Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder, and CEO of Indian digital payment giant PayTM recently announced that his company expects to turn profitable after two years as it is monetizing the existing customer base and eyes financial services as its next major frontier for growth. As per an interview with The Press Trust of India, Sharma said…
Pune-based baby products marketplace Firstcry has recently raised $296mn (approx 2120Cr) in Series E funding from Japanese conglomerate Softbank’s Vision Fund. With the latest infusion of funds, Firstcry has entered the Unicorn Club. According to the company filing submitted to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, a Cayman Island-based subsidiary of Softbank SVF Frog has invested…
Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, who has been aggressively investing in the Indian start-up system, is reportedly considering buying a minority stake in Mahindra Electric Mobility. According to a Business Standard report, the two companies have begun preliminary talks for an alliance. Mahindra’s Electric Vehicle manufacturing arm is a subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra, said a few…
SoftBank, a name we all are familiar with in the startup ecosystem. From setting up the world’s biggest investment fund “The SoftBank Vision Fund” to aggressively investing in tons of startups, SoftBank has established itself as a mark in the startup economy. But all is not going well with the brand. For the past few…
SoftBank India has appointed Manoj Kohli to head its business in India. The move comes after a nearly five-year stint as the chairman of the Japanese telecom and investment giant’s renewable energy business SB Energy. Manoj Kohli, the former Bharti Airtel executive, has an experience of over 40 years. He has headed Airtel’s international operations…
Skylo Technologies has recently announced its latest rounds of investments. The startup raised $13mn through its Series A funding round from Doll Capital Management (DCM), Innovation Endeavors, and Moore Strategic Investors. The startup also announced that through its Series B funding it has raised $103mn from SoftBank Group and existing investors. The San Mateo-based startup…
In an attempt to control losses and turn the business sustainable, it is observed that OYO will lay off 140 employees from its food business. These firings come after OYO last week announced the laying off of thousands of employees from its hotel business. OYO is undergoing restructuring and this has taken a toll on…
It doesn’t seem that their troubles are getting over soon. In the past few months, OYO has managed to gather a different spotlight on itself with a New York Times report on its toxic work-culture, IT raids at their Gurugram headquarters and death of a sportsperson in one of their properties last year. Adding to troubles, came the firing of thousands of its employees from China and India business.
There seems to be a trouble in paradise for the Indian hospitality unicorn OYO, as Income Tax officials “visited” its Gurugram headquarters on January 10. OYO has called this raid a “routine TDS survey”. TDS stands for Tax Deduction at Source. The seven-year-old start-up is already in hot waters with net losses widening six folds…
Indian hospitality unicorn Oyo is planning to lay off thousands of employees from its India and China businesses. According to media reports, the company has let go of 5% of its 12,000 employees in China partly citing non-performance as the reason and dismissed 12% of its 10,000 staff in India, one of the people close…
Masayoshi Son-led SoftBank is planning to sell its majority stake in SBG Cleantech, its high-profile renewables joint venture in India, as per a report by the Economic Times. The move has been seen as part of SoftBank’s ongoing review of businesses around the world to increase liquidity. Reports even suggest that SoftBank has invested close…
Tadashi Yanai, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Uniqlo’s parent Fast Retailing will resign as independent board member in December end after 18 years to focus on his fashion business. Yanai is one of only three external members of a board filled with SoftBank executives and heads of its portfolio companies. The resignation comes…
Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is resigning from the board of directors, severing ties with the ride-hailing company that he co-founded a decade ago and ran until a series of scandals led to his downfall. The departure, announced Tuesday, did not come as a surprise. Kalanick recently sold more than $2.5 billion worth of stock…
In a recent leadership reshuffle, Oyo Hotels and Homes has elevated their South Asia and India CEO Aditya Ghosh to its board. Rohit Kapoor, currently the CEO of their new real estate business Oyo LIfe, will be taking over Ghosh’s position. Ghosh’s elevation comes exactly a year after he joined the hospitality aggregator. He had…
Paytm, One97 Communications Limited (OCL), parent company of Indian digital payments, has raised an equity fundraise from a group of investors, including existing shareholders such as Ant Financial and Softbank Vision Fund.