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Sep 11
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Walmart To Test Drone Delivery Of Grocery, Household Items In Battle With Amazon

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Walmart To Test Drone Delivery Of Grocery, Household Items In Battle With Amazon

Published on 10th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read

Walmart Inc said on Wednesday it would run a pilot project for delivery of grocery and household products through automated drones, along with end-to-end delivery firm Flytrex, as the U.S. retailer looks to beef up its delivery business. Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart said the test would start on Wednesday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, with cloud-controlled drones picking up and dropping off select items. “We know that it will be some time before we see millions of packages delivered via drone. That still feels like a bit of science fiction,” Tom Ward, senior vice-president, customer products, said in a statement. The company has accelerated the expansion of its pick-up and delivery services in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, as virus-wary consumers increasingly prefer having items delivered at their doorsteps. Walmart, whose U.S. online sales doubled in the second quarter, has previously partnered with Ford Motor Co and self-driving vehicle startups Gatik and Nuro to explore delivery through autonomous vehicles.

Sep 11
0

Zomato raises $103 million from Tiger Global, looks to go public by mid-2021

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Zomato raises $103 million from Tiger Global, looks to go public by mid-2021

Published on 11th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read

Bengaluru: Foodtech unicorn Zomato has raised $103 million from New York- based investment firm Tiger Global Management as part of its ongoing Series-J financing, according to regulatory filings. Swiggy raised $156 million in March quarter of 2020 from Naspers and others. As Zomato looks to attract new investors to the company, these funds raising efforts might be its last before it hits the public markets. This investment from Tiger Global comes a week after the Gurugram-based foodtech major closed $62 million from MacRitchie Investments Pte. The company in March raised $5 million from Pacific Horizon Investment Trust, which is managed by UK-based Baillie Gifford & Co. Ltd. Earlier in July, Zomato said that its revenues doubled to $394 million, although it recorded a loss of $293 million, for the fiscal year 2019-20. In FY19, the food aggregator unicorn reported a revenue of $192 million and a loss of $277 million. In its latest report, Zomato estimated that business for the food delivery industry will come back to pre-covid levels in the next 2-3 months, with 70% of restaurants on its platform delivering food at present.

Sep 11
0

US Startup Lightmatter Looking To Speed Up Computing Via Light

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US Startup Lightmatter Looking To Speed Up Computing Via Light

Published on 11th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read

The idea of using light instead of electricity in computing has been around for decades. Boston-based startup Lightmatter Inc. believes the technology’s time has finally come. It is pitching the solution to big data center operators, such as Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google, which is an investor via GV, venture capital arm of parent Alphabet Inc. The startup’s technology uses tiny structures called “Wave guides” that redirect light. Known as silicon photonics, turn the light into electrical signals that existing computing gear can understand. The system can send data between components 100 times quicker than the fastest PC and uses 10% of the energy, according to Lightmatter co-founder Nick Harris. With data centers forecast to account for more than 15% of global power use in the next five years, anything that saves electricity is valuable, Harris said. The Lightmatter system speeds this up immensely, he said.

Sep 11
0

Start-Ups Incubated By DST Generated 65,864 Jobs, Created Around Rs 27,262 Crore Wealth

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Start-Ups Incubated By DST Generated 65,864 Jobs, Created Around Rs 27,262 Crore Wealth

Published on 11th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read

Start-ups incubated by the Department of Science and Technology generated 65,864 jobs as cumulative direct employment and created wealth of Rs 27,262 crores from 2014-19, according to a report launched by the DST this week. The report on the journey of the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board in catalysing innovation, entrepreneurship, and incubation was launched by DST secretary Ashutosh Sharma at an online programme earlier this week, a statement by the DST said. This activation process included a range of measures like establishment of a network of technology business incubators, scouting innovations, supporting ideas to prototypes, enabling transition from being innovators to start-ups, provision of timely seed funding to the incubated start-ups, and support to scale up the start-ups through focused mentorship, partnerships, and networks. The collective strength and power of NIDHI program, the DST’s incubator network and its start-ups was tested successfully during the COVID-19 pandemic through the Centre for Augmenting WAR with COVID-19 Health Crisis program by supporting various solutions to resolve the crisis, it added. The nurturing of 3,681 start-ups under incubation through the network of 153 incubators created by DST, generation of 1,992 intellectual property has been reported.

Sep 11
0

Electric-Car Startup Lucid To Follow Tesla Into Energy Storage

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Electric-Car Startup Lucid To Follow Tesla Into Energy Storage

Published on 11th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read

Lucid Motors Inc., the electric-vehicle startup that has yet to build a production car, is following Tesla Inc.’s footsteps into the energy-storage business. His comments came ahead of the unveiling Wednesday of the production version of Lucid’s Air electric sedan, which the company says has an EPA estimated range of 517 miles and claims is the fastest-charging EV ever. Lucid has an agreement with LG Chem Ltd. for the cells in its battery packs. The fund – which invested more than $1 billion in Lucid in 2018, giving it a much-needed injection of cash and credibility – declined to comment when asked about any energy-storage discussions. Lucid has catching up to do in both EVs and energy storage. The timing of Lucid’s move into energy storage is odd because the company has yet to start production on its EV, according to James Frith, a BloombergNEF analyst and head of energy storage. Lucid is aiming to begin assembly of the cars, and the battery packs that will power them, by year-end at a plant under construction in Casa Grande, Arizona.

