Diwali is a festival of bright lights, sweets and family. If you missed out on the major news celebrating the win of good over evil, here’s our weekly wrap up.
APPLE EYES LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS TO LAUNCH PAYMENTS SERVICE
The technology giant is all set to enter the online payments field in India to boost their presence in the country. Senior Vice President of Apple, Eddy Cue said India has some great payments mechanisms today which can be leveraged by the company to launch their payments arm. Apple Pay will integrate multiple payment options to make the entire online payments process easy and safe. Along with the payments platform, two new Mac Labs will also be launched in Chennai and Mumbai to help identify and unearth talented musicians in the country.
MICROLENDING STARTUP KRAZYBEE RAISES FUNDS FROM XIAOMI, SHUNWEI CAPITAL
Bengaluru based microlending firm KrazyBee has raised $ 8 million in a Series A funding round, led by Xiaomi Technologies and Shunwei Capital with participation from E city Ventures and RK Group. Through this equity and debt financing round, the company plans to strengthen their risk model and core algorithm to cater to new market segments and focus on product diversification. A portion of the funding will also be spent on geographical expansion of their existing segments. The company plans to expand to six other cities apart from their current operations in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Vellore, Pune and Mysore. KrazyBee was founded in 2015 by E. Madhusudan and Wan Hong and is operated by Finovation Tech Solutions Pvt., Ltd.
ESSENTIAL SUED FOR ALLEGEDLY STEALING WIRELESS CONNECTOR TECHNOLOGY
Considered to be the father of Android, Andy Rubin recently launched his own smartphone company Essential Products. The Essential smartphone is their flagship product which comes equipped with modular connector pins on the back of the phone. These pins allow the company to build accessories and smart home devices, such as the 360 degree cameras that can be connected to the device. However, the company is being sued by the wireless technology company Keyssa Inc., over allegedly stealing their connector technology and trade secrets and for breaching their nondisclosure agreement. One of the most defining factors of the smartphone rests on this lawsuit from Keyssa.
FLIPKART PLANS ON INVESTING IN BOOKMYSHOW
India’s ecommerce giant Flipkart is in talks to invest in the Mumbai based online ticket booking company BookMyShow. The move comes after the market saw a recent rise of the Alibaba backed startup, Paytm. A partnership with Flipkart will allow the company to offer a wider range of services to its customers. Post this potential investment, BookMyShow may be valued between $ 500 million to $ 700 million. At present, BookMyShow accounts for a majority of India’s $ 2.5 billion online ticketing market. Insider, MeraEvents, BookMyEvent, TicketGenie and Kyazoonga are some of the other major eticketing platforms.
WHATSAPP INTRODUCES NEW FEATURE TO SHARE LIVE LOCATIONS
Global messaging service Whatsapp has introduced a new feature that lets all users track the locations of their friends and family and keep a tab on them until they reach their destination. Whatsapp, which is owned by Facebook, will make this latest feature available on both Android and iOS devices very soon. The Live Locations feature allows users to share their live locations for a certain period of time and is equipped with end to end encryption. Shared locations can be seen in Satellite and Terrain view and the feature also shows live traffic data as an overlay.
‘FLIPKART FIRST’ RELAUNCHED TO BATTLE AMAZON PRIME
Homegrown ecommerce giant Flipkart relaunched their loyalty programme ‘Flipkart First’ to provide consumers with more value added services. The loyalty programme was launched in an attempt to compete with Amazon Prime by providing consumers with free fast delivery, discounted same day delivery and priority customer services. Although the programme failed to gather public attention when it was first launched in 2014, the company wants to ensure they do not miss out in an area where there is potential to grow a huge base of loyal customers. Amazon Prime, which was launched last year, currently accounts for the largest chunk of spending on ecommerce sites.
GORAKHPUR GETS ITS FIRST COWORKING SPACE
Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh got its first ever coworking space Startup Cafe, where people can think, ideate and create. Located in one of the prime areas of Gorakhpur, Startup Cafe provides more than just the basic amenities including 24 hours electricity, unlimited high speed internet, meeting room with video conferencing facility, fully airconditioned office rooms and a cafeteria. At present, the Cafe is self funded and can accommodate 7 people. Started by Arunn Gupta and Vibhore Jaiswal, the ultimate goal of Startup Cafe is to build a space that helps bring people from different communities together.
APPLE SUED BY JAPANESE SOFTWARE COMPANY OVER ANIMOJI TRADEMARK
The smartphone touted to change the mobile industry, iPhoneX is facing a trademark infringement lawsuit. Technology giant Apple was sued by a Japan based software company emonster k.k., over the trademark for the term “Animoji.” According to the lawsuit, Emonster’s CEO Enrique Bonansea registered a trademark for his texting app Animoji in 2014, whereas Apple announced their animated emoji in September 2017. Emonster also alleged, Apple made the conscious decision to try to pilfer the name for itself and pretended to the world that ‘Animoji’ was original to Apple. The iPhone X uses an A11 Bionic camera to analyze over 50 facial muscle movements to animate them to a dozen different “Animojis.” The phone is scheduled to be released in November this year.
That’s all for this week! Subscribe to our portal to never miss updates from the startup world! If your startup has an exciting announcement coming up, you can even write to us at info@startupstories.in. Catch up with the highlights of the week with our The News This Week section.
