Cogoport, Arman Financial Services raise funds; New South Wales, India announce $1.6 M partnership

Over the last couple of years, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) has been focusing on strengthening trade ties with India. Addressing the Indian media in Taipei, James Huang, Chairman of the TAITRA, said Taiwan plans to partner with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiatives such as Digital India, Make in India, and smart cities.

Cogoport, a digital freight logistics venture, announced it has secured Series-A round of funding from Accel Partners. The online international freight exchange currently offers price discovery and booking using a data-driven technology solution to make the most cost-effective match between exporters and importers on the one hand, and ocean and air freight carriers, on the other. The funds will enable Cogoport to invest in developing new products and fuel business growth through expansion.

Australia’s startup capital New South Wales is looking "India-ward" for partnerships and collaborations to create new jobs in its tech and advanced manufacturing sectors. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who’s on a trade mission to India, announced a $1.6 million two-year partnership between NSW and India for this purpose.

Arman Financial Services Ltd, a Gujarat-based non-banking financial company that caters to two-wheeler, MSME, and microfinance lending, raised an aggregate amount of about Rs 57 crore from a fund managed by SAIF Partners. The funds will be deployed to increase the loan book of the company, especially in its microfinance and the new MSME division, to maintain sufficient capital to meet RBI’s Capital Adequacy norms, and to fund its regional expansion and product diversification initiatives.

Last week, Paytm came out in support of RBI’s new directive, stating the company was open to data safety laws. However, there continue to be critical questions that the RBI needs to answer. In an interview with YourStory, Kiran Vasireddy, COO and SVP- Business, of One97 Communications-owned Paytm, talks about the Indian payment major's viewpoint and what this announcement means for global players.

ICICI Bank announced it has successfully on-boarded over 250 corporations on its Blockchain platform for domestic and international trade finance. According to the bank, the usage of Blockchain technology simplifies the paper-intensive trade finance process by bringing counterparties on the same platform, enabling decision making in almost real time.

Flipkart announced a long-term strategic partnership with Taiwanese technology giant Asus to launch products specially designed for Indian consumers. As part of the partnership, the first Asus smartphone to be launched exclusively on Flipkart is the Zenfone MaxPro on April 23, 2018. On the marketing front, both companies will extensively support each other in the planning and execution of marketing activities for Asus ZenFones.

Now get the Daily Capsule in your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter today!