Amazon’s future-istic retail play + Referrals went live

Paper’s daily briefing — December 7, 2017

Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC (“Amazon”) and Shopper’s Stop Limited (“Shopper’s Stop”) have just filed an application with the Competition Commission of India to approve the acquisition by Amazon of a 5 percent minority, non-controlling ownership interest in the BSE-listed company. This is in line with the deal approved on October 18, 2017 by Shopper’s Stop shareholders, to allot equity shares to Amazon for an investment of ₹179.257 Cr.

As you probably already know, Amazon now has exclusivity on Shopper’s Stop’s online sales via a separate agreement announced on September 20, 2017.

Interestingly, once the investment deal is approved, Amazon is likely to own a stake not just in Shopper’s Stop but indirectly in Future Retail Limited (“Future Retail”), the Future group’s retail arm.

That’s because Shopper’s Stop just sold its subsidiary Hypercity to Future Retail. Why is that relevant? Because it was a cash-and-stock deal.

K Raheja group’s Shopper’s Stop has just been allotted shares in Future Retail as part of this deal. In announcements on November 30, 2017 and December 1, 2017, Shopper’s Stop had announced the sale’s closing, with the company and other shareholders having transferred their entire shareholding in Hypercity and the company being allotted 4,756,823 equity shares of Future Retail, of ₹2 each (at a premium of ₹535 per share) amounting to approximately ₹255 Cr. Kishore Biyani’s Future Corporate Resources Limited owns a 39.9 percent stake in publicly listed Future Retail.

Of course, Shopper’s Stop’s shareholding in Future Retail is miniscule — we calculated it to be ~ 0.947% and Amazon’s indirect interest is even more miniscule.

But just think about it the next time you walk into a Nilgiris, Heritage, Big Bazaar or EasyDay — Amazon now owns a bit of that store!

Refer or Pay

Referrals are finally here!

New and returning users to Paper.vc will get a pop-up that asks them to invite at least two colleagues or acquaintances before continuing to use the platform. Via another update we’ll push tomorrow, you can alternatively choose to upgrade to a paid plan.

Yes, we understand you might feel a bit annoyed at having to invite people before using the platform. Its just that we feel the benefits (to us and you) offset the disadvantage of such annoyance. We get to grow faster as we emerge from our beta, and you get use a platform at a much lower cost than anything else out there. If you disagree or have better ideas, write in to us.

The day’s updates on financings, acquisitions, funds and people from around the globe.

Thursday, December 7, 2017

India

MSwipe Technologies, a mobile POS service provider, has raised ~ $40 million in a Series D round from Eduardo Saverin, Facebook co-founder. Saverin’s B Capital and DSG Capital Partners have led the funding with Ratan Tata’s UC-RNT Fund, Matrix Partners India and Falcon Edge Capital also participating. (Bloomberg)

eShakti, a women apparel e-tailer has raised $2.3 million in debt funding from NBFC BlackSoil Capital. (VCCircle)

Param.ai, an AI-driven hiring startup, has raised $271K in seed funding from US-based Institutional Fund Core Financials. It has been reported that Indian actor Ashish Vidyarthi has also participated in the round. (DealStreetAsia)

The Man Company, a male grooming brand owned by Helios Lifestyle Private Limited has raised an undisclosed amount from Emami Ltd. (VCCircle)

TheLabelLife, a home decor and fashion portal, has raised $3.1 million from Kalpavriksh, financial services firm Centrum’s private equity arm. (VCCircle)

China / Japan / Korea

No Panda Culture, an entertainment and culture agency, has received $10.6 million investment from PE firm Hg Capital and Book.weibo.com. (DealStreetAsia)

SoupMaster, Chinese restaurant chain and retail brand, has raised Series A funding from Lightspeed China Partners and DianLiang Capitals. (DealStreetAsia)

51HiTech, a Beijing-based AR/VR company, has secured $32 million in Series B round from SenseTime and Modern Land. (DealStreetAsia)

NewBanker, a wealth management services company, has raised a pre-series B round led by Genesis Capital with participation from Matrix Partners China and Atlas Capital. (DealStreetAsia)

Boxful, Hong Kong-based startup that provides valet self-storage services, has raised $18 million from Nan Fung Group, Shimao Property Holdings, Shui On Land, and others. (ISS)

North America

Modsy, 3D imaging startup, has secured $23 million in a Series B round led by Advance Venture Partners. Existing investors including Norwest Venture Partners, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment and Comcast Ventures also participated. (TechCrunch)

Contrast Security, an applications security startup, has raised an undisclosed amount from Microsoft Ventures and AXA Strategic Ventures as a part of its extended Series C round. (SiliconAngle)

Prose, a custom shampoo maker, is raising $5.2 million from Forerunner Ventures, and Correlation Ventures. (TechCrunch)

Clora, a life sciences focussed recruitment startup, has raised $3.3 million in seed funding from Spark Capital, Social Capital, Ludlow Ventures, iSeed Ventures, Notation Capital, and others. (Forbes)

HQ, the popular live trivia app is believed to be raising around $ 20 million at a post-money valuation around $80-$100 million. (Recode)

PatientPay, a healthcare payments solutions provider, has raised $6 million in fresh capital from Teaghlach Family Office, Esping Family Office and existing investors, including San Francisco-based Mosaik Partners. (WRAL TechWire)

Compass, a real estate startup, has raised $450 million of fresh capital from SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund. (FastCompany)

Moj.io, a connected car startup, has secured a $30 million investment from Toronto’s Kensington Capital. (TheGlobeandMail)

UK

WorldRemit, a London-based money transfer startup, has closed a Series C round of $40 million from LeapFrog Investments, with participation of existing investors Accel, TCV, and an angel investor. (TechCrunch)

Chattermill, a London-based deep learning startup that extracts actionable insights from customer feedback has raised ~ $800K from Entrepreneur First, Avonmore Developments and a set of angel investors including Jeff Kelisky, CEO of Seedrs.

Graduway, an alumni outreach solutions provider, has raised $12.7 million from Susquehanna Growth Equity. (CTech)

Israel

Teddy Sagi, founder of gambling software company Playtech, is investing $3 million in an Isreali cleantech startup, SmartGreen. (CTech)

6over6, an Israeli tech startup in eyecare space, has raised $1 million from Indian eyewear solutions company, Lenskart. (EconomicTimes)

M&A

Almamapper Technologies, an edutech startup, has acquired iTeknika, a recruitment solutions company, in a cash and share swap deal. (DealStreetAsia)

Funds

Naresh Malhotra, former CEO of CafeCoffeeDay, is setting up a ~ $8 million fund to invest in early stage tech startups. Monika Rao, Family Doctor co-founder, and her husband Mukund Rao, founder of IT company DerivIT, are other contributors to the fund. (EconomicTimes)

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