1. Ola to Invest $100 Mn in Scooter Sharing Start-Up Vogo
Ride hailing app, Ola will invest $100 million in Vogo, a scooter sharing network for short haul commute. As per the arrangement, Ola will boost Vogo’s supply by investing in 1 lakh scooters on the Vogo platform, worth $100 million.
This infusion will give Vogo a strategic supply advantage without having to incur significant capital expenditure. Additionally, Vogo’s offerings will also be available for Ola’s 150 million customer base, directly from the Ola app soon. Ola has also invested in Vogo as part of the company’s Series A fund raising which saw participation from Matrix Partners India and Stellaris Venture Partners.
Vogo is a point-to-point dockless scooter sharing company, currently present in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, having served over 20 million kilometers on its platform.
(Source: The Hindu BusinessLine)
2. With $35m, Toppr Looks to Compete with Byju’s
Education technology startup Toppr has raised $35 million from Kaizen Private Equity and existing investors Eight Roads Ventures, Helion Ventures and SAIF Partners.
Zishaan Hayath, Mumbai-based Toppr’s chief executive officer, said that the money will be used mainly for branding as it competes with Byju’s. “We have been able to get six million downloads and one million monthly active users despite better branding by Byju’s and our packages priced higher,” said Hayath.
Bengaluru-based Byju’s on 17 December said it has raised $540 million in a funding round led by South Africa’s Naspers Ventures to fuel its expansion plan.
Toppr did not state the valuation after the funding but industry executives said it could be between $150 million and $200 million. Toppr is talking to investors to raise about $80-$100 million more, they added.
(Source: The Economic Times)
3. Working To Bring 99% Things In Sub-18% GST Slab, Says PM Modi
Indicating that a further simplification of the Goods and Services Tax is on the anvil, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government wants to ensure that “99 percent things” attract sub-18 percent GST slab.
Before the implementation of the GST, registered enterprises numbered 65 lakh, which has now risen by 55 lakh, PM Modi said at a media summit in Mumbai.
"Today, the GST system has been established to a large extent and we are working towards a position where 99 percent things will attract the sub-18 percent GST slab," Modi said.
Modi indicated that the 28 percent GST slab would only be restricted to a few select items, such as luxury goods. He said the effort will be to ensure that 99 percent of all items, including almost all items used by the common man, would be kept at 18 percent or less.
(Source: PTI)
4. Indian Mobile Users Second Most Spammed in the World
The pain inflicted upon mobile phone users by unsolicited commercial phone calls and SMSs seems to be far from over. Indian mobile phone users received the second highest number of spam calls worldwide in 2018, according to Truecaller’s Insight Special report for 2018 released on Tuesday, 18 December.
Over 6 percent of the overall calls received by Indian users in 2018 were spam calls, the report said, without disclosing the total number of such calls. An average Indian phone user received 22.3 spam calls a month in 2018, the second-highest in the world.
Brazil topped the list, with its users receiving an average 37.5 unsolicited calls a month. However, average uninvited calls received per user in India is 1.5 percent less than the previous year, when India topped the list. Interestingly, spam communications in India seem to originate from telecom operators themselves.
(Source: The Times of India)
5. G-Sec Purchase of Rs 50,000 Crore in January: RBI
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday, 18 December, announced further purchases of government securities (G-secs) under open market operations (OMOs) for a total amount of Rs 50,000 crore in January 2019. The operations will be conducted through five auctions of Rs 10,000 crore each.
RBI also decided to scale up the amounts to be purchased in the remaining two OMO auctions scheduled in December 2018 to Rs 15,000 crore each after evaluating current liquidity conditions. The central bank, in a press release, said the liquidity conditions will continue to be monitored and depending on the assessment, it will consider similar quantum of OMO purchases until the end of March 2019.
The RBI has undertaken OMO purchases to the tune of Rs 1.26 lakh crore in the last four months. Of the total OMO purchase during the year, Rs 660 crore were not via auctions.
(Source: The Indian Express)
6. Milkbasket Gets $7mn in Series A
Milkbasket, a daily top-up grocery delivery startup, has announced an additional infusion of $7 million to its Series-A funding, led by Mayfield Advisors, a US-based venture capital firm, with participation from existing investors.
The latest round brings Milkbasket's total Series-A funding to $14 million.
“We are excited to support the Milkbasket team in chasing their impressive mission of making grocery delivery as hassle free as possible. Regarded as the future of the industry, the company’s pioneering model has reinvented everyday lives of its customers.” said Nikhil Khattau, MD, Mayfield India.
The company, which is seeing 15 percent growth month-on-month, raised a Series-A investment led by Kalaari Capital in May. In January, it announced a preSeries-A investment by Unilever Ventures, Blume Ventures and Lenovo Capital.
The funds will also enable us in investing adequately in developing the technology and hiring for the next growth phase.” Anant Goel, founder, Milkbasket said.
(Source: The Times of India)
7. Binny Bansal Eyes $100 Mn Payout After His Abrupt Exit
Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal is negotiating fresh terms to receive cash payouts from Walmart after he resigned from the online retailer as chairman and group chief executive officer (CEO) last month, two people familiar with the matter said.
According to his earlier contract, Bansal would have received cash from Walmart for over half of his 4-4.5 percent Flipkart stake that is worth more than $850 million after August 2020, sources said. However, after his resignation Bansal might receive an immediate, smaller payment of about $100 million, sources said.
Last month, Bansal abruptly resigned as Flipkart chairman and group CEO following an internal investigation into an allegation of “serious personal misconduct” against him.
Binny Bansal would use the payments from Walmart to invest in startups, the two people cited earlier said. He already has investments in more than 20 startups, including SigTuple, Roposo and Ather Energy, according to data from researcher Tracxn.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
8. Yes Bank Sells Over 2% Stake In Fortis Healthcare
Yes Bank Ltd said it has sold its over 2 percent stake in Fortis Healthcare Ltd in tranches. "We would like to inform that Yes Bank has sold 1.23 crore equity shares having nominal value of Rs 10 each, constituting 2.13 percent of the paid-up share capital of FHL," the lender said in a regulatory filing.
The bank said the stake was sold in various tranches, the last on 18 December, which resulted in change in holding of the bank by more than 2 percent of the total shareholding in FHL.
Companies are required to inform the exchanges if the change in shareholding of an entity is over 2 percent. According to shareholding data on BSE, Yes Bank held 9.33 percent stake in FHL as on 21 November.
On Monday, Malaysia-based IHH Healthcare said it will not be able to proceed with open offer for FHL for the time being, following the Supreme Court order to put on hold sale of controlling stake in the Indian hospital chain.
(Source: PTI)
9. Samana to Raise Rs 4,000 Crore to Invest in Start-ups
Samana Global Business Solutions, which runs hospitals, restaurants and retail outlets in Kerala, on Monday on Tuesday announced plans to enter the asset management industry. The company is raising its first fund, Samana Global Fund, of Rs 4,000 crore, which will be invested across various sectors, according to a senior executive of the group.
IBMC Investment Managers and Advisors LLP, which provides advisory services to non resident Indians (NRIs), foreign companies and foreign nationals, will be Samana Global Fund’s (SGF) investment manager. It will control the fund and will evaluate investment decisions, IBMC CEO and partner Sajith Kumar PK said during an interaction.
The fund recently received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to be set up as a category 2 Alternative Investment Fund.
Samana will begin fund raising from next month, and start investing as well.
(Source: Livemint)
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