New Investors May Bring $150 Million To Zomato's Table
Finshorts | 6th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
MUMBAI: A set of four new risk investors is expected to join the ongoing $600-million financing round at online food delivery company Zomato, two people in the know of the matter said, signalling continued interest in India’s internet story despite the Covid-19 crisis upending businesses across the board. Hong Kong-based hedge fund Steadview Capital, South Korean Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, US hedge fund Luxor Capital and private equity firm Bow Wave Capital are likely to collectively pump $150 million into the company, these people said. UK’s Baillie Gifford, which had invested earlier in the round, will add more funds, a person familiar with the matter said. Interestingly, Mirae backed Zomato’s closest competitor, Swiggy, earlier this year through another vehicle – Mirae Asset Capital Markets.
SAVE THE DATE: Inflection Point Ventures And MoneyControl Join Hands To Launch Pitch Right
Finshorts | 6th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
Inflection Point Ventures, one of India’s largest and most active angel platforms, and Moneycontrol, one of India’s leading financial news platforms, are coming together to launch Pitch Right. Vinay Bansal, Founder CEO, Inflection Point Ventures, says, “We always stand for the founders as it is them who are fighting for the highest stake in the game. Since March, we have seen the funding tap being constantly squeezed leaving many early stage startups run on a dry cash flow. The macro triggers motivated us to seek a formidable partner in MoneyControl, a brand which is a trusted source of news, to become our co-passenger on this journey to find high potential entrepreneurs and startups and help them in their journey both with capital and mentoring.” Pitch Right will launch on October 8 with an AMA to be conducted with Vinay Bansal, Founder CEO, IPV and Ankur Mittal, Co-founder IPV, and to be moderated by Priyanka Sahay, Special Correspondent, MoneyControl. “India’s startup ecosystem is undergoing sweeping changes, changes that have the power and impact to resolve the complex challenges that the world faces today. Our partnership with Inflection Point will help founders with the most disruptive ideas find a stage that will provide them the scale and the direction to make them big,” said Binoy Prabhakar, Editor, Moneycontrol.
Sistema Asia Fund Plans $150-175 Million Vehicle For India
Finshorts | 6th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
NEW DELHI: Russian conglomerate Sistema Public Joint Stock Financial Corporation, an active investor in the Indian startup ecosystem through its Sistema Asia Fund, is thinking of raising a larger investment vehicle next year, a senior executive at the Moscow-headquartered fund told ET. The $120 million Sistema Asia Fund counts Rebel Foods, Lendingkart and Licious among its investment portfolio. The fund is targeting a larger corpus – $150-175 million, according to Sumit Jain, senior partner at Sistema Asia Fund Advisory. “It’s a little early to talk about it, but we think we will do a slightly bigger fund next, potentially $150 up to $175 million. We think that for the stage we operate in, and the size of opportunity we’re looking at, actually warrants a slightly larger fund. And slightly larger cheque sizes, as we look at fresh deals from the new fund,” Jain told ET in an exclusive interaction.
Uni Raises $18.5 Million Led By Lightspeed And Accel
Finshorts | 6th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
NEW DELHI: Fintech startup Uni has raised $18.5 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed India Partners and Accel Partners. Uni aims to bridge the gap in the credit card market by making them more accessible to consumers across different regions. “Over the last five years, we have witnessed a 3x acceleration of digital and electronic payment platforms the share of credit card payments has fallen drastically. There is an opportunity to expand the market from 58 million credit cards in India today to 200 million credit cards over the next 5 years by building new products, catering to underserved customer needs and getting new customer segments,” said Nitin Gupta, founder and CEO, Uni. The credit card market in India today is still under-penetrated as compared to digital payments, with just 34 million credit card users having 58 million credit cards whereas there are more than 100 million Indians today who pay digitally and electronically. “Credit cards is a very large and exciting market. It has over $100 billion in annual spends and still less than 2.5% of the Indian population has a credit card today. The opportunity in front of us is truly immense,” said Prayank Swaroop, Partner, Accel India.
