised communication direct notifications and messaging.
• It will allow decentralised apps on the network to send communications (on-chain, off-chain and gasless notifications) to user wallets.
• Push’s launch on BNB Chain will also expand its potential user base for its wallet-to-wallet messaging and communications features.

News & updates

• Green at last: Airbnb recorded its first-ever annual profit last year, boosted by a rise in cross-border travel during the fourth quarter over previous years. The company recorded a profit of $1.9 billion in 2022, after losing $352 million in 2021. 
• Deal in review: Adobe will need to secure EU antitrust approval for its $20 billion bid for Figma even though the deal falls short of the EU turnover threshold for a review. The move underlines regulators’ worries about big tech acquiring smaller innovative rivals and the impact on competition.
• A hefty price: Deutsche Bank AG will cut bonuses for staff who inappropriately used messaging services for business communications. Employees whose usage of unauthorised devices or messaging apps was found to be in particularly severe breach of policies will see a substantial reduction in variable pay.

Before the Ford Motor Company, industrialist Henry Ford founded which automobile firm?

Answer: In 1899, The Detroit Automobile Company. It was eventually dissolved in 1901.

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