startup | Pixr8 News

1Oct By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

Indian startups raise USD 63 bn since 2016, generate 27 unicorns

New Delhi, 1st Oct 2020: The startup's ecosystem has raised as much as USD 63 billion in growth capital between 2016 and 2020, when they spawned 27 unicorns, according to the data collated by the Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association and Praxis Global Alliance. According to them, this makes India the third-largest tech startup ecosystem in the world. Of the total inflows, nearly half came in 2019 alone USD 34 billion, and USD 17 billion in 2020 till May. The time period also created as many as 27 unicorns in the country. Unicorns are those with USD 1 billion or more valuation. Tech-enabled players continue to drive investors' interest and have dominated the early-stage funding landscape here. According to Rajat Tandon, the president of the Indian Private Eq...

1Sep By PriyankaNo Comments

Market

Rocket Internet to delist itself from stock market

Berlin, 1st Sept 2020: Germany based tech investment firm Rocket Internet plans to delist itself from the Frankfurt and Luxembourg stock exchanges. The company said it has sufficient access to capital outside the stock exchange and can better pursue a long-term approach to investing. Rocket Internet, with a market capitalisation of 2.6 billion euros ($3.12 billion), would be better off going private again since it successfully listed all the major firms it helped found, including Delivery Hero , HelloFresh and Home24 . Listed on stock market in 2014, Rocket’s shares have mostly traded well below their issue price of 42.50 euros and below the combined value of the cash on its balance sheet and its own valuation of its remaining investments. In its latest financial results, publish...

Fitness startup Fittr raises USD 2 mn from Surge

28Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Fitness startup Fittr raises USD 2 mn from Surge

Fitness startup Fittr has raised USD 2 million from Sequoia Capital India's Surge programme. The company will deploy the pre-series A funds for hiring, technology, and overseas expansion, Fittr Co-founder Jitendra Chouksey said. Surge is the rapid scale-up programme for early-stage startups in India and Southeast Asia. Founded in January 2016, Fittr (formerly SQUATS Fitness) provides free access to diet and training tools, live fitness sessions with experts, Q&A with coaches, and connects users to a community of fitness experts and enthusiasts. With over 8.5 lakh members, the company said it been profitable since inception, achieving a cumulative revenue of USD 13 million. Fittr is focussing on markets like North America, Indonesia, India, and Singapore, Chouksey said. ...

SoftBank Group Forecasts USD 7bn Net Loss in 2019 Financial Year

14Apr By NitishNo Comments

News

SoftBank Group Forecasts USD 7bn Net Loss in 2019 Financial Year

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group forecast a USD 7-billion net loss for the year ended March due to the negative impact of coronavirus and losses related to WeWork. The group led by Masayoshi Son said in a press release, "It also expected to suffer an operating loss of 1.35 trillion yen or USD 12.5 billion." The firm cited a 1.8 trillion yen loss at its SoftBank Vision Fund, blaming "the deteriorating market environment" in the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic. As well as killing more than 100,000 people globally, the virus has tipped the world into what many predict will be a Great Depression, and markets have been in free-fall, battering the group's investments. Under Son's leadership SoftBank Group has morphed into an investment and technology firm, and its $100-b...

13Apr By NitishNo Comments

FUNDING

Locale.ai Raises Pre-seed funding from Better Capital

Location analytics startup Locale.ai has raised a pre-seed round of funding led by early-stage venture firm Better Capital. The funding round also saw participation from notable angel investors such as Myntra's co-founder Raveen Sastry and Fusion Charts' co-founder Pallav Nadhani, Locale.ai said in a statement. The company will use the fresh capital to scale up its business and expand globally, primarily in the US. Locale.ai, operated by LocateAI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, was founded by Rishabh Jain and Aditi Sinha last year. The startup aims to help companies engaged in moving assets to get more sustainable demand using real-time location data and analytics. It is already working with mobility and delivery companies in the US, France, Argentina and India. Aditi Sinha, co-founder...

6Nov By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

India continues to be 3rd in Startup Ecosystem, adds over 1100 start-ups in 2019

Adding over 1,100 start-ups in 2019, India continues to reinforce its position as the third largest start-up ecosystem across the world, taking the total number of tech start-ups to 8900-9300 in the last five years, NASSCOM said here on Tuesday. The IT industry body also said that Indian startup ecosystem is geared up for "10X" growth trajectory by 2025. "From 2014-2025 the 10 year period that we will see, the Indian startup ecosystem is geared up for 10X growth trajectory over these ten yerars, which is pretty phenomenal. We are expecting by 2025 the total number of unicorns to go up anywhere between 95-105 in India," National Association of Software and Services Companies President Debjani Ghosh said. Speaking to reporters here, she said NASSCOM expected the cumulative valua...

