Tuesday, January 7

Author: Sheldan Rungasamy

WeWork Raises $400 million Funding To Buy its Office Buildings
14Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments
FUNDING

WeWork Raises $400 million Funding To Buy its Office Buildings

WeWork, a firm that delivers co-working and office space to small businesses and big corporations as well, is reported to have received a funding of $400 million. However, this funding round is different from previous funding rounds. It will come as an investment in the form of a small group of collective investments schemes with particular focus on real estate. It is the prolongation of a successful partnership between WeWork and a large private equity firm seeking to acquire real estates for WeWork’s business purpose. According to SEC filings, WeWork raised four new funds in association with Rhone Group, a private equity firm owning offices in New York, London and Paris. The funds raised include a first round of $25 million in new cash, a Fund A round of $201 million, a Fund B round o...
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Apple Manufacturer Acquires New Site in India
13Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments
News

Apple Manufacturer Acquires New Site in India

A department of Apple Inc’s contract manufacturer from Taiwan, Wistron Corp has received approval from the government of Karnataka to construct a new Apple facility in Bengaluru. The Karnataka state government granted Wistron Infocomm Manufacturing India Pvt Ltd’s request for 43 acres of land. The new site will be located at the Narasapura Industrial Area, located some 50 km away from the Bengaluru International Airport. The location is already home to the assembly operation of numerous firms with the likes of Honda Motorcycle, Scooter India and Mahindra Aerospace. Wistron is planning to invest around $105 in developing the land and producing smartphones, internet of things (IoT) apparels and other bio-tech devices, according to the document. On the application, Wistron did mentio...
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Pine Labs Receives Huge Funding to Expand Internationally
13Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments
FUNDING

Pine Labs Receives Huge Funding to Expand Internationally

Pine Labs, a payment service provider, received a funding round of $82 million from Actis Capital and Altimeter Capital announced Lokvir Kapoor, CEO of the company. Although the exact amount of shares sold by Pine Labs remained secret, two individuals close to the firm revealed as anonymous source that the funding values the FinTech startup at close to $1 billion. This funding comes at a time when digital payments providers in India are increasingly attractive to investors. The funding round at Pine Labs comes after the company initiated sale talks with tactical bodies but unfortunately didn’t conclude in a deal. Pine Labs provide cloud-based point of sale (PoS) payment solutions, enabling merchants to accept credit or debit card payments, e-wallets, QR code payment solutions and uni...
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Bike Rental Company Raises $866 Million From Alibaba
13Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments
CHINA, FUNDING

Bike Rental Company Raises $866 Million From Alibaba

China’s bike rental giant, Ofo announced it raised $866 million investment led by Alibaba Group, with additional partners in Haofeng Group, Tianhe Capital, Ant Financial and Junli Capital. The company is using a combination of debt and equity financing for this round of investment. A statement from the company claimed that this new funding represents a record in the bike-sharing industry. Earlier this month, rumors spread in China reporting Ofo held $280 million funding from Alibaba through chattel mortgage. However, we got no information concerning a relation between the two occurring news reports. "As the global leader in the bike-sharing sector, Ofo has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development. Ofo will continue to put our customers fi...
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Fulcrum Exits Curation Healthcare, Makes 15 Times Return
13Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments
ACQUISITION, News

Fulcrum Exits Curation Healthcare, Makes 15 Times Return

Fulcrum, a founder focused private equity firm from Chennai recently announced a partial exit from leading Indian dermatology products company Curatio Healthcare. The equity company is selling a portion of its stake to ChrysCapital which is an Indian focused investment firm possessing around $3 billion of assets under their wing. Although the exact amount of the deal remained unrevealed, Fulcrum received a cash return of 15 times the capital they invested and an Internal Ratio of Return (IRR) striking at 40%. This is already the second partial exit of Fulcrum from Curatio. Back in 2015, Fulcrum sold an important portion of their stakes in the dermatology products company to Sequoia and received 6 times the capital they invested. Fulcrum first became associated with Curatio in 2005...
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Twitter Argument Between Elon Musk and Donald Trump
13Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments
USA

Twitter Argument Between Elon Musk and Donald Trump

United States President, Donald Trump, and Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk started a political debate on Twitter concerning the import tax difference between China and USA on cars. It all started off from a tweet of US President over his promised tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum. On Wednesday, 7 March, the White House resident tweeted that China were asked to find ways to cut the trade deficit between the two countries by a billion dollars. Truthfully, the request comes from America and the correct amount is $100 billion. “China has been asked to develop a plan for the year of a One Billion Dollar reduction in their massive Trade Deficit with the United States. Our relationship with China has been a very good one, and we look forward to seeing what ideas they come back with. We mus...
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India’s Export Percentage Lower Than Year 2005
12Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments
Market

