Zoomcar raises $3.6 M while iPhone drops to third spot in smartphone sales

Saturday August 04, 2018 , 3 min Read

Greg Moran of Zoomcar seems to be enjoying a good run these days. After having raised $40 million in Series C funding, the company has raised $3.6 million in debt fund to fuel its dreams. More power to Moran. But the day obviously belonged to Apple, which officially became a trillion dollar company in market capitalisation. Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon had coveted this landmark, but Apple won the round. Somewhere up there in the skies, Steve Jobs must be enjoying a quiet smile.

Self-drive car rental firm, Zoomcar has raised $3.6 million (Rs 25 crore) in debt fund from Trifecta Venture Debt Fund, recent filings with Registrar of Companies (RoC) shows. The development comes six months after the startup raised $40 million in its Series C funding round led by automobile maker Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M). Existing investors, including Ford Smart Mobility, Sequoia Capital, Empire Angels, Nokia Growth Partners and others, also participated in this round.

The Telangana State Information Technology, Electronics and Communication department (ITE&C) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with IT major Tech Mahindra to launch a Blockchain District in the state. According to a release, the Blockchain District will be a Centre of Excellence for Blockchain, an incubator for technology and process development with innovative infrastructure and facilities to foster growth of Indian Blockchain start-ups and companies. Tech Mahindra will provide platform and technology assistance to the incubators in the Blockchain District.

Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao (second from left) and Tech Mahindra CEO C P Gurnanin (extreme left) at the MoU signing ceremony

Even as Apple’s valuation soared to $1 trillion, the iPhone-maker let go of its position as the world’s second-largest smartphone seller to China’s Huawei in the June quarter (Q2 2018). This is the first time Apple has dropped to the third spot. Its market share declined to 12.1 percent as iPhone sales remained flat, while Huawei surged ahead capturing 15.8 percent of the market, according to latest IDC data. Huawei sold 54.2 million handsets, registering a growth of 41 percent over 2Q17.

On Thursday, Apple became the first US corporation to cross $1 trillion in market cap when its stock price surged to $207.39, following good quarterly earnings reported earlier in the week. While Apple is the only public company in the world right now to be valued at $1 trillion, it is not the first to reach there. Back in 2007, PetroChina (China’s biggest oil and gas company) briefly hit the $1-trillion mark on the Shanghai Stock Exchange before global oil prices collapsed and its stock tanked. Since 2011, however, Apple has been the world’s most valuable publicly traded corporation after surpassing oil major Exxon Mobil.