Adani Group Set Aside $2–2.5 Billion for Acquisitions in the Defence Sector

The Adani Group has set aside $2-2.5 billion for acquisitions in the defence sector over the next 2-3 years. Their focus includes drone technology companies in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, which can be used for reconnaissance in hostile environments. Talks are ongoing, and a deal is likely in the next few months.

According to the report, there are ongoing talks with the drone technology firms, and a deal is likely in the next few months. With acquisitions Adani aims to fill the gap of more advanced technologies. 

To recall, in year 2022 Adani Group acquired Alpha Design Technologies, a Bengaluru- based firm catering to the aerospace sector. This move bolstered Adani Group's technological capabilities. Last year in May, ISRO transferred the IMS-1 Satellite Bus Technology to Alpha Design Technologies, which was one of the two private players identified to receive the transfer of this technology through Interest Exploratory Note (IEN) published by ISRO's commercial arm NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).

Adani Group has also collaborate with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on various projects, including naval anti-ship missiles.

Earlier this month, Adani Defence & Aerospace and one of the world’s leading advanced technology and defence groups in the UAE, EDGE Group, collaborate across strategic defence and military domains, combining their expertise in missiles, weapons, unmanned platforms, and cyber systems. The agreement explores setting up research and development facilities in India, the UAE, and other global markets, emphasizing technological advancements in the defence sector.

Additionally, Adani has invested in an ammunition factory in Kanpur and plans to establish counter-drone and missile facilities in Telangana. The company aim to bolster their technological capabilities, emphasizing unmanned systems, small arms, missiles, and indigenous artillery guns.

In January, Adani Defence & Aerospace recently achieved a significant milestone by unveiling its indigenously manufactured Drishti 10 Starliner Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). This advanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platform boasts impressive features. It can fly for up to 36 hours continuously.

Confluent Announces Intent to Acquire Immerok to Accelerate the Development of a Cloud Native Apache Flink Offering

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US-headquartered Confluent, Inc., the data streaming pioneer, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Immerok. Immerok is a leading contributor to Apache Flink, a powerful technology for building stream processing applications and one of the most popular Apache open-source projects. Immerok has developed a cloud-native, fully managed Flink service for customers looking to process data streams at a large scale and to deliver real-time analytical insight. Immerok leadership includes multiple Flink Project Management Committee members and Committers for the open-source technology, and would add extensive stream processing expertise to the Confluent team upon the closing of the transaction. Immerok's investors have included Cusp Capital, 468 Capital and Cortical Ventures.

With Immerok, Confluent plans to accelerate the launch of a fully managed Flink offering that is compatible with its market leading managed Kafka service, Confluent Cloud. Thanks to Flink, Kafka Streams, and ksqlDB offerings available natively on Confluent, customers are expected to soon have access to the three leading stream processing tools designed specifically to process and enrich data in real time.

Data streaming is essential to competing in today's digital-first world, enabling businesses to connect their many different applications, data systems, and SaaS layers in real time. With a unified and constantly up-to-date view of their data, businesses can deliver streamlined workflows, more automation, and ultimately, superior customer experiences and more efficient business operations.

"Stream processing plays a particularly critical role in data streaming," said Jay Kreps, Co-founder and CEO, Confluent. "Stream processing enables organizations to clean and enrich data streams to derive actionable insights from their data in real time. Our planned acquisition of Immerok will accelerate our ability to bring one of the most popular and powerful stream processing engines directly into Confluent. Soon, customers will be able to leverage the power of Apache Flink natively in Confluent to quickly and easily build the real time applications that are required to win."

While many different stream processing technologies exist today, developers are increasingly turning to Flink. In addition to its exceptional performance and rich feature set, Flink boasts a robust developer community, is the third highest repo by commits, and supports mission-critical use cases at innovative companies like Uber, Apple, Netflix, and Goldman Sachs.

"I'm deeply excited about the opportunity to combine our deep Flink expertise with the worlds foremost Kafka experts," said Holger Temme, Co-founder and CEO, Immerok. "Together, we can deliver a cloud-native data streaming platform that gives customers the combined power of the best of the stream processing layer, with the best of the data movement and storage layer, so they can unlock new insights from data in real time."

Additionally, Immerok's leadership and core engineering team leads all the way back to the original creators of Apache Flink and with it brings unparalleled knowledge and experience to Confluent. A public preview of the Flink offering for Confluent Cloud is planned for 2023. Confluent's initial focus will be to build an exceptional Apache Flink service for Confluent Cloud, bringing a cloud-native experience that delivers the same simplicity, security and scalability for Flink that customers have come to expect from Confluent for Kafka.

Additional resources

• Read Jay Kreps' blog post for more information about Confluent's acquisition of Immerok: confluent.io/blog/cloud-kafka-meets-cloud-flink-with-confluent-and-immerok/

• Learn more about Confluent: www.confluent.io

• See how Confluent is helping its customers transform their businesses: www.confluent.io/customers/

• Join Confluent and apply for one of its open positions: www.confluent.io/careers/
  

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements including, among other things, statements regarding Confluent's data streaming technology, the expected timing of and benefits from Confluent's acquisition of Immerok, the timing for launching new product offerings, capabilities of new product offerings, performance of new product offerings compared to open-source alternatives, and expected benefits of product offerings for Confluent's customers. The words "believe," "may," "will," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "plan," "project," "target," "look to," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements represent Confluent's current beliefs, estimates and assumptions only as of the date of this press release, and information contained in this press release should not be relied upon as representing Confluent's estimates as of any subsequent date. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. If the risks materialize or assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. Risks include, but are not limited to: (i) Confluent's limited operating history, including in uncertain macroeconomic environments, (ii) Confluent's ability to consummate the Immerok acquisition and to integrate Immerok following the acquisition; (iii) Confluent's ability to sustain and manage its rapid growth, (iv) Confluent's ability to attract new customers and retain and sell additional features and services to existing customers, (v) inflationary conditions, economic uncertainty, recessionary risks, and exchange rate fluctuations, which may result in customer pullback in information technology spending, lengthening of sales cycles, reduced contract sizes, reduced consumption of Confluent Cloud or customer preference for open source alternatives, (vi) Confluent's ability to increase consumption of its offering, including by existing customers and through the acquisition of new customers, and successfully add new features and functionality to its offering, (vii) Confluent's ability to achieve or sustain profitability and improve margins annually or at all, (viii) the estimated addressable market opportunity for Confluent's offering, (ix) Confluent's ability to compete effectively in an increasingly competitive market, including achieving market acceptance over competitors and open source alternatives, (x) Confluent's ability to successfully execute its go-to-market strategy and initiatives, (xi) Confluent's ability to attract and retain highly qualified personnel, (xii) breaches in Confluent's security measures or unauthorized access to its platform, data, or customers' or other users' personal data, (xiii) Confluent's reliance on third-party cloud-based infrastructure to host Confluent Cloud, and (xiv) general market, political, economic, and business conditions. These risks are not exhaustive. Further information on these and other risks that could affect Confluent's results is included in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including Confluent's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2022, and its future reports that it may file from time to time with the SEC. Confluent assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

About Confluent

Confluent is the data streaming platform that is pioneering a fundamentally new category of data infrastructure that sets data in motion. Confluent's cloud-native offering is the foundational platform for data in motion - designed to be the intelligent connective tissue enabling real-time data, from multiple sources, to constantly stream across the organization. With Confluent, organizations can meet the new business imperative of delivering rich, digital front-end customer experiences and transitioning to sophisticated, real-time, software-driven backend operations.

