Bitkemy Ventures Invests $400K In Fintech Startup Celerix TechnologiesBangalore-based Celerix Tech, a fintech product and services startup, has raised $400K in seed funding from Bitkemy Ventures. The funds raised from this round will be used for expanding the team and to establish a sales office in Mumbai. Celerix is also in talks with other investors as well to raise more funds. The investment by Bitkemy is the first external funding round raised by the startup.
Naspers Group Backed Goibibo Launches Travel Social Network 'GoContacts'
Naspers Group-backed Goibibo has launched a travel social network GoContacts on its mobile app. It would enable travellers to get connected on the app, using their phone book. Going ahead, the company plans to enable GoContacts members to see reviews, photos, questions and answers that have been generated by their social network contacts. Users will also be able to discover the destinations that their contacts have travelled to and accommodations that they have used.
B2B Marketplace ProcMart Raises Pre-Series A Funding from IndiaMARTNoida-based procurement marketplace for office products ProcMart, has raised an undisclosed amount on Pre Series A funding from IndiaMART. The newly raised funding will be used in creating a robust technology, which is comprehensive, user friendly and easily scalable. They would also be expanding their presence across all the Tier-1 cities in the coming few months.
ClearTrip Raises Funding from Concur Technologies and Gund InvestmentOnline travel portal, ClearTrip, has raised an undisclosed round of funding from Concur Technologies and Gund Investment. Other existing investors also participated in this round. The company has also launched a segment called ‘Local‘ on its app. With four sub-categories- events, fitness, food and adventure, it will help consumers to book places in the city ranging from food joints to yoga classes and adventure sports like Dirt Biking.
The company has raised $75 Mn so far. It also raised an internal round in February – March this year led by a few of the existing investors.
Onspon Raises $150K From Swan Angel NetworkMumbai-based Onspon.com, an event-brand partnership platform, has raised $150K in angel funding from Indore’s Swan Angel Network.
Founded by Hitesh Gossain, Onspon offers a tech platform to help brands find sponsors and help create a profitable and well managed event. The startup has presently held 9000+ events, has onboarded 12,500+ event managers, associated with 350+ brands, and has 10000 Mn+ sponsorships on the website.
Former Flipkart Executive Michael Mehran Adnani Joins Styletag as CEO Online fashion portal Styletag.com has appointed former Flipkart official Michael Mehran Adnani as its new Chief Executive Officer. Adnani, who was the Vice President of the eCommerce platform and headed the strategic brand alliances for Flipkart, will now lead Styletag’s operations as it enters into a new phase of growth and expansion. Adnani holds over 30 years of experience in retail and ecommerce, merchandising, management, marketing and sales and has worked at firms like Sears Holdings, Nextag and Overstock.
Yes Bank Hires Goldman Sachs for $1B Qualified Institutional PlacementYes Bank Ltd has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to help the lender raise as much as $1 billion through a so-called qualified institutional placement (QIP) offer, as per DealStreetAsia report. A QIP is a mechanism through which a listed firm can raise funds by selling shares to institutional investors. In June 2014, the bank had raised $500 million (Rs2,900 crore) through a QIP. Then Yes Bank had hired Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings Plc, Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd, JM Financial Ltd, UBS AG and Goldman Sachs for the fund raising.
SoftBank President Nikesh Arora to Step DownUnder fire from investors, SoftBank Group Corp. President Nikesh Arora is stepping down, marking an abrupt end to the tenure of founder and Chief Executive Masayoshi Son’s handpicked successor.
Mr. Son
said he would continue as CEO longer than planned and Mr. Arora, a former Google Inc. executive whom he recruited two years ago, will step down to pursue a different path.
Mr. Arora said he will remain as an adviser to SoftBank.
Agic Capital to Close $1B Fund to Invest in High-tech Firms in India, SEAAGIC Capital, the European-Asian private equity fund focused on advanced technology investments, is hoping to close its $1 billion fund in the third quarter of this year. The fund will continue to invest in high-tech European companies and provide them access to the Chinese market. It also plans to invest in companies that have operations in the high-growth markets of India and Southeast Asia in future, as per DealStreetAsia report.
Accenture Buys Israeli Cybersecurity Firm MaglanAccenture has acquired an Israeli cyber security company Maglan and is establishing a research and development centre in the country. Acceture spent about $1 billion acquiring some 20 companies in fiscal 2015 and a similar amount in fiscal 2016, which ends in August.
Maglan will help Accenture tailor services to clients' needs as the growing variety of cyber attacks today cannot be eliminated with standard off-the-shelf solutions, as per ETTech report. Maglan's clients include financial services, telecom and automotive companies.
Yahoo’s Content Discovery Website Tumblr to Launch Facebook Live Rival This Week
Yahoo-owned content discovery website Tumblr reportedly is all set to commence its live video streaming service later this week. Rumours suggest that the platform will archive the live video streaming like we have seen with Facebook Live feature. Though it is still not clear how the firm will go about it, as per ETTech report.
Twitter Buys AI startup Magic Pony
Twitter has acquired British-based artificial intelligence startup Magic Pony to bolster its capacity for analysis of visual content.
Magic Pony's technology, based on research to create algorithms that can understand the features of imagery "will be used to enhance our strength in live and video and opens up a whole lot of exciting creative possibilities for Twitter," said Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey in a blog post.
Times Internet to Invest $100M in Marketing Technology Platform ColombiaTimes Internet is investing $100 million (more than Rs 670 crore) in developing smart marketing technology platform Colombia, which will help marketers engage with nearly 200 million digital users a month across the company's properties and partner publishers.
Times Internet has custom built its own big-data engine using open-source tools and technologies.
The continued investment will be focused on expanding Colombia's capabilities to leverage insights and data about users across multiple marketing formats, including display and video as well as newer formats such as coupons for a wide variety of marketers, as per ETTech report.
Samsung Buys Startup Cloud Company Joylent IncSamsung Electronics
has agreed to buy U.S. cloud service startup Joylent Inc. to boost its software and internet services. The acquisition will enable Samsung to access its own cloud platform to run its internet-based services, apart from renting other companies' data centers.
Samsung's bought a U.S. cloud service startup company to boost its software and internet services. It's acquisition of Joylent Inc. will help Samsung access its own cloud platform to run its internet-based services, along with renting data centers from other companies.
