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2Mar By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Car Renting Platform Spinny Raises USD 43.7 mn Funding

Online used car retailing platform Spinny raiseS USD 43.7 million funding led by Fundamentum Partnership (FP), a growth-capital fund backed by Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal. The series-B round also saw participation from new investors, US-based General Catalyst Partners, Korea-based KB Financial Group and existing investors Accel, SAIF Partners and Alteria Capital as co-investors, a statement said. Ashish Kumar, Partner, FP will join the Spinny board, it added. The funds will be used to invest in technology, strengthen business teams, enhance customer experience and, expand to newer cities, it added. Spinny had raised its seed round from Blume Ventures and Simile Ventures, and most recently it had closed its Series A round of USD 13.2 million co-led by SAIF Partners and ...

Indiamart becomes India’s Largest B2B Marketplace, Registered 100 Million Users

2Mar By PriyankaNo Comments

News

Indiamart becomes India’s Largest B2B Marketplace, Registered 100 Million Users

Leading B2B marketplace IndiaMART has seen a 10-fold increase in its user base over the past six years to achieve 100 million registered users on the platform. "We have aimed at making IndiaMART a one-stop-shop for all the business needs and have strived for curating a platform that is simple and convenient for millions of MSMEs in India," said Chief Operating Officer Dinesh Gulati. Nearly 36 per cent of the traffic on IndiaMART comes from metro cities and the remaining 64 per cent from tier one, tier two and smaller towns. "We have tried to show the masses the digital way of doing business. Going forward, we will keep investing in our platform with the use of voice, vernacular, artificial intelligence and machine learning that will further ease out doing business in India," said ...

Spaciya Advisors Raises USD 0.5 million Pre Series Funds

2Mar By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Spaciya Advisors Raises USD 0.5 million Pre Series Funds

New Delhi, March 2, 2020: Realty firm Spaciya Advisors has raised Pre-Series funding from Indian angel investor Alok Grag, an investor to many real estate startups in India. Spaciya will utilize the raised capital to expand to newer regions, build its brand through collaborative marketing and make technological advancements. Spaciya, which was started in the year 2016, works entirely on data analytics, research and market intelligence. The market intelligence has helped the company to introduce the office lease SPY REPORT which is custom-tailored for any start-up or corporate to know the inside information before they decide to take a new office. Spaciya’s transactional services arm enables the companies to execute the transactions. Mr. Alok Garg, serial entrepreneur and investor...

Ad-tech company Affle acquire Mediasmart

28Feb By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Ad-tech company Affle acquire Mediasmart

Ad-tech company Affle has acquired Spanish firm Mediasmart in a $5.5 million (Rs 40.87 crore) deal. Mediasmart provides advertisers, trading desks and agencies an integrated mobile advertising platform. Its proximity marketing solutions allow it to deliver location targeted campaigns with real time footfall tracking and offline attribution. Its total revenue for the financial year ended December 31, 2019, was EUR 5.95 million. "A total consideration of EUR 5.12 million including contingent consideration to be paid for the acquisition of 100 per cent shares and economic rights of employees (subject to certain performance conditions over 4 years period and also subject to certain closing adjustments)," Affle said in a regulatory filing. It added that this also includes the pay...

27Feb By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Hasura raises USD 9.9 mn funding from Vertex Ventures US & Others

Tech firm Hasura has raised USD 9.9 million (about Rs 70 crore) in funding, led by Vertex Ventures US. The series A round also saw participation from SAP.iO Fund, the early-stage venture arm of SAP, existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Strive VC, a statement said. Several angels like James Tamplin (founder of Firebase), Sam Lambert (VP of Infrastructure Engineering at GitHub), Amod Malvia (co-founder of Udaan, ex CTO Flipkart), and Michael Stoppelman (ex-SVP of Engineering at Yelp) also participated, it added. Hasura is a San Francisco based privately held software technology company that builds developer tooling products, including open source tools, backend as a service (BaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) products. The company provides data access and data flow ...

Wipro Consumer Care Ventures invests in LetsShave

26Feb By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Wipro Consumer Care Ventures invests in LetsShave

Wipro Consumer Care Ventures, the venture capital fund of Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting has signed an agreement to invest in LetsShave Private Ltd, which caters to male and female shaving and grooming markets. LetsShave focuses predominantly on the shaving category, and is expanding into personal care categories like body care, skin care and electric trimmers, the city-headquartered Wipro said in a statement. The company markets its portfolio of products under the brand name of LetsShave. It has a strategic tie-up with Dorco, a Korean Company and one of the pioneers in the razor industry, manufacturing blades since 1955.Dorco has a 10 percent stake in LetsShave and is a global supplier to companies like Dollar Shave Club. Managing Partner of Wipro Consumer Venture, Sumit Kesh...