To learn more, please visit www.confluent.io.

Confluent and associated marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Confluent, Inc.

Apache, Apache Kafka and Apache Flink are either registered trademarks or trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation in the United States and/or other countries. No endorsement by the Apache Software Foundation is implied by the use of these marks. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

India-based Tamara Leisure Experiences Strengthens its German Portfolio with 4th Hotel Acquisition

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Media Highlights

• India-based Tamara Leisure Experiences acquires Moxy Bremen (a part of the Marriott Group) in Germany.

• This is the 4^th hotel acquisition by Tamara Leisure Experiences in Germany.

• The hotel is located in an upcoming high-end mixed-use area Uberseestadt 3 km from the city centre.

• This addition is a step in portfolio diversification and the path to 1000 keys globally by 2025.

Tamara Leisure Experiences headquartered in Bengaluru, India has added to its German portfolio of hospitality outlets with the recent acquisition of Moxy Bremen at Uberseestadt in Bremen. This marks the 4^th hotel acquisition by Tamara Leisure Experiences in Germany, strengthening its hospitality portfolio in the region.

Speaking on this latest acquisition, Shruti Shibulal, Chief Executive Officer, Tamara Leisure Experiences says, "This is a proud moment for all at Tamara Leisure Experiences, especially as we close 2021, another tumultuous year for the hospitality industry. We, at Tamara, aim to strengthen our global presence and this latest acquisition in Germany marks our fourth property acquisition outside of India. With it, we further diversify our portfolio and continue on our path to achieving 1000 keys globally by 2025."

This newly acquired hotel is a three-star property with 128 rooms and is situated to the west of Bremen, a city with 570,000 residents. Uberseestadt, where the hotel is located, is the former port area of the Walle district and is currently being built up as a modern mixed-use business and residential space. This hotel is located on the harbour front, at the heart of a soon-to-be bustling high street location. The hotel is also easily accessible by the Bremen Europahafen, a subway station a little over a kilometre away and Bremen Central Station or Bremen Hauptbahnhof 3.1 km away.

About Tamara Leisure Experiences

Tamara Leisure Experiences is a leading hospitality brand based in India, currently operating The Tamara Coorg, a luxury resort in a sprawling coffee plantation in Coorg, The Tamara Kodai, a luxury heritage resort in the hills of Kodaikanal, and O by Tamara, a luxury business hotel in the lively city of Trivandrum. The company also operates Lilac, an affordable mid-segment hotel in the heart of South Bangalore.

Tamara Leisure Experiences properties internationally include Holiday Inn Express Guetersloh; Prizeotel Hannover and Courtyard by Marriott Wolfsburg, all based in Germany.

Responsible Hospitality has been at the core of every venture, making the organisation an industry leader in the shift towards responsible and sustainable tourism.

Mr Rajeev Baid Acquires One of the Oldest and Most Prized Tea Estate of Darjeeling, 'The Okayti'

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Mr Baid, a young dynamic tea connoisseur and the founder of Evergreen Group is an iconic tea industrialist/entrepreneur. From a tea vendor at railway stations and bus stops in Kishanganj, Bihar, to a successful businessman, Rajeev Baid is an iconic and far-sighted business figure in the tea industry. His tea ventures have been exciting and acquiring Okayti Tea Estate is certainly another feather in his cap. Evergreen embraces Okayti with open arms and requests the clients to direct their queries to the new management.

Moonlight tea leaf plucking organised at Okayti Tea Estate, Darjeeling for most flavourful teas and unmatched aroma

Mr Baid's Evergreen Group is a known entity in the world of CTC teas. The new vision of expanding the consumption of luxury teas and an unfathomable affection for teas will prove to be a game-changer in the Darjeeling tea scene.

The steep slopes, subtropical climate and the right kind of soil of Okayti have been producing tea of outstanding quality. Okayti tea has an impressive history of being served to royal tea connoisseurs. Spread over 447 hectares of marvellously scenic landscape in the Himalayas, it is one of the highest elevation tea estates of Darjeeling.

Planted in the early 1870s, Okayti was formerly called Rangdoo. Within a few years, the tea produced at Rangdoo acquired enormous fame for its distinct flavour. The London tea auctioneers affectionately started calling the tea from Rangdoo - 'The only Okay tea!' The only tea that was suited to be served at Buckingham Palace! To commemorate this global appreciation, Rangdoo was rechristened as 'Okayti Tea Estate'.

Okayti has pushed forward the boundaries ever since. Its tea is flaunted and sold at international platforms, the most exclusive and luxurious teahouses of the world. Its single-estate premium teas are highly regarded in European as well as American markets for their enticingly well-balanced flavours.

Soon after the change in ownership, the management launched a fresh website and left no stone unturned to deliver a relaxing tea experience, right from purchase to the sip. The orthodox teas of Okayti are finery that brightens high ceiling halls and victorian tea rooms, and the expert team of blenders at new Okayti is experimenting with flavours that suit the contemporary times.

Okayti recently organised moonlight plucking where a group of skilled workers plucked leaves under full moonlight to harvest the best of flavours and aromas. Special sections were selected beforehand; it is often the bushes planted at the highest elevation section of the estate that receive maximum moonlight are selected. The plucking started at midnight, when all the nutrients were pulled to the desired place with transpiration paused for the time being. The pluckers balanced themselves amidst tea bushes flocking from one to another to pluck barely a kilogram or two of pristine leaves. Moonlight teas are considered the most flavorful teas with unmatched aromas.

The new management also recently launched the first-ever series of premium Okayti tea in pure cotton tea bags. After several tasting sessions and feedback, the cotton tea bags were unanimously voted for as it is eco-friendly, sustainable and because cotton fabric does not interfere with the aroma and flavours of the tea.

The new management further envisages opening up the magnificent tea estate of Okayti to visitors in its opulent cottage-style resort. It will give visitors a one-of-a-kind experience to understand tea in all its entirety. The scenic landscape of Okayti studded with tall pine trees, a green lush carpet of tea bushes and a marvellous backdrop of snow-capped mountains will provide tranquillity unequalled anywhere.

Okayti is a heritage brand and the new management team is making sure that the quality of tea and its packaging is as per the international standard. The teas go through several quality checks and are stored in weatherproof warehouses, to make sure that they reach the tea lovers' cup fresh and brisk.

Okayti believes in freshness and it invests an enormous amount of detail when it comes to quality. With the new and fresh team, Okayti is set to brave newer heights.

