Tag: softbank

Meesho Eyes Threefold Growth in Festive Season Orders, Will Use Meesho Mall to Attract Consumers

SoftBank-backed Meesho aims for three-fold growth in orders in the upcoming festive season as it will leverage Meesho Mall for the first time to attract consumers to buy directly from brands and authorised channel partners. The company launched an in-app brand store Meesho Mall last year to enable brands to sell directly to consumers.

Since its launch last year, Meesho Mall has been growing by about 30 percent month-on-month and has processed approximately 1 crore orders in the past six months, Meesho Chief Financial Officer Dhiresh Bansal said.

“We believe that Malls will be a significant lever for monetisation in the future. We are also expecting 3x order growth during the festive season. Staying true to its vision, Meesho Mall aims to double down on accessibility, affordability, selection, and experience for its diverse stakeholders,” Bansal said in a statement.

The company had recorded a 68 percent jump in sales on a year-on-year basis during its five-day festive season sale last year with around 3.34 crore orders.

Currently, Meesho Mall has partnered with over 400 national and regional brands, including renowned names such as Bajaj, Biotique, boAt, Decathlon, Bewakoof, Himalaya, Mamaearth, Milton, Paragon, Philips, Plum, Sirona and WOW Skin Science, among others.

The company said that the mall is witnessing over 25 lakh unique transacting users every month.

“Meesho Mall will be an enabler for several emerging and established brands looking to tap a larger audience across the country,” the statement said.

According to market research firm Redseer Strategy Consultants, Meesho was the second largest contributor in terms of order volume during last year’s festive season sales.

A recent report by the firm projects online sales during the upcoming festive season to grow by 18-20 percent and touch Rs 90,000 crore this year. 

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Ola Electric Plans to File Paperwork for Its $700 Million IPO by End of October: Details

India’s Ola Electric plans to file regulatory papers for its up to $700 million (roughly Rs. 5,815 crore) IPO before the end of October as the e-scooter maker fast-tracks its listing move, three people with direct knowledge said. Backed by investors including Singapore’s Temasek and Japan’s SoftBank, Ola Electric was valued at $5.4 billion (roughly Rs. 44,852 crore) in a recent fundraising.

In an email to its bankers and lawyers on Sunday, an Ola Electric executive asked external advisers on the IPO – including the investment banking units of India’s Kotak and ICICI, as well as foreign banks including Bank of America and Goldman Sachs – to give “utmost priority” to meet a five-week deadline, said the sources.

Ola Electric and Kotak did not respond to a request for comment while the other three banks declined to comment. The sources did not wish to be identified as the communication is internal.

Ola’s IPO project is internally codenamed “Project Himalaya”, and the memo came with a request to bankers and lawyers: do not plan any “long leaves to ensure availability”, said the sources.

IPO-bound Indian companies typically do not instruct senior bankers and lawyers to not take leaves, they said.

Once the IPO papers are filed, they will be reviewed by India’s markets regulator who can also send queries, indicating any possible listing is still some months away.

Ola Electric is targeting IPO roadshows for early January or February, said one of the sources.

The company, India’s market leader in e-scooters with a 30 percent share, was founded by Bhavish Aggarwal and has seen its popularity surge as the country promotes the use of electric cars and scooters.

He has said his affordable e-scooters, which start retailing at $1,080 (roughly Rs. 89,700), are for the masses, and in an interview this year said “Tesla is for the West, Ola is for the rest.”

Ola Electric, though, still makes losses. It recorded an operating loss of $136 million (roughly Rs. 1,129 crore) on revenue of $335 million (roughly Rs. 2,782 crore) in the fiscal year ending March 2023, Reuters has reported. 

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Swiggy Said to Have Initiated Talks for IPO Plans, Eyes Stock Listing in 2024

Swiggy, the Softbank-backed food delivery company, is eyeing a 2024 stock market listing and has initiated talks with bankers to assess its valuation, after halting the process for months due to weak markets, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Swiggy, which delivers food from restaurants and also groceries, was valued at $10.7 billion (nearly Rs. 88,350 crore) in its last fundraising in 2022 but like many Indian startups put its IPO plans on hold amid a funding crunch and investor concerns about stretched valuations.

