HDFC Bank introduces quick car financing option ‘Xpress Car Loan’

By

-

May 9, 2022

Customers and non-customers can now apply for car loans through HDFC Bank’s ‘Xpress Car Loans’. In addition, the bank has formed partnerships with automobile dealers across the country.

The facility, which takes 30 minutes to complete, is presently available for four-wheeler loans and will be accessible for two-wheeler loans soon. The loan amount will be credited to the dealers’ account in less than half an hour.

“Now we are stepping up by launching end-to-end digital car loan solution for existing as well as new customers. It will be available across all our branches, dealerships and eventually on third-party aggregator platforms.” said Mr. Arvind Kapil – Country Head, Retail Assets, HDFC Bank.

The bank anticipates that 20-30% of its customer base will use this facility for loans up to Rs 20 lakh.

Third Wave Coffee is in talks with Westbridge to raise new capital

By

BRL Editor

-

May 9, 2022

0

Third Wave Coffee, a Bengaluru-based coffee chain popular among the city’s startup community, is in advanced talks to raise $20-25 million in institutional capital led by WestBridge Capital, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Some of the round’s early individual investors will exit through a secondary share sale. According to those familiar with the situation, the business will be valued at $80-100 million if the purchase is finalized.

“WestBridge is leading the round which will include secondaries as Third Wave had raised capital initially through smaller cheques from many individuals and several of them are being given exits,” a person aware of the matter said. The quick service restaurant (QSR)-format coffee chain firm had raised $6 million in December 2021.

According to the people mentioned above, in addition to WestBridge Capital, existing backer Sujeet Kumar, cofounder of Udaan, is investing more in this round.

Sushant Goel, Ayush Bathwal, and Anirudh Sharma founded Third Wave in 2017, which now has roughly 40-50 locations across India’s top five cities, including Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru. According to sources, the company’s monthly income is around Rs 7-8 crore. Under the same brand, it also sells a variety of coffee powders.

The new capital will be used to accelerate post-pandemic expansion in Mumbai, Delhi, and other cities.

“They are expanding in Mumbai significantly now after having entered the Delhi-NCR market. Pune is another market for them in the western part of the country,” a source said.

Meta to integrate Venues app into Horizon Worlds

By

BRL Editor

-

May 7, 2022

0

Meta has announced the integration of Horizon Venues, a virtual reality app for attending live events, with its core social VR platform, Horizon Worlds. On June 6, people over the age of 18 in the United States and Canada with Horizon Worlds on Quest 2 will be able to view Venues programming in the Horizon Worlds app.

“If you’re not in the US or Canada, are 1317 years of age, and/or are on Quest 1, you’ll lose access to Venues programming when the standalone Venues app goes away on June 6, though you’ll still be able to catch highlights and replays of Venues events in Oculus TV,” Meta said in a statement.

Horizon Worlds is a social VR experience where you can go on adventures with your friends, create your worlds, and form teams to play action-packed games.

People will be able to catch their favorite marquee shows, including live sporting events, concerts by today’s popular singers, and more, directly within Horizon Worlds from June 6.

“We plan to expand access to Horizon Worlds in more countries this summer, so even more people will be able to build their own worlds, make new friends in VR, and enjoy our slate of Venues in Horizon Worlds programming,” said the company.

Horizon Worlds’ social metaverse platform is presently only available on Quest VR headsets from the company.

Meta (previously Facebook) is developing four new virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) headsets, which will be available in 2024.

Coworking future appears optimistic with hybrid work

By

BRL Editor

-

May 7, 2022

0

Co-working spaces are in high demand again because of the new flexible and hybrid work culture produced by the Covid-19 pandemic, as IT businesses urge employees to log out of work from home (WFH).

Even though the co-working market had a significant drop in the aftermath of the pandemic, industry insiders claim that occupancies are again back to extremely healthy levels as businesses seek flexibility to keep employees delighted and tackle rising attrition levels. Most coworking spaces have responded by shifting into high gear and rapidly ramping up capacity.

Smartworks, which has roughly 6.5 million square feet of space across the country and about 6 lakh square feet in Hyderabad, is preparing for a substantial expansion.

“By the end of this month we will be over a million sq ft in Hyderabad as we are seeing a lot of traction, mostly from large enterprises that are having their employees come back to work,” said Smartworks founder Neetish Sarda, pointing out that most companies are taking up multiple offices spread across different locations and are looking for more collaboration zones.

According to reports, WeWork plans to virtually double its footprint in the city by the end of the year by adding another 2-3 lakh sq ft, or 2,000 to 3,000 seats, to its existing presence of 3,300 seats in two locations.

