Infibeam Terminates Acquisition Deal worth ₹120 Crore to Buy Snapdeal-owned Unicommerce

India’s first listed e-commerce firm, Infibeam Incorporation, which in May this year had announced to acquire Snapdeal’s subsidiary Unicommerce eSolutions for up to Rs 120 crore in stock, has now terminated the deal.

In a dramatic turn of events, the Ahmedabad-based Infibeam told stock exchanges in a filing on Friday that the share purchase agreement (SPA) has been terminated as the conditions precedent were not fulfilled within the stipulated time period.

In May this year, Infibeam Avenues had announced signing a definitive sales and purchase agreement (SPA) with Unicommerce eSolutions and Jasper lnfotech (the parent of Snapdeal) to acquire 100% in Unicommerce.

It had pointed out that the acquisition would boost its e-commerce enabling capabilities and expand the product offerings for existing clients. The transaction was scheduled to close in three-five months.

According to the May filing, Infibeam was to issue optionally convertible debentures on a preferential basis to Jasper Infotech valued up to Rs 120 crore, subject to shareholders’ approval.

It had then said that Unicommerce eSolutions had a net worth of Rs 24.63 crore and a turnover of Rs 20.27 crore as on March 31, 2018.

In a separate statement, a Unicommerce spokesperson said “both the parties have mutually decided not to give effect to the said agreement”.

Unicommerce caters to more than 15% of India’s e-commerce transactions and has a growing presence in West Asia and South Asia and according to the spokesperson, the company will continue to deepen and expand its presence in India and key overseas markets.

“Accordingly, there will be no change in the shareholding structure of Unicommerce, which will continue to operate as a profitable and independently managed company,” the spokesperson added.

Started by a group of IIT/IIM graduates - Karun Singla and Manish Gupta in 2012, Unicommerce offers e-commerce enabling software for warehouse management and omni-channel services and has over 10,000 sellers, brands and online retailers as its clients. Before being acquired by Snapdeal in 2015, Unicommerce had raised funding from Tiger Global [Read here] and Nexus Ventures Partners in different funding rounds.

As part of the Snapdeal 2.0 strategy, which the e-tailer charted after its merger talks with Flipkart hit a dead end, It is looking to pivot to a pure play marketplace model. It will lay off a chunk of its workforce in the process. Shedding off its associated entities FreeCharge, Unicommerce and Vulcan was also reportedly part of the strategy.

Source - The Telegraph

Snapdeal's Investment & Strategy Chief Quits To Join Infibeam As President

Jason Kothari, Chief Investment and Strategy Officer at e-commerce firm Snapdeal, has quit the company to join Ahmedabad-headquartered Infibeam.

Jason, who was a classmate of Snapdeal founder Kunal Bahl at Wharton School, joined Snapdeal in January 2017, prior to which he was with real estate portal Housing.com. Jason will now move to Infibeam as its president, leading the strategy, corporate development, international operations and investor relations functions at India’s first listed e-commerce company.

Infibeam managing director Vishal Mehta, in a statement to ET, said, "Jason joins us with a history of high-impact business and strategic leadership where he has changed their outcomes and created significant value for all stakeholders. At Infibeam, we will leverage his valuable experience to help realise our global plan and drive the next era in the company’s evolution."

It must be recalled that in last July, it was rumored that Infibeam was in serious talks to merge Snapdeal in to itself. Infibeam aimed to create a combined $2-billion entity if the merger talks with Snapdeal would have had successfully went through.

Notably, in March 2017, Jason was also appointed as the CEO of FreeCharge, a digital wallet of Snapdeal later sold to Axis Bank. Moreover, it was Jason who managed the sale of Snapdeal’s e-commerce management firm Unicommerce to Infibeam for Rs 1.2 billion in May, and logistics arm Vulcan to Future group for ₹35 Crore.

Interestingly, when Jason was just 15, he was an assistant to Hollywood action star Jackie Chan.

Jason graduated from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in Finance. He is also the co-founder of Valiant Entertainment, a company which has a library of 1,500 characters, including X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, Harbinger, Shadowman, Archer & Armstrong. He was the CEO of Valiant Entertainment from 2007 to 2013.

Via - Economic Times | Wikipedia

Snapdeal's Investment & Strategy Chief Quits To Join Infibeam As President

Jason Kothari, Chief Investment and Strategy Officer at e-commerce firm Snapdeal, has quit the company to join Ahmedabad-headquartered Infibeam.

Jason, who was a classmate of Snapdeal founder Kunal Bahl at Wharton School, joined Snapdeal in January 2017, prior to which he was with real estate portal Housing.com. Jason will now move to Infibeam as its president, leading the strategy, corporate development, international operations and investor relations functions at India’s first listed e-commerce company.

Infibeam managing director Vishal Mehta, in a statement to ET, said, "Jason joins us with a history of high-impact business and strategic leadership where he has changed their outcomes and created significant value for all stakeholders. At Infibeam, we will leverage his valuable experience to help realise our global plan and drive the next era in the company’s evolution."

It must be recalled that in last July, it was rumored that Infibeam was in serious talks to merge Snapdeal in to itself. Infibeam aimed to create a combined $2-billion entity if the merger talks with Snapdeal would have had successfully went through.

Notably, in March 2017, Jason was also appointed as the CEO of FreeCharge, a digital wallet of Snapdeal later sold to Axis Bank. Moreover, it was Jason who managed the sale of Snapdeal’s e-commerce management firm Unicommerce to Infibeam for Rs 1.2 billion in May, and logistics arm Vulcan to Future group for ₹35 Crore.

Interestingly, when Jason was just 15, he was an assistant to Hollywood action star Jackie Chan.

Jason graduated from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in Finance. He is also the co-founder of Valiant Entertainment, a company which has a library of 1,500 characters, including X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, Harbinger, Shadowman, Archer & Armstrong. He was the CEO of Valiant Entertainment from 2007 to 2013.

Via - Economic Times | Wikipedia

Snapdeal Launches Travel Store

Snapdeal has set-up a travel store that helps buyers with travel necessities at affordable prices.

