News Archives - Page 3 of 23 - Finsights Solutions

Oct 13

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FreshToHome In Talks For Fresh $130 Million Funding

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FreshToHome In Talks For Fresh $130 Million Funding

Finshorts | 13th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read

BENGALURU: FreshToHome is finalising a $130-million round from a clutch of investors, including Investcorp, Saudi corporate venture capital firm Raed Ventures, Middle East Oils and Grains and US International Development Finance Corporation, as per three people aware of developments as well as regulatory filings. Existing investors Iron Pillar and Ascent Capital, and new backer David Wehner, chief financial officer of Facebook, also participated, filings showed separately. Ascent Capital has already invested about $16 million, while DFC has committed $20 million, the public disclosures showed. The funding round values the direct-to-consumer fresh foods firm at $380-$400 million post money, one of the people told ET. “The final deal contours are likely to close in the next few weeks,” the person said. The round reinforces investor appetite in the direct-to-home delivery segment, a business that accelerated after the outbreak. Investors have also been attracted by its focus on providing farmers and fishermen with capital and technology support. “They are now looking at expansion of both categories and cities with the new financing round.”

Oct 13

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Walmart, Flipkart Invest $30 Million In Ninjacart

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Walmart, Flipkart Invest $30 Million In Ninjacart

Finshorts | 13th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read

BENGALURU : US-based retailer Walmart Inc. and Flipkart Group have made an additional investment in Bengaluru-based fresh produce supply startup Ninjacart, the companies said in a joint statement on Monday. According to a person familiar with the development, Walmart and Flipkart have invested around $30 million in Ninjacart. “At the Flipkart Group, we are focused on ensuring that we continue to work towards developing new and innovative ways to meet our customers’ needs in this space through the growth of Supermart and the recent launch of Flipkart Quick,” Krishnamurthy said in a statement. Flipkart has been leveraging Ninjacart’s fresh produce supply chain, and strengthening its direct sourcing for Supermart, its online grocery service as well as its hyperlocal delivery service Flipkart Quick. “The fresh set of investments from Walmart and the Flipkart Group takes us one step closer to our vision of making food safe and accessible for the billion people and changing the way food reaches our plate. We will continue to invest in areas that impact the lives of customers and farmers positively,” said Thirukumaran Nagarajan, CEO and co-founder, Ninjacart.

Oct 12

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GIC, Sequoia In Razorpay’s $100 Million Round; Valuation May Hit $1 Billion

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GIC, Sequoia In Razorpay's $100 Million Round; Valuation May Hit $1 Billion

Finshorts | 12th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read

Payments company Razorpay has closed a $100 million financing round co-led by GIC, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore, and existing investor Sequoia Capital, in the process topping $1 billion in valuation, and becoming the first Indian neo-bank to hit that benchmark. “India has made significant strides in establishing a digital payments ecosystem and Razorpay has established itself as a clear leader, with its strong focus on customer experience and product innovation. GIC has a long track record of partnering with leading fintech companies globally and is delighted to partner with Razorpay in its journey to transform payments and banking,” Choo Yong Cheen, chief investment officer for private equity at GIC, said in a statement. “India’s digital ecosystem is seeing unprecedented growth with online shoppers expected to cross 350 million by 2025. This trend of digitisation is penetrating India across social strata and geography and Razorpay is playing a pivotal role in this transformation by enabling millions of merchants to accept digital payments in a frictionless and efficient manner. They have expanded the breadth of products and solutions rapidly across payments and banking and are becoming a platform for all financial technology needs of their customers,” Ishaan Mittal, principal, Sequoia Capital India, said. According to him, on an annualised basis, Razorpay is processing payment volumes of more than $400 billion, with RazorpayX and Razorpay Capital contributing 15%-20% to its overall topline.

