CDP Institute

Tech titan IBM on Thursday announced it is helping Marks & Spencer Reliance India (M&S India) modernise its supply chain to drive seamless integration between online and in-store business for improved customer experience.

Data collaboration platform in India, Atlan, announced that it has closed its $50M Series B round led by Insight Partners, Salesforce Ventures, and Sequoia Capital India. Several founders in the data space participated in the round including Fivetran founder Taylor Brown and ThoughtSpot founder Ajeet Singh.

Nasdaq-listed super-app Grab could face class action lawsuits, with several United States law firms calling for shareholders to contact them to investigate claims on their behalf. The mounting of such investigations, which is fairly commonplace for listed firms in the US, comes after Grab’s shares crashed last week, falling about 37 per cent on March 3 after it announced a fourth-quarter net loss of US$1.1 billion. Its results came amid a worse-than-expected drop in revenue, due to higher incentives being paid out to attract drivers and consumers.

Insider, a Singapore-based marketing tech firm, announced Monday a $121 million Series D round led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), at a $1.22 billion valuation. Insider said in a statement that the additional capital will be used to fuel rapid global expansion, enhance the company’s core technology and scale global sales and marketing investments.

In Trela’s case, it is developing a way for Brazilian neighbors to connect groups of people to suppliers, particularly for food purchases with the goal of eliminating the middleman so purchases can be made directly. The company is competing against grocery stores by connecting the ends of the supply chain to give neighbors themselves the buying power of a small restaurant or grocery store so that they can share in the cost of food — in some cases between 20%. and 60% in lower costs. Since the seed round in... Read More >

99minutos, a logistics service company for e-commerce vendors across Latin America, is making fast work out of attracting funding. It announced today $82 million in Series C funding, led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from existing investors Kaszek and Prosus Ventures. 99minutos has 5,000 employees working from Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru, and Patjane aims to reach between 8,000 and 10,000 by the end of the year. It is also working with over 120,000 customers, mainly business-to-business companies. Revenue grew three times year over year.

South African startup Wamly is changing the recruitment processes of companies by providing them with one-way video interview software that does away with the need for one-on-one interviews, allowing them to interview more people and better candidates, faster. Founded in 2018 by Francois de Wet, Wamly allows companies to recruit candidates by sending out a custom link, that will allow the candidates to perform a one-way video interview, just like in real life, but without the need for the employer to be present, allowing the company to interview a lot... Read More >

Egyptian startup Homzmart, the Middle East’s leading furniture and home goods marketplace platform, has announced the acquisition of Berlin-based technology company MockUp Studio as it bids to add to its product offering. MockUp Studio’s technology will allow Homzmart users to visualise their furnished home in minutes. The acquisition means Homzmart will digitise the whole interior design process, starting from an empty room – exploring different layouts, finishings and floorings with different sets of Homzmart’s catalogue assortment – shown as a 360-degree view.

Microsoft, under the remit of its recently established Africa Transformation Office (ATO), has announced a host of new initiatives to accelerate the growth of 10,000 African startups and fast-track investment in Africa’s startup ecosystem over the next five years.

Infosys, a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, today announced its collaboration with Telenor Norway, Telenor’s wholly owned Norwegian telecommunications operator, to successfully transform its finance and supply chain operations.

Tech giant Microsoft on Monday unveiled its fourth data centre in India. While the company did not disclose the investment or the exact size of the campus, Microsoft said that the fourth DC at Telangana, Hyderabad will be one of the largest data centers in India and will be operational by 2025. The company is making an investment of over Rs 15,000 crore over a period of 15 years.

One of India’s leading Ecommerce company Flipkart has entered into a multi-year partnership with Google Cloud, wherein Flipkart gets to use Google’s data centres and its services to improve Flipkart’s overall customer service. Cloud helps companies build products and services without having to maintain servers and data centres of their own.