Wednesday, December 25

Author: Priyanka

Move to Withdraw Rs 500, 1,000 Notes Master Stroke: Narayana Murthy
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
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
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
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
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...
Bengaluru Based KredX Raises $6.25 Million Series A Funding
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
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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...
Skills Alpha a Digital Learning Platform Raises $450K Angel Funding
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...
Bengaluru Based Cloud Telephony Startup Solutions Infini Raises Funding From Italian Firm
FUNDING

Bengaluru Based Cloud Telephony Startup Solutions Infini Raises Funding From Italian Firm

With an eye on key emerging markets like India, leading Italian mobile services provider, Ubiquity, today announced that it has acquired a 51% majority stake in Solutions Infini, a Bengaluru-based enterprise communication and cloud telephony services startup. This strategic acquisition will broaden Ubiquity’s offerings and business solutions, including the addition of an innovative voice services platform by expanding its range of services to the enterprise and developer segments. The investment is part of Ubiquity’s drive to build and diversify its revenues and expand its international presence beyond Europe, particularly in the emerging markets, whilst also providing Solutions Infini with a global platform to scale up in other international markets. The combination of the two compa...
Wipro Secretly Acquired a US Based Cloud Service Company Appirio
ACQUISITION

Wipro Secretly Acquired a US Based Cloud Service Company Appirio

Wipro Limited, India's leading information technology, consulting and business process services company announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquired Appirio, for USD 500 Million. Established in 2006, Appirio, a global cloud services company that creates next generation worker and customer experiences. Appirio is headquartered in Indianapolis with offices in San Francisco, Dublin, London, Jaipur, and Tokyo and has 1250 employees worldwide. The US based company is a trusted partner to some of the world’s leading brands, including Stryker, Robert Half, Johnson Controls, Cardinal Health, Coca-Cola, eBay, Facebook, Home Depot, and Sony PlayStation. Once completed, Wipro’s acquisition of Appirio will create one of the world’s largest cloud transformation practices, a game...
Now Paytm QR Code Based Payments For Cashless Transaction
News

Now Paytm QR Code Based Payments For Cashless Transaction

Paytm has introduced another innovative feature which would enable more people to shop around cashless. Now pay online to big mega stores, in malls or the cab driver or may be the vegetable vendor in your neighborhood by Paytm QR code. The QR code or the Quick Response code is a machine readable bar code that stores private information about a customer. The users will just need to scan the QR codes of merchants, enter the amount & approve the payment. The merchants' QR codes will contain only the merchants' name and account information. Paytm is moving quickly and its efforts to bring value to the Indian economy and its customers in an attempt to achieve the goal of cashless transactions in India. Paytm's endeavor has been to facilitate both online & offline payments. The ...
Dealberg.com Asia’s First, Invite-only B2B Ecommerce Acquires a Year-old Startup WeAreGadgets
ACQUISITION

Dealberg.com Asia’s First, Invite-only B2B Ecommerce Acquires a Year-old Startup WeAreGadgets

In a rare feat, Dealberg, a pre-launch startup has acquired an established $2-million company WeAreGadgets in the first week of this month. WeAreGadgets was founded by Sree Krishna Seelam, a serial entrepreneur and an MLA contestant of the Aam Aadmi Party. Before WeAreGadgets, Sree founded an NGO called Country Flavours, a manufacturing unit for processed foods and instant mixes. Sree will now play the role of the Chief Operating Officer at Dealberg and leads the partnerships and business development functions. "We want to help SMEs reduce their calls to the vendors but still avail best products at affordable prices, directly from the brands. With the help of Dealberg, SMEs from tier I, II and III cities can buy authorized and genuine products from brands with no geographical barr...