Tech Mahindra Becomes 3rd Entity to Drop Plans to Setup Payments Bank in IndiaDespite receiving a license from the Reserve Bank of India,
Tech Mahindra has dropped plans to setup a payments bank in India and is now looking to surrender the payment bank license to the RBI.
With this, Tech Mahindra becomes the third entity to
drop plans to set up payments bank after the proposed Sun Pharma promoter Dilip Shanghvi, IDFC Bank and Telenor Financial Services joint venture collectively withdrew plans last week and Cholamandalam informed that it was dropping plans in March.
Snapdeal CPO Anand Chandrasekaran Quits Within a YearSnapdeal's Chief Product Officer Anand Chandrasekaran has quit the eCommerce company with in a year to pursue entrepreneurial interests. Chandrasekaran had joined Snapdeal, run by Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd, from Bharti Airtel Ltd in June 2015. Chandrasekaran has also been an active angel investor. He invested in companies like Advergame Technologies Pvt Ltd, RentOnGo, Splitkart, Audeze, FreightTiger, Instalively and InnerChef.
Saama Capital Raises $31M For Its Third Venture Capital FundSaama Capital, a venture capital firm, has raised around $31 million for its third venture capital fund. With the new fund. the VC firm will be investing between $2 million to $5 million in each company. It is looking at a company which raises close to $2.5 million in Series A with 100-150% reserved for the follow-on rounds.
The firm expects to make a final close by third quarter of 2016. It expects to raise $60-80 million in the ongoing round. Saama has already invested in six companies as part of its third fund including LendingKart, Eazydiner, Veeba Foods, Jifflenow, Raw Pressery and an undisclosed company.
Online Forex Aggregator Fxkart.com Plans to Raise $5MOnline forex aggregator
Fxkart.com is in the process of raising $5 million in Series A round of funding. The company will use the money for marketing and technology enhancement. UAE-based company Fxkart.com which has an office in Bangalore, claims to be the country’s largest online aggregator of RBI-licensed money changers. It operates through 200 money changers catering to over 1,00 locations in India.
Bangalore Based AddressHealth Bags $1.5M Led by Gray Matters CapitalBangalore-based
AddressHealth Solutions India Pvt Ltd. which runs school-based neighbourhood clinics and school health programs, has raised $1.5 million in Series A round of funding led by Gray Matters Capital. Existing investor Unitus Seed Fund also participated in the round. Founded in March 2010, AddressHealth will use the money to expand its services.
Freecharge Names Kunal Shah Chairman and Appoints Govind Rajan as CEOFreecharge, the payments arm of online marketplace Snapdeal run by Jasper Infotech Pvt Ltd, has
elevated its CPO Govind Rajan as CEO and Chief Executive Officer Kunal Shah as chairman.
“Kunal has built a great tech team and an iconic brand. It is a privilege to take the baton from him. We are fortunate to have his guidance as the chairman and mentor-in-chief. I am very excited to carry forward our mission to build Freecharge as India’s digital payments operating system,” Rajan said in a statement.
Rajan has previously worked as chief marketing officer (B2C) at Bharti Airtel and as CEO for Airtel Money. He has also held various roles at Hindustan Unilever.
InMobi’s Director of Operations Samuel John Quits to Join GreedyGame as Head of OperationsInMobi‘s Director of Operations, Samuel John has
quit the company to join Bangalore-based advertising SaaS startup GreedyGame as head of operations. Recently InMobi CFO Manish Dugar left the company to join Practo. John joins GreedyGame in a run up to its Series A funding and will be helping the company to scale up its business in the Middle East and and Southeast Asian region.
Toyota Motors Invests in Uber & Signs a Car Leasing PartnershipJapanese automaker Toyota Motors has invested in the on-demand ride company,
Uber. Both companies entered into a partnership that will create new leasing options in which car purchasers can lease their vehicles from Toyota Financial Services and cover their payments through earnings generated as Uber drivers.
The Toyota-Uber
partnership comes more than four months after General Motors' $500 million investment in Lyft, Uber's main U.S. rival, to develop an on-demand network of self-driving cars.
Investment Firm March Capital Partners Makes Final Close of Maiden Fund at $240MThe Santa Monica-headquartered investment firm,
March Capital Partners, has
made the final close of its maiden fund at $240 million, and expects to deploy a significant portion towards India. The VC firm which counts two Indian startups among its portfolio - payment gateway solutions provider BillDesk and classifieds auto portal CarTrade.com, has already invested about $100 million across 15 ventures across the globe.