Offbeet Media Group Acquires 101India, One of India's Pioneering Digital Content Brands

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Offbeet Media Group, a leading content and marketing company lead by a collective of creative and business media veterans, has acquired the 101India brand, its content library, its digital & Social platforms. This marks the companys entry into the consumer media space to exploit the power of digital content consumption, expanding its profile into a media company, creating content for enterprise and consumers at large.

Jaideep Singh, Founder of Offbeet Media Group

101India has been a pioneering digital content brand bringing unique stories that cut across all genres for the last 5 years. Its content which ranges from Music, Food, Travel, Arts & Culture, Climate Change to Sub culture & counter culture, spanning the Indian continent has been covered and awarded at domestic and global forums both.

The team at Offbeet Media Group has launched some of the most iconic media brands and properties across Indias broadcast and digital landscape. Offbeet Media Group has established a credible body of work across Brands, Govt Sector Content, Studio Business, Talent Management and even VR content. Some of their latest work spans across projects with Google Inc US, IPL, Ajay Devgn, BBC Media Action, NFDC, United Breweries, and major corporates and Govt. clients. The company has a robust content studio slate of 200 cr+ with fiction, non-fiction shows, and movies, for which it is in active engagements with Indian OTT and global content companies.

Talking about the acquisition, Jaideep Singh, Founder of Offbeet Media Group, said, "101India fits into our core content strategy and thinking. We believe that we now have a platform and brand to connect with audiences directly with this addition to our group. Despite the second COVID wave, we have already done double the revenue of last year in the first four months of this year. Our leadership and core team is our biggest asset, and together we are building Indias first fully diversified content company working across Brands, Govt, OTT, Consumer content, and we are future-ready with our steps in VR content as well."

With successful diversified business streams, Offbeet Media Group has enjoyed continuous growth. With this acquisition, they foresee further growth this fiscal year. They plan to hit a 10x growth rate in the next two years.

Bhavya Nidhi Sharma, Chief Creative Officer, Offbeet Media Group, added, "101India and our content DNA is the same. In the world of stories, a place like 101 allows us to tell the stories of culture, subculture, and counter culture across the Indian subcontinent. With 101India, the idea is to push the envelope on How you tell a story and give a free hand to our team of storytellers so we can make a universe where stories can flow freely."

Apart from scaling up the existing IPs of 101India, the company plans to go deeper into India with atleast 4 new language launches in next 6 months. Moreover, they have a well-developed slate of fiction and non-fiction shows under the 101 originals banner to partner with the Indian OTT marketplace. In addition, there are aggressive plans to market India-centric tentpole IPs for global distribution, for which it already has quite a few discussions underway. The company is also in advanced talks with four brands to come as strategic brand partners wherein these partners would be embedded seamlessly across the content formats and IPs of 101India, driving the brand objectives to connect with consumers emotionally.

About Offbeet Media Group

Offbeet Media Group is a diversified content company that merges marketing, branding and communication approaches to tell powerful stories. We work with brands, OTT platforms, celebrities, influencers and the government sector to craft content about India for India and the world. From providing unique fiction and non-fiction slates to our content partners and unconventional campaign solutions to our brands and government clients, we do it all. 101India, our latest acquisition, is our gateway to tell unique stories of India to Indians and the world.

About 101India

101India is a youth focused digital content brand serving entertaining videos to connect with the urban Indian audiences. Created by a team of youth television experts, film makers, writers, bloggers, animators, designers. 101India aims to give you a mix of humor, music, travel, people profiles, alternate sports and food. We believe in embracing our differences and celebrating them because this keeps us unique and diverse. Satire and humor are powerful tools for social change and we use this in our content to create movements for change. We want to encourage a freer flow of information and dialogue and our human stories videos are based on culture, subculture and counterculture.

CNH Industrial to Acquire Raven Industries, Enhancing Precision Agriculture Capabilities and Scale

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CNH Industrial N.V. (NYSE: CNHI / MI: CNHI) announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of the capital stock of Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: RAVN), a US-based leader in precision agriculture technology for US$58 per share, representing a 33.6% premium to the Raven Industries 4-week volume-weighted average stock price, and US$2.1 billion Enterprise Value. The transaction will be funded with available cash on hand of CNH Industrial. Closing is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2021, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including approval of Raven shareholders and receipt of regulatory approvals.

The acquisition builds upon a long partnership between the two companies and will further enhance CNH Industrial's position in the global agriculture equipment market by adding strong innovation capabilities in autonomous and precision agriculture technology.

"Precision agriculture and autonomy are critical components of our strategy to help our agricultural customers reach the next level of productivity and to unlock the true potential of their operations," said Scott Wine, Chief Executive Officer, CNH Industrial. "Raven has been a pioneer in precision agriculture for decades, and their deep product experience, customer driven software expertise and engineering acumen offer a significant boost to our capabilities. This acquisition emphasizes our commitment to enhance our precision farming portfolio and aligns with our digital transformation strategy. The combination of Raven's technologies and CNH Industrial's strong current and new product portfolio will provide our customers with novel, connected technologies, allowing them to be more productive and efficient."

"Our Board and Management are excited about this partnership and what it means for our future," said Dan Rykhus, President & Chief Executive Officer for Raven Industries. "For 65 years, our company has been committed to solving great challenges. Part of that commitment includes delivering groundbreaking innovation by developing and investing in our core capabilities and technology. By coming together with CNH Industrial, we believe we will further accelerate that path as well as bring tremendous opportunities and value to our customers - once again fulfilling our purpose to solve great challenges. Our relationship with CNH Industrial has expanded over decades, and we have a deep respect for one another and a shared commitment to transform agriculture practices across the world. We look forward to CNH Industrial leveraging the Raven talent and culture, as well as the Sioux Falls community, as part of their vision and future success."

"Raven Industries' capabilities, innovation culture, entrepreneurial spirit and engineering talent are impressive and will continue to thrive as part of the CNH Industrial family. Sioux Falls is and will continue to be a true center of excellence," added Wine. "We are incredibly excited to collaborate in bringing our customers more integrated precision and autonomous solutions, not only to improve productivity and profitability, but also promote more sustainable solutions and environmental stewardship. Together, our teams will create a stronger business for our employees, dealer network, and customers, enabling us to shape the future of agriculture, augment our world-leading sustainability credentials, and maximize our growth opportunities."

Headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Raven Industries is organized into three business divisions: Applied Technology (precision agriculture), Engineered Films (high-performance specialty films) and Aerostar (aerospace) with consolidated net sales of US$ 348.4 million for the twelve months ended January 31, 2021. The company is a global technology partner for key strategic OEMs, agriculture retailers and dealers. The transaction is expected to generate approximately US$400 million of run-rate revenue synergies by calendar year 2025, resulting in US$150 million of incremental EBITDA from synergies.

The Engineered Films and Aerostar segments are industry leaders in the high performance specialty films and stratospheric platform industries, respectively, and CNH Industrial believes they represent attractive independent businesses with excellent near and long-term potential. Accordingly, CNH Industrial plans to undertake a strategic review of each business to best position them for future success and maximize shareholder value.

