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No More startup after WhiteHat $300 million Sale: Karan Bajaj

16Aug By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

Entrepreneurs Talk

No More startup after WhiteHat $300 million Sale: Karan Bajaj

After the blockbuster sale of WhiteHat Jr for USD 300 million to Byju's, the former's founder Karan Bajaj said he is a "wanderer" who will neither go back to creating another startup nor follow in the footsteps of other entrepreneurs who dabble in the space as investors after a successful exit. Bajaj said he is a "minimalist" who does not think a lot about money and stressed that all his investments are long-term ones where he does not fret about those. Earlier this month, Bajaj's edtech venture was acquired by Byju's in an all-cash deal for USD 300 million within 20 months of its incorporation in one of the largest deals in the upcoming space. "I feel there is an endpoint of a journey. With this chapter, I'm kind of putting a lot of myself into it, and I feel I reached a very log...

IT Company Mphasis Acquires Virginia-based Stelligent Systems

9Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

ACQUISITION

IT Company Mphasis Acquires Virginia-based Stelligent Systems

IT services company Mphasis is making big investments and has acquired Virginia-based cloud technology services company Stelligent Systems LLC in an all-cash deal. This deal has been valued at $25 million. The acquired company has specialization in DevOps automation on Amazon Web Services (AWS), which means, as more enterprises move to the cloud, Stelligent helps them deploy applications on the cloud with greater speed, agility and security. “Together with Stelligent and its community heroes in the AWS ecosystem, we believe we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of (public cloud infrastructure and SaaS software) market opportunity,” said Nitin Rakesh, CEO and Executive Director, Mphasis. “This allows us to join forces with an equally technically-deep company, bringing innovative,...

Digital Lending Startup Qbera Raised $3 million from E City Ventures

22Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

FUNDING

Digital Lending Startup Qbera Raised $3 million from E City Ventures

Digital lending startup Qbera which is headquartered in Bengaluru has raised funds amounting to $3 million (about Rs 21.5 crore) in its first institutional fundraising since its establishment. The funding is an all-equity deal led by E City Ventures which is a subsidiary of Essel Group. The funds raised in this fresh funding round are planned to be used by the one-year-old company in the expansion of its scope of operations. Also, the funds will be used to strengthen the company’s technology platform and expand its team. “We are in eight cities presently, and will now expand the business to new cities like Patna, Chandigarh, Indore and Bhopal,” said Qbera founder Aditya Kumar. “We are currently getting around 10,000 loan applications per month. The target is to scale up to 50,000 in th...

Alibaba’s Q1 Revenue Rose But Investments May Decrease Profits

24Aug By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

Alibaba’s Q1 Revenue Rose But Investments May Decrease Profits

China’s largest e-commerce player Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has shown a huge rise in the first-quarter revenue estimates which is majorly due to the growth in its core e-commerce business. However, the company has stated that the investments in the food delivery business are increasing and might overpower the profits. The revenue of the company increased 61 percent to 80.9 billion yuan ($11.77 billion) in the April-June period, as compared to the average estimate of 80.7 billion yuan in the previous quarter. Though the overall revenue rose, the net income attributable to shareholders decreased 41 percent to 8.7 billion yuan or 3.3 yuan per share. Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares rose about 3 percent in premarket trade. The sales at the company’s core e-commerce business increased 61 p...

1Jun By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

Amazon India Unit Suffers Heavy Losses

Amazon Seller Services, the Indian unit of US e-commerce retailer Amazon has witnessed a growth in their losses by 31% in the financial year 2016-17 reaching up to Rs. 4,830.6 crore. This is because of the exaggerated investments in the country in order to fight against its competitor, Flipkart. The Amazon Seller Services handles and operates a marketplace that assists the sellers to sell their products online in India and globally as well. Though due to investments, the company suffered losses, the revenue from the sales saw a rise of 43%, from Rs 2,276 crore in 2016 to Rs 3,256.6 crore in the year ended March 2017. In 2015-16, the Bengaluru-based unit suffered a net loss of Rs 3,679.9 crore. Where the competitor company Flipkart succeeded in lowering its losses to Rs 1,638.6 crore ...

