Ratan Tata Invests In Wearable Tech Startup GOQii

Mumbai-based wearable tech startup, GOQii has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Ratan Tata.

Founded in February 2014 by former Indiagames CEO Vishal Gondal, GOQii, a smart wearable helps in tracking your steps, sleep, and any physical activity. The company’s app can integrate with 35 major fitness bands including Jawbone, Fitbit, Garmin, Moov, Misfit, and Sony. Users have to decide on a goal and choose a coach to guide them on the application.

Talking about the investment, GOQii CEO and founder Vishal Gondal said, “With the recent developments and tie-ups on the platform, the investment from Tata is a testimony to us being a defining player of services in our category making long-term impact in people’s life. We feel honored and it further boosts our confidence to accelerate the pace of our growth. We will ensure that GOQii reaches new heights in the healthcare space in India.”

GOQii charges subscription plans for access to its coaches, who are available over pre-scheduled calls or instant messenger. Currently, it charges INR 3,999 for three months, INR 6,999 for a six-month subscription and INR 11,999 for an annual subscription.

Prior to this in November 2015, it raised about $13.4 Mn (INR 88 Cr) in Series A round of funding led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and China-based Cheetah Mobile. In addition, it raised capital from Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm and Neeraj Arora.

As per a report by research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), India’s wearable market reached 400,000 units in Q1 2016 with fitness bands dominating the market and accounting for 87.7% of the market share. Meanwhile, smart wearables such as smart watches contributed to around 12.3%.

GOQii was also a part of the first batch of InsurTech accelerator programme by Swiss Re, a reinsurance company based in Zurich.

The Chairman Emeritus of Tata Group, Ratan Tata has invested consistently in 2016. Last month, Delhi-based IdeaChakki, a foodtech venture, also raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Tata. The startup also partnered with Enablers for their next round of funding. Prior to this in June 2016, Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in e-ticketing portal Kyazoonga.

In May 2016, Tata added San Francisco-based medical emergency response startup MUrgency Inc to the funding basket. Other startups that have raised funding from Ratan Tata this year include NestAway technologies, FirstCry, CashKaro, Tracxn, Dogspot, Lenskart, Teabox, Invictus Technology, SnapBizz, and Moglix. Last month reports surfaced that continuing with his streak of investments in startups, Tata is reportedly planning to set up a venture capital fund.

Courtesy : in42.com

Procurement Solutions Provider Xeeva Acquires Cloud Based E-Sourcing Tool ProcurePack

Procurement solutions provider, Xeeva has reportedly acquired cloud-based e-procurement and vendor relationship management solution, ProcurePack, for an undisclosed amount. Procurepack is an e-sourcing tool developed by Source Web Solutions.

According to an ET report, the details of the acquisition were not disclosed but almost all the team members of Source Web will exit the company with the acquisition.

With this deal in place, Xeeva will now be able to offer end-to-end, procure-to-pay solutions to its users, the company said in an official statement.

Gurugram-based Source Web Solutions was founded in 2012 by Manesh Jain and Konark Singhal. It is an IT services company that offers products and services for supply chain automation.

Its flagship product, ProcurePack, is an e-sourcing tool that works with its users to implement industry-specific procurement processes which includes RFP management, vendor communication management, e-auction, and contract management solutions. It offers its services to both SMEs and corporates.

Commenting on the development, Dilip Dubey, CEO, Xeeva said, “The addition of ProcurePack and the technology it brings to Xeeva demonstrates the commitment we have in delivering comprehensive solutions for our clients. Strategically integrating enhanced e-procurement functionality further strengthens our portfolio and illustrates our competitiveness in the marketplace.”

Xeeva provides procurement and financial solutions to its users. According to its website, its technology is used in over 40 countries and is available in 18 languages. The company’s end-to-end technology suite includes sourcing, procure-to-pay, supplier collaboration, financial collaboration, and extended enterprise solutions.

In August 2016, integrated commerce solution provider Iksula acquired US-based Blisstering Solutions, a software development company. Earlier this month, software solutions provider Zybo Tracking Solutions received foreign equity investment from Grasshoppers, a Netherlands-based company.

This development was first reported by ET.