But as global and Indian markets have rebounded Swiggy has restarted its IPO planning by inviting eight investment banks to make pitches in early September to work on the IPO, including Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Bank of America, two of the sources said. 

Swiggy is using the last funding round valuation of $10.7 billion as a benchmark for IPO planning, said one of the sources, who is directly involved in the planning process. But this source said the company has yet to decide on a potential stake sale or final valuation. 

Invesco, a minor shareholder in Swiggy, in May valued the Indian company at around $5.5 billion (nearly Rs. 45,400 crore), it said in a filing. 

Swiggy had initially considered raising $800 million (nearly Rs. 6,600 crore) to $1 billion (nearly Rs. 8,260 crore) via the IPO, banking sources who worked on it in early 2022 have said. 

Swiggy, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley did not respond to requests for comment, while Bank of America declined to comment.

The three sources said Swiggy is aiming to list between July-September 2024 which would be after national elections in India due by May.

Swiggy rival Zomato‘s shares have risen 54.8 percent so far this year, in a sign that investor confidence is returning to India’s financial markets.

On Friday, Indian grocery startup Zepto said it has raised $200 million (nearly Rs. 1,650 crore) in fresh funding at a valuation of $1.4 billion (nearly Rs. 11,560 crore), making it the first Indian startup to cross the billion-dollar valuation mark in nearly a year.

Swiggy in May said its core food delivery business had turned profitable, nine years after starting operations, even as its newer grocery delivery service, Instamart, continues to make losses.

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Apple, Samsung, Nvidia and Intel to Invest in SoftBank Group-Owned Chip Firm Arm at IPO: Report

Apple and Samsung Electronics will invest in SoftBank Group-owned chip designer Arm at its initial public offering (IPO), expected in September, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Reuters reported in June that Arm was in talks with some ten companies – including Apple, Samsung, and Intel – with the aim of bringing on one or more anchor investors in the offering.

Last month, Reuters and other media reported that Arm was in talks to bring in US chip designer Nvidia as an anchor investor for the New York listing.

Apple, Samsung, Nvidia, and Intel all plan to invest in Arm as soon as it is listed on the market, the Nikkei said. The SoftBank-owned firm will officially apply to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the listing later this month, the newspaper said.

Arm plans to sell the chipmakers stakes of “a few percent each”, the newspaper said.

SoftBank declined to comment. Apple, Nvidia, and Intel did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment. Samsung did not have an immediate comment.

The long-awaited IPO is seen as a potential windfall for Softbank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son’s sprawling tech conglomerate.

SoftBank has been targeting a listing for Arm since its deal to sell the chip designer to Nvidia collapsed last year due to objections from antitrust regulators.

The planned US listing could raise between $8 billion (roughly Rs. 66,292) and $10 billion (roughly Rs. 82,856), sources told Reuters in April. At an earnings briefing on Tuesday, SoftBank’s chief financial officer provided no details on a listing date or fundraising goal, but said preparations were going “very smoothly”.

SoftBank posted a surprise loss on Tuesday but said it was dipping its toes back into new investments after its Vision Fund unit returned to the black for the first time in six quarters. 

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Softbank CEO Says He is ‘Heavy User’ of ChatGPT, Speaks to OpenAI’s Sam Altman Often

SoftBank Group‘s Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said on Tuesday he is a “heavy user” of ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot from Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI.

Son said he is speaking “almost everyday” to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who has made high-profile visits to Tokyo this year as he looks to capitalise on interest in generative AI and exert influence on the regulation of the burgeoning technology around the world.

“I am chatting with ChatGPT everyday – I am a heavy user,” Son told shareholders of the group’s telecoms subsidiary.

Son has stepped back from public pronouncements in recent months to focus on the planned listing of chip designer Arm as his technology investment conglomerate books heavy loss due to the sliding value of its portfolio.

The group holds its annual general meeting on Wednesday with the market looking for details of Son’s investment outlook at a time when excitement over AI is driving capital expenditure around the world.

Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz said on Thursday last week US drivers could power some of their luxury vehicles with ChatGPT in a test program starting June 16.

Compatible with some 900,000 vehicles that have the automaker’s “MBUX” systems, ChatGPT will download over the air after drivers opt in via a Mercedes app or by voice command, the company said. The test will last three months during which Mercedes will see how drivers use the technology.

