Sequoia India raising $200 mn more for existing fund; Pine Labs gets $102 mn funding from parent

Payments solutions company Pine Labs has received fresh funding from its Singapore-based parent. Sequoia India is adding $200 million to bolster its existing fund. After buying Yatra, Ebix now wants to acquire debt-laden IT firm Trimax. 

Sequoia Capital India raising $200 million 

Sequoia Capital India, which has backed unicorns like Freshworks, Oyo and Byju’s, is raising $200 million to add to its existing corpus of $695 million fund raised in August 2018, it's sixth in India, Mint reported. 

With the infusion, the fund will be on par with the $920 million fund launched by Sequoia India in 2016, the report said.

Sequoia, which invests across different growth stages of a company, had previously announced the launch of India and Southeast Asia focused funding platform, Surge, targeted at companies in the seed stage, the report said. 

Apart from India, it has also backed Indonesia-headquartered food, delivery and on-demand company Grab as well as online retailer Tokopedia.

Pine Labs gets fresh fund infusion from parent

Fintech solutions provider Pine Labs has received funding of Rs 707 crore (around $102.6 million at the current exchange rate) from its Singapore-headquartered parent company Pine Labs Pte, Hindu Business Line reported. 

Pine Labs Pte was allotted 23.5 million shares of Re 1 each at a premium of Rs 299, the report said.

Keith Boodle, who served as former vice-president at Pine Labs from 2012 to 2014, was allotted shares amounting to Rs. 15.8 lakh (around $23,000 at the current exchange rate), the report added. 

Earlier this month, Bengaluru-based Innoviti Payment Solutions won an injunction against Pine Labs for the infringement on the former's patent which enables mobile-linked payments.

Ebix may acquire bankruptcy-ridden IT firm

Atlanta-based software and ecommerce solutions provider Ebix has made a bid to buy Aditya Birla private equity-backed Trimax IT Infrastructure & Services Ltd, Economic Times reported.

The Mumbai-based company has defaulted on loans worth Rs 1,800 crore (around $261.4 million at the current exchange rate), the report said.  The company has been facing bankruptcy proceedings since February. 

Trimax was founded in 1995 by Surya Prakash Madrecha, and its clients include telecom and transport organisations in the public sector and state road transport networks. 

Ebix is holding talks with a State Bank of India-led consortium of lenders, the report said.

Earlier this month, Ebix sealed the deal to acquire Yatra Online. The deal was done through a cash and stock transaction deal. 

Uber to lay off 1/3 marketing team to cut costs

On-demand ride-hailing company Uber is planning to lay off a third of its marketing team globally as a measure to cut costs and streamline operations, Economic Times reported.

The move will affect 400 people globally and around 2025 employees in India, the report said.

The job cuts are across creative, brand, performance marketing and analytics team. The marketing operations are led by Manisha Lath Gupta, who took over the role in May.