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MobiKwik to take on Paytm with new funding round

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Paytm, India’s leading wallet and payments company now backed by high-profile investors like Alibaba and Softbank, has always been on the top when it comes to digital payment market in India. Call it the first mover’s advantage at work. On top of that, last year’s demonetization came like a sweet spring for the whole online transaction business in India. Paytm was the biggest gainer of demonetization among all wallet businesses in India. But, there is another wallet and payments solution that is growing quickly, MobiKwik.

MobiKwik- the brand which focuses entirely on mobile payments and stands second to Paytm in India- is pretty confident that the company can convert their unidirectional approach towards online payments into an advantage when competition is focusing more towards diversifying into other fields like e-commerce and banking.

Recently, in a talk with TechCrunch, Co-founder Upasana Taku confirmed that they are currently in a negotiation for an investment of $100 million-$150 million which is going to come at a valuation of $1 billion. Taku declined, when asked about the major names her company is going to receive funds from, but made it clear that there is only one major strategic investor involved along with some financial institutions. Expect the round to be closed in next couple of months, putting the company into much valued tech unicorns club.

Well, that’s a lot of money to put into a strategy and we hope MobiKwik has a polished one as they are going against Paytm; top of the league. As of now, plan is to invest around $45 million on expanding the brand’s presence and offices to new users and merchants.

Paytm is pushing its business into e-commerce, influenced by Alibaba’s presence. That’s not it, they are stepping into digital banking as well and if the sources are correct, there is yet another project which is going to launch soon and drives heavily from Chinese market.

“It is reneging on payments while it is pushing bank and e-commerce services. Something’s got to give, it is not possible to do justice on 10 different verticals.” She told to Techcrunch. She also quoted Ola money’s example to justify her statement. “I don’t see Ola Money accepted in many places”

Upasana Taku  also opened up about the company’s future goal of providing financial services like insurance, loans, and investing alongside partners, all via co-branded wallet app. Today digital payment accounts for just 15 percent of the total amount of $1.5 trillion in India and she believes that number can increase up to even 70 percent in next few years.

The Impact Of WannaCry Or WannaCrypto Ransomware

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WannaCry or WannaCrypto ransomware attack took the world by storm this year taking down more than 230,000 computers within a day! The attack was reported on 12th May, 2017 and since then, the malware has spread globally affecting organizations, banks and services all over the world. NHS or British National Health Service has been compromised due to the attack. They are not even able to accept patients or perform operations due to the damage done to their systems. Starting with NHS the attack didn’t stop there. Other companies affected by the attacks included the Spanish telecommunications company, Telefonica, Gas Natural and electricity provider Iberdrola. Add FedEx in the U.S. and Renault in France to the list as well.

Those who still don’t know, Ransomware is a malware that causes data unavailability either by completely locking a computer or encrypting a part of the data storage. All this in order to pull a ransom out of your pockets in exchange of providing the access again. But, there is no guarantee whatsoever that you are going to get your confidential data back once you pay the money, which makes it even more haunting.

WannaCry affects PCs in a similar fashion. When it successfully hacks the storage, that is within seconds, a pop up comes up demanding a ransom of $300 in Bitcoins to restore access. The payment has to be done within three days of the attack or the amount doubles. That said, if one fails to pay even in a week’s time, data is permanently deleted, according to the pop up.

Recently came into light, WannaCry was first reported in March being leaked from NSA (National Security Agency), USA. It utilizes a flaw in Microsoft OS (named EternalBlue) discovered by NSA which hackers converted into a ransomware. Although, Microsoft was quick enough to release the patches for Windows OS, even for the outdated ones to provide overall safety, within the month of March itself, but not everyone was aware of what’s coming and didn’t provide the much-needed update to their system.

According to Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer Brad Smith, government agencies are to blame for the massive cyber attack. He clearly spoke his heart out through a post on Microsoft’s website about it. He wrote:

Finally, this attack provides yet another example of why the stockpiling of vulnerabilities by governments is such a problem. This is an emerging pattern in 2017. We have seen vulnerabilities stored by the CIA show up on WikiLeaks, and now this vulnerability stolen from the NSA has affected customers around the world. Repeatedly, exploits in the hands of governments have leaked into the public domain and caused widespread damage. An equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would be the U.S. military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen. And this most recent attack represents a completely unintended but disconcerting link between the two most serious forms of cyber security threats in the world today – nation-state action and organized criminal action.

As of now, a so called “kill switch” has been discovered accidentally, by a cyber security specialist, which has halted the spread, but that’s not the end in any sense. Ransomware attacks form a really good business by the way (if you got the skills) and people are willing to pay for their private data. Considering how convenient it has become to launch an attack like that in this era of internet, there will be many more ransomware attacks in near future. Coming to prevention, it’s the same for any virus attack and most probably you know what you have to do to stay protected. Don’t be lazy! Take the measures and remain safe.

