During the 15-day festival period of Diwali in October, India’s top two web retailers Flipkart (in which Walmart is a majority stake holder), and Amazon clocked a combined sales figure of $4.3 billion. The festive sale period helps etailers shore up sales as this is when consumers plan large-value purchases...
Walmart's Acquired Digital Payment Business in India Flourishes
In 2018, Walmart Inc. paid $16 billion for control of India’s e-commerce company, Flipkart Online Services, and as part of the deal it got a little-noticed digital payment subsidiary called PhonePe (pronounced "phone pay" and meaning "on the phone" in Hindi). Currently, the business is one of India’s leading digital...
Danish Fashion Brand Hummel Opens 5 India Stores
Founded in 1923, Hummel, a sportswear company based in Aarhus, Denmark, inaugurated five stores in India and plans another ten by the end of this year. The first five stores, which are franchised, are located in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Surat, and Amritsar. Soumava Naskar, managing director of Hummel India, said...
SoftBank Invests Over $200 Million in India's Online Grocer
Japan's SoftBank Group led an investment round of more than $200 million in New Delhi-based online grocery startup Grofers India through its Vision Fund. The series F funding saw participation from new investor, KTB of South Korea, and existing investors Tiger Global Management of New York and Sequoia Capital of...
In 2018 M&As Lead $100-Bn Plus Deals in India
2018 proved to be a robust year for mergers and acquisitions for Indian corporations. Powered by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and an extremely competitive atmosphere in the mobile and e-commerce space, dealmaking crossed $100 billion for the first time ever. As the government pushed for resolutions, there was a...
India Announces Changes to FDI Policy for E-Commerce
India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry released new changes to the FDI policy for the e-commerce sector which aim to cut predatory pricing and deep discounting by large e-commerce retailers to ensure a "level-playing field" for smaller and multi-channel players, as well as the brick and mortar retailers. The guidelines...