Snapdeal has set-up a travel store that helps buyers with travel necessities at affordable prices. With the holiday season ahead, the store is aimed at helping users with a one-stop destination to buy must-have products and also the good to have ones for a vacation in mountains, beaches and more. The newly launched store consists of products across categories like hiking, luggage, entertainment, travel accessories, road trip, toiletries and clothing for travel.

Following are the highlights of the latest online store:

• Luggage & Accessories: Pack the right items for your travel and make yourself feel comfortable. Grab travel pillows, eye masks, earplugs in different colours and patterns at Rs.229, Rs.159 and Rs.259 respectively. The classy yet simple luggage bags and travel duffels start from Rs. 999.



• Go Hiking: Hiking boots and activewear (both men & women) available at just upto 70% off. First-time hikers especially must not forget to purchase the hiking tents starting from Rs. 399. Its also wise to carry headlamps available at a starting price of Rs. 220, rucksacks which start from Rs. 899 and sleeping bags under Rs. 1999.



• Entertainment: You can spend those long hours of travel by documenting your travel, clicking pictures and listening to music. You can opt for DSLRs at a discount of up to 20% off. For music, you can undoubtedly go for Bluetooth speakers which are available at upto 50% off and if you want to avoid any hindrance in your entertainment, you can buy some rechargeable batteries under Rs. 999 and the bestselling power banks at upto 70% off.



• Road Trip: The online store has also got you sorted for the things that you would need for your road trip. You can get a tracking compass and GPS device starting from Rs. 239. To feel more relaxed during the road trip, you can buy car backrests and car inflatable beds starting from Rs.299 and Rs.2699 respectively.



• Dress up & look your best: Upgrade your travel wardrobe with upto 70% off on casual shirts & jackets, upto 80% off on sweaters, minimum 60% off on boots, flip-flops starting from Rs.189 and printed t-shirts under Rs.699 for men. The ladies can pick some trendy must-have tops and beachwear starting from Rs. 299. There is an upto 80% off on jackets, blazers and dresses.

Via - Business Wire India

Future Group Acquires Snapdeal's Logistics Arm For ₹35 Crore

Kishore Biyani's Future Group's Supply Chain Solutions today said it will fully acquire Snapdeal's logistics service provider Vulcan Express Pvt Ltd in an all-cash deal valued at Rs 35 crore, reported Business Line.

With this acquisition, Future Group plans to boost its last mile capabilities and also offer modern solutions to its e-commerce and retail clients.

The acquisition deal happened in less than a month after Snapdeal infused fresh funds of ₹27 crore into Vulcan Express. Earlier in this month only, we reported about the possibilities of this acquisition.

Snapdeal Chief Strategy and Investment Officer Jason Kothari said, "Similar to our recent sale of FreeCharge, we believe Snapdeal's sale of Vulcan Express to Future Group is a successful deal for all three parties."

"Company divests off an asset that is non-strategic in nature for Snapdeal 2.0, allowing it to focus its capital and management on its core e-commerce business; Future Group gains high-quality pan-India end-to-end e-commerce logistics capabilities, and Vulcan secures a great new home for its business, including its team.", added Kothari in an official statement.

In an internal mail to employees, Vulcan Express CEO Hardeep Singh said, "This association is being recognised to be one of the most significant developments in the logistics industry in India... Vulcan's capabilities will be of big value to Future Supply Chain in enhancing its footprint and services".

Earlier in July 2017, it was reported that for sale of Vulcan Express Snapdeal was in talks with a few contenders including Gati, the express distribution and supply chain company, considered one of the largest in the country, and TVS Logistics. But it did not materialise into a firm deal.

Formed in 2014, Vulcan Express used to manage about half of Snapdeal's deliveries and shipments, replacing gojavas as the primary logistics partner, when about three years ago Snapdeal abandoned its plan to acquire Gojavas.

Future Group has been on an acquisition spree in the recent past. In April 2016, Future Group had also acquired Fabfurnish, an online furniture retailer, in an all-cash deal, followed by acquisition of Shoppers' Stop for Rs 655 crore.

Future Group Acquires Snapdeal's Logistics Arm For ₹35 Crore

Kishore Biyani's Future Group's Supply Chain Solutions today said it will fully acquire Snapdeal's logistics service provider Vulcan Express Pvt Ltd in an all-cash deal valued at Rs 35 crore, reported Business Line.

With this acquisition, Future Group plans to boost its last mile capabilities and also offer modern solutions to its e-commerce and retail clients.

The acquisition deal happened in less than a month after Snapdeal infused fresh funds of ₹27 crore into Vulcan Express. Earlier in this month only, we reported about the possibilities of this acquisition.

Snapdeal Chief Strategy and Investment Officer Jason Kothari said, "Similar to our recent sale of FreeCharge, we believe Snapdeal's sale of Vulcan Express to Future Group is a successful deal for all three parties."

"Company divests off an asset that is non-strategic in nature for Snapdeal 2.0, allowing it to focus its capital and management on its core e-commerce business; Future Group gains high-quality pan-India end-to-end e-commerce logistics capabilities, and Vulcan secures a great new home for its business, including its team.", added Kothari in an official statement.

In an internal mail to employees, Vulcan Express CEO Hardeep Singh said, "This association is being recognised to be one of the most significant developments in the logistics industry in India... Vulcan's capabilities will be of big value to Future Supply Chain in enhancing its footprint and services".

Earlier in July 2017, it was reported that for sale of Vulcan Express Snapdeal was in talks with a few contenders including Gati, the express distribution and supply chain company, considered one of the largest in the country, and TVS Logistics. But it did not materialise into a firm deal.

Formed in 2014, Vulcan Express used to manage about half of Snapdeal's deliveries and shipments, replacing gojavas as the primary logistics partner, when about three years ago Snapdeal abandoned its plan to acquire Gojavas.

Future Group has been on an acquisition spree in the recent past. In April 2016, Future Group had also acquired Fabfurnish, an online furniture retailer, in an all-cash deal, followed by acquisition of Shoppers' Stop for Rs 655 crore.

Future Group May Buy Snapdeal's Logistics Arm For ₹50 Crore

Within a week after Snapdeal infused fresh funds of ₹27 crore into Vulcan Express, its logistics arm, here comes the news that Future Group, India's larest retailer is in talks to buy Vulcan for about ₹50 crore in an all-cash deal.