UberEATS enters India with a promise to deliver food within 35 minutes

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Uber, the taxi hailing app that also runs food delivery service named UberEATS in countries like Australia, UK, US etc. has launched UberEATS in India. Starting its business in the year 2014 in Los Angeles, UberEATS dominates food delivery space in 26 countries across the world and has a presence in total 78 cities, now including Mumbai as well. Uber has finally launched its food delivery app UberEATS in India starting with Mumbai city. They also announced their plans to expand further to six other major cities in India before the year ends.

Bhavik Rathore, appointed as the Head of UberEATS operations in India, said “Mumbai is home to a booming food industry with a vibrant food culture offering both global and local cuisines. The introduction of UberEats in India, with Mumbai as the first city, is a major step in our global expansion and showcases our commitment to the region”. With an experience of delivering food in 78 countries, the team claims to provide cultural food-variety delivered to doorsteps in just 35 minutes!

That’s all good, but one thing that UberEATS has to keep in mind is- they are not getting a clean slate to start with. Apps like Swiggy, Zomato, Just eat, Foodpanda and many more already have a rich customer base in Mumbai. The new entrant has to fight for its piece of cake. To this Kartik said “While Swiggy and Zomato currently have a strong presence in the market, they have, in effect, cleared the way for Uber by helping build a market that didn’t exist earlier.”

UberEATS brings along some unique features to the game as well. The app is going to provide food suggestions according to your location in the city, which means, interface will be different for every person. Suggestions will depend on availability of associated restaurants around your current location when you open your app. As of now, the brand has already signed deals with more than 200 restaurants including The Bohri Kitchen, Le15, Freahmenu and Chaayos. UberEATS is also interlinked with Uber ride app to provide seamless food delivery if you chose to order something during the ride.

India is evolving, and so does the opportunity to earn more in Indian market. Scaling to India is in every global firm’s checklist (except few like Snapchat). With a population of 20 million and being the third business hub in India, Mumbai becomes the target place to get started. And we hope, UberEATS does well in India utilizing the data from Uber ride and their three years of experience worldwide.

Electric scooters startup from India secures $1.6 million in funding

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Twenty-two motors, never heard of it before? Probably because they were busy developing more affordable and smarter electric vehicles tailored specifically for the young India. This Gurgaon based EV startup recently came out in limelight announcing a successful fund raise of $1.6 million in its first pre-series, a funding led by Haryana Industries CEO Ishwar Singh. The company plans to launch its first smart scooter at next Auto-Expo in February 2018.

The company was incorporated in August 2016 by Parveen Kharb, an automation engineer with an experience of 15 years in the sector and Vijay Chandrawat, an IIT Delhi graduate with 14 years of experience spanning across strategy, technology and operation domain. Taking inspiration from challenges involved and accomplishments of Tesla in USA, the duo took the decision to enter electric vehicle sector. Farhaan Shabbir, former director of Harley-Davidson was also one of the founding members and is currently a part of their 15-member team.

Talking about how the funding will be used, Vijay elaborated “The investment will be used meticulously to build and prove the product apart from strengthening the startup’s human resource capabilities. Broadly, the investment will be channeled for, testing, strengthening the team, prototype vehicle development, component development, and factory setup. The investment certifies our potential and is expected to provide exponential growth to the company.”

Twenty-two motors believe that electric vehicle technology in India is neither affordable nor progressing fast enough to catch up with the major players in the league. With a year of development and testing they claim to have successfully developed the basic tech-prototype and battery management system (BSM). As per their claims, they have tackled the key challenges in electric mobility- short life span of batteries and recharge-ability.

Their Li-ion batteries are light weight, removable and can be easily charged using any five-pinned socket eliminating the need of charging stations. If there is a power socket around (not much of a problem in urban India), you are good to go. Only time will tell if they can pull it off without compromising the power or charging time.

“The battery can be taken out of the scooter and charged anywhere. You don’t need a special plug to charge it,” said Kharb.

Moreover, the scooter will remain connected to rider via mobile app allowing remote access and control from anywhere. AI assistance, utilizing electronic sensors, will also be there to guide you through different routes depending upon elevation and co-ordinates of the road. “It will include information regarding bridges, roads and flyovers which the rider can take or must avoid depending on the battery condition and target location,” added Kharb.

