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Little Internet And Nearby To Merge, Paytm Gets Majority Stake

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Little Internet And Nearby To Merge,Paytm Gets Majority Stake,Startup Stories,2017 Business News Update,Paytm India largest digital payments,Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma,Paytm Business News 2017,Paytm acquires majority stake in Little Internet And Nearby,Paytm acquires Nearby and Little

Paytm, India’s largest digital payments platform announced the acquisition of discovery and deals platforms for local merchants Nearby and Little Internet. According to the official statement, Paytm has arranged a merger of these two well funded startups.

Speaking about the acquisition and the subsequent merger, Paytm’s founder and CEO Vijay Sekhar Sharma said, “This combination of Nearby and Little marks a great opportunity for us to reinforce our commitment to support small and large retailers in the new age of mobile commerce and payments.

Paytm, which has been attempting to expand its offline merchant base, became the majority shareholder of the merged entity through this strategic investment. Currently, Nearbuy and Little together have a network of 40,000 small and large merchants across food, beauty, travel and other categories. With a $ 25 million capital infusion from Paytm, the merged entity is expected to be valued at $ 100 million.

The online payments and ecommerce company initially acquired 100% equity in Little and gained majority shareholding in the merged entity through a share swap with Nearbuy. Along with Paytm, Sequoia India and the founders of Nearbuy Ankur Warikoo, Ravi Shankar and Snehesh Mitra have a minority stake in the merged firm.

Founded by SoSasta, Nearby was acquired by NASDAQ listed Groupon Inc., in 2011 and was renamed as Groupon India in 2013. Without giving out any details regarding the transaction, Nearby’s CEO Ankur Waikoo said, “In the local commerce space, Little Internet and Nearbuy combined will own 88% of the market share. There are around half a million merchants in the organized retail space, which we would like to bring on our platform.

Launched in 2015, Little was backed by Paytm since the beginning with a $50 million investment along with SAIF Partners and Tiger Global Management. It is still unclear if Paytm bought out SAIF and Tiger’s stake in Little. Paytm has been aggressively expanding its services in categories which use digital payments services. The company also raised $ 1.4 billion in fresh funding from Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp., in May this year.

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Imarticus Learning Acquires MyCaptain for INR 50 Crore to Boost Non-Tech Upskilling

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My Captain

Imarticus Learning, an IPO-bound professional education firm, has acquired Bengaluru-based edtech platform MyCaptain for INR 50 crore in a cash-and-stock deal. This marks Imarticus’s fourth acquisition in four years and is aimed at expanding its presence in non-tech career training, especially across India’s Tier-II and Tier-III cities. MyCaptain, which has over 500,000 learners and a revenue of ₹27 crore for FY25, specializes in creative and entrepreneurial fields, with 60% of its users from smaller cities.

 

With this acquisition, Imarticus will bring MyCaptain’s employability bootcamps in digital marketing, design, and content to its 20+ classroom centers in 16 cities, blending online and offline learning. MyCaptain will operate as a fully-owned subsidiary, and all 250 of its employees will join Imarticus, expanding the combined workforce to over 850. The move supports Imarticus’s goal to reach five million learners by FY28 and deepen its offerings in non-tech domains.

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Ex-100X.VC Partners Launch 247VC, Announce INR 250 Crore Fund for Seed-Stage Startups

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Former 100X.VC partners Yagnesh Sanghrajka and Shashank Randev have launched a new venture capital firm, 247VC, unveiling a maiden fund with a target corpus of INR 250 crore (about $30 million). The SEBI-registered Category II AIF includes a base of INR 200 crore and a INR 50 crore greenshoe option, and is focused on backing 30 seed-stage startups across India over the next three years.

 

247VC will target high-potential founders in sectors like deeptech, enterprise tech, consumption, and Industry 5.0, with initial cheque sizes ranging from INR 3 crore to INR 4 crore and follow-on capital for top-performing companies. The fund has attracted prominent early backers, including Sachin Tagra (JSW Ventures), Vivek Mathur (ex-Elevation Capital), and Shailendra Majmundar (Johns Hopkins University).

Sanghrajka and Randev, who together have invested in over 200 startups previously, aim to support ambitious founders building for scale and innovation, especially in emerging and underexplored markets. The launch comes as seed-stage investing gains momentum in India, with average cheque sizes rising despite a cautious funding environment.

 

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Flam Secures $14M Series A to Revolutionize Mixed Reality Marketing with AI

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AI infrastructure startup Flam has raised $14 million in a Series A round led by RTP Global, with participation from Dovetail and existing investors, bringing its total funding to $22 million. Founded in 2021, Flam enables brands to create and deliver high-fidelity mixed reality (MR) and generative AI experiences without the need for app downloads, allowing consumers to access immersive content via QR codes or links in under 300 milliseconds.

Flam’s platform is already used by over 100 global brands-including Google, Samsung, and Netflix-reaching more than 380 million users. The new funding will accelerate product innovation, expand operations in North America, Europe, and Asia, and launch a full-stack enterprise suite for MR and GenAI-driven marketing. The company currently has over 120 employees and plans to grow to 180 by the end of 2025, aiming to transform every brand touchpoint into an interactive digital experience.

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