Friday, April 26

Author: Aditya

Woman Entrepreneur Writes to PM Modi Against Stayzilla Fraud
News

Woman Entrepreneur Writes to PM Modi Against Stayzilla Fraud

The woman proprietor of Chennai-based advertising Jigsaw Solutions, which was allegedly defrauded of Rs 1.69 crore by Stayzilla, today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government to address issues of funding and transparent business models at the earliest. Radha Shekhar, in a letter to Modi, said this was needed to avoid any suffering women entrepreneurs like her face at the hands of a few 'unscrupulous businessmen' posing as startups. Jigsaw had alleged Stayzilla had defrauded it of about Rs 1.68 crore for services it rendered since last year. Yogendra Vasupal, co-founder of Stayzilla, an online hotel and homestay booking company, was arrested on March 14 for alleged cheating and criminal intimidation. He has twice been denied bail. Radha also wrote to IT Minister Ravi ...
Shell Opens New State of the Art Technology Centre in Bangalore
News

Shell Opens New State of the Art Technology Centre in Bangalore

Up to 1,500 staff will work at the Bangalore technology centre. Their expertise will include gas technology, geological modelling, data analysis and computational research. Shell opened a new major technology hub in Bangalore today - a 52-acre, custom-built technology center - that can house up to 1,500 experts, who would collaboratively work on worldwide innovative energy projects. The inauguration was conducted in the presence of Chief Guest, Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon'ble Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Govt. of India. Commenting on the opening of Shell Technology Centre Bangalore, Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan said, " India has an opportunity to make a significant contribution to the world's incremental energy needs in the years ahead. Shell is developing a waste-to-fuel tech...
Grameen Koota Raises Rs 250 Crore from CreditAccess Asia
FUNDING

Grameen Koota Raises Rs 250 Crore from CreditAccess Asia

Grameen Koota Financial Services Private Limited (Grameen Koota) has raised Rs.250 Cr. from its holding company, CreditAccess Asia (CAA), headquartered in Amsterdam, which is the leading multi-country Microfinance operator in India and South-East Asia. Part of the infusion, Rs.50 crore, will be provided in the form of equity and the remainder, Rs.200 crore will be provided in the form of Compulsory Convertible Debentures (CCDs). The investment will support Grameen Koota in its planned expansion and portfolio growth, and its efforts in increasing financial inclusion, through its local operations, across the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Grameen Koota has recently initiated a new business line for Enterprise Loans (individual loans) for its g...
Trifecta Capital Provides 45 Crores of Venture Debt to Bigbasket
FUNDING

Trifecta Capital Provides 45 Crores of Venture Debt to Bigbasket

Trifecta Capital today announced that it has provided Rs. 45 crores of venture debt to SuperMarket Grocery Supplies Pvt. Ltd. that owns and operates the online food and grocery portal bigbasket.com. The funds will be used to meet the capex requirements of the company, including setting up new warehouses, strengthening the cold chain and setting up facilities for reprocessing of fruits and vegetables. "We have a clearly identified use case for debt. We are present in 25 cities and continue to optimise our supply chain. A significant part of our business is fresh fruits and vegetables, the bulk of which is sourced directly from farms. It is crucial that we maintain the quality right upto the last mile. We are in the last leg of a pilot which will ensure that all fruits and vegetables are ...
Google, Amazon Looking To Acquire Toshiba’s Chip Unit
News

Google, Amazon Looking To Acquire Toshiba’s Chip Unit

Google and Amazon joined a list of potential buyers eyeing Toshiba's lucrative memory chip business as the Japanese conglomerate seeks bidders to cover huge losses, a newspaper said today. Toshiba has reportedly completed the first round of bidding for its prized memory chip business, seen as key for the cash-strapped company to turn itself around. Some 10 foreign companies and funds, including Google and Amazon, tendered bids, the mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun said, quoting unnamed sources. The two US tech giants are expected to use Toshiba's memory chips for their cloud services, the daily said. Taiwan's Hon Hai, which acquired Japanese electronics maker Sharp last year, has apparently bid more than 2 trillion yen (USD 18 billion), the daily said. Immediate confirmation...
PayPal, Vistarooms Partnership for Online Payment to Hotel Bookings
BUSINESS

PayPal, Vistarooms Partnership for Online Payment to Hotel Bookings

Digital payment firm PayPal has a partnered with Vistarooms.com to enable foreigners travelling to India book hotels in the country. "Vistarooms.com will help us further add to the existing list of travel and tourism partners that includes OYO rooms and Makemytrip. Additionally, our seller protection programme helps merchants safeguard their online services from frauds," PayPal Director for Large Merchants in India Megha Thareja Tyagi said in a statement today. Vistarooms.com has over 1,000 hotels across India, Sri Lanka and Maldives and they will be using the automated invoicing capability of PayPal. "Our partnership with PayPal allows us to provide further payment flexibility to both local and international travellers," Vista Rooms Co-Founder Ankita Sheth said.  
Letsmd.com- One Stop Platform To Compare & Find Best Hospitals & Doctors
Story