CNH Industrial does not expect the proposed acquisition will have any impact on its guidance for 2021. The acquisition is expected to be funded with Group consolidated cash not affecting third party debt of industrial activities. Cash consideration for the transaction is not included in the free cash flow definition, and consequently it will not affect its free cash flow guidance for the FY 2021E.

Barclays and Goldman Sachs acted as financial advisors to CNH Industrial and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP as its legal advisor. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC acted as financial advisor to Raven and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP as its legal advisor.

Chai Chun Plans Global Expansion, Acquires Renowned Okayti Tea Estate

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Chai Chun, India's leading tea boutique, based out of West Bengal, announced the 100% acquisition of Darjeeling-based Okayti Tea Estate. Chai Chun, a unit of Evergreen Group, is one of the largest tea producers in India, with an annual production of 15 million kilograms CTC teas. Recently, in association with Indian Railways, Chai Chun launched a "Train Tea Cafe" at Asansol Railway Junction, which is set up quite fascinatingly, within a train bogie.

Mr. Rajeev Baid, Founder Evergreen Group, and Chai Chun - recently acquired Okayti Tea Estate

The 150 year-old Okayti estate has been patronized by well known figures like Jawaharlal Nehru, Queen Elizabeth and Nikita Khrushchev. Tea produced from this garden is certified as 100% bio-organic. Chai Chun plans to step up its global expansion efforts, and strengthen the legacy of the Darjeeling tea.

Okayti tea garden sprawls over 1,600 acres and is surrounded by stunning scenery with a mighty view of Kanchenjunga. The estate's elevation ranges between 4,000 and 6,200 feet, making OKAYTI one of the highest elevation estates in the region producing the literal "champagne of teas". A favorite tea among the noted tea lovers of the world since 1888, Okayti counts brands like Harrod, TWG, TEE, Fortnum & Mason and many more among its global buyers, while it is being exported to more than twenty countries worldwide.

Initially named Rangdoo, tea from this estate was so highly acclaimed at London auctions that they ended up calling it 'the only okay tea' and subsequently the estate was named "Okayti".

Okayti's factory built in 1888 is one of the oldest tea factories in the world which still functions flawlessly and produces a whopping 1,60,000 kilograms of the world's finest organic tea annually. The machinery and the setup of the factory are well kept which processes the fine tea leaves in an orthodox way.

Rajeev Baid, Founder of Evergreen Group, is an iconic tea industrialist/entrepreneur who in a very short time has made his mark in the tea industry. From a tea vendor in the railway stations to a breathable reality of the Evergreen Group proudly producing 15 million kilogram CTC tea annually. The spark within Mr. Baid felt the connection of tea with people and how it changed their day or mood.

Mr. Baid was quick to realize the connection people had with tea and how it changed their day or mood. He was determined to learn more about tea and strengthen this connection. With a simple and clear intent, he began this beautiful journey. The vision soon grew its wings to build a rich, diverse and multi-splendor culture of tea drinking.

To bring the best and most sorted teas in its freshest form, to complement cultures and people in all corners of the world has been the constant goal of the first tea boutique chain in India. Mr. Baid's unique passion for tea has given birth to Chai Rasa tea cafes, Tea on wheels, and Chai Veda, which are all aimed to give tea lovers a holistic tea experience.

Mr. Baid's romance and long-lasting passion for elegant tea continues with 100% takeover of Okayti Tea Company. He stated, "Chai Chun is proud to have Okayti as a family member. This is a complete game changer in the diaspora of Darjeeling teas. Our vision is to extend the exclusivity of the brand and uplift the understanding of such a refined tea. Our mission is to spread the availability of great tasting Indian teas, beautifully packed and the finest collection for experience to the world."

The garden will soon be transformed into a destination spot. This step has been taken to increase tourism in the region. With over 700 families living around the estate, Mr. Baid expects to raise the livelihood of the area through this move and open doors for the world to experience stunning nature along with tea culture. Further, Mr. Baid has envisioned setting up a world-class tea academy where people from across the globe can study the history of teas, benefits, plantation & manufacturing along with the culture of the tea people.

Evergreen Group is headquartered in Siliguri Darjeeling, India, and is a key supplier to major Indian, brands, export houses, tea cafeterias and renowned tea selling units. The brand carries more than 165+ varieties of tea, including premium teas such as black, green, white, oolong, along with flavored teas, fruit teas, herbal teas, floral teas, corporate gift ranges, accessories and more, both in loose tea and packet categories.

Clarivate to Acquire ProQuest, a Leading Global Provider of Mission Critical Information and Data-driven Solutions for Science and Research

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• Establishing a premier provider of end-to-end research intelligence

• Combination opens a gateway to one of the world's largest information sources serving education, science and intellectual property professionals worldwide

• Acquisition brings more than $875 million in revenue and more than $350 million of Adjusted EBITDA after cost synergies to Clarivate

• Accretive to adjusted diluted earnings in 2022 with significant revenue and cost synergies. Clarivate reaffirms standalone 2021 financial outlook

• Clarivate hosted conference call on 17th, May at 8:00 AM ET to discuss transaction

Clarivate plc (NYSE: CLVT), a global leader in providing trusted information and insights to accelerate the pace of innovation, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire ProQuest, a leading global software, data and analytics provider to academic, research and national institutions, from Cambridge Information Group, a family-owned investment firm, and other partners including Atairos, for $5.3 billion, including refinancing of ProQuest debt. The consideration for the acquisition is approximately $4.0 billion in cash and $1.3 billion of equity. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, is expected to close during the third quarter of 2021.

With a mission to accelerate and improve education, research and innovation, ProQuest delivers content and technology solutions to over 25,000 academic, corporate and research organizations in more than 150 countries. The acquisition will establish Clarivate as a premier provider of end-to-end research intelligence solutions and significantly expand its content and data offerings as the addition of ProQuest will materially complement the Clarivate Research Intelligence Cloud™.

By bringing together these two customer-focused businesses with a purpose to accelerate innovation at their core, we will create a world-leading software and information provider for research-focused organizations to fuel scientific discovery and innovation into the future.

Jerre Stead, Executive Chairman and CEO, Clarivate, said, "Clarivate and ProQuest are highly complementary businesses, each with a rich and storied heritage. We share the goal to accelerate innovation through research and knowledge sharing and together we will enable our customers to solve the world's most complex challenges with content dating back centuries, and technologies that address the needs of 21^st century customers."

Andy Snyder, Chairman of ProQuest and CEO of Cambridge Information Group, said, "I have seen ProQuest evolve to meet our customers' ever-changing needs over the last several decades and fully understand that the challenges and opportunities they face have never been greater. I am confident that the company will continue to have the resources required to maintain the impressive track record of innovation that our customers count on - to create a world leading organization in research and innovation."

