by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Entrepreneurship, Investing, Markets, Networking, Online Marketing, SMEs, Social Media, Startup Basics, Startup Financing, Technology, Venture Capital
Bengaluru : Online tutoring platform Byju’s has raised $540 million (Rs 3,865.5-crore) venture funds from Naspers and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), the company said on Monday.
“The new round of funding will drive Byju’s to further innovate, explore and set benchmarks for tech-enabled learning products,” the city-based Byju’s said in a statement.
The funds will help in the company’s plans of expanding to international markets and investing in technology that will allow personalised learning for students, it said.
The company, however, did not disclose in its statement the total funds raised so far and which round of funding the latest was.
It had earlier raised funds from Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Tencent, Sequoia Capital, Sofina, Verlinvest, Aarin Capital, Times Internet, Lightspeed Venture Partners and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
“This partnership (with Naspers, CPPIB) will strengthen our ability to deliver our vision to build the world’s largest education company,” said the company’s chief executive Byju Raveendran in the statement.
India has the largest school-age population in the world and the Indian households are willing to invest significantly in children’s education, Raveendran said.
“We believe the importance of quality education among Indian population fuelled our ability to create an engaging learning app,” he added.
The company said its focus remains on long-term sustainable growth at a time when the edutech industry is undergoing changes with students wanting to learn through engaging and interactive methods.
“It is only through active learning that we can prepare our youth for the jobs of tomorrow,” Raveendran added.
Founded in 2011 in Bengaluru, Byju’s has been running its ‘Byju’s Learning App’ since 2015 and claims to have over 30 million students learning from the app with 2 million annual paid subscriptions.
The tech firm offers learning programmes for students in classes 4-12 and competitive examinations like Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Common Admission Test (CAT) among others.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Finding Customers, Investing, Large Enterprise, Markets, SMEs, Technology, Venture Capital
New Delhi : Chinese smartphone maker Vivo on Thursday announced an additional investment of Rs 4,000 crore over a period of four years for opening a new manufacturing plant on the Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradesh that will generate 5,000 jobs in its first phase of expansion.
The new 169-acre land has been acquired near the existing 50-acre manufacturing facility that will help expand Vivo’s manufacturing capabilities and support its continued growth in the country, the company said in a statement.
The Rs 4,000-crore investment, which does not include the cost of the land, will also spur job opportunities in the region, added Vivo that entered India in 2014.
“India is a key market for us, and today we have reiterated our commitment by entering the next phase of growth in India. We’re proud that the new plant will offer a major benefit to the surrounding area through high-quality job creation and training opportunities,” said Nipun Marya, Director-Brand Strategy, Vivo India.
According to the company, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath welcomed the initiative and congratulated it.
Currently, all Vivo smartphones sold in the country are being manufactured at the Greater Noida facility, which is one of Vivo’s four manufacturing factories globally.
The existing manufacturing set-up, which saw an investment of Rs 300 crore, produces two million units a month, with more than 5,000 people at work.
With the new facility, Vivo aims to double the current production capacity to 50 million units per annum.
This is the second big-ticket investment from a global smartphone maker in Uttar Pradesh.
In 2017, Samsung announced that it would invest Rs 4,915 crore to double its manufacturing capacity for smartphones and refrigerators at its Noida plant.
The South Korean giant in July set up one of the world’s largest mobile manufacturing facilities in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
When it comes to Vivo, the company was third with 10 per cent market share in India, after Xiaomi and Samsung, in the third quarter this year. Vivo performed exceedingly well in offline channels, said Counterpoint Research.
Marya told IANS in a recent interview that in terms of value, Vivo is the leader in the Rs 20,000-Rs 30,000 segment and overall No. 2 in the Indian smartphone market for the past 18 months.
According to him, the brand awareness of Vivo, which bagged the title sponsorship for five consecutive sessions of Indian Premier League (IPL) starting this year with a whopping Rs 2,199 crore bid, is 100 per cent.
There are currently more than 70,000 retailers in India where Vivo phones are available and the company has more than 200 exclusive stores and two experience centres.
“When we entered India, we were very clear that we wanted to build a very strong foundation here. And four years after entering the Indian market, we stay totally committed to the country,” he said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Investing, Muslim World
Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi
Islamabad : Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday invited more French businesses to benefit from Pakistan’s investor-friendly policies in various sectors.
Talking to French Ambassador to Pakistan Marc Barety, who called on him here, the foreign minister welcomed French automaker Renault’s decision to manufacture vehicles in Pakistan and expressed satisfaction at the two-way flow of investment from both sides.
The ambassador conveyed that there were several French companies interested in doing business with Pakistan. He also assured of France’s full support in enhancing cooperation in all fields of mutual interest.
Qureshi appreciated the development projects undertaken by the French Development Agency (AFD) in hydropower generation and renovation of Lahore Fort.
The two sides appreciated the current trajectory of bilateral relations and agreed to further enhance relations in all areas of mutual interest. They agreed that the exchange of high-level visits was important to further strengthen the bilateral relations. In this regard, the foreign minister stated that the Pakistani side looks forward to the visit of President Emmanuel Macron at his earliest convenience at the invitation of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
—AB/UNA-OIC
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Investing, Markets, Online Marketing, Social Media, Technology
San Francisco : A day after Facebook was criticised by a former employee for its “black people problem”, the social networking giant announced an investment of $1 million in CodePath.org to boost computer science education among underrepresented minorities and women.
CodePath.org is a US-based nonprofit that provides computer science education to female and minority students at universities around the country.
“Today, we’re excited to announce that Facebook has invested $1 Million in CodePath.org to help us expand from serving 400 students to over 1000 per semester in the next year,” Michael Ellison, Founder at CodePath.org, wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.
“The funding will also allow us to create courses that target underrepresented minorities and women during their freshman year and expand our number of college partners,” she added.
The funding is aimed at broadening the scope of new students from underrepresented communities, decrease attrition as well as bridge the gap between traditional computer science curriculum and practical software engineering job responsibilities.
“The funding will also allow us to create courses that target underrepresented minorities and women during their freshman year and expand our number of college partners,” Ellison said, adding it will help cultivate a bigger pipeline of underrepresented software engineers.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mark Luckie, former strategic partner manager for global influencers at Facebook, accused the tech gaint of having a “black people problem” as it fails to give enough support to its black employees or users.
In a memo circulated to all Facebook employees early this month shortly before he left the company, Luckie, wrote that many black people felt they were marginalised and feared to speak up about their experience at the company, Xinhua news agency reported.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Commodities, Commodities News, Commodity Market, Investing, Large Enterprise
New Delhi : India Resurgence Fund (IndiaRF), a joint venture of Piramal Enterprises and Bain Capital Credit, on Monday said it has invested $156 million in Chennai-based Archean Group’s marine chemicals business.
IndiaRF said in a statement that it has invested through debt and equity and under the partnership, it would be actively engaged with Archean Group’s management team in implementing the latter’s turnaround plan.
“The investment proceeds will be used to refinance its (Archean’s) existing debt, towards capital investment to optimise the plant’s output across all product lines,” the statement said.
The investment would help Archean Group grow its market share in the marine chemicals business in India and also across export markets such as Japan, China, Middle East and Europe.
—IANS
