Today’s top tech news: Why you don't need to fear the 2019 tech IPO boom, WhatsApp’s funding startups and an app that turns your phone into a robot

Five startups — Medcords, Melzo, Javis, Gramophone and MinionLabs — just won $50,000 each through the ‘Startup India — WhatsApp Grand Challenge’. The program asked innovators all over the country to come out and present their solution for India’s socio-economic problems. The event received over 1,700 pitches but only five made to the end.

The payments solution startup, Razorpay, just raised another $75 million in a series C round of fucning. And with its new found wealth, the company plans on hiring 350 new people to come on board by 2020— doubling its current workforce.

Not everyone can build a robot but what if you all you had to do was open an app on your phone to turn your device into a robot? VRa, an embedded app presented at the DIS 2019 in San Diego can do just that.

Karthik Ramani, the leader researcher on the project, says that the aim of developing the app was to bring down costs for smaller companies that don’t necessarily have the funds to build their own robot and software programmes.

The global premium smartphone market is shrinking and while Samsung has hit an annual high, Apple’s market share has dropped by 20%. According to Counterpoint research, this is probably because users are holding onto their iPhones for longer.