The biggest investor in Flipkart – Tiger Global Management – is reported to have picked up 2.44 million shares in Amazon, Flipkart’s biggest competitor. The move makes Amazon Tiger Global’s second-largest public holding company.
Diwali usually means a nice little gift for most office workers. This is usually a box of sweets, or if their company is feeling generous, some dry fruits. But the employees at Square Yards have it a little better than the others come festive season. Their company has decided to fund the downpayment of their brand new homes.
Practo has said that it is tying up with taxi hailing app Uber to ferry patients to their doctors. Across India, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore, those who book an appointment on Practo’s mobile application will be able to view the closest Uber available along with the appointment reminder alert.
Online deals site CashKaro has raised Rs. 25 crore from Kalaari Capital in its Series A funding. CashKaro was launched in August 2013 with a funding of $750,000 from a group of UK-based investors who worked as senior executives in companies such as Paypal, Investec and Goldman Sachs.
Ola cabs, India’s largest cab hailing service has launched a dedicated mobile app, Ola Money. “Do more with Ola money for a fast, seamless shopping experience”, the app claims, “because shopping online isn’t exactly a fun thing to do.” It identifies Paytm, backed by Alibaba group and FreeCharge, owned by Snapdeal, as competitors.
Although there is huge outrage of start-ups retrenching employees, actual facts and figures behind these lays offs and shutdowns are not what meets the eye. Dearth of investments may not be the identified cause. Yes, the cheque sizes or amounts being invested in start-ups may be declining but the overall funding story is quite different.
Signaling consolidation in car trading portals, CarTrade has acquired competitor Carwale in a largely cash arrangement. “Both platforms will operate independently. CarWale will focus on being the new car brand, while CarTrade will be the used-car brand,” said Vinay Sanghi, founder of CarTrade.
Oyo Rooms and Zo Rooms had barely time to recover from the blow of being taken off hotel room aggregators MakeMyTrip and Ibibo, and there’s more bad news. In direct competition to their business model, MakeMyTrip has launched its own budget brand, Value+, which will offer rooms from Rs 900 to Rs 2,000 per night.
Indians today stand apart from their global counterparts by doing things differently, be it business (startups for example), hospitality (flurry of newer restaurants) and even now traveling.