Sachin Bansal invests $7M in BAC; Will India pay for Netflix in 2019?

Co-founder and former Executive Chairman of Flipkart, Sachin Bansal invests $7 million in his newest venture, BAC Acquisitions. Along with friend and former investment banker, Ankit Agarwal, Sachin Bansal had registered the non-government private company, BAC Acquisitions on December 10, last year. Although the nature of BAC Acquisition’s business remains unclear, it seems to be a holding company.

Will Bharat pay for Netflix? 

The Indian OTT market is largely dominated by Hotstar. The StarTV-owned OTT platform is believed to have notched up 70 percent of video streaming app downloads. Voot is at 11 percent, Prime at five percent, and Netflix at 1.4 percent. Clearly, there’s an appetite for these subscription-based services. But the question remains, are Indians willing to pay for digital content? The answer could be a resounding yes.

Fortanix raises $23 million

Cloud security and data privacy startup Fortanix Inc has raised $23 million in Series B funding led by Intel Capital. The round also saw participation from existing investors Foundation Capital and Neotribe. With this, Fortanix will work with Intel to address cloud security and data privacy problem.

SBI leaks sensitive data

It has come to attention that India’s largest bank, the State Bank of India (SBI) has leaked sensitive details such as the customer’s bank balance and bank account number. The bank apparently forgot to secure a server, that was in one of its Mumbai installations, and which was hosting sensitive information of millions of its customers.

ICICI CEO Chanda Kochhar dismissed

Chanda Kochhar, former CEO and Managing Director of ICICI Bank, has been dismissed after she was found guilty in an internal probe conducted by the bank for violating its code of conduct. The probe was conducted by former Supreme Court judge BN Srikrishna in connection to the ICICI-Videocon loan case. It found that Kochhar had failed to deal with conflict of interest by not making voluntary disclosures that should have been done. Kochhar has also been asked by the bank to return over Rs 10 crore that she received in bonuses since April 2009.

Kruzr raises $1.3 million

Insurtech startup Kruzr has raised $1.3 million (Rs 9.5 crore) in a round of seed funding led by Saama Capital, along with participation from Better Capital. Founded by Pallav Singh, Ayan, and Jasmeet Singh Sethi, Kruzr blends the power of voice technology and artificial intelligence in its personal driving assistant. The startup will be using the funds to expand its technology team, scale up its products, and increase its business in Europe and the UK.

PhonePe not keen on lending

Even as Paytm and MobiKwik bet big on the lending segment, PhonePe wants to take its time before dipping its toes in lending. According to Co-founder Sameer Nigam, the reason is that “there is too much flux, and many players (are) operating in this space.” While PhonePe may be taking its time to introduce financial products on its platform, it is making concerted efforts to build a hyperlocal network to increase stickiness on the app.

Medlife acquires Medlabz

Bengaluru-based Medlife International has announced its acquisition of Mumbai based Medlabz. It is a digital healthcare platform and a ‘diagnostics at home’ services company. With this acquisition, Medlife plans to consolidate its diagnostics business by integrating its technology platform with the logistic strength of both parties.

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