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Electric Scooter Startup Grin Merges with Ride for Expansion

27Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

Electric Scooter Startup Grin Merges with Ride for Expansion

Mexico-based electric scooter startup Grin has reportedly merged with Brazil-based Ride to further carry forward the company’s expansion across Latin America. As of now, the Y Combinator-backed Grin only operates in Mexico City, but it has plans to expand to other cities throughout Latin America. This recent merger will enable Grin to do this as early as next week as Ride already operates in São Paulo. The development has come shortly after Grin raised a $45 million Series A round. Following the merger, Ride will operate under the Grin brand in Brazil and the Ride team will be in charge of all of Grin’s operations in Brazil. The ride is currently the only shared electric scooter operator in all of Brazil, but that will soon change when Yellow deploys its scooters. “We definitely wan...

Foodpanda Reaches 50 Indian Cities & Aims to Make it 100

26Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

Foodpanda Reaches 50 Indian Cities & Aims to Make it 100

Online food delivery player Foodpanda has reportedly expanded its delivery network to 30 more cities in India which has further increased its existence to 50 cities across the country. With this expansion, the company mentioned that its delivery network is now live in cities like Jodhpur, Kota, Udaipur, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Dehradun, Allahabad, Varanasi, Surat, Vadodara, Aurangabad and Bhopal among others. Along with this, Ola-backed Foodpanda is also planning to expand the network to 100 cities by the end of November. Across these cities, the foodtech firm claims to have more than 125,000 delivery partners on its platform as of now. "While our network now covers all metropolitans and major tier 1 & 2 cities across the country, we are excited about introducing the supe...

Ford Expands Self-driving Vehicle Program to Washington, D.C.

23Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

Automobile, USA

Ford Expands Self-driving Vehicle Program to Washington, D.C.

The automobile major Ford is reportedly coming up with its autonomous vehicles in Washington, D.C. which would become the fourth city to join the automaker’s testing program. The company is preparing to roll out a self-driving taxi and delivery service in 2021. It will start testing its self-driving vehicles in the district in the first quarter of 2019 which it is already testing in Detroit, Pittsburgh and Miami. Ford is a bit different from other companies that have launched autonomous vehicle pilots in the U.S. The company invested $1 billion in Argo AI which would be developing the virtual driver system and high-definition maps designed for Ford’s self-driving vehicles. In the meantime, the automobile maker is testing its go-to-market strategy through pilot programs with partne...

WeWork India Expands its Footprints in Mumbai & Bengaluru

22Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

WeWork India Expands its Footprints in Mumbai & Bengaluru

The Indian arm of the popular co-working company WeWork that is based in New York has picked up 0.5 million sq ft office space in one of the largest deals by a co-working company. The space has been leased across four locations in two major property markets of Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Bangalore. This would push the company’s total portfolio to nearly 2 million sq ft. Bengaluru, drop by our newest workspace on Old Madras Road. To know more: https://t.co/T2MR7hQtTS#weworkindia pic.twitter.com/cad53LYhpE — WeWork India (@WeWorkIndia) October 15, 2018 Out of this, the largest lease is for nearly 2 lakh sq ft in Navi Mumbai, followed by nearly 1.5 lakh sq ft in Bangalore. Talking about the details, the leases have tenure of total 20 years including initial term...

AI Firm Worxogo Raises Funds from Inventus Capital & Ideaspring Capital

16Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

FUNDING

AI Firm Worxogo Raises Funds from Inventus Capital & Ideaspring Capital

Artificial Intelligence (AI) company Worxogo that offers a cognitive AI engine as a software-as-a-service or SaaS application has secured an amount of Rs 16.5 crore in its first funding round, which was led by Inventus Capital and Ideaspring Capital. The company plans to use these funds for the purpose of entering the US market, where it has also applied for a patent for its AI engine, called Mia. “The engine is based on behavioural science, neuroeconomics and AI, which, when integrated to the enterprise system, can serve as a cognitive digital assistant to nudge employees to improve productivity,” said CEO Ramesh Srinivas. The Worxogo app sends “nudge” notifications to employees on a daily basis to improve performance, based on the individuals’ behavioural patterns. The backers state...

6Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

OYO Makes Room for Business Travellers

The budget hotel chain OYO is looking forward to expanding its Townhouse brand aggressively. The aim of the company is to take the number of OYO Townhouse hotels to 400-500 by next year, up from 45 at present. OYO ventured into the UK last month by launching Townhouse hotels in London, and will deepen the brand’s presence in the UK as well as in Indian cities such as Guwahati, Vijaywada, Lucknow, Surat, Nagpur and Pondicherry among others. “The growth will be deeper and sharper and Townhouse hotels will increase month-on-month. We are aggressively pushing this product. By 2019, Townhouse will expand to many more cities in India, and also grow aggressively in foreign markets,” said Ankit Tandon, COO, OYO Townhouse. “We expect the structure to continue in a similar way. We are open to b...

