Here are the top headlines from the startup space:

CRED to acquire Happay, valuing the platform up to $180M

Kunal Shah's CRED will acquire Happay in a cash-and-stock deal, valuing the corporate expense management platform up to $180 million.

After the acquisition, Happay will operate as a separate entity. CRED’s leadership team will work closely with Happay to leverage CRED’s ecosystem, expand product offerings and scale up operations, the company said. CRED also said all of Happay’s 230 employees will be eligible for benefits extended to CRED’s employees, including its ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) programme.

With the addition of the expense management platform, CRED said it will extend its offerings to the enterprise spends space. The deal will synergise CRED's credit card bill payments platform and Happay’s platform that offers business expenses, travel bookings and payments, the firm added.

“With professional expenses forming a significant portion of credit card spends, bringing professional expense management into the CRED ecosystem is a natural extension of our proposition,” Shah said.

Happay currently has more than 6,000 clients, including Dominos, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Oyo, and processes transactions worth over $3 billion annually.

Nykaa plans to open 300 stores to drive offline growth: Report

Nykaa plans to more than triple its brick-and-mortar stores, to 300, to significantly increase its offline presence in India, CEO Falguni Nayar told Reuters.

The cosmetics-to-fashion retailer is targeting 100 cities, adding to the 84 retail outlets it already operates in 40 cities. "The process of store expansion had slowed down due to the (COVID-19) pandemic for a year or so," Nayar said, adding, "But this year, we have revived our store rollout."

Though Nykaa largely operates as an e-commerce platform selling everything from global cosmetic brands to jewellery, Nayar said the physical stores, targeting Indian consumers wanting to buy touch-and-feel products, were a critical part of the business.

Despite rapid growth of e-commerce and the likes of Amazon.com, Inc. in India's near-$900 billion retail market, most shoppers still buy products offline. Nykaa has said it is targeting a sub-segment of that sector -- the $70 billion beauty, personal care and fashion market.

Like many other retailers, Nykaa was hit hard by the pandemic as work-from-home rules reduced demand for office-wear, cosmetics and shoes. Last month, the company reported a 96% slump in quarterly profit. The startup garnered massive public attention in November after making a glowing stock market debut with a valuation of $14 billion.

RBI payment rules not helping SaaS companies, says Freshworks' CEO

Girish Mathrubootham, founder and CEO of the NASDAQ-listed Freshworks, called on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to create a whitelist of "good companies" so that they are not affected by the rules on payments.

RBI's auto-debit guidelines for recurring payments kicked in from October. The new guidelines, which brought in an additional layer of authentication for payments above Rs 5,000, forced subscribers of various services to renew their standing instructions, .

Mathrubootham said that the rules were not helping SaaS companies.

"We should have a whitelist of good companies to let them build their business," Mathrubootham said while speaking at the Nasscom product Conclave on Wednesday.

The rules have impacted several SaaS companies and other startups, which rely on recurring mandates for their services. RBI said it brought in the rules to protect customers following complaints of auto-debit transactions being done without consent.

Mathrubootham added that the Indian government, along with state governments, has come up with several encouraging policies for startups in recent years.

Freshworks, started by Mathrubootham in Chennai, became one of the first SaaS companies from India to get listed on NASDAQ in September.

Upstox now allows investing in IPO, opening demat account via WhatsApp: Reports

Online brokerage firm Upstox has announced that it will now allow investors to invest in initial public offerings (IPOs) and open demat accounts through WhatsApp.

Upstox said its platform will provide an end-to-end IPO application support for users and non-users through WhatsApp. Customers can also open an account with Upstox through WhatsApp instantly, "24x7", as per reports.

"It takes just a few minutes now to open an account with Upstox via WhatsApp. Tabs such as ‘Upstox Resources’ and ‘Get Support’ provide customers with direct access to FAQs and all the necessary information about Upstox in real-time with just a click," the firm said.

The key highlight of the latest feature is that all investors, whether registered with Upstox or not, can now subscribe to any IPO without moving out of the WhatsApp chat window at any point during the application journey, the company said, adding that with this integration, Upstox aims to "achieve a five-fold growth in IPO applications".

