Two arrested for links to 2016 crypto heist worth $4.5 bln today; Razorpay makes Malaysian acquisition; Airmeet raises $35 mln

Two arrested in connection to 2016 crypto heist worth $4.5 billion today The US Department of Justice has arrested two people in connection to a crypto heist in 2016. The two, Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, are accused of conspiring to launder cryptocurrency that was stolen during a hack of Bitfinex, a virtual currency exchange, in 2016, presently valued at approximately $4.5 billion. Thus far, law enforcement officials have seized over $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency linked to that hack, the justice department said in a statement yesterday. Razorpay starts international expansion with Malaysian acquisition Razorpay has acquired a majority stake in Curlec, a Malaysian fintech company, as part of its strategy to expand into Southeast Asia, the Bangalore based payments and financial services platform company said in a press release yesterday. Kuala Lumpur-based Curlec, founded in 2018, is building solutions for recurring payments for modern businesses of all sizes, according to the release. Razorpay didn't provide any details on the terms of the transaction, which marks its first overseas acquisition and fourth overall. Startup news Airmeet, an online meeting software provider, has raised $35 million in Series B funding. New investors Prosus Ventures, Sistema Asia Fund, RingCentral Ventures, KDDI Open Innovation Fund, DG Daiwa Ventures and Nexxus Global participated alongside existing investors Sequoia Capital India and Accel India, the company said in a press release. Mudrex, a Y Combinator-backed crypto startup with operations in Bangalore and Silicon Valley, has raised $6.5 million in a pre-series A round from Arkam Ventures, Tribe Capital, and Bolt by QED Investors. This round follows $2.5 million in seed funding four months ago led by Nexus Venture Partners and Village Global with participation from Kunal Shah, Anand Chandrashekharan and Anjali Bansal. US-based SaaS blockchain orchestration platform Cion Digital, dedicated to R&D and crypto financing and payment solutions, is opening its first office in India. The expansion strategy includes setting up an R&D centre in Pune, investing Rs. 50 crore. And Cion aims to hire more than 100 engineers with expertise in blockchain technology. TrayamBhu Tech Solutions, a blockchain startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed money from US-based Octave Ventures and others, the company said in a press release. TrayamBhu plans to develop newer blockchain products on climate tech covering ESG, Carbon Credit, and Tokenisation Carbon Assets. Infina, a Vietnamese startup targeting millennials interested in the capital markets, has raised $6 million in seed funding from investors including Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, Y Combinator, Saison Capital, Starling Ventures, Alpha JWC, and AppWorks. GoalTeller, an automated financial planning platform provider, has raised $500,000 in pre-series A funding, the company said in a press release. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds