Whatever field major Indian startups might be engaged in, they seem to inevitably end up becoming data plays. Ola has become the latest Indian startup to apply for an NBFC license. With the Non-Banking Financial Company license, Ola will be able to enter India’s burgeoning financial services sector, and be able to sell financial products such as loans, credit cards, and insurance.  This won’t be Ola’s first foray into the financial space. It already operates…

It had been rumoured for months now, but it’s finally been confirmed — Reliance is entering India’s e-commerce’s crowded field, and will take Amazon and Flipkart head on. “Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail will launch a unique new commerce platform to empower and enrich our 12 lakh small retailers and shopkeepers in Gujarat, which are part of the over 3 crore community in India,” Reliance CEO Mukesh Ambani announced at the Vibrant Gujarat event today. This…

Paytm has its finger in many pies — its app not only lets you make payments, but also lets you do everything from buying movie tickets, purchasing insurance, booking flights and buses, and even buying gold. But it’s now stepped into a vertical that already has several large players vying for supremacy — food delivery. Paytm has tied up with Zomato to offer food delivery services. Paytm users will now be able to order through…

Amazon is ploughing billions of dollars into India to win its e-commerce market, but the money is bringing about an unexpected bonanza for the country’s jobseekers. Amazon now has 1,300 job openings in India, the highest in Asia Pacific. The number of openings is also amongst the highest in the world — Amazon’s base location of the US has the most jobs, and India and Germany are neck and neck for number 2. Outside of…

If chat was thought to be a must-have feature in apps until a few years ago, it’s now the turn of video. Paytm is looking to create original content and develop an video streaming arm, ET reports. Paytm will soon launch an over-the-top (OTT) content service, and has already started hiring people to run it. “Paytm has been looking at this space (video service) for some time but it is only now that the plans to set…

After exiting Flipkart with Rs. 7,000 crore in the bank, Sachin Bansal has already taken his next ride. Sachin Bansal has invested Rs. 150 crore ($21 million) in Ola as a part of its latest funding round. Bansal has purchased 70,588 ‘Series J’ preference shares at a value of Rs 21,250 per share, as per documents filed by Ola with the Registrar of Companies. The investment values Ola at $5.7 billion and makes it India’s second…

India’s Uber and Ola drivers have been going on strike for a while now, but this might be that first time that its restaurants are going on strike. The Gujarat Hotel and Restaurant Association has declared that they will not accept orders on Swiggy in Ahmedabad starting from Friday. The association is unhappy with the 22 percent commission that Swiggy charges on its orders, and are demanding that Swiggy fix what they call are “unreasonable…

Thus far, Ola had been saying that it will look to own all aspects of India’s mobility experience, but it could have its sights set even higher. Ola could acquire medicine delivery startup Myra medicines and enter the medicine delivery space, sources told Mint. Myra had been founded in 2013 by Anirudh Coontoor and Faizan Aziz, and delivers medicines to users who order them on its platform. “This is part of Ola’s strategy where they want to get…