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Thursday, April 15, 2021

💰 Swiggy's $450 million delivery

other top tech news today
/ Daily Top 5

Good evening,

Swiggy, which landed $800 million in funding earlier this month, is on the verge of bagging another $450 million from SoftBank Vision Fund.

Also in today's letter:

    ✈️ Flipkart announces Cleartrip buy
    🆕 Amazon 's India venture fund
    💰 Crypto Catch-22

Scoop: Swiggy nears $450 million funding from SoftBank

Food

SoftBank Vision Fund is finalising a $450-million investment in food ordering startup Swiggy.

Why it matters: The Masayoshi Son-led conglomerate has until now refrained from making a bet on the food delivery sector. The successful IPO of DoorDash and the uptick seen by Uber Eats may have led to the change of heart.

ETtech IPO Watch | How Zomato's cap table has evolved

This, or that? According to a person familiar with the deal, SoftBank's founder Masayoshi Son engaged with both Swiggy and Zomato last month but chose the former as it's looking beyond food delivery. Swiggy has been pushing its quick delivery service Instamart and Supr, which delivers daily essentials in its attempt to diversify its offerings beyond food.

Food

Flipkart announces Cleartrip acquisition

flipkart

Flipkart has officially announced its plan to acquire a 100% stake in Cleartrip, one of India's oldest travel booking portals.


Flipkart has been making strategic investments across sectors to strengthen its portfolio and build an ecosystem around it.

The details: The deal is expected to be a mix of cash and equity, likely valuing the online travel agent at around $40 million in what is considered to be a distress sale. The company was valued around $300 million when it last raised funds in 2016.

Next steps: The online retailer said it will acquire the operations of Cleartrip and retain all employees. Cleartrip will continue to operate as a separate brand and will work closely with Flipkart to further develop technology solutions.

Tough times: The past year has been tough for the ticket booking platform. It laid off 400-500 employees in the thick of the pandemic last year when the travel industry was completely shut.

Flipkart had earlier struck a partnership with MakeMyTrip and later announced a similar tie-up with Ixigo in 2019.

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Amazon launches $250M India venture fund

Amazon India

Amazon on Thursday launched a $250 million venture fund for India -- the Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund.

Going digital: The fund will invest in startups working on digitising small and medium business (SMBs), apart from those innovating in agriculture and healthcare technology. The online retail giant also announced the first bet it was making through the new fund -- leading a $10-million investment in invoice discounting platform M1xchange.

Amazon's India bets: Last month, Amazon backed direct-to-consumer beauty brand MyGlamm in its first consumer brand bet in India. Amazon has been an active investor in Indian companies and startups, backing firms such as insurtech startup Acko, financial services marketplace BankBazaar, on-demand services provider Housejoy and large retailers such as Shoppers Stop and Future Group.

Facebook to buy wind power in India

Facebook

Facebook has signed a deal to buy renewable energy in India from a local wind power project, Reuters reported.

    The social media giant's first such deal, in its biggest market in terms of users, will see it buy power off the grid using environmental attribute certificates, or carbon credits. It has partnered with Mumbai-based CleanMax to supply renewable power into India's electricity grid.
Facebook's head of renewable energy, Urvi Parekh, told Reuters the company typically doesn't own the power plants but instead signs long-term electricity purchasing agreements with the renewable power company. The electricity generated from these plants will power the tech giant's first Asian data centre that is set to start operations next year, she added.

Context: Data centres use up as much as 1% of the world's total energy, according to the International Energy Agency. Big Tech firms such as Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft have pledged to operate carbon-free and achieve net-zero emissions.

Cryptos put India's wealthy in a Catch-22

Wealthy Indians who have bought bitcoins from foreign markets and held them in offshore wallets are unsure whether to disclose these digital assets to the taxman.

If they hide the investments they may be pulled up later. But if they share the information while filing their annual income tax returns, they may be questioned on the legality of the transactions themselves.

Modus operandi: Some have bought bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies from international sellers by transferring funds from India under the Reserve Bank of India's liberalised remittance scheme (LRS), which allows a resident to invest up to $250,000 a year abroad in stocks, bonds and properties, among other things.

Others have bought cryptos online from foreign sellers using their debit and credit cards. But there are questions about whether the LRS route and bank cards can be used to buy crypto from abroad.

ET had earlier reported that a looming ban in India has ironically been driving more people towards cryptocurrencies as they look to get in on the action before the looming ban, which would make them harder to obtain.
Thanks for reading. We'll be back tomorrow with more interesting stories and updates. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
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