News Roundup: 9 Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [22June – 27June]

This week mobile commerce company, Paytm announced that it is bringing people like Ruchi Sanghvi– Facebook’s first woman engineer, Neeraj Arora – former WhatsApp global business head and Naveen Tewari – InMobi founder on Paytm’s board. The company also said that it has crossed INR 100 Cr. (Approx $16 Mn) in user deposits.

CouponDunia Launched Location-based In-store Couponing

Now users shopping in malls etc. will be able to locate coupons on CouponDunia for the nearby shores. The company also revamped their website and app to ease the search of offers in nearby stores.

HomeLane Introduced The Concept Of Virtual Home Designs

HomeLane has launched its innovative virtual reality-based device called the Kaleido.This Google Cardboard-based device, helps users to check out a 3D rendition of kitchen (or any room), with the ability to customize different setups such as changing colours, appliances, and finishes, thus helping them to make choices.

SoftBank Paid $135Mn To Ex-Google Executive Nikesh Arora

As the President & COO of the Japanese telecommunication giant SoftBank Corp , Nikesh Arora was paid over 16.5 Bn Yen or $135 Mn in the executive compensation for the year ended in March 2015.

Quikr Has Opened Its Platform For Other Programmers

Quikr took this step to support and inspire programmers to build applications on Quikr’s platform. Quikr Dvlpr is a messaging platform to connect buyers and sellers, it will  help developers to leverage messaging and search capabilities.

Netflix Is Reportedly Launching In India By 2016

Netflix will include popular home shows such as Buniyaad, Nukkad, and Malgudi Days which will also be available on iOS and Android platforms. Netflix has been trying to enter India since 2013, however, due to licensing hassles and loose internet infrastructure this has not been possible.

Housing’s CEO Rahul Yadav Reportedly Quits Again

Rahul Yadav is an IIT-Bombay dropout and co-founder of Housing, who has been creating major ripples in startup ecosystem with his iconic decision-making and bold statements. For the second time in two month, there have been news about Rahul Yadav’s resignation, however later this was called as an rumor.

Ola Users can now book a TaxiForSure cab through Ola App

Ola has incorporated a new ‘TFS Hatchback’ option on Ola app. This strategic integration will allow Ola to grab access of more cabs, cut down waiting periods and lesser instances of cab unavailability.

iKaaz launches a Tap and Pay terminal, MOWA Wave

Mobile payments company, iKaaz, which provides innovative Tap & Pay solutions has launched its stand-alone terminal to enable merchants accept payments without the need to install any additional hardware or software. The biggest advantage of MOWA Wave is that consumers who have the MOWA app can start paying using their phone by simply tapping at these terminals.

Let’s have a look at other developments of the week:

Amazon Partners With Akshay Kumar’s Best Deal TV To Bring Celebrity Endorsed Products Online

Customers can now buy celebrity products from Amazon. The product list includes fashion & jewellery collection from Shilpa Shetty’s designer Slim Shape Jeans, her very own line of sarees, Satyug Mangalsutra bracelet, Neeta Lulla’s sarees, Anushka Dandekar’s line of jeggings and soon it will be launching Akshay Kumar’s exclusive AK clothing range and many more just a click away.

Snapdeal Has Launched An Ecommerce Zone At Dharmshala

In Partnership with Himachal Pradesh government, Snapdeal has announced the launch of ecommerce zone in the city. With this Special Ecommerce Zone, Snapdeal  is looking at invigorating and mainstreaming Haryana’s local economies by linking and assisting them to harness the potential of the internet.

Shopclues Roped In Flipkart’s Nitin Kochhar & Fashionara’s Animesh Kumar

Nitin Kochhar, former senior director of business development at Flipkart, has been appointed as AVP – Categories at Shopclues.  Animesh Kumar, who was a founding member at online fashion store Fashionara, has now joined Shopclues as their new Associate Director.

PepperTap expands its hyperlocal grocery delivery services in tier-2 cities

PepperTap is all set to enlarge its service spectrum by penetrating into tier-2 cities that include Ahmedabad, Surat, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Kolkata. The company will be associating with around 25 grocers in each of these cities to make its operations live in the entire city at one go.

Saavn Launches New Ad Campaign with McCann Erickson and Creative Icon Prasoon Joshi

Saavn has announced a new campaign with renowned ad film visionary and lyricist, Prasoon Joshi. Saavn has collaborated with Joshi and his team at McCann to help drive the music company’s evolution as one of the most innovative advertising voices across India’s top technology brands. The first campaign created under the association is on air now and features a comical series of five spots that promote Saavn’s innovative social features: Tag, Chat, Follow, and Share.

Bank Bazaar.com launches India’s First Flash Sale for Credit Cards

BankBazaar.com has launched India’s first flash sale for credit cards. The flash sale will span 2 weeks starting 12:00 am on 21st June 2015 Sunday to 4th July 2015, Saturday, and will present exciting offers for Credit Card applications submitted on the BankBazaar.com website.

Storeking, An Ecommerce company targeting rural India aims to reach 100,000 stores by 2016

Presently, StoreKing has 5000 kiosks across South India- Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, delivers over 100,000 orders every month. StoreKing’s simple model enables small town retailers to sell over 50,000 products to walk-in customers without having to invest working capital.

Microsoft Ventures Introduces Corporate Engagement Initiative at Think Next 2015

The program aims to work with enterprise businesses to develop and implement different models to attain innovation driven growth by engaging with startups. By acting as a catalyst between the corporates and startups. ICI will initially offer three programs, namely Market Access Program (MAP), Partner in Acceleration (PIA) and High Performance (Hi-Po) program.

Unicommerce completes over 3Mn transactions for its sellers

The company has escalated from 1 million transactions in 9 months to 3 million transactions in one month. Unicommerce works on cloud based technology which offers cost effective and comprehensive set of end to end solutions to ecommerce sellers of all sizes, small as well as big and ecommerce companies, to manage inventory. The company was founded in 2012 and within a short span of 3 years, they have got thousands of sellers and majority of big ecommerce companies on-board.

LocalCircles launches online citizen communities for 100 Smart Cities of India

These online/mobile communities will facilitate easy exchange between citizens, enable them to raise local issues, find solutions and engage in collective action to work with the administration on implementation and making the city better. Soon, access will be enabled for city administrations that are keen to engage with their citizens and work towards making their city a Smart City.