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Venture Catalysts Closes 57 deals in 2018
BUSINESS

Venture Catalysts Closes 57 deals in 2018

Venture Catalysts, a startup incubator, closed 57 deals in 2018, helping raise Rs 125 crore for startups in its portfolio, as per data from startup-tracking firm Tracxn. The deals ranged from Rs 3 crore to Rs 13 crore. During the year, its portfolio firms raised Rs 380 crore in total. Founder and president Apoorv Ranjan Sharma stated that the investors were primarily frontier-II towns, which is what Venture Catalysts focuses on.  The number of deals it closed in 2018 was more that of its peers like Blume Ventures (30), Lets Venture (12), Orios Venture Partners (11), and Kae Capital and Indian Angel Network (10 each). Venture Catalysts had closed the highest number of investments in 2017 as well. “We are focusing on sectors like FMCG, h...
OYO Expects to Double Down on Growth in its Home Market
BUSINESS

OYO Expects to Double Down on Growth in its Home Market

OYO Hotels & Homes is “well-capitalised” and will be doubling down on growth in its home market of India. From the ongoing funding round, it plans to invest a fifth, or $200 million, in Asia’s third-largest economy. The SoftBank-backed company, which is in the process of raising $1 billion (Rs 7,000 crore) from a clutch of investors, doesn’t have any plan to raise further capital. “Today, we are committing to invest $200 million in India, with the focus on building strong capabilities that will help us further improve the quality of customer experience in India. We will cross leverage this in other markets as well,” he said. The communique suggests a shift in OYO’s strategy from focusing on profitability — last fiscal year it had cut losses by a third to pushing gr...
SoftBank Group to Close $1.5 billion Investment in a Cab Aggregator
BUSINESS

SoftBank Group to Close $1.5 billion Investment in a Cab Aggregator

SoftBank Group is in advanced talks to invest $1.5 billion in Grab, three times a previously expected $500 million, as Southeast Asia's biggest ride-hailing firm looks to expand, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Six-year old cab aggregator Grab has so far raised over $6.5 billion, led by SoftBank, Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing and Toyota. After a fund raising in August, Grab was valued at around $11 billion. SoftBank first bought a stake worth $250 million in Grab in 2014 just as Grab began competing with Uber Technologies in Southeast Asia.  Its latest funding in the ride-hailing firm will be made from its Vision Fund, which after raising more than $93 billion last year is the world's largest private-equity fund. A source stated that SoftBank is expected to finalise i...
Coworking Firm WeWork to Double its Space in India
BUSINESS

Coworking Firm WeWork to Double its Space in India

The provider of coworking workplace We Work is planning to double the coworking space it offers in India to 6 million square feet in 2019. The company is expecting to expand its presence to cities including Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad by the end of next year. The New York-headquartered collaborative workspace firm currently operates 3 million sq ft office space across Bengaluru, Mumbai and Gurgaon. “In India, WeWork started the year with over 5,000 desks and is closing it with 35,000 desks across 21 locations. With a member base of 20,000 in India, we are selling 2,000 desks a month,” said Karan Virwani Karan, chief We-Work executive officer, WeWork India. It was in late 2016 that the company made a foray into the country through a joint venture with Bengaluru-based real estate d...
US based Teeth Aligner Startup Opens up Physical Stores in SF
BUSINESS

US based Teeth Aligner Startup Opens up Physical Stores in SF

Candid, a teeth aligner startup is evolving its direct-to-consumer business. The company aims to basically make straight teeth more accessible and more affordable than Invisalign.  In addition to its at-home impression process, Candid recently started enabling people to come into a physical office to get their teeth scans completed. With this development, Candid is opening physical storefronts in San Francisco, Austin, Columbus, Ohio and Santa Monica, Calif. This is in addition to the two locations in New York City, one in Boston and one West Hollywood, California. The company aims to have 75 locations across the U.S. by the end of next year. Candid 3D prints its FDA-approved aligners and is designed for people who need mild to moderate orthodontic work.  In C...
CleverTap Ties Up with SonyLIV to Launch Video Push Notifications
BUSINESS