Mercedes said ChatGPT would make its car system’s answers sound more natural and would let drivers ask for destination information or address other queries, like what to cook for dinner.

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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Ola Electric Said to Hold Investor Meet on IPO Plans From Next Week

India’s Ola Electric will hold talks next week with investors in Singapore and the United States on its planned stock market listing, the first of a series of meetings for its up to $1 billion (nearly Rs. 8,250 crore) IPO, two sources with direct knowledge said.

The sources said Ola, which makes electric scooters and is backed by investors such as SoftBank and Temasek, has plans to raise between $600 million (nearly Rs. 4,950 crore) and $1 billion in its initial public offering (IPO), which is planned for late 2023.

With the IPO still some way off, Ola is embarking on investor meetings earlier than usual to explain the business potential of India’s nascent EV market.

Ola’s founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal will travel to Singapore, United States and United Kingdom over the next two weeks, said the two sources, who declined to be named as the plans are confidential.

Aggarwal plans to meet investors, including BlackRock, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, and mutual funds such as T Rowe Price, the first source said.

“EVs are still an emerging space and while there are some global parallels, it is an even newer story in India. So Bhavish wants to take the extra time to create comfort for investors,” said the first source.

Ola Electric declined to comment. BlackRock, GIC and T Rowe Price did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Reuters is the first to report details of Ola’s planned investor meetings.

India is one of the world’s biggest automotive markets with a small but fast-growing EV segment. Ola says it is the market leader in India in e-scooters, selling around 30,000 a month, priced around $1,600 (nearly Rs. 1,32,000) each.

Ola Electric is likely to file regulatory papers on the IPO for approval by August, the two sources said.

The investor meetings will focus on Ola’s scooter business, its growth prospects and valuation, which is expected to be more than $5 billion, the sources said.

Ola competes with other startups and bigger companies like TVS Motors, Ather Energy and Hero Electric, which are ramping up their EV scooter plans.

It has also appointed Bank of America as one of its lead managers on the IPO, in addition to Goldman Sachs, Citi and local banks Kotak, Axis and ICICI Securities.

Bank of America, whose appointment has not been previously reported, did not respond to a query seeking comment.

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Apple unveiled its first mixed reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro, at its annual developer conference, along with new Mac models and upcoming software updates. We discuss all the most important announcements made by the company at WWDC 2023 on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Arm to Reportedly Start Manufacturing Its Own Semiconductor Chips for Smartphones, Laptops, More

British chipmaker Arm is building its own semiconductor to showcase the capabilities of its products, as it seeks to attract new customers and fuel growth following its Initial Public Offering (IPO) later this year, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Arm will team up with manufacturing partners to develop the new semiconductor, FT said, citing people briefed on the move, adding that the company has built a new “solutions engineering” team that will lead the development of these prototype chips for mobile devices, laptops, and other electronics.

The SoftBank Group-backed company’s newest chip, on which it started work in the past six months, is “more advanced” than ever before, FT said, citing industry executives.

The chip designer has no plans to sell or license the product and is only working on a prototype, FT said.

Arm is a major supplier of intellectual property to many chip companies, especially in mobile phones and has partnerships with major chip contract manufacturers.

Earlier this month, Intel said it will work with Arm to ensure that mobile phone chips and other products that use Arm’s technology can be made in Intel’s factories.

Arm did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. 

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Xiaomi launched its camera focussed flagship Xiaomi 13 Ultra smartphone, while Apple opened it’s first stores in India this week. We discuss these developments, as well as other reports on smartphone-related rumours and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Arm Plans to Charge Device Makers for Chips Based on Device Value in Bid to Boost Revenue: Report

Arm, owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group, is seeking to raise prices for its chip designs, as it aims to boost revenue ahead of an initial public offering in New York, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

The British chip designer recently notified several of its customers of a “significant shift” to its business model, the newspaper said, citing several industry executives and former employees.

Arm intends to alter its royalty program, ceasing to charge chipmakers royalties for using its designs based on a chip’s value, and instead charge device makers based on the value of the device, the report said.

As a result of this change, Arm anticipates generating multiple times more revenue for each design it sells, since the value of an average smartphone far exceeds that of a single chip.

“Arm is going to customers and saying ‘We would like to get paid more money for broadly the same thing’,” a former senior employee who left the company last year told FT.

