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Top 10 Most Valuable Brands in The World Right Now

29May By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

CHINA

Top 10 Most Valuable Brands in The World Right Now

A new list talking of world's most valuable brands has been released and dragon country China has bagged top spots for the very first time. Ranked at No. 9, Jack Ma's Alibaba has joined along with Chinese Tech Giant Tencent alongside behemoth stalwarts such as Google and Apple. Alibaba has witnessed its brand value go double to $113 billion as the e-commerce firm has diversified its portfolio landing into mobile payments and cloud computing. Meanwhile, Tencent too has managed to secure a place in BrandZ top 10 ranking in 2017 and has gone from strength to strength over the past year. With a brand value of 179 billion, up by 65% compared to the company holds the 5th place behind giants Google, Apple, Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT) but above Facebook (FB). The BrandZ ranking ...

Paytm Acquires Alibaba-Owned Ticketing Platform For $40 Mn

23May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Paytm Acquires Alibaba-Owned Ticketing Platform For $40 Mn

Paytm, the leading Indian online payments company announced the acquisition of Orbgen Technologies Pvt. Ltd., the firm that operates TicketNew, a ticketing platform based in Chennai. The cost of the deal has not been disclosed yet, but according to stock based transactions, the deal is estimated to have cost between $30-40 million. The deal will see Paytm acquiring the business from Alibaba Pictures, the entertainment channel of Chinese giant Alibaba Group, which bought a majority stake in Tickenew barely a year ago. The acquisition was made as Paytm wishes to connect its 300 Mn customers to TicketNew partner cinemas, which will additionally drive Paytm’s utility and revenues. “We are on a mission to be the one-stop destination for all movie and entertainment ticketing needs. It is o...

Paytm Mall Introduces No-cost EMI and Other Services to Expand E-commerce Penetration

21May By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

News

Paytm Mall Introduces No-cost EMI and Other Services to Expand E-commerce Penetration

Paytm Mall, The digital arm of e-commerce giant company Paytm has announced its plans to introduce an umbrella of new services such as no cost EMI, Extended Warranty on products, Device Insurance and Easy Exchange across its online platform as well as offline partner stores. Interestingly, the e-commerce arm of Paytm which received $450 million in funding from Alibaba and SoftBank is disbursing no-cost EMIs price Rs 1,000 crore throughout two million merchandise by the top of the subsequent quarter. In addition, it is partnering with 13 banks and monetary establishments for this transfer. Now with new additions to its portfolio, the company is looking forward to driving 25 % progress in gross income for its companion retail shops and achieve a dominating market share in smartphones a...

SoftBank Is In Talks With Zomato Over A Possible Investment

17May By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

BUSINESS

SoftBank Is In Talks With Zomato Over A Possible Investment

The Japanese Internet Conglomerate, SoftBank Group Corp is reportedly in talks over a possible investment in food delivery and online restaurant company Zomato as told by sources familiar with the matter. The possibility of Softbank's future investment in Zomato has been speculating in the market since six months back when the Japanese giant first held conversations exploring a possible funding of up to $200-250 million in Bengaluru-based Swiggy. "SoftBank which has already backed Flipkart now eyes to make a niche for itself in the food delivery market said one of the sources. The development comes as SoftBank is reportedly yet to decide on selling its more than 20% stake in Flipkart to US retailer Walmart. The Report says that SoftBank is currently discussing business metrics across...

Food Delivery Startup Swiggy Is Eyeing to Raise $250 Mn

15May By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

News

Food Delivery Startup Swiggy Is Eyeing to Raise $250 Mn

Online Food Delivery Startup Swiggy is eyeing to raise $250 million instead of $150-200 Mn as speculated earlier. This development has come into play at a time when the Bengaluru headquartered company is seeing intense investor interest that would help the firm to amp up its valuation and raise more money. Major Technology giants such as Japanese Agglomerate SoftBank, Chinese Firm Tencent, DST Global and Alibaba are currently in talks with Swiggy though, an official confirmation has not emerged until now. Earlier in February this year, the Food Startup had earlier raised a $100 (Rs 640 crore) million in a Series F round, one of its largest round so far led by Naspers. According to some sources reported by Techcircle, a person familiar with the matter said, "The only factor which i...