“With a huge uptick in IPOs and investors rushing to invest in IPOs, we see this as an opportunity to encourage more investors to open an account and invest through Upstox. We are optimistic that we will close FY22 with 10 million customers, from the current customer base of over 7 million," Upstox cofounder Shrini Viswanath said.

Licious on-boards Prashant Verma as chief revenue officer

D2C unicorn Licious has appointed Prashant Verma its chief revenue officer.

Verma's mandate at Licious entails P&L ownership, category management, brand, product development, platform growth, and new city expansion. The fresh meats and seafood brand will focus on amplifying growth and profitability as it enters the next phase of evolution, the firm said in a statement.

“We are at a point in our journey where we are not building Licious. Instead, Licious is building us. Hence, hiring domain leaders and industry experts is an integral part of our growth strategy,” said Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, cofounders, Licious.

Evenflow ties up with logistics startup Shiprocket

Third-party e-commerce marketplace aggregator Evenflow has partnered with logistics startup Shiprocket. The partnership is aimed at solving supply chain issues for the sellers that Evenflow acquires, the company said in a statement.

“With this collaboration, we aim to strategically focus on reducing the risks involved in supply chain and work together to drive this common objective,” said Vishesh Khurana, cofounder, Shiprocket.

Evenflow aggregates third-party sellers on e-commerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon. It acquires online marketplace sellers in a range of $200k-$1.5 million per brand.

“Supply chain is the backbone for all e-commerce businesses. Shiprocket has created scalable solutions for the third-party seller ecosystem. We are bullish on leveraging them to support multiple brands under our portfolio,” said Utsav Agarwal, cofounder & CEO, Evenflow.

Global blockchain market to be worth $67.4bn by 2026: KnowledgeStore Report

The global blockchain market is expected to be worth $67.4 billion by 2026, growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 68.4%, according to a report by MarketsandMarkets’ market Intelligence cloud -- KnowledgeStore.

As per the report, the opportunity in the markets of banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), retail and e-commerce, government, and transportation and logistics is expected to be worth $24-26 billion by 2025.

Out of these verticals, blockchain in the BFSI domain is expected to clock $10.3 billion by 2025, followed by e-commerce at $6.6 billion, public sector at 5.8 billion, and logistics at $3 billion, the findings showed.

In terms of the most growth, KnowledgeStore revealed that blockchain in the retail market will see the highest uptick, growing by 96.4% from $0.16 billion in 2019 to $17.72 billion 2026. In terms of the total revenue, Blockchain in energy is expected to be worth $40.32 billion, followed by financial technologies at $33.9 billion and the government at $21.72 billion.

Twitter prohibits sharing of personal photos, videos without consent

Twitter will not allow sharing of personal media such as photos and videos on its platform without the consent of the user concerned. The social media company's privacy policy already prohibits sharing of other people's private information such as phone numbers, addresses and IDs.

"When we are notified by individuals depicted, or by an authorized representative, that they did not consent to having their private image or video shared, we will remove it," Twitter said in a blog post.

The microblogging site's cofounder Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO of the company on Monday, handing over reins to its technology chief Parag Agrawal.

Nasscom launches first scale-up report on startup sector

Tech industry body Nasscom has released its first report on scale-ups, to look at the next stage in the lifecycle of startups.

The report has an analysis of about 100 'scale-ups’, which include unicorns and startups with over $15 million in revenue. It shows that there has been a fivefold industry average revenue growth of scale-ups from 2016-19, and a fivefold rise in private equity funding from 2010-20.

Moreover, the Indian startup ecosystem is expected to add an additional 250-plus scale-ups by 2025 with the time to scale-up expected to become shorter.

GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY & STARTUP NEWS

Google to ban political advertising ahead of the Philippines election

Google said it will ban political advertising on its platform in the run-up to the Philippines presidential election, scheduled for next May to choose a successor to the incumbent, Rodrigo Duterte, according to Reuters.

The move comes amid pressure on social media platforms over their handling of political advertising during the US presidential election in 2020.

