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Reliance Industries vs Tata Group: Who is the Biggest?

28May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

ANALYSIS

Reliance Industries vs Tata Group: Who is the Biggest?

Tata Consultancy Group and Reliance Industries are currently the two biggest companies in India but differ greatly in terms of the way their businesses operate and in terms of revenues and market valuations. Valuation Tata Consultancy Group leads the race between the two, currently, the Indian company with the highest valuation, Rs 6.11 trillion as of January 2018, while Reliance Industries Group holds a valuation of 6.10 trillion, trailing the software major by little. It should also be noted that TCS has been leading the Indian ground in terms of market capitalization for years since 2013 to be precise. At the time, TCS was leading RIL by up to Rs 4 trillion. However, in April 2017, RIL re-gained its perch of the leader after 4 years with an m-cap of Rs 4.60 trillion. Since then, both co...

26May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

FUNDING

Funding News of the Last Week (May 21st – 26th 2018)

This week witness a lot of funding rounds, 14 to be precise for a total amount of around $130 Million. HDM Global was the company which received most funding with $100 Mn, while Bonphul Air Product and Rocketium raised the least funds with $300K funding. Below is a recap of all the funding news that happened this week : LifeSight LifeSight, an artificial intelligence-powered location intelligence platform based in Singapore, recently raised $2 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by shareholders of Provident Capital Partners, an investment firm based in Indonesia. The funds raised will be used to grow its engineering and data science abilities at its Bengaluru development centre as well as expand operations in other Asian markets in the next couple of yea...

26May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

FUNDING

AI-Powered Location Intelligence Startup Raises $2 Mn Funding

LifeSight, an artificial intelligence-powered location intelligence platform based in Singapore, recently raised $2 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by shareholders of Provident Capital Partners, an investment firm based in Indonesia. The funds raised will be used to grow its engineering and data science abilities at its Bengaluru development centre as well as expand operations in other Asian markets in the next couple of years, according to a statement released by the company. LifeSight, which is run by LifeSight Pte. Ltd, saw the day in September 2017 by Rohit Maheswaran and Tobin Thomas. Before founding LifeSight, Maheswaran was operating as Chief Product Officer at Ebizu, an ad-tech company, while co-founder Thomas was responsible of sales and operations at AskMe, the ...

Samsung to Pay Apple $539 Mn For Copyright Infringement

25May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

News

Samsung to Pay Apple $539 Mn For Copyright Infringement

Five days of deliberations, it is what it took the US jury yesterday, to announce that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd were guilty of copying patented smartphone features by Apple Inc. Therefore, the South Korean giant will have to pay $539 million to the US headquartered company, therefore bringing a closure to the dispute between the archrivals. The world’s two leading smartphone manufacturers have been disputing in court for patents since 2011, when Apple first filed a lawsuit accusing Samsung smartphones and tablets of “slavishly” copying their products. Samsung were found guilty in 2012 but disagreements sprouted over the amount to be paid, therefore leading to the current retrial. However, Samsung did previously pay Apple $399 million as compensation for copyright infringement of p...

Microsoft Will Extend EU Data Policy Law Globally

25May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

News

Microsoft Will Extend EU Data Policy Law Globally

Microsoft Corporation, the tech giant, announced that it is planning to extend the rights of the European Union’s new data privacy law to its global customers and not exclusively to users from European territory. The law comes after tech companies such as Facebook were found guilty of sharing personal user data to third parties for ad-targeting. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), will come in full effect as from today and aims to give internet users a better control of how companies use their personal data. Moreover, tech companies will have to comply to a rigid protocol on how they store personal users’ data and how they share it with third parties. “As an EU regulation, GDPR creates important new rights specifically for individuals in the European Union. But we believe ...

Samsung Geared Up To Fend Off Chinese Competitors

25May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

Tech

Samsung Geared Up To Fend Off Chinese Competitors

Samsung, the South Korean Electronics manufacturer market leader in India’s phone segment, recently affirmed that Samsung’s Indian business did not suffer much damage nor significant market loss after the arrival of Chinese smartphone brands in India. A top Samsung executive stated that the company was well geared to compete with rising competition. India being the second largest smartphone market and the fastest growing globally, we have extremely aggressive plans for the country, said Mohandeep Singh, Senior Vice-President, Mobile Business, Samsung India. In FY17-18, the South Korean phone maker registered 55.2% of market share in the Rs 40,000 and above price segment, according to a GFK report. In March, Samsung registered a staggering 58% market share in that segment. However,...

