Flipkart gets 2GUD with refurbished goods; Slack raises $427 M

Thursday August 23, 2018 , 3 min Read

Ecommerce market leader Flipkart has launched an online platform to exclusively sell refurbished goods. Named 2GUD, the independent platform will sell smartphones, laptops, tablets and electronic accessories. A release from Flipkart stated several more categories will be added soon. The platform has been rolled out via the web initially, but will soon be taken across other channels including desktop and mobile app. The move is an effort to acquire more customers for Flipkart, which already claims to have 100 million registered customers. While 2GUD will remain a separate platform, Flipkart will continue to sell only new products.

Flipkart's 2GUD will remain a separate platform, while the parent will continue to sell only new products

Workplace collaboration platform Slack has raised $427 million in Series H funding from General Atlantic, Dragoneer Investment Group, T Rowe Price Associates, Sands Capital, and a couple of other undisclosed investors. This latest fundraise values the San Francisco-based startup at $7.1 billion. While Slack did not specify how it intends to spend the new dollars, it has looked to consolidate of late. In July, it announced the acquisition of HipChat, a similar workplace chat service, which it plans to shut down. HipChat users will be migrated to Slack, and both companies will work together in future.

The latest fundraise takes Slack's valuation to $7.1 billion

Sequoia India has closed its sixth fund at $695 million to invest in early and growth stage companies in the technology, consumer, and healthcare sectors across India and Southeast Asia. The latest fund makes Sequoia the largest in India. Sequoia Capital’s total assets under management now stand at $3.9 billion, ahead of SAIF Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, and Accel Partners. Its first five funds have seen a steady stream of exits over the last few years. Several portfolio companies have had M&A events, and multiple companies have also gone public.

Mumbai-based Zaggle calls itself an award-winning 'digital payments, cashback and analytics company', and helps companies and retailers with gifts and experiences across multiple channels - employee rewards and recognition, employee benefits, channel partner incentives, online shopping cashbacks, and restaurant cashbacks. Zaggle, which reported revenues of Rs 33 crore and Rs 83 crore in 2016 and 2017, respectively, shot up to Rs 631 crore in revenues in 2018.

(L-R) CEO Avinash Godkhindi with Jaspreet Bumrah, brand ambassador of Zaggle, and Founder Phani Raj

McXtra, which stands for “maximum and extra”, is the brainchild of two insurance and banking veterans A.S. Narayana and Nimish Airon. It is an insurer-agnostic platform that offers services across health, life, travel and motor sectors. The platform enables corporate employees and their families to "consolidate all their insurance policies in one vault". In case of an emergency, the McXtra Red Button provides geolocation-based emergency aid and triggers the benefits available under a person's policies.