SmartCoin plans to utilize funds for upgrading its technology platform and grow the team as it continues its expansion plans SmartCoin, a Bengaluru-based micro-lending startup, has raised $2 million in a pre-series A round of funding led by a Chinese Venture fund. US-based Accion Venture lab, which invests in micro lending startups, co-invested in the fund. The round also saw…
Founded by Rajesh Gupta, Anoop Garg and Geeta Goswami, the company extends business loans to SMEs, MSMEs, women entrepreneurs and personal loans to individuals Delhi-based fintech startup, Cash Suvidha, has raised $1 million in its pre-series A round of investment from Initia Holdings Ltd., Vipin Agarwal, Partner in India Industrial Growth Fund and others. The company plans to use the…
Tiger Global Management is slowly increasing its pace of investments in start-ups after reaping attractive returns from share sales in Flipkart and Ola. Once the most prolific start-up investor, Tiger had almost entirely stopped investing in the past two years after its rosy investment thesis on the consumer internet business did not play out. Instead, the New York-based firm shifted…
Six months after raising $250 million from SoftBank, online hospitality player Oyo Rooms is planning to raise fresh funding to the extent of $500-800 million. It is also speculated that its anchor investor, the SoftBank Group and couple of other investors could pitch in with the funds. More significantly, Oyo Rooms will join the select band of startups in India…
Last year, Accenture reported that large organizations spend an average of $11.7 million on cybersecurity and that data breaches increased by 27.4% in 2017. Between 2015 and 2017, the costs of information loss alone rose from 35% to 43% of expenses. Although companies are increasingly aware of security risks and are directing funds to improving their systems, their security budgets…
Mid-tier IT services firm Zensar will acquire US-based insurance-tech company Cynosure for $33 million, to expand its foothold in the fast-growing property and casualty insurance space. Cynosure focusses on providing ‘Guidewire’ platform implementation services to property and casualty (P&C) insurance carriers, and had revenues of about $20 million in 2017. The Guidewire platform is a large insurance platform that allows…
Entrepreneurship is the new craze and many youngsters, as well as experienced professionals, are now exploring ways to have their own start-ups. The government is encouraging start-ups in a big way and we have seen an exponential growth in the number of new ventures opening every day. To ensure your enterprise thrives grows and does not die a premature death,…
Salesforce announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire MuleSoft, a company that makes software to integrate disparate enterprise software systems. The mixed cash and stock deal is worth approximately $6.5 billion, according to a press release. The tech titan plans to use MuleSoft’s technology to power a new Salesforce Integration Cloud, which will help customers connect multiple…
Tech startups are typically founded by young entrepreneurs with more passion than experience. This is as true in India as it is in Silicon Valley. Then there’s Bigbasket, whose founders are veterans of the dotcom bust and mostly north of 50. Drawing on their successes and failures, they’ve turned their six-year-old startup into India’s biggest e-grocer and are taking on…
VentureFriends, the Athens-based VC that has backed the likes of Homie and Weengs, is announcing its new fund, with a first closing of €45 million. ‘VentureFriends II’ sees the VC firm pick up where its original €20 million fund left off, with a remit to do seed investments in Greek startups and beyond that have global ambitions. Specifically, the VC…