25May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

FUNDING

SoftBank Urges OYO to Seek New Investors For $500-700 Mn Funding Round

Softbank, the Japanese conglomerate owned by Masayoshi Son, recently agreed to sell its stakes in Flipkart for $4 bn following an investment of $2.5 Bn in mid-2017 for its 20% stakes in the e-commerce company. However, the company is very well focused and determined to bet on other companies that will remain profitable and growing. Therefore urging Indian hospitality service, OYO to get new investors on board, following which the Japanese giant will participate in a funding round reported to be worth $500-700 Mn. A report from MoneyControl claimed that “many Chinese investors are interested in hospitality as a sector.” The report also stated that the valuation of OYO will be subject to appreciation from the new investors. However, a new funding round is most likely to mark the entry ...

Uber Records Eye-Dropping Profits That Will Be Reinvested in India

25May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

BUSINESS

Uber Records Eye-Dropping Profits That Will Be Reinvested in India

Uber is currently facing a lot of competition with India-based cab aggregator rival Ola, in Australia. However, the global leader in the ride-hailing market’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, reportedly stated that the company will keep investing in its products and technology in emerging markets such as India and Middle East. In an email sent to his employees, the recently appointed CEO stated that the company’s core business has been achieving well and saw the number of trips on the platform increase by 43% while bookings also rose by 55% to $11.3 Bn year-on-year. He further expressed that the company’s net revenue grew by 67% to reach $2.5 Bn while it was able to cut losses by half compared to the previous year. We are deliberately reinvesting our profits. Even with these impressive results,...

25May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

FUNDING

AR-Focused Ed-Tech Startup Raises $2 Mn Funding

Smartivity Labs, an Augmented Reality (AR) EdTech startup, recently raised $2 Mn from Ashish Kacholia, an early venture investor. The funds raised will serve to scale Smartivity’s operations in international markets. Smartivity Labs is also backed by S Chand Group, a publishing company based in Delhi. We closed 2017-18 at $1.4 Mn at around 2.5x to 3x year-on-year growth. This year, we are projecting around $3.5 Mn. We are also on the verge of finalizing newer markets like Japan, China, Russia and Western Europe, said Tushar A Amin, co-founder of Smartivity Labs. The association between Smartivity Labs and S Chand Group is to develop academic content for subjects such as science, technology, English and Mathematics (STEM) as well as arts in order to provide a learning-based DIY kit. T...

25May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

FUNDING

Oxygen Optimizer Startup Raises Rs 2 Crore Funding

Bonphul Air Products Pvt. Ltd, the company behind oxygen optimizer ‘OxyMax’, recently raised Rs 2 crore (Approx $293,000) in an angel funding round from Atul Gupta, director at computer spare parts firm Rx Infotech, and Saurabh Rastogi, director at packaging and food processing machines manufacturer Karmesh Global Technologies. In a previous round of funding that occurred in October 2017, Bonphul received an undisclosed amount from Satish Bhatia, an investor based in Faridabad. The funds raised will be used to expand the company’s product portfolio and drive its sales and marketing network. Additionally, it is planning to boost its technology development and provide customized solutions for uses in various segments such as hospitals, schools and shopping malls. Bonphul was founded...

24May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

FUNDING

Former Flipkart Employees’ Startup Raises Rs 1.5 Crore Funding

Arzooo.com, a reverse auction platform, recently raised Rs1.5 crore in a seed funding round from Omphalos Ventures India. The funds raised will be used to develop the platform’s technology and expand its operations to the top most prominent cities in India by March 2019. Arzooo.com was founded by two former Flipkart employees, Khushnud Khan and Rishi Raj. The startup recently boomed in India’s e-commerce ecosystem in July 2017 with their unique reverse auction model which provides high value buyers with the lowest price on designated products, therefore beating down the competition in other online platform. Since inception, the startup caters over 2,000 customers with an average ticket size of Rs 22,000 on high quality branded products and report a monthly run rate of Rs 7 million...

24May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

FUNDING

Vernacular Chatbot Platform Raises Seed Funding From IIM-Ahmedabad

DheeYantra Research Labs, the company behind vernacular chatbot platform dhee.ai, recently raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a seed round led by Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), the incubator-cum-investment arm of IIM-Ahmedabad. This funding round also witnessed the participation of Gopal Krishna, former managing director of Maxim India Integrated Circuits and stock market mogul Vijay Kedia. The funds raised will serve to strengthen the firm’s sales and marketing units while also investing on additional features such as improving support in additional languages for the Indian and overseas markets. DheeYantra was founded in 2017 by Vidhu Beenie and Sreekumar Jairaj and provides voice and text-based platform dhee.ai, which is supported by their fla...