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Smallcase raises $40 mn from Amazon & others

20Aug By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Smallcase raises $40 mn from Amazon & others

Bengaluru, 20th Aug 2021: Bengaluru-based stock management company Smallcase raises USD 40 million (about Rs 297 crore) in funding, led by Faering Capital as well as new investors Amazon, Smbhav Venture Fund, and Premji Invest. The Series C round also saw participation from existing investors, including Sequoia Capital India, Blume Ventures, Beenext, DSP Group, Arkam Ventures, WEH Ventures, HDFC Bank Group, and Rare Enterprises CEO Utpal Sheth, a statement said. The round brings the total capital raised by Smallcase to over USD 60 million, it added. With the close of the transaction, Sameer Shroff - co-founder and Managing Director at Faering Capital will join the board of Smallcase. The fund raised will be used to continue launching better investment products for the retail investo...

Amazon to acquire MGM Film Studio for $8.45 Billion

26May By AnkitaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Amazon to acquire MGM Film Studio for $8.45 Billion

SEATTLE & BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., 26th May 2021-- Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has announced that they are going to acquire MGM Holding for $8.45 billion. MGM has nearly a century of filmmaking history and complements the work of Amazon Studios, which has primarily focused on producing TV show programming. “MGM has a vast catalog with more than 4,000 films includingJames Bond, Robocop, Rocky, The Pink Panther, etc. as well as 17,000 TV shows that have collectively won more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmys,” said Mike Hopkins, Senior Vice President of Prime Video and Amazon Studios. “The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team. It’s very exciting and provides so man...

Tata Group to acquire 68 percent stake in BigBasket for $1.3 billion

16Feb By reutersNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Tata Group to acquire 68 percent stake in BigBasket for $1.3 billion

Mumbai, Feb 16th, 2021: India's Tata Group will buy a 68% stake in online grocery startup BigBasket for $1.3 billion (about Rs 9,500 cr), television channel ET Now said on Tuesday, citing sources. The salt-to-software conglomerate has been planning to launch a "super app" that will tie in all its consumer businesses, according to media reports, as it competes against Amazon.com Inc and Reliance Industries Ltd in India's booming e-commerce market. Bengaluru-based BigBasket competes with Walmart Inc-owned Flipkart and Amazon's "Fresh" service as more consumers stay indoors and choose to shop online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tata's stake will translate into an enterprise value of 135 billion rupees for BigBasket, which is backed by Alibaba, ET Now said. BigBasket top manageme...

Jeff Bezos will step down as CEO of Amazon

3Feb By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Jeff Bezos will step down as CEO of Amazon

New York, Feb 3, 2021: World's leading eCommerce platform Amazon.com Founder & CEO Jeff Bezos will step down later this year as CEO to become executive chairman. Acted as a CEO for 30 years Bezos will be replaced by Andy Jassy, who runs Amazon's cloud-computing business. Under the leadership of Andy Jassy Amaozn cloud-computing business powers video-streaming site Netflix and many other companies, and it has become Amazon's most profitable business. In a blog post to employees, 57-year-old Bezos said, he planned to focus on side projects, including his space exploration company Blue Origin, his philanthropic initiatives, and overseeing The Washington Post, which he owns. “Jeff is really not going anywhere," Amazon's Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said in a call wit...

AI startup Databricks Raises $1 billion from Microsoft, Google & Amazon

2Feb By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

AI startup Databricks Raises $1 billion from Microsoft, Google & Amazon

San Francisco, Feb 2, 2021: AI startup Databricks raises $1 billion in funding in Series G round from Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services. Using this round of funding the startup value soar at a $28 billion valuation. Databricks is an analytics-based cloud computing platform that has 5,000 customers, including 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies. "We see this investment and our continued rapid growth as further validation of our vision for a simple, open and unified data platform that can support all data-driven use cases, from BI (business intelligence) to AI," said Ali Ghodsi, Databricks chief executive and co-founder. "Databricks helps organizations eliminate the cost and complexity that is inherent in legacy data architectures so that data teams can collaborate and...

28Nov By AnkitaNo Comments

INDIA

Indian eCommerce platforms reported USD 8.3 bn GMV during festive Sales

New Delhi, 28th Nov 2020: India's e-commerce festive sale season from October 15-November 15 this year delivered USD 8.3 billion (about Rs 58,000 crore) worth of gross sales for brands and sellers, up 65 percent from USD 5 billion (Rs 35,000 crore) last year, research firm RedSeer said on Friday. This was also higher than the pre-festive forecast of USD 7 billion, RedSeer said in its report titled 'The Festival of Firsts'. About USD 3.2 billion (Rs 22,000 crore) worth of gross sales was registered in September this year, which zoomed to USD 8.3 billion in the festive period, the report said. Of the USD 8.3 billion, USD 4.2 billion (Rs 29,000 crore) was logged in the first event, USD 1.2 billion (Rs 8,700 crore) in the second event and USD 1.4 billion (Rs 9,700 crore) and USD 1.5...