Sep 07
0

TikTok and its employees prepare to fight Trump over app ban

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TikTok and its employees prepare to fight Trump over app ban

Published on 14th August, 2020 | 1 min read

TikTok and its US employees are planning to take President Donald Trump’s administration to court over his sweeping order to ban the popular video app, according to a lawyer preparing one of the lawsuits. Trump last week ordered sweeping but vague bans on dealings with the Chinese owners of TikTok and messaging app WeChat, saying they are a threat to US national security, foreign policy and the economy. The TikTok order would take effect in September, but it remains unclear what it will mean for the apps’ 100 million U.S. users, many of them teenagers or young adults who use it to post and watch short-form videos. The order would prohibit “Any transaction by any person” with TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance. TikTok didn’t return multiple requests for comment this week. The Fifth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution safeguard life, liberty and property from arbitrary government action lacking “Due process of law.” Microsoft is in talks to buy parts of TikTok, in a potential sale that’s being forced under Trump’s threat of a ban. The looming ban has annoyed TikTok users, some of them Trump supporters like Pam Graef of Metairie, Louisiana.

Sep 07
0

Walmart’s Flipkart eyes alcohol delivery foray with Indian startup, letters show

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Walmart's Flipkart eyes alcohol delivery foray with Indian startup, letters show

Published on 15th August, 2020 | 1 min read

NEW DELHI: Walmart’s e-commerce platform Flipkart has partnered with a startup backed by spirits giant Diageo to deliver alcohol in two Indian cities, according to government letters seen by Reuters, months after Amazon planned a similar foray. Flipkart and Amazon’s interest in delivering alcohol in India marks a bold move to make inroads into an alcohol market that is worth $27.2 billion, according to estimates by IWSR Drinks Market Analysis. The local governments of eastern West Bengal and Odisha states have said that Flipkart can be associated as a technology service provider of Diageo -backed HipBar, an Indian alcohol home delivery mobile application. HipBar, 26% owned by Diageo India, and Flipkart did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In June, Reuters reported that Amazon had secured clearance to deliver alcohol in West Bengal, signalling the U.S. e-commerce giant’s foray into the sector. Some states in India, like Gujarat in the west, prohibit alcohol retail. India’s top two food-delivery startups, Swiggy and Zomato, have also started delivering alcohol in some cities, as companies look to cash in on the high demand for booze from people staying at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sep 07
0

Unacademy in talks to raise $150 million, led by SoftBank

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Unacademy in talks to raise $150 million, led by SoftBank

Published on 15th August, 2020 | 1 min read

BENGALURU: Unacademy is finalising a deal to raise around $150 million led by SoftBank, sources in the know told ET, boosting the ed-tech startup’s pre-money valuation to $1.3 billion, second only to industry leader Byju’s. Unacademy last picked up $110 million from Facebook and PE firm General Atlantic in February, at a valuation of $510 million. A SoftBank spokesperson said the firm will not comment on market “Speculation”. The fundraising will mark the first investment in an Indian firm by SoftBank since December, when it had backed eyewear retailer Lenskart. SoftBank Vision Fund’s other big Indian portfolio companies such as budget hotels chain Oyo and digital payments platform Paytm have also been under the scanner due to mounting losses. News website moneycontrol.com was the first to report SoftBank’s plans to invest in Unacademy on Friday. The likely funding from SoftBank comes after Unacademy saw a spike in online learners in the days following the Covid-19 outbreak.

Sep 07
0

SoftBank commits $1.1 billion to WeWork amid membership drop

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SoftBank commits $1.1 billion to WeWork amid membership drop

Published on 15th August, 2020 | 1 min read

SoftBank Group Corp. is adding $1.1 billion to its WeWork commitment as the co-working company weathers declining membership amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a staff memo obtained by Bloomberg News. While WeWork’s second-quarter revenue rose 9% to $882 million from a year earlier, that marked a decline from its $1.1 billion haul in this year’s first three months. Still, the cash burn was less than the $1.3 billion in WeWork’s peak outflow in the fourth quarter of 2019, Ross noted. The new investment from SoftBank comes after its roughly $100 billion Vision Fund recorded losses after writing down WeWork’s valuation to $2.9 billion, down more than 90% from its $47 billion peak. SoftBank has invested more than $10 billion in WeWork. Last month, We Co., the parent of WeWork, asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by two of its board members against SoftBank for reneging on a $3 billion offer to buy the co-working company’s closely held shares. The new debt financing replaces a $1.1 billion commitment that was conditional on the tender offer agreed to last October, a SoftBank representative said.

Sep 07
0

For Nykaa, fashion is the next biggest frontier

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For Nykaa, fashion is the next biggest frontier

Published on 15th August, 2020 | 1 min read

Bengaluru: Online beauty retailer Nykaa, which entered the unicorn club recently, is betting big on fashion and has seen sales recover by over 90% compared to pre-covid levels, said a top executive. “Fashion may be nearly 20% of our GMV in the near term. And we are working towards building it to almost 40% of our business in the next 3-5 years … our fashion category is already trending 160% of February levels,” Falguni Nayar, founder and CEO, Nykaa said in an interview. As covid-19 continues to disrupt businesses, Nykaa is capitalising on the trend of offline fashion retailers trying to sell their inventory online, as customers flock to shop virtually. “However, we at Nykaa pride ourselves on a small percentage of our goods being discounted. With offline stores being disrupted, fashion brands want to sell 20-30% of their goods on e-commerce, and with that they are bringing their new seasons online,” she said. “For a lot of fashion brands, which continue to look at India as a strong growth market, and establish a presence, Nykaa is not just an online retailer, but also has a strong omni-channel play with offline stores. And brands are looking to partner with us to not just help them create a presence but also retail their products, creating an end-to-end.” said Anchit Nayar, CEO, Retail, Nykaa.