Google backs India’s ShareChat in $300mn funding round at $5 billion valuation

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May 30, 2022

The parent company of India’s ShareChat has raised almost $300 million in fresh funding from Alphabet Inc’s Google, media behemoth Times Group, and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, valuing the social media platform at nearly $5 billion, according to two persons familiar with the deal discussions.

According to the sources, a deal might be revealed early next week.

After backing Josh, which competes with ShareChat’s sister firm Moj, this is Google’s second significant investment in India’s short video space.

According to one of the individuals, Google’s investment in a bearish market for Indian start-ups demonstrates the desire for the short video industry and the start-up’s investment thesis. India’s digital firms have been struggling to raise funding after raising a record $35 billion in new funds in 2021, as corporate governance concerns loom large for investors facing increased market volatility.

ShareChat has 180 million monthly active users at the moment. According to one of the sources, Moj and Mohalla’s newly purchased MX TakaTak have a combined user base of 300 million.

In a $266 million fundraising round led by Alkeon Capital and Temasek, ShareChat was last valued at $3.7 billion. Twitter and Snap are also investors in the company.

Tata Motors to buy Ford India’s Sanand plant

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May 30, 2022

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Homegrown auto major Tata Motors announced that its subsidiary had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat government for the possible acquisition of Ford India’s Sanand plant.

“Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited (TPEML), a subsidiary of Tata Motors Ltd, and Ford India Private Limited (FIPL), have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Government of Gujarat (GoG) for the potential acquisition of FIPL’s Sanand vehicle manufacturing facility,” the Tata Group firm informed in an exchange filing.

Subject to the signing of definitive agreements and receipt of appropriate permits, the potential acquisition will include land and buildings, a vehicle manufacturing plant, machinery and equipment, and the transfer of all eligible employees of FIPL Sanand’s vehicle manufacturing operations. TPEML will lease back the land and buildings of the Powertrain unit to FIPL, which will run the Powertrain manufacturing facilities.

The Ford India vehicle manufacturing site at Sanand is a state-of-the-art site. TPEML would invest in new machinery and equipment to commission and prepare the unit for vehicle production.

It expects to build an installed capacity of 300,000 units per year with the proposed investments, scalable to more than 400,000 units in a few months. The MOU will be followed by signing TPEML and FIPL’s definitive transaction agreements in the coming weeks.

“This MOU for a potential acquisition of this unit, is a win-win for all stakeholders and helps Tata Motors accelerate the enhancement of its PV/EV manufacturing capacity. This unit is adjacent to the existing manufacturing facility of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd at Sanand, which should help in a smooth transition,” the company added.

WelcomHeritage introduces ‘buy now, pay later’ offer

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May 30, 2022

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WelcomHeritage has announced a partnership with Simpl for instalment-based holidays, allowing guests to book any hotel on the WelcomHeritage website to avail of “Buy now, pay later” at checkout.

Guests receive a confirmed booking on the website by paying only one-third of the total purchase amount, with the remaining two-thirds paid in a series of interest-free instalments over the following months.

According to Abinash Manghani, CEO of WelcomHeritage, the major goal of the collaboration with Simpl is to make holidays more convenient and accessible for everyone.

“Easing the burden off our guests was the main intention behind this initiative. Everybody deserves a stress-free holiday – to be able to take a break, disconnect from the mundane to reconnect with nature and themselves, spend quality time with families, explore the world around them, immerse in luxuries and feel pampered, and experience life ‘outside the frame’ of otherwise hectic, monotonous schedules,” Manghani said.

“With interest-free installment payments, we are looking to make these precious holidays more convenient and accessible for all. Our guests can now simply drive off to the hills or to the next WelcomHeritage destination with only a few clicks and easy pockets too,” he added.

Ramco Systems looks to tap Madurai’s tech talent

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May 28, 2022

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Ramco Systems, a software product company, is establishing a new/alternate development centre (ADC) in Madurai. This is the company’s first product development centre outside of Chennai, and 50 people have already been hired.

Madurai ADC will focus on core product development, project execution and delivery, learning and development, and other areas as an extension of Ramco’s Chennai development centre.

This year, Ramco plans to hire 150-200 people for the centre, with 60% of them being freshers- engineering graduates who will be trained across multiple product lines.

Ramco, which specializes in software for the aviation and HR industries, claims it is reinventing itself as it celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. It also has a big R&D centre in Singapore, which is now being expanded. Singapore’s R&D labs are hard at work on cutting-edge technology like Metaverse and digital employee onboarding tools.

