FUNDING | Pixr8 News

21Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Ola Looking To Raise $100 Million in Fresh Funding to Fuel Expansion

Cab aggregator Ola's board has approved raising up to USD 100 million from existing shareholders, primarily to fund its expansion plans. The company, which is locked in an intense battle with American rival Uber, had recently raised funds to the tune of Rs 1,675 crore from its Japanese investor, SoftBank. The approval was for issuance of convertible securities at a price of Rs 13,521 apiece through a rights issue. ANI Technologies, which operates Ola today said, "its board has approved raising up to USD 100 million (about Rs 670 crore) by issue of 495,526 Series 'l1' preference shares of face value INR 10 each at a price per subscription share equivalent to INR 13,521". As per the filing made to the Corporate Affairs Ministry under the Companies Act, the rights issue was scheduled ...

Hero Group Chairman Sunil Munjal Invests Rs 100 Crore in Aavishkaar Bharat Fund

21Apr By kriti singhNo Comments

FUNDING

Hero Group Chairman Sunil Munjal Invests Rs 100 Crore in Aavishkaar Bharat Fund

Hero Enterprises Chairman Sunil Kant Munjal today committed an investment of Rs 100 crore in a new fund of social venture capital firm Aavishkaar -- Aavishkaar Bharat Fund. The fund is sixth by Aavishkaar and a Sebi-registered category II alternative investment fund (AIF). "At this stage in India's evolution, it is clear that for the entire country to develop, rural areas and underprivileged citizens must become part of the economic miracle, not through charity, but through real opportunities," Munjal said in a statement. The fund, targeting a corpus of Rs 2,000 crore will invest in businesses that deal in under-served population in sectors such as agriculture, financial services, healthcare, waste and sanitation, renewable energy and logistics and supply chain. Aavishkaar Foun...

Paytm in Talks With SoftBank to Raise $1.2-$1.5 Billion: Report

19Apr By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Paytm in Talks With SoftBank to Raise $1.2-$1.5 Billion: Report

Electronics payments provider Paytm is in talks with Japan's SoftBank Group to raise $1.2 to $1.5 billion in cash, making the latter one of the largest shareholders in the fintech start-up, Mint newspaper reported on Wednesday citing sources. The deal, which could increase Paytm's valuation to $7 billion to $9 billion, will see SoftBank buying some shares from existing Paytm investor SAIF Partners and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma beside investing money in the company, the report said. Local media had reported recently that SoftBank is keen to sell its stake in India's e-commerce firm Snapdeal in exchange for a stake in market leader Flipkart. Paytm may also buy Snapdeal-owned payments rival Freecharge, as part of the deal, the report said. Digital payments have assumed great si...

Bengaluru Based Virtual Reality Startup Absentia Raises Rs 8 Crore

18Apr By RishabhNo Comments

FUNDING

Bengaluru Based Virtual Reality Startup Absentia Raises Rs 8 Crore

Absentia, a bengaluru based virtual reality startup raised Rs 8 crore in a pre-series-A round. Investors like Exfinity Venture Partners, former Infosys executives V Balakrishnan and Mohandas Pai, Deepak Ghaisas and Girish Paranjpe participated in the round of funding. The company will use this fund to build Norah AI, an artificial intelligence engine that can create interactive content for games with minimal human intervention. According to the company, AI can create a completely new set of interactive content for arcade games, casual games, puzzles, animation and graphics.Norah. “With Norah AI, we are aiming to become the world's first auto content-generation company with a focus on the media and entertainment segment. Over the past few months, the team has been successful ...

17Apr By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Credihealth Raises $1.5M Funding

Credihealth, an online medical assistance firm, said it has raised $1.5 million (over ₹9 crore) from Tolaram Group and Mountain Pine Capital. The pre-series A funding also saw participation from former KPMG partner Bala Swaminathan, one of the earliest investors in the platform. "More than money, it is innovation and steady growth that are needed to survive in the market today. The funding will primarily be utilised to augment technology and infrastructure to expand services and introduce new products," said Ravi Virmani, founder of Credihealth. With this round of funding, Credihealth aims to expand its operations and fund the new services to address the non-clinical pain points of patients, it said in a statement.

Infosys Foundation Offers Rs 2 Crore Grant for Open Online Resource Sahapedia

17Apr By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

Infosys Foundation Offers Rs 2 Crore Grant for Open Online Resource Sahapedia

Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic arm of IT major Infosys, today announced a partnership with Sahapedia, an open online resource, to support the development of an online interactive web module on the arts, culture and histories of India. The Foundation has offered a corpus grant of Rs 2 crores invested for a period of 25 years towards the initiative. It said through this association with Sahapedia, a non-profit organisation, the foundation aims to provide content comprising multimedia modules made up of articles, interviews, photographs, performance videos timelines, walkthroughs and bibliographies thereby assimilating a rich experience of Indian history and culture on the web. "We are proud of our partnership with Sahapedia and look forward to jointly positioning the effort ...