Earlier in July 2017, it was reported that for sale of Vulcan Express Snapdeal was in talks with a few contenders including Gati, the express distribution and supply chain company, considered one of the largest in the country, and TVS Logistics. But it did not materialise into a firm deal.

With Vulcan purchase, Future Group wants to boost its strategy of integrating the retail company's digital and brick-and mortar retail businesses.

Formed in 2014, Vulcan Express manages about half of Snapdeal's deliveries and shipments, replacing gojavas as the primary logistics partner, when about three years ago Snapdeal abandoned its plan to acquire Gojavas.

Elaborating the purchase deal, the ET report said, "It will be a distress sale and the final valuation could be less than Rs 50 crore. The contours of the deal, including the size and through which company it will be done, are still being worked out."

It is also said that even if Snapdeal sell out Vulcan to whom so ever, the logistics company will continue to be the shipping and delivery partner of e-commerce firm.

Kishore Biyani-owned Future Supply Chain, on other hand, has raised Rs 650 crore by listing on the stock exchanges, a couple of weeks ago. The decade-old company caters to clients across consumer, food and beverages, ecommerce and electronics and gets about 63% of its revenue from group entities. At present, Future Group's technology integration, internally called Retail 3.0, is being piloted by making several Easyday stores a marketplace, giving consumers access to the company's entire inventory through the digital medium.

In April 2016, Future Group had also acquired Fabfurnish, an online furniture retailer, in an all-cash deal. The company however failing to run the purchased business and now its been reported that Kishore Biyani will shut down the Fabfurnish business.

Snapdeal Pumps in ₹27 Crore Into Its Logistics Arm Vulcan Express

The troubled e-commerce startup Snapdeal has again injected fresh funds worth ₹27 crore into its logistics arm Vulcan express.

The filings with the Registrar of Companies said Snapdeal has allotted 2.7 crore shares worth ₹27 crore to Vulcan Express. For 2015-16, Vulcan Express has posted losses of about ₹20 crore on revenues of around ₹185 crore.

This is the third time since June, Snapdeal has pumped in funds into the company.

In June, Snapdeal invested ₹36.5 crore into Vulcan and then came its biggest investment of ₹152.44 crore, in September this year.

Notably, Snapdeal is trying to sell Vulcan Express since it was in talks for possible merger with Flipkart early this year which eventually failed. For 2015-16, Vulcan Express has posted losses of about ₹20 crore on revenues of around ₹185 crore.

In July, it was reported that for sale of Vulcan Express the company was in talks with a few contenders including Gati, the express distribution and supply chain company, considered one of the largest in the country, and TVS Logistics. But it did not materialise into a firm deal.

Vulcan Express was formed in 2014 after Snapdeal abandoned its plans to acquire GoJavas, another logistics company in which it had invested about ₹250 crore and owned over 40% stake.

Reportedly, Vulcan Express operates in over 100 cities and over 50 per cent of the deliveries of Snapdeal is carried out by the logistics subsidiary.

To recall, the already troubled Snapdeal got more pressure when it received jaw-dropped Rs 300-crore legal notice from GoJavas' parent company Quickdel Logistics, in October this year.

Snapdeal Pumps in ₹27 Crore Into Its Logistics Arm Vulcan Express

The troubled e-commerce startup Snapdeal has again injected fresh funds worth ₹27 crore into its logistics arm Vulcan express.

The filings with the Registrar of Companies said Snapdeal has allotted 2.7 crore shares worth ₹27 crore to Vulcan Express. For 2015-16, Vulcan Express has posted losses of about ₹20 crore on revenues of around ₹185 crore.

This is the third time since June, Snapdeal has pumped in funds into the company.

In June, Snapdeal invested ₹36.5 crore into Vulcan and then came its biggest investment of ₹152.44 crore, in September this year.

Notably, Snapdeal is trying to sell Vulcan Express since it was in talks for possible merger with Flipkart early this year which eventually failed. For 2015-16, Vulcan Express has posted losses of about ₹20 crore on revenues of around ₹185 crore.

In July, it was reported that for sale of Vulcan Express the company was in talks with a few contenders including Gati, the express distribution and supply chain company, considered one of the largest in the country, and TVS Logistics. But it did not materialise into a firm deal.

Vulcan Express was formed in 2014 after Snapdeal abandoned its plans to acquire GoJavas, another logistics company in which it had invested about ₹250 crore and owned over 40% stake.

Reportedly, Vulcan Express operates in over 100 cities and over 50 per cent of the deliveries of Snapdeal is carried out by the logistics subsidiary.

To recall, the already troubled Snapdeal got more pressure when it received jaw-dropped Rs 300-crore legal notice from GoJavas' parent company Quickdel Logistics, in October this year.

Homegrown E-commerce Giant Snapdeal Infuse $23.7 Mn Into Vulcan Express

In July 2017, IndianWeb2 reported that the logistics arm of online marketplace Snapdeal’s Vulcan Express is soon going to acquired by express distribution and supply-chain companies, Gati, Peepul Capital and TVS Logistics.

With this acquisition, Snapdeal looks to gain about Rs 100-120 crore from the sale of its logistics unit, Vulcan Express. There are no buyers yet. And given Snapdeal’s knack of dilly-dallying, that could take longer as well.

But now, here comes the another development from the e-commerce major. According to filings with the Registrar of Companies, the Vulcan Express has received $23.7 million) from its parent, Snapdeal.

According to Vccircle report, the company raised the sum by allocating 15.24 crore equity shares at Rs 10 apiece to Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd, which operates Snapdeal, on 7 August.

The new funding round comes even as Snapdeal is reportedly trying sell off Vulcan Express.

In early August, it had come to light that Snapdeal was looking at a price tag of Rs 200 crore for Vulcan. A sale was expected to happen in 30-40 days. However, there no response has been received on the same.

According to industry experts, the current infuse into Vulcan possibly means a sale may not happen anytime soon. It also indicates Snapdeal’s intent to reconsider its original objective of building a profitable business in Vulcan.

