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WeChat officially blocks Indian users from sending or receiving messages

WeChat

The ban on 59 apps by the Indian government was a big jolt for China’s tech behemoths such as Tencent and ByteDance as their popular apps were affected. While TikTok and the other banned apps were completely blocked and made unavailable for download, existing users of WeChat were able to send and receive messages even after the ban was imposed.

On Saturday, that changed. WeChat officially restricted its users in India from sending and receiving messages. 

“Pursuant to Indian law we are unable to offer you WeChat at this time. We value each of our users, and data security and privacy are of utmost importance to us. We are engaging with relevant authorities and hope to be able to resume service in the future,” said WeChat in a notification to its users.

Several users who were automatically logged out from the WeChat app, took to Twitter to report the issue. Entrackr has reached out to WeChat for comment. 

The restriction on WeChat users will be an issue for Chinese nationals working in India. It was a sort of a lifeline for them as they were largely dependent on the instant messaging app for communicating. 

“We weren’t affected by the ban of TikTok or any other apps but the absence of WeChat will hamper our social and professional communications in India,” said a Chinese national based in Gurugram. “Since we don’t use email for official communication, we have been cut off from our headquarters based in China.”

On Friday, a media report said that the Indian government is planning to ban more apps, especially of Chinese origin. The report also said that the lite versions of the banned apps which were still available for download, had been removed from the download stores. 

The latest list of lite versions of banned apps include HAGO Lite, Helo Lite, ShareIt Lite, and VFY Lite, Likee Lite, Bigo Live Lite, and Viva Video Lite while Parallel Space Lite and some other lite apps are still available on the Android download store. 

Funding in Indian startups this week (20 July-25 July)

funding

This week 15 Indian startups raised funding, of which 12 received a total sum of about $131 million. Among them, InCred raised the highest funding of about $66 million followed by MPowered, which raised $21 million.

Meanwhile, funding for 3 of the total funded startups remained undisclosed.

Below is the summary of deals closed this week

Ather Energy: Electric scooter manufacturer Ather Energy has raised $11.2 million as a part of its Series C funding round from the existing backer, Hero MotorCorp.

InCred: Fintech platform that provides consumer and MSME loans, InCred has raised $66 million in a debt funding round from various public sector banks and public financial institutions.

Jodo: Fintech startup Jodo has raised $3.8 million in its seed funding round from Matrix Venture Partners, SAIF Partners and a clutch of angel investors.

funding

Bijnis: Business-to-business marketplace for unorganised retail segment, Bijnis has raised $10 million in its Series A round from Sequoia, Matrix Partners and its existing investors WaterBridge Ventures and Info Edge.

Entri: Local language learning app, Entri has closed its seed funding round after securing $1.7 million in the latest investment round led by Good Capital with participation from Kashyap Deorah and Hari TN participation.

Smartivity: New Delhi based toys design startup, Smartivity has raised $0.66 million in a Series D round from its existing backers — Ashish Kacholia, Ant Space, and Nirja Publishers.

Gigforce: Hyderabad-based on-demand staffing platform, Gigforce has raised $0.8 million in a funding round from Unitus Ventures.

VeGrow: Bengaluru-based agritech startup, VeGrow has raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round led by Matrix Partners and Ankur Capital. Better Capital, Titan Capital, Sanjiv Rangrass, Ramakant Sharma, and Amit Lakhotia also participated.

Sibros: Silicon Valley and Pune-based startup that is focussed on connected vehicle software, Sibros has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners.

MPowered: Asset management services provider to real estate owners, MPowered has raised $21 million in its pre-Series A funding round from a group of US-based high-net-worth individuals.

iNurture: A platform for formal higher education programmes in India, iNurture has raised $1.34 million in debt from existing investor BlackSoil Capital.

StyleDotMe: Fashion-technology company, StyleDotMe has raised $0.46 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by Survam Partners.

Undisclosed deals this week

SnackAmor, CloudWorx and Finin did not disclose their financial details.

*Every week we track startups that have raised fresh investment. Stay tuned for next week roundup

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