Friday, April 19

Tag: Naspers

Meesho raises USD 125 mn in funding led by Naspers
FUNDING

Meesho raises USD 125 mn in funding led by Naspers

Bengaluru-based Meesho said it has raised USD 125 million (around Rs 888 crore) in a funding round led by technology investor Naspers. The round also saw participation from Facebook and existing investors SAIF, Sequoia, Shunwei Capital, RPS and Venture Highway as well as former Vodafone Group CEO Arun Sarin. In June, Facebook had announced picking up a minority stake in Meesho, a startup that helps entrepreneurs set up online businesses via social channels. "The new funds will allow the company to make deeper inroads in areas outside India's major metro regions, by creating more entrepreneurs," Meesho said in a statement. The latest investment will also strengthen Meesho's aim to grow its community of women entrepreneurs and support expansion to new geographies, it added. T...
PayU Acquires Majority Stake in Singapore-based Red Dot Payment
ACQUISITION

PayU Acquires Majority Stake in Singapore-based Red Dot Payment

Online payment firm PayU acquired a majority stake in Singapore based Red Dot Payment, a Southeast Asia focused online payment solutions provider. Under the terms of the agreement, PayU has acquired a majority stake in RDP in a transaction valuing the company at $65 million. With this transaction, PayU expands into the Southeast Asia region and brings the total amount deployed in fintech investments and M&A to north of $700 million over the last three years. The move demonstrates PayU's commitment to becoming the leading payments solution provider in high-growth markets and one of the largest fintech investors in the world. Formed in 2011 by a group of payment experts from various Fortune 500 companies in the industry, RDP has grown into Singapore's largest home-grown and ...
Revenue of PayU India Doubles to Rs 588 Crore in FY18
BUSINESS

Revenue of PayU India Doubles to Rs 588 Crore in FY18

PayU India's revenue nearly doubled in fiscal 2018 to Rs 588 crore from Rs 306 crore the year before. It has been reported earlier this month that the Indian subsidiary of the Naspers-backed PayU accounted for more than half the overall business of the financial technology firm, based on Naspers' half-yearly report for fiscal 2019. PayU India is valued at more than $2.5 billion, based on a September Citi report which had pegged Naspers' payments business at around $5.2 billion. PayU India chief executive Amrish Rau said along with revenue for Citrus Payments, which PayU acquired in 2016 but is still a separate entity, the total revenue was about Rs 670 crore, meeting the $100-million revenue target that the company had set for fiscal 2018. "Last year was about scaling the payment...
Food Delivery Giant Swiggy Raises $1 Billion from Naspers
FUNDING

Food Delivery Giant Swiggy Raises $1 Billion from Naspers

India’s largest food delivery company Swiggy has reportedly raised an amount of $1 billion in a fresh funding round. The round was led by existing backer, South African media giant Naspers. Along with this, the new investors that participated in the round included China’s Tencent and hedge funds Hillhouse Capital and Wellington Management.  With this new round, the valuation of the five-year-old Bengaluru-based startup has increased to $3.3 billion. The company has seen its valuation swell by close to 5 times this year. It was valued at $1.3 billion in June this year and $700 million in February.  The recent round also includes a secondary share sale by some of Swiggy’s early investors. Along with further pushing into the food delivery business, the company will also use the fund...
Brazil-based Technology Company Movile Secures $400 million
FUNDING

Brazil-based Technology Company Movile Secures $400 million

A Brazil based technology conglomerate known as Movile has just raised funds amounting to $400 million. This round was led by existing investors including Naspers and Innova Capital. The funds have basically been raised for its iFood subsidiary. The company was founded by chief executive officer Fabricio Bloisi which began as a digital content studio for mobile device and now has grown into a mobile services and content empire with aspirations of reaching 1 billion people. The company claimed to have estimated revenues over $240 million and over 150 million monthly active users. iFood alone recorded 10.4 million delivery orders for the month of October. According to the repors, iFood received 390,000 orders per day in Brazil in the last weeks of October accounting for 109% growth ...
A Private Equity Fund to Acquire Naspers Stake in Travel Boutique Online
ACQUISITION