2nd Largest Cinema Chain In U.S. Considers Closing All Theatres
Finshorts | 5th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
Regal Cinemas, the second-largest theatre chain in the United States, is considering closing all 543 of its theatres in the country due to continued revenue losses from the COVID-19 pandemic. Regal’s British parent company Cineworld said Sunday it is considering the move. “Fifty Regal locations are expected to keep operating during weekend hours.” In the United States, Regal is the No. 2 chain after AMC with 7,155 screens in 543 theaters in 42 states. They closed in mid-March due to the pandemic, and reopened where they could just prior to Warner Bros.’ release of “Tenet.” Deadline, a leading online entertainment industry news site, reported Sunday that the local cinema was hit by not only fewer viewers who are hesitating to see movies but also studios who continue to delay the release of big films amid the coronavirus pandemic. Large chains such as Regal count on blockbusters like the Bond films to sustain operations.
Almost Everyone At SoftBank Thinks Going Private Is A Bad Idea
Finshorts | 5th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
Inside SoftBank Group Corp., the idea of going private through a buyout has been discussed off and on for at least five years. Almost everyone except founder Masayoshi Son opposes it, people with direct knowledge of the matter said. Son has been frustrated that SoftBank’s market capitalization continues to fall far short of the value of his holdings, particularly Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Preliminary work on a buyout got under way after a record drop in SoftBank shares in March, but the effort was later tabled as the stock price more than doubled with asset sales, buybacks and media reports about a possible deal, one person said. One theory at SoftBank is that whenever Son gets too serious about the idea, executives leak to the media, so the share price rises and a buyout becomes less compelling. Asked whether there were factions within SoftBank with different opinions about a buyout, one insider laughed and said there’s no group in favor. As a banker, Misra had helped Son pull off the acquisition of Vodafone Group Plc’s Japanese wireless operations in Asia’s largest-ever leveraged buyout and thought a SoftBank buyout was feasible, the person said. After SoftBank shares tumbled in March with the coronavirus pandemic, Son returned to the idea of a buyout.
WhatsApp: Battered By Lockdown, How Small Businesses Used The World's Largest Messaging Platform To Bounce Back
Finshorts | 5th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
“For Sneha Sirivara, a Bengaluru-based entrepreneur running Sambar Stories, popular messaging platform WhatsApp has been a great way to connect with customers.Even during the pandemic, the free-to-download app has been a boon for her as it enabled her to effectively tap into a broader customer base, particularly the older generation that isn’t very comfortable placing orders online.”WhatsApp has been our main channel of contact with our. “Our groups on WhatsApp have helped us immensely in reaching out to the poor. We have created a WhatsApp group called Apni Roti Squad, which is mainly used to share the location of the roti-dispensing van so that anyone who wants to volunteer can come aboard,” says Bikash Agarwal, Founder of the social initiative, Apni Roti. “Small businesses are the heart of local communities and the engine that makes the economy go. WhatsApp cares deeply about the small business community and is playing an instrumental role in helping those across the country connect with their customers, increase sales and grow their businesses. That’s more important now than ever when digital tools can serve as a lifeline for businesses and customers to stay connected,” says Abhijit Bose, Head of India, WhatsApp. Why WhatsApp clicks?Today, despite a plethora of messaging apps available, a majority of users prefer WhatsApp over its other alternatives. Besides the mega deal, Jio Platforms, Reliance Retail, and WhatsApp also inked a deal to support small businesses on WhatsApp.
Paytm Launches Its Own Mini App Store
Finshorts | 5th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
BENGALURU : Digital payments firm Paytm has launched a mini-app store to support Indian developers, in a direct challenge to Google’s dominance in the space. The launch of the store follows the payment app being temporarily removed from Google’s Play Store on 18 September for violating developer guidelines on real-money gaming. While the removal of the app may be a trigger, Paytm’s move is perhaps a direct fallout of Google mandating that developers listed on its Play Store use its billing service. Last week, startup founders such as Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Razorpay’s Harshil Mathur, along with 50 other founders, discussed the possibility of building an Indian app store to challenge Google. “Other app stores have not been able to catch up with Google Play because they lack network effects. Google’s Play Store is mandatory to make use of Google Mobile Services, that includes other apps such as Google Maps,” Manjunath Bhat, senior director analyst at Gartner, told Mint last week. On 29 September, Google said, “Play distributed apps must use Google Play’s billing and revenue sharing system as the method of payment if they require or accept payment for access to features or services, including any app functionality, digital content or goods. This applies only to apps and has been purportedly done to prevent revenue leakages to Google from Google Play from January 2021.”.
