Hyperlocal delivery is all the rage, and Bigbasket wants a slice of it; Google all set to re-enter China

Thursday October 18, 2018 , 2 min Read

A highly placed source in Bigbasket, on condition of anonymity, confirmed the company has acquired Pune-based hyperlocal delivery startup RainCan and Bengaluru-based MorningCart. These acquisitions give BigBasket a jumpstart in the hyperlocal delivery segment. With this acquisition, BigBasket has already launched BBDaily on its platform for daily hyperlocal deliveries and needs. Interest in hyperlocal delivery was revived in December last year when Google made its first direct investment in Indian messenger service Dunzo.

Mobile wallets to issue cards, users can transact across wallets

Soon, users of popular mobile wallets such as MobiKwik, and Amazon Pay, among others, will be able to transfer money from one wallet to another. This is made possible by the interoperability guidelines finally issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The RBI on Tuesday issued the much-awaited operational guidelines for interoperability between different kinds of pre-paid instruments (PPIs), including meal vouchers, e-wallets, and gift vouchers.

Google all set to re-enter China with tailor-made search engine

Google will continue with its plan of launching a tailor-made search engine for China, which would also mean that the company will now have to comply with the country's strict internet laws. Announcing this at the Wired Technology conference in San Francisco, Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended the decision to re-enter China as it aligned with company’s mission of providing information to world's most populous nation. According to him, Google would be able to meet online requirements of the public even while complying with the laws of the Chinese government.

Powered Accelerator to fund these 6 women-led energy firms

Powered Accelerator, an entrepreneurship programme focusing on women-led businesses in the energy value chain globally, has announced a seed funding of $10,000 each for the six shortlisted startups in India from its first cohort of 10 startups. The six startups selected for the seed fund are: Cellerite Systems, Loans4SME, HoneyComb Inventions, Kumudini Enterprises, Upcycler’s Lab and Taru Naturals.