Flipkart reduces seller commission, shipping fee; Zoomcar, Drivezy in merger talks

Walmart-backed e-commerce platform Flipkart has reduced seller commission and shipping fee for products across different slabs of pricing, a move that will likely attract new sellers and encourage smaller players to join the homegrown marketplace. 

The development was reported by Business Standard, which cited people in the know as saying that the platform has revised its seller commission into four slabs, depending on the price of the product. Previously, the platform charged a flat fee for products priced below Rs 300 and another for products priced above the same. Commission fee is paid by the seller depending on the category or vertical of the product.

Shipping fee, which the seller pays to the platform, has been slashed by 57% in the 500 gramme-3 kilogramme category. In the sub-500-gramme segment, however, shipping fee has been raised by Re 1.

Zoomcar, Drivezy

Self-drive car rental platform Zoomcar is in talks with car and bike rental platform Drivezy for an equal merger through a share-swap agreement, Mint reported, citing people in the know.

“If both companies are going to merge, the new ownership structure should be comfortable to each and every debt lender... All the assets and liabilities will be put on the table. And they (lenders) will approve any merger only when there is enough money to cover debt and its repayments," said one of the persons.

Zoomcar, founded in 2013 by Americans Greg Moran and David Back, is backed by Mahindra and Mahindra.

Drivezy, launched as JustRide in August 2015, raised $20 million from Das Capital and Yamaha Motor in its Series B round in November 2018 while Zoomcar has so far raised close to $100 million in investments from multiple backers including Ford and Sequoia Capital. Drivezy had also raised $100 million in an asset-financing deal from Japanese fintech firm Anypay.

Paytm

Digital wallet company Paytm has written to the Reserve Bank of India to allow wallets with minimum Know Your Customer details to continue functioning after the full-KYC deadline of 31 August. The Economic Times quoted Deepak Abbott, senior vice-president at Paytm, as saying that the company had also discussed the issue with Nandan Nilekani-led committee on digital payments that was set up by RBI.

RBI, in a notification in February, had extended the time frame for full-KYC compliance for wallet companies, in the aftermath of Aadhaar-based eKYC being suspended as a result of Supreme Court judgment in September 2018. The original deadline of February 28 was moved to August 31 for allowing wallet companies to implement alternatives to Aadhaar-based eKYC. Most of the wallets had to resort to physical KYC bearing the cost of document collection from users to ensure that users continue on the platform.

Apart from Paytm, industry body Fintech Convergence Council had also written to RBI in February asking for an extension for full compliance on KYC.