Here is a list of deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem today including funding, merger, acquisition, product launch & appointment etc. Read a brief description about all of them:1.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to open up the Unified Payment Interface platform for Digital wallets such as Paytm and MobiKwik. “The opening up of the UPI framework and, in turn, the permission to allow interoperability between wallets is something the RBI is looking into very seriously and should be able to activate in 2-3 months,”
said a person familiar with the development. Digital wallets can currently access the UPI network through partner banks to facilitate bank-to-bank money transfers. Allowing direct access will mean that a PhonePe or a MobiKwik user will be able to send money directly to, say, a merchant with a Paytm or a FreeCharge digital wallet, expanding the usability of these instruments.
2. After suspending its operations in February 2017,
Indian homestay network Stayzilla’s CEO and co-founder Yogendra Vasupal has been arrested on cheating charges by Chennai police yesterday. As per media reports, Yogendra has been charged by Jig Saw Advertising Agency for a fraud of Rs 1.72 Cr. Jigsaw accused Stayzilla’s founders of committing fraud, including embezzlement of funds. Jigsaw also sent documentary evidence, including emails sent by Stayzilla’s Singhi, assuring Jigsaw that all dues would be cleared by the startup, reported
LiveMint.
“(We) have proof that these guys have siphoned money from the company accounts into their personal accounts (not Salary) and into accounts of their own family members who hold no position in the company,” Jigsaw’s Aditya C.S. said.
3.
RoomsTonite, a mobile app for last-minute hotel bookings, has closed down its operations, reported
VCCircle. Its mobile application is not available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store and its website is non-functional.
The startup decided to draw the curtain around eight months ago when operating costs began to get out of control. In December 2015, the company raised $1.5 million in seed funding from a bunch of angel investors included Lashit Sanghvi, co-founder of Alchemy Capital; Nikhil Vora, founder of Sixth Sense Ventures; Venkat Vardhan, promoter of DNA Networks; Mohammed Bin Abdul Rehman Al Khalifa, chairman of Caravan Group; and Ralph Berezan of Berezan Group of Canada besides Vissal Mathew and Balamurali Krishna of IDS Software.
4.
Data warehousing company Infoworks.io Inc. has raised $15 million (Rs 98 crore) in its Series B round of investment led by Centerview Capital Technology in participation from its existing investor Nexus Venture Partners. As part of the investment, Ned Hooper, partner at Centerview, has joined the board of the company. Nexus co-founder Naren Gupta is already on the startup’s board.
Hadoop is an open source, Java-based programme that enables large data sets to be stored and provides functionalities such as data ingestion, data synchronisation and building data models and cubes on a single platform, reducing the time for production from months to days. The company will use the new capital to scale up its go-to-market and customer success programmes to meet customer demand.
5.
Three students of Neerja Modi School - Chetanya Golechha, Mrigank Gujjar and Utsav Jain of Class X in Jaipur have got funding of Rs 3 crore for their startup 'Infusion Beverages. The central theme of the start-up is making flavoured water without adding any preservatives. "We carried out intense research on Google to prepare a healthy drink without sugar and soda. But soon we realized that turning an idea into reality is not easy when you are a minor. Procuring the licence, necessary permissions from the food department and approval from FSSAI, are a herculean task. As we were minors our parents sought the permission on our behalf,"
said Gujjar, who is preparing for his Class X optional board exam.
6. Global venture capital firm
Quona Capital, which recently launched a $141-million fintech focused fund for emerging markets, plans to invest about 30% of the fund's corpus in India. Quona Capital
plans to invest Rs.1570 crore in Indian companies through the new fund over multiple rounds, going up to Series-C round in fintech startups. The fund has already made 10 investments globally from this fund, out of which three are in India -NeoGrowth, IndiaMART and, most recently, CreditMantri.
7. Facebook and startup accelerator TLabs have entered into a partnership to support the mobile startup ecosystem in the country. As part of the partnership, they will co-host events for solving issues around user experience, analytics, app installs and monetisation. “It's an incredible step by Facebook for the mobile ecosystem, and startups would be highly benefited from being a part of the Facebook global community,"
said Abhishek Gupta, chief operating officer of TLabs.
8.
The largest European private equity group CVC Capital Partners is set to open its Indian office and has relocated its senior managing director Siddharth Patel to Mumbai from London. Apollo Global Management (2011) and KKR & Co (2009) were the last big American buyout funds to open India offices, while European private markets investor Partners Group AG entered the country in 2014. CVC, which is in the midst of raising a $15-billion seventh fund, would compete with both European and Americal players.
9. Anil Ambani-promoted
Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) has obtained approval from capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to spin-off and merge its wireless division with Aircel Ltd and Dishnet Wireless Ltd, as per stock market disclosure. The proposed merger, which is expected to create India’s third-largest telecom operator by users on completion of the deal, has also received nod from the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd and BSE Ltd.
10. Self-driven car rental start-up
Zoomcar will ramp up its fleet with marketplace model branded as ZAP and plans to hive-off its own existing cars over the next 6-12 months. "We have around 2000 company owned cars out of a fleet size of 3000 vehicles across 17 cities in India. With ZAP model, we aim to increase the cars under marketplace model to 80 per cent by December 2017,"
said Zoomcar CEO Greg Moran.
11. Diamond jewellery maker
Nakshatra World Ltd, which is owned by Mumbai-based Gitanjali Gems Ltd, on Friday filed draft papers with capital markets regulator Sebi to float an initial public offering. The IPO comprises a fresh issue of 18 million shares to raise up to Rs 400 crore ($60 million). Proceeds of the issue will be utilised towards funding working capital requirements and other general corporate purposes.
