From starting off in 2011 selling fresh produce, BigBasket has become India’s freshest unicorn. BigBasket is now valued at more than $1.2 billion (Rs. 8,400 crore) after raising $150 million in its latest round of funding. Existing investor Alibaba put in $50 million, U.K. government-owned CDC Group put in $40 million, and South Korea’s Mirae Asset Global Investments invested $59.9 million in the round. The latest fund raise means that Big Basket has become India’s second unicorn of 2019 after…

Life appears to have come a full circle for Sonia Dhawan. Five months after being arrested from the Paytm office and being thrown in jail, the Paytm Vice President has rejoined her company. Dhawan had been granted bail last week by the Allahabad High Court, and has immediately joined her former employer. This is a bit of an unexpected development, given how Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma had earlier hintd that a gang led by…

The 2019 Lok Sabha elections are nearly upon us, and the campaigning is also exactly what you’d expect in the tech-savvy, connected world of 2019. The BJP has said it will run raths in New Delhi as a part of its election campaign. Now raths aren’t new in electioneering — they were widely used by major Indian parties in 2014. But these raths being run by the BJP are Digital Raths. They will have Wifi hotspots, through which…

In 2007, Flipkart was a newly-formed startup looking for funding. Twelve years and a $21 billion acquisition later, it’s funding other startups. In what is the first such move by an e-commerce company in India, Flipkart has set up an internal fund to invest in early-stage startups. The fund will invest $2-3 million (Rs. 14-21 crore) in startups in sectors across financial technology, supply chain, SaaD and other areas. The fund is estimated to be $60-100…

Last night, Karnataka’s transport department sent out a bit of a shocker — it announced that it had banned Ola for six months. Ola had been running bike taxis in Bangalore even though they were illegal, and after several warnings, the transport department decided to suspend Ola’s aggregator license altogether. This meant that Ola would not only be not able to run its bikes in the state, but its cabs and autos were banned as…

As things stand, Uber now has a virtual monopoly in India’s tech capital. Ola has been banned from operating in Bangalore for six months by the state’s transport department. Ola’s license to operate in Karnataka has been suspended after it repeatedly ignored government warnings and continued to run its bike taxis. As per Karnataka’s laws, bike taxis are illegal and cannot operate in the state. The ban, however, extends to the entire company, which mean…

Sometimes innovations come about when a customer gives feedback, sometimes they come about when someone within the company has a great idea. But in this case, an innovation seems to have come about thanks to a viral video that was viewed millions of times. Zomato has introduced tamper proof packaging for its food deliveries, months after a video surfaced which showed its delivery executive eating an order en-route to its destination. On 11th December, a Zomato delivery…

Thus far, Homigo’s cofounders were being pursued by the startup’s tenants whose security deposits hadn’t been returned. Now they’re being pursued by the Bangalore police. The Bangalore police has formed three special teams to nab the absconding cofounders of coliving startup Homigo, who’re untraceable after the startup shut down its offices and fired all its employees. IIT Kanpur alumni Jatin Mitruka, Aaskash Verma and Nikunj Batheja, who’d cofounded Homigo in 2015, are on the run after allegedly…

Startup shutdowns are never pretty, but this one seems to be worse than most — it has left lots of young Bangaloreans without a roof over their heads. Co-living startup Homigo’s tenants have been told to vacate their homes after the company has reportedly gone bankrupt. The original property owners have apparently not been paid by Homigo, and they in turn have asked tenants to leave their homes. Homigo acted as an in-between between homeowners…

Oyo’s scale of ambition isn’t just limited to a rapid overseas expansion — it’s moving into industries other than hospitality too. Oyo has acquired coworking startup Innov8 for between Rs. 150 and Rs. 200 crore, Business Standard reports. Oyo has hired all Innov8 employees and will continue to run Innov8 as a separate brand. Innov8 has 13 coworking spaces across 4 cities in India. It had been founded in 2015 by Ritesh Malik, Shailesh Gupta and…