“Whatever progress we have made in the 25 years, we have ambitions to achieve much more in the next 2-5 years,” Sandesh Bilagi, COO at Ramco Systems, said. Distributed leadership and localization of teams are set to be our mantra for the next phase of growth, he added.

“While we will not change our core focus of aviation and HR, we will look into deepening our presence in allied areas and expanding geographically,” he added.

For instance, Ramco is intending to serve more enterprises in areas like MRO, defence, E-VTOLs, and defence under the aviation segment, and has increased its usage of new-age AI-based products in HR.

Ramco, like many other software companies, is investing in expanding its localization quotient across countries. In these markets, the company is developing local teams to enhance development, support, and implementation teams, among other things.

“We generate over 2.4 million payslips globally per month. It is not possible to service these from just Chennai,” Baliga said. “Payroll is an area which is not just about coding but also involves understanding local regulations, statutory aspects, and specifications for each market which is decentralised to corresponding markets to a large extent,” Rohit Mathur, CEO – Global Payroll & HR Business, said.

Rebel Foods aims to expand in 100 cities by 2023, plans to be present in all food categories

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May 28, 2022

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Cloud kitchen unicorn Rebel Foods plans to expand to 100 cities across India by the end of 2022-23, strengthening the brand’s global reach, according to Karan Singla, VP and Head of operations (India Business).

Regarding the company’s global expansion goals, Singla stated that the brand is currently present in 10 countries and over 70 cities, with plans to expand to over 20 countries in the coming year.

“While expanding globally, we want to keep on growing brands other than geographical reach. So in these 20 countries, we look forward to adding almost 250 to 300 additional locations in the coming year,” Singla said.

Speaking about the growing online food industry, Singla said, “We are part of cloud kitchen industry where online food industry is something which is disrupting the traditional offline food industry.”

As the offline market has yet to recover from the covid impact, he believes that increased online delivery demand has resulted in a shift in customer behaviour.

The brand saw these trends of online food ordering long back. Talking about their initial years, Singla said, “We were growing on top line, but we were not growing on bottom line, we were bleeding.”

According to Singla, delivery accounts for roughly 70% of the brand’s orders, therefore they came up with the cloud kitchen concept. Because, in Western countries, this competes with offline businesses and home kitchens. It also alleviates the cost of renting outlets in various expensive places.

Singla added that they focus on strengthening their operating system, which includes culinary knowledge, supply chain backward integration, and technology expertise for full-stack inventory solutions, to grow their business.

Riverwalk announces ₹150 crore fund to back early-stage startups

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May 27, 2022

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Riverwalk Holdings announced the launch of a $150 million early-stage venture capital fund. The fund will invest in consumer brands, software-as-a-service (SaaS), fintech, and consumer technology firms from seed to Series A.

The fund stated it will invest up to ₹10 crores in each startup and has already made four investments.

India-focussed The Thakral Group is the anchor of Riverwalk, which is backed by prominent Indian and Singaporean business houses.

Spotdraf, an AI-powered contract automation startup; The Ayurveda Experience, an ayurveda platform; Mylo, a community and commerce platform for parents; and Homeville, a housing finance platform, are among the companies in the fund’s portfolio.

“The founding principles of Riverwalk have been shaped by the Thakral Group’s 117-year legacy of building successful businesses based on long term partnerships. The lifecycle of a startup has its ups and downs and we are committed to being supportive throughout the journey,” said Satveer Singh Thakral, Founding Partner at Riverwalk.

“Riverwalk will leverage its stakeholder network to accelerate the growth of startups by providing access to leading enterprises across Asia,” he added.

“We are looking to partner with founders who are focused on building fundamentally strong and capital efficient businesses. This philosophy has worked out well for us in the past and we are just focused on replicating it,” said Jai Sumer Singh, Founding Partner at Riverwalk.

Wellness Forever, AML Platform, Silent Eight, Anchanto, and Mobilewalla are among the startups that Riverwalk has previously funded.

Rester Hotels announces launch of third Rester Select in Hyderabad

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May 27, 2022

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Rester Hotels & Resorts has opened a third Rester Select in Gachibowli, Hyderabad, aimed at both business and leisure travellers. Management contracts, franchise agreements, and joint ventures are also areas where the organisation sees opportunities.

Gachibowli is one of Hyderabad’s busiest and most significant IT suburbs. It has good connectivity to software companies, schools, colleges, hospitals, temples, parks, and markets.

“We are delighted that Rester Select opens today. This new hotel offers an inventory of 42 rooms which will cater largely to corporate clients by giving them access near their place of business,” said Rakshit Sharma, CEO of Rester Hotels & Resorts.

