Manish Singh, Author at TechCrunch

Truecaller’s founders step down as the spam blocking app regains momentum

Manish Singh — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 05:20:07 +0000

The co-founders of Swedish caller identification app Truecaller are stepping back from day-to-day operations, marking the end of an era for one of Sweden’s most successful consumer technology companies. Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam (pictured above), who co-founded Truecaller in 2009, will hand over control in January to Rishit Jhunjhunwala, the company’s product chief and […]

Swiggy IPO nets $606 million from institutional investors

Manish Singh — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 17:00:36 +0000

Swiggy has raised around $606 million from a set of more than 75 anchor investors as part of its $1.35 billion initial public offering, as the Indian food delivery and quick commerce startup prepares for the country’s second-largest listing of the year next week. The Bengaluru-based startup, which is seeking an $11.3 billion valuation in […]

Wikipedia says hasn’t received notice over alleged bias concerns from India

Manish Singh — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 11:24:03 +0000

Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia, said on Thursday that the firm hasn’t received an official notice from the Indian government over alleged concentrated editorial control and persistent complaints about bias and inaccuracies on the platform. A number of outlets, including TechCrunch, reported on Tuesday that the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting […]

Vanguard cuts Indian rideshare startup Ola’s valuation to $2B

Manish Singh — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:40:23 +0000

Vanguard has revised its valuation of Indian ride-hailing startup Ola to about $2 billion as of the end of August.

Indonesia blocks Google Pixel sales after ban on iPhone 16

Manish Singh — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 06:13:31 +0000

Indonesia has banned sales of Google Pixel smartphones for failing to meet domestic content requirements, days after blocking Apple’s iPhone 16 in Southeast Asia’s largest phone market. The Indonesian Ministry of Industry said Google’s phones cannot be traded until they comply with rules requiring 40% local content in smartphones sold in Indonesia. Google must obtain […]

Swiggy seeks $11.3B value at IPO, less than half Zomato’s worth

Manish Singh — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 07:30:17 +0000

Swiggy, one of India’s largest food delivery and quick-commerce startups, is seeking a valuation of up to $11.3 billion in its initial public offering, marking a 57% discount to rival Zomato’s market cap. The lossmaking Bengaluru-based company has set an IPO price band of ₹371 to ₹390 ($4.41 to $4.64) per share for next month’s […]

Meesho claims Indian e-commerce first with positive cash flow

Manish Singh — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 06:10:39 +0000

Meesho has become India’s first horizontal e-commerce firm to generate positive cash flow, marking a significant shift in a market where profitability has long remained elusive even as new competitive threats emerge. The SoftBank and Prosus-backed startup, which serves customers in smaller Indian cities and towns, reported positive operating cash flow of ₹232 crores ($27.6 […]

Krafton backs IMM Investment’s first India fund

Manish Singh — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 04:30:46 +0000

The Indian arm of gaming firm Krafton has backed IMM Investment’s first India fund as an anchor limited partner. Seoul-based IMM Investment, an early backer of Krafton and an investor in roughly half of South Korea’s unicorns, has marked the first close of the India fund and has hired former Legend Capital partner Prakhar Khanduja […]

Indian fintech Slice seals bank merger

Manish Singh — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 04:00:24 +0000

Indian fintech startup Slice said it has completed its merger with North East Small Finance Bank, marking a rare instance of a startup successfully entering India’s tightly regulated banking sector. The merger, first proposed last year, transforms the Bengaluru-based startup into a banking entity, following months of regulatory scrutiny. Slice, which gained prominence by issuing […]

Nvidia signs a slew of AI-related deals in India

Manish Singh — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 06:16:17 +0000

Nvidia is embarking on a series of partnerships with Indian firms to deploy its AI chips and technology, deepening its push into a key growth market. The U.S. chip designer’s CEO, Jensen Huang (pictured above), said the company has partnered with Reliance, India’s most valuable company, to build infrastructure for AI applications in India. He […]

X’s India revenue falls 90%, filing shows

Manish Singh — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 03:55:21 +0000

X’s revenue in India plummeted 89.8% to $2.51 million in the financial year ending March, according to regulatory filings from the Elon Musk-owned social network. The company, which had posted revenue of $24.7 million in the previous fiscal year, also significantly reduced its expenses in India to $2.2 million from $20 million year-over-year, the filing […]

India’s Paytm wins approval to resume onboarding new UPI users

Manish Singh — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 03:42:26 +0000

Paytm, a leading Indian financial services firm, has received regulatory approval to resume onboarding new UPI users, following an eight-month restriction on many of its operations. United Payments Interface (UPI) is a real-time, instant payment system developed by the Indian government, and it processes more than 15 billion transactions a month, dominating India’s online payments […]

India’s Zomato to raise $1B ahead of rival Swiggy’s IPO

Manish Singh — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 10:08:45 +0000

Zomato on Tuesday said that its board has approved a plan to raise $1 billion via a share sale to institutional investors.

Groww pays $160M tax as it returns to India amid a startup relocation wave

Manish Singh — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 09:04:04 +0000

Indian stock trading and mutual fund startup Groww paid $159.4 million in taxes as it shifted its domicile from the U.S. back to India, the company said in a statement on Monday. Nearly a dozen Indian startups are in the process of relocating their headquarters to India from the U.S. and Singapore to better comply […]

Byju’s founder says his edtech startup, once worth $22B, is now ‘worth zero’

Manish Singh — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 06:44:48 +0000

Byju Raveendran, the founder of the embattled edtech group Byju’s, acknowledged on Thursday afternoon that he made mistakes, mistimed the market, overestimated growth potential, and that his startup, once valued at $22 billion, is now effectively worth “zero.” Speaking to a group of journalists, Raveendran said the company’s aggressive acquisition of more than two dozen […]

India’s central bank orders Sachin Bansal’s Navi to halt loans

Manish Singh — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 12:22:02 +0000

India’s central bank ordered four non-bank lenders, including Navi Finserv and DMI Finance, to halt loans from October 21, citing excessive interest rates and regulatory breaches. The Reserve Bank of India said (PDF) the firms violated rules on pricing, income assessment, and asset classification. This action follows months of warnings about responsible lending practices, it […]

Zepto eyes $100M from Indian offices in third funding in 6 months

Manish Singh — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 07:00:49 +0000

Zepto is in advanced stages of talks to raise $100 million in new investment, its third in the last six months, as the leading Indian quick-commerce startup looks to rope in more domestic investors, sources familiar with the talks told TechCrunch. The Mumbai-headquartered startup, which delivers grocery items and office stationery to customers’ doorsteps in […]

Accel eyes stake in India’s Truemeds at $330M valuation

Manish Singh — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 05:16:48 +0000

According to half a dozen sources, Accel, the global venture firm, is in advanced discussions to lead a funding round of $30 million to $40 million in Truemeds, an Indian online pharmacy that’s focused on providing customers with more affordable generic alternatives to costly branded medications. The talks are currently centered on a proposed valuation […]

India backs Musk in satellite spectrum allocation row

Manish Singh, Jagmeet Singh — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 14:10:23 +0000

India is set to allocate spectrum for satellite services through administrative means rather than auction, a decision that aligns with recent comments by Elon Musk and rebuffs lobbying efforts by the country's largest telecom operators.

India’s Reliance targets 2G users with $13 4G phones offering streaming, payments

Manish Singh — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 09:50:41 +0000

Reliance’s digital arm, Jio Platforms, has launched two new 4G-enabled handsets that offer access to live TV, music, and video streaming, as well as host the ability to make digital payments, all for a price tag of 1099 rupees ($13), as India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani pushes to woo the hundreds of millions of people […]