India’s Export Percentage Lower Than Year 2005

Indian exports of goods and services, as a percentage of GDP in the September 2017 quarter, was lower than that of September 2005. US President Donald Trump has menaced to impose reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods, if the government refuse to lower duties on American exports. If the threat is put into practice, it will aggravate an already problematic situation for Indian exports. The best way to illustrate the gravity of this problem is when we realize that the gross domestic product (GDP) in September 2017 quarter was lower than the September quarter of 2005, already 12 years ago. The Indian exports of goods and services as a percentage of GDP was on a steady rise during the last boom until the September 2008 quarter. Exports were on the rise, significantly contributing t...
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Xiaomi Will Launch Six Smartphones in India This Year
12Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments
Tech

Xiaomi Will Launch Six Smartphones in India This Year

Xiaomi Corp., China’s smartphone, and appliances maker is planning a major market take over in 2018 after announcing its plan to launch at least six smartphone models in India this year, the opening of 100 exclusive stores, and the release of new product categories in the near future. They are also planning to introduce a new range of televisions. Xiaomi global vice-president and India head Manu Kumar Jain said in an interview that the company is also looking forward to investing in India’s rapidly growing start-up ecosystem by penning down small and large cheques in the view of acquiring stakes in software and internet start-ups. They are also planning to maximize the number of investments over the coming years, as part of its broader strategy of investing $1 billion in Indian firms. ...
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Koovs Seeks £23 Million for Indian Market Expansion
12Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments
FUNDING

Koovs Seeks £23 Million for Indian Market Expansion

London-listed fashion e-commerce company, Koovs announced its plan to raise 22-23 million pounds this year in a bid to accelerate its growth plans and expand its presence in the Indian e-commerce market. This decision comes amidst dropping sales reports in the UK market. It also announced its willingness to raise 50 million pounds funding, as their cash reserves are not significant. “We will need up to GBP 50 million to fund our acceleration plan. This will be done in tranches. This year, we are looking at about GBP 22-23 million, which we expect to, close in the new few months,” said Koovs Chairman, Waheed Alli. Sales are a big matter of concern presently and the company could not hide its incertitude about the future. The company recently revealed H1 gross sales were flat at 7.9 mi...
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Elliott Management buys 0.04% of Wipro’s stakes
12Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments
FUNDING

Elliott Management buys 0.04% of Wipro’s stakes

Elliott Management, the activist hedge fund credited in the change of Cognizant’s business model two years ago, recently bought a tiny stake in Wipro, the Information Technology Services Corporation. This investment further highlights the 34-billion hedge fund company’s interest in Indian IT companies as it presently owns two companies in this sector out of their 40 US listed stocks. In the December quarter of last year, Elliott Management acquired 1.85 million of Wipro’s American Depositary Receipts (ADR), amounting 0.04% of the company’s shares, according to US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. Both Elliott Management and Wipro declined to comment on questions related to the latter’s stake. This deal somehow appears to be different from Elliott Management’s activi...
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Passport Details Compulsory For Loans Above Rs 50 Crore
12Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments
INDIA

Passport Details Compulsory For Loans Above Rs 50 Crore

The Indian government is taking the offensive against those economic offenders attempting to run away from India. Public sector banks are now directed to collect passport details from borrowers seeking to obtain loans higher than Rs 50 crore. This measure is the next step towards clean and responsible banking, Rajeev Kumar, secretary of Department of Financial Services tweeted. Banks must now make their loan application forms according to the new rule and assist the government in preventing the flight of economic offenders. For those already possessing loans above the stipulated amount of Rs 50 crore, passport details must be submitted by the borrower to their concerned banks within 45 days. In the eventuality that passport details are not produced, banks are expected to take timely ...
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Venture Gurukool Launch $20 million Fund for Indian Startups
10Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments
News

Venture Gurukool Launch $20 million Fund for Indian Startups

Venture Gurukool, a platform established to assist early-stage startups, is planning to launch its first fund called VG Coop Fund with a target amount of $20 million until the end of April, said Mahendra Swarup, founder of the entity. The fund will include a greenshoe option to raise another $20 million, will be used to invest in business-to-business and consumer technology start-ups. According to Swarup, the company will collaborate with three large Chinese investors who will be co-investing with Venture Gurukool. “We are floating a small fund, where we will first identify such ventures that have similar successes in China. The Chinese only want to invest in spaces they are familiar with and they have had successes in China itself. The idea is not only to fund Indian start-ups but t...
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