Airbnb Aims To Raise Roughly $3 Billion In IPO: Report
Finshorts | 3rd Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
Home rental company Airbnb is aiming to raise around $3 billion in its upcoming initial public offering, people familiar with the matter said on Friday, taking advantage of the unexpectedly sharp recovery in its business after the Covid-19 pandemic roiled the travel industry. Airbnb will be one of the largest and most anticipated U.S. stock market listings of 2020 which has already been a blockbuster year for IPOs, featuring the likes of record label Warner Music Group, data analytics firm Palantir Technologies and data warehouse company Snowflake. Airbnb said in August it had filed confidentially for an IPO with U.S. regulators. This would be substantially higher than the $18 billion Airbnb was valued at in April when it raised $2 billion in debt from investors. Shares of U.S. online travel agency Booking Holdings Inc , which some Airbnb investors use as a conservative public market proxy for its own stock, have rebounded more than 35% in the past six months. Reuters reported last month that billionaire investor William Ackman had approached Airbnb about going public through a reverse merger with his blank-check company but that Airbnb was prioritizing going public through a traditional IPO..
This New Google Maps Update Will Give You A Better Direction Sense
Finshorts | 3rd Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
The Live View feature implements augmented reality to help show directions to Google Maps users in real time. Now, when the user selects or searches for a place on Google Maps, they can tap on the Live View button to visualize their destination in the real world. Live View will show how far away certain landmarks are from the user and what direction they need to take to get there. Live View can be accessed from the transit tab in Google Maps. While using transit directions, when the user comes across a portion that needs to be crossed on foot, Live View can be used to ease out navigation. The users will start seeing Live View in the transit tab and Location Sharing on Android and iOS in the coming weeks, along with a more accurate pin.
Amazon Alexa Auto Mode To Roll Out In India: Here's How It Aims To Make Cars Smarter
Finshorts | 3rd Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
The new Auto Mode aims to turn the user’s phone into a smart display that enhances Alexa’s in-vehicle voice experience. The company claims that the Auto Mode was designed to help the driver stay focused on the road with easy to read visuals, large touch targets and intuitive features and shortcuts for the most common actions used in the vehicle like navigating to saved locations, placing calls to contacts and Alexa devices, and playing recent media. According to the company’s official blog, the new Auto Mode is rolling out to Android and iOS in the coming weeks and will be available in India, U.S., Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, UK, Australia and New Zealand. Auto Mode consists of four screens – the Auto Mode home screen, Navigation, Communicate, and Play – and a persistent menu bar allows users to quickly switch between them. The Auto Mode home screen is designed to provide one-touch access to frequent actions, with shortcuts to play and pause current media source, navigate to home or work, and to make a call. As Alexa reads back the responses, Auto Mode displays a simplified list showing relevant information, allowing input via voice or touch.
IIT Delhi Startups Launch Antiviral Protection Kit
Finshorts | 3rd Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
NEW DELHI: Indian Institute of Technology Delhi incubated startups- E-TEX and Clensta- have partnered to launch an antiviral protection kit for masses. The antiviral kit consists of a novel Clensta protection lotion and hand sanitiser; E-TEX Kawach Antiviral T-Shirt and Kawach Mask. The products are backed up by experts from the chemical and textile departments of IIT Delhi. “It is indeed a proud moment for IIT Delhi to see such Indigenous technologies impacting and creating job opportunities amidst this pandemic and making India Atmanirbhar,” said V Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi. The antiviral fabric in E-TEX Kawach has been designed using advanced technology that inhibits hosting microbes, reduces the likelihood and speed of contaminations, and transmissions by destroying micro-organisms on contact. The antimicrobial property of the garment remains effective even after 30 washes at mild condition, stated a release issued by the IIT. Clensta Protection Lotion, launched under the brand name COVID-19 Protection Lotion, offers 99.9% virus protection with antiviral and antiseptic properties for up to 24 hours.
