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Challenge for Startups to Get Series C & Beyond Funding: Kris Gopalakrishnan

7Apr By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

Entrepreneurs Talk

Challenge for Startups to Get Series C & Beyond Funding: Kris Gopalakrishnan

Securing series C and beyond funding is a challenge for start-ups, Information Technology veteran Kris Gopalakrishnan said as he called for a simple, orderly and fast-track mechanism to shut failed businesses. The start-ups scenario in India is pretty good but when those firms go for series C and beyond funding, there are some challenges, the co-founder and former CEO of Infosys said. "But at the seed stage or series A (funding), there is still money available; good ideas will get funded and there are lot of opportunities for innovation and new startups in the area of financial services, healthcare, niche retail and deeper technologies, converting research into new products and new businesses," Gopalakrishnan told Pixr8 here. "So, there are significant opportunities still (to tap in t...

Under Pressure, India’s Snapdeal Woos Staff With Promises of Profit

5Apr By reutersNo Comments

News

Under Pressure, India’s Snapdeal Woos Staff With Promises of Profit

Seeking to calm employees rattled by reports of a cash crunch, the founders of Indian online retailer Snapdeal have gone directly to them with a string of townhall meetings in past weeks, according to sources, promising profit and brushing off takeover talk. The sources, familiar with the group, declined to be named as the meetings were not public. Like most e-commerce players in India, Snapdeal is burning cash to sustain discounts - and keep customers - in a cut-throat online market. But as the number three player, it also is under growing pressure from investors and its own employees to consider its bottom line, as well as market share. One of the sources said there had been at least five townhalls in recent weeks, with founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal delivering motivationa...

Whatsapp Will Launch P2P Payment Service in India

4Apr By reutersNo Comments

News

Whatsapp Will Launch P2P Payment Service in India

Instant messaging app WhatsApp, owned by Facebook Inc, is mulling a foray into digital payment services in India, its first such offering globally, and has advertised to hire a digital transactions lead in the country. A WhatsApp move into digital payments in India, its biggest market that is home to 200 million of its billion plus global users, would replicate similar moves by messaging apps like Tencent Holdings Ltd's WeChat in China. WhatsApp is working to launch person-to-person payments in India in the next six months, news website The Ken reported earlier on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources. A job advertisement on WhatsApp's website said it was looking for a candidate with a technical and financial background - who understands India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and the ...

Woman Entrepreneur Writes to PM Modi Against Stayzilla Fraud

3Apr By AdityaNo Comments

News

Woman Entrepreneur Writes to PM Modi Against Stayzilla Fraud

The woman proprietor of Chennai-based advertising Jigsaw Solutions, which was allegedly defrauded of Rs 1.69 crore by Stayzilla, today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government to address issues of funding and transparent business models at the earliest. Radha Shekhar, in a letter to Modi, said this was needed to avoid any suffering women entrepreneurs like her face at the hands of a few 'unscrupulous businessmen' posing as startups. Jigsaw had alleged Stayzilla had defrauded it of about Rs 1.68 crore for services it rendered since last year. Yogendra Vasupal, co-founder of Stayzilla, an online hotel and homestay booking company, was arrested on March 14 for alleged cheating and criminal intimidation. He has twice been denied bail. Radha also wrote to IT Minister Ravi ...

2Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

News

An Indian Watch Brand TSAR Launches Wood Made Watches

As people from the fashion industry dabble with new textures and materials to come up with different and extraordinary designs in the world of accessories, here is a material that is to stay "WOOD". Open your mind to the possibilities and you will realise that there is no better and more sustainable material than wood as it is one of the most abundant renewable resource available in this day and age with infinite possibilities. It is comparatively an ecological solution to using stainless steel, leather and other limited and morally questionable resources that may perish, deplete or cause harm to the society. Wood has evolved to suit our functional and aesthetic needs. TSAR, the new Emperor in the world of wooden accessories is here to stay. An Indian Watch brand started by two y...

Struggling E-commerce Company Snapdeal Rope in SBI Caps and Kotak Mahindra Capital For IPO in 2019

1Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

News

Struggling E-commerce Company Snapdeal Rope in SBI Caps and Kotak Mahindra Capital For IPO in 2019

Struggling ecommerce major Snapdeal has sounded out five merchant bankers, including SBI Caps and Kotak Mahindra Capital, to work on a public offer that is likely to hit the market in the second half of 2019. The third largest marketplace majority owned by Japanese giant SoftBank has also reportedly appointed Swiss investment banking major Credit Suisse as a special advisor for the share sale, people aware of the development told PTI. "The IPO process is on with in earnest and may open in the second half of calender 2019, depending on the market sentiment. The management has zeroed in on five i-bankers incluing SBI Caps and Kotak MahindraBSE 0.82 % Capital,"said the source. The source also said out of the five i-bankers sounded out, it will pick only one lead-banker that could be ...