Awfis, which has roughly 11 centers in Hyderabad with 6,800 seats, plans to more than double its capacity to about 20 centers with 14,000-15,000 seats in the next six months, according to Amit Ramani, founder, and CEO of Awfis.

With the growing momentum in the office market and flex becoming a must-have for enterprises, according to Veera Babu, managing director, Cushman & Wakefield, the city’s coworking footprint is likely to increase in the next 3-to 4 years.

“Flex is no more an amenity, it has become a necessity for occupiers as well as developers. From a stop-gap arrangement to a satellite or extended office, it has transformed into a business solution over the last 2-3 years. Hyderabad is a focus market for all flex space operators and their growth has been phenomenal in recent years,” Veera Babu said.

He noted that the city’s coworking space take-up was 2.08 lakh sq ft in the first quarter of 2022, with another 5 lakh sq ft space likely to be leased by the end of the year.

He noted that coworking occupies 6.5% of the city’s 80 million square feet of office space or 5.1 million square feet.

L&T Infotech and Mindtree to merge to create large-scale IT company

By

BRL Editor

-

May 6, 2022

0

L&T Infotech Ltd. and Mindtree Ltd., two of Larsen & Toubro’s publicly traded software enterprises, have announced a merger. The merger could help the companies achieve more extensive scale and compete for mega-deals with other IT behemoths.

L&T will own 68.73 percent of L&T Infotech after the merger.

“This merger represents our continued commitment to grow the IT services business in line with our strategic vision. The highly complementary businesses of LTI and Mindtree will make this integration a ‘win-win’ proposition for our customers, investors, shareholders, and employees,” LTI chief A M Naik said.

According to the exchanges, L&T Infotech’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Jalona and Mindtree CEO Debashis Chatterjee would lead the combined entity.

All Mindtree shareholders will be issued shares of L&T Infotech at a ratio of 73 shares of LTI for every 100 shares of Mindtree once the scheme takes effect. LTI’s newly issued shares will be traded on the NSE and BSE.

For now, the companies will operate independently. A steering committee will oversee the transition until the merger is completed.

“The name of the combined entity will be “LTIMindtree” leveraging the advantages of both the brands and creating value for all the stakeholders,” according to an exchange filing.

Mindtree and LTI will combine their strengths to form a highly efficient and scaled-up IT services provider with a market cap of more than $3.5 billion.

The merger occurs as software companies experience increased demand from enterprises adopting digitization, which surged during Covid-19. Moving beyond lower-margin traditional back-room services, large IT outsourcing firms are growing into areas such as cybersecurity, automation, and machine-learning support.

“This (merger) will help us emerge as a partner of choice for large-scale tech transformations and create a distinctive employee value proposition,” said LTI Vice-Chairman S N Subrahmanyan.

The deal is expected to close in 9-12 months.

Oracle claims nurturing Indian startups to take them global

By

BRL Editor

-

May 6, 2022

0

As India marks its 100th unicorn, Oracle stated that it is supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs and linking them with numerous venture capitalists to ensure that they receive the necessary investment not just in India but also globally.

Oracle India’s Vice President of Technology Cloud, Kapil Makhija, said that the company is already providing much-needed exposure to startups in 170-odd countries.

“If you’re going to invest in these startups, they are going to grow and become $1-billion unicorns soon. In the process, our Cloud consumption also grows so it is a win-win situation for both. We are not only giving startups access to our customers but also jointly working with them,” Makhija said.

Thousands of startups in the country have been onboarded by the company, which has nurtured them from the beginning of their path to the Cloud.

Before being scaled globally, the ‘Oracle for Startups’ programme was first piloted in Bengaluru.

India, he claims, has all of the components to become a $1 trillion digital economy by 2025, and Oracle is investing heavily in the country to help it achieve that objective quickly.

“Oracle is doing its part to help India maintain and sustain its digital growth. We are investing big time in India. We have created a lot of employment opportunities in the country and are hiring big time,” Makhija said.

Oracle, according to Makhija, has developed specific teams tasked with empowering startups not only in India but throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

“In fact, a separate team responsible for the Japan business and for most of the startups in the APAC region are based out of India. We are putting in a lot of mentoring support and imparting a lot of technical know-how to startups in the country and in the Asia-Pacific region,” he noted.

Aptus Value Housing Finance makes profit of ₹370-cr in FY22

By

BRL Editor

-

May 6, 2022

0

Aptus Value Housing Finance Ltd said that its profit after tax for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, was Rs 370 crore.

