Jio🤝🏻Whatsapp, Zomato Wings💸, Snapdeal IPO📊
Use WhatsApp to order groceries from JioMart, Zomato launches ‘Wings’ to help restaurants, Snapdeal plans IPO, Funding Deals & more.
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JioMart turns to WhatsApp to compete against Amazon, Flipkart🛒
Users can now use WhatsApp to order groceries from JioMart via a new “tap and chat” option, as Reliance Industries challenges the domination of Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc.-owned Flipkart.
Delivery is free and there’s no minimum order value, according to JioMart users who got WhatsApp shopping invites with a 90-second tutorial and catalog. Customers can fill their shopping baskets within the app and pay either via JioMart or in cash when receiving their orders.
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd., which obliterated rivals in India's telecommunications sector by selling $2 data plans and free voice calls, is deploying a very similar tactic—cutthroat pricing—to gain an edge in the country's increasingly competitive e-commerce space.
The move comes 19 months after Meta Platforms Inc., previously known as Facebook Inc., invested nearly $6 billion into Reliance’s Jio Platforms unit. WhatsApp has about 530 million users in the country and Jio has more than 425 million subscribers.
Zomato launches ‘Wings’ to help restaurants secure funding🍽
Food delivery platform Zomato has announced a new program—Zomato Wings—to help restaurants secure funding.
The company’s co-founder Deepinder Goyal said that Zomato wants to help such businesses raise funds, as there has been limited investor capital inflow into the restaurant and cloud kitchen businesses over the last few years.
“While some large chains have attracted investors, we have barely scratched the surface – in the last three years, only about 25 restaurants and cloud-kitchens saw Series A or larger equity funding rounds, as per (industry tracker) Tracxn,” Goyal wrote in a blog post last week.
The Wings team will help select restaurants and cloud kitchens to “position their story and metrics in the right manner and connect them with the right investors.”
The company has taken bets on startups like logistics firm Shiprocket, discovery platform for offline retailers Magicpin and fitness platform Curefit, as part of its strategy to deploy $1 billion in young companies in the next 1-2 years.
Hot Shorts⚡
Bessemer Venture Partners, a venture capital firm based in the United States, announced the closure of a $220 million India-focused fund to support the country's next generation of innovators.
Adda247, an edtech platform, has raised $20 million in a round led by WestBridge Capital.
Ykrita Life Sciences has raised $1.2 million in a seed funding round led by Venture Catalysts. Indian Scientific Innovation Company Limited also participated in this round.
Adonia Hospitality, a seed-stage food-tech startup, has raised upwards of $1 million from Pepperfry founders Ambareesh Murty and Ashish Shah as part of its seed round.
Snapdeal targets $250 million India IPO in 2022🛍
Snapdeal plans to file preliminary documents for an initial public offering of as much as $250 million in the next few weeks, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
Snapdeal, once considered the fiercest rival to Amazon India and Flipkart in the world’s fastest-growing major online arena, plans to raise at least $200 million at a $1.5 billion valuation.
Snapdeal’s largest shareholders, which include Alibaba and SoftBank, are not selling shares.
Snapdeal is hoping instead to replicate the strong showings of fellow online commerce firms like food delivery platform Zomato and beauty retailer FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd., which owns Nykaa. Food delivery startup Zomato and Nykaa’s initial public offerings were fully subscribed on the first day, pointing to immense retail investor interest in the space.
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