Ahead Of Festive Season, Amazon Infuses Rs 1,125 Crore Into India Marketplace Business
Finshorts | 2nd Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
Ahead of the festive season which is expected to boost economic sentiment, online retailer Amazon has pumped in Rs 1,125 crore into its India marketplace business, according to regulatory filings. Amazon has invested the money into Amazon Seller Services, which runs the India marketplace business. The money has been routed through two of its foreign units- Amazon Corporate Holdings in Singapore, and Amazon.com Inc Limited in Mauritius, according to filings accessed via Tofler. Earlier this week Amazon also said it has ramped up its delivery network in anticipation of high demand during the festive season. It has added close to 200 delivery stations, including those operated by delivery service partners across the country, including in remote northeastern towns such as Champhai, Kolasib, Lumding and Mokokchung. Amazon India has close to 250 Amazon-operated and more than 1,500 partner delivery stations run by more than 280 people across the country to enable deliveries across the country. This is also in line with e-commerce companies generally ramping up delivery infrastructure and raising funds from off-shore units to be sufficiently funded and efficient during the festive season.
India Open To Launching Own Mobile App Store As Start-Ups Criticise Google
Finshorts | 2nd Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
India is open to launching its own mobile app store or expanding an existing one if it receives enough demand from domestic firms for an alternative to Apple and Google platforms, a senior government official said on October 1. Alphabet-owned Google also said this week that it will strictly enforce a policy which will levy a 30 percent commission on payments made within apps on its Android store. India already runs a mobile app store that lists over 1200 mainly government-backed applications, but also Paytm, and the government could also consider expanding that instead of starting from scratch, the official added. Google has previously said that fewer than 3 percent of developers with apps on its Play store sold digital goods over the last 12 months, and nearly 97 percent comply with its payment system policy. Several Indian start-up founders are calling for a local app store that doesn’t charge a high service fee. “It’s absolutely necessary to have a local app store,” said Vishal Gondal, co-founder of Bengaluru-based gaming firm nCore Games. Paytm disagreed with Google’s assessment but removed certain promotions to have its app reinstated.
Lee Fixel Returns To India, Makes First Investment From New Fund Addition
Finshorts | 1st Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
After a hiatus of almost two years, Lee Fixel, the media shy former Tiger Global fund manager, known widely as the big bull of India’s consumer Internet story, is back to investing in local startups. Fixel, who launched his own $1.2 billion fund Addition in the US earlier this year, has led a $35 million round in Inshorts, a platform which aggregates news and information. His first new bet in India comes at a time when New York-based Tiger Global has been actively investing in the country under Scott Shleifer, who took over the private equity portfolio of the firm last year after Fixel’s departure. “We are profitable at Inshorts and raised this capital for our new app Public. With more than 50 million active users and over 1 million videos being created every month on the app, Public aims to connect the local communities of Bharat and become the one-stop solution for all their local needs,” Iqbal said. Fixel has invested in DLocal, a cross-border payment processor, mental health startup Lyra Health, developer-first security company Snyk, among others.
India Tries To Beat The Pandemic, The Health-Startup Way!
Finshorts | 1st Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
Now, Indian health tech startups are reaping the benefits of growing awareness among Indians as more take to working out at home. Sharing its revenue figures, Chief Executive Officer Jitendra Chouksey said the company had recorded $800,000 in revenue in August, and was looking to clock $900,000 in September. Another Bengaluru-based fitness platform, Healthifyme, has reported a revenue run rate of $15 million in August. Revenue run rate is what the company would make in a year, if it were to make the same revenue for the next twelve months. Consumers are driven to these platforms by the need to invest in health and ensure that co-morbidities such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes and other related lifestyle diseases can be controlled. Fitness experts have pointed out since COVID-19 is turning out to be less fatal for healthy humans, many people are choosing a healthy lifestyle and working out regularly. Cult Fit, which is the fitness service offered by the Bengaluru-based startup, has used celebrity trainers, and a wide range of live classes of different types to get users to the platform through the pandemic.
