Fidelity Investments has slashed the value of its holding in social e-commerce firm Meesho by 33.6%, while fraud mitigation platform ClearTrust has raised $1.9 million in a funding round.
Fidelity slashes Meesho valuation to $3.5b
Fidelity Investments has slashed the value of its holding in social e-commerce firm Meesho by 33.6%, TechCrunch reported citing Fidelity’s monthly disclosure.
Meesho, which was valued at $4.1 billion at the end of October last year, is now valued at $3.5 billion by Fidelity, added the report.
Founded in 2015, Meesho works by building a network of “social sellers” to help suppliers distribute their products nationwide. It enables resellers to reach their customers via social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. In its home market India, Meesho claims it hosted 140 million unique transacting users in the last 12 months.
Meesho turned profitable last year amid changing investor expectations from ‘growth over profitability’ metrics to ‘profitability at all costs’, leading Indian startups to hunker down and slash expenses, lay off employees, and diversify revenue streams to fight the prolonged funding winter.
Cybersecurity platform ClearTrust raises $1.9m
Fraud mitigation platform ClearTrust has raised $1.9 million in a funding round, according to a LinkedIn post.
Tech investor Ideaspring Capital led the funding round, while Piper Serica and Pentathlon Ventures participated in the funding. The company plans to use the new funding to expand to North America, looking to be a global player in the next 2-3 years.
“Ad frauds are an escalating threat to the advertising industry that will cost advertisers about $170 billion in 2028, as per various reports. We feel ClearTrust has created some cutting-edge technologies to tackle these challenges head-on and efficiently, making it easier for companies to spot invalid and fake ad activity,” said Abhay Agarwal, founder of Piper Serica Angel Fund.
Founded in 2020, ClearTrust’s platform mitigates ad fraud, filters out invalid clicks, prevents ads from getting displayed on suspicious sources, and analyses page views and user visits.
The company had raised its seed funding in 2021 from ThinkNext (Modulor Capital) and Pentathlon Ventures.