Oct 12

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Robotics Startup Miko Raises ₹23 Crore Led By Stride Ventures

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Robotics Startup Miko Raises ₹23 Crore Led By Stride Ventures

Finshorts | 12th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read

NEW DELHI: Robotics start-up Miko raised ₹23 crore in a pre-series B round led by Stride Ventures. After the success of their first generation of Miko robot, the company launched Miko 2, a robot that can see, hear, sense, express, talk, recognise faces, remember names, identify moods, initiate a conversation and learn from its own environment to intuitively develop a bond with a child. “Our growth journey till Miko 2 was about creating a product that meets the needs of today’s parents who seek a positive and trusted gateway of technology. Miko 2 has now evolved into a powerful content subscription platform with global content alliances. We are on track to surpass the 100,000-user mark in the coming quarters with Miko,” said Sneh R Vaswani, co-founder and CEO, Miko. Ishpreet Gandhi, founder & managing partner, Stride Ventures said, “At Stride, it is our mission to make the credit ecosystem more accessible to startups. The investment in Miko represents Stride’s commitment to enabling frontier technologies that have the potential to disrupt the status quo. We are proud to be associated with a company that is revolutionizing pedagogy through interactive IoT.”. Stride Ventures launched its maiden fund in 2019 with a target corpus of ₹500 crore and plans to invest in 35-40 startups over the next 3 years.

Oct 10

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PlayStation Inventor Starts New Career Making Robots For No Pay

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PlayStation Inventor Starts New Career Making Robots For No Pay

Finshorts | 10th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read

Ken Kutaragi, the legendary inventor of the PlayStation gaming console, is taking on one of the hardest jobs in robotics. Kutaragi, 70, wants to make affordable robots that can safely move around and do physical work alongside humans in factories and logistics centers, and aims to have a working prototype in about a year. “The Covid-19 outbreak has turned the old argument about robots taking our jobs on its head,” Kutaragi said in his first interview since taking the helm in August. “If you are looking to combine robotics and mobility, you need someone in charge who understands technology,” Kutaragi said. Kutaragi also demonstrated a keen sense of technology trends, famously shipping the PlayStation 2 with a DVD player and spurring the adoption of the new laser disc technology. Kutaragi has served as Ascent’s outside board director since 2018 and took over the CEO post on Aug. 26. Masayuki Ishizaki, who preceded Kutaragi as CEO, has become the company’s chief operating officer.

Oct 10

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Law Firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas Unveils Second Batch Of Legal-Tech Startup Incubator

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Law Firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas Unveils Second Batch Of Legal-Tech Startup Incubator

Finshorts | 10th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, one of India’s largest corporate law firms has launched the second batch of its legal-tech startup incubator- Prarambh, senior executives at the firm said. The firm plans to pick 3-5 startups and mentor them over a 10 week period to develop solutions that align with the practical requirements of law firms, corporate legal departments, judiciary and independent practitioners. Unlike typical startup incubator or accelerator programs, CAM does not invest money upfront. “We will keep the option to invest later, depending on how these companies turn out. We can take a small stake, 5%, or even consider acquiring later on. The focus is on providing intellectual support now,” said Rishabh Shroff, partner at CAM. In its first batch in February 2019, the law firm received applications from pre-product and idea-stage startups, as well as more mature startups which had a product. Its winners from the first batch were Leegality- which automates documentation needs such as e-signature and stamping; LegalMind- which uses AI to break down legal judgements and provide analytics; and JRTC Intern- which provides a standardized test to for law students to know whether they are ready for an internship. The law firm is also working to ensure post-program support for the startups.

Oct 09

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Myntra Gets $103 Million From Singapore-Based Parent

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Myntra gets $103 million from Singapore-based parent

Finshorts | 9th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read

BENGALURU: Flipkart-owned fashion retailer Myntra has received a fresh capital infusion of $103 million from its Singapore-based parent entity – FK Myntra Holdings – ahead of its seven-day-long festive sale. Regulatory documents sourced from business intelligence platform Tofler showed that Myntra Jabong India issued 10,79,136 shares to FK Myntra Holdings, and 97,058 shares to QuickRoutes International, a group entity, on October 3, at a price per share of 6,427. The investment comes just days before Myntra’s Big Fashion Festival sale that kicks off on October 16, during which it expects to double sales compared to the same period last year. “This festive season is going to be the biggest fashion event, not just for Myntra, but what this country has seen,” said Amar Nagaram, CEO of Myntra. Myntra is also expecting sales momentum from tier-II and tier-III cities – which has improved since Unlock 1.0 – to continue into the festive period, and is anticipating that over 50% of its sales will come from outside Metro and tier-I cities. Overall, the company says it is anticipating a 4X increase in sales over its business as usual.

