Deals RoundUp: U2opia, Flipkart, Kyazoonga, Google, OrbiMed Advisors, Line, Twitter, Ooyala, MTNL, KhanaGadi, Paytm, Alibaba, Tata Group, Andreessen Horowitz & Karnataka State
The Tata Sons Chairman emeritus has made investments in over 25 startups in the last two years, including online marketplace Snapdeal, digital wallet provider Paytm, cab-hailing service Ola, data analytics company Tracxn Technologies, online pet supplies store Dogspot.in and online lingerie store Zivame.
Home Ministry Turns Down Google’s Proposal
Google’s proposal to cover Indian cities, tourist spots, hills and rivers under its application Street View that allows a user to explore places around the world through panoramic and street-level three-dimensional (3D) imagery has been turned down by Home Ministry. According to sources, the proposal was rejected owing to concerns cited by security agencies and defence forces. Google representatives had, in April 2015 approached the home ministry with a presentation on its Street View service, and pitched it citing its uses in tourism and disaster management. It submitted a formal proposal three months later seeking permission to shoot images for the service through high-end cameras. The Ministry of Home Affairs had referred the matter to the defence ministry.
OrbiMed Advisors Llc To Buy Stake In Suraksha Diagnostic Pvt. Ltd.
OrbiMed Advisors Llc, a US-based private equity (PE) fund, is in advanced talks to buy a significant minority stake in diagnostic chain Suraksha Diagnostic Pvt. Ltd, according to two people aware of the plans. Existing investor Lighthouse Advisors India Pvt. Ltd will be selling its minority stake and the fresh issue of equity of Rs.50 crore inhte proposed round of funding, said one of the two people. The round will raise around Rs.150 crore. Kolkata-based Suraksha’s enterprise value is around Rs.600 crore, the second person added.
Line Corp Plans To List Shares In Tokyo and New York Through IPO
Line Corp said it plans to list shares in Tokyo and New York next month through an initial public offering (IPO) that would value the Japanese messaging app operator at 588 billion yen ($5.50 billion) on Friday.
Line, headquartered in Tokoyo, said it could raise as much as 112.7 billion yen, making the IPO Japan's biggest of the year. Owned by South Korea's Naver Corp, company plans to use the proceeds for expansion at home and abroad, at a time when growth in user numbers has markedly slowed.
Ross Hoffman To Be Appointed as Twitter’s New VP of Global Media
Ross Hoffman, Longtime Twitter exec, has been tapped as Twitter's new VP of global media, according to sources, the third person to fill that role in the last six months. Hoffman, who was most recently senior director of brand strategy and has been at the company in various roles since 2010, is taking over the media team from Nathan Hubbard, who announced he was leaving the company late last month. Hoffman will report to Ali Jafari, who now oversees all of Twitter's media and partnership efforts as part of a restructuring the company implemented last month. But while Jafari will be the big-picture boss, Hoffman will handle the day-to-day responsibilities of running media at Twitter.
Ooyala To Set Up Its First Office In India
Ooyala, the digital video publishing arm of Australian telecom operator Telstra, has setup its first office in the country for which it plans to hire over 100 employees by next year.
The India employee base will add 20 per cent to its global workforce The hiring will be across its engineering, product development, operations, IT, professional services and technical support, it added.
The company provides technology to broadcasters, publishers and media companies for producing, delivering and monetising online video.
Ooyala's customers include Viacom18's Voot which uses its service to manage and deliver video ad campaigns across its new mobile app and desktop, the statement said.
Other customers across the Asia-Pacific region include Australia's National Basketball League and National Rugby League, Singapore's Media corp, and Media Prima in Malaysia.
MTNL’s Chairman And Managing Director Resigned
MTNL said its chairman and managing director Narendra Kumar Yadav has resigned. Narendra Kumar Yadav has relinquished the charge of CMD of the company w.e.f. June 8, 2016. P K Purwar, Director (Finance), MTNL has been entrusted with the additional charge of the post of CMD. Director (finance) P K Purwar has been given the additional charge of the CMD's post, MTNL said in a BSE filing. The telecom firm, which has operations in Delhi and Mumbai circles, expects to post operational profit at the end of the current financial year and turn profitable in 2017-18.
KhanaGadi, An app based Food Delivery Aggregator, To Raise Funds From Hyderabad Based Firm
A mobile application-based food delivery aggregator for railway passengers, KhanaGadi, has raised an undisclosed amount from Hyderabad-based 50K Ventures. KhanaGadi provides food delivery service at 200 railway stations across India and clocks 100-150 orders per day. It aims to serve 1,000 customers a day by next year.
The Jaipur-based startup plans to utilise the funds to expand its network, adopt a more aggressive marketing strategy and build its team further, said Amit Deep Kumar To ET tech, who founded the company last year.
Vikas Purohit, Vice President Paytm, Quits his Job
Vikas Purohit, vice president Paytm, has quit mobile wallet and e-commerce firm Paytm’s upcoming payments bank barely seven months after joining. Purohit was also looking after the branch and business correspondent network for Paytm's upcoming payments bank. He would now be launching his own start-up, Purohit confirmed. Another Paytm employee, Apoorv Gautam, would be joining as a co-founder in the new start-up. He'd joined Paytm in December 2015, prior to which he'd handled the fashion and lifestyle business at Amazon India.
Alibaba Group Holding Affiliate Ant Financial buys Shanghai Suntime Information Technology
Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding affiliate Ant Financial has bought a fifth of financial data provider Shanghai Suntime Information Technology for around $35 million, a source with direct knowledge of the deal said.
"The acquisition will provide Ant Financial with good financial products so that it can attract more clients," the source told Reuters on Friday.
Ant Financial Services Group, valued at close to $60 billion, offers services like online payment, wealth management products and insurance. Its core Alipay online payment business was founded in 2004.
Tata Group To Groom 300 Women Leaders for Top Posts
Tata Group - India's largest conglomerate - is putting in place a cross-company mentoring programme promote women in leadership positions. The project will have 300 high-potential women executives mentored by 180 CXOs and 35 CEOs from 45 group companies. The aim behind the diversified conglomerate's mentoring programme is to have more women in leadership positions and it forms a part of the gender diversity vision set by group chairman Cyrus Mistry.
In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Tata Group will use cross-company mentoring so that a woman executive is not restricted to learning from the leaders of her company. Instead, she will get to select from a wider network of leaders.
Pakistani Cyber Attackers Hack Karnataka State Police Website
On Friday, State Police website of Karnataka was hacked by Pakistani cyber attackers, revealing a gaping security flaw leading to the breach. Authorities managed to restore the website later. Senior police officers said that the website was restored within an hour after they figured it was hacked. "The Karnataka State Police website is maintained by the police computer wing and not the National Informatics Centre," an officer pointed out.
Andreessen Horowitz Secures The capital Commitment From Its Previous Investors
Andreessen Horowitz was targeting $1.5 billion for its fifth and newest fund. This morning, the seven-year-old Sand Hill Road firm is confirming that it has closed on that amount, having secured the capital commitments from its previous investors.The announcement comes a little more than two years after the firm closed its fourth, multi-stage venture capital fund with $1.5 billion says Techcrunch. The money also comes on the heels of a $200 million fund that the firm announced last November called the AH Bio Fund, a vehicle that’s being used to invest in mostly early-stage startups at the intersection of computer science and life sciences.