Upon completion of the transaction, two members of the ProQuest Board will join the Clarivate Board, including Andy Snyder, who will have the position of Vice Chairman of the Clarivate Board, and Michael Angelakis, Chairman and CEO of Atairos.

Compelling strategic benefits to drive future growth

• Creates a world-leading software and content information provider for academia, governments, public libraries and corporations: Content aggregation, along with software solutions to connect and filter disparate information, is critical in today's world of information overload. The combination of these two gold-standard organizations will provide a gateway to the world's largest collection of interoperable, expertly curated content, including journal content, primary sources, dissertations, news, streaming video and more across multiple academic disciplines. Clarivate will continue to expand its market-leading software to enhance its discovery, sharing and management capabilities.

• Opens new sales opportunities to drive growth in existing and complementary markets: Enterprise software is the fastest growing library market segment and has high customer loyalty due to workflows integrated in core library operations. This acquisition will provide Clarivate with access to complementary markets and varied users, including public libraries, research libraries, school districts and community colleges, with the opportunity to deliver new campus-wide platforms to provide a unified source of knowledge discovery.

• Broadens our analytical offerings: The addition of ProQuest moves the academic analytical capabilities of Clarivate beyond its traditional realm of journal publication data and citations into a much wider range of information sources. There will be long-term predictive and prescriptive analytics opportunities from the enhanced combination of ProQuests data cloud with the billions of harmonized data points in the Clarivate Research Intelligence Cloud.

Financially compelling transaction

• Accretive to Clarivate earnings per share: The transaction is expected to be double-digit accretive to Clarivate earnings in 2022 and mid-teens accretive in 2023.

• Value-enhancing acquisition with significant opportunities to accelerate growth, create efficiencies and enhance margins: For 2020, ProQuest generated $876 million of revenue, 4% from organic growth, and $250 million of Adjusted EBITDA. The acquisition is expected to provide significant cost synergies, which, in addition to revenue synergies, is expected to drive both ProQuest and Clarivate Adjusted EBITDA growth and expand ProQuest's Adjusted EBITDA margin.

• Significant cost and tax savings opportunities: Clarivate expects to benefit from more than $100 million of cost synergies across the organization within the 15-18 months after the close of the transaction. Clarivate also expects to benefit from approximately $65 million in annual cash tax savings from the transaction structure.

• Enhanced free cash flow generation: The acquisition is expected to generate strong cash flow that will enable Clarivate to reduce its debt, continue investing in product development and pursue additional business development opportunities.

Mukhtar Ahmed, President, Science at Clarivate, said, "Clarivate is building a globally connected and highly personalized experience for researchers, academic institutes and funders across the entire digital research value-chain, from ideation through to outcome. With this acquisition we will be able to further empower both present and future generations of academic and corporate researchers as they each pursue their journey of innovation."

Matti Shem Tov, CEO, ProQuest, said, "Through this combination, ProQuest will be enabled to better serve the evolving needs of our customers by providing end-to-end solutions to our customers faster than we could on our own as well as expanding our global reach beyond our current capabilities. We look forward to a bright and exciting future for ProQuest and our customers."

Financing

In connection with the transaction, Clarivate has secured a backstop consisting of a $4 billion fully committed bridge facility from Citi and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC. Clarivate intends to obtain long-term financing from debt and equity markets before the closing of the transaction.

Advisors

Evercore is serving as lead financial advisor and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is serving as legal advisor to Clarivate. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is serving as lead financial advisor to ProQuest with support from UBS Investment Bank and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC. Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP is serving as legal advisor to ProQuest.

Clarivate reaffirming standalone 2021 outlook

For the year ending December 31, 2021, excluding the combination with ProQuest, Clarivate continues to expect:

• Adjusted Revenues in a range of $1.79 billion to $1.84 billion

• Adjusted EBITDA in a range of $790 million to $825 million

• Adjusted EBITDA margins in a range of 44% to 45%

• Adjusted diluted EPS in a range of $0.74 to $0.79

• Adjusted Free Cash Flow in a range of $450 million to $500 million

Clarivate will provide an updated 2021 outlook to include the acquisition of ProQuest after closing of the transaction, which is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2021.

emids Acquires Quovantis Technologies in Latest Expansion of Human-centered, Design-led Product Development and Software Engineering Capabilities

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emids, a leader in digital engineering and transformation solutions to the healthcare and life sciences industry, today announced the acquisition of Delhi-based Quovantis Technologies, an award-winning user experience design and software development company that enables health technology and product companies to deliver compelling digital experiences for web, mobile and wearables. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

emids, which has built its reputation as one of healthcares most trusted partners for health information technology (HIT) engineering and development, is going strategically upstream with this latest deal on the heels of its acquisition earlier this year of design-led engineering firm Macadamian.

The combined expertise puts emids in a unique position, offering its clients industry-leading data science, engineering and business strategy acumen plus the ability to take an innovative idea from concept to MVP to full-scale enterprise solution and with speed to market.

"We take a human-centered and iterative approach to innovation," said Quovantis Founder and CEO Tarun Kohli. "Our customers don't have to wait months to launch their products to understand a product-market fit. We help them launch products incrementally, see what we did right or wrong, and then calibrate that."

Kumar Kolin, emids Chief Technology Officer, said, "The addition of Quovantis now gives us permission to say, let us sit down with you to think about the problem youre trying to solve for, lets help you build, test and iterate that solution, and lets see it all the way through with you and help figure out how to scale it for the enterprise. This puts emids on the map as a top-tier product development partner, capable of the design, build and large-scale commercialization of novel digital ideas and technologies."

emids sees this as an increasingly important capability in the midst and wake of COVID-19, where emids deep healthcare domain expertise puts its partners at a distinct competitive advantage in bringing mobile, web, cloud and emerging technology solutions to market faster.

Kohli describes Quovantis as, "The company that gets married to the users' problems and creates delightful solutions using the combination of design, strong engineering culture, and iterative development approach. I like to think of design-led engineering as the connective tissue that brings emids customers the benefit of nimbleness combined with a deep understanding of design-led engineering in the entire healthcare stack."

About Quovantis Technologies

Quovantis is an award-winning user experience design and software development company that enables health technology and product companies to deliver compelling digital experiences for web, mobile and wearables. With close to 300 skilled engineers, designers, and software architects, Quovantis has been recognized as one of Indias Top 50 Great Mid-size Workplaces as well as among India's Top75 Best Workplaces for Women by the Great Place to Work Institute.

About emids

emids is a leading provider of digital transformation solutions to the healthcare industry, serving payers, providers, life sciences, and technology firms. Headquartered in Nashville, emids helps bridge critical gaps in providing accessible, affordable, and high-quality healthcare by providing digital transformation services, custom application development, data engineering, business intelligence solutions, and specialized consulting services to all parts of the healthcare ecosystem. With over 2,300 professionals globally, emids leverages strong domain expertise in healthcare-specific platforms, regulations, and standards to provide tailored, cutting-edge solutions and services to its clients.

