New Chinese VC eyes self-publishing platform Pratilipi; Hyundai may invest in Ola

Bengaluru-based self-publishing e-platform Pratilipi is in advanced stages of discussions with Chinese venture capital firm Qiming Venture Partners to raise $15-20 million in a Series B funding round, business daily Mint reported, citing two people in the know.

Pratilipi’s existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network and Chinese VC firm Shunwei Capital may also put in money, one of the persons mentioned above told Mint.

This will be Qiming’s first deal in India, the report added.

The company had last raised $4.3 million (Rs 28 crore) in a Series A funding round led by Omidyar Network. Nexus Venture Partners; Atul Goel, managing director of the Essel Group’s E-City Ventures; Contrarian Capital; Shunwei Capital; WEH Ventures and Times Internet Limited had also invested in the firm in that round.

Email queries sent to Pratilipi and Qiming Venture Partners did not elicit any response till the time of publishing this report.

Run by Nasadiya Technologies Pvt. Ltd., the venture was founded in March 2015 by Ranjeet Pratap Singh, Sankaranarayanan Devarajan, Rahul Ranjan, Prashant Gupta and Sahradayi Modi.

The platform allows writers to publish their own poems, stories and other literary works, and readers can read them on the platform for free. It offers content in eight Indian languages – Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Oriya, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi and Kannada, and plans to add more languages and content formats.

Hyundai in talks with Ola

South Korean automotive firm Hyundai is in conversation with ride-hailing firm Ola to invest up to $300 million, online publication Entrackr reported, citing three persons in the know.

“Both companies have held two rounds of talks and it’s likely to fructify in the next six weeks. The size of round may vary between $200 to 300 million,” two of the persons mentioned above told Entrackr.

Email queries sent to Ola and Hyundai did not elicit any response till the time of publishing this report.

In August last year, Hyundai Motor Company had invested in Indian self-drive car rental startup Revv.

Over the past few months, Ola, run by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, has been in the process of raising $1 billion from a clutch of investors as part of a Series J funding round.

In early February, it raised Rs 112 crore ($15.6 million) from new foreign investors including Raymond S Cahnman, chairman of trading firm the TransMarket Group; New York-based philanthropists Tina and Steven Price; J3T Ventures; and investment firm Lyon Assets.

Later in the month, Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal put in Rs 650 crore ($92 million) into the company in his personal capacity.

In January this year, TechCircle reported that Ola had raised Rs 520.79 crore ($73.97 million) in a fresh funding round from existing investor Steadview Capital.

For the financial year ended 31 March 2018, Ola reported a 57% increase in operating revenue. It halved its losses even as gross expenses remained almost stagnant.