China bats for Bharat, Flipkart tunes into Hotstar and OnePlus bets on smart TVs

Tuesday September 18, 2018 , 2 min Read

The Chinese are taking a keen interest in Indian companies to invest in. More specifically, Indian content companies in the B2C space, building for ‘Bharat’. For the Chinese, India is the new frontier. And they’re spending more time than ever here in their quest for long-term bets. Also, let’s not forget that China’s internet market is reaching maturity at a very rapid pace, with its 730+ million mobile internet users. Looking out for new frontiers is but natural.

The 450 million Hindi speakers are twice as big a market as India’s 220 million English speakers

Flipkart is reportedly eyeing a stake in India’s leading video-streaming platform Hotstar, which is owned by Star India. The ecommerce player, now owned by Walmart, aims to diversify its offerings in a bid to take on Amazon, which already has a strong video presence through Amazon Prime Video.

For smartphone major OnePlus, a smart TV is soon on the cards. With home connectivity on the rise, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer is betting on a smart tech to build a TV with design, image quality and audio experience that has a premium feel. OnePlus Founder and CEO Pete Lau, it is said, will lead this project himself.

OnePlus co-founders Carl Pei and Pete Lau

The Centre launched the Startup India Policy in January 2016 to build a strong ecosystem to promote startups and entrepreneurs. While the startup narrative was largely dictated by cities such as Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune, startups are now emerging in smaller cities too, including unlikely ones such as Shillong, Imphal, Srinagar and Panjim.

Robotic process automation company Automation Anywhere, which was founded in India and is now headquartered in the US, plans to double its India workforce soon, looking to tap into the talent pool here, and expand its reach within the India market. The unicorn had raised $250 million in Series A funding in July this year.

Automation Anywhere co-founder Ankur Kothari

Healthcare venture Docprime said it has received an internal funding of $50 million from parent Policybazaar Group, which is run by EtechAces Marketing and Consulting Private Limited. The funding comes almost three months after Policybazaar Group raised more than $200 million led by Japanese internet conglomerate Softbank at a valuation of a little over $1 billion.

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