News Roundup: 10 Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [28 December. 2015- 2 January, 2016]

Foodpanda has reduced its workforce by 15%. As per the company, the move is aimed towards profitability combined with adjustments to its business model. It has reduced manual intervention and achieved about 98% automation rate in order processing. The company fired more than 300 people.

Flipkart Partners With Viacom 18

Ecommerce giant, Flipkart, partnered up with Viacom 18 for the licensing of three of their largest brands – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spongebob Squarepants and Peanuts for sellers. With this, the company aims to ease the process for International brands entering India and to offer more authentic and branded merchandise to consumers. The tie up with Viacom 18 will license three of its largest brands – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spongebob Squarepants and Peanuts for sellers.

Amazon India Reports Loss

Cloudtail India Pvt. Ltd, a JV between Amazon.com Inc. and N.R. Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures, generated a total loss of worth INR 31.7 Cr for the year ended March 31, 2015. The company’s current year’s loss was more than last year. It had incurred loss of INR 14 Cr. last year.

Startup Village To Nurture 10K Campus Startups

Kochi’s Startup Village entered in its second phase and has announced to support 10,000 startups in next five years. It completed its target to incubate 50 startups by 2015.

Salman Khan Launches KhanMarketOnline

Salman Khan launched an ecommerce website KhanMarketOnline.com. However, what exactly it will offer customers is still under curtains.

CCI Dismisses Meru’s Charges Against Uber

In its complaint to Competition Commission of India (CCI), Meru alleged that Uber was using predatory pricing to increase its market share. However, CCI dismissed the charges stating that the OP Group (Uber) does not hold a dominant position in the relevant market and since OP Group (Uber) does not seem to be dominant, there is no need to go into the examination of its conduct in such relevant market.

PM To Kickstart ‘Start-Up India Stand Up India’ Plan In January

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in his Mann ki Baat programme on All India Radio that Start-up India Stand Up India will finally be kick-started on January 16. The government will formally launch it in an event that will see the participation of all major higher educational institutions through online connectivity.

iSPIRT & Yes Bank To Launch Fintech App Store

iSPIRT launched a Fintech App store in collaboration with Yes Bank for Indian startups. The store will hold a governance structure, making it easy for any startup in the fin-tech domain to access it and enable Yes Bank to establish an online app store that can be leveraged by such startups.

Way2SMS Forays Into Short News Service

Way2SMS rebranded itself as Way2 and announced its foray into short news service to reflect both the evolution of the company as well as its vision for the future. Under the rebranding process, the company is providing news updates through its mobile application, which will initially be made available in eight Indian languages besides English.

Delivree King Shuts Down

Ecommerce focused logistics services provider Delivree King closed its operations as it was unable to raise fresh funding. The startup founders stated that it had scaled to about 15 cities but it was becoming very difficult to sustain operations at that level with no funds.

Other Developments Of The Week

Meru Cabs Launches ‘Ride Share’ Service

With an aim to offer a convenient and eco-friendly travel option, Meru Cabs launched a new feature on its app called ‘Ride Share’. The service will be available in Delhi-NCR region.

Flipkart To Now Drive Cars & Bikes

In its pilot project to sell cars and motorcycles in Bangalore, Flipkart tied up with two local dealers for Bajaj motorcycles and Maruti Suzuki cars. It is also encouraging its employees with offers to buy vehicles from its partners on the marketplace.

Snapdeal To  Sell Pizzas

Pizza Hut tied up with Snapdeal to promote its new variant of Pizzas. Snapdeal users were allowed to pre-order the new variant online by paying a flat amount of INR 100, which would be adjusted against the final order placed at the Pizza Hut outlet.

PepperTap Unveils App For Vendors

PepperTap’s new app is currently in beta stage and will enable vendor partners to analyse their performance on its platform along with allowing them to manage inventory efficiently.

Former Amazon Employees Try To Dupe Flipkart

Two people were arrested for cheating Flipkart over INR 50,000. Former Amazon employees – Atul Sharma and Naveen Kumar, who tried to fool Flipkart by blaming the company for sending stones instead of the ordered product.

‘Ola Share’ Available In Mumbai & Private CarPool in Delhi-NCR

Ola launched its social ride-sharing offering –  Ola Share in Mumbai. Also, it launched private ‘CarPool’ on its app for the Delhi-NCR users.

Paytm, Jugnoo Join Hands

To help Delhi embrace Odd/Even rule Jugnoo joined hands with Paytm to make it easier for the common man to comply to this rule. With this Jugnoo will offer 100% Cash Back on first ride followed by offers on subsequent rides for transactions done using Paytm Wallet.

ZopNow Expands Its Operations To Mysuru

In order to fulfil a critical gap in the market for those who want their grocery shopping to be a hassle-free experience, ZopNow, the Bengaluru based e-grocery company, has expanded its services to Mysuru

Yepme.com To Start Offline Stores

Yepme.com plans to change its strategy from being just an online player to offer offline stores. It will launch all stores in Delhi-NCR region and plans to invest $5 Mn (INR 33 Cr) to open these stores.

Livspace Enters Modular Kitchen & Wardrobe Segments

Expanding its home designing and decor categories Livspace has entered to modular kitchen and wardrobe segment. It also plans to roll out its services in Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai, targeting buyers of new homes.

Airtel Adds Mobile Games To Wynk Portfolio

Continuing with its aggressive content push, Bharti Airtel launched the beta version of Wynk Games, a carrier agnostic mobile app based gaming destination. The platform will host games from about 150 developers including popular game houses such as Square Enix, Zeptolab, Thumbstar, Tresensa, Bulkypix and more.

Treebo Partners With Multiple NGOs

Treebo partnered with several NGOs engaged in welfare of underprivileged kids across the country to host educational excursions for these kids every year. The effort will involve kids staying at Treebo hotels and visiting museums, zoos, planetaria, and other such places that offer fun learning opportunities.