In Brief: Swiggy may raise $300 mn from existing investors; Govt panel looks into non-personal data regulation

Bengaluru-based Bundl Technologies, which owns and operates online food delivery platform Swiggy, is in talks to raise $300 million in internal funding from its existing investors, The Entrackr reported. This comes after the failure of months of discussions with external investors, including Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group. Strategic investors Prosus Ventures, formerly Naspers Ventures, which owns around 40% of stake in Swiggy, may invest over $150 million, the report said. The remaining amount will be added by its existing investors. 

Swiggy is considered to be as one of the fastest-scaling unicorns in the country. Back in December 2018, the company raised $1 billion in a funding round led by South African technology conglomerate Naspers. Swiggy and its close rival Zomato were reported to be in talks to merge the two entities. But, last month, both companies denied the rumours about any merger talks.

Also read: Swiggy to expand cloud kitchen operation; Paytm founder warns customers against spam calls, messages

Government-led panel to present white paper on non-personal data

A panel set up by the Ministry of Electronics and IT that looks into the regulation of non-personal data of Indian internet consumers is bringing out a white paper, per Economic Times citing sources. Non-personal data held by technology giants Uber and Amazon includes community, anonymised and ecommerce data. The panel will work on  a white paper and open it up for public comment, once it wraps up consultations with stakeholders and the industry

The panel,  headed by Kris Gopalakrishnan the co-founder of IT services provider Infosys, was set up under the  MeitY in September this year. 

Standing committee for women empowerment tells Twitter to restrict the age limit for an account to 15

The parliamentary standing committee for women empowerment has asked representatives from the microblogging platform Twitter to reduce anonymity on the social media platform and also remove abusive content from it, The Economic Times reported. The company has been asked to set a minimum age limit of 15 to run an account, the report said. The panel was headed by Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) member of parliament (MP) Heena Gavit and had 20 other members. The panel further plans to meet the representatives from Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, it added.