During the same period last year, the city-based retail-focused housing finance company generated a profit after tax of Rs 267 crore.

Disbursements increased to ₹1,641 crores in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, up from Rs 1,298 crore in the previous fiscal year.

According to company chairman and managing director M Anandan, “During FY2022, we disbursed Rs 1,641 crore registering a growth of 26 per cent year on year. We have built a strong branch network of 208 branches to deliver quality service to our customers”.

“The company is well capitalised with a net worth of over Rs 2,900 crore. As on March 31, 2022, we have maintained a sufficient on balance sheet liquidity of Rs 846 crore including undrawn sanctions in the form of cash and cash equivalents,” he said.

According to the company, gross NPA was 1.19 per cent as of March 31, 2022, while net NPA was 0.88 per cent.

Microsoft Teams announces three new features for SMBs

By

BRL Editor

-

May 5, 2022

0

Microsoft is introducing three new Teams features to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to adjust to hybrid work culture.

‘Schedule Meetings on Mobile,’ ‘Chat with Anyone,’ and ‘Google Calendar Integration’ are new features.

“Most of us have adapted to hybrid work, and while it is here to stay, it comes with its challenges. Small businesses, especially, need tailored solutions to help them thrive in a dynamic work environment,” the company said in a statement.

“Productivity tools and features, specifically those aimed at collaboration and improved communication, make it easier for SMBs to work together. The ultimate collaboration tool – Microsoft Teams Essentials has introduced 3 new features to enable SMBs to achieve more,” it added.

Due to the latest upgrade, team users may now schedule meetings on their phones from the calendar or even the chat window. In addition, users can now communicate with persons outside their organisation by entering the entire email address or phone number of the intended recipient and starting a 1:1 or group chat without switching tenants.

“Not only can users collaborate faster, and strengthen relations with external partners, they can do so with multiple controls in a secure environment,” the company said.

The Google calendar integration will replace the existing Teams calendar with Google Calendar, but users can always switch back.

Kaam.com begins its operation focusing on job creation for hospitality industry

By

BRL Editor

-

May 5, 2022

0

Kaam.com, a tech-enabled staffing and employment platform, commenced its operations in collaboration with The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), to create jobs in the hospitality industry.

The platform is a job marketplace for the hospitality industry that links employment demand with skilled human capital supply. With a communal approach to skilling and future-proofing their professional growth, it goes beyond simply providing a job.

The hospitality business has traditionally struggled with effective hiring, which was worsened by the pandemic. 80 per cent of India’s hospitality labour is migratory, and finding work across the country has always been difficult. Kaam.com is addressing this issue with its offline-online hybrid talent sourcing platform.

“Our goal is to be embedded within every institute and not just the specialised ones. We have an opportunity that is much larger than what is apparent – The opportunity is to be the gateway to an entire industry and the influencer to your lifelong vocation,” Rishi Khiani, founder of Kaam.com said.

Lenskart raises $25mn, announces the opening of 1,000th store

By

BRL Editor

-

May 4, 2022

0

Lenskart, an omnichannel eyewear retailer, has raised $25 million in its ongoing series I round from existing investor Epiq Capital, according to Peyush Bansal, the company’s CEO and co-founder.

The company raised $100 million from Alpha Wave Incubation last month as part of the same round. Lenskart is in advanced talks to secure $200 million to $250 million in funding, valuing the company at $4.5 billion to $5 billion.

Bansal said the company aims for a market listing in the next 24 months when asked about IPO plans.

He also mentioned that the eyewear retailer had opened its 1,000th store in Karol Bagh, Delhi.

“This 1,000th store is a major milestone in Lenskart’s journey. We have now registered our presence across 223 cities across India.”

The store will be 600 square feet in area and will sell Lenskart’s flagship products, such as sunglasses, eyeglasses, and contact lenses. According to Bansal, the company would also provide free eye testing and specialized eye clinics in this store.

Lenskart expects to open more than 500 stores across the country in FY 2023, emphasizing tier two and three cities, he said, adding that the brand has begun market penetration in states such as Chhattisgarh Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Bihar, and Himachal Pradesh. In FY 2022, the business plans to open more than 400 outlets across India.

Bansal says Lenskart is currently present in Singapore, Dubai, and the United States when it comes to international expansion. The company intends to expand and boost its store count in existing global markets and South East Asian regions such as Indonesia and Vietnam in the future.

Sharing the vision for the company five years from now, Bansal said. “Lenskart currently serves over 8 million consumers annually and our ultimate vision is to make 1 billion people a part of the Lenskart family by 2027 globally.”

CONNECT WITH US