Fintech Startup SaveIN raises additional $1.1 million in extended seed round

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May 27, 2022

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SaveIn, a fintech startup, has raised $1.1 million in a seed round led by Bayhouse Capital, bringing its total investment to over $5 million.

In April, the Gurugram-based business raised $4 million (about Rs 30 crore) in a seed round from existing backer, Silicon Valley’s famed accelerator Y Combinator, and others such as 10X Group, Leonis VC, and Goodwater Capital.

In April, Nordstar, Rebel Fund, Pioneer Fund, Soma Capital, and SCM Advisors joined the funding round.

The company had stated that it would use the funds to develop its product, hire people, and invest in branding.

The extended capital raised will be used primarily for product development.

SaveIn was founded in 2020 by Jitin Bhasin, Anurag Varma, and Gaurav Luthra to meet the requirements of patients by providing zero-cost equivalent monthly instalments (EMIs) throughout its network of healthcare providers.

The startup covers outpatient services and elective healthcare procedures like dental, eye care, veterinary, dermatology, hair care, and fertility.

“This is a testimony to our vision of creating India’s largest integrated healthcare ecosystem powering access, quality and affordability in private healthcare,” Bhasin said.

The company currently offers its instant zero-cost EMI products to over 600 healthcare providers across 15 cities, it said.

“The buy-now-pay-later segment in healthcare is huge and we at SaveIn have grown over 15 times in revenue…this is reflective of strong signs of early product-market fit and we are confident of revolutionizing how Indians consume healthcare products and services,” Bhasin said.

Cisco introduces cybersecurity assessment tool for SMBs in APAC region

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May 26, 2022

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Cisco announced on Thursday that it has launched a cybersecurity assessment tool for small and medium enterprises (SMBs) in Asia Pacific region to help them better understand their security posture.

According to Cisco, the new online tool examines each organization’s “cybersecurity readiness” via the lens of “Zero Trust,” the concept that all efforts to access an organization’s network architecture are denied unless trust can be verified.

When a user uses a device to access an application, both the user and the device are confirmed, and that trust is continually checked. This helps protect the organization’s applications and environments from unauthorized access from any person, device, or location.

The tool evaluates an organization’s readiness in six areas of zero trust – user and identity, device, networks, workload (applications), data, and security operations – and compares the results to industry standards.

The paper also includes personalised suggestions on technologies and solutions that can help boost an organization’s overall security posture and preparedness in a hybrid work environment, where applicable.

“Going forward, SMBs must ensure end-to-end protection across their workforce, workloads, and the workplace and adopt a zero-trust strategy to manage and strengthen their cybersecurity posture in a cloud-first world,” said Anand Patil, Senior Director, Systems Engineering, Cisco India & SAARC.

According to a Cisco report, moreover half (62%) of SMBs in India suffered cyber incidents in 2021, with cyber-attacks costing more than Rs 3.5 crore to their businesses.

During the same period, three out of four (74%) SMBs in India had cyber incidents, with 85% of customer information being lost to bad actors and a tangible impact on the company. According to the survey, the most common reason for these mishaps is that cybersecurity solutions aren’t up to the task of detecting or preventing the attack.

Phoenix Mills’ net profit increases 101%, income up 28% in FY22

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May 26, 2022

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For the quarter that ended March, The Phoenix Mills, a retail-led mixed-use asset developer and operator, announced a 101% year-on-year increase in net profit of Rs 116.7 crore. For the quarter, operating income increased by 28% to Rs 495.4 crore.

The company made a net profit of Rs 263 crore in the financial year 2021-22, owing to an increase in revenue of 38% to Rs 1,483 crore.

Operating profit for the quarter increased by 39% to Rs 241 crore, and for the fiscal year, it increased by 49% to Rs 734 crore.

During the quarter, retail consumption at its malls was roughly Rs 1,669 crore, up 103% from the fourth quarter of 2018-19 (pre-Covid period). In 2021-22, total consumption was Rs 5,011 crore, up 71%. The company added that total consumption in April 2022 was Rs 720 crore, up 129% from April 2019, and that the robust consumption growth trend has persisted so far in May 2022.

The total retail collection for the year was Rs 1,170 crore, with the March quarter being roughly Rs 476 crore.

The company has finalised the acquisition of the remaining 50% ownership in Classic Mall Development Company (Phoenix Marketcity Chennai) for Rs 936 crore, making Classic Mall a wholly-owned subsidiary of Phoenix Mills Ltd as of May 5, 2022.

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