Exits in Flipkart-Walmart deal eyed; Twitter co-founder invests in Visit; Doxper raises funding
As the Flipkart-Walmart deal looks to draw to a close, it will be interesting to see which of the big investors get an exit - Tiger Global, SoftBank, or Naspers? With the stake that Walmart is set to acquire in the homegrown ecommerce giant believed to be between 25 percent and 51 percent, the spotlight moves from the smaller stakeholders to the larger ones - SoftBank and Tiger Global. Market talk suggests SoftBank will sell a substantial stake in Flipkart, while Tiger Global or Naspers might make a complete exit.
JetSetGo, the marketplace for private jets, helicopters and air ambulance, announced it had acquired Indo Pacific Aviation Limited for operations in India. Indo Pacific Aviation is the country’s oldest non-scheduled aircraft operator (NSOP). To improve its service and marketing, JetSetGo previously raised an undisclosed amount of funding from cricketer Yuvraj Singh’s startup fund YouWeCan Ventures.
Twitter Co-founder Biz Stone has invested in Visit, a homegrown healthcare startup that operates an on-demand platform using artificial intelligence (AI) to help patients choose the right doctors and consultants. Biz announced he is backing the startup in his personal capacity. The funding amount is undisclosed though. The round also saw participation from Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, BlueJeans Network co-founder Alagu Periyannan, and former Qualcomm Ventures executive Karthee Madasamy.
Digital healthtech platform Doxper raised $1.1 million in pre-Series A funding led by existing investor Vidal Healthcare. The total funding raised by the Mumbai-based startup now stands at $1.9 million, and the new round of funds will primarily be used as growth capital. The funding will help Doxper expand its geographical presence and increase its R&D spends for new products in analytics, and patient engagement.
Paytm Payments Bank announced that of the over 220 million people using its payments service, it now has over 100 million KYC-compliant wallets. In October last year, the Reserve Bank of India made it mandatory for PPIs (Prepaid Instruments), including mobile-wallet operators, to make all accounts fully KYC-compliant by December 31. The deadline was later extended to February 28 this year.
The Delhi High Court has sought a response from the Reserve Bank of India, the Centre, and the GST Council on a plea challenging a circular that prohibits banks and financial institutions from providing any service in relation to virtual currencies such as cryptocurrencies. The court was acting on a petition filed by Ahmedabad-based cryptocurrency exchange CoinRecoil (Kali Digital Eco-Systems Pvt Ltd) challenging RBI’s circular, 'Withdrawing Banking Support to Virtual Currency Exchanges,' dated April 6, 2018.
Aleksandr Kogan, the 28-year-old Cambridge researcher who gathered data from Facebook users before selling it to British data firm Cambridge Analytica, is set to testify before a UK Parliamentary Committee tomorrow, April 24. In his first public interviews since the scandal broke, Aleksandr told CBS News 60 Minutes and BuzzFeed News that he wants to clear the air about his role in the episode, and is also sorry for his actions.
EarthNow is a startup spun out of US-based incubator Intellectual Ventures that aims to set up a global network of satellites to offer real-time video monitoring of the Earth. In a press release, the company announced that it had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from investors including Bill Gates, the SoftBank Group, aerospace manufacturer Airbus, and Greg Wyler, Founder and Executive Chairman of OneWeb, a pioneer in the field of using satellites for internet delivery and video monitoring.
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