Prove Acquires MEDICI Global

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Prove, the modern platform for phone-centric identity authentication, announced today the acquisition of MEDICI Global, the leading insights and advisory platform for the global fintech industry. With this transaction, Prove substantially accelerates its global capabilities in high-growth markets. MEDICI has built a global audience for its thought leadership content that will expand Prove's sales and business development activities and bolster its marketing capabilities.

Prove Acquires MEDICI Global

New York Headquartered, Prove is the modern way of proving identity with just a phone number. With 1 billion+ consumer and small business identity tokens under continuous management, Prove's Phone-Centric Identity™ platform helps companies mitigate fraud while accelerating revenue and reducing OPEX across mobile, desktop, tablet, contact center, and in-store channels

Prove customers will enjoy immediate benefits from this acquisition:

• Country-specific KYC and strong authentication regulatory advisory to navigate the complexities of providing seamless digital identity authentication while being compliant and thwarting fraud;

• Access to MEDICI's award-winning Inner Circle for the most relevant analysis of the changing landscape in digital identity, KYC, regtech, and fintech.

MEDICI (a platform tracking payment innovations) has been at the forefront of mapping the impacts of the fast-evolving payments landscape in the EU with the impact of PSD2 and SCA, as well as the explosive growth of fintech in markets such as India and Brazil, the adoption of new enabling technologies such as blockchain, and the emergence of new players in neo banking and platform lending. The MEDICI research team has continuously catalogued the rapid changes in the growing industry since 2013, especially the evolving regulatory updates, the advent of national identity infrastructures such as India Stack, and the rise of API-driven innovation in financial services.

"MEDICI Global has been a trusted source for actionable research since the early days of fintech," said Geoff Miller, SVP and Global GM of Prove. "This acquisition allows us to offer expert advisory coverage to our largest customers with multi-country digital-native market footprints."

Founder Amit Goel, now VP India & Global Advisory at Prove, said, "I am excited to join a pioneering company that's fundamentally transforming digital experiences with its proprietary Phone-number Identity Network. There's an urgent need for this technology in Asia's high growth markets."

MEDICI Founder and CEO, Aditya Khurjekar will be focused on strategic growth initiatives at Prove. "We built our platform to enable at-scale innovation in fintech with domain depth and ecosystem-wide engagement. The MEDICI team is looking forward to bringing our passion for this space to Prove in the next phase of the company's growth journey."

"I couldn't be more excited about adding MEDICI to the Prove family; our clients will greatly benefit from their global expertise," said Prove CEO Rodger Desai.

About Prove

Prove is the modern platform for phone-centric identity authentication, powering over 1,000 enterprises including 500 financial institutions, and 9 of the top 10 US banks, across 195 countries. For the latest updates from Prove, follow us on LinkedIn.

About MEDICI Global

MEDICI has built the industry's first insights and advisory platform dedicated to fintech. 250,000+ professionals, 15,000+ startups and 1000+ research clients have trusted MEDICI for curated analysis of fintech trends offered via its Inner Circle membership. Sign up today at go MEDICI.com.

Omega Healthcare Acquires himagine Solutions

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Omega Healthcare, a leading provider of outsourced revenue cycle management and other healthcare support services, today announced the acquisition of himagine Solutions, a St. Louis, MO-based provider of medical coding and registry services. The transaction expands the service capabilities and geographical footprint of both companies, enhancing the ability to service clients globally.

Omega Healthcare Acquires himagine Solutions

Through this acquisition, Omega Healthcare will be able to expand both its global delivery model and its clinical services portfolio. himagine's U.S. delivery capabilities strengthen Omega's ability to support clients with a more integrated end to end solution. Omega also gains himagine's expertise in Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI), coding audits, and chart abstraction for medical registries including the U.S. cancer and trauma registries.

himagine benefits from major additions to its capabilities including Omega's end-to-end revenue cycle management and patient interaction services, as well as access to Omega's extensive analytics and automation offerings.

This acquisition is part of Omega's growth strategy, supported by the company's investors, Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking and Everstone Group.

"This acquisition is a natural extension of our ongoing efforts to provide clients with end-to-end RCM solutions and enhanced clinical capabilities which are now driven by Value-Based Payment models," said Gopi Natarajan, CEO of Omega Healthcare. "This is the next step on a journey to continue innovating in our space and maintain our leadership status."

"Joining forces with himagine equips us with key new clinical abilities, a truly global delivery model with larger stateside resources, and a bigger pool of talent for serving client needs," said Anurag Mehta, President of Omega Healthcare

Dr. Guruvayurappan PV, Chief Human Resource Officer, Omega Healthcare, said, "The himagine portfolio of services will further strengthen Omega Healthcare's position as a true leader in the RCM industry. The acquisition will ensure end-to-end services offered to the clients, increasing the efficiency of health information management needs and will generate numerous job opportunities. With this, we also look at further enhancing the current skills in India and help the organisation expand into new service lines. The acquisition will help us contribute to the value chain and deliver higher-value services."

"Teaming with Omega offers major services and scalability benefits that will help us build even stronger relationships with our client base," said Michael DiMarco, CEO of himagine Solutions. "With almost 18,000 employees worldwide, a broad suite of RCM services, and the ability to leverage Omega's proprietary technology solutions, we are in an ideal position to help clients simplify their health information management needs."

Both companies will continue to operate under their existing brands. Gopi Natarajan would continue to serve as the CEO of the combined entity, Anurag Mehta continues in his role as President, and Michael DiMarco will assist with the integration of the two companies, then focus on driving revenue growth of the combined provider business unit as the Chief Revenue Officer.

The transaction closed on March 10, 2021. Financial details were not disclosed.

About Omega Healthcare

Omega Healthcare helps payers, providers and pharmaceutical companies eliminate administrative burdens, accelerate cash flow, and reduce health management costs while enhancing patient care. The company streamlines medical billing, coding and collections processes and also provides virtual nursing services, including triage, care continuation, clinical documentation improvement and re-admittance avoidance. Combining the largest medical coding staff in the world with proprietary technology, analytics and automation capabilities, Omega provides the most comprehensive outsourced solutions in the industry and is ranked among the top revenue cycle management business process services by industry analysts. The company, backed by Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking and Everstone Group, was founded in 2003 and has more than 17,000 employees across India, the Philippines and the United States.

For more information, please visit www.OmegaHMS.com

About himagine

himagine is a privately held HIM outsourcing company with more than 850 U.S. employees supporting 250 clients across 50 states. The company is 100% focused on the healthcare industry, working with children's and specialty hospitals, academic medical centers, large health systems, small rural and secondary market facilities, and physician and group practices across multiple specialties.

For more information, please visit himaginesolutions.com,

ADVIK Acquires Hanon Bangalore Operations Pvt. Ltd. from Hanon Systems specializing in Vacuum Pump and Water Pump

Wishfin Acquires Fintech Startup Ladders

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Wishfin has acquired Ladders, a fintech startup founded by Mr. Prakhar Aggarwal. Ladders was built to simplify buying mutual funds, investment, and insurance products and it deploys a unique customer experience flow to enable better decision making by the customer. Post-acquisition, Ladders team, including Mr. Prakhar Aggarwal, will be joining Wishfin. Ladders has created a multi-stage user experience that integrates information in the journey. It simplifies complicated products like mutual funds and insurance. This helps customers understand the product better and make right financial decisions.

