Monthly News letter
SoftBank Vision Fund Expands Its Operations
Team To Deepen India Focus
Japanese technology-focused mega-corpus,
SoftBank Vision Fund, is reportedly looking to
hire a dozen executives in its India operations
team over the next few months, according to
a media report. Further, another media report
has noted that the SoftBank Vision Fund is not
looking for an early exit from Indian startups
and is willing to wait for the right time for
startups to go public. Managing partner of
SoftBank Investment Advisers, Munish Varma
reportedly said that, “while the operating team
will focus on helping our portfolio companies
grow globally, they will also be actively
investing. The investing and operating teams
will work very closely.”
Reliance Retail Starts Pilot Project Ahead Of
Ecommerce Launch
Reliance Retail has started the pilot phase of its
new commerce initiative, according to the
company’s latest shareholder presentation. The
differentiated business model will provide a
technology platform for millions of small
merchants across India to strengthen and grow
their business, the company added.
Pan-India Hotel Lobby Drags OYO To
Competition Watchdog
The Federation of Hotels and Restaurant
Association of India (FHRAI) has reportedly filed
a complaint with the Competition Commission
of India (CCI) against Gurugram-based
hospitality unicorn, OYO. The hotel body has
alleged that three months after OYO promised
its partners an 18% interest on delayed
payments and launched complaint redressal
solutions, the issues continue to be unresolved.
Innoviti Sues Pine Labs For Patent
infringement
Innoviti Payment Solutions had filed
an infringement suit against Pine Labs Pvt Ltd
over sale of payment products that infringe on
Innoviti’s patent on the payments processing
technology that enables UPI payments at retail
POS terminals. Pine Labs Private Limited has
filed its appearance before the District Court in
Bengaluru refuting allegation of patent
infringement IN309274 and to confirm its non-
infringing status in the matter. following its
petition before the District Court on July 22,
2019, the District court while moving the matter
to Karnataka High Court also modified its earlier
order to remove references to Plutus Smart or
to dynamic QR codes.
Paytm Partners With Clix Finance
Digital payments unicorn Paytm has announced
its partnership with a non-banking financial
company (NBFC) Clix Finance to enable digital
loans for both its customers and merchants.
According to a company statement, Paytm will
avail these loans to Paytm customers and
merchants in the mode of deferred payment or
postpaid and merchant lines facilities.
Progcap : Lending Startup Progcap Raises $5 Mn
In Series A Funding Round Led By Sequoia. The
investment was led by Sequoia India, with
participation from MV Nair, chairman of CIBIL;
Sandeep Tandon, cofounder of Freecharge
along with existing investors GrowX Ventures
Fund and Yes Bank’s cofounder Somak Ghosh.
PhonePe : Bengaluru-based digital payments
company PhonePe has received INR 697.9 Cr
($101.5 Mn) equity infusion from its Singapore-
based parent, PhonePe Private Limited
Singapore.
Monthly News letter