Vulcan Express was the result of Snapdeal’s decision to build its own logistics arm, after its moves to acquire GoJavas did not materialize. Snapdeal, which had acquired a 42% stake in GoJavas in 2015, pulled out its business after instances of large-scale financial irregularities. GoJavas was later acquired by Pigeon Express.

In FY16, Vulcan Express posted a huge jump in net revenue to Rs 184 crore, up from Rs 26.7 crore in FY15. However, losses also widened six-fold to Rs 20 crore from Rs 3.2 crore in FY15. The company is yet to file its financials for FY17.

As part of the Snapdeal 2.0 strategy, which the e-tailer charted after its merger talks with Flipkart hit a dead end, It is looking to pivot to a pure play marketplace model. It will lay off a chunk of its workforce in the process. Shedding off its associated entities FreeCharge, Unicommerce and Vulcan was also reportedly part of the strategy.

Snapdeal is technically the first Unicorpse Startup of India as the troubled start saw its valuation falling down from $6.5 billion to less than $1 billion in a year or so.

Snapdeal now has cash reserves of Rs 385 crore ($60 million) from Axis Bank to which it sold its payments unit, FreeCharge.

Notably, a number of mistakes founders of Snapdeal had made can possibly make them the ‘Yahoo’ of India as by rejecting the $900 million merger offer from Flipkart can cost them a more setback in terms of valuation in future. But with this infuse, it looks like that e-commerce major is trying to rework on its mistakes.

Snapdeal Employees Protest Against Founders, Write To PMO, RBI Governor

A lot of things are happening in Indian e-commerce are as after series of events -- Snapdeal backed off merger with Flipkart thereafter Snapdeal's largest investor Softbank invested whopping $2.1 billion in Flipkart -- employees of Snapdeal have decided to protest by writing a joint letter to co-founders, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal.

The employees -- both former and current -- have also sent copies of the letter to Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Finance and Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

In a letter dated August 3rd, reviewed by Moneycontrol, the employees allege that the Plan B or Snapdeal 2.0 plan is not viable and would only keep the founders in-charge at the cost of a large number of employees.

To recall, after Snapdeal founders backed-off from merger with Flipkart and this whole lot of drama when finally ended the repercussions of failed merger went towards the company employees when it was reported that the company will layoff 80% of its employees. Although, it was never officially announced from Snapdeal.

"An independent inquiry into the affairs of this company would reveal how the interests of employees and possibly shareholders were destroyed to protect the interest of two people," the letter reads.

The letter further reads, "We saw a proud unicorn change into a troubled company. But we kept the faith and believed what you said - the employees of this organization are your "single biggest priority".

The letter has also been marked to the managing director of Axis Bank, among at least a dozen other recipients. Last month, Axis Bank announced the acquisition of Snapdeal's mobile wallet firm Freecharge in an all cash deal for Rs 385 crore.

Snapdeal has responded to the allegations in the letter. "The board has made no decision with regard to the team composition for Snapdeal 2.0. The company cannot comment on baseless, unsubstantiated allegations made by unidentified sources," said a Snapdeal Spokesperson.

Sources close to the recent developments said that it was the disagreement between the entire set of two dozen odd stakeholders that led to termination of merger talks. "Founders cannot be squarely blamed as they had only agreed to the possibility of a merger and a subsequent due diligence early on," said a source close to the merger talks.

To recall, according to a Reuters report, while the board of Jasper Infotech, which runs Snapdeal, had approved Flipkart’s second offer, the deal was awaiting an approval of smaller shareholders, which never came. Reportedly, the shareholders weren't happy with the term sheet furnished by Flipkart as it was laced with a lot of 'hold backs' and 'clauses.'

Related Reading - Why Snapdeal Cancelled Flipkart Deal In Last Stage

The letter from employees also questions the co-founders decision making with respect to some of the acquisitions and initiatives including the acquisition of logistics firm GoJavas.

In the letter, the employees seem to be unhappy about the founders' 2.0 plan. "It is a poisonous plan to destroy the organisation so that you stay in charge. So many people to be impacted for the sake of just two of you," the letter reads.

As per the 2.0 plan, Snapdeal is expected to lay-off about 600 people which could make it a leaner organisation

Kunal Bahl, co-founder, however boasted after calling quit with Flipkart deal boasted of making Rs 150 Crore gross profit in next 12 months.

According to the letter, the entire episode at Snapdeal has impacted around 40,000 people including Snapdeal's employees and their dependents.

"These are real people, not statistics. They are from different functions and they know what you have done," the letter further says.

While the letter seems to be a vent for the troubled employees, we couldn't independently verify the number of employees who have protested with the letter.

Snapdeal To Layoff 80% of Its Employees After Calling Off Flipkart Deal

Soon after calling off the merger deal with Flipkart, Snapdeal has now made its next strategy to go through a massive resizing. The struggling online marketplace now wants to run a leaner, meaner version of the organization, and will lay off close to 80 percent of its workforce, ANI reports.

A top official told the news agency that department heads were instructed to prepare a list of people who would be asked to leave. At present, Snapdeal has about 1,200 employees. If the Gurgaon-based firm goes through with its decision, it would be left with about 200 employees only.

This would be Snapdeal’s second major layoff exercise. Last year in July, it had slashed its workforce from over 9,000 to under 2,000 [Read Here]. It was one of the biggest layoffs in the India's startup space. And earlier this year, it fired 600 more employees in a bid to cut costs; the founders as well as some top executives had to forego their salaries. “We believe that every resource of the company should be deployed for driving us towards profitable growth and with this announcement, both Rohit and I are taking a 100 percent salary cut,” Snapdeal founder & CEO, Kunal Bahl, wrote in an email to employees.

According to a senior executive who remain wants to be anonymous, the company has plan to retain around 300 odd employees in the company.

Snapdeal is technically the first Unicorpse Startup of India as the troubled start saw its valuation falling down from $6.5 billion to less than $1 billion in a year or so.

Snapdeal now has cash reserves of Rs 385 crore ($60 million) from Axis Bank to which it sold its payments unit, FreeCharge. It further looks to gain about Rs 100-120 crore from the sale of its logistics unit, Vulcan Express. There are no buyers yet. And given Snapdeal’s knack of dilly-dallying, that could take long as well.

