RainingClouds Technologies Pvt Ltd, a tech start-up has raised a seed funding of Rs 1 crore ($0.2 million) from One97 Communications, which has acquired 26 per cent stake in the company. As part of the deal, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of One97 Communications will join the board of the company which already has Alok Kejriwal of Games2Win as an advisor. Speaking about the funding and the company’s future plans, Aniket Awati, one of the co-founders of RainingClouds said, “We are yet to … [Read more...]
Tech start-up RainingClouds Technologies raises Rs.1crore from One97 Communications
March 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Rising demand in e-grocery; Familykart.com experiences rapid growth
March 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
With the growth of online retail in India, e-tailing of Grocery & FMCG products has also risen. Familykart.com, a Delhi based online grocery retailer has experienced rapid growth and claims to add 30000 unique visitors every month. Familykart offers daily essentials such as cereals, rice, flour, lentils, etc. as well as household utilities and beverages. According to Vaibhav Goel, CEO, familykart.com “Familykart was conceived with one simple objective in mind: to offer busy people a … [Read more...]
Online Gourmet food store ‘imperialstore.in’ launched
March 19, 2012 By 1 Comment
Retailing of Grocery and FMCG items in online space is on the rise with the launch of various sites dedicated to Grocery and FMCG products. The most recent one to join the group is imperialstore.in, an online retailer for gourmet foods in India. “Imperial Store was conceptualized when we (a group of friends) were searching for international specialty gourmet food and each one of us liked different specialties. Two of us liked Italian, another Chinese, another Thai and one Mexican. We were … [Read more...]
“Under-capitalization is one of the major reasons why start-ups fail”, Karan Mohla,Senior Associate Investment Professional, IDG Venture
March 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The interest of venture capitalfirms in e-commerce start-ups continues to be high with investors backing start-ups with potential. Bangalore-based IDG Ventures India is a US$ 150 Million early venture capital fund investing in technology-related companies.Recently IDG venture led a $14m Series B investment into Firstcry.com and were a co-investor in the Series A investment into Zivame.com. To get a candid view on IDG future plans and potential investment opportunities in ecommerce, iamwire … [Read more...]
Goods and Services Tax for ecommerce in India by August 2012
March 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment
In Union Budget 2012-13, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his speech has made the announcement to put in place Goods and Services Tax (GST) by August 2012. The ecommerce players have been in discussion with the government for a long time, to bring about a change in taxation policy through the incorporation of Common Goods and Service Tax. The industry expects prices of products sold online to come down with the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). "We welcome the … [Read more...]
Skillkindle an online marketplace raises angel funding from i3 consulting
March 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
SkillKindle, an online marketplace for students and teachers has raised angel funding from i3 Consulting. SkillKindle was started in 2011 by Tanuj Choudhry, formerly at Winning Edge Education and a consultant at McKinsey. The team of skillkindle includes Saumya Singha Roy, Veer Bahadur Singh Narula, Archana Sinha, and Ranita Uppal. The site primarily offers workshops by experts. It helps students find a class to buy online, or get contact details of a training firm that offers the skill. It … [Read more...]
Zivame raises funding from IDG Ventures and Indo US Partners
March 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Zivame, an online lingerie store has raised an undisclosed amount in its Series A funding from IDG Ventures and Indo-US Venture Partners. According to its CEO, the company intends to use the funds to increase its product catalog, improve customer experience, scale-upoperations and technology, and create additional consumer touch points. Richa Kar, co-founder and CEO, Zivame said, “The funds will be utilized towards providing better customer experience and making more brands and products … [Read more...]
“Lack of clear regulatory or taxation frameworks for e-commerce players is a challenge for future online retailing”, Harneet Singh, Founder and Head, Carkhana.com
March 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
While Indian ecommerce industry has been catching the attention of entrepreneurs across different sectors ranging from banking, retail, education, insurance and financial services, automobile sector is not left behind and being targeted by many companies, one of the recent ones being - Carkhana.com. As a fast-growing start-up, Carkhana.com attempts to remove the inefficiency that exists in traditional sales and distribution network of the automotive after-market and components industry of … [Read more...]
Bangalore based company in Home Ladders and Convenience Products, Bathla Aluminium launches online store bathladirect.com
March 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Bathla Aluminium, a company in its business segment home ladders and convenience products, has launched bathladirect.com, an online store to enhance levels of penetration to Tier II/ Tier III towns. Speaking on the launch of bathladirect.com, Rohit Bathla, CEO said ‘We are a trusted, customer centric brand with over 40 years of experience in product design and manufacturing. Bathla products are known for their safety, convenience, quality and reliability. We are leaders in the Home … [Read more...]
Exclusive: New entry in women’s fashion wear, Donebynone.com goes live
March 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Donebynone.com, a women centric fashion e-tail store led by, one of the global veterans in international trade and space, Vijay Mishra former Director Brands at TCNS Clothing Company, has launched its beta version. Donebynone’s core founding team consists of Amarinder Dhaliwal, erstwhile Vice President - eCommerce at Times Internet Limited and Vijesh Sharma, former Founding Member - ZigWheels.com at Times Internet Limited. Currently, Donebynone.com is in its beta version and opens for … [Read more...]