MediaTek, Unisoc, Qualcomm and multiple Chinese smartphone makers, including Xiaomi and Oppo, are among the companies that have been made aware of the proposed changes to pricing policy, the report added.

Arm did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

The company is likely to aim to raise at least $8 billion (roughly Rs. 65,800 crore) from what is expected to be a blockbuster US stock market launch this year, sources told Reuters earlier this month.

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The newly launched Oppo Find N2 Flip is the first foldable from the company to debut in India. But does it have what it takes to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Alibaba Group Sells Remaining Stake in Paytm Worth Rs. 1,378 Crore

China’s Alibaba Group has sold its remaining stake in Indian digital payments firm Paytm for about Rs. 1,378 crore through a block deal, stock exchange data showed on Friday.

The exit comes days after Paytm posted its first-ever quarterly operating profit as a listed firm, nine months ahead of its own target.

Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce sold 21.4 million shares of Paytm on Friday at Rs. 642.74 apiece, a 9 percent discount to Thursday’s close, NSE stock exchange data showed.

Paytm’s stock tumbled nearly 8 percent on Friday to close at Rs. 650.55, but it is still up nearly 23 percent so far this year.

Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte bought 5.42 million shares of Paytm at Rs. 640 on Friday, the data showed.

It was not immediately clear why Alibaba sold the stake. Paytm and Alibaba did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

In January, Alibaba sold a 3.1 percent stake in the company through a block deal worth $125 million (nearly Rs. 1,030 crore). Before that, the Chinese firm had a 6.26 percent stake in Paytm.

Paytm, which is also backed by China’s Ant Group and Japan’s SoftBank Group, has been under pressure to turn profitable ever since its dismal listing in November 2021.

The stock has declined around 70 percent since listing, and tumbled 60 percent in 2022.

Earlier this week, Macquarie Research double-upgraded the stock to “outperform” from “underperform”, and bumped up the price target by around 80 percent to Rs. 800.

“Perhaps the last bear on the stock on sell side, we change our view and we double upgrade PaytM to outperform,” Macquarie analyst Suresh Ganapathy said.

“We see a very visible change in approach of the management to deliver profits as evidenced by core EBIDTA profitability reported recently. We were earlier expecting losses to continue but at current rate of revenues and operating leverage kicking in, we expect accounting profits to be delivered by FY26.”

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Samsung’s Galaxy S23 series of smartphones was launched earlier this week and the South Korean firm’s high-end handsets have seen a few upgrades across all three models. What about the increase in pricing? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Paytm’s Parent Firm share Ended 1 Percent Higher Day After Falling Sharply

Shares of One97 Communications, Paytm’s parent firm on Friday ended over 1 percent higher, a day after falling sharply.

In morning trade, the stock had declined over 2 percent after SoftBank divested 4.5 percent stake in the firm for Rs. 1,631 crore through an open market transaction.

The stock dipped 2.23 percent to Rs. 527.50 during the day on the BSE. But it recovered all the lost ground and ended at Rs. 546.30 apiece, higher by 1.25 percent.

On the NSE, it fell 2.38 percent to Rs. 526.90 during the day. The stock ended at Rs. 546.40 per share, a gain of 1.22 percent.

Shares of Paytm parent One97 Communications tumbled nearly 11 percent on Thursday.

Earlier this month, the lock-in period ended for the pre-offer investors that had invested in Paytm, which was listed on the bourses in November last year.

According to bulk deal data available with the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday, SVF India Holdings (Cayman) sold a total of 2,93,50,000 shares, amounting to 4.5 percent stake in the company.

SVF India is a subsidiary of SoftBank.

The shares were offloaded at an average price of Rs. 555.67 per piece, taking the transaction value to Rs. 1,630.89 crore.

SoftBank is the second largest shareholder with 17.45 percent stake in the company.

Post the latest transaction, SoftBank’s shareholding will decrease to 12.95 percent from 17.45 percent stake in the company. 

SoftBank is selling 29 million shares in the deal which is being led by Bank of America, according to the term sheet.

The sale is the latest in a string of divestments that SoftBank has made in the past few months, after its flagship Vision Fund unit booked nearly $50 billion (roughly Rs. 4,08,150 crore) in losses in just six months.

 

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