Govt to meet food-tech firms, restaurants; former UST Global chief exec to float fund: Reports

After complaints from restaurant associations, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is scheduled to meet on Thursday food-tech majors including Swiggy, Zomato, UberEats and Foodpanda. Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India and National Restaurant Association of India will also be a part of the meeting.

According to a report by The Economic Times, restaurant owners have complained that these players engage in deep discounting and predatory pricing.

Venture capital fund

Former CEO of California-headquartered IT major UST Global, Sajan Pillai, has announced plans to set up a venture capital fund. The $75 million fund for startups with a special focus on Kerala will invest in sectors such as healthcare, finance, telecom and retail.

Pillai quit UST Global in May. In an interview to a wire agency, he stated that the fund will also address issues of marketing and mentorship, apart from capital. He added that an advisory board was also in place to help out startups in the sectors.

Video-KYC guidelines

In a bid to reduce capital-intensive physical verification carried out by bank representatives, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to announce video-based KYC guidelines as early as next month. The central bank has conducted a series of meetings with representatives from the industry on framing guidelines for remote onboarding of customers, reported The Economic Times.

The report stated that a bank representative will remotely look at the live video of a customer for authentication and verification.

After Aadhaar-based eKYC hit a roadblock due to a Supreme Court judgment in September 2018, video-based KYC was proposed by some fintech players.

The Union Cabinet has already approved a Bill which will replace the Aadhaar ordinance allowing voluntary use of Aadhaar for KYC.

Shopmatic

Singapore-headquartered e-commerce enabler Shopmatic Pte. Ltd is in talks to raise $30 million (Rs 206 crore) as part of its Series B fundraising, according to a statement shared by the company. The development comes after its merger with Singapore-based platform Octopus Retail Management Pte. Ltd in March.

Shopmatic, which provides omni-channel solutions for businesses, had already raised Rs 51.3 crore as part of its Series A round from ACP Pte. Ltd and Spring Seeds Capital in June 2017. The company, founded in 2014 by former PayPal executives Anurag Avula, Yen Ti Lim and Kris Chen, has a presence in India, Hong Kong, China, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Malaysia and the Philippines. It plans to expand to other geographies in Southeast Asia over the year.