SoftBank | Pixr8 News

11Apr By NitishNo Comments

FUNDING

Ritesh Aggarwal Led Oyo Rooms Raised $100 million Funding

At a time when startups and companies facing economy jolt, Oyo rooms led by Ritesh Aggarwal has raised $100 million in its fifth round of funding. The investors, including Japan’s Softbank, and an international sovereign fund, a person with knowledge of the deal said. Other investors are Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Greenoaks Capital, DSG Consumer Partners and Venture Nursery also participated. In the three years since it was founded, Oyo has emerged as the largest aggregator of hotel rooms in India. It has 65,000 rooms in 5,500 hotels across 177 cities. The company has already raised a total of $125.65 million in four rounds earlier. It recently acquired rival Zo Rooms, which made almost similar revenue, and was funded by Tiger Global. The business of hotel aggre...

8Apr By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

News

Housing.com to Spend Up to $7 million on Ads This Year

Realty portal Housing.com plans to spend up to USD 7 million on advertisements this fiscal as it looks to strengthen its brand equity. Softbank-backed company, which today announced the launch of its first ever TV campaign, will be releasing a slew of ads on electronic, digital and social media platforms targetting consumers in the age range of 25-40. "We have just launched the first ever television ad to strengthen our brand and establish deeper emotional connect with our consumers. We are looking at a marketing spend of USD 5-7 million in 2016-17 for advertisements on TV, digital and social media," Housing.com CMO Nikhil Rungta told PTI. The first ever TV campaign would be launched during this IPL. The media outreach will include channels across GECs, Sports, News, Movies and...

4Apr By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

Housing.com Received New Funding From Ex-99Acres.com Head

Vineet Singh, an active angel investor and former Business Head of 99 Acres.com Invested an undisclosed amount in SoftBank funded online real estate portal Housing.com. Mr. Singh will join the Housing board as a senior advisor. "Vineet brings with him enriching experience, deep understanding of the ecosystem, and a decade of high-achieving sales leadership in the online real estate space. On board as a personal investor, Vineet will also serve as a senior advisor to the company working closely with the management team. We believe that his association will further fuel the ambitious growth plans of Housing.com," said Jason Kothari, chief executive officer, Housing.com. Currently, Singh is co-founder, CEO and MD of Buildczar.com, a marketplace for building materials and finishing produ...

Travis Kalanick (Uber, Founder) Will Attend Modi’s Startup India Event

6Jan By AdityaNo Comments

INDIA, News

Travis Kalanick (Uber, Founder) Will Attend Modi’s Startup India Event

New Delhi: Investment firm SoftBank’s founder Masayoshi Son, taxi-hailing service Uber’s founder Travis Kalanick and collaborative workspace provider WeWork’s founder Adam Neumann will attend the government’s Start-up India event next week, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil an action plan to assist early-stage companies. The event will be attended by around 40 innovators, venture capitalists and angel investors from Silicon Valley along with 1,500 founders of start-ups from across the country. On 27 December, in his Mann Ki Baat radio programme, Modi said the government was going to announce details of the Start-up India event, to be held on 16 January. Considering the importance of the event to the promotion of start-up culture in the country, it will be ...

Japan’s SoftBank bags first solar power project in India

19Dec By NitishNo Comments

News

Japan’s SoftBank bags first solar power project in India

NEW DELHI--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- SB Energy, (formerly known as SBG Cleantech), a three-way joint venture between Japan-headquartered telecommunications and Internet major SoftBank Group Corp. (“SoftBank”), leading Indian business conglomerate Bharti Enterprises Limited (“Bharti”) and Taiwan-based top design and manufacturing services provider Foxconn Technology Group (“Foxconn”), won the NTPC bid to develop a 350MW solar plant under the Phase-II, Batch-II, Tranche-I of National Solar Mission at a 25-year tariff of Rs. 4.63/ kWh. The project is to be developed in the Ghani Sakunala Solar Park, Kurnool District in the state of Andhra Pradesh. This is SoftBank’s first step towards realising its $ 20 billion commitment to promote clean and safe energy in India. This solar project, under the flag...

Amazon may export delivery lessons from India to cut costs abroad

15Nov By RishabhNo Comments

News

Amazon may export delivery lessons from India to cut costs abroad

E-commerce giant Amazon.com is taking lessons learnt from its daily battles with India's choked roads and cramped cities to some of its largest developed markets, exporting a model of cheaper deliveries and reduced warehousing costs. Online shopping is booming in India, where millions of consumers are newly able to access the Internet thanks to cheap smartphones. For Amazon, it is already the largest contributor of new customers outside the United States. But, like local rivals Flipkart and Snapdeal, Amazon has struggled with deliveries in cities where snarl-ups are frequent and road signs unreliable. In response, firms have set up logistics networks and use motorbikes instead of trucks. Flipkart, for one, has tapped Mumbai's dabbawalas, a more than a century-old lunch box distrib...

China’s big tech companies backs Indian startups

4Sep By No Comments

News

China’s big tech companies backs Indian startups

What we will say, Is this Narendra modi effect or what but China's one of the largest search engine Baidu and one of the country's biggest private conglomerates Fosun are scouting to invest in Indian startups, joining compatriots from the Middle Kingdom eager to profit from the opportunities in the world's fastest-growing major economy. Investment managers from both companies are in talks with Indian venture capitalists and start-ups for potential funding deals, two people directly aware of the development told ET. Taiwan's Foxconn is also an investor in Snapdeal along with Japan's SoftBank. "They (Baidu and Fosun) have been having conversations about specific opportunities — the startup names include niche e-commerce firms as well as some in the enterprise space," said a second source....

Ola opens Ola wallet for Oyo Rooms, Lenskart and Saavan

25Aug By No Comments

News

Ola opens Ola wallet for Oyo Rooms, Lenskart and Saavan

Taxi hailing app Ola said its wallet, which was earlier only used for paying for taxi rides can now be used on other platforms including budget hotel rooms aggregator Oyo Rooms, online spectacle retailer Lenskart, and music streaming service Saavan. The company expects to add more players from other retail categories. "We will be leveraging our customer base and provide (ola money) payments solutions for all categories including travel, on demand food and groceries," Rushil Goel, Head, Ola Money, told ET. "Soon we will also be launching offline in store partnerships with brands," he added without specifying the timeline. More than 50% of transactions on Ola are from its wallet. Ola does not hold a licence for a semi closed wallet and has tied up with mobile wallet Zip-Cash ...