Notably, the amount of mistakes founders of Snapdeal had made can possibly make them the 'Yahoo' of India as by rejecting the $900 million merger offer from Flipkart can cost them a more setback in terms of valuation in future.

10 Startup News That Made Headline This Week [24 - 29 July]

Missed the happening of startup world? Here is the recap for you. Mentioned below are the 10 news which made headlines this week:

Snapdeal Board Gives Green Signal For FreeCharge Sale To Axis Bank

This week finally saw the sale of FreeCharge, Snapdeal’s digital payments platform to country’s third-largest private sector lender, Axis Bank. The sale marks the end of a two-year long process where numerous buyers came forward to pitch their bid for FreeCharge. According to a media report, the deal could end up valuing FreeCharge somewhere between Rs 385 crore-Rs 390 crores, which would be a steep plunge from the Rs 2,400 crore figure that Jasper Infotech paid in the year 2015 to acquire the company. The report further revealed that an official announcement on the sale could be made anytime now.

If sources to be believed, the Snapdeal board has also given a go ahead to Flipkart’s revised offer for Snapdeal and an official announcement on the same can also be made within the upcoming week.

FIR Filed Against Startup Founder For Misusing Aadhaar

The organisation administering Aadhaar, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has recently filed an official police complaint against the Abhinav Srivastava, co-founder of a mobile payment startup, Qarth Technologies accusing him of misusing Aadhaar data from its website. According to the FIR, Srivastava is accused of giving out e-KYC and misusing data from the Aadhaar’s official website via a mobile application that he had created.

According to a report in the Hindu, the complaint filed with the Bengaluru Police was registered by Ashok Lenin the Deputy Director at the UIDAI Regional Office in Bengaluru. According to the FIR, Srivastava has been booked under Section 29(2) of the Aadhaar act which restricts sharing Aadhaar data with others. In addition to that, he has also been booked under Sections 65 and 66 of the IT act and Sections 468 and 471 for forgery with Section 120(B) for conspiracy.

Google Launches AI Studios For Startups

The Google’s Launchpad has announced a new hands-on studio program that would help AI startups with resources that would help them kickstart their company’s journey to success and scale to new heights. Launchpad with its AI studio aims to solve all the problems for AI Startups and provide them with a level field with other startups to progress and achieve momentum success. It plans to achieve this by making them available with specialized data sets, prototyping assistance and simulation tools. Another major attraction of the Launchpad Studio is that the selected AI startups will get unlimited access to Google’s top notch talent, including IP experts, product specialists and engineers.

Nemo Care Ends Israel’s Search For Women-Led Tech Startups In India

Hyderabad-based Nemo Care, the winner of the fifth edition of the Start TLV Competition along with the five women-led startups will represent India at Start Tel Aviv workshop in Israel this year.
At the Start TLV ‘boost camp’, Pratyusha Pareddy, co-founder, Nemo Care will join local Israeli entrepreneurs and participate in lectures, workshops, and meetings with leading Israeli and international investors and professionals.

Start TLV is a global annual event organised by Israeli MFA and Tel Aviv Municipality. The competition is the platform to support women entrepreneurs in the country to accelerate their startup growth. In order to search India’s upcoming women-led tech startups with a social impact, the Embassy of Israel had joined hands with the Indian government’s Startup India programme, TiE-NCR, YES Bank, YES Global Institute and CNBC-TV18.

Facebook Acquires US Based Startup Source3

Social networking giant Facebook has recently acquired US-based startup Source3 to help the tech giant in its battle against pirated content on its social networking platform. Source3 has built successful licensing platforms powering digital music, user-generated videos and 3D printing. It offers scalable, turnkey solutions for today’s global licensing challenges.

The New York-headquartered startup claims to be the world’s first platform for end-to-end management of intellectual property in user-generated content (UGC). It provides IP recognition, licensing and rights administration services to connect creators, marketplaces and brands and enable monetization of user content across physical and digital products.

Paytm Mall Limits Delivery To 17k Pin Codes; Delists 50% Logistic Partners

Paytm Mall, owned by Paytm Ecommerce Pvt Ltd has delisted 50% logistics partners, stopping deliveries to more than 9,000 pin codes out of 26,000 were guaranteed assistance in returns and replacements was not assured. Based on this audit, the company has delisted 6 out of 14 logistic partners and 30 courier aggregation centres, as they were unable to offer a consistently superior consumer experience. The company aims to establish a reliable logistics ecosystem with greater transparency in delivery and replacement timelines while ensuring that exact products are delivered in a good condition.

In another development, Indian e-wallet giant Paytm has recently revealed that it has joined hands with online lottery company AGTech Media, which has the backing of Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, to make mobile games in the Indian subcontinent.
According to information available, both the companies have decided to jointly put in about $16 million capital in the new company.

Not IITs, Zoho Is Massively Hiring High School Graduates

Zoho, a Chennai-based software firm founded the Zoho University (ZU) initiative. The University, which took birth 12 years ago in 2005, trains turns software programmers out of high-school graduates and then hires them for roles at salaries on par with engineering graduates. The initiative’s more than a decade old life is the testimonial of its success and popularity among the Indian youth.

In today’s times, when India is finally waking up to the fact of shortage of quality engineering talent in the country, accompanied by the proliferation of automation and advanced technologies, Zoho’s University model is gaining a lot of traction.

Lendingkart Group Appoints Two New Vice Presidents

Lendingkart Group has made two significant appointments to strengthen its leadership team. Utsav Mehrotra, formerly an investment banker with Axis Capital, has joined as Vice President of Capital Markets taking charge of fundraising and marketplace initiatives. Abhishek Arora, who was earlier heading the seller management & growth vertical at e-commerce unicorn in Middle-East and North Africa (MENA) region – Souq.com, has come on board as Vice President of Revenue & Operations.

MTV To Air India’s First Reality Show For College Dropouts

Finally, here is the announcement of the reality show by veterans Raghu Ram and Rajiv Lakshman which will help the truants of the country to achieve their startup dreams. The show called Droom.in presents MTV Dropout Pvt. Ltd. will premiere on July 29 at 7 pm on MTV and next day onwards on VOOT. The show has been created by Monozygotic and co-developed by MTV and Monozygotic. The show will help in identifying college ‘dropouts’ with real entrepreneurial potential and transform their lives forever by helping them setup their own startup journey.

