Tencent Invests $600M in Mobike; Cricketer Yuvraj Singh Invests in EazyDiner; GVFL Invests $4.67M in Chhajed Foods & More
Here is a list of deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem today including funding, merger, acquisition, fund launch, product launch, appointment etc. Read a brief description about all of them:
1. Tvs & sons Group, a leading supplier of automotive components has acquired Bengaluru-headquartered CheckGaadi.com, a provider of vehicle inspection technology and CRM solutions. With this move, CheckGaadi founders have joined TVS & Sons as part of the agreement. The acquisition was an all-cash deal. CheckGaadi was founded in January 2015 by Amit Nigam and Sudhakar KSS. Post acquisition, proprietary technology of CheckGaadi will be transferred to TVS. It will continue business operations as part of TVS.
2 Tesla is currently in talks with the Indian Government for ‘temporary relief on import penalties/restrictions until a local factory is built.’ Tesla is currently looking to set up a local plant in the country. Musk had said earlier this year that Tesla would enter the Indian market with its products this summer, however the announcement has not materialised yet.
3. Mobile Internet firm UCWeb, owned by Alibaba Mobile Business Group, has elevated Damon Xi as head of its India and Indonesia office. In his new role, Xi will be in charge of the UCWeb ecosystem along with content cooperation within India and Indonesia markets. Prior to this, Xi was general manager of UCWeb India, leading strategic alliances and business development for the company in the country.
4. eCommerce major Flipkart, which has tasted considerable success through the private label route in the fashion category, is looking to replicate the model in the electronics category as well.
The firm is building a budget brand called Billion (the name is taken from the firm’s flagship sale event Big Billion Days) across categories such as electronics, appliances and accessories to attract new shoppers to its platform. The company is also entering the mobile devices market by rolling out a budget phone to compete with offerings from Xiaomi and Micromax, the financial daily reported.
5. Goodbox, an app that offers small and medium-sized businesses an e-commerce platform, has raised about $1 million (Rs 6.5 crore) in a fresh funding round led by existing investor Nexus Venture Partners, the company’s latest filings with the ministry of corporate affairs show. Mekin Maheshwari, founder of Udhyam.org and former chief people officer at e-commerce firm Flipkart, also participated in the funding round.
6. eCommerce giant Amazon India prepares to launch a new digital payments service soon in India after getting the go-ahead from the Reserve Bank of India to do so. Amazon India head Amit Agarwal said that spending from the existing base of paid Amazon Prime users has doubled since the beginning of the year. Mint had reported in April that Amazon’s Prime membership programme was driving 30% of all orders on its platform.
7. Internet search giant Google has hired Indian-origin engineer Manu Gulati, who was Apple's chip architect for iPads and iPhones, to play a key role in building its upcoming flagship pixel phone, according to media reports. Gulati, who had worked at Apple for almost eight years as a micro-architect, announced the job change through LinkedIn. He is now the Lead SoC Architect for Google.
8. Tax-filing portal ClearTax, which is proactively focusing on its role as an application service provider for the upcoming Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, has launched a software platform that works as a billing solution both online and offline, called Billbook. The company is targeting the product at millions of small businesses, self-employed professionals and entrepreneurs to get ready for GST.
9. Information technology company Mphasis has raised $500 million by selling dollar bonds as it aims to repay existing loans taken by global private equity major Blackstone, which holds a controlling stake in the firm.
10. Bengaluru-based venture capital firm Ventureast has scaled down the target for its sixth fund to $100 million from the original target of $150 million and hopes to achieve the final close by September, a year after the first close of $83 million. "All our funds have been in the similar range for the last seven to eight years. We don't want to extend fundraising because we are seeing a lot of good deals," said Sarath Naru, managing partner at Ventureast.
11. Foodpanda, a Delhi-based online marketplace, has launched ‘Dash’, a third party food delivery service for restaurants, forays into food delivery in 7 Major Cities. The brand, which launched its own delivery arm early 2015, will now be working as third party logistics partner to its restaurant base. As stated by Kunal Suri, COO, foodpanda India, “The new business partnerships with the restaurants are aimed to provide better services and to further expand our delivery network across the country”.
Being run in the pilot phase for three months, the service is now live across Delhi, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, and Bengaluru. The service is aimed at optimising the efficiency of existing on-ground fleet which was initially used only for orders placed through the brand.
