Bob van Dijk, chief executive officer of Naspers, is now betting on companies in food tech, payments, travel and other consumer sectors to tap the potential of the Indian market.
Nasper-backed fintech firm PayU has started talks to acquire domestic payment gateway major BillDesk, and the deal size could be in the range of $3-4 billion, sources in the know said. "BillDesk has been open to being acquired for some time now, but in the past the valuations that the company was seeking proved to be a hurdle," said a source. "Three years ago too, PayU had approached BillDesk for an acquisition, but things didn't go ahead due to high valuations. "BillDesk had asked for $2-billion value then," said the source.
Prosus NV, which owns PayU, has terminated a $4.7 billion (about Rs 38,400 crore) deal to acquire Indian payments firm BillDesk, saying certain conditions precedent were not met. Prosus, the global investment arm of South African multinational Nasper, had on August 31 last year announced acquisition of BillDesk in an all-cash deal to expand its footprint in India's booming fintech sector under the umbrella of its payment gateway PayU.
Food delivery aggregator Swiggy's losses widened 2.24 times to Rs 3,628.9 crore during last financial year, as its expenses surged 227 per cent in a year. This is even as the decacorn's revenue jumped more than twofold to Rs 5,704.9 crore in FY22, according to details from company research platform Tofler. While the company's losses surged from a base of Rs 1,616.9 crore in FY21, its total expense in FY22 touched Rs 9,748.7 crore, from Rs 4,292.8 crore a year ago.
Its share among top three e-commerce players grew to 57% in March 2017 from 45% in June 2016
The much-talked-about sale of Ambuja Cement and ACC by Holcim Group will see the single-biggest outflow of foreign capital from the country if the two cement firms are acquired by Indian investors. The deal, valued at nearly $10.35 billion, will put in the shade Cairn Energy Plc's exit from India in 2010, when it sold Cairn India to Vedanta Group for $4.48 billion. According to various reports, big business groups such as AV Birla, JSW Group, and Adani Group are in the fray to acquire Holcim's assets in India.
Once stability returns to the secondary market, companies that have obtained approval from Sebi will start tapping the market.
Edtech major Byju's on Thursday introduced a new 'two-teacher' feature for its after-school online tutoring programme - Byju's Classes, a move aimed at delivering better learning experiences and outcomes. The two-teacher advantage offering - which will be available as a separate offering at about Rs 2,500 per month - will see students being taught by one expert teacher who uses strong visuals and storytelling to explain topics in-depth to ensure conceptual clarity. The second teacher will solve instant doubts, paying individual attention and making the sessions interactive and engaging.
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.
After a recent spate of big-bang funding of food discovery and delivery apps, experts believe the sector's consolidation might be over and the remaining players are here to stay and thrive.
Flipkart, the poster boy of Indian e-commerce, hit a new high by raising $1 billion (about Rs 6,000 crore) in the latest funding round, led by existing investors Tiger Global Management and Naspers.
Swiggy is shoring up capital to defend its position as India's largest food-ordering app as rivals Zomato and FoodPanda focus on growth after receiving funds
The stock-and-cash deal is the biggest in the education space.
Given that there has been no negative news flow around Zomato, analysts believe it's time to lap up the shares at lower levels.
Who invested how much into Flipkart in its latest round of $1 billion funding? Vicky Nanjappa/Rediff.com finds out.
Education topped the table with nearly $1.755 billion as against $379 million last year, followed by real estate which received $754 million.
As many as 44 shareholders of Flipkart sold their holdings to Walmart. The income tax law requires the buyer to withhold tax while making payment to the sellers, in case they are not exempted from levy of capital gains tax.
The Bangalore-based company had raised $200 million in July from existing investors.
With this round of funding, Flipkart's valuation has reached USD 11.6 billion, and US IT major Microsoft joins the marketplace as a strategic investor.
Investments totaling over $9.5 billion in Jio Platforms by a clutch of private equity firms, following social media giant Facebook's $5.7 billion mid-April investment in the company, helped overall.
Help came from Sanjeev Bikchandani, founder and executive vice-chairman of Info Edge, the main investor in Zomato.
Swiggy had in June entered the elite Unicorn club after raising $210 million from a group of investors
Becoming a unicorn is surely a marker for a company in its growth story, but it's not a major achievement nor is it a turning point of any significant worth.
According to sources, employees from marketing, ad-tech, category, digital marketing, engineering team, catalogues, have all been asked to leave.
Having grown swiftly since the acquisition of Flipkart by Walmart in 2018, it was looking at a valuation of $10 billion. However, factors such as lack of diversification, new e-commerce and data policies, as well as the overall investment environment, have slowed the process.
Byju's acquires licences of hundreds of characters from Disney; to use cartoon characters to teach math, science.
To make the service a hassle-free everyday option, Daily will allow users to schedule their meals in advance or opt for a daily, weekly or monthly subscription.
So Swiggy offered 35,056 varieties of biryani to its users, says Peerzada Abrar.
Analysts said even though the Indian economy is expected to slow down to 7.2 per cent in fiscal 2020, it is still the best bet for investment for foreign investors.
Byju's has emerged as the leader in the Indian education-tech sector. They are pioneering technology shaping the future of learning for millions of school students in India.
With its free listing of goods and services, Facebook could disrupt the paid model adopted by classified players in the country, say Ayan Pramanik and Raghu Krishnan.
Valued at $5 billion, Byju's has seen growth sky rocket in the last two years on the back of mega VC top-ups.
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.
Private labels remain big business for e-commerce marketplaces. They comprise almost 15 per cent of the total business of such firms.
Grant Thornton reports says total value of deals in 2013 crosses $8 bn, up 34% from the year-ago period, momentum likely to continue
It's also among the top five most valuable Internet companies in India, reports Yuvraj Malik.
Flipkart intends to use the funds for building and strengthening its technology capabilities, bolstering the robust supply chain and developing the talent pool.
Flipkart Supermart is already live in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi
Taxing SoftBank, the largest shareholder in Flipkart with a little over 20 per cent stake, however, will be easier.
If Sachin Bansal sells his stake at a little over 5 per cent and steps down from Flipkart, as reports have suggested recently, either Binny Bansal or Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart, could be an option for the leadership position.
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