Top Startup Headlines
PhonePe to now charge users who keep their wallets inactive
PhonePe will now charge its users who keep their wallets inactive for a year. Users who don't make any financial transactions through the PhonePe Wallet for 365 consecutive days will be charged a 'Wallet Inactivity Maintenance Fee' of ₹100/quarter. The digital payments company has clarified that merely logging into the app or making UPI transactions won't count as wallet activity.
Hyundai to buy SoftBank’s 9.65% stake in Boston Dynamics: Report
Hyundai Motor Group plans to acquire SoftBank Group's remaining 9.65% stake in Boston Dynamics for $325 million, aiming to make it a wholly owned subsidiary, South Korea's Maeil Business Newspaper reported. It is expected to hold a board meeting on June 22 to approve the deal. The move follows SoftBank's decision to exercise its put option to sell its stake.
Hand-powered private AI, that makes users feel how hard it's thinking, launched in Europe
European startup Squeez Labs revealed CrankGPT, a private AI voice-based chatbot that aims to make AI usage cost-effective and less resource-intensive. CrankGPT has no batteries and only works when users manually rotate a pedal attached to it. Squeez said the pedal gets harder to rotate when CrankGPT thinks harder, like when it undertakes speech synthesis and LLM inference at once.
Lenskart fined ₹20,000 for not fulfilling 'buy 1 get 1 free' deal
A consumer commission in Nellore ordered Lenskart to pay ₹20,000 in compensation and litigation costs for failing to honour a "buy one get one free" offer. A customer who paid ₹3,000 for glasses received only one pair instead of the promised two. After Lenskart refunded only half the amount, customer approached commission, which termed the conduct an unfair trade practice.
Controversial Sam Altman movie dropped by Amazon months after $50 billion OpenAI deal
A nearly completed Sam Altman biopic that portrays the OpenAI CEO in a negative light has been dropped by its distributor, Amazon. Directed by Luca Guadagnino, the movie 'Artificial' stars Andrew Garfield as Altman. Amazon's decision comes months after the company deepened its ties with OpenAI by committing $50 billion in investment to the AI startup.
Indian startup funding tops $350 million this week, led by AI
Indian startups raised over $350 million between June 12 and June 18, led by investments in AI, consumer health, and recycling ventures, as per Tracxn. Funding more than doubled from $141.3 million in the previous week, highlighting strong investor interest. It was driven by major rounds including Sarvam's $234 million raise and Equal's $30 million funding.
Trump claims Amodei was a national security threat a week ago, says 'He could've been jailed'
US President Donald Trump said Anthropic and its CEO Dario Amodei were a national security threat "a week ago" but aren't anymore. "[Amodei] responded...very quickly because...it's a tremendous liability. People get put in prison immediately for that," Trump said, referring to Anthropic suspending access to its most powerful AI models. Amodei seems to be "nice" and "smart" person, he added.
Man claims Swiggy exploits loophole to avoid giving ₹75 coupons for late delivery
A Swiggy ONE BLCK member claimed that the food delivery platform is using a loophole to avoid issuing ₹75 late-delivery coupons. Some orders never receive an assured delivery time because restaurants don't formally confirm them, the user said. "The food...arrives, but since no timer ever starts, the order can never be late," he added, sharing a screenshot as evidence.
OpenAI hires former White House AI adviser Dean Ball
OpenAI has hired former White House AI adviser Dean Ball to lead a new team called Strategic Futures. "Our mandate will be to help the company's leadership shape frontier AI policy," said Ball. The Strategic Futures team will focus on catastrophic AI risk, labour market disruption and the relationship between frontier labs, governments and society, he added.
Why argue with someone you don't trust: Anthropic CEO on leaving Altman-led OpenAI
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, speaking about leaving Sam Altman-led OpenAI, said, "Why argue with someone when you don't have the same vision and you don't trust them?" He stated that the best way to resolve differences is for each side to do its own thing. "We'll see who wins in...market and...in the court of public opinion," he added.