Courtesy : in42.com

Capillary Technologies Acquires SellerworX To Strengthen Omnichannel Product Portfolio

Bengaluru-based omnichannel engagement and commerce platform Capillary Technologies has acquired ecommerce platform SellerworX.

Speaking on the acquisition, Venkat Potluri, CEO and co-founder, SellerworX said, “Capillary-SellerworX is a great match of vision, culture, and product proposition. This unique combination helps us fully meet requirements of enterprises in building integrated, scalable and robust omnichannel businesses. With Capillary’s enviable list of customers, the acquisition will help SellerworX accelerate deployment of its products across countries, enabling businesses leverage demand generation ability of online marketplaces.”

SellerworX’s acquisition will help Capillary to further strengthen its services. Brands/retailers can scale online sales and reach the 5-10% online sales/overall sales benchmark – through getting access to marketplaces along with own brand store front. Overall, retailers can increase customer reach, engagement, sales, LTV across in-store, web, mobile, mobile app, social and marketplace channels

SellerworX was launched by IIM alumni Venkat Potluri, Ganesamurthy G, and Chandramoul in February 2014. It is an omnichannel order and marketplace management product company enabling brands and retailers to become successful on online marketplaces. It provides cloud based software for retailers and provides ecommerce business incubation & support.

SellerworX raised funding from Infosys co-founders Kris Gopalakrishnan and S D Shibulal, along with the company’s former board member Srinath Batni in 2015. Axilor Ventures also invested in SellerworX through its early stage funding programme.  It was also selected by SAP for its Startup Studio Accelerator programme.

On the other hand, Capillary Technologies is an omnichannel engagement and commerce solution company, with a stronghold in India, Southeast Asia, MENA, and China among other countries. It was founded in August 2008 by IIT Kharagpur alumni Aneesh Reddy and Krishna Mehra and is presently registered in Singapore.

According to a company statement, it connects 150 Mn consumers, enables 20,000+ stores and 250+ enterprise ecommerce implementations across 30 countries. Leading brands such as Unilever, Walmart, Landmark Group, Madura Fashion, Arvind Brands, Redtag, Calvin Klein, Gap, Courts, Clarks, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, and Puma work with Capillary to drive retail excellence.

Capillary is backed by Warburg Pincus, Sequoia Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, and American Express Ventures. Last month, Mumbai-based venture debt fund InnoVen Capital extended a loan to Capillary.

Courtesy : in42.com

WhatsApp now lets you write, draw, and add emojis to photos and videos

WhatsApp is jumping on the Messenger, Instagram, and Snapchat bandwagon with the launch of new camera features that lets you further personalize your photos and videos. Users can now write, draw, and even add emojis to their media, not to mention take selfies after WhatsApp added support for the phone’s front-facing flash. Oh, zooming with videos is now easier — just slide a finger up and down on the screen.

These features are rolling out today on Android and will be coming soon to the iPhone “soon.”

With more than 1 billion users, WhatsApp ranks among the most popular messaging services in the marketplace, along with its sibling app Facebook Messenger. Showing the success of drawing on photos and videos by Snapchat and other apps, Facebook has slowly been bringing this into its two communication apps. Facebook Messenger added support for these creative features in 2014. Users on Instagram had been able to do these since the release of Instagram Stories.

WhatsApp is already seeing tremendous growth in Voice over IP calls — 100 million calls are facilitated daily. It could be that these features are an effort to encourage conversational usage of the app.

Courtesy : VentureBeat

Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma chosen as Entrepreneur of the Year

In a year of doom and gloom for the Indian commerce and consumer internet ecosystem, founder and CEO of mobile payments and commerce platform Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, pulled off a coup last month. His company more than doubled its valuation to $4.8 billion when it raised $60 million in a new round led by Taiwanese semiconductor giant MediaTek, in a market where high valuations of internet unicorns are being questioned by investors.

It is perhaps his ability to keep up the momentum of business expansion and investor interest at a time of skepticism that makes Sharma Entrepreneur of the Year. This was yet another intense two-horse battle between Sharma and Bhavish Aggarwal, cofounder and CEO of cab hailing mobile application Ola. Many jury members knew the top two contenders up close and generously contributed crucial insights into the discussion. In the end, after two rounds of voting Sharma was chosen as the winner.