Kishore Biyani Led Future Group Set up Rs 100 Crore Accelerator Fund

17Apr By RishabhNo Comments

FUNDING

Kishore Biyani Led Future Group Set up Rs 100 Crore Accelerator Fund

NEW DELHI: The Kishore Biyani-led Future Group has announced setting up of Future C&D (consumer and digital) Lab in Bengaluru backed by a Rs 100-crore Accelerator Fund. The research and development activities will be supported through a Rs 100-crore Accelerator Fund that will be set up to fund the operations, technology development and IPR creation by the teams working at the Lab. “Future C&D Lab will focus on the consumer and digital space to bring in next generation innovations using artificial intelligence, Big Data Analytics, Blockchains, Internet of Things, robotics and allied technologies,” Future Group said in a statement today. Future Group founder and CEO Kishore Biyani said, “The Future C&D Lab is aimed at co-creating next generation technologies for the consume...

Ola Cabs Raises Rs 1,675 Crore From Softbank

14Apr By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

Ola Cabs Raises Rs 1,675 Crore From Softbank

New Delhi: Japanese investor SoftBank has pumped in about Rs 1,675 crore in fresh funding in Indian transportation startup Ola to give it more muscle to take American rival Uber head-on. SoftBank subsidiary SIMI Pacific Pte picked 12,97,945 shares valued at Rs 10 at a premium of Rs 12,895 in ANI Technologies -- which runs Ola -- filings with the Registrar of Companies showed. The allotment of shares was done in November last year, it added. The latest funding, however, is believed to have come at a lower valuation. According to sources, the move comes at a time when Softbank is working on selling Snapdeal, an e-commerce platform it invested heavily in India, to larger rival Flipkart. The Bengaluru-based firm was aggressively looking at raising funds to compete with Uber, the wo...

11Apr By RishabhNo Comments

FUNDING

HackerEarth Raises USD 4.5 mn Funding from DHI Group and Others

HackerEarth, a platform for innovation and talent management, today said it has closed a USD 4.5 million (around Rs 30 crore) investment led by DHI Group. The Series A round also saw participation from Beenext, Beenos, Digital Garage and BizReach as well as HackerEarths current investor Prime Venture Partners. "With this round, we have raised a total of USD 5 million in equity investment to date. With this fresh infusion of capital, we aim to aggressively grow in the space of innovation management," HackerEarth CEO and Co-Founder Sachin Gupta. The company will also use the funds to strengthen its product team and strengthen business internationally in markets like the US, Europe and South East Asia, he added. Founded by Sachin Gupta and Vivek Prakash in 2012, HackerEarth has wo...

Flipkart Raises $1.4 Billion From Microsoft, Tencent and eBay

10Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Flipkart Raises $1.4 Billion From Microsoft, Tencent and eBay

Indias largest e-commerce firm Flipkart has raised USD 1.4 billion from Tencent Holdings, Microsoft Corp and eBay Inc amid speculation that the online marketplace is in talks to take over smaller rival Snapdeal. The biggest-ever fund raising by an Indian Internet firm values Flipkart at USD 11.6 billion, the company said in a statement today. With over 100 million customers, Flipkart owns fashion retailers Myntra and Jabong, logistics firm Ekart and payments app PhonePe. The valuation was a decline from Flipkarts USD 15 billion reported worth in 2015. Prior to the latest round of funding, it had raised more than USD 3 billion, mostly from international investors. eBay will invest USD 500 million in Flipkart as the two firms will merge their operations in the country. As part of the de...

Google.org Offers $8.4M Grants to 4 Indian NGOs

9Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

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Google.org Offers $8.4M Grants to 4 Indian NGOs

Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, today announced grants of $8.4 million to four NGOs in India that offer technology-based learning solutions. The NGOs include Pratham Books StoryWeaver ($3.6 million), Pratham Education Foundation ($3.1 million), Million Sparks Foundation ($1.2 million) and Learning Equality ($500,000). They will receive the grant for two years to expand and scale the work they are doing. These grants are part of a global $50 million commitment that Google.org has made towards supporting non-profit entities that are building tech-based learning solutions. "These grants will be used to scale existing initiatives to reach more children and build more innovative and engaging tech-based learning solutions to close the gap in learning and academic opportunity," ...

Hyderabad Based Startup Smartron Raise Rs 250 Crore

8Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Hyderabad Based Startup Smartron Raise Rs 250 Crore

Technology company Smartron today said it will raise up to Rs 250 crore more and plans to more than double its workforce over the next 18 months. Smartron, a Hyderabad-based start-up today celebrated its first anniversary of the public launch and introduction of tbook, tphone, and ttab devices and tronxIoT platform. The day also marked the expansion of the R&D and other operations with the opening of the new corporate headquarters located in Gachibowli here, which was inaugurated by Telangana’s IT Minister K Taraka Rama Rao. Smartron Founder and Chairman Mahesh Lingareddy said "this expansion is a step towards building a stronger base to support the R&D and innovation to create a smart product ecosystem." Smartron, in the last two years, went from inception to 200 plus team...