Amazon Introduces Amazon One, a Contactless Payment via Palm

29Sep By PriyankaNo Comments

News

Amazon Introduces Amazon One, a Contactless Payment via Palm

Seattle, 29th Sept 2020- US-based eCommerce platform Amazon Introduces Amazon One, a contactless way for people to use their palm to pay at the store, entering a location like a stadium, etc. Amazon said the service is designed to be highly secure and uses custom-built algorithms and hardware to create a person’s unique palm signature." Amazon will use this service in select Amazon Go stores, where Amazon One will be added to the store’s entry gate as a convenient choice for customers to use to enter the store to shop. In most retail environments, Amazon One could become an alternate payment or loyalty card option with a device at the checkout counter next to a traditional point of sale system. The process takes less than a minute to sign up at these Amazon Go stores using an...

Reliance offer 40% stake in Reliance Retail to Amazon for $20 bn

10Sep By AdityaNo Comments

News

Reliance offer 40% stake in Reliance Retail to Amazon for $20 bn

Mumbai, Sept. 10th, 2020: Reliance offered a 40 percent stake in its retail arm worth about USD 20 billion to Amazon. As per the sources "Amazon has held discussions about investing in the conglomerate's Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd unit and has expressed interest in negotiating a potential transaction."The deal size at USD 20 billion would be the biggest ever in India. Both Reliance and Amazon refused to comment on the report. "We would like to reiterate that as a policy, we do not comment on media speculation and rumors and we cannot confirm or deny any transaction which may or may not be in the works," Reliance said in an email response. A similar response was also sent to stock exchanges. "Our company evaluates various opportunities on an ongoing basis," it said. "We have ...

Amazon Ordered 1,800 Electric Delivery Vans from Mercedes Benz

28Aug By PriyankaNo Comments

Automobile

Amazon Ordered 1,800 Electric Delivery Vans from Mercedes Benz

Berlin, Aug 28, 2020: Amazon bought 1,800 electric delivery vans from Mercedes-Benz, the biggest such order for the German automaker to date. In announcing the order, Mercedes said it would also join a climate initiative established by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. By signing up to The Climate Pledge, Mercedes-Benz commits itself to going completely carbon neutral by 2039. Scientists say man-made emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide must end by 2050 at the latest to avoid pushing global temperatures beyond the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) set out in the Paris climate accord. The transport sector, including the surge in deliveries from online retailers like Amazon, is a major source of carbon emissions. “We need continued innovation and partn...

11Jul By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

EV Automobile Company Rivian raises $2.5B in funding

Detroit, 11th July 2020: Tesla rival electric vehicle startup Rivian raises another USD 2.5 billion in funding led by funds and accounts advised by investment firm T Rowe Price. The company has a contract with Amazon to build 100,000 electric delivery vans starting next year at its factory, a former Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Illinois. Rivian also is rolling out a pickup truck and an SUV for sale to consumers next year. The company said Friday that investors in this round include Soros Fund Management, Coatue, Fidelity Management, and Research, and Baron Capital Group. Amazon and hedge fund BlackRock have invested previously and also are part of this round, Rivian said. The new investment won't bring any more seats to the Rivian board, the company said. In April of 2019, Ford i...

Amazon agrees to buy self-driving startup Zoox for over $1 billion

26Jun By reutersNo Comments

Automobile

Amazon agrees to buy self-driving startup Zoox for over $1 billion

Seattle, 26th June, 2020: Amazon has agreed to pay over $1 billion to buy self-driving startup Zoox Inc, the Information reported on Thursday, citing sources, in a move that would expand the e-commerce giant's reach in autonomous-vehicle technology. The report did not mention the exact purchase price and added Amazon is unlikely to disclose it when the deal is announced, likely to be on Friday. A majority of Zoox investors are getting their money back, with some making a positive return, the report added. Lux Capital, DFJ and Atlassian co-founder Michael Cannon-Brooks are some of the investors. Amazon and Zoox did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the companies were in advanced talks and the deal could va...

2Jun By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

Beacon raises $15 million funding from Jeff Bezos & others

LONDON, June 1, 2020 -- Uk based logistics company Beacon has raised over $15 million in its Series A fundraising round, with investors including Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, and leading US venture capital firm 8VC. Beacon was founded in 2018 by CEO Fraser Robinson and COO Dmitri Izmailov, both former Uber executives. They were joined by CTO Pierre Martin, previously at Amazon, bringing together a management team with deep expertise in logistics, technology, finance and hyper-growth. The freight forwarding and supply chain finance industries are worth an estimated $1 trillion and $12 trillion a year, respectively. Beacon offers a full range of services, including global ocean, air and truck freight, together with supply chain finance, all of which can be accesse...