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Accion Venture Lab Completes First Successful Exit in India

15Nov By PriyankaNo Comments

News

Accion Venture Lab Completes First Successful Exit in India

Accion Venture Lab, the seed-stage investment vehicle of financial inclusion leader Accion, announced today that it has successfully exited an investment for the first time. Venture Lab has sold its stake in Varthana, a company providing specialized loans and support to affordable private schools in India, promoting access to and the quality of education for India's poor and emerging middle class. Venture Lab led the first institutional investment round in Varthana in May 2013. As of August 2016, with Venture Lab's active support, Varthana has supported more than 2,000 schools, 38,000 teachers, and one million students, and has disbursed more than $35 million to schools that serve lower and middle income Indians. "Varthana has reached great heights as an innovative financial services...

Paytm Acquired Delhi Based O2O Startup Shopsity

12Nov By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Paytm Acquired Delhi Based O2O Startup Shopsity

India's largest mobile payments and commerce platform Paytm has acquired a Delhi-based startup Shopsity, a O2O solutions to small retail stores. Earlier This move is in line with Paytm’s vision to create strong seller-focused services for its offline merchants. Shopsity is focused on small unorganized retailers, providing them with tools to attract and retain customers. Co-founders Danish Ahmed and Gaurav Arya have joined Paytm’s management and are actively working to strengthen seller services for the 800,000 strong offline sellers on the Paytm ecosystem. ”Shopsity has done a great job at providing innovative solutions to small offline retailers. By integrating their technology with our advanced seller services, we will be able to offer additional solutions to our fast-growing famil...

Paytm Introduces Nearby, a Seamless Way to Find Your Nearest Paytm Merchant

11Nov By PriyankaNo Comments

News

Paytm Introduces Nearby, a Seamless Way to Find Your Nearest Paytm Merchant

As part of its ongoing mission of helping India go cashless, Paytm, India’s largest mobile payments and commerce platform, today introduced the ‘Nearby’ feature on its platform. This will enable Paytm customers to get information about their nearest Paytm merchant. Paytm ‘Nearby’ will carry a directory of 800,000 of offline merchants and partners across India. In the first phase, this list is 200,000+ & will continue to grow everyday. Customers on their Paytm app or web can now browse through a list of shops & locations near them that offer services like accepting adding cash to e-wallet & upgrading accounts by doing KYC. This not only provides convenience to customers but also provides visibility to thousands of small and medium merchants by connecting them to millions of ...

Ecommerce Firms Paytm & Amazon Temporarily Halting COD Orders, Issue Advisories

10Nov By PriyankaNo Comments

News

Ecommerce Firms Paytm & Amazon Temporarily Halting COD Orders, Issue Advisories

Ecommerce companies are struggling to handle cash on delivery (COD) orders, following the government's decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, with firms like Amazon and Paytm temporarily halting the facility for customers. Some companies like Uber and BigBasket have issued advisories urging customers to pay in lower denominations, while others like Flipkart and Snapdeal have set limits to the value of orders that can be delivered through COD. According to industry estimates, about 70 per cent of the shoppers opt for cash while buying a product. "We have temporarily stopped cash as a payment option for new orders. Customers who had already placed COD orders before midnight 8/11 can pay for their orders using debit or credit cards or currency of valid denominations ...

Move to Withdraw Rs 500, 1,000 Notes Master Stroke: Narayana Murthy

9Nov By PriyankaNo Comments

Entrepreneurs Talk

Move to Withdraw Rs 500, 1,000 Notes Master Stroke: Narayana Murthy

Terming the decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes as a "master stroke", IT czar N R Narayana Murthy today said the move will address issues like black money and corruption and also help the economy become more digital. "Prime Minister is working hard to reduce corruption. Black money is a scourge on any developing economy. He (Narendra Modi) has been a great supporter of digital economy. So yesterday when he made the announcement, I thought it was a master stroke," he said at an event here. Murthy added that this hopefully will help reduce corruption and black money and also accelerate the move towards digital economy. Taking the nation by surprise, in a major assault on black money, fake currency and corruption, Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday announced...

Tesla Buys German Automation Firm Grohmann to Drive Up Production

8Nov By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Tesla Buys German Automation Firm Grohmann to Drive Up Production

US electric car maker Tesla today said it would buy German engineering firm Grohmann to help ramp up production at its heavily-automated factories. "Several critical elements of Tesla's automated manufacturing systems will be designed and produced" in Pruem in western Germany, the California-based firm said in a statement. Tesla, founded by tech billionaire Elon Musk, aims to produce 500,000 cars per year by 2018 after taking some 370,000 pre-orders for its mass-market Model 3, which will sell for around USD 35,000 (just under 32,000 euros). This year, the firm hopes to build between 80,000 and 90,000 units of its luxury Model S and Model X vehicles, 50,000 of them in the second half. "The key to making electric cars affordable are economies of scale and automation in order to h...

