Mumbai: Amid the corporate war raging within Tata Sons, which has also highlighted Ratan Tata’s work as angel investor in startups after his earlier retirement in 2012, startup founders have come out in strong support of the Tata scion. Ratan Tata-funded cab aggregator Ola founder Bhavish A…
Tag: Ola
Currency Ban Impact | Start-ups encouraging online transactions, gaining new customers
Even if temporary, markets wore a deserted look today across India as high value cash in hand became just a paper overnight for Indian citizens. Modi’s surgical strike on black money has had an impact on traders and parallel economy who used to deal only in cash, especially in India’s…
Ola likely in talks to raise $600 mn to spruce up operations
Cab aggregator Ola is believed to be in talks with new and existing investors including SoftBank Group to raise another round of funding of around USD 600 million by the year end, a report says . The funds sought to counter competitive pressures from rival Uber Technologies is expected to give t…
Unlocking the real value of India’s start-up ecosystem
The story of Indian start-ups is not just limited to the current century; in fact it began over four decades ago. Through the 1980s, a handful of pioneering IT services companies, including the likes of Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro, put India firmly on the global economic map. The…
Ratan Tata invests in wearables maker GOQii
New Delhi: Adding one more to his start-up funding list, leading industrialist and serial investor Ratan Tata has invested in virtual fitness coaching platform GOQii. The size of the funding was, however, not disclosed. The company, which is a leading player in the Indian wearables market, is bac…
Taxi rental start-up InstaCar raises $1 mn from Swastika
Taxi rental marketplace InstaCar has raised USD 1 million in seed funding from Hong Kong-based Swastika Co Limited. The investment also marks the first foreign direct investment into Madhya Pradesh’s startup ecosystem. “India currently is flooded with taxi and rickshaw aggregators within cities w…
Indonesia’s Go-Jek acquires Bengaluru start-up Pianta for talent
Indonesian on-demand motorcycle taxi service Go-Jekhas acquired Bengaluru-based home health care service Pianta, founded by former Ola executives, for an undisclosed amount as it looks to shore up on talent at its India engineering centre. Go-Jek will integrate the entire team from Pianta, includ…
Start-up success: Does the city matter?
Mumbai-based companies had the highest success rate in terms of raising a follow-on round or providing an exit to its existing investor. Mumbai start-ups also showed a healthy mix of sectors being funded—be it B2C, B2B, enterprise software, financial technology, etc. Mumbai companies which raised…
Headhunters focus on smaller start-ups to beat hiring slump
Talent recruitment firms are scouting for business from smaller start-ups that have recently raised funds to fuel growth, diversifying away from larger consumer Internet clients that have frozen hiring amid a funding slowdown, industry executives said. Talent recruitment firms such as Wenger &…
Ola lays off 700 employees shuts down taxiforsure business
Ola has shut down its Taxi-ForSure business and has laid off 700 employees, according to three people directly aware of the developments at India’s largest cab aggregator. The move comes nearly a year and half after Ola acquired its crosstown rival TaxiForSure for $200 million to gain marke…