News Broadcasting firm NDTV has confirmed that shareholders have given green signal to sale of its automobile ecommerce firm Fifth Gear Ventures to Autobyte Private Limited. The move comes barely two months after Autobyte reportedly invested undisclosed amount in Fifth Gear Ventures. NDTV sought approval for subscription of equity shares by Autobyte Private Limited in Fifth Gear Ventures Limited. The same has been approved by over 99% shareholders, according to company’s latest filing in BSE. Fifth Gear Ventures Limited operated automobile online shopping portal carandbike.com. The portal was partly inspired by cardekho.com, which is by far the most funded startup…
Author: Girish Shetti
Online food delivery startup Zomato has invested undisclosed amount in Hyderabad-based home chef aggregator TinMen. The investment comes barely a week after Zomato acquired Bengaluru-based logistics and food delivery startup Runnr. These latest consolidation moves will supposedly help the company in competing against the arch rival Swiggy, which over the years has steadily increased the market share in food delivery market. With the acquisition of TinMen, Zomato hopes to crack the home cook meal market, which is still dominated by organized players. TinMen is basically a home-cooked meal delivery app that aggregates home chefs on its platform and currently offers…
In a surprising move, Aditya Birla Group has decided to shut its two year old fashion e-commerce venture Abof.com. According to information, company’s top executives held a brief meeting earlier this week and decided that 31st December would be the last working day for Abof.com. All the 240 employees of the company would be duly paid their salaries before winding up. Santrupt Misra, HR director at Aditya Birla Group, cited the unfeasibility of e-commerce business owing to heavy discounting as reason for Abof.com’s sudden closure. He quipped that the Indian e-commerce market, which is often touted as a fast growing…
The U.S based Cyber security startup Securonix has raised $29 Mn in Series A funding round led by Volition Capital. Eight Roads Ventures also participated in the round. Following the investment, Volition Capital’s Roger Hurwitz will join as a new member in Securonix’s board of director team. Securonix will primarily use the latest capital infusion to expand dominance in next-gen Security analytics market. Additionally, it will use the funds to accelerate growth in other critical spaces like user behavior analytics, event management (SIEM) & log management market. Securonix was incorporated in 2007 by Sachin Nayyar. The startup is headquartered at…
Waymo, self-driving car unit of Alphabet Inc (parent company of Google) wants $2.6 billion as financial compensation from Uber for allegedly stealing a trade secret, which Google claims is one of the several trade secrets that the cab hailing company has stolen. The compensation figure for the single trade theft was disclosed in the ongoing lawsuit in San Francisco’s federal court. However, the total compensation figure for all the alleged trade thefts has still not been disclosed. This news has arrived closely on the heels of reports that Alphabet is looking to invest nearly $1 billion dollars in Uber’s arch…
Alphabet Inc, parent company of search engine giant Google, has agreed to acquire part of HTC Corp.’s engineering and design teams for nearly $1.1 billion. This latest acquisition is expected to help the U.S. search giant in bolstering its nascent hardware business and to better compete with arch rival Apple. As per the agreement, HTC’s engineering team that worked on last year’s launch Pixel Smartphone (a joint venture between Google & HTC) would also formally join Alphabet Inc. The deal also includes non-exclusive licensing agreement for HTC intellectual property, according to statements released by both companies. With the migration of…
West India’s swashbuckling opener Chris Gayle has reportedly picked up minority stake in Bengaluru based Augmented Reality firm FlippAR. Reports further claimed that Gayle won’t be brining any money on the table, but would be freely endorsing FlippAR’s app in lieu of his investment. However, how much stake Gayle would take up in the startup is still not clear nor the terms & conditions of endorsements have been made public. Both Gayle and FlippAR have so far not commented on the news report. This is not the first time that Gayle has batted for an Indian startup. Barely two months…
The Bengaluru based B2B mobility startup Noticeboard has raked up undisclosed amount of funding from former Myntra CTO Shamik Sharma and TaxiForSure co-founder Aprameya Radhakrishna. Following the funding, both Sharma and Radhakrishna will come on company’s board as advisors or mentors. This is the second round of funding for the Bengaluru based startup since July this year. In July, Noticeboard had raised Rs 8 crore or 1.2 million from Stellaris Venture Partners and other two private investors. Noticeboard’s co-founder Vishal Gahlaut said that both new investors will help the company in strengthening its technological products, and hiring promising senior employees…
Digital payment major Paytm is reportedly in discussion to acquire online travel firm Via.com in a bid to get strong foot holding in travel & hospitality business. The Noida based startup is believed to have initiated the preliminary discussions, though preliminary sheet is yet to be signed. The major part of the discussion will hinge on Via.com’s potential valuation, which sources claimed to be pegged around $80 million. Paytm’s quest to acquire a travel company stems from the fact that its travel business is growing at a pretty robust pace. In fact, its travel business crossed annualized gross merchandise volume…
One of Japan’s largest conglomerates – Mitsubishi – is planning to pick up a minority stake in warehouse robotic startup GreyOrange, according to two sources familiar with the development. Sources further claimed that the existing investor Tiger Global may also participate in this round and the investment is being clocked just below $20 million. The entire investment will be processed through a convertible note, which presumably would allow GreyOrange in seeking better valuation in the later stages of fund raising. Both Mitsubishi and GreyOrange have so far not commented on the news report. But sources have confirmed that GreyOrange currently…
Alphabet INC, the parent company of search engine giant Google, is reportedly in talks to invest in cab hailing company Lyft – the arch-rival of Uber. Although not clear how much Alphabet is looking to invest, but sources claim that the investment could be anywhere near $1 billion. Both Alphabet and Lyft have declined to comment on this news report. A capital infusion of $1 billion dollars by tech giant like Google will offer a much needed boost to Lyft, which currently is the No.2 cab hailing company in the U.S. and is obviously desperate to catch up with Uber.…
WeWork, the U.S. based co-working giant, has filed a copyright lawsuit against its fast expanding Chinese rival UrWork in New York’s Southern District Court. WeWork Cos has accused the Chinese company of partly coping its name and logo, while arguing that this startling similarity cannot be overlooked since both companies operate in the same industry. The co-working behemoth is reported to have stated in the lawsuit that the Chinese competitor should not be allowed to enter in the U.S. market with such a confusingly similar name. Interestingly, this lawsuit has been filed barely two months after UrWork announced that its…