Brandless , a direct-to-consumer personal care and packaged goods company, is closing down. Brandless will stop taking orders and cut about 70 employees, less than two years after SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund said it would invest $240 million in the startup. “I’m proud of what we created at Brandless,” Interim Chief Executive Officer Evan […]
Archives for 2020
Bankers in Asia brace for a virus-related deal drought
HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Bankers in Asia are bracing for a deal drought as efforts to limit the spread of the coronavirus epidemic have put key meetings and roadshows on hold. Several auctions of assets are facing delays or re-assessments and preparations for potential Chinese initial public offerings (IPOs) are also slowing, bankers said. “All […]
IoT Now Magazine Q1 – New issue out now! Is IoT ready for mass-market adoption?
IoT Now Magazine (ISSN 2397-2793) explores the evolving opportunities and challenges facing service providers across this sector. Our exclusive interviews pass on the key lessons learned by industry leaders in next gen Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) services.
Uber Money to set up a 100 member team in Hyderabad
Illustration: Rahul Awasthi Ride hailing company Uber plans to set up a 100-member global fintech team in Hyderabad, the first such in the Asia-Pacific region. The Uber Money global financial services and products team is already present in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York and Amsterdam. The Hyderabad-based team will work on global features and […]
Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform: trends and investment areas
This post was co-authored by the extended Azure Mobility Team. The past year has been eventful for a lot of reasons. At Microsoft, we’ve expanded our partnerships, including Volkswagen, LG Electronics, Faurecia, TomTom, and more, and taken the wraps off new thinking such as at CES, where we recently demonstrated our approach to in-vehicle compute […]
Judge denies Uber’s, Postmates’ request to halt California gig worker law
A U.S. judge on Monday rejected a request by Uber Technologies Inc and courier services provider Postmates Inc to block a California labor law from taking effect, saying the bill’s public benefits outweighed the companies’ concerns. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles said that while the companies had proven they could suffer a […]
Audi to provide lifestyle services to customers in India
German luxury carmaker Audi is gearing up to become a service provider as well, offering a host of premium lifestyle services to its customers in India, according to a top official of the firm. The company, under its 2025 strategy of focussing on customer centricity besides enhancing product portfolio and sales and service network in […]
Govt clocks Rs 40,000 crore in public procurement transactions through GeM portal
Public procurement worth Rs 40,000 crore has taken place through the government’s online marketplace GeM, Expenditure Secretary T V Somanathan said on Monday. Stressing that the focus of public procurement system is on economy, rigour, fairness and transparency, he said the efficiency of procurement makes a big difference to the fiscal discipline of government. Towards […]
Nearby retail shop as ATM? PhonePe toys with the idea
PhonePe has ventured into the business of digital ATMs with ambitions to operate what could turn out to be the largest fleet of cash withdrawal points across the country. For this, the Walmart-owned financial service provider has geotagged more than half a million merchants with excess cash to help customers convert digital money into cash […]
Think Tank urges SC to stop trial of WhatsApp Pay
Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change (CASC), a think tank that had filed a public interest litigation before the Supreme Court last year against WhatsApp Pay, has sought an immediate rollback of the messaging app’s pilot project. In an interim application filed on Monday, CASC has urged the apex court to stop WhatsApp’s trial with […]