17Apr By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

INDIA

World Bank predicts 7.3% growth for India in 2018

The World Bank has predicted a growth rate of 7.3 percent for India for the current year and 7.5 percent for 2019 and 2020 and has observed that Indian economy has recovered from the effects of demonetization and Goods and Service Tax (GST). In its South Asia Economic Focus Meet held twice a year, World Bank said, Growth is expected to step up from 6.7 in 2017 to 7.3 percent in 2018 and will subsequently get stabilize supported by a sustained recovery in private investment and private consumption. In its report, it was also stated that India should now strive to advance investments and exports so that it can benefit from its recovery in global growth. Within the Indian section of the report, the bank also approved that disruptions from demonetization and implementation of GST creat...

Microsoft Launches Early Stage Investment Venture Arm That Will Replace Microsoft Accelerator

1Jun By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Microsoft Launches Early Stage Investment Venture Arm That Will Replace Microsoft Accelerator

Nagraj Kashyap, the Corporate VP of Microsoft Ventures announced a new early-stage investment group of Microsoft called Microsoft Venture. The entity will look after investment in early age startups. In his blog, Nagraj mentioned, The Microsoft Venture name was assumed from an existing team within our Developer Evangelism team. That team has now been rebranded to Microsoft Accelerator. Microsoft Ventures will focus on start-up investments while Microsoft Accelerator will focus on start-up enablement, primarily through our seven accelerators around the world. On one side of the spectrum, we help early stage companies with tools, technology and consulting through Microsoft Accelerator*. And at the other end is where you’ll typically see our larger investments and acquisitions. Microsoft ...

SoftBank Indian Investment May Surpass $10 Billion – Masayoshi Son

30May By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

Entrepreneurs Talk

SoftBank Indian Investment May Surpass $10 Billion – Masayoshi Son

Having made a string of technology investments in India, Japanese telecom and Internet giant SoftBank has said its investments in the country will top USD 10 billion in 5-10 years. SoftBank, which owns one of Japans biggest mobile carriers and a controlling stake in US-based Sprint Corp, will make its first USD 350 million investment in a solar project in India, its Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said. "We have already invested USD 2 billion and we are interested in investing more," he said. "India has a great future. We are interested in investing in Internet companies and also in solar energy. We would make strong commitments. Son said SoftBank is looking at accelerating the pace of investments in future. "We also made a first move on solar energy. We are making USD 350 million ...

Ratan Tata Invested in Medical Startup MUrgency Inc

17May By NitishNo Comments

FUNDING

Ratan Tata Invested in Medical Startup MUrgency Inc

Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus has invested in San Francisco-based medical emergency response MUrgency Inc. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. "He (Tata) clearly wanted us to launch and grow the network in India first before taking it overseas. Mr Tata's investment in MUrgency will help attract leading talent to the company and major partnerships beyond India," MUrgency Inc Fonder Shaffi Mather said in a statement. Founded in 2014 in Silicon Valley and incubated out of Stanford ChangeLabs, MUrgency recently received investments from Kris Gopalakrishnan and S D Shibulal led Axilor Ventures. The company launched its service in Tricity area in Punjab on February 16, with a responder network of 36 hospital emergency rooms, over 40 ambulances and more than 350 me...

10May By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

UAE-Based Indian Firms To Invest USD 3.6 Billion In UP

DUBAI: Five leading Indian-owned businesses in the UAE will invest over USD 3.68 billion in infrastructure and industrial development initiatives in Uttar Pradesh after an MoU was signed in this regard during an investment forum held in Dubai. The move comes after UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had launched an ambitious programme to boost all-round development of the state by attracting NRI investments from across the globe, especially from the Middle East. The UAE-based Indian companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the state government which was represented by a high-level delegation of officials who visited the UAE on Thursday. The names of the investors will be announced by the UP government in the coming weeks. The companies pledged to invest in the state's ...