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2-10-2017 To 7-10-2017

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The News This Week,Startup Stories,Latest Business News 2017,Ola Latest Breaking News,Biggest Retention Coup,Uber Business,Karnataka Government News,AI Hub,India Richest Man 2017,Facebook Tests Workplace Chat App,Google Hardware Event,Startup News highlights of the week,Inspirational Stories 2017

The month of October started off with a long weekend celebrating Dussera and Gandhi Jayanti. Post a surprise announcement by the founder of global taxi hailing startup Uber, the past week was relatively calmer with multiple investments in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Here are the highlights of the week:

Ola To Raise Fresh Funds From SoftBank And Others
The homegrown taxi service hailing startup based in Bengaluru secured a $ 2 billion investment from Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp., and from China’s Tencent Holdings. This round of funding marks the second largest funding received by an Indian startup.

Flipkart Pulls Off One Of The Biggest Employee Retention Coup Yet
In order to retain employees, Flipkart pulled of one of the biggest retention coup by providing thousands of employees Flipkart shares and providing them the opportunity to liquidate their shareholdings later. Under this scheme, 35% to 40% of its mid level to senior level employees would receive stock values instead of their salaries.

Uber Board Votes For SoftBank Deal
The board of global taxi hailing company Uber, announced major changes in their governance strategy in an attempt to move past the months of strife. The changes were adopted unanimously by the 11 members of the board, which includes expanding the number of board seats to 17 from the existing 11. The company might also pursue an initial public offering of Uber’s stock by the end of 2019.

Karnataka Government To Invest $ 6 Million In AI Hub
The Karnataka Government has always been at the forefront of technological changes and upgrades in the country. Keeping up the pace, the government is all set to invest Rs. 40 crores to build a state of the art artificial intelligence (AI) and data science capabilities center. With NASSCOM as the programme and implementation partner, the tech hub will be named as the Centre of Excellence for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.

Mukesh Ambani: India’s Richest Man For The Tenth Year
While inheriting a business might seem like a good boost inside an industry, taking the business to the next level requires a lot of skills and capabilities. Mukesh Ambani is one such businessman who made a name for himself out the shadow of his father, Dhirubhai Ambani. By doing so, he was named as the richest Indian by Forbes for not two or three years, but ten consecutive years.

Facebook Tests Workplace Chat App For Mac And PC
Social media giant Facebook very discreetly launched the beta version of the dedicated Workplace app for desktops. This beta app, called Workplace Chat, will also support screen sharing along with voice and video calling, customized push notifications, one on one chats and group chats. The new app will allow employees to message coworkers throughout the day without relying on a browser tab.

Google Hardware Event
The global search engine giant Google finally unveiled their latest new smartphones, smart speakers and other gadgets at the Google Hardware Event. Demonstrating its commitment to making new devices along with new and improved software developments, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, launched their two new Pixel smartphones along with the Google Home speakers, a new laptop, a virtual reality headset and wireless headphones.

GST Made Simpler For Small Entrepreneurs In India
Three months after the Goods And Services Tax was launched, the Government decided to revamp various aspects of the new taxation process. The renewed indirect tax regime involves a slew of new measures to reduce the burden and stress the implementation of the GST brought to exporters and small businesses. PM Narendra Modi said these changes were in line with the government’s endeavor to safeguard the citizens’ interests and ensure a growth in the Indian economy.

China’s Tencent Holdings Invests $ 400 Million In Ola
China based Internet giant Tencent Holdings invested $ 400 million in the cab aggregator startup Ola through their Singapore based investment arm Copper Technology Pte., Ltd. Ola’s parent company ANI Technologies Pvt., Ltd., will issue 1,908,143 preferential shares at Rs.13,521 apiece to Copper Technologies. Post this investment, Ola’s valuation will increase to $ 4.1 billion from the current $ 3.8 billion valuations.

