Carro, an Online Market Place for Buying & Selling Cars, to Expand Its Services In Southeast AsiaTo expand its service across Southeast Asia, Carro has landed $5.3 million. Carro is a Singapore-based online marketplace for buying and selling cars. This Series A round was led by Indonesia’s Venturra Capital, from its $150 million fund, with participation from Singtel Innov8, Golden Gate Ventures, Alpha JWC Ventures, Skystar Capital and GMO Venture Partners among others. All in all, Carro — which only launched in November 2015 — said it has welcomed ten different investors from across Indonesia, Singapore, Japan and China. That mix of partners is designed to enable the service to expand into more markets in Southeast Asia this year.
Matrubharti Raises Rs 20 lakh From Viridian CapitalMatrubharti, Ahmedabad-based eBook publisher, has raised a seed funding of Rs. 20 lakh from Viridian Capital. The startup offers a publishing platform to new and aspiring writers in regional languages by taking content directly from authors and publishing it as an eBook. The company publishes over 450 eBooks every month with 7.5 lakhs of eBooks downloaded so far.
The new funding will be used for investment in technology and expanding the team. Incubated at the Espark-Viridian Accelerator Centre at GIFT City (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City), Matrubharti has more than 1,800 authors registered and have published 4,350 eBooks, so far.
Alibaba to Buy or Invest in an Indian Logistics CompanyAlibaba Group Holdings may buy or invest in an Indian logistics company specializing in deliveries for online retail players. To take this forward, Alibaba has held talks with Delhivery and Xpressbees Logistics, according to two people aware of the development. These moves are part of an effort by Alibaba to build what founder Jack Ma calls the "iron triangle" of businesses in eCommerce, payments and logistics, and position it to challenge dominant incumbents Flipkart and Amazon.
SMINQ Secures $1M in Funding from Saama Capital and Blume VenturesSMINQ India Solutions, a Pune-based startup providing real-time queue information on mobile, has secured US$1 million in funding from Saama Capital and Blume Ventures. Angel investor Vaibhav Domkundwar of micro-venture firm Better Inc has also co-invested. SMINQ (acronym for ‘See Me In No Queue’) was co-founded in July 2015 by Shachin Bharadwaj, Co-founder and former CEO of TastyKhana (which was acquired by foodpanda in 2014), along with two friends.
Symanted Corp To Buy Blue Coat For $4.65BSymantec Corp, Reuters– Technology security firm said it would buy privately held cyber security company Blue Coat for $4.65 billion in a cash deal that will ramp up Symantec’s enterprise security business.
Blue Coat helps protects companies’ web gateways from cyber attacks, a service that will complement Symantec’s existing offerings for large corporations such as email and endpoint security, Symantec executives said in an interview on Sunday. Symantec, which makes the Norton antivirus software, has been undergoing a transformation over the past year. It sold its data storage unit, Veritas, for $7.4 billion to a group led by Carlyle Group LP in January to gain the cash necessary turn around its core security software business.
OneWay.Cab Raises $450,000 From Indian Angel NetworkOneWay.Cab, gujarat-based taxi service, has raised $450,000 (Rs 3 crore) from Indian Angel Network (IAN). The fund has been raised for expansion, technology upgradation and hiring.
Among the lead IAN investors, Ajay Gupta, head of strategy and marketing at Ericson India, will join the company's board.The company was founded in 2015 by Vivek Kejriwal, Devang Sanghvi and Pankaj Gandhi, who is also a cofounder of Chartered Cabs. It currently covers at least 100 one-way routes from Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Udaipur, Jaipur, Vadodara, Surat, Mumbai, Nashik and Pune.
Delhi Based Indulge Beverages Brand Bonhomia Raises $500K in Bridge Round of FundingIndulge Beverages, which owns and distributes premium tea and coffee brand Bonhomia, has raised $500,000 (Rs 3.3 crore) in a bridge round of funding. The new funding round, which was closed this month, was led by existing backers including seed-stage investment firm Fireside Ventures and real estate group scion Apurv Salarpuria of Salarpuria Group. Valpro Capital and an unnamed early-stage investor also put in money.
DCB Bank Launched Bengaluru’s First ATM that Accepts Aadhaar Number and FingerprintDCB Bank launched Bengaluru's first ATM that accepts Aadhaar number and Aadhaar fingerprint (biometric) instead of ATM/Debit Card and PIN to dispense cash. The first-of-its kind ATM was launched by Nandan Nilekani, former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India. In April 2016, a similar bank pilot was launched in Mumbai. This was followed by the launch of an Aadhaar based ATM in Punjab and Odisha. DCB Bank plans to upgrade all of its 400 ATMs to provide Aadhaar-based functionality in the next six months.
