News Archives - Page 6 of 23 - Finsights Solutions

Oct 01

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Lee Fixel Returns To India, Makes First Investment From New Fund Addition

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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.

Oct 01

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India Tries To Beat The Pandemic, The Health-Startup Way!

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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.

Oct 01

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Sunstone Raises Rs 24 Crore In Series A From Saama Capital, Others

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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.

Oct 01

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Social Network App Public Raises $35 Million From Lee Fixel’s Addition, Others

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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.

Sep 30

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The Big 5G Question Before India

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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.

Sep 30

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Of All The EV Startups, Why Is Ather Energy’s Valuation Down?

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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.

Sep 29

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BigBasket In Talks For $400m Round

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BigBasket In Talks For $400m Round

Finshorts | 29th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read

MUMBAI| BENGALURU: Online grocery retailer BigBasket is in discussions to rope in a bunch of new investors like Singapore government’s Temasek, US-based Generation Partners, Fidelity and Tybourne Capital, for a $350-400 million financing round, two people in the know said. The ongoing talks also include at least $100-150 million in secondary sale of shares by early investors, said people close to the matter, who did not want to be identified as the talks are private. BigBasket, which has gained traction on the back of the pandemic as consumers purchase grocery and everyday essential online, is likely to see its valuation gain about 33% to around $2 billion, post the investment, another person privy to the details said. “The non-binding term sheets are in and the round is likely to close in a month’s time. Alibaba’s not participating, which means the company is looking to diversify its list of investors by getting new backers in,” said one of the people cited earlier. Alibaba, which is a significant investor in the Bengaluru-based company with an around 28% stake, is not pumping any new capital in the e-grocer amid a larger anti-China sentiment and FDI restrictions enforced by the Indian government, which have affected Chinese money coming into domestic firms. A source said Alibaba would be cutting its shareholding to 20% post this financing round.

Sep 29

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Uber Weighs Purchase Of BMW-Daimler Ride-Hailing Venture

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Uber Weighs Purchase Of BMW-Daimler Ride-Hailing Venture

Finshorts | 29th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read

Uber Technologies Inc. is considering a purchase of Daimler AG and BMW AG’s ride-hailing joint venture Free Now, a deal that could boost its market share in Europe and Latin America, people with knowledge of the matter said. Uber expressed interest in a potential acquisition of Free Now after the venture’s efforts to attract additional investors struggled to gain traction amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Representatives for Uber and BMW declined to comment, and a Daimler spokeswoman said the company doesn’t comment on speculation. Daimler and BMW merged their mobility operations last year and folded them into a joint venture called Your Now, which comprises five business including the Free Now ride-hailing service. Daimler valued the equity investment in its half of the Your Now venture at 618 million euros at the end of June. Uber has been looking to shed minority holdings in several ride-hailing operations recently, including portions of its stakes in China’s Didi Chuxing and the Southeast Asian ride-share company Grab. Daimler and BMW’s shopping of Free Now reflects their focus on generating cash and improving efficiency within their core automotive operations.

Sep 29

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Sales Acceleration Startup SquadStack Raises $5 Million Led By Chiratae Ventures

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Sales Acceleration Startup SquadStack Raises $5 Million Led By Chiratae Ventures

Finshorts | 29th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read

Bengaluru: San Francisco and New Delhi-based startup SquadStack has raised $5 million in a Series A funding round led by Chiratae Ventures. SquadStack helps consumer businesses that sell high-ticket products and services across sectors such as real estate, financial services, education, healthcare, and retail improve their sales conversions and funnel efficiency. “In today’s competitive business environment, organisations need a sales acceleration platform and analytics throughout the sales cycle. SquadStack is helping consumer companies across industries solve the principle challenge to turn prospects into customers faster and more profitably.” says Venkatesh Peddi, executive director at Chiratae Ventures. In 2018, SquadStack launched its sales acceleration platform, SquadVoice in the Indian market. This led to the creation of their offering ‘Auctm’, a business management platform that helps broker teams boost revenue, cut costs, and improve agent training and retention by applying its core principles of data-driven sales acceleration. “We’re grateful to everyone who believed in our mission to create the ultimate sales acceleration and funnel efficiency stack for consumer focused businesses around the world. To our customer partners, we promise that our vision to make your lives easier by providing the best quality products will never change.” Said Apurv Agrawal, CEO of SquadStack. The firm in 2017 had raised $2.1 million in pre-series A funding led by Blume Ventures.

Sep 29

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Smallcase Raises $14 Million From DSP Group, Others

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Smallcase Raises $14 Million From DSP Group, Others

Finshorts | 29th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read

Bengaluru: Capital markets infrastructure startup smallcase on Monday said it has raised $14 million as part of its Series B financing round led by DSP Group along with existing investors Sequoia Capital India, Blume Ventures, Beenext and WEH Ventures. At present, the smallcase platform is integrated with Zerodha, HDFC Securities, Kotak Securities, 5Paisa, and AxisDirect to help offer stock and ETF smallcases to their client base. “Smallcase is targeting 40 million direct equity investors in India with its innovative, easy to understand, transparent and digital first products. Their rapid growth, exceptional investor retention, unique marquee partnerships across the ecosystem have been key reasons why the Sequoia India team has doubled down on their partnership with the company”, said Harshjit Sethi, Principal, Sequoia Capital India LLP. smallcase also launched its ‘publisher platform’ last year, a business-in-a-box solution to democratise investment product manufacturing. Apart from brokerage integrations and its B2B offering, smallcase also directly engages with retail investors through the smallcase app that enables users to invest and track their investments across different brokerages.