Business

Google announced on Friday that it would invest $700 million in the business of telecom operator Bharti Airtel. A $300 million corpus would be invested over a five-year period on “mutually agreed commercial initiatives,” according to the tech giant. A large part of this investment appears to be putting more affordable handsets in the hands of consumers. This money will be used to scale up a “range of devices to consumers via innovative affordability programmes,” according to Google. In its own press release, Airtel stated that the companies would collaborate…

PhonePe, a fintech platform, reported an annualised total payment value of $651 billion in December from a user base of 150 million monthly active users on Friday. According to a statement, the company has signed up 350 million users so far, implying that one in every four Indians now uses PhonePe. Over the last year, the registered user base has increased by 28%, from 273 million in January 2021 to 350 million in December 2021. “We are delighted to cross the 350-million registered users mark, and emerge as India’s largest…

Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy told in an interview that the company will scale up verticals such as grocery and hyperlocal deliveries alongside its value-focused platform Shopsy after investing in these verticals over the last year. This comes at a time when Indian ecommerce has seen the entry of younger players, a flood of investor capital, and incumbents like Flipkart and Amazon being challenged for the first time in many years. Instead of diversifying further this year, Krishnamurthy said the Bengaluru-based company, which is majority owned by the US-based retail…

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Indian Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, welcomed Intel after Intel Foundry Services president, in a tweet, congratulated the minister on the nation’s effort to encourage semiconductor design and manufacturing in India. To those who are unaware, the Union Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved a budget of Rs 76,000 crores earlier this month to provide incentives to companies designing and manufacturing semiconductor chips in India. Vaishnaw’s response was to Intel’s  Foundry Services president, Randhir Thakur, who said via a tweet, “Congrats to @GoI_MeitY @AshwiniVaishnaw…

WeWork India’s revenue increased by 33% to over Rs 800 crore this year and is expected to grow further in 2022 due to increased demand for its flexible workspaces, according to a company official. In an interview with PTI, WeWork India Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Karan Virwani outlined his vision for the company to become a “one-stop shop” for all workspace requirements. In response to the growing demand for flexibility, he stated that the company would expand its portfolio by one million square feet, with a capacity of approximately 20,000…

Flipkart, the world’s largest e-commerce company, has diversified its ecosystem this year with the acquisitions of online travel agency Cleartrip and e-pharmacy marketplace Sastasundar. The Walmart-owned company is on the verge of making another acquisition. According to three people familiar with the matter, Flipkart is in talks to acquire full-stack e-commerce enabler ANS Commerce. ANS Commerce is a full-stack e-commerce enabler that assists brands in selling their products online. It provides brand store technology, marketing, management, warehousing, and fulfilment services. The Gurugram-based startup, founded by Amit Monga, Vibhor Sahare, Sushant…