OfBusiness, an e-commerce startup that sells industrial goods and provides small businesses with credit, is in talks to raise a new round of funding at a valuation of over $4.5 billion, three sources familiar with those talks told me. If the talks materialize, it would be the fourth financing round OfBusiness will secure this year. […]
Google in talks to invest in Facebook-backed Indian social commerce Meesho
Google has held discussions to invest over $50 million in Indian social commerce startup Meesho, which recently secured $570 million in a financing round, according to a source familiar with the matter. The Android-maker, which has backed over half a dozen startups in India, has yet to make the investment in Meesho, according to another […]
WhatsApp now lets users encrypt their chat backups in the cloud
WhatsApp is beginning to roll out a new feature that will provide its two billion users the option to encrypt their chat history backup in iCloud or Google Drive, patching a major loophole that has been exploited by governments to obtain and review private communication between individuals. WhatsApp has long encrypted chats between users on […]
Google and Temasek back Indian neobank Open in $100 million funding
Google has invested in Bangalore-based Open, becoming the latest high-profile investor to back a neobanking platform. Open said on Tuesday it has raised $100 million in a Series C financing round. Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek led the round, and Google and Japan’s SBI Investment (not to be confused with SoftBank or India’s SBI bank) […]
Tiger Global in talks to lead over $100M investment in India’s Slice
A number of high-profile investors are chasing to invest in Slice, a fintech startup that is attempting to expand the market for credit cards in India. Tiger Global is in advanced stages of talks to lead a round of over $100 million in the Bangalore-based startup, sources familiar with the matter told me. A number […]
Telegram says it added 70M users during day of Facebook and WhatsApp outage
Facebook’s hours-long outage on Monday may have hurt the company, its founder, shareholders, and many businesses that rely on the social juggernaut’s services. But for its instant messaging rivals, it was a very good day. Telegram founder and chief executive Pavel Durov said on Tuesday that his instant messaging app added a staggering 70 million […]
Chalo raises $40 million to digitize bus commutes in India
More than a decade ago, Mohit Dubey founded CarWale, a startup that allows people to sell and buy used and new cars. But spending more than 10 years with the startup made Dubey realize that he was solving problems for just 3% of India. He wanted to try something bigger. Literally. His current venture is […]
India’s Licious becomes unicorn with $52 million fresh fundraise
Licious, a Bangalore-based startup that sells fresh meat and seafood online, said on Tuesday it has raised $52 million in a new financing round and become the first direct-to-consumer startup to attain the unicorn status in the world’s second largest internet market. The new round — a Series G — was led by Mumbai-headquartered IIFL. […]
Indian edtech giant Byju’s valued at $18 billion in new funding
Byju’s has raised about $300 million as part of a larger round of new investment as the Indian edtech giant focuses on expanding its international business and aggressively explores merger and acquisition opportunities. A filing, supplied to TechCrunch by research firm Tofler, showed that the new investment values the startup at $18 billion, up from […]
B Capital in talks to back Indian neobank Fi
B Capital Group, which last week co-led Indian social commerce Meesho’s $570 million funding, is in advanced stages of talks to back Bangalore-based neobank Fi (formerly known as epiFi), many aware of the talks told me. Fi offers a neobanking service for millennials in India. The startup, which early last year raised $13.2 million in […]