TechThisWeek: Startup funding picks up pace; Uber upgrades safety; Indian tech firms bet on AI

TechCircle’s podcast TechThisWeek brings you news, insights, wrapped up in a weekly roundup of the following hand-picked developments in the startups and enterprise technology ecosystems in India.

• Funding activity in the second week of 2020 rose when alternative investments firm Tiger Global invested $200 million into Bengaluru-based edtech unicorn Byju’s. The round valued the nine-year-old firm at $8 billion, a person close to the development told TechCircle.
• Food-tech unicorn Zomato Media has raised $150 million from existing investor Ant Financial as part of a larger round. The deal values the Gurugram-based restaurant aggregator and food delivery platform at $3 billion, pre-money.
• Online ride-hailing app Uber on Thursday announced new safety features on the app, which include four-digit verifiable pin, ride-check for detours and stopped rides, as well as an option to auto-record conversations during a trip on both the rider and driver side for the India market.
• Nearly 80% of C-level executives in India believe that companies will be out of business by 2025 if they fail to deploy AI (artificial intelligence) across their organisations, showed a study by Dublin, Ireland-based technology firm Accenture.