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Tencent Looks At Investing In India To The Tune Of $ 5 Million!

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Tencent Looks At Investing In India,Startup Stories,2018 Latest Business News,Tencent Business News,Startup News India,Startup Funding News,Startup Landscape in India,Chief Executive of Naspers,Tencent Funds Invest In India,Tencent Invest in India Of $5 Million

Tencent, Chinese conglomerate known for its We Chat messaging platform is now eyeing the booming early stage startup landscape in India. The company is looking to invest $ 5 million to $ 15 million in startups such as ShareChat and Kissht.

Post its foray into the Indian ecosystem in 2015, Tencent has majorly invested hefty sums in late-stage startups only. Its early bets include Practo, Hike, Flipkart, and Ola. “Tencent could invest between $5 Mn and $15 Mn across segments including, gaming, content, social media and consumer lending,” one of the people cited above said on condition of anonymity,” said sources close to the development.

In the year 2017, out of the 70 disclosed investments of Tencent, about 36% were directed toward early stage investments, 23% was targeted towards late stage investments while the remaining 3% was targeted towards seed funding. Tencent’s new focus on relatively young venture firms marks a diversification of the company’s funding strategies.

The reports also suggest that Tencent might make its early stage startups bet in India in association with Naspers. Most recently, Naspers has announced it will use the $ 10 billion it raked in as part of its Tencent share sale, through which there will have a major focus on the Indian market.

As Bob Van Dijk, Chief Executive of Naspers, indicated in an earlier interaction with ET, “We (Naspers and Tencent) have done several co-investments — MakeMyTrip and OLX India, where they are a minority investor. They also now co-invest with us in Flipkart… Both Tencent and Naspers are huge believers of the Indian market, and we have the intention to do a lot more together going forward.”

According to further industry reports, Tencent is likely to invest anywhere between $ 5 million to 15 million across fields like gaming, content, social media and consumer lending. Tencent, its Chinese rival Alibaba Group, and Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp have become increasingly aggressive in India the past 12 months, picking up stakes in some of the country’s most richly valued companies and driving up valuations to stratospheric levels in the process.

 

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Amazon India Launches At-Home Diagnostic Service, Expands Healthcare Ecosystem

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Amazon India has expanded its healthcare portfolio with the launch of Amazon Diagnostics, an at-home diagnostic testing service developed in partnership with Orange Health Labs. Now available in six major cities—Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Mumbai, and Hyderabad—the service covers over 450 PIN codes and offers access to more than 800 diagnostic tests. Customers can book tests via the Amazon app, schedule home sample collection within 60 minutes, and receive digital reports for routine tests in as little as six hours, making healthcare more accessible and convenient than ever before.

This launch completes Amazon’s integrated healthcare suite in India, which already includes Amazon Pharmacy for medicines and Amazon Clinic for virtual doctor consultations. By bringing these services together under the Amazon Medical umbrella, the company enables a seamless outpatient journey—from doctor consultation to lab testing and medicine delivery—all managed through a single digital platform. The partnership with Orange Health Labs ensures high-quality, reliable diagnostics, supported by Amazon’s operational expertise and focus on customer trust.

Amazon’s entry into the $15 billion Indian diagnostics market signals a major shift in the country’s health-tech landscape, introducing new competition for established diagnostic players. Rather than competing solely on price, Amazon is prioritizing a seamless, trustworthy experience, aiming to address the growing demand for digital healthcare solutions and simplify access for millions of users across India.

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Bhavish Aggarwal’s Krutrim Unveils ‘Kruti’ — An Agentic AI Built for Bharat

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Bengaluru, June 2025 – Krutrim, the AI startup founded by Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal, has launched its new agentic AI assistant, Kruti. Unlike traditional virtual assistants, Kruti is designed with an Indian-first approach — combining cultural context, multilingual capabilities, and generative AI to offer a more intuitive, task-oriented experience for users.

Kruti is built to do more than just respond to queries — it can independently perform tasks, make decisions, and integrate across platforms for productivity and communication. Powered by Krutrim’s proprietary Indian-trained language model, it brings a deep understanding of local languages and digital behaviors, catering to both personal and business needs in the Indian ecosystem.

Aggarwal described Kruti as “India’s digital brain,” highlighting its role in redefining AI for Bharat. The assistant will be rolled out in phases, starting with enterprise partners and expanding through apps and APIs. As Kruti integrates into various platforms — including Ola’s services — it marks a significant stride in India’s ambition to lead the global AI race.

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Bankruptcy Forces BYJU’S to Offload Epic and Tynker for a Fraction of Acquisition Cost

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BYJU’S, once India’s most celebrated edtech startup, has sold its major US-based subsidiaries Epic and Tynker for a fraction of their original purchase prices, marking a dramatic reversal in its global expansion strategy. The distressed sales, approved by a US bankruptcy court on May 20, 2025, come amid the company’s ongoing financial and legal turmoil. Tynker, a coding education platform acquired by BYJU’S in 2021 for $200 million, was sold to CodeHS for just $2.2 million in cash, while Epic, a digital reading platform bought for $500 million in 2022, was acquired by China’s TAL Education Group for $95 million.

These fire-sale transactions were part of a broader restructuring effort to address disputes with lenders after BYJU’S defaulted on a $1.2 billion loan, which triggered bankruptcy proceedings for its US entities. The company’s US unit, Byju’s Alpha, became the focal point of legal battles, including allegations of mismanagement and the misappropriation of funds by top executives. Court rulings in the US have highlighted instances of fraudulent transfers and breaches of fiduciary duty by suspended directors, further compounding BYJU’S woes.

As BYJU’S scrambles to stabilize its core operations, several of its other high-profile acquisitions, such as Great Learning and Aakash Institute, have started operating independently and distancing themselves from the parent company. The massive losses from the sales of Epic and Tynker underscore the risks of BYJU’S aggressive acquisition spree and the severe impact of its financial mismanagement, leaving the future of the once high-flying edtech giant in question.

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