Lyft acquires Cartop Advertising Startup Halo Cars

24Feb By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Lyft acquires Cartop Advertising Startup Halo Cars

Lyft Inc has bought U.S.-based startup Halo Cars, which allows drivers to make money through digital advertisements displayed on top of their vehicles. The deal, first reported by Axios, was confirmed by the ride-hailing company on Friday. Lyft did not comment on the financing of the deal. Halo Cars was founded in 2018 and has operations in U.S. markets such as New York and Chicago. Lyft and larger rival Uber Technologies Inc, both based in San Francisco, are pursuing different roads in search of profitability, with Uber pouring money into side businesses which have so far lost money and Lyft focusing solely on moving people around. With operations only in the United States and some Canadian cities, Lyft said earlier this month its active rider customer base in the fourth quart...

Blume Ventures Raises $102 mn in final close of Fund III

19Feb By PriyankaNo Comments

BUSINESS

Blume Ventures Raises $102 mn in final close of Fund III

India based early-stage venture capital firm, Blume Ventures announced the final close of Blume Ventures Fund III at USD 102 million (about Rs 730 crore). After a first close in late 2018, the final close was completed in December 2019, a statement said. "We are very proud of our founders and team who have delivered outstanding performance over the last three years, thereby strengthening the Blume brand and track record immensely," Karthik Reddy, co-founder and managing partner at Blume Ventures said. Blume started in 2011 raising an entirely domestic Rs 100 crore fund from HNIs (high net-worth individuals) and subsequently raised a USD 60 million fund (Rs 400 crore) in 2016. It claimed that its the first entirely homegrown fund to raise a third fund and raise over USD 100 million...

Bloomberg would sell Media business if elected US President

19Feb By PriyankaNo Comments

USA

Bloomberg would sell Media business if elected US President

Mike Bloomberg would sell the media and other businesses he created in the 1980s which bears his name and made him a multibillionaire if he is elected US president, a top adviser has said. Bloomberg would put Bloomberg LP into a blind trust, and the trustee would then sell the company, adviser Tim O'Brien said Tuesday. Proceeds from the sale would go to Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable giving arm that funds causes from climate change to public health and grants for American cities. The only restriction Bloomberg would put on the sale is that it not be sold to a foreign buyer or a private equity company, O'Brien said. Bloomberg, a Democrat, is currently chief executive of the company. "We want to be 180 degrees apart from Donald Trump around financial conflicts of interest,...

Apple to miss Revenue forecast as iPhone supply hit by Coronavirus

18Feb By PriyankaNo Comments

News

Apple to miss Revenue forecast as iPhone supply hit by Coronavirus

Apple is to miss its revenue forecast for the March quarter due to the coronavirus epidemic, warning that iPhone supplies worldwide would also be impacted, underlining the economic cost of the health crisis. The COVID-19 virus death toll now exceeds 1,800 in China, where it has infected more than 72,000 after emerging in the central province of Hubei in December. The virus has sparked global economic jitters, travel bans and the cancellation of high-profile sporting and cultural events. "We are experiencing a slower return to normal conditions than we had anticipated," Apple said in a statement. "As a result, we do not expect to meet the revenue guidance we provided for the March quarter." Apple had forecast revenue of $63 billion to $67 billion for the second quarter to March....

14Feb By PriyankaNo Comments

BUSINESS

eBay Completes Sale of StubHub

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 13, 2020-- eBay Inc, a global eCommerce platform that connects millions of buyers and sellers around the world has completed the sale of StubHub to viagogo for $4.05 billion in cash. "The completed sale of StubHub to viagogo is a great outcome both in terms of the $4.05 billion sale price and the potential StubHub has with its new owner," said Scott Schenkel, interim CEO of eBay Inc. "The StubHub transaction reinforces our commitment to creating shareholder value and is consistent with other steps we have taken such as margin improvement, share buybacks and issuing dividends. We are operating with discipline and focus, improving financial performance and delivering improved customer experiences. On behalf of the eBay team, we're excited to see how StubHub evolves...

US Second Largest Newspaper Group File for Bankruptcy

14Feb By PriyankaNo Comments

USA

US Second Largest Newspaper Group File for Bankruptcy

McClatchy, the second largest US newspaper group, announced that it was filing for bankruptcy protection in the latest sign of turmoil for the struggling media sector. The company said it would keep operating its 30 regional newspapers including the Miami Herald and Kansas City Star as it seeks to shed much of its debt and focus on "digital transformation." A reorganization plan included in the bankruptcy filing could hand over ownership of the newspaper chain to the private equity group Chatham AssetManagement and end the McClatchy stock listing. The bankruptcy filing seeks to shed some of the crushing debt acquired by McClatchy, which has a pension shortfall of more than half a billion dollars. "McClatchy remains a strong operating company with an enduring commitment to indepen...