Thursday, April 25

Author: Gauri Singh

lnfomedia Group to Acquire AxisPoint Health’s US Service Contracts
24Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments
ACQUISITION

lnfomedia Group to Acquire AxisPoint Health’s US Service Contracts

A US subsidiary of business process management company Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd has agreed to sell several US nurse advice line service contracts to lnfomedia Group Inc. for $5.3 million (about Rs 37 crore). Health management solutions company HGS AxisPoint Health LLC has sold the contracts to Infomedia, which operates as Carenet Healthcare Services, Hinduja Global said in a stock exchange disclosure. The estimated annual revenue from the contracts sold is $9.4 million. HGS AxisPoint will continue to provide nurse advice line services to the remaining clients. Ramesh Gopalan, president of healthcare business at Hinduja Global, said the sale allows HGS AxisPoint Health to focus efforts on its care management offering. Hinduja Global had acquired AxisPoint Health in April for ...
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DesignCafe Secures Rs 200 crore from WestBridge Capital
24Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments
FUNDING

DesignCafe Secures Rs 200 crore from WestBridge Capital

Online interior design platform DesignCafe has raised funds amounting to Rs 200-crore equity-financing round. This round was led by home-grown private equity firm WestBridge Capital. The transaction marks a rare venture capital-style investment by WestBridge which has so far largely preferred to place public market-focused bets. Funds from the investment will be used by DesignCafe to expand its footprints in the country. The financing round also saw participation from existing investor Fireside Ventures, the early-stage, consumer-focused venture set up by former Helion Venture Advisors Partners’ managing director Kanwaljit Singh. Boutique investment bank Sprout Capital acted as the exclusive advisor to the deal.  “We are very pleased to have WestBridge, ...
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OYO Expects to Double Down on Growth in its Home Market
24Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments
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...
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China to Expand Advanced Manufacturing Domestic Market
24Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments
CHINA

China to Expand Advanced Manufacturing Domestic Market

China's top economic planner has pledged to strengthen the advanced manufacturing sector and foster a stronger domestic market amid efforts to stabilize economic growth. He Lifeng, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said China will narrow the gap in major technical equipment capabilities to tap into the huge domestic market potentials in this sector. Efforts will also be made to accelerate upgrading of traditional industries to make them more digitalized, connected and smart, which will also unleash gigantic domestic market potentials. China will also speed up development of world-class technological innovation centers to foster new growth drivers, and expand investment in infrastructure related to key areas such as poverty relief, agriculture and energy to s...
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Top 5 Funding of the Week (17th Dec – 22nd Dec)
22Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments
FUNDING

Top 5 Funding of the Week (17th Dec – 22nd Dec)

Funding is a very important part of a business and when an entrepreneur starts a business, the major source of expenditure for him is the funding he receives. This week, we saw the food delivery giant raising a huge amount of funds. So, let's dig into the details and have a look on the top five funding activities of the week. Swiggy India’s largest food delivery company Swiggy has reportedly raised an amount of $1 billion in a fresh funding round. The round was led by existing backer, South African media giant Naspers. Along with this, the new investors that participated in the round included China’s Tencent and hedge funds Hillhouse Capital and Wellington Management.  With this new roun...
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India’s Smartphone Shipments to Hit 160 Million Next Year
22Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments
INDIA

India’s Smartphone Shipments to Hit 160 Million Next Year

Smartphone shipments in 2019 is expected to reach upto 160 million in India. India is expected to be the only major smartphone market to grow in 2019, following on from a strong 2018, compared with China. This compares with over an expected 150 million in 2018, compared with around 134 million in 2017. The Indian smartphone market is estimated to have grown 12% on year when global smartphone market is estimated to decline for the first time ever in a single year. Growth in the world’s fastest growing smartphone market revived in 2018 backed by a contraction in product replacement and upgradation cycles as a result of aggressive smartphone launches across price-points and an array of product financing schemes, discounts and buy-back offers, a trend which is likely to follow through...
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SoftBank Group to Close $1.5 billion Investment in a Cab Aggregator
22Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments
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...
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China’s Digital Economy repotedly Hit $2.3 Trillion in H1
22Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments
CHINA

China’s Digital Economy repotedly Hit $2.3 Trillion in H1

China's digital economy hit 16 trillion yuan ($2.3 trillion) in the first six months of 2018, which accounted for 38.2 percent of the country's overall GDP growth. Lu Chuncong, director of the academy, said despite booming growth, China's digital economy suffers from unbalanced and inadequate development. Data shows that in 2017 the province with the biggest digital economy was 64 times the size of the most underdeveloped province. Lu also mentioned that the service sector has undergone the biggest digital transformation in China, but that the industrial and agricultural sectors have been less affected by the inevitable trend. Development of the digital economy is listed as an important task for building a modern economic system in China and achieving high-quality development. In...
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Apple’s John Giannandrea Elevated as the Senior Vice President of ML & AI
22Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments
News

Apple’s John Giannandrea Elevated as the Senior Vice President of ML & AI

iPhone maker Apple has elevated John Giannandrea to the company's executive team as Senior Vice President of Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategy. Giannandrea, who joined Apple from Google in April, oversees the strategy for AI and ML across products and services, as well as the development of Core ML and Siri technologies. His team's focus on advancing and tightly integrating machine learning into Apple products is delivering more personal, intelligent and natural interactions for customers while protecting user privacy, the Cupertino-based giant said in a statement late on Thursday. "John hit the ground running at Apple and we are thrilled to have him as part of our executive team," said Apple CEO Tim Cook. "Machine learning and AI are important to Apple's fu...
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CherryHome Secures $5.2 Million from GSR Ventures
22Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments
FUNDING

CherryHome Secures $5.2 Million from GSR Ventures

CherryHome, the home AI security system created by startup Cherry Labs, has raised $5.2 million in a fresh funding round. This round was led by GSR Ventures to drive the technology’s use for in-home senior care. CherryHome uses its proprietary computer vision algorithms to interpret camera data into virtual “skeletons”. These are used by the AI to understand and analyze home events and people’s behaviors, such as how someone might develop a limp over time, for instance. The startup competes with Safely You, which sends alerts in response to very obvious falls, Nest and Lighthouse, which tend to only offer very basic AI over its imaging, Amazon’s Ring, which only offers outdoor security. With CherryHome, all information is processed locally so the video doesn’t leave the hou...
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Venture debt firm Alteria Capital Backs Portea Medical
21Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments
FUNDING

Venture debt firm Alteria Capital Backs Portea Medical

Health Vista India, which owns and operates home healthcare service provider Portea Medical has raised funds amounting to Rs 25 crore in a funding round. This round was led by venture debt firm Alteria Capital.The development has come days after Bengaluru-based Portea stated that it had introduced specialised and critical care services, including critical care at home, respiratory services, sleep apnea care, palliative care, cancer support services, post-trauma care, specialised rehab services and end-of-life care.“They (Alteria Capital) are quick to understand the needs of the business and are long-term partners. Venture debt is a great alternative source of capital for high-growth businesses like Portea,” Meena Ganesh, chief executive officer of P...
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Xiaomi’s Mi Pay to Make a Debut in Indian Market
21Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments
Tech

Xiaomi’s Mi Pay to Make a Debut in Indian Market

The Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi is all set to make a debut of its payments app called Mi Pay in India. The company has started beta testing of the Mi Pay platform in the country.  For this, the company has entered into a partnership with ICICI bank along with PayU to launch Mi Pay in India. The Indian variable of the app is slightly different from the NFC-powered payments app which is available in China.  In India, it is similar to the Google Pay app. Also, the Mi Pay is not only a UPI payments app, it claims to support debit and credit card as well. With this, the company might take advantage of MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) technology. MST is already used by Samsung in India for Samsung Pay.  This technology allows users to use t...
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