The coming week seems to be gearing up to be an exciting one as well! Catch up with the highlights of the week with our The News This Week section.
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Centre Mulls Revoking X’s Safe Harbour Over Grok Misuse

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Grok - StartupStories

The Centre is weighing the option of revoking X’s safe harbour status in India after its AI chatbot Grok was allegedly misused to generate and circulate obscene and sexually explicit content, including material seemingly involving minors. The IT Ministry has already issued a notice to X, directing the platform to remove unlawful content, fix Grok’s safeguards, act against violators, and submit a detailed compliance report within a tight deadline. If the government finds X’s response inadequate, it could argue that the platform has failed to meet due‑diligence standards under Indian law, opening the door to harsher action.​

Under Section 79 of the IT Act, safe harbour protects intermediaries like X from being held directly liable for user‑generated content, provided they follow due‑diligence rules and promptly act on legal takedown orders. Revoking this protection would mean X and its officers could be exposed to criminal and civil liability for obscene, unlawful, or harmful content that remains on the platform, including AI‑generated images from Grok. This prospect significantly raises X’s compliance risk in India and could force tighter moderation, stricter AI controls, and more aggressive removal of flagged posts.​

The Grok episode also spotlights the regulatory grey zone around generative AI, where tools can create harmful content at scale even without traditional user uploads. Policymakers are increasingly questioning whether AI outputs should still enjoy the same intermediary protections as conventional user posts, especially when they involve women and children. How the government ultimately proceeds against X over Grok misuse could set a precedent for AI accountability, platform responsibility, and safe harbour interpretation in India’s fast‑evolving digital ecosystem.

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How Pronto Is Redefining 10-Minute Home Services in India with a $25 Million Fundraise

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Home services startup Pronto is in advanced talks to raise about $25 million at a near-$100 million valuation, underscoring strong investor confidence in India’s fast-growing 10-minute home services market. This potential round would be the company’s third major funding milestone after its $2 million seed and $11 million Series A in 2025, backed by marquee investors such as General Catalyst, Glade Brook Capital, Bain Capital and new participant Epiq Capital. The fresh capital is expected to further strengthen Pronto’s positioning as a leading tech-led household help platform for urban consumers.​

Pronto operates a 10-minute on-demand home-services platform that connects users with trained, background-verified workers for everyday tasks like sweeping, mopping, utensil cleaning, laundry and basic cooking. Using a hub-and-spoke, shift-based model, the startup stations workers at hyperlocal hubs, enabling sub-10-minute fulfilment and more predictable earnings compared to the informal domestic-help market. Founded in 2024 by Anjali Sardana and based in Delhi NCR, Pronto has already expanded from Gurugram into major cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune, and is handling around 6,000 daily bookings with nearly 1,300 active professionals as of December 2025.​

The upcoming $25 million fundraise is expected to be used to enter more metros, deepen presence in existing neighbourhoods with additional hubs and upgrade Pronto’s technology for smarter routing, shift planning and real-time operations. A significant portion of the capital will also go into training, retention and benefits for its workforce to maintain consistent service quality at scale, especially as competition heats up from rivals like Snabbit and Urban Company in the rapid home services space. This near-$100 million valuation not only validates Pronto’s model but also highlights a broader shift toward organised, tech-driven domestic-help solutions in India’s largely informal home-services market.​

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Bhavish Aggarwal Sells ₹325 Crore Ola Electric Stake, Retains Control

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Bhavish Aggarwal has sold Ola Electric shares worth about ₹325 crore over three consecutive trading sessions, primarily to fully repay a promoter-level loan of ₹260 crore and release all pledged promoter shares. Despite the stake sale, he continues to hold a significant shareholding of over 34 percent in Ola Electric, and the company has clearly stated that there is no change in promoter control or his long-term commitment to the business. This one-time, limited monetisation at the promoter’s personal level is positioned as a structural clean-up rather than a signal of reduced confidence in the company.

The transactions, executed through open-market bulk deals, included an initial sale of about 2.6 crore shares worth roughly ₹92 crore at an average price of ₹34.99 per share, followed by additional trades of around ₹142 crore and ₹90 crore, taking the total sale value to approximately ₹324–325 crore. As a result, Aggarwal’s stake has fallen by a little over 2 percent, while all previously pledged promoter shares about 3.93 percent of Ola Electric’s equity are being released, removing the overhang and risk typically associated with pledged stock. The company has also clarified that these deals do not involve any capital raise or dilution by Ola Electric itself, which is important for investors tracking promoter stake and governance.

The share sale came at a time when Ola Electric’s stock had been under pressure, even hitting an all-time closing low amid concerns around growth, competition and heavy promoter selling. However, once the company confirmed that the stake sale was complete and all promoter-level pledges would be cleared, the stock rebounded sharply, gaining around 9–10 percent as markets welcomed the removal of this technical overhang. For investors, the focus is now expected to shift back to Ola Electric’s core fundamentals EV sales growth, margins, and market-share performance in India’s two-wheeler EV segment while the reduced promoter debt risk and continued high promoter holding offer some comfort on long-term alignment.

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