The shortlisted talents will be groomed and mentored by some of the biggest names in the industry through a trials-by-fire method where the contestants will have to solve their way out of real-world business problems in a short span of time and prove their hunger for their entrepreneurial dream.

Singapore’s Prestellar Ventures Launches $100 Mn VC Fund

Prestellar Ventures, a Singapore-based venture capital firm, launched a $100 million venture capital fund backed by four general partners (‘GPs’) – CG Corp Global (Nepal’s sole Forbes-listed billion-dollar enterprise), Satin Creditcare (the third largest Microfinance Institution in India), Frontline Strategy (a private-equity firm in Mauritius) and N.E. Group (a family conglomerate in Nepal).

The fund seeks to partner with passionate entrepreneurs and disruptive startups across South Asia and ASEAN in the Hospitality, Consumer, Financial Services, Rural Product and Services sectors, typically in ‘Pre-Series A’ deals with a cheque size of approximately $2-3 million. The firm is seeking to raise and deploy country specific sub-funds across the South Asia region-more specifically India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Other Important News

Apart from these startups news, there were other important headlines which grabbed the eyeballs of the readers. Paytm has appointed Kiran Vasireddy as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for its payments business. Going forward, Kiran will be overseeing all product and business functions for the payments division in line with its growth plan for bringing 500 million Indians into the mainstream economy.

On the other hand, Capillary Technologies, the Omni channel customer engagement and commerce platform, has appointed Ganesh Lakshminarayanan as the new COO of the company.

Jugnoo, hyperlocal startup, is all set to create its footprints in the South Korean market. The B2B offering of the company, Tookan has been selected as one of the top three finalists to participate in K-Startup Grand Challenge – a 4 month accelerator programme, organised by the Korean government.  Jugnoo is selected from the 70 Indian Startups that auditioned for the challenge becoming 1 of the top 3 finalists making it a big achievement for the team.

Lastly,  Awfis Space Solutions has launched its first community workplace in Pune at Baner.

Major Scuffle Between E-Commerce Vendors and Commerce Ministry

The Scuffle between e-commerce vendors on one side and commerce ministry along with e-commerce companies on one side is catalyzing day by day.

Few days back AIOVA, an e-commerce vendors association had issued a trade advisory notice against e-commerce firm Flipkart for recording wrong weights for shipments.

Now in a new turmoil Nirmala Sitharaman has outrageously said that the commerce minitry is still undecided on forming an e-commerce regulatory body, giving a setback to hopes of e-commerce vendors in the country.

No Decision By Govt On E-Commerce Regulatory Body

The minister of state for commerce and industry, Nirmala Sitharaman, said the government has not reached a decision on setting up a central regulatory body to monitor e-commerce companies as of now.

The statement was made in response to queries raised by the members of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday based on representations made by the All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA), an association of vendors who sell products on marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal.

AIOVA issued a statement saying that, "The minister is nowhere mentioning that vendors also require similar support which is being given to the consumers. Our association has laid out multiple representations in media, to ministry, DIPP, RBI and Niti Aayog."

Nirmala Sitharaman said that -- E-commerce activities are governed by a number of Regulations Acts and no decision has been taken by the government for setting up a regulator for e-commerce."

In response to a related question, Sitharaman acknowledged that the government had received communication from AIOVA to resolve issues related to payment settlement for online sellers."No such data (on quantum of business done through e-commerce sites in the country) is centrally maintained," the statement said.

Commerce Ministry "Scooting" E-Commerce Issues

Besides, AIOVA also alleged that despite multiple pleas, the Commerce Ministry is running away with their issues with respect to the marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal, and appealed for intervention from a higher authority.

In September, the association had met Nirmala Sitharaman to request her to take up the pending payment issue of cash-strapped e-commerce firm AskMe.

AskMe's shut down left around 4,000 people jobless and several vendors without payments.

There hasn't been a concrete solution offered on that so far.

"The minister should understand that the said companies are e-commerce marketplaces who have collected money from consumers on sellers behalf and not reimbursed to sellers. The minister had met the representatives of our association in 2016 and had assured to look into our problems, however, there is no headway into the same," the association said.

Flipkart Start Afresh To Acquire Snapdeal; To Make New $1Billion Offer

After getting refusal from Snapdeal for its $850 million buyout offer, Flipkart is expected to start afresh with new, revised and improved offer in the next few days for acquiring Snapdeal, according to sources close to Flipkart management but don't want to disclose their identity.

According to the source, the new improved offer is likely to be close to USD 1 billion to woo Snapdeal. Notably, the $1 billion ammount was the initial asking price for acquisition of troubled e-commerce marketplace.

Further, if the terms are accepted, the deal would be completed within a month or so. As Snapdeal has already got nod from all of its stake holders including smaller ones like Azim Premzi and Ratan Tata.

SoftBank, Snapdeal’s largest investor, has been proactively mediating the plausible acquisition deal for the past few months. The board of Snapdeal also has representation from its founders (Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal), Nexus Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital. Snapdeal is also engaged in separate discussions for selling its mobile wallet Freecharge, possibly to Airtel or Axis Bank and also selling its logistics arm Vulcan Express. These deals are also likely to be closed within this month only.

The deal between Snapdeal and Flipkart, if completed, would mark the biggest acquisition in the Indian e-commerce space. Snapdeal’s valuations have also plunged from about $6.5 billion in February 2016 to just $1 billion in April this year. SoftBank has already written off over $1 billion on valuation of its investment in Snapdeal

Snapdeal’s Logistic Arm Vulcan Might Get Acquired By Gati, TVS

Here comes the another news from Snapdeal House. If sources to be believed, the logistics arm of online marketplace Snapdeal’s Vulcan Express is soon going to acquired. According to ET, express distribution and supply-chain companies, Gati, Peepul Capital and TVS Logistics have shown their interest to acquire Vulcan Express.

The report further state that Snapdeal is expecting Vulcan Express to fetch Rs 90-120 crore from the acquisition which could take place over the next 60 days.

