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7May By reutersNo Comments

News

Japan’s SoftBank Takes Driving Seat in Indian Online Shake-Up

After ploughing about $2 billion into minority stakes in Indian e-commerce businesses over the past few years, Japan's SoftBank is upping the stakes, looking to play consolidator and take a more active role at a trio of leading start-ups. According to sources with direct knowledge of the matter, the solar-to-tech conglomerate is seeking to secure a piece of India's industry leaders in everything from payment systems to online shopping and groceries, in a series of deals that would shake up the $65 billion sector. Among the most high-profile plans is SoftBank's push to engineer a merger between Snapdeal, the No. 3 player in one of the world's most competitive online markets and one of its biggest Indian investments to date, and market leader Flipkart. The deal could be finalised as...

3May By RishabhNo Comments

FUNDING

Ola Raises Rs 670 Crore Fresh Funding From Ratan Tata Backed Venture

SoftBank-backed Ola has raised Rs 670 crore (USD 104.4 million) in fresh funding from investors including UC-RNT Fund, a venture between the University of California and Ratan Tata. While UC-RNT Fund has pumped in Rs 267.99 crore, another Rs 402 crore has been infused by FO Mauritius I Ltd, according to regulatory filing by ANI Technologies -- which runs Ola. However, the valuation of the company benchmarked against the fresh round of funding could not be ascertained. The said shares were allotted to the investors on March 31, 2017. An email sent to the company remained unanswered. The Bengaluru-based firm, which is locked in an intense battle with US-based Uber for market leadership, had raised about USD 250 million from SoftBank in November, albeit at a lower valuation of USD...

MakeMyTrip to Raise $330 million From Ctrip and Naspers

3May By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

MakeMyTrip to Raise $330 million From Ctrip and Naspers

Online travel firm MakeMyTrip today said it will raise $330 million (over Rs 2,115 crore) through share sale to investors as well as to Ctrip and Naspers’ arm MIH Internet, to fund expansion. The company has entered into share purchase agreements with undisclosed investors for placement of its ordinary shares, which is expected to generate gross proceeds of $165 million. The company will issue 4,583,334 ordinary shares in aggregate to investors at $36 per scrip. Moreover, it has also signed share purchase agreements with Nasdaq-listed Ctrip.com International Ltd and MIH Internet SEA Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Naspers Ltd for issuance of the company’s ordinary shares and Class B convertible ordinary shares respectively. Under the agreement, MakeMyTrip will issue 9,16,666 ordinary ...

3May By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Zippserv Raises Rs 2.5 Crore as Seed Funding

Real estate risk assessment firm Zippserv today said it has raised Rs 2.5 crore as seed funding for expansion. The Bengaluru-based firm announced that it has closed seed fund round of Rs 2.5 crore from undisclosed sources. It will utilise funds for expansion beginning with Mumbai and Pune in the coming months, a company statement said. Zippserv helps home buyers in verifying the veracity of ownership papers, validating legal wrangles, encroachment related issues, adherence to bye-laws and quality of construction. "Zippserv today provides a one stop shop to alleviate any concern related to property purchase be it both old and new," the statement said. ZippServ co-founder Debashish Hota said the funding will help it to scale operations rapidly to other cities as well as add se...

25Apr By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Digital Community For Women POPxo Raises 20 Crore Funding

POPxo, a digital community for women, has raised Rs 20 crore (USD 3.1 million) in fresh funding, led by IDG Ventures India and Kalaari Capital. The investment round also saw participation from GREE Ventures (Japan), Summit Media (Philippines), Atul Goel and Gurpreet Singh, POPxo said in a statement today. POPxo had previously raised over Rs 15 crore in funding through multiple rounds from investors including IDG Ventures India, Kalaari Capital, Google executive Rajan Anandan, Caratlane executive Mithun Sancheti and others. "Our platform allows women to connect with others. We focus on leveraging our large user base to generate transactions beginning with affiliate e-commerce, across categories," POPxo founder and CEO Priyanka Gill said. The platform attracts over nine million users...

Ronnie Screwvala Launches Rs 100 Crore Online Education Scholarship Fund

24Apr By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING, News

Ronnie Screwvala Launches Rs 100 Crore Online Education Scholarship Fund

Online education start-up co-founder Ronnie Screwvala has launched a Rs 100 crore education scholarship fund to provide loans to those looking at doing online courses to improve their skill sets. The fund will give scholarships ranging from Rs 25,000 and up to Rs 2 lakh. "We need 125 million young Indians in post-graduation studies and currently not more than 30 million today are engaged in higher studies as a majority of them start working early in their career and so online learning or education is the real answer," Screwvala said in a statement here today. He said the scholarship fund is aimed at skilling motivated individuals in relevant areas and equip them with industry-relevant knowledge. The fund is been launched with an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore and Screwvala aims...

21Apr By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

Quora Raises $85 Million Funding For Ad Business

Quora has raised a fresh round of $85 million dollars funding. The funding will use to promote more Q&A activities for People and generate ads through it. About a year ago Quora began introducing advertising as a way of making money. The round values the company at roughly $1.8 billion, according to a company spokesperson (who said that the valuation had roughly doubled from its previous valuation of $900 million). Quora launched privately in 2009 but and quickly drew buzz in the tech community in part because it was started by two well-respected early Facebook employees. The website opened to the public in 2010, serving as something of a high-end message board where people can ask questions and get solid answers. The site currently serves 190 million unique visitors a mont...

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.