SoftBank | Pixr8 News

28Jul By AnkitaNo Comments

CHINA

China’s WeWork Secures $500 Million In a Fresh Funding Round

The Chinese subsidiary of coworking space, WeWork has raised a US$500 million Series B funding round led by Trustbridge Partners, Temasek, SoftBank Group, SoftBank Vision Fund and Hony Capital, according to the reports. WeWork's big raise comes days after Hong Kong’s Campfire pulled in $18 million and Awfis in India raised $20 million. The company launched into China two years ago and currently, it covers Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu with nearly 40 locations. It consists of 20,000 members, and it is also active in Hong Kong (Greater China). The new capital comes from Trustbridge Partners, Singapore’s Temasek, SoftBank, SoftBank’s Vision Fund and Hony Capital. WeWork said it’ll be used for expansion into six new cities: those are Shenzhen, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Nanjing, and Wuh...

Paytm to Raise Millions for Pushing its O2O Retail Business

28Jul By Gauri SinghNo Comments

FUNDING

Paytm to Raise Millions for Pushing its O2O Retail Business

One97 Communications, the company that owns Paytm is reportedly eyeing to raise $300-$500 million for the purpose of pushing its online-to-offline (O2O) retail business and get customers to use its platform for making payments. At present, Paytm is in advanced talks with US-based investors and also its existing shareholder, SoftBank for the latest funding round, which is expected to value the digital payments giant at about $10 billion. The funds raised through the particular funding round will be directed towards the hyper-local O2O business, with an objective to shore up footfalls for offline stores by offering deals and discounts on Paytm's app. The users will pay through QR codes in these stores, and thus, increasing the number of transactions for the company. As of now, the m...

Paytm Joins Hands With Softbank to Launch ‘PayPay’ In Japan

27Jul By AnkitaNo Comments

BUSINESS

Paytm Joins Hands With Softbank to Launch ‘PayPay’ In Japan

One of the major Indian digital funds platforms Paytm has now expanded its operations to Japan in partnership with PayPay Company. PayPay Corporation, a joint venture established by SoftBank Corp. (“SoftBank”) and Yahoo Japan Corporation (“Yahoo Japan”), recently announced that the company will launch “PayPay” smartphone payment services using barcodes (QR code) in fall 2018. PayPay Corporation is joining its hands with India's largest digital payment company Paytm, a SoftBank Vision Fund portfolio company, to utilize Paytm's technology and expertise in mobile payments. Founder of Paytm Mr Vijay Shekhar Sharma mentioned,“It’s an honour to work with Masa Son. He’s a visionary entrepreneur who has seen all of it: PC, telecom, cell web and now Synthetic Intelligence, which is th...

Paytm To Reach Japan in Collaboration With Softbank Group

23Jul By Gauri SinghNo Comments

News

Paytm To Reach Japan in Collaboration With Softbank Group

With Paytm showing a commendable growth in every aspect, the digital payments giant is planning to launch its operations in Japan in collaboration with Masayoshi Son’s Softbank Group. This event is expected to take place by the end of 2018. People familiar with the matter stated that Son is trying to mark his footprints in this sector as well. The service, as a collaboration with Indian digital payments giant Paytm, will make aggressive use of artificial intelligence for mobile payments and other financial services as well. A number of Paytm employees are working in Tokyo on getting the service up and running. Son, who created the world’s largest technology investment fund, is moving towards a crowded field. Japan’s biggest instant-messaging service ‘Line’ and flea-market app ‘Mer...

An Investment Firm Acquires $1 Billion Stake in SoftBank

12Jul By Gauri SinghNo Comments

ACQUISITION

An Investment Firm Acquires $1 Billion Stake in SoftBank

Investment firm Tiger Global has reportedly taken over a stake worth $1 billion in SoftBank Group and this deal has taken up the shares of the latter as much as 6.8 per cent. Tiger Global stated to the investors in a letter that SoftBank's stock price had not increased over the past five years even after its holding in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba had added more than $90 billion in value. Tiger manages around $22 billion in assets and deploys capital globally in both public and private markets. The company provides its services to private funds that are pooled investment vehicles. "We continue to believe the market significantly undervalues our stock and we welcome the support from a sophisticated institutional investor like Tiger Global," SoftBank stated. Masayoshi Son’s compa...

SoftBank’s Kabir Misra Plans to Launch a Startup Fund

12Jul By Gauri SinghNo Comments

News

SoftBank’s Kabir Misra Plans to Launch a Startup Fund

SoftBank’s managing partner Kabir Misra is reportedly in the advanced stages of launching a startup fund worth $200-250 million, which will focus on startups situated out of India, USA and Southeast Asia. According to the anonymous statements, Misra will make early-stage to mid-stage investments in US, India and Southeast Asia. Softbank will be the anchor limited partner in the deal. “While SoftBank is likely to be on the advisory board of the new fund, it will look at sub-$20 million investments to avoid conflicts with the SoftBank Vision Fund,” stated a report. It has also been reported that after the closing of the fund, Kabir Misra will resign from his position in SoftBank, because of some personal reasons. The fund’s motive is to basically give importance to the mid-stage investm...