Sunstone Raises Rs 24 Crore In Series A From Saama Capital, Others
Finshorts | 1st Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
Sunstone Eduversity has raised Rs 24 crore in its Series A round of funding led by Saama Capital along with participation from venture capitalist Ashish Gupta and PeopleStrong co-founder Pankaj Bansal, who invested in their personal capacities. The education technology company will use the fresh capital to invest in its technology platform, hiring and curriculum. Sunstone works closely with corporates to develop industry-ready specialisations across sectors like BFSI, logistics, analytics, sales management and digital marketing and others. Sunstone tries to produce students who are ready to foray into the job market right after college and have the desired skill sets required to manage daily office work. The company had received 10,000 applications this year compared to 2,500 last year. Founded by IMT-Ghaziabad alumnus Ashish Munjal and Piyush Nangru, Sunstone has eight partner institutions in six cities and will have 20 partners in 15 cities by July 2021.”One of the challenges faced by freshers is the lack of industry-relevant skills that reduce their chances of getting hired by reputed companieswe focus on imparting practical skills training instead of outdated theory and remote learning methods. For the batch of 2019-21, we generated more than 450 Internship offers even during this pandemic,” Co-Founder Ashish Munjal said.
Social Network App Public Raises $35 Million From Lee Fixel's Addition, Others
Finshorts | 1st Oct, 2020 | 1 min read
BENGALURU: Location-based social network app Public has raised $35 million from venture capitalist Lee Fixel’s Addition, SIG Global and Tanglin Venture Partners. Tiger Global, advised by Fixel, was one of the most active investors in India consumer internet companies, making early bets in Flipkart, Ola and Quikr India Pvt Ltd. Public App is social network platformfor everything local – from local updates and happenings to local commerce, jobs, classifieds and more. “We are thrilled to have this support from Addition, SIG Global and Tanglin Venture Partners in our journey towards building the world’s largest location based social network,” said Azhar Iqubal, Founder & CEO, Public App. “With more than 50 million active users and over 1 million videos being created every month on the app, Public aims to connect the local communities of Bharat and become the one stop solution for all their local needs,” Iqubal added. After its launch last year, Public app is now available in multiple Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Assamese, Gujarati and Marathi. It has around 50 million active users, with one million videos being created every month. The app allows people to record and share happenings around them enabling real-time local updates.
The Big 5G Question Before India
Finshorts | 30th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
In India, 5G has the potential to bring major societal transformation and support the government’s flagship schemes in infrastructure, development and e-governance. Key ministries and departments in the government have worked on policy documents, reports and papers to help build a concrete roadmap to deploy 5G in India. A final decision on allowing Huawei to build India’s 5G networks remains an open one. The opinion of India’s largest mobile operators can significantly influence the government’s decision on any future 5G policy. A recurring concern for all nations – including India – has been operational risks and vulnerabilities related to security. A proposed way to offset security concerns is to boost indigenous development of the 5G technology – an important step given that India imports 90 percent of its telecom equipment. There can be only two scenarios for New Delhi: one, where it allows Huawei to supply India’s 5G network, or another, where it bans Huawei and other Chinese vendors.
Of All The EV Startups, Why Is Ather Energy's Valuation Down?
Finshorts | 30th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
The dip in valuation is beyond comprehension, especially when seen against the fact that Ather is the only EV startup to have a product in the market. From a mere Rs 35 crore in 2017 when TVS made its maiden stake-buy in Ultraviolette, the startup’s valuation has increased to a whopping Rs 805 crore as of September first week when TVS increased its stake to 29.48 percent, with an infusion of Rs 30 crore. Incorporated in 2015, Pune-based startup Tork Motors is yet to launch its first all-electric product but the valuation of the Bharat Forge-backed company is at Rs 113 crore. The Series A2 fundraising done a few months ago saw Yulu’s valuation increase to Rs 585 crore after venture capital fund Rocketship. Engine manufacturer Greaves Cotton acquired a 67 percent stake in the 10 year-old, Ratan Tata-backed start-up Ampere Vehicles in 2018 for Rs 77 crore, thereby giving it a valuation of Rs 115 crore. After having bought the remaining stake, Ampere’s valuation shot up to Rs 325 crore in less than 18 months. This transaction gave Ather a valuation of little under Rs 2,550 crore.