The Latest from Pankaj Mishra
Sources: India’s Flipkart in talks to raise up to $1B, likely in a down round
After years of raising hundreds of millions of dollars to tap into the burgeoning e-commerce market in India, one of the country's biggest tech companies is facing a markdown in its valuation as it ai
India’s Paytm Is Raising Another $400M To Build Out Its New Payment Bank
Alibaba-backed Paytm, one of the bigger e-commerce startups competing against Amazon in India, is raising money again, just months after a reported $680 million round. Sources close to the company s
India’s Snapdeal Now Gets Over Half Its Sales Through Mobile As M-Commerce Goes Mainstream
India’s largest e-commerce marketplace, Snapdeal, now gets over half of its sales from mobile-based transactions, up from just 5% from the same platform nearly a year ago. In a statement, Snapde
Sherpalo Partner Launches $90M India Fund As Ram Shriram, Kleiner Shift Focus Away From India
Sandeep Murthy, a general partner at Sherpalo who managed the firm’s India investments, is launching two new funds — Lightbox Ventures I that has already acquired stakes in 6 startups, and
Concur Increases Stake In India’s Cleartrip, Buys Out Sherpalo and Kleiner
Travel and expense management company Concur wants a bigger pie of the $3 billion Indian online travel market. The company has just concluded negotiations with Sherpalo Ventures and Kleiner Perkins t
InMobi Launches Native Ad Platform To Woo Publishers Looking Beyond Facebook, Google
Native mobile advertising is on fire, especially for independent ad networks looking to challenge their much bigger and established rivals. InMobi, is today launching its native ad platform joining th
Avaz Raises $550K In Seed To Help Autistic Children Communicate Using Visual Tools
Over half a million children with autism in the next decade will become adults, underscoring a growing challenge that needs to be dealt in the future. But with 1 in 68 children now affected with autis
Big Data Startup Frrole Raises $245K Angel Round, As Crowdfunding Platforms Seek Growth In India
Frrole, a big data startup that specializes in Twitter-based analytics, has raised $245K in Angel funding from investors including Sharad Sharma (former head of Yahoo! R&D centre in india), Google
Data Analytics Startup Beckon Raises $8M As Marketers Look Beyond Generic Tools
Beckon, a California-based startup that helps marketers track their spend using data analytics, has raised $8 million in Series A funding from August Capital and Canaan Partners. The latest funding br
Guy Kawasaki Joins Australian Design Startup Canva As Chief Evangelist
Guy Kawasaki, who held the chief evangelist title at Apple during late nineties, is joining Australian design startup Canva, making a comeback into the role after nearly two decades of advising entrep
India’s Snapdeal Acquires Fashion Discovery Site Doozton, As Battle For Online Fashion Heats Up
Online fashion retail is fast becoming the next battlefront for India’s growing e-commerce startups. With two of the biggest Indian e-commerce companies — Flipkart and Myntra — prepa
TPG Growth Commits $100M With India’s Smile To Help Internet Cos Tap Emerging Markets
TPG Growth has committed around $100 million in a joint venture with India’s Smile Group for helping Internet and e-commerce companies build and scale their businesses across emerging markets su
‘Political Siri’, Big Data Startups Rise Amid Indian Elections
With nearly 814 million people set to vote over the next few weeks in India’s general elections, the biggest democratic exercise on the planet, political parties are scrambling to out-innovate e
Indian Software Product Startups Pitch Ideas To Fortune 500 CIOs
After years of working with India’s over $100 billion IT services industry for maintaining their software systems, application development and back office work, CIOs of Fortune 500 companies are
India’s Flipkart Nears $330M Myntra Deal, As Common Investors Push To Fight Amazon, eBay
India’s biggest e-commerce company, Flipkart, is in the final stages of completing a merger deal with the country’s fast growing online fashion retailer Myntra, in what could potentiall
Facebook’s India User Base Crosses 100M, Set To Become Its Biggest Market
India is inching closer to overtake the U.S. as Facebook’s biggest market, at least in terms of the number of active users. With over 100 million users as of March 31, India is now the only coun
Pitney Bowes Launches Startup Accelerator In India To Hunt For Its Next Big E-Commerce, Mobile Ideas
Pitney Bowes, the 94-year-old producer of stamp postage meters attempting to become an e-commerce platform, is the latest to tap into India’s engineering talent for incubating startup ideas. The
India’s Homeshop18 Files For $75M Nasdaq IPO, Ahead Of Bigger E-Commerce Rivals
Homeshop18, an Indian TV shopping and online retail company owned by media conglomerate Network18 Media, has filed for $75 million IPO on Nasdaq, ahead of much-awaited listings of bigger e-commerce r
Appiterate Raises Seed Funding From SAIF Partners, Joins Growing List Of A/B Testing Startups
Testing design and content features on-the-go to identify what users want is nothing new — it’s over a decade old process used by Google (and now Facebook among several others) to tell whi
Harvard-Backed Experfy Wants To Create A McKinsey In The Cloud For Big Data Talent
There is a scramble to find the right big data talent, especially for short-term data projects currently being outsourced to big consulting companies such as Accenture, Deloitte apart from several nic