Wall Street Journal: The May U.S. jobless rate fell to 13.3% and employers added 2.5 million jobs, early signs the labor market is mending after the coronavirus pandemic shut down parts of the economy nearly three months ago. “These improvements in the labor market reflected a limited resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed in March […]
API startup Postman in talks with Insight Partners to raise new funds at $2 billion
L-R: Postman founders Abhinav Asthana, Ankit Sobti and Abhijit Kane Software as a Service (SaaS) company Postman is in advanced talks with New York-based investment fund Insight Partners to raise around $150 million at a valuation of $2 billion, two people in the know of the deal details said. Postman is a collaboration platform for […]
Ola earmarks Rs 500 crore to enhance safety, hygiene
Ride-hailing app Ola has committed Rs 500 crore over the next year for various initiatives to enhance safety and hygiene inside cabs in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The initiatives include driver training, prevention and sanitization protocols, a host of technology advancements like a newly designed Covid-19 ready app, hygiene and safety benchmark for […]
TikTok owner ByteDance shuts down overseas news aggregator TopBuzz
ByteDance, owner of the global hit short-video app TikTok, has shut down its artificial-intelligence-based news aggregator TopBuzz, one of the company’s earliest products aimed at the global stage. “We’re proud of the work that we accomplished with TopBuzz, but (we) have determined that other areas of the business should be our priority going forward,” ByteDance […]
Slack revenue growth fails to impress
Picture: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Slack on Thursday posted slowing quarterly sales growth, disappointing investors who had expected a surge in demand for its workplace messaging app as companies rapidly adopt remote working tools and technology. Slack also withdrew its 2021 billing outlook citing uncertainty driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, and said it had seen sales from […]
Swiggy, Zomato redraw exclusivity contracts with restaurants
Illustration: Rahul Awasthi Zomato and Swiggy have begun renegotiating exclusivity contracts with a slew of restaurants citing a downward impact on business due to the ongoing pandemic, said multiple people aware of the move. This could further exacerbate strained relations between the food delivery platforms and restaurants. Evoking the force majeure clause that frees both […]
“We are overreacting because if it looks like you’re overreacting, you’re probably doing the right thing”
“We are overreacting because if it looks like you’re overreacting, you’re probably doing the right thing.” That’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci on Sunday, March 15th. He is, of course, speaking about the health crisis, but I think there is an investment and business corollary to this that is important […]
ETtech Top 5: Amazon eyes Airtel stake, Google defends takedown of apps, edtech hirings & more
Happy Thursday! India’s private telecom operators are seeing a new dawn, years after the entry of Reliance Jio prompted consolidation in the industry. Jeff Bezos-led tech giant Amazon is in early-stage talks to buy a stake worth at least $2 billion in Bhart Airtel, Reuters reported. This follows the $5.7-billion investment by Facebook in Jio […]
Commercial vs Household Bankruptcies in May 2020
One way in which the current recession looks nothing like the last one is that businesses have been a lot more affected financially than households. This is due to the extraordinary stimulus and rescue packages that came out of the government to a) keep people employed b) offer increased unemployment benefits c) announce forbearance initiatives […]
Mastercard, Axis Bank tie up to bring POS machines to smartphones
Representative Image Digital payment giants Mastercard has tied up with Axis Bank and French payment service provider Worldline, to bring the functionality of Point of Sale devices onto Android smartphones of small merchants in India while also providing store owners value added digitisation services. The aim is to expand acceptance infrastructure for contactless card payments […]