US-Based WeWork has Launched ‘WeWork Labs’ in India

5Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

US-Based WeWork has Launched ‘WeWork Labs’ in India

The popular co-working firm WeWork which is based in the US has launched 'WeWork Labs' in India. This has been done to help early-stage startups in the country get access to investment, resources and mentorship from its global network of members to help these fledgling companies expand their business. Apart from this, the service has also been expanded to its co-working spaces in countries like the US, China, Korea, Brazil and Israel and others. "India is among the largest start-up nations and is poised to continue growing at a significant pace. While there are programmes running in India that offer incubation and acceleration to start-ups, we believe the scale has to be increased manifold," WeWork Labs Senior Vice President and Global Head Roee Adler stated. At present, about 1,0...

ZEE5 Video Streaming Platform Expands to 190 Countries

4Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

ZEE5 Video Streaming Platform Expands to 190 Countries

India’s popular online video streaming platform ZEE5 that is owned by Subhash Chandra-promoted Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEE) has expanded its services to 190 countries all across the globe. With this, the company has become the first Indian entertainment company to take its over-the-top (OTT) video service. As of now, only Netflix and Amazon Prime Video were the only platforms that were global but now Indian platforms are also gearing up for global presence. The launch coincided with ZEE completing 26 years of operations on October 2. “Since the time we launched ZEE5 in India earlier this year, our global viewers, as well as platform partners, have been asking us when we are going to launch globally. As our channels already reach across 72 countries outside India, we knew that a ...

California-Based Lime Scooters Expands to Canada

2Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

California-Based Lime Scooters Expands to Canada

California based Lime Scooters is planning to release a small fleet of e-scooters in Waterloo, Ontario. This will be the startup’s first scooter-share pilot program in Canada. Lime is a dockless bike and scooter company that has partnered with the University of Waterloo to facilitate the launch. Lime’s scooters will be the first of any startup-owned e-scooters to enter the pavement in Canada. “Over the past several months, we have spent time in Waterloo to understand how our Lime-S e-scooters can help this progressive city reach its smart transportation goals,” Lime’s vice president of strategic development Andrew Savage said. “We are committed to meeting the unique needs of cities across Canada and are excited to continue expanding our global footprint.” Prior to this, the com...

San-Francisco based Pinterest Prepping up for Global Expansion

26Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

San-Francisco based Pinterest Prepping up for Global Expansion

San-Francisco based web and mobile application Pinterest is looking forward for global expansion and is eyeing India and Southeast Asia next. The USA unicorn valued at over $12 billion allows users to create virtual pinboards and discover information on the World Wide Web. The platform currently claims to have 250 million monthly active users, half of them outside the US. Almost 80% of the company’s new users are from international markets. “Last few years, we have focused on South America, Western Europe and a bit on Japan. This year we are increasingly thinking about Southeast Asia, India and other parts of the world we haven’t serviced,” co-founder Evan Sharp stated. Pinterest has launched seven offices in international markets. Along with this, it had also introduced the Hindi lan...

5Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

FUNDING

Wunder Mobility Secures $30 million in Series B Funding

German mobility startup Wunder Mobility that offers a range a mobility services has secured $30 million in Series B funding. The particular round was led by KCK Group. The other existing backers that participated in the round included Blumberg Capital and other non-disclosed investors. The company is planning to use these funds in the expansion of the company’s engineering team in its home country and to establish an international B2B sales organisation. “We are enabling communities on four continents to address the global traffic challenge and to deploy more sustainable mobility options faster by hosting a full-stack urban mobility tech platform,” said Gunnar Froh, founder and CEO. As of now, the company works with 70 employees from four offices across Asia, Germany, and South Ame...

Alphabet-backed One Medical Raises $350 Million

23Aug By Gauri SinghNo Comments

FUNDING

Alphabet-backed One Medical Raises $350 Million

Alphabet-backed One Medical has reportedly announced that it has secured an amount of $350 million in a funding round. This round was led by the Carlyle Group. The company is planning to utilize these funds in an aggressive expansion plan for the company, which will include doubling its 72 offices throughout the seven states. One Medical, at present, is serving and expanding into new markets. The markets have yet not been clarified but they will soon be finalized. Along with this, the funds will also assist the company in taking on dinosaur incumbents in the medical field as well as newer startups with a similar technology offering such as Forward, an AI-based “medical office of the future.” "From the time of our founding by Dr. Tom X Lee, we have been on a mission to create an enti...