Daily News RoundUp: Canvera, GOQii, Teabox, BlueStone and More

Snapdeal.com partners with GOQii Inc

GOQii Inc and Snapdeal.com today announced an exclusive collaboration for the newly launched GOQii Life. As a part of this partnership, Snapdeal.com will be the only marketplace on which GOQii users can pre-book their subscription plans apart from Goqii.com. A complete plan includes the proprietary GOQii band, the GOQii Personal Coach service and the GOQii app. The app will be available for both Android (+4.3 version) and IOS (6.0+), with a Windows version to follow.

The Snapdeal/GOQii agreement is a first of its kind in Indian ecommerce, wherein users can pre-book their order for a product-based service directly from an ecommerce marketplace. With the alliance, Snapdeal continues to demonstrate an ability to stay ahead by introducing innovative products and services to its customers.

GOQii Inc. is based in northern California (USA) with offices in India and China. The company has just launched its “first mover program” with 1,000+ users based in India. Since its launch, GOQii has had a great deal of international acclaim. By the end of 2014, GOQii systems plan to roll out in the U.S., U.K., Singapore and the UAE.

BlueStone raises $10Mn in funding

Online jewellery storeBlueStone has raised $10 Mn investment led by Kalaari Capital with participation from investors Accel Partners and Saama Capital which it plans to use for marketing and brand-building purposes. Prior to this, BlueStone had raised $5 Mn from Accel Partners and Portea Medical CEO Meena Ganesh in 2012.

BlueStone was founded by Vidya Nataraj and former Chakpak.com CEO Gaurav Kushwaha in 2011. Bluestone currently offers gold, diamond and gemstone jewellery products like rings, earrings, pendants, bangles and necklaces among others. The company that it generated annual sales of Rs 40 Cr for this fiscal and hopes to double it in the next fiscal. The company competes with Caratlane, Gitanjalishop.com, Voylla.com and few others.

Accel Partners and Horizon Ventures invest $1 Mn in tea ecommerce firm Teabox

Bangalore and Singapore-based Asian Teaxpress Pvt. Ltd., has secured around $1 Mn of funding from Accel Partners India and Singapore-based Horizon Ventures.The raised funding amount will be used to add new features such as subscription services to its portal, and further to expand the business to other countries. Teabox provides fresh Indian tea chosen by team experts online and ships them to customers all over the world. It claims to have a selection of over 100 teas, chosen from over 75 different plantations in Darjeeling, Assam & Nilgiri.

Teabox was launched in 2012, since then it has delivered 5 Mn cups of tea to people in over 65 countries including regions such as Federated States of Micronesia, Chile, Argentina, Fiji and Ural mountains (Siberia).

Commerce Ministry in favour of 100% FDI in ecommerce

The Commerce and Industry Ministry is in favour of allowing 100 percent FDI in the ecommerce sector and the decision may be announced after the approval of the Election Commission,  which due to the model code of conduct has barred any such policy decision after declaring election dates.

A senior official said that the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) is in favour of 100 percent FDI. Presently, the business-to-business e-commerce allows 100 percent FDI and the industry and department are looking at relaxing business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce. Two foreign retailers namely Carrefour and Aeon are interested in setting shops in the country with Indian partners.

ShopClues Launches Online Wholesale Marketplace

Online marketplace ShopClues.com, has now started offering wholesale transactions on its platform. The new wholesale marketplace will allow users to make bulk purchases. This enables the online merchants to get their own branded online storefront and buy-now facility.

In order to be part of the Shopclues Wholesale, buyers are required to register for the Clues Club membership and must be willing to buy at least 10 units of a product from any categories. The annual membership fee of Rs.999 has been waived off for the first year for members registering before 31st December 2014.

The new online marketplace offers two formats – minimum order quantity and fixed lots. Differing from the usual marketplaces, Shopclues does not dictate prices and sellers exercise the liberty on pricing the products. Payment can be made via Net Banking, Credit Card or Debit Card with options for all major banks whereas Cash on delivery service is not available.

Amazon Initiates in-store pick up service in Delhi and Mumbai

Amazon India has intiated a pilot program to test in-store pick up service in association with BPCL in Mumbai and Delhi. People from either city can now choose “Amazon Pickup” service and search for nearest pickup location. Amazon will then send the merchandise to the selected address for pick up, reports Trak.in.

Overall, BPCL had 320 such stores in 100 cities across India in 2011 and has tie-ups with Western Union, Cafe Coffee Day and E-charge for mobile and DTH recharges at these stores. It will offer it in other cities depending on the feedback it receives from the pilot.

“We are continually innovating to find solutions that enhance the convenience and experience for our customers on Amazon.in. Towards that we are running a pilot in Delhi and Mumbai with BPCL to ascertain the benefits and mechanics of enabling a pick-up service. It is too early to comment any further. Depending on results, we will take a call on how and what we want to roll out and we will make further announcement on this at an appropriate time,” Amazon India said in a statement issued to BGR India.

Amazon had received government approval to set up its logistics service in India in February 2012 and had launched its third-party logistics service in November last year.

Info Edge invests Rs 13.5 cr in Canvera Digital Technologies

Info Edge has invested Rs 13.5 Cr in Bangalore Bangalore based online photography company, Canvera Digital Technolgies through optionally convertible cumulative redeemable prerference shares as per a BSE filing.

Info Edge had previously invested Rs 35 crore in the company in 2012, and Rs 4.5 crore in 2013. Its total investment in the company is Rs 57 crores and it currently owns 32% in Canvera “on a fully converted and diluted basis”.

Canvera is an ecmmerce and social platform for professional photographers. It helps users to search and contact professional photographers based on city, state and occasion. Additionally, it provides methods to showcase professional portfolios such as image hosting, personalized website with themes & analytics, e-commerce integration, and social sharing.