SoftBank Eyeing to Acquire $2 billion of Yahoo Japan shares

10Jul By Gauri SinghNo Comments

ACQUISITION

SoftBank Eyeing to Acquire $2 billion of Yahoo Japan shares

The multinational holding conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. is eyeing to buy shares of Yahoo Japan Corp. worth $2 billion in a complicated deal. The contract was initiated by Altaba Inc. The company warned a few months back that it would start relieving its 35% stake in Yahoo Japan. Last year, when Yahoo Inc. was sold, Altaba was born so that its profitable stakes in Yahoo and Alibaba Group could be carved out. According to the deal, SoftBank will buy 11 percent of Yahoo stakes from Altaba. After this, Yahoo Japan plans to buy back its own shares from SoftBank. The entire transaction essentially lets Yahoo Japan remove a major overhang from its stock while keeping its relationship with SoftBank mostly the same. The whole deal will enable Yahoo Japan to remove a major overhang fro...

After Raising $200 Mn, PoilcyBazaar Will Hire 2,500 New Employees

3Jul By Gauri SinghNo Comments

News

After Raising $200 Mn, PoilcyBazaar Will Hire 2,500 New Employees

PolicyBazaar.com has announced that it will employ more people in the current financial year. The number of jobs that the company intends to create will be around 2,500 which will take the total count of the employees to 6,000. The purpose of the company behind this move is to increase the customer base and expand the revenues. The company that was backed by SoftBank Fund will add positions in various areas including customer support and tech functions. "...the company announced that it will create 2,500 more jobs in FY'19, taking its employee strength to 6,000 people. Growing 100 percent year-on-year, PolicyBazaar.com is aiming to underwrite premium worth Rs 10,000 crore, expand its unique customer base to one crore and increase its revenue to Rs 1,500 crore by 2020," the company said...

Softbank Backed OYO To Enter China With All The Support

21Jun By Gauri SinghNo Comments

News

Softbank Backed OYO To Enter China With All The Support

The Gurugram-based online hospitality company OYO is now officially entering the Chinese market. OYO is a Softbank backed firm and China is its third international destination after Malaysia and Nepal. The investor of OYO that is Softbank is showing high hopes and support in favour of the hospitality company. SoftBank Group’s chairman and chief executive Masayoshi Son addressed OYO Hotels as the ‘next generation hotel company using the internet service’. He is also determined to bolster up OYO hotels in China through a joint venture.” “I would really like to introduce this (OYO Hotels) company to all of you. The founder (Ritesh Agarwal), as of today, is only 23 years old. He founded the company when he was only 19 years old. Only four years have passed but it is growing exponentially,”...

SoftBank Corp. To Invest Billions In Indian Solar Power Project

15Jun By Gauri SinghNo Comments

FUNDING

SoftBank Corp. To Invest Billions In Indian Solar Power Project

Japanese holding company, Softbank Group Corporation is determined to invest funds amounting to $60 billion to $100 billion in a solar power project in India. According to the reports, the funds being invested in the project are supposedly raised by the Softbank from the Saudi Arabia’s government. Saudi Arabia is the biggest investor in the Softbank’s Vision Fund, which was backed by an amount of $93 billion last year. After all the arrangements and preparations for the deal are done, both the parties that are Softbank and Indian government will make an official announcement for the same. Softbank was initially started as a telecom firm but it now has handed in a number of different areas, including e-commerce, finance, broadband, marketing, and more. The company has taken on an a...

Paytm Mall Raises Huge Fund From SoftBank & Alibaba

13Jun By Gauri SinghNo Comments

FUNDING

Paytm Mall Raises Huge Fund From SoftBank & Alibaba

The e-commerce platform of Paytm known as ‘Paytm Mall’ has raised funds amounting to Rs 1500 crore from Japenese holding company SoftBank Group Corporation and its existing lender Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. According to the reports, the recent funding is a part of the funding commitment of Rs 3,000 crore that was at first announced in April. Paytm Mall has now received the third and final tranche of the deal. Alibaba and SoftBank Corp. had undertaken to invest an amount of Rs 3000 crore jointly in the Paytm Mall out of which the amount of Rs 2600 crore supposed to be invested by SoftBank and the rest Rs 400 crore by Alibaba. Paytm Mall is a Paytm-operated e-commerce platform that operates on its own mobile application making it easy for the users to have a look on a variety of brande...

Ola Set to Beat Uber, Reports 70% Growth in Revenue

7Jun By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

BUSINESS

Ola Set to Beat Uber, Reports 70% Growth in Revenue

India's leading cab-hailing company Ola, run by ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd. has reported a phenomenal 70% jump in revenue in the year that ended 31 March 2017 as reported in its latest annual regulatory filings. As per the filings under the ministry of corporate affairs, Ola has recorded a revenue of Rs. 1,286 crore in 2016-17 when compared to Rs. 758.23 crore in the previous year. Ola is battling competition against San Francisco based cab hailing giant Uber which has expanded rapidly in India since it first launched its service in the country nearly five years ago. The interesting part is that both these companies e backed by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. The latest numbers are indicative of the fact that Ola has managed to hold its worth against Uber in India over pa...