Applications
Silicon Valley’s Peel buys Fission Labs R&D; names Kishore Poreddy as India head
MUMBAI: Just before the much-anticipated visit by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Silicon Valley to focus on supporting innovation & technology in India, California based company Peel has acquired the Cloud R&D division of Hyderabad-based Fission Labs, which will now become Peel India.
Fission Labs CEO and co-founder Kishore Poreddy will become the head of Peel India.
A key player in smart home control, Peel has been working on a variety of cloud computing projects with Fission Labs over the last few years. As a result of this acquisition, the founders of Fission Labs, specializing in high end, scalable cloud-based solutions, data analytics, web and mobile applications, cloud management and testing services, along with about 30 software engineers will become part of Peel in India.
Peel makes it easy for Indian consumers to switch to a smartphone remote because it works with all popular brands of TVs and air conditioners sold in India, and 600 set-top boxes (STBs), including those from Airtel, Tata Sky, Dish TV, Hathway, DEN and Siti Cable. For Indian consumers, Peel features TV listings from WhatsOnIndia.
In addition to being used to control TVs, STBs and other entertainment devices, the Peel Smart Remote app is also optimized to control multiple brands of air conditioners and heaters, with more smart home devices planned for the future.
“Asia and South Asia, particularly India, are very important growth markets for us, which has 125 million registered users of the Peel Smart Remote app that brings universal remote control and intelligent content discovery to smartphones. A Wharton Business School graduate, Indian-origin Thiru started his career at Apple as an engineer and product manager, where he helped author the first Mac OS X build system,” said Peel CEO and co-founder Thiru Arunachalam.
“We’re big believers in the Make in India initiative, which has created the perfect environment to set up a local entity to help us innovate more effectively for the global market,” added Peel co-founder and chief product officer Bala Krishnan.
Krishnan, who holds engineering degrees from the University of Madras and University of Arizona, spearheaded the acquisition.
Peel offers a “full stack” solution to help smartphone manufacturers introduce IR remote control to their products, including SmartIR firmware, hardware sourcing, cloud services and the Peel Smart Remote app. Several Indian phone manufacturers and distributors, including Alcatel OneTouch, Celkon, Karbonn, Panasonic, and Xolo, have already integrated the Peel solution into their phones, along with HTC, TCL and Samsung.
“This is an exciting time to be doing R&D in India. Peel’s user base in India and globally is doubling every nine months and we look forward to playing a major role in ensuring continued future growth and innovation, particularly in the area of cloud scalability,” said Poreddy.
The company now has offices in the US, China, India, and South Korea, and this acquisition brings the company’s total headcount to about 100 employees worldwide.
With a three-year sales growth of 1607 per cent, Alibaba-funded Peel ranked 287 among the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies this year.
Applications
With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