If everything goes well, this sale will provide much-needed capital relief to Snapdeal owners while they continue to negotiate its own sale to rival e-commerce company Flipkart.

Jason Kothari, chief strategy and investment officer at Snapdeal is spearheading the transaction on behalf of the online marketplace, with Alvarez and Marsal advising the company. If sources to be believed, the potential acquisition of Vulcan Express may be routed by Warburg Pincus, a global private equity major through one of its portfolio companies in India.

Homegrown e-commerce giant, Flipkart, which recently offered $800-900 million for Snapdeal, an offer that was rejected by the compnay board last week, is also expected to separately bid for the logistics unit. However, the Bengaluru-headquartered domestic online retail giant is expected to come back with a revised offer for Snapdeal, close the transaction first, before it begins negotiations for Vulcan Express.

This also comes after Axis Bank has emerged as one of the frontrunners to acquire the digital payments platform owned by Snapdeal, FreeCharge.

Now Snapdeal Rejects Flipkart’s $850 Million Buyout Offer

People were eagerly waiting for the merge of Snapdeal and Flipkart. But talk between the two rivals have taken a different turn as they have hit another hurdle. According to a media reports, Jasper Infotech owned, Snapdeal board has refused the initial offer. E-commerce major, Flipkart has completed the due diligence process and has made an offer of $800-850 million to buy Snapdeal. But Snapdeal’s board felt that offer made by Flipkart undervalued the company.

Commenting on the development, one of the source told PTI, "The first offer has been rejected but talks are still on. It is an ongoing discussion."

Snapdeal's largest investor, SoftBank has been proactively mediating the sale for the past few months.

Earlier this month, IndianWeb2 reported that Flipkart has completed its due diligence and has found everything okay and clean, but Flipkart has still not come back with a final number for the Snapdeal acquisition.

With the time ticking, if the deal doesn’t goes through in the next few days, the flailing Snapdeal’s board would have no choice but to either extend the timeline on the acquisition or start from the scratch again by putting the ecommerce site on the For Sale window again.

The merged entity is expected to give a major push to the current cut throat competition going on between Jeff Bezos’ Amazon and India’s very own homegrown e-commerce leader, Flipkart.

10 Startups News That Made Headlines This Week

Missed your daily updates on startup world? Not to worry. We at IndianWeb2 brings for our readers a weekly roundup. From Snapdeal raising funds to FreeCharge in talks with BoB and Times Internet for its acquisition, we brings to you all the important happening of the ecosystem.

Here are are Seven news that made headline this week:

Snapdeal Bags Rs.113 Cr In An Emergency Funding Round

Despite all the troubles and bleeding loses, homegrown e-commerce major has managed to bagged Rs 113 Cr from the existing investor Nexus Venture Partners and the company’s founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, in lieu of its 2015 acquisition of Unicommerce eSolutions.

This emergency round of funding round comes as a surprise as Snapdeal has been in talks with to get acquired by its rival Flipkart.

According to RoC (Registrar of Documents) filled by Sanpdeal, and accessed by corporate research and mentoring platform Tofler, Nexus Venture Partners was issued 14,810 preference shares, valued at Rs 96.26 crore while the founders — Bahl and Bansal, were each allotted 1,300 Series J1 preference shares, which have a cumulative value of Rs 16.90 crore (Rs 8.45 crore each) making a total of Rs 113 crores.Now we have to see how this latest funding round will help the company. Will it affect the company’s talks with Flipkart for

Now we have to see how this latest funding round will help the company. Will it affect the company’s talks with Flipkart for a plausible sellout or not? Only time will tell this.

DIPP To Pump In Rs 1600 Cr Fund of Funds for Startups Underway

Department of Industrial, Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has sought Rs 1,600 crore from the finance ministry in the supplementary demand for grants for the Fund-of-Funds (FFS) for startups in the current financial year.

Notably, around Rs 500 crore fund of funds is a backlog and now DIPP has sought an additional Rs 1,100 crore for the fund-of-funds making it a total of Rs. 1600 crore.

Earlier in June 2016, the Union Cabinet has approved setting up of Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) under Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for extending support to Startups.

E-wallet FreeCharge Is In Talks With BOB, Times Internet

For An All Cash Acquisition

Jasper Infotech’s e-wallet FreeCharge is in talks with Bank of Baroda (BOB) and Times Internet for an all-cash acquisition. The deal size is expected to be in the range of $60 – $75 million. This deal will allow BOB to expand its mobile wallet service, M-Clip which was launched last year and also to get access to millions of young customers FreeCharge has on its platform.

Whereas with this deal Times Internet looks to add the wallet service to its online ventures like as Indiatimes Shopping and Gaana to name few.

India Ranked 3rd Among Countries With Most Unicorns

As per a report by CB Insights, there are 197 companies in the world that can be currently identified as “unicorns”. Of these 197, 22 new unicorns were added this year (till May 26, 2017) alone indicating a good time for the global startup industry.

Further, the report highlighted that India with 4 percent of the world’s unicorns based out of its land, is ranked 3rd in countries with most unicorns.

The unicorns, which are collectively valued at a jaw-dropping $679 billion and have raised a whopping $142 billion in funding, belong to 13 verticals, which includes- e-commerce/marketplace, internet software & services, fintech, social, cybersecurity, on-demand, big data, healthcare to name few.

11 Year Old VC Firm, Helion Ventures Reaches Its Dead End

Helion Ventures, one of India’s oldest venture capital firms has reached its dead end. The firm had invested in startups like MakeMyTrip, Big Basket, Shopclues in their early stages.Founded in 2006 by Rahul Chandra, Ashish Gupta, Kanwaljit Singh and Sanjeev Aggarwal, Helion was left with only one co-founder, Rahul Chandra, when in 2016 the other three co-founders made exit from the VC firm.

Now in the latest development, Rahul Chandra is launching a $100 million early-stage fund — Unitary Helion . The fund will invest in sectors like fintech and digital marketplaces and with this move, it’s officially the end of Helion, an 11-year-old VC firm.

Flipkart’s COO Nitin Seth Step Down

Flipkart’s one of the top ranking executives, Nitin Seth has put in his papers. Serving as Flipkart chief operating officer, Seth was in charge of logistics unit Ekart besides corporate functions like strategy and human resources (HR).