Oct 09

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Amazon Pay Lands A Rs 700 Crore Festival Recharge From US Parent

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Amazon Pay Lands A Rs 700 Crore Festival Recharge From US Parent

Finshorts | 9th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read

BENGALURU: US-based online retailer Amazon has pumped in a further Rs 700 crore into its Indian digital payments business Amazon Pay, ahead of the festive season when it expects to dole out large cashbacks in order to grow its customer base. The bulk of its latest infusion comes via Amazon Corporate Holdings, the Singapore-based parent entity for all of the US tech giant’s ecommerce units in India, along with a token investment from Mauritius-based Amazon.com Inc, according to regulatory documents sourced from business intelligence platform Tofler. The fresh funding also marks Amazon’s second investment into Amazon Pay this year, after the company pumped in 1,355 crore in January. The firm has raised a little over 5,000 crore since its inception in 2016 and has been making a couple of investments each year. Amazon Pay had earlier this week increased its authorised share capital to 16,000 crore from 6,000 crore, hinting that the company could possibly make a large investment of a few thousand crores in the unit as it looks at scaling up and better competing with rivals Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm. Customers have also been paying digitally even when they do step out. Amazon Pay recently launched credit card bill payments and a train ticket booking service in partnership with IRCTC..

Oct 09

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120 Startups To Form Association To Take On Google

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120 Startups To Form Association To Take On Google

Finshorts | 9th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read

The heads of more than 120 startups are planning to form an indigenous app developers’ association within a month to lobby against global technology giants such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Apple, said three startup founders. The move comes against the backdrop of discontent among Indian startups against Google. The association, which will be a non-profit, will be independent of existing bodies, such as the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Internet and Mobile Association of India, said Murugavel Janakiraman, founder of Matrimony.com. Interestingly, IAMAI, which represents India’s digital and mobile ecosystem, and has Google India as a member, also held a closed-door meeting on Saturday, to hear the concerns of Indian startups against the Google’s growing monopoly. Google India also continued to maintain its silence on the matter. Google had recently reiterated its Play Billing policy, which makes it mandatory for Indian developers using Play to pay 30% commission for the same. Founders are still not happy and urging the Centre to regulate Google and other big tech firms, while doing away with commissions and arbitrary policies of the Play Store.

Oct 09

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Operating Rooms Turn To Zoom-Like Technology For The Age Of Covid

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Operating Rooms Turn To Zoom-Like Technology For The Age Of Covid

Finshorts | 9th Oct, 2020 | 1 min read

Avail Medsystems, a Palo Alto-based startup, is promising a better way for managing operating-room crowding in the age of Covid. The Avail console uses mobile overhead cameras to project live images of a procedure up to 30 times their actual size onto an HD monitor. In Avail’s latest Series B fundraiser, expected to be announced later on Wednesday, billionaire Dan Sundheim’s D1 Capital Partners pumped $100 million into the medical technology company with participation from technology-focused firms 8VC, and repeat investors Lux Capital, Sonder Capital and others. Avail’s remote link to operating rooms works on a subscription pay-for-use model. Avail, which leases the consoles from a manufacturer, is selling a package of the equipment and its own software developed specifically for operating room communication. Earlier in the year, he’d used the Avail console to train students on how to perform complex surgeries at various health systems in York, Pennsylvania. Through his iPad, Nicholson has been able to virtually tap into 1 of almost 100 consoles that Avail has in hospitals and out-patient surgery centers around the U.S. At his insistence, Emory Healthcare is installing nine consoles in its facilities next week.