Flipkart Group on Monday said it has raised $3.6 billion (about Rs 26,805.6 crore) in funding led by GIC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Walmart, valuing the e-commerce giant at $37.6 billion. The company, which competes with Amazon, Reliance Industries' JioMart and others in the burgeoning Indian e-commerce market, said it will continue to make deeper investments across people, technology, supply chain and infrastructure to address the requirements of a rapidly growing consumer base in the country. The current funding round has also seen participation from sovereign funds DisruptAD, Qatar Investment Authority, Khazanah Nasional Berhad as well as marquee investors Tencent, Willoughby Capital, Antara Capital, Franklin Templeton and Tiger Global.
The country's m-cap is now 4.3x India's, whose m-cap grew just 17 per cent to $2.5 trillion in CY20 -- 2.4 per cent of the global m-cap.. Ashley Coutinho reports.
The ban in India would hit Chinese internet companies that were making headway in the world's fastest-growing mobile market.
Backed by China's Tencent and Prosus NV, Swiggy has around 8,000 employees.
China Central Television (CCTV), which holds exclusive TV rights for the NBA, did not air the first regular season game between the Toronto Raptors and the New Orleans Pelicans on its sports channel on Wednesday. It also chose to air the World Military Games in Wuhan instead of the second game of the day between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers.
Edtech major Byju's has raised over Rs 363 crore (about USD 50 million) in funding from Maitri Edtech and IIFL's private equity fund, according to regulatory documents. Over the past few months, Byju's has raised funding from a slew of investors that has placed the edtech major among the most-valued start-ups in the country. Byju's is estimated to have raised about $2.3 billion in funding so far with valuation touching $6.5 billion.
The Chinese government is imposing severe restrictions on their tech companies - whether it is on data security, marketing practices or floating an IPO. Should this be music to the ears of Indian start-ups and home-grown private equity (PE) funds? Ask Indian start-ups and the answer is a resounding "yes".
A single application and a plethora of services for passenger cars - that is what myTVS, a brand that operates under Ki Mobility Solutions and is part of the TVS family, is set to bring to customers, in a bid to disrupt the concept of "super apps" in India. Starting July 15, myTVS will launch its connected car platform or super app called myTVS Life360 for aftermarket passenger cars. Through it, customers will be able to avail themselves of a range of services like maintenance, diagnostics, roadside assistance, accessories, payments, insurance, and so on.
One Chinese source informed ANI that 10 million new infections are probably occurring daily in China.
Byju's, Flipkart, PharmEasy and CRED, among others, have taken the acquisition route to grow
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.
The banned apps include Baidu, Baidu Express Edition, Tencent Watchlist, FaceU, WeChat Reading and Tencent Weiyun, besides PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite, according to an official statement.
Chinese sponsorship became a bone of contention after the BCCI declared it would review the deals following the violent clashes between the armies of both the countries in eastern Ladakh.
Walmart-owned Flipkart will undertake a buyback employee stock options worth about Rs 600 crore, according to sources Earlier in the day, Flipkart announced raising $3.6 billion (about Rs 26,805.6 crore) in funding from a clutch of investors that valued the e-commerce major at $37.6 billion (about Rs 2.79 lakh crore). In an e-mail to employees, Flipkart group chief executive officer Kalyan Krishnamurthy lauded the critical role played by the staff in reaching this milestone.
Foreign brokerage firm CLSA initiated coverage on the stock with a Sell rating and target price of Rs 1,095, citing hefty premium valuation.
To take on China's Alibaba, Baidu bought stake in Uber.
The ban against the eight Chinese apps -- Alipay, CamScanner, QQ Wallet, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate, WeChat Pay, and WPS Office -- will come into effect in 45 days from Tuesday.
Competitive video gaming, dubbed esports, is appearing for the first time at a major multi-sport event.