Nitin’s exit will put CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy in charge of all the key functions of the organisation which will further tighten the grip the former Tiger Global Management Executive. Prior joining Flipkart, Nitin worked as the MD and country head for Fidelity International. Before that he led McKinsey’s global knowledge center in India for 8 years.

IndiQus Technologies Acquires Dartboard Analytics

Indiqus Technologies has acquired Delhi-based Dartboard Analytics, an analytics company providing data-driven insights into customer operations to grow customer revenue. In an all-stock deal, the Dartboard founders will join the IndiQus leadership team.

Dartboard is IndiQus’ second acquisition in the last two years. In April 2016, IndiQus had acquired shopping assistance startup Amicus to add intelligence to their Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) catalog for enterprises and cloud service providers. With Dartboard’s acquisition, IndiQus enhances its product portfolio with the much-in-demand analytics solution for cloud platforms.

Milind Shah Joins Unitus Seed Fund as Healthcare Venture Partner

Former MD of Medtronic, Milind Shah has Joined Unitus Seed Fund as a Healthcare Venture Partner. Shah brings to Unitus Seed Fund over three decades of leadership experience in sales, marketing, and corporate planning positions across varied businesses, including healthcare and speciality chemicals with global industry majors like Medtronic, Henkel, 3M and Shell.

Shah joins Fund with a mandate of furthering healthcare innovation for India’s billion-plus population by investing in 8-10 innovative and scalable healthcare businesses. In line with this aim, Unitus Seed Fund has earmarked INR 100 crore to invest in healthcare and also has launched the AmpHealth program, providing non-dilutive catalytic capital of up to Rs 1.75 crore ($250, 000) to fund immediate pre-commercialisation coupled with up to Rs 3.5 crore ( $500, 000) of seed capital.

Indian Tech Startups Receives Invite From S Korea for Global Competition

South Korea government is currently inviting tech startups from all around the world to take part in K-Startup Grand Challenge 2017. Backed by the Korean government, the K-Startup Grand Challenge 2017 will provide tech startups from any part of the world to lock in business agreements with Korean companies and giants. According to the website dedicated to the challenge, one of the key purposes of this event is to promote vigorous collaborations and exchange of ideas between domestic (Korean) and foreign startups.

According to the sources, 50 startups will walk away with a $12,000 prize for living expenses during their four-month stay in South Korea. Of these 50, the selected 25 will be given a grant of $27,000 each at the Demo Day.

These 20 Indian Startups Will Setup Business in London

20 Indian startups have been selected for assistance to set up their businesses in London as a part of the India Emerging Twenty (IE20) programme. The winners will now get an opportunity to go to London during London Tech Week scheduled to happen this month. The IE20 programme, which is being supported by global tax, accounting and advisory network BDO aspires to discover 20 of India’s most innovative and high-growth companies with global aspirations. Started in 2016, the programme nurtures startups across various sectors such as technology, media, telecom, life sciences, financial and business services sectors, in order to help them grow their international business presence through London.

IAMAI To Set up Mobile App Incubator in Kozhikode

According to a Kerala IT official, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) will set up their third incubator and the first one in the mobile app sector at the Cyber Park in Kozhikode. Opened on Monday, Cyber Park is spread over a 2.88 lakh square feet area. It is said that concerned authority has set aside 10,000 square feet space at the Cyber Park exclusively for the Mobile app incubator facility for the IAMAI.

BOB, Times Internet In Talks To Acquire Jasper Infotech's E-wallet FreeCharge

Jasper Infotech-owned digital wallet FreeCharge is in talks with Bank of Baroda (BOB) and Times Internet for an all-cash acquisition. According to a report, the deal size is expected to be in the range of $60 - $75 million. This deal will allow BOB to expand its mobile wallet service, M-Clip which was launched last year and also to get access to millions of young customers FreeCharge has on its platform

Whereas with this deal Times Internet looks to add the wallet service to its online ventures like as Indiatimes Shopping and Gaana to name few.

Prior to this, it was reported that both Paytm and MobiKwik are also in talks for the FreeCharge acquisition. While Paytm has already signed a non-exclusive term sheet with FreeCharge at an expected deal value of $45 – $90 million, MobiKwik deal has still not moved beyond speculation.

Founded in 2010 by Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon, FreeCharge was acquired by Snapdeal in April 2015 for $450 million which is currently valued at less than 80%. Not only this, recently it also received an investment of $3.38 million from Jasper Infotech.

Company backed by investors such as Valiant Capital Management, Tybourne Capital Management, and Sequoia Capital had secured total of $177.65 million in six rounds of funding including the funds infused by its parent company.

These acquisition talks have come into picture at a time when parent company Snapdeal is already on the verge of finalizing a merger deal with it rival firm Flipkart.

BOB, Times Internet In Talks To Acquire Jasper Infotech's E-wallet FreeCharge

Jasper Infotech-owned digital wallet FreeCharge is in talks with Bank of Baroda (BOB) and Times Internet for an all-cash acquisition. According to a report, the deal size is expected to be in the range of $60 - $75 million. This deal will allow BOB to expand its mobile wallet service, M-Clip which was launched last year and also to get access to millions of young customers FreeCharge has on its platform

Whereas with this deal Times Internet looks to add the wallet service to its online ventures like as Indiatimes Shopping and Gaana to name few.

Prior to this, it was reported that both Paytm and MobiKwik are also in talks for the FreeCharge acquisition. While Paytm has already signed a non-exclusive term sheet with FreeCharge at an expected deal value of $45 – $90 million, MobiKwik deal has still not moved beyond speculation.

Founded in 2010 by Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon, FreeCharge was acquired by Snapdeal in April 2015 for $450 million which is currently valued at less than 80%. Not only this, recently it also received an investment of $3.38 million from Jasper Infotech.

Company backed by investors such as Valiant Capital Management, Tybourne Capital Management, and Sequoia Capital had secured total of $177.65 million in six rounds of funding including the funds infused by its parent company.

These acquisition talks have come into picture at a time when parent company Snapdeal is already on the verge of finalizing a merger deal with it rival firm Flipkart.