Bitcoin.com Acquires Blockchain Startup O3 Labs

23Oct By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Bitcoin.com Acquires Blockchain Startup O3 Labs

JAPAN, TOKYO, October 23, 2019 — Bitcoin.com has acquires blockchain startup O3 Labs. The Tokyo-based software company that specializes in developing gateways to the digital economy. O3 Labs team join Bitcoin.com, forming a single team dedicated to creating tools for realizing the full potential of the Bitcoin Cash network. The two companies intend to work together to build the next generation of mobile financial services, which will bear the Bitcoin.com name. The strategic acquisition of O3’s blockchain and app development talent will allow Bitcoin.com to create intuitive and easy-to-understand user experiences that tie together Bitcoin.com, partners, and community financial service offerings across web, mobile, smart devices, and beyond. Stefan Rust, CEO of Bitcoin.com sai...

13Aug By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Ola Acqui-hires AI Startup Pikup.ai

Cab aggregator Ola acqui-hiring' Pikup.ai, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup based out of Bengaluru. Acqui-hiring is a term for acquisition plus hiring. As part of the deal, the team at pikup.ai will join Ola, the company said in a statement. Ola announced earlier this year its intent to set up an advanced technology centre in the San Francisco Bay area in the US, to focus on developing next-generation technologies in mobility like Electric, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. "By bringing deep domain expertise to Ola, this acquihire will also deliver innovations that continue to improve safety and transform customer experience," Ola said. Pikup.ai was co-founded by Inder Singh and Ritwik Saikia, which uses autonomous technologies like AI, computer vision and sensor fusio...

12Aug By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Meesho raises USD 125 mn in funding led by Naspers

Bengaluru-based Meesho said it has raised USD 125 million (around Rs 888 crore) in a funding round led by technology investor Naspers. The round also saw participation from Facebook and existing investors SAIF, Sequoia, Shunwei Capital, RPS and Venture Highway as well as former Vodafone Group CEO Arun Sarin. In June, Facebook had announced picking up a minority stake in Meesho, a startup that helps entrepreneurs set up online businesses via social channels. "The new funds will allow the company to make deeper inroads in areas outside India's major metro regions, by creating more entrepreneurs," Meesho said in a statement. The latest investment will also strengthen Meesho's aim to grow its community of women entrepreneurs and support expansion to new geographies, it added. T...

Startupbootcamp Australia Travels to New Delhi to Scout for 2020 EnergyAustralia Program

23Jul By AdityaNo Comments

News

Startupbootcamp Australia Travels to New Delhi to Scout for 2020 EnergyAustralia Program

Startupbootcamp is a world-leading accelerator that scouts innovative and top-tier startups that are looking to disrupt the current industry status quo with diverse solutions. During the intense 3-month accelerator program, the selected startups receive hands-on mentorship from over 100 industry experts, free office space, seed funding, and access to a global network of investors with the ultimate goal of scaling their businesses and becoming industry-leading companies. In the past two years, Startupbootcamp Australia has supported 21 startups from all over the world. Alumni from the last two programs have achieved massive success by leveraging the mentorship from the FastTracks and Programs. Some notable alumni mentions include the following, FOHAT conducted a microgrid a...

French Rental Platform raises $3.3 million

20Jun By NitishNo Comments

FUNDING

French Rental Platform raises $3.3 million

PARIS, France: The apartment rental platform dedicated to business travelers, MagicStay.com raises $3.3 million series A to pursue its development. The total funding raised by Magicstone so far is $9 million since its launch in 2013. "This fundraising will allow us to recruit talent to accelerate our growth. We want to sign a quarter of the major French companies and approach one million homes before the end of the year, thanks to the exclusive technologies we now have at our disposal", says Valéry Linÿer, CEO and co-founder. "We have four main advantages over our competitors, we meet the challenges of duty of care, we are able to customize our tool to meet the constraints of each large company for short and long stays, we have 24/7 customer service with quality processes and tra...

Britain food delivery startup raises $575 million from Amazon and others

17May By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Britain food delivery startup raises $575 million from Amazon and others

The British food delivery startup Deliveroo raises $575 million funding from e-commerce giant Amazon and others, a press release said on Friday. Other participants include existing Deliveroo investors T Rowe Price, Fidelity Management and Research Company, and Greenoaks. Amazon is the single largest investor in a $575-million (514-million-euro) financing round, Deliveroo said in a statement. "This new investment will help Deliveroo to grow and to offer customers even more choice, tailored to their personal tastes, offer restaurants greater opportunities to grow and expand their businesses, and to create more flexible, well-paid work for riders," said Deliveroo founder and CEO Will Shu. "Amazon has been an inspiration to me personally and to the company, and we look forw...