Indian Angel Network invests in StayZilla.com
March 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Indian Angel Network (IAN) has made an investment in Chennai-based online booking firm StayZilla.com that offers value-stays in any district through an inventory of 3751 hotels in 600 towns in India. To get further information on the investment, iamwire contacted Indian Angel Network, which confirmed the investment but denied to reveal the amount. StayZilla.com was founded by Yogendra Vasupal, who had earlier launched Inasra in 2005 and later, rebranded the service to StayZilla in 2010. … [Read more...]
Nokia to exit mobile money business, 2 lakh subscribers in India to get fee refund
March 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Nokia, the Finnish handset maker has decided to exit mobile money business, two years after it announced the service in India. The move is in line with the company's global strategy to move out of non-core areas, as per a Business Line report. Nokia Money went live pan-India in December 2011 in partnership with Union Bank Money and Yes Bank Money. It had also launched the service independently under the Nokia Money brand which has about 2 lakh subscribers. Apart from India, Nokia had launched … [Read more...]
Ybrant Digital to acquire US based service firm for $200 million
March 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Ybrant Digital- a Hydrabad based digital marketing and online advertising company is planning to acquire US based online services firm for $200 Mn. According to a report (ET), the target company is a provider of online comparison shopping, personal finance and educational services, a platform where US universities, banks and financial institutions advertise. Founded in 2000 by Suresh Reddy and Vijay Kancharla, Hyderabad-based Ybrant Digital offers digital marketing solutions to businesses, … [Read more...]
Precared.com’s innovative model gets seed fund from Myfirstcheque
March 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Precared.com – a site that buys and sells pre-used baby products has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from MyFirstCheque, a seed fund investor in startup ventures. Precared.com buys pre-used, durable baby products and sells those after cleaning and sanitising them. This is the fourth investment by the firm, after Mericar.com, apply2many and OfferGrid.com, and the first in 2012. Launched in June 2011, Pre Cared is an initiative by Kerfuffle Enterprises and deals in buying and … [Read more...]
Indian appetite for Mobile Internet grows as 56% of smartphone users in the country access the Internet multiple times a day
March 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Indian mobile internet is growing and gradually turning into a golden hen as more and more cheap smartphones become common. As per a recent study conducted by Google India and IPSOS, around 94% Indian smartphone users have used their smart device to access Internet from their phone. The research shows the swing from feature phones to smartphones, the adoption of tablets and the rise of mobile internet access. According to the findings, around 56% of smartphone users in the country access the … [Read more...]
IDBI Bank launches India’s first online retail G-Sec portal “Samriddhi”
March 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
IDBI Bank has launched the country's first online government securities (G-Sec) portal 'Samriddhi' to enable retail investors to purchase government bonds and securities for high yield. After the central bank RBI’s expressed its desire that government bonds and securities be made a popular mode of investment for retail investors, IDBI has taken the lead and launched the Samriddhi G-Sec portal for the purpose. IDBI executive director RK Bansal said that an investor can log on to the … [Read more...]
Grocery e-tailer Bigbasket.com raises $10 mn from Ascent Capital
March 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
BigBasket.com , a Bangalore based online grocery store has got $10 million funding in the first round of funding from private equity firm Ascent Capital. BigBasket.com has been founded by VS Sudhakar, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, VS Ramesh and Abhinay Choudhari. The team has both offline and online retail experience as they had set up India’s first e-commerce site FabMart.com in 1999, and then established the Fabmall-Trinethra chain of more than 200 grocery supermarket stores in southern … [Read more...]
“CraftsVilla sees as an opportunity to aggregate the fragmented Indian art & crafts market” – team, craftsvilla.com
March 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Indian ecommerce industry has been witnessing business models spanning across various segments and categories in last one year. At the same time, it also has seen the debuts of segment focused marketplaces such as LadyBlush – a dedicated market place for women and Crafts Villa – an art and crafts centric marketplace. Arts & craft industry in India is pegged around more than $7 billion and Craft Villa is trying to evangelize this space, moreover it has been bridging the gap between … [Read more...]
Deal & coupon aggregator Buzzr.in sees opportunities in lead generation for brands
March 1, 2012 By 1 Comment
While daily deals and coupon service growing in India, it is still an important question that what should be the real business model and technology concentration of a deal aggregator site? Buzzr.in, an online aggregator of deals and coupons in India is attempting to crack into this model. The website started with an attempt to provide sustainable lead generation opportunities for brands. “In India, Coupons are often viewed with suspicion. This is because many deal … [Read more...]
RockASAP brings shopping mall on mobile
February 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Handygo Technologies Pvt. Ltd, India’s leading provider of Value Added Services (VAS) solutions has introduced ‘Digital books on Mobile’ feature on its newly launched site Rockasap.com. With the help of this M-commerce application users can download books, get instant shopping alerts, search, select and order favorite products and services on mobile and pay either through online or Cash on delivery mode via RockASAP.com. Rockasap launched its beta mode site four months ago. The site is … [Read more...]
