Startup news and updates: daily roundup (March 24, 2021)

Healthtech startup Cancer Clinics closes pre-Series A round from Axilor, others (Funding)

Hyderabad-based healthtech startup Cancer Clinics recently closed pre-Series A funding of $1.5 million led by Axilor Ventures. With this, M-Venture Partners (MVP), a Singapore based early-stage fund, also marked its debut in India. NATCO Pharma Limited, Hyderabad-based pharma and infrastructure entrepreneurs, leaders of Bharti group, senior partners from McKinsey, and ISB alumni also participated in the round.

Fintech startup Velocity raises $10.3 M in seed round led by Valar Ventures (Funding)

Bengaluru-based fintech startup Velocity, founded by IIT Bombay graduates a year ago, and which provides collateral free loans to online businesses, has raised $10.3 million in seed funding led by Valar Ventures, a US-based VC firm backed by Peter Thiel. The other investors who participated in this seed round include founding investors Mato Peric and Tom Stafford (DST Global) as well as Presight Capital, Utsav Somani’s iSeed, Oliver Jung (LAO Holdings), Robert Frohwein (Kabbage), Dhruv Arora (Syfe) and Erik Podzuweit & Florian Prucker (Scalable Capital).

Prince Harry joins coaching startup as Chief Impact Officer

Prince Harry has joined the corporate world as employee coaching and mental health firm BetterUp Inc's Chief Impact Officer. Financial terms of his employment were undisclosed. BetterUp, based in San Francisco, works with employees from companies including Mars, AB InBev and LinkedIn on coaching and mental health services. 

Amid rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, Google CEO sends consoling email to employees

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet, Google's parent company, sent an email to employees noting the Atlanta shootings’ effect on the company’s large Asian population. According to CNBC, Pichai sent the email last week after a shooting spree in Georgia which killed eight people, including six Asian women. This spurred nationwide protests over the weekend. 

Tableau CEO Adam Selipsky returns to Amazon to head its cloud business, replacing Andy Jassy

Amazon is witnessing a few additions and changes to its top leadership positions. Tableau Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and former Amazon executive, Adam Selipsky, will be the next CEO of the tech giant's cloud business- Amazon Web Services (AWS). Adam will be stepping into the shoes of Andy Jassy who was announced as Amazon's new CEO after Jeff Bezos announced to step down in February this year. 

Food brand Happy Jars raises Rs 3 Cr in seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures (Funding)

Delhi-based food brand offering natural peanut butter, Happy Jars, on Wednesday announced that it has raised Rs 3 crore in its seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures. Started in 2018, it is the 8th deal of IPV for 2021 , who are likely to invest Rs 155 crore this year across 60 plus startups.

Public App by Inshorts raises Rs 300 Cr led by A91 Partners

Public App, a location-based social network backed by news aggregator startup Inshorts, has secured Rs 300 crore in funding from A91 Partners with participation from existing investors. It had raised Rs 260 crore in funding led by Addition, along with SIG and Tanglin Venture Partners, six months ago.