"We have been looking at inorganic growth/acquisitions as a way to augment our product suite and business. We see a lot of interesting acquisition opportunities in the current market and were impressed by what Ladders has built. Our endeavour has always been to improve digital access to financial products. The team at Ladders, led by Prakhar, had built a unique user experience for accessing financial products. We plan to leverage the products build by the Ladders team and offer easy access to investment and insurance to millions of customers through our massive distribution pipe of 37 million customers of financial products, spread across India. We will also be using Ladders product for customer education initiatives as well, particularly in mutual funds and insurance," said Puru Vashishtha, Chairman & MD, Wishfin.com.

About Wishfin.com
Wishfin.com runs financial marketplaces, where consumers can buy various financial products such as loans, mutual funds credit cards etc. Wishfin.com is India's leading lending marketplace with 37 million customers, and it is adding about 700, 000 customers every month. Wishfin has disbursed more than $3.5 billion worth of retail loans through its platform. Wishfin is a thought leader in financial services and was the first fintech to offer free CIBIL score on Whatsapp in partnership with TransUnion CIBIL (give a missed call at 8287 151 151). Wishfin's investors include Ram Shriram (an early investor in Google and founding Board Member of Google), Neeraj Arora (ex-Head of Business, Whatsapp) and Franklin Templeton (one of the world's largest investment with more than $1 trillion in AUM). Wishfin is one of the largest digital partners for top banks in India.

About Ladders
Ladders was started by Prakhar Aggarwal, while he was still at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. Ladders aims to remove the clutter and streamline investing and insurance at its core.

Vikas Multicorp Ltd. to Enter Pharma and Healthcare Business; Board in Principally Approves Acquisition

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BSE and NSE listed Vikas Multicorp Ltd. had recently announced the outcome of its Board meeting held on 12 January, 2021. Vikas Multicorp Ltd. Board has approved the proposal to enter into Pharmaceutical and Healthcare business and also in principally approved the acquisition of Advik Laboratories Ltd., a BSE listed Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing company and to enter into a non-binding, Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the promoters of Advik Laboratories Ltd.

VML has also formed a Committee of Directors for Initiation of Pharma and Healthcare business and to help implementation of the proposed acquisition of Advik. Advik Laboratories has an established infrastructure facility to manufacture quality pharmaceuticals for both, domestic and export markets. The company, Advik, has been supplying Pharma products to large Indian Pharma companies like Dr. Reddy Laboratories Ltd., Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Abbott India Ltd. and Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd., etc. Advik has also been exporting its products mainly to countries in South East Asia and the African continent.

VML would now have two main verticals, going ahead-FMCG businesses relating to 'Food Protection and Personal Hygiene segment & Cashew nuts and the 2nd vertical being Pharmaceutical products.

This announcement comes in addition to the company's earlier announcement that it had constituted an Advisory Board consisting of eminent personalities with the purpose of providing guidance and act as a sounding board to the senior leadership team in the company including the Board of Directors. The nature of the board is non-statutory status and members will be invited to join the Advisory board based on past credentials.

Enters FMCG Segment with Rs. 100 Cr. Investment

VML had announced last year that it will enter the food protection and personal hygiene segment of the FMCG industry with an investment of approximately Rs. 100 crore in two years. The company has ventured into the 'Food protection and Personal Hygiene' segment of FMCG Industry with acquisition of prestigious Brands for Aluminium Foil and Tissues 'HOMEFOIL', 'CHAPATIWRAP', 'CLEANWRAP' & 'MISTIQUE'. VML intends to acquire further businesses as well as expand its footprint all over India.

Vikas Multicorp said the demand of aluminum foil and tissue paper products in India has been growing at a fast pace and is expected to continue to grow in view of present per capita consumption is quite low.

These brands have evolved over a period of three decades and are well established names in the domestic market, enjoying very visible and prominent presence in the market at more than 10 Lac retail counters across the nation besides being sold to prestigious institutional customers like Taj group of Hotels, Meridian, Maurya Sheraton, Oberoi, Inter-continental, Hyatt, Marriott and all other big hotels, all the big hospitals like Apollo, Escorts, Max, Gangaram, Vimhans, Fortis, Moolchand etc., Airlines like Air India, Jet Airways, Jet light, Alliance Air etc., Canteen Stores Department (CSD), and Railways and Airport Authority of India.

In addition, these brands enjoy significant presence in all big retail chains and online platforms. These brands also have recognition in International markets, especially in UK, Middle East and European countries. The Company is planning to foray in to complete solutions for Food Protection, and Packaging Personal Hygiene needs of Indian households at one-stop shop.

The company is taking another forward stride with its Board's in principal approval of Advik Laboratories Ltd. acquisition. Over the last few months, Albula Investment Fund, LTS Investment Fund, and Alintosch Pharma (Baidyanath group) have all picked up stake in Vikas Multicorp Ltd.

Vision Plus Acquires IL&FS Stake in CPG BPM

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Vision Plus Security Control Pvt. Ltd., a Delhi based mid-sized Technology Services and BPM company, in partnership with Mr. Ajay Guliya, a BPM industry veteran, has acquired nearly 59% stake in CPG BPM. CPG (formerly known as ISSL CPG BPO Private Limited) provides process management and back-office services to marquee clients in the BFSI & Telecom sector with a manpower of nearly 450 people.

Earlier this stake was held by IL&FS, acquired by them in 2010. The transaction was done through National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) proceedings. The remaining stake is still held by the founder promoters of the company.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Vishal Goel, Director, Vision Plus said, "We are excited with this partnership as it has huge synergies with our existing businesses and forays our entry into BFSI space."

And Mr. Ajay Guliya said, "This is a highly value accretive partnership for us, and provides us with unique capabilities in the Back Office. It would help us to not only expand our service portfolio with existing clients but also to acquire new clients globally."

Commenting on the development, Ms. Latha Srinivasan, the whole-time director of CPG BPM said, "After 25 years of steering the firm into a growth stage we are truly excited to embark on a new, innovative and globally expansive phase as a result of this collaboration."

Staava Capital was advisor to Vision Plus for this transaction.

Edtech Firm GetMyUni Enters Study Abroad Segment by Acquiring Online Learning Platform IELTS Material

EdTech startup GetMyUni has acquired online IELTS test preparation platform ieltsmaterial.com in an all-cash deal on 15th Apr 2020. Post the acquisition, IELTS Material operations have been merged with GetMyUni.

The strategic move was made by GetMyUni in a bid to get in on the fast growing e-learning market, which has exploded post Covid-19 has forced students to learn online. The platform has already seen a 2x growth in learners and e-book sales since the acquisition.

