In the start-up world, hitting the $1-billion mark, which accords the "Unicorn" tag, is a milestone. Enterprises typically reach the milestone only by series C or series D, or three to four funding rounds later. Zeta achieved it at the first one. On May 25, the six-year-old banking tech firm raised $250 million from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, at a post-money valuation of $1.45 billion. "This is the first time we have raised institutional money," Zeta co-founder Bhavin Turakhia beamed on the conference call. This trajectory is uncommon in start-ups.

Everyday consumerables, such as grocery and order-in food items are the key buyout sector, analysts say, and a major reason for kirana stores' digitisation push.

Google is going ahead with a policy revision mandating 30% charge on in-app purchases across all apps on Play Store. This has left developers' community worried about tighter squeeze on their earnings, says Yuvraj Malik.

Indian firms selling SAAS products have got a bonanza as companies meet, manage and sell remotely. The top five firms - Zoho, Freshworks HighRadius, Druva, and Icertis - account for 33 per cent of the market share. Chennai, India's SAAS centre, alone generates $1 billion in annual revenue. Yuvraj Malik explains how these companies are planning their next phase of growth.

Chinese mobile brands are deeply entrenched in the Indian market. A move to bar them may send a bold diplomatic message. But its cost for the local industry is anybody's guess. In the event that Chinese brands face curbs, two handset makers - Samsung and Apple - squarely stand to gain.

'One good thing that has come out of all this is that it shown people that online ordering is the way forward.'

Its entry will increase competition especially when WhatsApp too has received approvals to launch payment service.

The two parties did not share the deal size but said MavenHive's two founders and 40-odd team members have joined the Bansal-owned firm. MavenHive was started by Bhavin Javia and Anandha Krishnan in 2012.

After posting double-digit growth for the fourth consecutive quarter, chief executive officer and managing director Salil Parekh tells Yuvraj Malik and Debasis Mohapatra that the firm is not facing any delay in ramping up of large deals.

Even at early stage, start-ups are raising more money faster owing to the rise of a lot of specialised early-stage VCs and emergence of seed-stage programmes.

Bansal has picked up a majority stake in Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services, a company which runs microfinance institution Chaitanya India Fin Credit.

The Qatar Investment Authority deal follows Byju's raising money from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which was also the first direct investment by the Canadian pension fund in an Indian start-up. In March, Byju's had raised $540 million at a valuation on $5.4 billion, making it the most-valued ed-tech company in the world.

With razor-sharp focus on deliveries and customer experience, powered by strong in-house technology built ground-up, Swiggy is emerging as the food ordering platform of choice.

Valued at $5 billion, Byju's has seen growth sky rocket in the last two years on the back of mega VC top-ups.

Over the last 12 months, thanks to bold bets by venture capital firms like Sequoia, SoftBank Vision Fund, and foreign strategic investors like Naspers, pipeline of start-ups with potential to achieve $1 bn in valuation is at an all-time high.

'Political parties and leaders understand the impact the new media can have on outcomes.' 'From treating them as broadcast tools five years ago, now they look at them as arsenal that can potentially change electoral outcomes.'

With its foray into self-drive, Ola will go head-to-head with early entrants Zoomcar, Revv and a few other.

RIL is setting up infrastructure for a full-fledged horizontal e-commerce offering - internally called the New Commerce - to simultaneously launch pan-India by October-November.

The deal brings the two start-up stalwarts - Bansal and Ola co-founder and chief executive officer Bhavish Aggarwal - together in the backdrop of growing foreign control in this space.

Sellers downloading their monthly financial reports were served with those of other vendors, leading to a breach of competitive businesses data.