In India, various e-commerce firms such as Flipkart and Ola have come together to form a lobby group, seeking protection from global rivals
Xiaomi, Shunwei Capital may invest US$18M in India’s social network ShareChat
ShareChat, a vernacular social network for first-time internet users in India, is in advanced talks to raise US$18 million from Chinese handset maker Xiaomi and Shunwei Capital, a VC fund owned by its founder Lei Jun, according The Economic Times report.
The firm will use the money for product improvement and to add more languages, in addition to recruiting developers and data scientists.
Post-investment, the startup is expected to be valued at US$65-70 million, the report said citing unknown sources.
A year ago, ShareChat had raised US$4 million in Series A round of funding led by Lightspeed India Partners, with participation from existing investors SAIF Partners and India Quotient, as well as new investor Venture Highway.It is building a social content network in India with a focus on small town users and vernacular content.
As the name suggests, ShareChat allows users to create, discover and share content with each other, much like people do on Tumblr and Instagram. Users can follow others who are either a content creator or a friend on the platform for regular updates, much like most other social networks.
Grab quietly invested in bicycle-sharing startup oBike
Singapore’s leading cab-hailing company Grab had quietly participated in Singapore-based bicycle-sharing startup oBike’s latest funding round, says a TechCruch report citing unnamed sources.
Also Read: Xiaomi to set up local company in Indonesia, will launch more products in the market
oBike in August raised US$45 million in Series B investment from a slew of investors including Grishin Robotics, a VC fund owned by Dmitry Grishin (Co-founder and chairman of Russia’s Mail.Ru Group) and several family offices in Southeast Asia.
The company had not disclosed Grab’s name then.
AirAsia partners with Zoomcar for rental car service
Indian self-drive car rental company Zoomcar will soon provide mobility solutions to budget carrier AirAsia’s customers to and from airports. The facility will be available to all group airlines including AirAsiaIndia.
AirAsia guests will be able to book Zoomcar for their local and inter-city self-driven transport via its app.
Spread across 26 cities including metro and non-metro ones, the Bengaluru-based Zoomcar allows a user to rent a car on hourly, daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Leading e-commerce companies launch lobby group Indiatech.org
India’s leading consumer Internet companies, including Flipkart, Ola, and MakeMyTrip, have come together to launch an industry body called Indiatech.org, along the lines of Indian software firms’ body Nasscom, seeking protection from global rivals, according to The Economic Times.
The primary objective of the association would be to convey to the government that home-grown companies should dominate the local Internet market.
Flipkart Co-founder Sachin Bansal is the founding president and chairman of the body. Online classifieds platform Quikr and chat app Hike are the other founding members of the association.
The post Captain’s Log, Sept 28: Xiaomi, Shunwei in talks to invest US$18M in ShareChat; Grab is an investor in oBike appeared first on e27.