Aditya | Pixr8 News

23Apr By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Lending Startup ZestMoney raises $20 million funding

Bengaluru-based lending startup ZestMoney has raised $20 million in fresh funding led by Washington based fintech investment firm Quona Capital. Australia based fintech investor group Reinventure, existing investors Ribbit Capital, Omidyar Network and PayU are also participate in this round. The company will use this fund to invest in tech space and hiring. As per the press release, ZestMoney will hire 60 engineers and 20 data scientists in one year and improve integration with partner NBFCs and online retailers with whom it offers EMI options to customers. “Quona and Reinventure are both specialist fintech venture funds. There’s definitely a lot of momentum in our space right now, with everyone in e-commerce talking about affordability through EMI and we’re just riding off ...

Railyatri Operations are Unauthorised: Delhi HC

20Apr By AdityaNo Comments

INDIA

Railyatri Operations are Unauthorised: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court today dismissed the writ petitions filed by Stelling Technologies, which owns and manages the online train ticket booking portal 'railyatri.in' providing service related to rail journeys. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation(IRCTC) had cracked whip on the Retail Service Providers(RSP) who were associated with RailYatri by deactivating their access credentials to the IRCTC site. According to the IRCTC, the services by RailYatri were unauthorized, and the RSPs, by associating with it, had violated their contractual terms with IRCTC. The IRCTC said that it is the only entity authorized by the Ministry of Railways to supply e-tickets, and that RSPs are delegated agents of the IRCTC, who cannot enter into further transactions with third-party enti...

Walmart, Amazon kick off government online pilot program

20Apr By AdityaNo Comments

USA

Walmart, Amazon kick off government online pilot program

AP, New York: Amazon and Walmart kicked off a two-year government pilot program allowing low-income shoppers on government food assistance in New York to shop and pay for their groceries online for the first time. ShopRite will join the two retailers on the program early next week, said the US Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The USDA has long required customers using electronic benefits transfer, or EBT, pay for their purchases at the actual time and place of sale. So the move marks the first time SNAP customers can pay for their groceries online. ShopRite and Amazon are providing the service to the New York City area, and Walmart is providing the service online in upstate New York locations. The agency said the pi...

Pine Labs acquires Qwikcilver for $110 mn

20Apr By AdityaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Pine Labs acquires Qwikcilver for $110 mn

Singapore-based merchant platform company Pine Labs has acquired gift solution company, Qwikcilver for $110 million. Last month the company had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Qwikcilver. "We have acquired Qwikcilver for $110 million, funded via internal cash reserves and with additional funding from existing investors," a company statement said. The company is backed by Sequoia India, PayPal, Temasek, Actis Capital, Altimeter Capital, Madison India Capital and Sofina. Qwikcilver is a gift card service provider, managing an annualised gross transaction value of $1.5 billion across India, Middle East and South East Asia. With this acquisition, Qwikcilver and Pine Labs have a combined gift solutions business comprising 250 brands and retailers and 1,500 enterprise cu...

19Apr By AdityaNo Comments

News

BBM is Shutting down from 31st May

Emtek, an Indonesia-based app development company which holds Blackberry messenger development announced that it will end the BBM service for consumers on May 31, 2019. The company said in its press release," Three years ago, we set out to reinvigorate BBM consumer service, one of the most loved instant messaging applications, as a cross-platform service where users can not only chat and share life experiences but also consume content and use payment services. We poured our hearts into making this a reality, and we are proud of what we have built to date. The technology industry, however, is very fluid, and in spite of our substantial efforts, users have moved on to other platforms, while new users proved difficult to sign on." But BBM Enterprise (BBMe) for the individual user...

Google blocks TikTok app in India, Apple still running it

17Apr By AdityaNo Comments

News

Google blocks TikTok app in India, Apple still running it

After an Indian court decision, Google blocked video app TikTok in India from its App store. After refusal on the ban by southern Tamil Nadu court on the request by China's Bytedance Technology TikTok app future is now uncertain in India. As per the latest information, the app was still available on Apple's platforms but was no longer available on Google's Play store in India. The state court had on April 3 asked the federal government to ban TikTok, saying it encouraged pornography and made child users vulnerable to sexual predators. Its ruling came after an individual launched a public interest litigation calling for a ban. The federal government had sent a letter to Apple and Google to abide by the state court's order, according to an IT ministry official. “We have fa...