Founded in 2014, IELTS Material is one of the largest IELTS preparation platforms and serves 3.5M learners annually in more than 100 countries. The platform offers free study material to millions of IELTS learners helping them succeed in their Endeavour to study overseas.

IELTS is an English language exam that is required to be taken by international candidates who are considering studying or working in a country where English is the main language of communication. IELTS is accepted popularly for university admissions in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, USA, and Canada. 

Upneet Grover, Founder and CEO of GetMyUni, said in a release: “At GetMyUni we are committed to helping ~50M students visiting our platform annually to choose their dream college or university. Study abroad was always the natural next step and hence, on the cards and with this acquisition, we are formally entering into the $10B study abroad market, since the IELTS exam is at the top of the funnel of majority of the study abroad aspirants not just in India, but globally "

GetMyUni was founded in 2015. Over the years it has grown to one of India’s largest college, career and course search platforms in India. The company now operates 3 online platforms -GetMyUni, IELTSMaterial, TheCollegeMonk, and collectively serve over 50M students annually. GetMyUni also works with over 200+ universities in India and abroad driving over 10K+ enrollments to these universities.

[caption id="attachment_144935" align="aligncenter" width="554"] GetMyUni Team[/caption]

Recently, in the wake of coronavirus, GetMyUni has enabled universities to connect with students using webinars and is also working closely with universities to enable them to take their courses online and prepare to start their academic session irrespective of campus openings.

Mumbai-based Purple Style Labs Acquires E-Commerce Website Pernia’s Pop Up Shop

Mumbai-based fashion platform Purple Style labs (PSL) a premium fashion platform has acquired Pernia’s Pop Up Shop (PPUS), a leading multi-brand e-commerce website which houses over 500 of India’s pre-eminent designer brands. The platform is a market leader in e-commerce for premium Indian designer wear. Through this acquisition, PSL aims at building a comprehensive omni-channel fashion platform that is predominantly focused on meeting the fashion needs of Indians in India and across the world.

Over the last one year, PSL has opened and expanded into 9 offline multi-designer stores called 'Pernia's Pop-Up Studio' and 'The Stylist' in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata. As a result, PSL has been able to achieve 5x year-over-year growth, driven equally by like-for-like growth as well as strategic brand acquisitions. Post the acquisition, Pernia Qureshi has stepped down as the Creative Head of the platform and all of Pernia’s Pop-Up related IP and business are to be completely owned and managed by PSL.

In addition, PSL has begun acquiring equity stakes in India’s leading fashion brands, driving exclusive product through its omni-channel platform. It has recently invested in House of Masaba, one of the highest selling brands on its platform.

[caption id="attachment_132672" align="aligncenter" width="710"] Pernia's Pop-Up Studio in Bengaluru (Image - fibre2fashion.com)[/caption]

Purple Style Labs has raised investment over $8m since inception (2015) from the family offices of highly respected industry veterans and investors including Binny Bansal, Raj Soin, Navroz Udwadia, Rahul Kayan, Jitendra Gupta and Astarc Ventures.

PSL plans to open 10 international stores and 20 domestic stores in the next 24 months. The Company expects to achieve an annual revenue run-rate of $40m+ across all channels including online, offline and events in the next 24 months.

Mr Abhishek Agarwal, Founder, Purple Style Labs added, “The Indian fashion industry is now being recognized globally. When we started PSL in 2015, the vision was to create a platform for Indian fashion, which is currently highly fragmented across designers. We aim to aggregate this fragmented supply, curate assortment which enables discovery of high-quality products, channelize demand creatively and permanently solve the critical pain-points associated with the industry.

"We are also looking to invest in early-stage Indian designer brands as a part of a long-term strategy to significantly augment supply, distribution, inventory and reach, " he said.

Founded in 2015 by Abhishek, Purple Style Labs aims to create the first tech-enabled luxury fashion house out of India that incubates young designer brands and provides them with best-in-class sales, marketing and technical support. PSL comprises of a 200+ member team based out of Mumbai and Delhi operating Pernia’s Pop Up Shop Website, 9 offline stores and other related IPs. The company works with over 500 Indian designers across all the platforms and targets to open 30 stores in the next 24 months with 10 international stores.

~ Via Business Wire India

Reliance to Acquire Stake in Google-backed Fynd for ₹ 295 Crore; Invest ₹100 Cr More by 2021

Reliance Industries on Saturday said it has inked a pact to acquire a significant stake in Shopsense Retail Technologies for up to Rs 295.25 crore. Shohpsense runs and operates Fynd, an online shopping platform of fashion backed by investors including Google, Venture Catalysts, Kae Capital and Traxn Labs among others. Search giant Google has invested in Fynd in March this year, according to Crunchbase data.

Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Ltd (RIIHL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, has entered into an agreement for acquisition of shares of Shopsense Retail, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) said in a regulatory filing.

"The aforesaid investment will further enable the group's digital and new commerce initiatives," it added.

RIIHL has an option to further invest an amount of up to Rs 100 crore in Shopsense which is likely to be completed by December 2021, RIL said.

"The total investment will translate into 87.6 per cent of equity share capital in Shopsense on a fully diluted and converted basis," it added.

Shopsense Retail or Fynd is a software technology company incorporated on September 27, 2012. It provides technology platform and solutions to merchants to manage their inventory and sales across multiple demand channels for consumers, including e-commerce platforms. PTI

Softbank-backed Automation Anywhere Acquires Klevops of Paris

Automation Anywhere, a provider of robotic process automation (RPA), on Friday said it has acquired Paris-based Klevops. The company however, didn't disclose the deal amount. RPA technology refers to the use of software robots (bots) to automate business processes that are currently managed manually by human workers.

Last November, Automation Anywhere had raised $300 million from the SoftBank's tech-focused Vision Fund bringing the company's valuation to $2.6 billion. Besides, SoftBank, Automation Anywhere counts New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, as its investors, had raised well over USD 500 million (over Rs 3,450 crore).

"With the acquisition, Automation Anywhere fast forwards the RPA category to Attended Automation 2.0, where managers can easily orchestrate workstreams across a team of employees and bots, driving a higher level of employee productivity and improved customer experience," a statement said.

The acquired technology from Klevops will alter the dynamics between attended and unattended automation, making it a foundational solution for companies scaling their automation initiatives across all industries, Automation Anywhere Chief Technology Officer Prince Kohli said.

He added that this is especially relevant to contact centre-intensive industries like banking, financial services and telecommunications.

"As the demand for RPA continues to increase across multiple industries, acquisitions like this one will be part of Automation Anywhere's growth strategy as we continue to help solve customer pain points and automate a greater number of business processes," Automation Anywhere Chief Corporate Development Officer Peter Meechan said.

The combined solution of Klevops and Automation Anywhere's attended automation creates the industry's first capability to enable bots driving actions with multiple human teams to coordinate their activities, he added.

Automation Anywhere was originally founded as Tethys Solutions, LLC in San Jose, California by Ankur Kothari, Mihir Shukla, Neeti Mehta, and Rushabh Parmani. The company re-branded to Automation Anywhere, Inc. in 2010.