According to experts, this will have major impact on new investments by Chinese players in companies, such as Paytm, Ola, BigBasket, Byju's, Dream11, MakeMyTrip, and Swiggy, when they go for follow-up funding. Chinese investors, such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi, are active in the Indian start-up space, and have collectively invested billions of dollars.
Nearly half of the investments by various US-based investors have been made in Reliance subsidiary Jio.
The new tranche of funding raises Ola's valuation to $5.74 billion from $4.45 billion in October 2017
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.
Chinese billionaire and Alibaba group founder Jack Ma is suspected to be missing following his mysterious disappearance from the public eye for over two months after Beijing's aggressive crackdown on his business empire.
With the 21 unicorns collectively valued at $73.2 billion, India is the fourth biggest in terms of unicorns, behind the US, China and the UK, as per the Hurun Global Unicorn List.
After India banned 59 Chinese apps last month, at least three more China-based video apps - Snack Video, Likee Lite, and Zili - have now made it to the list of top 10 downloaded apps in India on Google Playstore.
Xi does not want to risk any political or economic crisis complicating his bid to remain in office, observes Ambassador Shyam Saran, the former foreign secretary.
Even as the gaming industry battles multiple regulations in different Indian states, it has received more than double the amount of investment this year compared to 2020. Industry watchers attribute this to the growing popularity of gaming, spurred by the pandemic, and the innovative business models gaming firms have built. According to data from industry tracker Venture Intelligence, investment in India's gaming sector in 2021 has more than doubled to $794 million, as against a total investment of $339 million last year. In 2019, this number was $176 million. Marquee investors such as Tiger Global (Dream11), Sequoia Capital India (Mobile Premier League), WinZO (Griffin Capital Partners), Tencent (Dream11) and Matrix Partners (Zupee) have pumped money into the sector.
'It is inevitable that people around the world -- including from America and China -- will have different viewpoints over different issues'
IPO-bound mobility platform Ola, said it has successfully raised $500 million via a Term Loan B (TLB) from marquee international institutional investors. This term loan has no impact on the valuation of Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola. The Bengaluru-based firm recently raised $139 million. This is part of a $1 billion funding round for which the company is in talks with investors, increasing its valuation to about $7.5 billion, according to the sources.
The PE biggie has committed to pumping money into Jio Platforms, Byju's and Reliance Retail so far this year - all marquee names in their respective sectors.
Ajit Balakrishnan offers a thinking man's guide to the state of ecom in a nation of shopkeepers.
China is the world's second-largest - both in terms of GDP and m-cap. At $10 trillion, its m-cap is second only to the US at $38 trillion.
Education topped the table with nearly $1.755 billion as against $379 million last year, followed by real estate which received $754 million.
The silver lining is that after two years, e-commerce has emerged as the top sector with $689 million in investments across 15 deals, accounting for 43 per cent of all investments in January 2021.
Fresh capital will help Flipkart further grow its e-commerce marketplace in India as the world's second-largest internet market begins to recover from the COVID-19 crisis.
Growing the number of electric vehicles on Ola's platform is part of the terms SoftBank has put forth for the funding
Unlike the race to buy airwaves by telecom companies, airports by infrastructure companies and city gas networks by energy companies, the race to develop super apps by consumer-facing companies in India has not brushed up against any regulatory issues. Officials at the ministry of electronics and information technology and at other regulators are happy they do not have to meddle in who among the Tata group, Reliance Industries Ltd, Flipkart or Paytm will manage to build an app that sweeps in customers. Unlike separate apps a customer uses on her mobile to order groceries, buy food or airline tickets or just make payments, a super app can perform all these functions.
The new round values the company at $2.5 billion, more than double the over $1 billion valuation Dream 11 enjoyed in April 2019 when it was declared the country's first gaming unicorn.
The Sampark Foundation boasts of a $100 million outlay funded entirely by the Nayars and represents more than half of their wealth.
Following their passion paid off for Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth with their fantasy sports platform Dream11 entering the unicorn club with a valuation of over $1 billion.
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