Facebook’s research on India; Groww triples in value; Clear raises $75 mln; and a chat with Razorpay’s Shashank Kumar

Facebook, which sees India as a vital market, is also a platform used for spreading hate and misinformation in the country, Bloomberg reports, citing a 46-page research note that is part of the documents released by Frances Haugen, the former Facebook product manager who turned whistleblower. The report — ‘An Indian test user’s descent into a sea of polarizing, nationalist messages’ — shows how little control Facebook has in one of its most important markets, where it has also invested close to $6 billion into a partnership with Reliance Industries, the country’s biggest conglomerate, according to the Bloomberg report, which is behind a paywall, but was also carried by Economic Times. Meanwhile, Haugen gives evidence, today, to the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Britain’s draft Online Safety Bill. This follows her testimony to the US Congress on Oct. 5. It will be the first public evidence she has given in Europe regarding her experiences at the company and her ideas to regulate social media. Facebook, which is expected to announce a new name for itself later this week, also reports its latest quarterly results today. Groww, an online investment platform provider in Bangalore, has raised $251 million in its series E round of venture capital funding, tripling its valuation to $3 billion, TechCrunch reports. The investment was led by Iconic Growth, joined by Alkeon, Lone Pine Capital and Steadfast as well as existing investors Sequoia Capital India, Ribbit Capital, YC Continuity, Tiger Global, and Propel Venture Partners. Groww was founded in 2016 by four former Flipkart employees. It has now raised more than $390 million so far, and was valued at $1 billion in April this year. Clear, which makes the popular tax filing platform ClearTax for consumers, has raised $75 million in series C funding, led by Kora Capital, Stripe, Alua Capital, Think Investments and existing investors. The funds will be used to accelerate Clear’s expansion into lending and payments for business customers, and into international markets. Clear’s cloud platform grew five-fold in the last 18 months, adding more than 3000 large enterprise customers. It also saw a surge in usage with over one million small businesses on the platform, which now processes more than 10 percent of India’s business invoices with a GMV of $400 billion, according to the company. Clear recently acquired yBANQ to expand into B2B payments. (3:18) Interview: Shashank Kumar, co-founder and CTO, Razorpay, on RBI’s rules, and finding and nurturing talent in India. When Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur teamed up to start Razorpay, most folks asked them why they were starting another payments gateway, and the duo had little knowledge of the financial sector in India, he recalls. Today, the Bengaluru company has become one of India's best known fintech successes, and a rapidly expanding platform for digital banking, lending, insurance, payroll management and a growing list of other financial services for a large number of customers. I caught up with Shashank for a quick update, and he spoke about topics including RBI's new rules and how Razorpay attracts and retains talented people. Here's more from our conversation.