12. HealthIntel Services Pvt Ltd (HSPL), a tech company which provides eprescription-based application for doctors for efficient patient and clinic management, has received funding from BLIP Initiatives. The invested amount is still undisclosed. The funds will be primarily used for expansion in 8-10 cities over the next 12 months. The startup was started in 2015, which is kind of accelerator that provides strategic tie-ups as well as funding support in healthtech, beauty and consumer product startups.
13. The initial public offer (IPO) of Eris Lifesciences Ltd opened for subscription one week ago, with a price band of Rs. 600-603 a piece. The Ahmedabad-based company is planning to raise Rs. 1,741.1 crore through the issue which will be closed on 20th June 2017. The IPO is an offer for sale and will not raise any primary capital. It has already raised Rs. 779.43 crore by selling shares to anchor investors, including Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Goldman Sachs India Ltd, Morgan Stanley India Investment Fund Inc., SBI Magnum Balanced Fund, SBI Magnum Midcap Fund, Birla Sun Life Balanced, FIL Investments (Mauritius) Ltd, Merrill Lynch Markets Singapore Pte Ltd and IDFC Premier Equity Fund. The object of sale of 28.87 million shares by existing shareholders. The company expects that listing of equity shares will enhance visibility, brand image and provide liquidity to its shareholders.
14. Ahmedabad-based snacks maker Chhajed Foods Pvt. Ltd. has raised Rs 30 crore ($4.67 million) from venture capital firm GVFL Ltd (formerly Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd). Founded in 1979, Chhajed Foods is a manufacturer, exporter and supplier of ready-to-fry snack pellets. It caters to the US, UK, UAE, Australia and Africa. The company will use the latest investment to fund its expansion plans. The Mumbai-based investment banking firm JR Laddha Financial Services Pvt Ltd acted as the financial adviser for the deal.
15. The government has appointed a senior executive of Tata Consultancy Services to head Atal Innovation Mission, its initiative to promote entrepreneurship in the country, in perhaps the first initiative to bring in best of private minds to drive innovation in governance. Ramanathan Ramanan, will be undertaking work at government's premier think tank NITI Aayog, in the rank of additional secretary on secondment basis from the IT bellwether for two years initially.
16. Chinese bike-sharing startup Mobike has raised $600 million in a financing round led by Tencent Holdings, its biggest financing round to date as it seeks to expand aggressively. With the latest injection the firm, which has operations in around 100 Chinese cities, has raised over $900 million since October. It has also expanded to Singapore, and recently launched a pilot service for 1,000 bikes in the UK, starting in the cities of Manchester and Salford.
17. Cricketer Yuvraj Singh has reportedly invested in online restaurant reservation platform EazyDiner. Yuvraj Singh, via his VC fund YouWeCan, has invested an undisclosed amount in EazyDiner. With this move, Yuvraj will also be the brand ambassador of the app.
Founded in 2015 by Vir Sanghvi and other top hoteliers, EazyDiner allows users to book reservations in eight Indian cities and Dubai. Currently, the app has about 53,000 restaurants listed on the platform. EazyDiner claims to have 15 Lakh unique subscribers every month.
18. Singapore-based logistics company Ascendas-Singbridge has collaborated with Bengaluru-based Firstspace Reality to form a joint venture (JV) – Ascendas-Firstspace. The firms will together create 14 Mn-15 Mn sq. ft. of industrial and logistical warehouse space, infusing around $500 Mn-$600 Mn in the next five to six years. Ascendas will hold the majority stake in the venture.
19. Homegrown ecommerce marketplace, Flipkart’s proposed acquisition of eBay India has received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI). CCI has given nod to eBay Singapore’s subscription of compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS) issued by Flipkart. The notice submitted to the CCI mentioned, “the acquisition of certain compulsorily convertible preference shares of Flipkart, by eBay Singapore, and the acquisition of 100% share capital of eBay India, by Flipkart (“Proposed Transaction”). The Proposed Transaction is an acquisition and is notifiable under Section 5(a)(i)(A) of the Competition Act, 2002 (“Competition Act”).”
20. Delhi-based renewable energy firm Acme Group has appointed two investment banks (Citigroup & Axis Capital Ltd.) as it starts work on a plan to raise money via an infrastructure investment trust (InvIT), according to four people aware of the development. InvITs are trusts that manage income-generating infrastructure assets, offering investors regular yields and a liquid way to invest in infrastructure projects. The company was initially discussing an initial public offering (IPO) with these banks, but is now leaning towards an InvIT.
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