Lentra, an Indian embedded AI-based finance startup, has raised $60 million — a Series B that values the startup at “over $400 million. Existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Susquehanna International Group (SIG) led the round with strategic participation also from Citi Ventures, a subsidiary of the New York-based investment banking giant Citigroup.
New York-based venture platform Modus has launched Modus Africa, a venture capital fund for AI and blockchain startups across sub-Saharan Africa. The fund is expected to reach its first close in the first quarter of next year.
As Bharti Airtel rolls out 5G services in select cities in India, Cloud major Oracle is busy helping the telecom operator in its digital metamorphosis, internally as well as externally, to serve its stakeholders and customers better as it transitions from 4G to 5G. Oracle and Airtel announced new cloud and data centre deals to help boost digital economy and empower 1 million enterprise customers.
Martech keeps taking larger bites out of marketing budgets: 17.3% last year, 19.9% this year, 23.5% next year, and 30.9% five years from now, according to the latest CMO Survey. This despite barely more than half (56.4%) of current tools being used and nearly half (48.8%) of the survey respondents reporting worse-than-expected results. Oddly enough, marketers rate selecting marketing technologies as the thing they do best.