A Private Equity Fund to Acquire Naspers Stake in Travel Boutique Online

Naspers, a South African media and tech conglomerate acquired 51% stake in Travel Boutique Online (TBO) in 2012, which is a B2B travel distribution firm, and Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE) has agreed to acquire Naspers’ full stake in TBO. This deal will mark the firm’s second exit from India this year. Standard Chartered Private Equity is the private equity (PE) subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank which did not reveal the terms of the deal with the South African company. However, Naspers who had invested about Rs 110 crore in the company, earned $42-45 million (Rs 285-306 crore) from the sale of its stake. “Naspers first invested in TBO Group six years ago and it’s rewarding to see how the business has grown and advanced in that time,” said Oliver Rippel, CEO B2C e-commer...
Income Tax Department Begins Flipkart-Walmart Deal Audit
News

Income Tax Department Begins Flipkart-Walmart Deal Audit

The biggest acquisition in e-commerce that shook up the world-the Flipkart-Walmart is now being examined by the Income Tax departments in India where the tax body has sent queries to Flipkart-Walmart regarding the $16 Bn worth deal. While Flipkart has responded to the details of the acquisition, Walmart's explanation is still awaited. The acquisition deal was sealed earlier on 9 May where Walmart bought 77% stake in Flipkart for a whopping $16 billion. Prior to the official deal announcement, Income tax authorities had asked Flipkart to furnish the details of the transaction to examine the tax implications of the transaction for the government. It is important to note that transaction details are crucial for the income tax department to ascertain tax liability since many investors...
Walmart Approaches CCI For Approval Over Flipkart Acquisition
News

Walmart Approaches CCI For Approval Over Flipkart Acquisition

After acquiring Indian e-commerce unicorn Flipkart, US giant Walmart Inc. has finally sought approval of India's Anti-Trust Regulator for its mega $16 billion acquisition. According to a Regulatory Filing sent to Competition Commission of India (CCI), Walmart has said that its buyout of Flipkart does not result in competition concerns as the broader retail market in India remains unaffected by the deal. Walmart has reported CCI that Flipkart is a Singapore based entity and the deal has been done through its subsidiary Walmart International Holdings. Moreover, Since Flipkart India is primarily engaged in the business of wholesale cash and carry goods, its acquisition will only affect B2B markets, Walmart added. Notably, Walmart has been facing resistance by tough regulations that p...
Food Delivery Startup Swiggy Is Eyeing to Raise $250 Mn
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...
FUNDING

SoftBank Group To Acquire More Stakes In Flipkart, Valuing It At $10B

Japanese multinational telecommunications corporation SoftBank Group has offered to buy shares from investors and former and existing employees of Indian e-commerce website Flipkart, valuing it around $9-10 billion. SoftBank has offered to buy Flipkart shares at $85-89 per share, Mint reported. The price range values Flipkart slightly lower than the pre-money valuation it clinched in two funding rounds of $1.4 billion each, one from SoftBank in August and the other from eBay Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Tencent Holdings Ltd in April. SoftBank's move is a part of its August commitment to pick up additional stakes in the e-commerce giant. Out of the total $2.5 billion investment commitment, SoftBank will use around $1.2-1.4 billion in buying out shares of other investors and employees....
Swiggy Raises $80 Million From Naspers, Existing Investors
FUNDING

Swiggy Raises $80 Million From Naspers, Existing Investors

Online food delivery platform Swiggy today said it has raised USD 80 million (over Rs 517 crore) in series E funding led by global internet group and technology investor Naspers. The funding saw participation from other existing investors Accel India, SAIF Partners India, Bessemer Venture Partners, Harmony Partners and Norwest Venture Partners. The funds will help Swiggy introduce new products and service offerings to enhance its customer experience, Swiggy said in a statement. Naspers has also invested into the parent company of Swiggy's rival foodpanada, Delivery Hero. The food ordering platform also said it plans to double its technology headcount and increase investments across core engineering, automation, data sciences, machine learning and personalisation. Besides, th...