Paytm Appoints Ex-Times Internet Executive Deepak Abbot as Senior VP

3Nov By PriyankaNo Comments

News

Paytm Appoints Ex-Times Internet Executive Deepak Abbot as Senior VP

India's largest mobile payment and commerce platform Paytm has announced the appointment of Deepak Abbot as its Senior Vice President - Growth Marketing. Previously, Deepak was working with Times Internet as the head of mobile growth. With over 17 years of work experience in growth hacking, mobile marketing and data analytics, Deepak has also worked as the Chief Product Officer at Reliance Entertainment Digital, General Product Manager at Zapak, UX Consultant at Satyam Computers and Product executive at CyberMedia. "I am very happy to see Deepak back in Paytm. We are in the next phase of our growth, and his skills and expertise will be instrumental to our efforts of reaching half a billion users by 2020," said Founder and CEO of Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma. "It feels great to be a...

Zensar Technologies Acquires Design Agency Foolproof Ltd

3Nov By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Zensar Technologies Acquires Design Agency Foolproof Ltd

Zensar Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary Company of Zensar Technologies Limited and the shareholders of Foolproof Ltd. today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Zensar to acquire Foolproof Limited along with its two wholly owned subsidiary companies in UK and one wholly owned subsidiary Company in Singapore for an undisclosed sum. Under the terms of the agreement, Foolproof will now be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zensar Technologies (UK) Ltd. The deal will be financed by internal accruals, and will be EPS positive for the company. Foolproof is one of Europe’s leading experience design agencies, headquartered in London with other offices in Norwich and Singapore. The company helps global brands design better, and more relevant, digital products and ...

Amazon to Buy Publishing Business of Tata-Owned Westland

29Oct By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Amazon to Buy Publishing Business of Tata-Owned Westland

US-based e-commerce giant Amazon today said it is acquiring the publishing business of Tata-owned Westland for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will enable authors of Westland, a subsidiary of Tata Group firm Trent, to grow their physical and digital book businesses in India as well as expand their reach to customers globally, Amazon said in a statement here. Earlier this year, the online marketplace had acquired a 26 per cent stake in the Tata-owned publishing company, "Our acquisition of Westland continues our commitment to India -- enabling Amazon to bring Westland's highly talented authors and their books to even more customers in India and around the world," said Amit Agarwal, Vice-President and Country Manager at Amazon India. "Since investing in Westland earlier this yea...

25Oct By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Bengaluru Based KredX Raises $6.25 Million Series A Funding

Invoice discounting marketplace, KredX has raised USD 6.25 million in Series-A round of funding led by Sequoia India. Company’s existing investor Prime Venture Partners also participated in this round and had earlier invested USD 750,000 in April of this year. The funding will be used by KredX to strengthen its technology, data and sales functions within the company. Bangalore-based KredX, Formerly known as Mandii is an online marketplace for SME lending that connects enterprises looking for financing and investors looking to earn higher short-term yields with lesser risk. Borrowers can upload payment pending invoices or post-date instruments of their customers, select from among the best bids available and receive funds. Investors can view invoices, PDIs from SMEs along with cred...

Startup Incubator thinQbate Launches with its First Cohort of 6 Emerging Startups

24Oct By PriyankaNo Comments

News

Startup Incubator thinQbate Launches with its First Cohort of 6 Emerging Startups

The last year has been a landmark year for startups in India. As per the Nasscom report, India ranks third among global startup ecosystems with more than 4,200 new-age companies. Aimed at supporting this growth, thinQbate, a new thinking incubator launched in Mumbai today. Based on a community and entrepreneur first approach to angel investment and incubation, it hopes to create an ecosystem that will identify, nurture, and leverage on the success of a concept. thinQbate aims to help annual cohorts of fresh ideas and minds thrive by providing a physical space to work in, support from its expert partners and showcasing entrepreneurs based in thinQbate and through events, in-house & external, through the year. Focusing on the importance of providing a favorable ecosystem for the s...

23Oct By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Skills Alpha a Digital Learning Platform Raises $450K Angel Funding

Mumbai-based Skills Alpha is one of the newest start-ups in the entrepreneurial ecosystem which helps the corporate employees to learn and develop their skills has raised $450K in Angel funding round from Mr. Ganesh Natarajan. Ganesh Natarajan an IT veteran and former CEO of Zensar Technologies has a stake of 60-65% in the company. The company which was founded in 2016 and run by Jaideep Kewalramani CEO of Skills Alpha, offers a dashboard where employees can see where they stand in their career and what they need to do if they want to climb up the skills levels. Skills Alpha provides three-dimensional skills through bite-sized content and curated learning path. Jaideep Kewalramani ,CEO,Skills Alpha said, "The whole premise of Skills Alpha is how we start by infusing aspiration an...