Letsmd.com- One Stop Platform To Compare & Find Best Hospitals & Doctors

Seeking to help patients get cheaper hospital treatment and loans to cover the cost, a group of entrepreneurs has launched an online aggregator. Founded by Mr. Prakhar Gupta and Tenzin Thargay, this New Delhi based healthcare startup Letsmd.com provide options to a person who can choose the hospital, the doctor and get the price/cost comparisons from 300 of the 500 speciality tertiary-care hospitals in the capital. Letsmd.com also facilitates loans for patients for a duration of 10-24 months at an interest of 6.5-10 per cent. It closed a USD 750,000 funding from a clutch of angel investors like Calcutta Angels, Waterbridge Ventures and Anupam Mittal, recently, founder Nivesh Khandelwal told Pixr8. The elective medical needs covered by the aggregator includes only IVF treatment, b...
Xiaomi Wants to Increase Offline Sales to 50 Percent By Year End
Tech

Xiaomi Wants to Increase Offline Sales to 50 Percent By Year End

Chinese handset maker Xiaomi today said it plans to ramp up its offline distribution channel in the country and is targeting around 50 per cent of its turnover from this segment. “Till now, our focus was on online sales. Now, we will focus both on online and offline distribution. We expect our share from offline to grow from current 10 per cent to 50 per cent by the end of this year. This is our aspiration,” Xiaomi India Head Manu Kumar Jain said. Jain said the company has strong plans for offline distribution. “In five or six cities, we are ramping up and having extensive offline distribution and Chandigarh is one of them as it is a key market for us. In the next 3-4 months, we will start a very extensive offline distribution business in Chandigarh through multi-brand outlets. “W...
Amazon, Grofers, Big Basket May Invest $695 Million in Food Retail
News

Amazon, Grofers, Big Basket May Invest $695 Million in Food Retail

The government has received investment proposals from three companies, including Amazon and Grofers, worth USD 695 million for retail of food products in India under the new FDI policy. "Three companies Super Market Groceries Supplies (Big Basket), Grofers India and Amazon Corporate Holdings have submitted their proposals for seeking permission to make investment of USD 695 million over a period of time," an official statement said today. The government had last year allowed 100 per cent FDI for marketing, including through e-commerce, of food products manufactured and produced in India. Earlier in the day, Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal announced that Amazon has decided to invest about USD 500 million in e-retail of food. "We allowed 100 per cent FDI in trading ...
India’s First Two Days Rural Innovation & Startup Conclave Concluded in Hyderabad
INDIA

India’s First Two Days Rural Innovation & Startup Conclave Concluded in Hyderabad

The two-day Rural Innovation and Startup Conclave (RISC2017), which aims to provide a platform to rural innovators and start-ups, today got underway at the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD & PR) here. "Rural Innovators Startup Conclave is a good beginning to connect all dots to take science and technology, to take innovative minds to the rural areas to harness the creativity available in rural areas for solving the problems in rural areas," NIRD & PR Director General W R Reddy said at the inauguration ceremony. For promotion of rural entrepreneurship, NIRD & PR wants to become platform for creative minds, innovators, startup enthusiasts and to connect them with rural India to resolve some of the rural issues and rural challenges, Reddy said. "The fo...
App Usage Grows 43℅ in India And Few Categories Lead in It
News

App Usage Grows 43℅ in India And Few Categories Lead in It

43 per cent in 2016, with entertainment and finance categories witnessing highest traction, as per a study by Yahoos Flurry Analytics. "Indias app usage grew 43 per cent year on year. The India app usage grew at 92 per cent during the same period last year (2015)," the State of the App Nation in India study said. Messaging and social apps remain one of the most engaged categories in Asia and India. Time spent on messaging and social apps grew by an impressive 52 per cent in India compared to 44 per cent globally. Globally, app usage grew by only 11 per cent, it said. "The decelerating rate of global growth could signal market maturity, saturation or simply the end of the app gold rush. "Going back to Indias six-month mobile trend delay, theres no better time for local develo...
Musafir.com Launch It’s Technology Center in Pune
News

Musafir.com Launch It’s Technology Center in Pune

Musafir.com, one of the leading OTAs in India, today announced the launch of its third technology center in Pune. Musafir.com is looking to double its technology team by the end of the year. The Pune center will complement the technology and product teams that are already operating out of centers in Mumbai and UAE. Technology is at the heart of the aggressive business strategy being pursued by Musafir.com. "Musafir.com was founded with the promise of a stellar user experience backed by the best technology. The establishment of our third technology center in Pune reinforces our commitment to this promise. Our aim is to double the strength of our engineering team by the end of the year, and herald a new generation of innovative user experiences for our travellers," said Albert Dia...