Microsoft Announces Its Online Store with Tata CliQMicrosoft Corporation announced the launch of its Microsoft Online Store with Tata CLiQ. The recently launched e-commerce portal of Tata group will sell Microsoft products through the e-commerce chain’s phygital model.
The Microsoft Online Store will allow consumers across the country to enjoy an easy access to Microsoft’s wide range of productivity-enhancing products. TataCLiQ.com phygital services will be available across 500 plus stores of 12 partner brands.
VMware Announces its Intent to Acquire Arkin
VMware the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced the intention to acquire Arkin Net, a leader in software-defined data center security and operations. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in Q2 2016. Organizations globally are adopting a software-defined data center (SDDC) architecture based on VMware virtualized infrastructure and management to deliver automation, security and continuity for applications. SDDC breaks down the barriers between traditionally disparate domains of compute, networking and storage. Today, VMware vRealize Operations provides extensive management across both physical and virtual compute and storage environments. With the acquisition of Arkin, VMware vRealize Suite will have the ability to extend across the entire SDDC, including the VMware NSX network virtualization layer
India Govt in Talks with Foxconn for the Sale of Nokia’s Chennai Factory
Government representatives from New Delhi and Tamil Nadu have met Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn's founder Terry Gou about a potential sale of Nokia's Chennai factory. This points to a concerted push to revive operations at the 212-acre facility on the outskirts of Chennai that was once a symbol of Indian prowess in manufacturing mobile handsets. Officials from the Department of Electronics & IT and bureaucrats from Tamil Nadu government met Gou about 10 days ago, three people aware of the development said. Another added that it was necessary for revenue authorities and Nokia to see eye to eye on how to relieve this asset from tax wrangles for Foxconn to take over.
GoBolt Raises Funds From Startup Incubator MCube8
Logistics tech startup GoBolt has raised pre-Series A funding from startup incubator MCube8, a division of financial advisory firm MCube Capital. The Delhi-based startup, run by Camions Logistics Solutions Pvt. Ltd, will use the capital for business and technology development. GoBolt provides transportation solutions such as right vehicle selection, route/delivery planning, real time tracking, reliable documentation and control, and reduced transit time to its clients. It serves e-commerce, pharma, automobile, food processing companies, consumer goods makers and white goods manufacturers.
Thinkphi Recieves Undisclosed Funding From Nimmagadda Prasad
Thinkphi, Mumbai-based clean-tech startup, has received an undisclosed amount of angel funding from Nimmagadda Prasad, a serial entrepreneur, according to a press note. Thinkphi, run by Think Sustainable Lab Pvt Ltd, will use the funding for expanding its operations and R&D team. Founded in 2015 Thinkphi, a sustainable green technology startup, develops products that conserve water and energy.
Google Announces the Rollout of a New Digital Assistant, Springboard, to Help Its Enterprise Customers
Google announces the rollout of Springboard, a new digital assistant to help enterprise companies that make use of Google’s services for business. Springboard, which has been in testing with “a small set of customers,” is a little like Google Now for enterprise workers. That’s to say that it offer a single search interface which utilizes artificial intelligence to surface information within a user’s suite of Google products — such as Google Drive, Gmail, Calendar, Google Docs and more. Springboard also provides “useful and actionable information and recommendations” to users throughout their work day.
Zone Startups India Selects 15 Women Entrepreneurs For Its Accelerator Programme
Zone Startups India has selected fifteen women entrepreneurs for its "empoWer" accelerator programme for women entrepreneurs in tech businesses. It has received 181 applications from women entrepreneurs across India.After a competitive selection process, involving application evaluation and personal interviews by the programme advisors from India and Canada, 15 women entrepreneurs have been selected for the six weeks bespoke programme.The following 15 startup founders have been selected for the 6 weeks bespoke programme-Saumya Vardhan (Shubhpuja.com), Saagarika Jagadeesh (Primitus Technology), Smita Mishra (PoolWallet), Vidya Jayaraman (Math Adventures), Mausumi Acharyya (Advenio TecnoSy), Sanskriti Dawle (Project Mudra), Kanika Jain (SquadRun), Renu Bisht (Vanity Cube), Taursha Mittal (Koonk Technologies), Bhargavi Sridharan (FinMitra), Richa Singh (YourDOST), Sweta Joshi (Algaari Retail Ventures), Suhani Mohan (Saral Designs), Aditi Chadha (DAZL) andNilima Achwal (iesha).
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This is Meghna Shukla. She lives in Delhi. She is an engineering graduate and currently pursuing MBA from Jaypee Business School. She has a work experience of 2 years in content development. She loves to read and write.
