In a significant development that sees Facebook gaining entry into India’s booming digital payment space, WhatsApp has been granted approval to role its payments service in India. WhatsApp, which has over 400 million users in India, its biggest market, will compete with Alphabet Inc’s Google Pay, Softbank- and Alibaba-backed Paytm and Walmart’s PhonePe. Menlo Park,…
In a significant development, SoftBank-backed used-car platform Kavak has become Mexico’s first ever tech “unicorn”. The startup was valued at $1.15 billion in its latest funding round last month, said its CEO Carlos Garcia. Since its founding in 2016, Mexico City-based Kavak has raised more than $400 million in total funding with SoftBank, Greenoaks Capital…
Adam Neumann, WeWork’s co-founder has filed a lawsuit against SoftBank Group Corp and against its Vision Fund for terminating a $3 billion tender offer to the office-sharing startup’s shareholders. In October, the tender was part of a $9.6 billion financial rescue package that SoftBank had agreed to, following which WeWork gave it control of the…
On Tuesday, Ming Maa, president of Southeast Asian ride hailer Grab stated, it is raising $706 million from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (MUFG) and $150 million from Japanese IT services firm TIS Inc, as it attempts to expand its footprint in the financial services. “MUFG’s investment into Grab is a vote of confidence in…
This is SoftBank’s second investment in Mexico after it invested $20 million in Clip, a payments firm. In a development that sees an expansion in SoftBank’s growing portfolio in Latin America, the Japanese conglomerate said, it will be investing in Kavak, a Mexican used car platform. “We are proud to join with and invest in…
Brazil’s second-hand car market is booming and Volanty’s latest funding is proof of that. On Thursday, Volanty, a digital used car portal in Brazil stated, it has received a funding of $17.6 million (70 million reais) from a consortium of venture capital funds led by Japan’s SoftBank and Kaszek of Argentina. The development comes in…
The development is significant since it marks an acceleration in the banding of automakers in an industry which is placing growing emphasis on offering vehicle services rather than selling cars to individual drivers. On Friday, five Japanese automakers including Mazda Motor Corp and Suzuki Motor Corp, stated they would be investing 2% of their revenues…
SoftBank’s service will power a range of machineries including autonomous farm equipment to buses and drones. In a statement, Japan’s SoftBank Corp stated it will be launching a service in 2019 that will use satellite navigation data and the telco’s mobile base stations to help power self-driving buses, drones and farm machinery. SoftBank’s service will…
To date Grab has raised nearly $8 billion since its inception nearly 7 years ago. According to Grab’s CEO Anthony Tan, the transportation network company is looking to raise another $2 billion in 2019 to ramp up its expansion plans. This announcement comes in the wake of its latest funding round in which it cornered…
ACWA Power’s plan has multiple sweet points given that it is aligned with Riyadh’s goal to diversify its economy and wean its economy away from just oil exports. In a development that places the development of power and water plants at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s bid to develop its renewable power industry, Riyadh-based ACWA…
business-gurus.com 