Online Payment firm PayU acquires US-based Wibmo for $70 mn

16Apr By AdityaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Online Payment firm PayU acquires US-based Wibmo for $70 mn

Online payment service provider PayU acquires the US-based financial technology firm Wibmo for $70 million (around Rs 484 crore). Given different capabilities and positioning in the value chain, Wibmo and PayU businesses will continue to run separately, PayU said in a statement. Wibmo partners and deeply integrate with banks in over 20 countries to offer payment authentication and risk-based decisions across billions of online and mobile payment transactions. "This strategic acquisition combines PayU's strong merchant network and Wibmo's leadership in digital transaction security solutions to offer industry-leading payments solutions to merchants and financial institutions in India and other high growth markets," the statement said. Aakash Moondhra, CFO, PayU Global said, "W...

OYO collaborated with Spanish firm Hotelbeds

16Apr By AdityaNo Comments

News

OYO collaborated with Spanish firm Hotelbeds

New Delhi: SoftBank-backed OYO Hotels & Homes said it has partnered Spanish firm Hotelbeds that will provide the Indian company with access to more than 60,000 travel buying intermediaries around the world. "Hotelbeds distribution channel of B2B travel buyers helps us access new customer segments and geographies. The bedbank company's cost-efficient distribution channel makes them an ideal partner to achieve our goal," OYO Hotels & Homes Chief Strategy Officer Maninder Gulati said. The preferred agreement represents OYO's first-ever distribution partnership with a bedbank, OYO said in a statement. No financial details of the partnership were disclosed. Bedbank is an organisation that negotiates special rates with accommodation providers and acts as a wholesaler. "Th...

13Apr By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Travel platform Tripoto raises $3.6 million funding

Travel community platform Tripoto has raised $3.6 million (₹25 crore) funding from Orchid India and existing investors. The funds will be utilised to scale up Tripoto's community and marketplace. The new areas of growth that the company is focusing on are vernacular content, short video and influencer commerce, leveraging the strength of this flourishing community, Tripoto said in a statement. Since its inception, the company has raised a total of ₹50 crore, it added. Existing investors in the company are Chiratae Ventures, 3one4 Capital and Lasmer NV. "Our aim is to scale both B2C and B2B side of the platform. On the consumer front, we want to capture the entire life-cycle of a traveler- everything from getting inspired, discovering, planning and finally, carrying out...

10Apr By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Klook Raises $425 million Funding from Softbank Vision Fund

Klook, a world leading travel activities and services booking platform has raised $225 million in Series D round. The funding round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund with participation from existing investors, including Sequoia China, Matrix Partners, TCV, and OurCrowd. This is the biggest round of funding in the global travel activities and services industry. In just four years, Klook has become the most searched travel activities and services company on Google. In the last year, the Hong Kong-based company expanded its global footprint into Australia, Europe, and the United States to deliver new, unique and exciting consumer experiences. Klook also entered into major global partnerships with Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, Asia Pacific's leading luxury hotel group; and ...

McDonald’s Acquires AI startup Dynamic Yield in a $300 million deal

9Apr By AdityaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

McDonald’s Acquires AI startup Dynamic Yield in a $300 million deal

McDonald’s Corporation (McD) has acquired an AI-based startup Dynamic Yield in a $300 million deal. Dynamic Yield is a leader in personalization and decision logic technology. With this acquisition of Dynamic Yield, McDonald’s builds on its first technology acquisition for growth. McDonald’s will utilize this decision technology to provide an even more personalized customer experience by varying outdoor digital Drive Thru menu displays to show food based on time of day, weather, current restaurant traffic and trending menu items. The decision technology can also instantly suggest and display additional items to a customer’s order based on their current selections. This will enable McDonald’s to be one of the first companies to integrate decision technology into the custome...

Pinterest offers $15-$17 per share in IPO, Values below than $12 billion

8Apr By AdityaNo Comments

Market

Pinterest offers $15-$17 per share in IPO, Values below than $12 billion

Social media platform Pinterest Inc set a price range of $15 to $17 per share for its IPO valuing it below than the $12 billion at which the company raises the last funding in 2017. Pinterest offers 75 million shares through its IPO. After this proposal, the company valuation will be at $10.6B vs previous valuation of $12.3B Earlier, Reuters had reported that Image search social media platform Pinterest list itself on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “PINS”. The company, which owns the image search website known for the food and fashion photos that its users post, reported annual revenue of $755.9 million in 2018, up 60 percent from a year earlier. But it remains unprofitable even though its net loss narrowed to $62.97 million in 2018 from $130 million a year ear...