Netflix's streamfest: a hit;slack acquired;ShareChat in talks with google;new entry in India's Unicorn list;PhonePe beats GooglePay In downloads....continue
Week 48-50
Hi , Shubham Shekhar here,
Welcome all to the weekly compilation of wonderful tech and related news.
Also Including the best tweet/thread/infographic of the week. Do read and engage.
Here is Your weekly dose,
#1
Google eyes to buy twitter-backed Sharechat
Google holds talks with Bengaluru-based startup ShareChat for a deal that could value the latter at around $1.03 billion.
With a total funding to $264 million, ShareChat was last valued at $650 million.
ShareChat’s monthly active users crossed the 160 million mark and the platform serves 15 Indian language markets.
ShareChat had recently held talks with Microsoft and SnapChat too for a buy in.
#2
India’s Latest Unicorn : Cars24
Cars24 has raised $200 million in a Series E round led by DST Global and others.
“Traditionally, car selling or buying has been a tiresome process, however, over the last five years, we have strived to transform the customer's journey- 'the CARS24 way' that is hassle-free, safe and transparent,” said Vikram Chopra, Co-founder and CEO, Cars24 in a statement.
Last year, the startup had also raised investments from Indian cricketer MS Dhoni.
Launched in 2015 and operating in more than 130 cities,the company claimed surpassing the pre-Covid business level with annual transactions exceeding 2,00,000 units along with a 4X jump in website engagement.
Currently competes with Carwale, CarTrade, Droom, CarDekho, Spinny, and more along with horizontal players such as Quikr and Olx India.
Read more here - CARS24 Is Now A Unicorn! Joins Billion-Dollar Club
#3
Bewakoof in loses in the financial year 2020, after 3 years of profitable business
Thane-based company recorded a loss of INR 28 Cr in the financial year ending in March 2020, compared to the INR 29 Lakh profit it recorded in the last financial year.
The company had a profit of INR 2 Cr and INR 30 Lakh in the FY2018 and FY2017, respectively.
Bewakoof’s cofounder and CEO Prabhkiran Singh explained that the company spent heavily on branding and acquiring talent in FY2020, keeping in mind the company’s long term growth.
In FY2020, Bewakoof recorded a revenue of INR 210 Cr. Of this, the company has earned nearly INR 202 Cr through the sale of products, INR 4.6 Cr from the sale of services, and INR 2 Cr as other operating revenue and income.
#4
Father of IT industry: FC Kohli , passes away at the age of 96
He was the founder and first CEO of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
Kohli had served as director of the board of Tata Sons Ltd, Tata Industries Ltd, Tata Unisys Ltd, Tata Electric Company, Tata Honeywell Limited, Bradma of India Limited, Airline Financial Support Services India Private Ltd, Tata Technologies Limited Singapore, Investor Services of India Ltd, Triveni Engineering Works, Abacus Distribution Systems and Airline Software Development Consultancy India Private Limited. He was also he chairman of Tata Elxsi India Ltd and WTI Advanced Technology Ltd.
Kohli was among the board of directors of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) from 1973–74 and was the chairman of the Indian Council. He was the former president of the Computer Society of India and was the chairman of the Southeast Asia Regional Computer Conference held at Singapore in 1976 and chairman of the apex committee of the Southeast Asia Regional Computer Conference held at New Delhi in 1988.
He was also president of the Management Consultants Association of India for the year 1975–76. For 1975–77, he was the chairman of the Institutions of Electrical Engineers Bombay. In 1989, he was appointed adviser to the South east Asia Regional Computer Confederation. He was president of NASSCOM from 1995–96.
#5
The Gate Academy acquired by edtech startup upGrad
Ronnie Screwvala and Mayank Kumar's upGrad plans to invest Rs 100 crore into The Gate Academy and develop 20,000 hours of content in multiple languages.
The startup stated that this is the first among a series of mergers and acquisitions that upGrad plans to announce over the next three months, in allied fields of higher education.
Bengaluru-based The Gate Academy is a coaching institute with 57 centres across the country.
It's 72 million hours of content is consumed by upto two lakh enrolled users for GATE and other entrance examinations for various public and government jobs.
#6
IIT Bombay , IIT Roorkee students sees high salary offers by Optiver,Cohesity
Dutch firm Optiver has made the highest international offer of Euros 1.57 lakh (Rs 1.39 crore) per annum at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay as the premier institutes kicked off their final placements this year.
Optiver is a proprietary trading firm and market maker for various exchange-listed financial instruments.
Founded by Johann Kaemingk, current CEO Paul W. Hilgers
Cohesity offered an annual package of Rs 1.48 crore ($200,000) for a US role at IIT-Roorkee
#7
PhonePe becomes most downloaded Fintech App in India in Nov
It’s over 9 million times the app has been downloaded across Android and IOS platforms in India.
The competitor Google Pay has shown a drop of 21% with 8.18 million times installation.
In 2020, PhonePe has twice won the lead over Google pay.
Apart from India, Google Pay has its presence in Australia, Canada, Japan, Russia, Singapore, Ukraine, the uk , and thus the US.
Paytm, Indiabulls Dhani, and YONO SBI have grabbed the third, fourth, and fifth position respectively within the top five list of most downloaded fintech app in India, during November.
#8
7 Million Indian Credit, Debit Cardholders personal data on dark web
The leaked data appears to have some records that dates back to 2004.
Cybersecurity researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia discovered the Google Drive link from the dark Web earlier this month. It was in circulation with the title “Credit Card Holders data” by some anonymous people, Rajaharia said.
The data included not only the names of affected Indian cardholders but also their mobile numbers, income levels, email addresses, and Permanent Account Number (PAN) details.
It is available for download through a Google Drive link. The link is open for public access and is said to be in circulation on the dark Web for some days now.
“The data may belong to some third party that provides service or leads to banks,” Rajaharia said, who initially reported the leak to Inc42.
#9
Netflix’s Streamfest, a big hit, more to come
The two day fest results in 8 lakhs app downloads in India.
Globally, Netflix saw 1.3 million downloads for the free trial period.
According to a recent analysis by Media Partners Asia,Netflix is estimated to close the year with 4.6 million paid subscribers in India.
Recent developments like Hindi user interface as well as local Indian offerings, helped Netflix to multiply its paid user base.
#10
Salesforce is Acquiring Slack
Click on the image for more insights.
Slack shareholders will receive $26.79 in cash and 0.0776 shares of Salesforce common stock for each Slack share, representing an enterprise value of approximately $27.7 billion based on the closing price of Salesforce’s common stock on 30th November 2020.
‘Stewart and his team have built one of the most beloved platforms in enterprise software history, with an incredible ecosystem around it,’ said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce. ‘This is a match made in heaven. Together, Salesforce and Slack will shape the future of enterprise software and transform the way everyone works in the all-digital, work-from-anywhere world. I’m thrilled to welcome Slack to the Salesforce Ohana once the transaction closes.’
Thread of the week-
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Infographic of the week-
That’s all for this week. Will now be hitting your inbox next week.