Courtesy : Economic Times

Wipro acquires Chinese FMCG brand

Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting, the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) arm of Wipro Enterprises, has said it has signed a pact to acquire 100% shareholding in Zhongshan Ma Er Daily Products to boost its presence in the fast-growing toiletries and liquid detergent space in south China.

The deal, which is expected to gain regulatory approvals by the end of October, will be the company’s second largest acquisition after Unza Holdings, which it acquired back in 2007 for $246 million. Wipro did not disclose the financials of the deal citing a confidentiality agreement with the seller.

“From our perspective it’s a great acquisition because it doubles our revenue in China, ,making it our third largest market. The other interesting part is that we become very dominant in the Guangdong province,” said Vineet Agarwal, chief executive, Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting.


With a revenue run rate of around $75 million in the current financial year, Zhongshan Ma Er will help increase Wipro’s earnings from China to around RMB 1 billion ($150 million). Wipro says it will become among the top three players in the shower and liquid detergent segments in China’s Guangdong province.

Guangdong is one of the richest provinces in China with an annual GDP of around $1.1 trillion.

The acquisition will largely be funded by internal accruals, but Wipro could explore taking a small amount of short-term or long-term debt depending on the economic situation. The cost of acquisition excludes two manufacturing plants where Zhongshan Ma Er makes its products.

“We have a three-year pre-signed agreement to continue manufacturing and we can extend it based on mutual agreements. But, we already have two manufacturing plants in China; so, we can decide to expand that or we could setup a new facility,” added Agarwal.

Zhongshan’s acquisition is especially significant given its portfolio of liquid detergent brands, which Wipro could leverage to serve its other markets. The company says liquid detergents are among the fastest growing categories in the FMCG sector in India, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, and West Asia.

After the completion of the acquisition, 55% of Wipro’s consumer care business revenues will be derived from foreign markets, compared to 51% at present. The deal will also take the company’s employee strength up to around 10,000 people, 25% of whom are in India.

Out of the $600 million that Wipro has invested in acquiring FMCG companies over the past 13 years, $500 million has been invested in companies in Southeast Asia and China. According to Agarwal, all the acquisitions made so far have yielded great revenue results for the company, with each being valued at 4-5 times their acquisition cost.

Courtesy : Business-Standard

YouTube announces 'YouTube Go' for next generation users

World's most popular online video community YouTube has announced a brand new app, YouTube Go, designed and built from insights gathered from India.

The new app is completely re-imagined from the ground up for the next generation of YouTube users to fully discover all that YouTube has to offer.

YouTube Go is result of extensive research done across 15 cities in India by teams of engineers, designers, and researchers collecting ideas and testing prototypes with hundreds of people. Over the next few months, YouTube will be rolling the app out gradually to more testers, getting their feedback and improving the product before launching it to the general public.

"We've always believed that connectivity should not be a barrier to watching YouTube. In 2014 we launched YouTube Offline so you could watch videos without suffering from buffering. A few months ago we rolled out Smart Offline, a feature that allows you to schedule videos to be saved offline later at off-peak times, when there's more bandwidth so data is faster and cheaper. But we realised that for the next generation of YouTube users to fully discover all that YouTube has to offer, we had to re-imagine the YouTube mobile app from the ground up," said YouTube Vice President for Product Management, Johanna Wright.

"With YouTube Go, we're bringing the power of video to mobile users in a way that is more conscious of their data and connectivity, while being relatable and social," she added.

It allows its users to save and watch videos smoothly even in poor connectivity. It will also give them transparency and control over how much data they consume on videos, allowing them to preview videos first and choose the video's file size before they save it offline to watch later.

Designed with four concepts in mind, the app is relatable, with videos and a user interface that is made for you. It is designed to be offline first and work even when there's low or no connectivity.

It's also cost-effective, tackling the cost of data usage and giving users more transparency about how big downloads and file sizes will be. And finally, it's a social experience, connecting you with the people and content you care about.

Amongst a few notable features, the app includes find and discover relatable videos right on the home screen, preview videos before you save or watch, choose your resolution when saving or streaming videos, amongst others.

YouTube Go will gradually roll out to more people over the next few months, getting their feedback and improving the product before launching it widely.

Courtesy : Business-Standard