CleverTap Ties Up with SonyLIV to Launch Video Push Notifications

Mobile marketing platform CleverTap is partnering with SonyLIV to launch video push notifications which will make SonyLIV the first video streaming platform to do so.  This will allow users to view video previews in push notifications, even on a locked screen. The company will leverage CleverTap’s Psychographic Segmenation feature to process millions of data points to improve the content recommendations. So far, it has seen a three time increase in click-through rates (CTR), increased session durations and higher than average view times. Uday Sodhi, Head - Digital Business, Sony Pictures Network India, said, “Being able to promote the most relevant content at the right time to the right user, through video, is something we are excited...
ePayLater Partners with Cashfree to Bring in Pay Later Options
BUSINESS

ePayLater Partners with Cashfree to Bring in Pay Later Options

Indian digital payments company ePayLater which is based in Mumbai has partnered with another payment company called Cashfree to bring in its innovative payment facility to their merchants. This partnership will bring ePayLater’s credit-based payment solution to almost all the merchants such as Daily Ninja, BigSmall, WheelStreet, EventsHigh, EduCart and Instaspaces using the Cashfree payment gateway. Also, ePaylater is targetting to process Rs.1000 crore in payments within the next 12 months. The company wants the product to be rolled out to more than 5000 merchants on the Cashfree platform by next year. “Offering credit via Buy Now, Pay Later option is one of the most exciting developments in Indian fintech and Cashfree hopes to offer thi...
Google to Invest $1 Billion on New Campus in New York
BUSINESS

Google to Invest $1 Billion on New Campus in New York

Alphabet owned Google is investing more than $1 billion on a new campus in New York. With this, it will becom the second major technology company after Amazon to pick America's financial capital to expand and create thousands of jobs. The 1.7 million square-foot campus, called Google Hudson Square, will include leased properties at Hudson Street and Washington Street, the company said in a blog post on Monday. The new campus will be the main location for Google's advertising sales division, the Global Business Organization. Google hopes to start moving into two Hudson Street buildings by 2020, followed by a Washington Street in 2022 and will have the capacity to more than double its New York headcount, currently more than 7,000, in the next 10 years. The company's plans...
Reliance Jio in Talks with US Company Flex for Smartphone Production
BUSINESS

Reliance Jio in Talks with US Company Flex for Smartphone Production

One of the largest Indian conglomerate Reliance Jio Infocomm is in talks with US contract manufacturer Flex for locally producing about 100 million mobile phone handsets as the Mukesh Ambani-owned telco seeks to rapidly enhance its market share by signing on the majority of those users now using feature phones.  “Jio is in advanced discussions for a large order and that has caused a stir in the market, even prompting Flex to negotiate some tax benefits with the government in the SEZ where its factory is located,” a person familiar with the matter said. Another person said that Flex currently has the capacity to manufacture around 4-5 million devices per month at its factory in the special economic zone (SEZ) near Chennai.  Any move by ...
Paisabazaar.com to Bring Cooperative Banks to its Platform
BUSINESS

Paisabazaar.com to Bring Cooperative Banks to its Platform

Paizabazaar.com which is an online loan marketplace is planning to bring in cooperative banks to its platform. It has been reported that cooperative banks in Ahmedabad have been approached by the portal. Various bankers stated that it’s probably the first time an online aggregator is looking to offer as many options as possible to the consumers who are applying for loans through its platform as this pushes up the chances of approval. “They are a great local bank to a segment which will help increase inclusion. These customers are the ones who now using internet via mobile phones and we expect to cater to these new set of customers by partnering with cooperative banks,” Naveen Kukreja, CEO,Paisabazaar.com said. But, the latter did not disclose the details of it...
Pepperfry Launches a new business vertical ‘Pepperfry Bespoke’
BUSINESS

Pepperfry Launches a new business vertical ‘Pepperfry Bespoke’

Furniture and home products marketplace Pepperfry has launcheda new business vertical 'Pepperfry Bespoke'. With this, the company is evolving into a full-stack home interiors solutions provider. "In the last 6-7 years, we have built a large product business in the home and furniture space. With this service, we will foray into services like civil and electrical work, thereby doing the end-to-end design and execution for our customers" Pepperfry founder Ashish Shah said. The service is at present available in three cities including Mumbai, Bengaluru and Gurugram, wherein the company has converted three of its large format studios into Bespoke studios. These studios will offer customers home interior design and build services like 3D visualisation, space op...
Swiggy to Enter Educational Institutes through ‘Launchpad’
BUSINESS

Swiggy to Enter Educational Institutes through ‘Launchpad’

The food delivery major Swiggy is planning and piloting a programme to launch operations in university towns. This programme will be known as Launchpad. Launchpad will bring onboard students, typically those in the third year of a four-year graduation degree, as the campus Swiggy CEO in each university or college town to leadSwiggy’s operations in the campus. The company at present is running pilots for the Launchpad in universities including Birla Institute ofTechnology and Science (BITS) Hyderabad, Lovely Professional University in Punjab and Chitkara University, also in Punjab. Swiggy is currently operational in 50 cities and is looking to roll-out the initiative in a full-fledged manner on 400 campuses over starting January. The campus CEOs will be supervised by Swiggy's exec...