Modi Privately Took Amazon to Task Over Insulting Flag Doormat

31Mar By reutersNo Comments

News

Modi Privately Took Amazon to Task Over Insulting Flag Doormat

India's reaction to an Amazon.com website selling doormats resembling the country's flag involved an unprecedented public and private offensive against the US company by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, a document shows. Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj publicly threatened in January to rescind visas of Amazon employees if the doormats were not removed from its Canadian website. But a document seen by Reuters shows the government went even further in private, asking its US and Canadian embassies to raise the matter "strongly" with Amazon's senior leadership. India also escalated the matter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and prompted a global audit by the company to "ensure that such products are not listed on any of its other" websites around the world, according to the docu...

SHAREit’s Global Users Surpass One Billion

30Mar By AnkitaNo Comments

News

SHAREit’s Global Users Surpass One Billion

On March 16, 2017, SHAREit announced that its global user number surpassed one billion, including over 300 million internet users contributed by India, and more than 60% were Indian netizens. Up to now, SHAREit has already covered over 200 nations with monthly active users of nearly 400 million. Consistently ranking No.1 in the GooglePlay Popular Tool List among 33 nations and No.1 in the AppStore Productivity Rating among 62 nations. More than 700 million documents are distributed through SHAREit every day. It has a huge potential of crunching big data. Along with the technological development from Internet to mobile Internet, the world is even more interconnected. But in the current stage, India is facing a lot of obstacles. Among them, the comprehensive construction of internet in...

PayPal, Vistarooms Partnership for Online Payment to Hotel Bookings

30Mar By AdityaNo Comments

BUSINESS

PayPal, Vistarooms Partnership for Online Payment to Hotel Bookings

Digital payment firm PayPal has a partnered with Vistarooms.com to enable foreigners travelling to India book hotels in the country. "Vistarooms.com will help us further add to the existing list of travel and tourism partners that includes OYO rooms and Makemytrip. Additionally, our seller protection programme helps merchants safeguard their online services from frauds," PayPal Director for Large Merchants in India Megha Thareja Tyagi said in a statement today. Vistarooms.com has over 1,000 hotels across India, Sri Lanka and Maldives and they will be using the automated invoicing capability of PayPal. "Our partnership with PayPal allows us to provide further payment flexibility to both local and international travellers," Vista Rooms Co-Founder Ankita Sheth said.

Xiaomi Wants to Increase Offline Sales to 50 Percent By Year End

27Mar By AdityaNo Comments

Tech

Xiaomi Wants to Increase Offline Sales to 50 Percent By Year End

Chinese handset maker Xiaomi today said it plans to ramp up its offline distribution channel in the country and is targeting around 50 per cent of its turnover from this segment. “Till now, our focus was on online sales. Now, we will focus both on online and offline distribution. We expect our share from offline to grow from current 10 per cent to 50 per cent by the end of this year. This is our aspiration,” Xiaomi India Head Manu Kumar Jain said. Jain said the company has strong plans for offline distribution. “In five or six cities, we are ramping up and having extensive offline distribution and Chandigarh is one of them as it is a key market for us. In the next 3-4 months, we will start a very extensive offline distribution business in Chandigarh through multi-brand outlets. “W...

25Mar By AdityaNo Comments

INDIA

India’s First Two Days Rural Innovation & Startup Conclave Concluded in Hyderabad

The two-day Rural Innovation and Startup Conclave (RISC2017), which aims to provide a platform to rural innovators and start-ups, today got underway at the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD & PR) here. "Rural Innovators Startup Conclave is a good beginning to connect all dots to take science and technology, to take innovative minds to the rural areas to harness the creativity available in rural areas for solving the problems in rural areas," NIRD & PR Director General W R Reddy said at the inauguration ceremony. For promotion of rural entrepreneurship, NIRD & PR wants to become platform for creative minds, innovators, startup enthusiasts and to connect them with rural India to resolve some of the rural issues and rural challenges, Reddy said. "The fo...

Uber Stalls India Leasing Scheme as Driver Incomes Drop – Sources

25Mar By reutersNo Comments

News

Uber Stalls India Leasing Scheme as Driver Incomes Drop – Sources

Global ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies is rethinking its car leasing strategy in India, its second-biggest market, as drivers have returned dozens of leased cars early after the company cut incentives, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Uber had planned to buy 15,000 new cars last year and lease them out in a bid to attract more drivers - a strategy it has used in other markets - but it suspended the scheme for a while in December after leasing just a third of that total. After burning through millions of dollars over three years in a battle for market share with local rival Ola, backed by Japan's Softbank , Uber has cut the incentives it gives to drivers and raised the fares it charges passengers. The incentives - from free smartphones to cash bonuses worth as much...