![[Weekend Roundup] Flipkart, Jabong downsize; Yahoo may buy Tumblr](http://startupcentral.in/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/xecommerce.jpg.pagespeed.ic.G9bml5U-SA.jpg "[Weekend Roundup] Flipkart, Jabong downsize; Yahoo may buy Tumblr")
Ecommerce was controversially in the news again this week with The Economic Times reporting that several leading players in the sector have been handing out the pink slip to employees. The report claims that nearly 250 people at Bangalore-based Flipkart have been eased out of the company while its Gurgaon-based peer Jabong has let off [...]
Bangalore-based ecommerce heavyweight Flipkart is announcing the launch of Flipkart Marketplace today. The marketplace kicks off with 50 SMB (small and medium businesses) sellers who will be hawking products in the books, media and consumer electronics categories. Clothes, shoes and other categories are expected to follow soon. Sellers will have access to Flipkart’s 10 lakh [...]
Bangalore-based ecommerce company Flipkart has entered into a partnership with CyberSource, a Visa company, one of the world’s largest providers of e-commerce payment and fraud management services, to enable international card transactions on their website. As a result of the partnership, customers outside of India will be able to purchase products and gifts on Flipkart.com [...]
Flipkart and FDI in ecommerce are in the news again. The Times of India is reporting that the ecommerce company has sold its front-end operations company WS Retail Services. The buyers are a group of Indian HNI investors led by former OnMobile COO Rajiv Kuchhal, says the report. The details of the transaction were not [...]
Bangalore-headquartered ecommerce leader Flipkart appears to have soft launched an online marketplace for small businesses. The company is inviting external sellers to sign up at sellers.flipkart.com. Sellers who sign up and list their products with the marketplace will be able to use Flipkart’s logistics network to ship goods to customers and use its payments engine [...]
Ecommerce has been the big venture capital story in terms of investments through most of 2011 and continued in some measure into 2012. So far, by StartupCentral’s estimates, nearly $600 million has flowed into the sector. This week a big problem has cropped up which could severely impact investments in the sector. The government has stepped in investigate alleged FDI violations by Flipkart, a move that casts a shadow on ecommerce companies which have raised venture capital in the past.
The ED will probe alleged foreign direct investment (FDI) violations by Flipkart Online Services Private Limited, the entity that has raised nearly $200 million from investors such as Accel Partners, Tiger Global, Iconiq Capital and Naspers over multiple rounds of funding. While FDI is permitted for wholesale retail companies, it is barred for online retail or ecommerce companies.
Flipkart launched Flyte, its digital music store in February, as part of an ongoing move to diversify its product and revenue mix from its original staple of books. Vice president (digital) Sameer Nigam updates us on how the store has been doing since launch.
The group’s stated strategy is to develop into the leading player in media and ecommerce platforms in emerging markets. Within ecommerce, its areas of interest include marketplaces, business-to-consumer, classifieds, payment platforms and verticals.
This is the first time that Flipkart has raised money from a strategic investor — an event that holds high potential for an acquisition at a later stage. In the past, it has raised $31 million from venture capital investors Accel Partners and Tiger Global
Accelerator to angel to VC flow still struggling to find equilibrium in India
I had fun moderating the panel on early stage financing at India Internet Day. VCCircle has an interesting article. The key issues are as under: 1. Too few deals are progressing from accelerators to angel, and from angel to Series A. Only five per cent of deals going from accelerators to Series A might not [...]
The early ecommerce marketplace pioneers: eBay class of 2000-2005
TechCrunch recently published an article I wrote about how the eBay class of 2000-2005 helped shape ecommerce in Silicon Valley and continues to innovate and move the sector forward. By understanding what shaped this class’ experience and examining where these alums are today, we identified the most important industry trends and start to see a [...]
The founder’s guide to surviving the Series A crunch
The Indian entrepreneurship and venture capital ecosystem is fast maturing. Today we have more early stage funds than ever. This fund availability will only improve, aside from the temporary blips caused due to macroeconomic ups and downs. We are in one such ‘crunch’ today, where even though seed and angel funds are writing cheques with [...]
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