Election advertisements that promote or oppose any political party or the candidacy of any person or party for public office would not be allowed to run between February 8 to May 9, 2022, Google said in an update to its political content policy.

The dates cover the period of campaigning in the Philippines up to election day on May 9. Google said notifications would be sent to affected advertisers about the policy update.

Microsoft shareholders back proposal seeking report on harassment

Microsoft Corporation said its shareholders have approved a proposal by Arjuna Capital, which sought a report from the technology giant on the effectiveness of its policies to battle sexual harassment in the workplace.

About 80% of the votes cast at the company's annual meeting were in favor of producing such a report, according to Reuters.

Arjuna Capital is a Boston-based investment adviser and frequent filer of shareholder resolutions pressing companies for changes like disclosing more data on pay equity.

Microsoft already internally shares annual data on the volume of sexual harassment concerns raised and the results of the investigations into them. It has now adopted plans to make that data public.

The vote comes as big mutual fund firms increasingly support investor challenges to companies on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and as employees of big tech firms stage walkouts protesting the tackling of sexual harassment claims.

New York accuses Amazon of backsliding over worker safety, seeks monitor

New York state's attorney general on Tuesday asked a state judge to appoint a monitor to oversee worker safety at an Amazon fulfillment centre in New York City, citing the retailer's alleged rollbacks of COVID-19 safety measures that were "already inadequate."

Letitia James, the attorney general, also wants a court order requiring the rehiring of Christian Smalls, whom Amazon fired for allegedly violating a paid quarantine by leading a March 2020 protest over conditions at the Staten Island facility, Reuters reported.

James, a Democrat running to become New York's next governor, sued Amazon in February in a New York state court in Manhattan over its safety protocols for thousands of workers at the Staten Island facility and a distribution centre in the New York City borough of Queens.

She said Amazon is valuing profit over safety and "acting as if the pandemic is over" by rolling back safety protocols even as the Omicron variant of threatens to increase transmission rates.

The alleged rollbacks include making the Staten Island facility "mask-optional" for vaccinated workers while not requiring masks for unvaccinated workers, and failing to enforce social distancing.

Amazon said in a statement it has taken a "comprehensive approach" to COVID-19 safety.

"It's disappointing that the attorney general is seeking to politicise the pandemic by asking for 'emergency' relief now despite having filed this lawsuit nine months ago," Amazon said.

The Seattle-based company is appealing a judge's refusal in October to dismiss James' lawsuit.

Facebook risks meta flop, say metaverse developers

Facebook risks missing the point of metaverse -- and a coming shift in consumers' behaviour -- if it fails to permit digital ownership, according to pioneers of the virtual world.

The social media giant made waves last month by changing its name to Meta Platforms and announcing a focus on the buzzy "metaverse".

However, with few details beyond the rebrand, metaverse participants doubt it is ready to embrace the spirit driving creativity and profit in the space.

"What Facebook is doing with meta ... is a 'fake metaverse,' unless they actually have a real description as to how we can truly own it," said Yat Siu, chairman and cofounder of Animoca Brands, an investor in and builder of metaverse platforms, speaking on a panel at the Reuters Next conference.

Cathie Wood's ARK buys a million Twitter shares after Dorsey steps down

Cathie Wood's ARK Investment Management bought more than a million shares of Twitter, a day after Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO of the microblogging platform.

ARK acquired 1.1 million Twitter shares worth $48.9 million at Tuesday's closing price of $43.94, according to the firm's daily trade report. They had lost 3.4% after opening lower, Reuters reported.

On Monday, after the company named its technology chief Parag Agrawal as the CEO, the shares had closed down 2.7%.

Coinshares to buy French fintech Napoleon Crypto

Cryptocurrency company CoinShares International has agreed to buy French fintech Napoleon Crypto SAS for around 13.9 million euros ($15.8 million), Reuters reported.

CoinShares said on Wednesday that its takeover of Napoleon Crypto SAS formed part of its strategy of expanding its technology and platforms.

"As we continue to grow, it is increasingly important for us to keep developing our ability to distribute our research, expertise, and products directly to our clients via the most appropriate channel," said CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti.