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Softbank invests Rs 2,800 cr in Indiabulls Housing Fin’s associate OakNorth

8Feb By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

FUNDING

Softbank invests Rs 2,800 cr in Indiabulls Housing Fin’s associate OakNorth

Indiabulls Housing Finance Friday said Japan's Softbank is investing Rs 2,800 crore of equity capital in its associate OakNorth, a commercial bank in the UK. Indiabulls Housing Finance said OakNorth is the fastest growing new bank in Europe, leveraging technology tools for fast and efficient disbursals to the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector. The bank has no physical branches. "The current loan book of OakNorth is Rs 21,390 crore and the bank has no delinquencies as on date," the company added. OakNorth was seeded by Indiabulls Housing in October 2015 with Rs 650 crore to own a 40 per cent controlling stake in the bank. Last year, Indiabulls sold a part of its holding to the government of Singapore for Rs 900 crore. Shares of Indiabulls Housing Finance were t...

20Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

CHINA

Coffee Clash Brewing in China: Startup Luckin takes on Starbucks

AFP: When Starbucks came to China two decades ago it promised to open a new store every 15 hours. Now a homegrown Chinese company Luckin Coffee plans to build a high tech-driven shop every three and a half hours to dethrone the US giant. The Chinese upstart is burning through millions of dollars to lure customers with steep discounts, challenging Starbucks' dominance by targeting office workers and students who prefer to have their java on-the-go or delivered to their doorstep. They could really benefit from wholesale coffee roasters similar to Iron and Fire based in the UK so they're really able to take on the competition. While Starbucks and British rival Costa Coffee offer lounging spaces for people to work or meet friends, most Luckin outlets are more like "delivery kit...

19Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

News

Wipro Sees 31.8% Rise in Net Profit

IT services major Wipro Friday posted a 31.8 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,544.5 crore for October-December 2018 compared to the year-ago period. Wipro's board has also approved an issue of bonus shares offering one bonus share for every three held by shareholders. The net profit in the October-December 2017 quarter was at Rs 1,930.1 crore. The revenue from operations expanded 10.17 per cent to Rs 15,059.5 crore during the period under review from Rs 13,669 crore in the third quarter of FY 2017-18. "It is yet another quarter of solid execution. Our performance in both revenue and margins has been robust," Wipro CEO and executive director Abidali Z Neemuchwala told reporters here. In the constant currency terms, the IT services grew by 2.4 per cent which ...

Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to lay off 10% of its over 6,000 employees

12Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

News

Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to lay off 10% of its over 6,000 employees

SpaceX plans to lay off 10 per cent of its more than 6,000 employees, a source familiar with the decision said on Friday. "To continue delivering for our customers and to succeed in developing interplanetary spacecraft and a global space-based Internet, SpaceX must become a leaner company," Elon Musk, said. "Either of these developments, even when attempted separately, have bankrupted other organizations," it added. "This means we must part ways with some talented and hardworking members of our team." It added that the trim down was "only due to the extraordinarily difficult challenges ahead."Citing an email sent to employees on Friday, the Los Angeles Times said the company was offering those affected a minimum of eight weeks' pay and other benefits, including career coaching an...

7Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

FUNDING

Indian Startups raise $38.3 bn Funding in 2018: Report

New Delhi: Indian startups are estimated to have raised $38.3 billion in funding in 2018, behind only the US and China, a report by Yostartups said Thursday. Flipkart’s $16 billion deal with American retailer Walmart accounted for the biggest piece of the pie, followed by Swiggy raising about $1.3 billion over three deals, and OYO picking up $1 billion in 2018, the report said. Other big funding deals included those by Paytm Mall ($895 million), ReNew Power ($495 million), Byju’s ($422 million) and Zomato ($410 million). Around 1,000 deals were signed by Indian startups in 2018 with areas like e-commerce, fintech, sustainability and renewable energy, transportation and logistics, health and wellness, and travel and tourism attracting the highest investments, it add...

Demonetisation was Executed Poorly, Introduction of 2000 Notes was a bad idea: Uday Kotak

10Dec By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

Entrepreneurs Talk

Demonetisation was Executed Poorly, Introduction of 2000 Notes was a bad idea: Uday Kotak

Mumbai: Speaking at former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian's book launch, the MD of Kotak Mahindra Bank said that the outcome of the controversial demonetisation would have been "significantly better" if "simple things" like cancelling the introduction of higher denomination Rs 2,000 notes. The executive vice chairman and managing director of the fourth largest private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank has also said small businesses are in a difficult situation at present and has welcomed the government focus to revive the sector. On demonetisation, he said the outcomes would have been different if it was planned well. "I think we would have had significantly better outcomes, if we had just thought about simple things. If you are taking out Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, why ...

Tumblr Banning All Adult Content After its App down From Apple’s App Store

5Dec By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

Tech

Tumblr Banning All Adult Content After its App down From Apple’s App Store

Tumblr has said it is banning adult content from the Yahoo-owned blogging platform, which saw its app pulled from Apple's App Store last month over child pornography. Tumblr will begin enforcing its new policy on December 17, giving users who host unwanted explicit content an opportunity to take their imagery elsewhere, according to chief executive Jeff D'Onofrio. There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content," D'Onofrio said in a blog post Monday. Those looking for adult content may be better off Going Here instead of Tumblr from now on. "We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community." The decision to purge porn from Tumblr was made after "serious thought" regarding standards in the...

Walmart India’s E-commerce Entity Flipkart Acquires Israel Based Startup

26Sep By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Walmart India’s E-commerce Entity Flipkart Acquires Israel Based Startup

E-commerce major Flipkart said it has acquired Israel-based Upstream Commerce for an undisclosed amount as the Walmart-backed firm aims to further strengthen its selection and pricing capabilities. Flipkart, which is locked in an intense battle for market leadership in India against American rival Amazon, will get access to advanced data science-based intelligent solutions through the acquisition, it said in a statement. The buyout of Upstream Commerce, which offers cloud-based, automated competitive pricing and product analysis solutions, will also strengthen Flipkart's ability to deliver insights to its sellers, it added. Post the acquisition, the Upstream Commerce team, while continuing to work out of Israel, will become part of Flipkart. "With the Upstream acquisition, we wil...

Bajaj Auto Announces Rs 2 Cr Contribution for Kerala Flood Relief

22Aug By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

Automobile, News

Bajaj Auto Announces Rs 2 Cr Contribution for Kerala Flood Relief

India's one of the leading automobile company Bajaj Auto announced a contribution of Rs 2 crore in aid of flood-hit Kerala. While Rs 1 crore is being contributed directly to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund, the balance Rs 1 crore will be deployed by Jankidevi Bajaj Gram Vikas Sanstha (JBGVS), for distribution of survival kits, the company said in a statement. The contribution is in addition to the Rs 50 lakh already contributed by various Bajaj Trusts, it added. JBGVS is an institution that undertakes various corporate social responsibility initiatives of Bajaj Auto. "Through this amount, Bajaj Auto aims to support at least 1,000 families with a basic startup kit for those who have been affected by the floods," the statement said. Bajaj Auto President (Intra-city Business) ...

31Jul By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

FUNDING

Cure.fit Raises $120 mn Funding led by IDG, Accel

Health and fitness startup Cure.fit today said it has raised USD 120 million funding (Rs 824 crore) in new round of funding led by IDG Ventures, Accel Partners and Kalaari Capital. The series C round funding also saw participation from Chiratae Ventures and Oaktree Capital, Cure.fit said in a statement. "The fresh investment will enable Cure.fit to strengthen technology platform, invest in building a national brand and scale the geographical footprint for the company's four flagship products Cult.Fit, Eat.Fit, Mind.Fit and Care.fit," it added. Founded in 2016 by Myntra co-founder Mukesh Bansal and former Flipkart executive Ankit Nagori, CureFit operates a chain of fitness centres under Cult.Fit. It also focusses on mental fitness (through Mind.fit), healthy food (Eat.fit) and primar...

28Jun By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

Market

HDFC Mutual Fund Gets Sebi Nod For IPO

HDFC Asset Management Company, the country's largest mutual fund firm, has received Sebi's go-ahead to float an initial public offer. The company had filed draft papers with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in March and received its "observations" on June 22, as per the latest update with the markets watchdog. Sebi's observations are necessary for any company to launch public issues like a rights issue, initial public offer (IPO) and follow-on public offer (FPO). HDFC AMC operates as a joint venture between Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and Standard Life Investments. Going by the draft papers, the proposed IPO offers up to 2.54 crore equity shares of the fund house through an offer for sale of 85.92 lakh shares by HDFC and up to 1.68 crore shares b...

14May By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

Narendra Modi Government Spent Rs 4,343 Crore on Publicity

The Indian PM Narendra Modi led BJP government has spent Rs 4,343 crore on publicity since it came to power in May 2014, an agency under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has said in reply to an RTI query. The Bureau of Outreach Communication under the ministry said the Indian government spent Rs 4,343.26 crore on advertising its programmes across media platforms. The expenditure was incurred on advertisements in the print and electronic media as well as outdoor publicity, the central government agency said. This included Rs 1732.15 crore on advertisements in the print media (from June 1, 2014, to December 7, 2017) and Rs 2079.87 crore in the electronic media (from June 1, 2014, to March 31, 2018). A sum of Rs 531.24 crore was spent on outdoor publicity (June 2014 to Ja...