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Uber to “Double Down” Investments in India after Leaving Southeast Asia

19Apr By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

News

Uber to “Double Down” Investments in India after Leaving Southeast Asia

San Fransisco based cab hailing company Uber said on Wednesday that it would be doubling up investment in India to take on the arch contender Ola. Uber's maiden COO Barney Hardford said that India has such a huge potential that the company would not settle for minority stake deals here.The world's most valued startup comments have come up amidst the speculations of a potential merger between its India unit and home built opponent Ola. Hardford said, India is absolutely a core market, now and in the future. Uber's success is hardcoded to India's success. Our merger with Grab Holdings in Southeast Asia has freed up resources for the company to channelize into this market. The company had set up a $1 billion investmnet in 2015 and also opened a support centre in Hyderabad with an inve...

$20 Billion Indian E-commerce Acquisition Deal Reaches Final Stage

13Apr By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

News

$20 Billion Indian E-commerce Acquisition Deal Reaches Final Stage

Walmart, the American retail guru is keen to buy stakes in Indian e-commerce company, Flipkart and the rumors circulating suggest that the Indian firm would boast a valuation of $20 billion once the deal is completed. Anonymous sources close to the company suggested that Walmart is set to buy out the shares of Flipkart and the stakes of its investors as well. The deal is yet to reach a conclusion and the details are still in negotiations. The deal will most probably be paid in tranches and will include the purchase of primary and secondary shares, said one of the sources. Flipkart’s early investors such as Tiger Global look will most likely leave the company following the deal. Flipkart raised several funds last year, notably from eBay, Tencent Holdings and Microsoft Corp but the ...

3Apr By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

FUNDING

Paytm Mall Raises $445 Mn Funding From SoftBank and Alibaba

Paytm has been all over the landscape these past few weeks and days with major consecutive news announcements. This time, Paytm mall, the e-commerce daughter business of Paytm has raised over $445 Mn in funding from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant. Regulatory filings reveal that SoftBank has been the major investor in this round, funding around $400 Mn of the total amount while Chinese company, Alibaba, fueled the rest. The first tranche of $55 Mn has already been sent to Paytm Mall’s account. Paytm Chief Operating Officer, Amit Sinha confirmed the news in a media statement saying, “This latest investment led by SoftBank and Alibaba reaffirms the strength of our business model, growth trajectory, execution capability and the potential of India...

WeWork Coworking Acquisitions & Its Growth

1Apr By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

ACQUISITION, ANALYSIS

WeWork Coworking Acquisitions & Its Growth

WeWork, the famous co-working space provider was founded in 2010 when it opened two offices in New York. The purpose of the company was to provide workspaces to companies and people where they could expand together. They are also reknown for giving their locations a design face-lift and providing their client-base with dynamic environments that is meant to boost creativity, focus and facilitate connections. Their aim when they opened their first office was to humanize work by making CEOs help each other grow their respective businesses, and provide offices as comfortable as the employees’ home. Eight years since its inception, the company is now present in 56 cities and 18 different countries. Indeed, the company grew very quickly. They opened two locations in 2010 and doubled that ...

SoftBank Encouraging Uber to Merge Operations with Ola

29Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

News

SoftBank Encouraging Uber to Merge Operations with Ola

Several news sources are reporting that Japanese giant investor SoftBank Group is putting pressure on Indian ride-hailing company Ola to merge with American rival Uber as part of a consolidation plan in India which represent the fastest growing market for ride hailing. SoftBank is currently the largest investor in both the companies and are reported to have been holding talks for over a year concerning the merge. The wish of Softbank to see the deal go through intensified after Uber decided to leave the ride-hailing market of Southeast Asia after admitting defeat to local competitor Grab last week. Reports suggest that the deal will be completed in the coming two months as both companies wish to have controlling stakes in the deal. This is the main reason why the deal is taking so long ...

Uber Sells its Southeast Asia Operations to Grab

26Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

News

Uber Sells its Southeast Asia Operations to Grab

Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc came to terms with bigger regional rival Grab to sell its Southeast Asian business operations, both firms said in a statement released today. The deal now puts pressure on Alphabet Inc’s Google and China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd who both support Indonesia’s Go-Jek. The deal between Uber and Grab is Southeast Asia’s first big consolidation. This region is now experiencing fierce competition in the ride-hailing industry after Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp’s Vision Fund invested over a billion dollar in Uber and Grab. As part of the deal, Uber will now hold 27.5 percent stake in the Singapore-based company and Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s CEO, is reportedly going to join Grab’s board. "It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we inves...

