In Brief: B Capital may lead funding round in KhataBook, Netflix offers Rs 5 introductory plan
Bengaluru-based KhataBook, which helps users manage business and personal ledgers on mobile phones, is in advanced stages of closing a $70 million funding round led by new investor B Capital Group, The Economic Times reported. Existing investors Sequoia Capital and Tencent may also participate, the report said. The funding round will more than triple the valuation of the Bengaluru-based startup to $275 million-$300 million in less than four months, the report added. In October last year, Khatabook, one of the 17 startups selected as part of the maiden cohort of Sequoia Capital India’s accelerator programme Surge, raised $25 million in an outsized Series A funding round.
Netflix offers first-month subscription for Rs 5 to select users
Online streaming platform Netflix is testing an offer that allows some subscribers to pay just Rs 5 for the first month, The Economic Times reported. Old users will not be able to avail the offer. Netflix had rolled out this plan to some users on February 21. The platform offers subscription offers with four plans: Rs 199 for ‘mobile’, Rs 499 for ‘basic’, Rs 649 for ‘standard’ and Rs 799 for ‘premium’, depending on the number of concurrent logins, and the quality of video playback.
Ecommerce companies seek more time to levy 1% TDS
Ecommerce companies have asked for more time to implement a government proposal to levy a new tax, The Economic Times reported. Ecommerce companies such as Flipkart and Amazon said that they need time to upgrade their IT systems to enable them to collect the 1% tax deduction at source (TDS) from sellers, the report said. The income tax department is also planning to rope in the unorganised sector into the tax net and widen the overall tax base, it said. The move to tax ecommerce transactions at source was one way to reduce litigation, tax officials said.
Automation Anywhere launches Discovery Bot
Robotics process automation software firm Automation Anywhere has rolled out Discovery Bot, an integrated artificial intelligence (AI)-driven process discovery solution that discovers business processes and creates bots to automate them. The bot uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to automatically capture and analyse user actions to uncover common, repetitive process steps as employees navigate between business applications. With Discovery Bot, users can gain a comprehensive understanding of all business processes, prioritise their automation backlog, and create and deploy new bots for repeatable processes five times faster than traditional approaches, Prince Kohli, chief technology officer of Automation Anywhere, was quoted as saying to the financial daily.
Startup India inks deal with customer support provider Syrow
Startup India, an initiative by the government, has partnered with Bengaluru-based customer support provider Syrow to help startups and entrepreneurs with customer experience management. Startup India-recognised companies can use Syrow’s omnichannel CSaaS platform free of cost, along with web, android and iOS software development kits, to include real-time chat, audio and video call facility in their apps or websites, a statement said They will also get free 24x7 human-assisted chat support for two months, it said.
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