india
Uber to explore travel ticketing with India’s open commerce network
Uber has signed a memorandum of understanding with an Indian government-backed firm that aims to make mobility and commerce more accessible across the South Asian nation. The ride-hailing giant said…
X says it’s withholding accounts and tweets in India to obey orders
X, formerly known as Twitter, said Wednesday it is withholding specific accounts and posts in India, action it said it disagrees with, in response to executive orders issued by the…
India spurs space sector investment with raised limits on foreign funding
India has updated official rules in the space sector to attract global investors and companies, after opening it up to private players four years ago. The new foreign direct investment…
Varaha helps Indian farmers reduce climate-harming practices like burning crop residue and flooding rice fields
Varaha has attracted investor interest as an end-to-end developer for carbon credits that it generates by working with thousands of smallholder farmers yielding crops on a total land of over…
Walmart’s PhonePe launches India app store in challenge to Google
Microsoft, Amazon and Meta are among the top brands whose apps are listed on the Indian fintech PhonePe’s Indus Appstore, an Android app store launched Wednesday in challenge to Google’s…
Byju’s says $200M rights issue that cuts valuation by 99% fully subscribed
Byju’s says its recently launched $200 million rights issue has been fully subscribed, but the startup’s founder urged some of its major investors to participate amid a rift between the…
Uber testing prepaid-item pickup from local stores in India
Uber has quietly started testing a feature that lets gig workers pick up prepaid items from local stores and deliver them to customers in India. Called “Store Pickup,” the feature…
Flipkart has weighed acquiring Reliance-backed instant delivery startup Dunzo
Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has held discussions in recent weeks about potentially acquiring Dunzo, the hyperlocal delivery startup backed by Reliance Retail, three sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.…
PhonePe aims to be a top Google Play alternative in India — but it has a challenging road ahead
Walmart-backed PhonePe is set to launch its Android app store this week with zero commission for in-app purchases for developers. The app store is based on Indus OS’ tech, a…
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State of venture investments in India, according to Lightspeed
Over 150 investors, including Singapore’s sovereign fund Temasek and Malaysia’s Khazanah, gathered at Mumbai’s five-star Trident Oberoi hotel on a recent Friday for venture firm Lightspeed India Partners’ “Lift Off” summit. The two-day event aims to spark partnerships by enabling “in a short window, many views, ideas and investments to be shared between nC2 connections…
Paytm wallet and FASTag products will cease to exist, Bernstein says
India’s central bank has extended the deadline for some business restrictions on Paytm’s Payments Bank to March 15 in “larger public interest,” dashing hopes of any major concessions but allowing…
Proton, the Swiss privacy-focused software maker, says it has received a notice of a “possible block” of Proton Mail in India after the service was used in sending bomb threats…
The prolific ransomware gang LockBit has claimed responsibility for hacking one of India’s top brokerage firms, Motilal Oswal. Indian authorities say they are aware and investigating the incident. On Tuesday,…
India stumped on how to cut PhonePe and Google dominance in payments
India is facing a quandary in enforcing long-delayed rules to curb the dominance of PhonePe and Google Pay in the country’s ubiquitous UPI payments network, which processes over 10 billion…
Peak XV, the venture capital firm that split from Sequoia Capital last year, is taking its portfolio companies from India, Southeast Asia and Australia on an “immersion” trip to Silicon…
Indian parliamentary panel red-flags PhonePe and Google Pay cornering 83% of India’s UPI payments
An Indian parliamentary panel has urged the government to support the growth of domestic fintech players that can provide alternatives to the Walmart-backed PhonePe and Google Pay apps that currently…
India’s central bank said Thursday it takes supervisory actions and imposes business restrictions only after “persistent non-compliance” with rules, its first comment after a clampdown on Paytm last week has…
Attentive.ai snags $7M to boost automation in landscaping, construction services
Attentive.ai, a startup building vertical software for landscaping and construction services in the U.S., has raised $7 million in a new funding round as it looks to enhance its AI-led…
Meesho taps micro-entrepreneurs to plug gaps in India’s supply chain network
India is one of the fastest growing economies, yet its supply chain system remains antiquated, operating much as it did decades ago. The logistics sector is highly fragmented, with a…
Microsoft’s prescient bets and aggressive investments in AI have propelled the software giant to become the world’s most valuable company. Yet Satya Nadella, its typically reserved chief executive, couldn’t resist…
Yamaha Motor fuels River’s ambitious electric SUV two-wheeler rollout in India
River, an Indian startup manufacturing electric two-wheelers, has raised $40 million in a funding round led by Japan’s Yamaha Motor as the nearly three-year-old startup looks to increase R&D spending…
Jio Financial says not in talks to acquire Paytm’s wallet business
Reliance Industries spinoff Jio Financial Services said Monday evening that it is not negotiating with Paytm to acquire its wallet business, quashing “speculative” media reports as the Noida-headquartered firm scrambles…
Shares of Paytm plunged 10% on Monday, the third consecutive session of declines, touching an all-time low of 438.35 Indian rupees (or $5.28) after the RBI’s clampdown last week looks…
Byju’s says investors don’t have voting right to remove founder from edtech group
Following months of behind-the-scenes conflict, Byju’s and some of its biggest investors are now publicly airing their complaints about one another. Byju’s, once India’s most valuable startup, said Friday its…
Shares of Paytm fell another 20% Friday before hitting the lower circuit that temporarily halts trading as the Indian financial services firm reels from the clampdown by the central bank.…
A group of large investors in Byju’s has called for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) where they seek to change the leadership at Byju’s days after the edtech group launched…
India weighs more penalties on Paytm, including revoking payments bank license
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is discussing more penalties on Paytm Payments Bank and may reach a decision within days, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, as…
Reliance-backed Viacom18 agrees to buy 60% of Disney’s India unit, report says
Reliance-backed Viacom18 has reached an agreement to buy 60% of Disney’s India unit, WSJ reported Thursday citing unnamed sources, creating a pathway for the Indian conglomerate to form a $10…
Paytm to terminate business with Paytm Payments Bank after central bank’s clampdown
Paytm said Thursday that it will cease work with its associate Paytm Payments Bank and accelerate plans to partner with other banks, after India’s central bank barred Paytm Payments Bank…
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) widened its curbs on Paytm’s Payments Bank, which processes transactions for financial services giant Paytm, barring it from offering many banking services, including accepting…