Alibaba Acquires Pakistan’s Leading E-Commerce Company Daraz

9May By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Alibaba Acquires Pakistan’s Leading E-Commerce Company Daraz

Chinese Internet giant Alibaba has bought Pakistani e-commerce firm Daraz in an undisclosed deal in order to expand its operations in South Asia. The deal marks Alibaba's second wave of international expansion aiming to enter South Asia. Daraz was founded in 2012 and is backed by European Tech Incubator Rocket Internet. It operates in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan. This is the second time when Alibaba has bought a Rocket company, the first being Lazada in South East Asia in 2016. The official announcement for the deal is awaited but has been confirmed by a company spokesperson, according to the sources. Alibaba had initially focused on India backed by Paytm but now it aims to spread its wings into lower profiles which are hugely populated in South Asia. Pakis...

Xiaomi Files for “World’s Biggest” IPO Application in Four Years

4May By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

Market

Xiaomi Files for “World’s Biggest” IPO Application in Four Years

China's Leading Smartphone and Device Maker Xiaomi has filed for Hong Kong initial public offering on Thursday, which is being considered as one of the largest listings by a Chinese organization in almost four years i.e since 2014. The announcement came right after company's official revenue posting that stood at 114.62 billion yuan (USD 18 billion) in 2017, up from 67.5 percent from 2016. The company also reported a net loss of 43.89 billion yuan in 2016. Xiaomi's IPO will mark the first listing in Hong Kong to happen after new rules (dual-class shares implementation) that will target to garner more tech listings, in the backdrop of a competition ongoing between Hong Kong, New York, and the Chinese Mainland. As per sources obtained from Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Limited,...

3Apr By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

FUNDING

Paytm Mall Raises $445 Mn Funding From SoftBank and Alibaba

Paytm has been all over the landscape these past few weeks and days with major consecutive news announcements. This time, Paytm mall, the e-commerce daughter business of Paytm has raised over $445 Mn in funding from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant. Regulatory filings reveal that SoftBank has been the major investor in this round, funding around $400 Mn of the total amount while Chinese company, Alibaba, fueled the rest. The first tranche of $55 Mn has already been sent to Paytm Mall’s account. Paytm Chief Operating Officer, Amit Sinha confirmed the news in a media statement saying, “This latest investment led by SoftBank and Alibaba reaffirms the strength of our business model, growth trajectory, execution capability and the potential of India...

Alibaba Buys Out Remaining Shares of Ele.me

2Apr By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Alibaba Buys Out Remaining Shares of Ele.me

Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce giant announced that after buying 43% of stakes in Ele.me, a leading food delivery platform, it decided to buy all the remaining shares of the company as it looks forward to compete with Tencent Holdings for offline customers. The deal, which is still in process, will stand at a value of $9.5 billion, Alibaba released in a statement. Ele.me, is the Chinese word for “Hungry?” and among the fast evolving and rapid growing e-commerce businesses present in China which is set around consumers ever more reliable on their smartphones to buy products and receive services. The acquisition from Alibaba expands its e-commerce food delivery facilities such as several other businesses it owns stakes or bought in the last few years such as delivery platform...

Alibaba Invests $2 Billion in Lazada, Also Lead the Operation

19Mar By NitishNo Comments

FUNDING

Alibaba Invests $2 Billion in Lazada, Also Lead the Operation

Alibaba, China's leading e-commerce company will appoint one of its founders Lucy Peng as head of Lazada and also invested around $2 billion into Southeast Asia's leading online shopping firm. The appointment and funding will use to expand the operations in the south-east Asia region. Alibaba is the leading investor in the Lazada group, owns 83% shares. Earlier the e-commerce company was invested total $2 billion in two rounds of funding. As per the information, Alibaba with these investments trying to acquire both online and offline assets to further bolster its business. Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam are the leading market for the e-commerce company having 560 million consumers in the region. Lazada Group was founded in 2011 by German ...

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...

Alibaba Proposes to invest $500 Mn in Dailyhunt

24Feb By Sabhyata AgarwalNo Comments

FUNDING

Alibaba Proposes to invest $500 Mn in Dailyhunt

The multinational e-commerce giant Alibaba is planning to buy a minority stake of upto $500 million in Dailyhunt (formerly known as Newshunt), an online news providing platform said two people close to the development reported livemint. According to the duo, Alibaba has already offered a deal closing at $500 million to Dailyhunt but the news aggregator is looking for more investors, other than Alibaba. “The talks are, however, not yet conclusive as Dailyhunt is also looking for other funding options apart from Alibaba,” said one of the person aware of the matter, on the request of staying anonymous. The other person asking for the same quoted, “The deal will be a minority stake sale in which Alibaba is looking to acquire anywhere between 10% to 12%, depending upon the final negotiat...