Chinese fast-fashion platform Shein has relaunched in India through a partnership with local conglomerate Reliance’s retail chain, nearly five years after it was banned amid diplomatic tensions between New Delhi and Beijing. The new Shein India Fast Fashion app, developed and launched by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail, marks the firm’s significant return to one […]
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India announced a new $1.15 billion Fund of Funds for startups on Saturday while unveiling sweeping regulatory reforms and an ambitious nuclear energy program, as New Delhi seeks to boost tech innovation and clean energy in the world’s fifth-largest economy. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, presenting the federal budget for 2025-26, said the fund builds on […]
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India’s IT minister on Thursday praised DeepSeek‘s progress and said the country will host the Chinese AI lab’s large language models on domestic servers, in a rare opening for Chinese technology in India. “You have seen what DeepSeek has done — $5.5 million and a very very powerful model,” IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on […]
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SoftBank is in talks to invest up to $25 billion in OpenAI as part of a broader partnership that could see the Japanese conglomerate spend more than $40 billion on AI initiatives with the Microsoft-backed startup, according to the Financial Times. The potential investment would make SoftBank OpenAI’s largest single backer, the report said, surpassing […]
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Quick-commerce startup Zepto has moved its domicile to India from Singapore, joining a growing number of Indian startups that have moved their headquarters home ahead of an IPO in the country. The transition marks the fastest shift of registered headquarters to India by a startup in the country, according to Zepto’s chief financial officer Ramesh […]
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Chinese AI firm DeepSeek has emerged as a potential challenger to U.S. AI companies, demonstrating breakthrough models that claim to offer performance comparable to leading offerings at a fraction of the cost. The company’s mobile app, released in early January, has lately topped the App Store charts across major markets including the U.S., U.K., and […]
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Tata Electronics has acquired a 60% controlling stake in the Indian arm of Apple assembly partner Pegatron as the conglomerate expands its iPhone-manufacturing capacity in the country. Taiwan-based Pegatron operates three iPhone production plants in India, including one near Chennai in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu. The deal comes less than a year after […]
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Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance is planning to build what could become the world’s largest data center in Jamnagar, India, with a capacity of 3 gigawatts to capitalize on surging AI demand. The facility would dwarf the current largest data center, Microsoft’s 600-megawatt site in Virginia, Bloomberg reported Friday. The project could cost between $20 billion and […]
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Private equity firm Everstone has reached a deal to acquire a majority stake in Wingify, one of India’s earliest bootstrapped software-as-a-service success stories, for about $200 million, three sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The deal, finalized this week, marks a significant exit for Wingify’s founder Paras Chopra, who built the SaaS startup without […]
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An Indian tribunal on Thursday suspended restrictions that would have barred WhatsApp from sharing user data with its parent company Meta, delivering a significant victory for Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire in its largest market by users. The ruling by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal temporarily lifts a five-year ban imposed by India’s antitrust […]
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Google has agreed to acquire a part of HTC’s extended reality (XR) business for $250 million, expanding its push into virtual and augmented reality hardware following the recent launch of its Android XR platform. The deal involves transferring some of the HTC VIVE engineering staff to Google and granting non-exclusive intellectual property rights, according to […]
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Hindustan Unilever has agreed to acquire beauty startup Minimalist for about $342 million, as the consumer goods giant seeks to expand in India’s fast-growing premium skincare market. Hindustan Unilever will initially acquire a 90.5% stake in the direct-to-consumer brand through secondary buyouts and primary investment, with the remaining 9.5% to be purchased from founders in […]
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Indian fintech Jar has turned cash flow positive, an executive at the Tiger Global-backed startup confirmed on Wednesday. The three-year-old startup, which offers savings and investment services to consumers, achieved the milestone while still growing by more than 10 times last year, according to an investor note seen by TechCrunch. The profitability push comes as […]
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Zomato’s quick-commerce business, Blinkit, is accelerating its expansion in India, but it expects losses to continue piling up as competition intensifies in India’s instant delivery market. Blinkit now aims to have up to 2,000 dark stores (small warehouses in residential areas that exclusively service online orders), a year ahead of its previous forecast. The company […]
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Apple launched its dedicated Apple Store app in India on Friday, deepening its retail presence in the world’s most populous country as the iPhone maker seeks to capitalize on growing consumer demand. The app, available for download on India’s App Store, lets customers purchase Apple products directly while receiving personalized shopping recommendations, the company said […]
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Amazon has agreed to acquire Indian buy-now, pay-later startup Axio, deepening its push into financial services in one of its fastest-growing markets. The e-commerce group, which has held an equity stake in Axio for six years, signed the acquisition agreement in December after completing due diligence, the Indian startup said in a blog post. Financial […]
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Former SoftBank exec Akshay Naheta's startup, Distributed Technologies Research, is trying to bridge the gap between banking and blockchain tech.
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A joint international statement provides the first official confirmation that North Korea was behind the $235M hack of WazirX, India's largest cryptocurrency exchange.
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Groww, India’s largest retail stockbroker, is preparing to file for an IPO in 10 to 12 months, seeking a valuation between $6 billion and $8 billion, sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The Bengaluru-headquartered’s listing would be the first IPO by a digital trading platform in India. The targeted valuation is more than double […]
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As digital payments morph into strategic assets, India is offering a template for other nations seeking to reduce dependence on Western payment networks. Regulators around the world are notching up scrutiny on Visa and Mastercard over the fees they charge merchants, but India has chosen a different path: creating rival payment networks that are increasingly […]
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