In Brief: US funds mark down Paytm, Ola valuation

US investment management companies T Rowe Price and Vanguard have reportedly marked down the valuation of consumer technology majors Paytm and Ola after observing a slump in business and share prices amid Covid-19. Both the mutual fund entities have around 1% stake in the Indian unicorns, The Times of India reported, citing regulatory filings. 

T Rowe Price, which invested $150 million in Paytm in December 2019, cut down the valuation of the share by 26% as of June 2020. Bought at $254 per share, the value has been brought down to $188 by several funds managed by the company. The value of Ola’s shares fell 50%, as marked by Vanguard in its August filings. Each share, valued at $311 in February, is down to $162.5 as of August 2020.

Ola forays into electric scooter manufacturing

ANI Technologies-operated Ola is reportedly in talks with multiple state governments -- three southern states and one in the western belt -- to finalise a land deal to set up a 100-acre e-scooter manufacturing unit. The unit, expected to have the capacity to manufacture two million scooters, would be the world’s largest e-scooter facility, The Economic Times reported. The move comes months after the firm acquired Netherlands-based Etergo, which runs the EV brand AppScooter.

Akatsuki launches YouTube channel for children

Japanese entertainment company Akatsuki, in a bid to expand its presence in India, said it has launched an edutainment YouTube channel, dubbed Kumarba, for Indian children. The channel, which will air nursery rhymes, educational songs and Japanese animated programmes, gained 200 million views during its beta run over the past year, a statement said. The company said it will also develop three to five animated programmes with different themes, spread across 10-13 episodes each, for OTT consumption.

Paytm Payment Gateway partners with Marg ERP 

Paytm has partnered with enterprise resource planning solutions provider Marg ERP to facilitate transactions for over a million MSMEs using the latter’s integrated payments solution, Margpay. The partnership will enable MSMEs to send and receive payments while keeping track of all transactions using a connected interface, a statement said. The interface of the platform will also help merchants connect their business accounts with their billing, business and accounting systems with minimum effort, it said.