OYO Acquires Chennai based Startup in all Cash Deal

19Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

ACQUISITION

OYO Acquires Chennai based Startup in all Cash Deal

OYO, the network of budget hotels recently made the acquisition of Chennai-based service apartment operator Novascotia Boutique Homes, which moreover marks the company’s first major takeover and proves its dominance in the market they operate. The deal’s negotiations begun in last October and materialized last month. Despite OYO company executives’ opting to keep the financial details of the deal confidential, the company backed by SoftBank Group is rumored to have struck the Novascotia acquisition at around $1 million. This deal is a significant landmark for the Gurgaon-based company as it marks its first all-cash deal for a brick-and-mortar company. Previously, OYO began negotiations to acquire smaller competitor Zo Rooms, but wrote off the deal in October 2017 after finding out th...

Grofers Raises 400 Crore from Softbank & Others

16Mar By NitishNo Comments

FUNDING

Grofers Raises 400 Crore from Softbank & Others

Gurgaon based online hyperlocal market startup Grofers raises 400 crore funding from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group, Tiger Global, and Apoletto Asia. The Grofers has raised so far $226.5 million funding. However the early investor in Grofers, Sequoia Capital will not participate in this round. Pixr8 news was the first platform which discloses about this deal earlier. Using Series E round funding, the company will continue to invest in building private labels and supply chain improvements. A significant amount of investment will go towards building infrastructure and technology and efficient supply chain management to achieve deeper penetration in existing Grofers cities. "This fresh round by our existing investors is a vote of confidence and trust in the turnaround at ...

Kalaari Capital Planning Snapdeal Exit and Selling Stakes

15Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

News

Kalaari Capital Planning Snapdeal Exit and Selling Stakes

Kalaari Capital, the venture capital and investor in Snapdeal, held talk with the company’s promoters about selling part or the totality of its stake in the e-commerce on the online market. According to anonymous sources, the discussions are still at an early stage and there are yet no guarantee that the request will be granted. However, the sources did mention that the venture capital firm is well capable of selling its stakes in Snapdeal for Rs 40- Rs 50 crore. The sum is a very small fraction of the total sum the company invested in the company, about Rs 135 crore. It is also being reported that Kalaari Capital are holding talks with other investors to buy out their stake in the company. This desperate move signals that all is not well for the e-commerce business. Snapdeal alre...

15Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

News

Walmart Planning Flipkart Takeover

Walmart Stores Inc. is set to become Flipkart’s largest shareholder as negotiations are being finalized. Walmart could buy around 20-26% stakes in the Indian company and improve its shareholding rights to 51% in tranches, according to reports. India’s biggest online retail company, Flipkart is luring the world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer in its ranks before yet another face-off against American retailer Amazon in the India e-commerce market. The American retail giant might invest $10-12 billion for the entire stake purchase in a deal that will include the acquisition of shares owned by existing investors with the likes of Softbank, the Japanese telecom and internet giant, according to two anonymous sources close to the company. “The primary investment will be between $1-2 Bn,...

23Feb By NitishNo Comments

FUNDING

Grofers Looking to Raise $65 Million Fresh Funding But….

Bengaluru- Guragon based online grocery start-up Grofers is looking to raise $65 Million fresh funding from leading investors like Softbank & Tiger global. But the funding round will devalued 40% of Grofers valuation as per the report published by LiveMint. However the early investor in Grofers, Sequoia Capital will not participate in this round. The online grocery platform looking for much needed funding to operate their services. The leading competitor in the space bigbasket has already raised $300 million from Alibaba. Also the big daddy in Indian e-commerce space Flipkart & Amazon aggressively expanding their footprints into the Hyper-local space. As of 2016, the company has raised about Rs. 235.5 million funding from investors including SoftBank and Sequoia Capital. I...

Valued at $10B, Paytm’s 200 Employees Become Millionaires

29Jan By RishabhNo Comments

BUSINESS

Valued at $10B, Paytm’s 200 Employees Become Millionaires

One97 Communication owned, payments and gateway company Paytm is now valued at $10 billion. As a result, the existing and former Paytm employees have been able to liquidate their vested ESOPS (employee stock ownership plan) by selling them to new investors including undisclosed family offices. Over 200 employees of the company liquidated their shares for Rs 300 crore. Earlier the company was valued at $7 billion when it raised $1.4 billion from SoftBank Group. This valuation has made Paytm, the second most valued startup after Flipkart, which is valued somewhere close to $12 billion. A similar sale round occurred early last year where a 100-crore employee liquidity event took place. Till now around 200 Paytm former and existing employees have been able to sell shares for Rs 500 c...