The scooter will be launched in two variants with the top model ranging between Rs. 55-65k. Initially, around Rs. 50,000 scooters are going to be available in Delhi, Pune and Bengaluru region in first quarter of 2018.

eBay India acquisition and fund raising by FlipKart

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India’s largest and most successful e-commerce platform Flipkart has finally put all the rumors to rest on Monday by confirming a successful fund raise of USD 1.4 billion at a post-transaction valuation of  $11.6 billion, a notable drop of 3.6 billion from its May 2015 valuation. Although, not completely in Flipkart’s favor, the move surely strengthens their arsenal with big names like strategic investor Tencent, ebay and Microsoft. With Alibaba’s speculated entry in India by the end of this year, Flipkart has already started preparations  for a battle among giants; Amazon, Alibaba and Flipkart.

Tencent, a Chinese Investing firm and owner of wechat, has already invested in Indian messaging platform Hike and healthcare startup Practo. But, this deal of $700 million is their largest investment in India. India being the fastest growing internet market, with studies estimating online population in India to reach 450-465 million by June 2017, involvement of huge firms does align with the opportunity. Tencent joins as a strategic investor, bringing experience in linking social networking with e-commerce.

“This strategic partnership enables Tencent to participate in the exciting opportunities in e-commerce and payments in India. We look forward to helping Flipkart to deliver compelling experiences to users throughout India, and to contribute to the development of the internet ecosystem there,” said Martin Lau, Tencent President.

The eBay deal comes with a $500 million cash investment along with eBay taking $200 million in stocks for handing over its Indian platform ebay.in to Flipkart. But, eBay will continue to function as an independent entity separate from Flipkart. There is also a cross-border agreement between two companies to promote each other’s operations. As a result, eBay users will be able to access inventories from Flipkart sellers and vice-versa, providing a wider global presence to both the firms.

“We are delighted that Tencent, eBay and Microsoft — all innovation powerhouses — have chosen to partner with us on their India journey. We have chosen these partners based on their long histories of pioneering industries, and the unique expertise and insights each of them bring to Flipkart. This deal reaffirms our resolve to hasten the transformation of commerce in India through technology,” Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal said in a statement.

On its way towards monopoly, Flipkart has already acquired firms like Myntra, Jabong and now ebay India. All of this to stand strong against Amazon. A news about Snapdeal’s acquisition by Flipkart  following its struggle to generate profits is also doing rounds.

Aren’t we ready for self-driving cars?

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Letting an AI control your car while you are chilling in the back seat or making last moment changes in the final presentation sounds really great in every sense. Even better, who doesn’t want a quick nap in the rides back home after a tiring day at office. A bit scary! Believe it or not, but that’s how we are going to travel in near future. Autonomous driving or self-driving is the next big thing and with some successful implementations already on the road, it’s no more a sci-fi dream. Every auto manufacturer and tech firms like Google, Uber are working for a piece of the pie.

Few months back in last year, Uber launched its first fleet of self-driving Volvo XC90s in Pittsburgh. You could almost hear the auto industry’s collective jaw drop after that. Suddenly, a company providing taxi service was offering a vision of future autonomous transportation.

Following its almost perfect execution in Pittsburgh, Uber decided to expand its territory of self-driving taxis to Arizona. And that’s where things went wrong. On 24th March, one of the Uber’s self-driving car got involved in an accident in Tempe, Arizona. The news spread like wildfire accompanied by an image showing one of the Uber’s Volvo flipped on one side and a dented Honda CV-R. The authenticity of news and image was confirmed by an Uber spokesperson.

“We saw the [Honda] car, it was coming fine on her end, but the other person just wanted to beat the light and kept going,” a witness wrote in the police report. “All I want to say is it was good on the end of the [Honda] driving toward us, it was the other driver’s fault [Uber] for trying to beat the light and hitting the gas so hard.”

Was it actually the car’s fault? Surprisingly, no! It performed in the way it was programmed for the situation. It was cruising at 38mph as it should do over a Yellow signal when Honda’s driver decided to take a turn 3 lanes across shielded by a fleet of cars in 2 of the lanes blocking the sensors of Uber taxi. Although the Uber employ behind the wheels saw the car in last moments, but it was too late and the collision took place.

The whole incident raises an interesting thought: a real driver might have approached the yellow light differently seeing someone troubling with directions. He might have slowed down, way before, seeing a crowded road.

Joshua Brown was killed last year when his Tesla Model S in Autopilot mode collided with a truck. Although Tesla came out clean showing it was more of Brown’s fault for not using brakes although he had 7 seconds to do so. Probably, he grew confident about Autopilot’s ability.

That’s the problem here, the self-driving technology is not yet completely developed. At present, it’s more of an assistance than a completely reliable alternative to manual driving. But the major question still remains; will a computer ever be able to completely replace a seasoned driver?