Singapore-based Sea Ltd outshines Alibaba, JD.com in US stock market [Business Times]
Optimism fuelled by e-commerce gains has more than trebled the stock value of New York-listed Sea Ltd in 2019 — despite its US$1.18 billion net loss for the nine months ended Sept 30, 2019.
Previously known as Garena, Singapore-based Sea has seen its shares climb 244.61 per cent in the year to Dec 23, outperforming the S&P 500 index, which only rose 28.5 per cent in the same period.
This puts the firm — which operates gaming arm Garena and e-commerce platform Shopee — on track to close out the year as the top-performing foreign stock on the US stock exchange, beating Chinese corporate giants Alibaba and JD.com.
Travis Kalanick is leaving Uber’s Board of Directors [TechCrunch]
Uber founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick is leaving the company’s board of directors, the ride-hailing company announced today.
Kalanick will officially resign from the board as of December 31, to “focus on his new business and philanthropic endeavours,” according to a press release issued by Uber.
Kalanick, who was forced out as Uber CEO and eventually replaced by Dara Khosrowshahi through shareholder action with the support of the board in 2017, has been in the process of selling off his considerable ownership stake in the company through successive sales of his shares.
Just last week, Kalanick sold around US$383 million in shares and reduced his overall stake to less than 10 per cent, per an SEC filing.
India’s HomeLane Raises US$30M Series D [Inc42]
Bengaluru-based online home furnishing startup HomeLane has raised US$30 million in Series D funding.
The round was led by new investors Evolvence India Fund (EIF), Pidilite Group and FJ Labs, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and JSW Ventures.
With the current round, total funding raised by HomeLane stands at US$46 million.
The company will use the funds to launch renovation as a category, scale its proprietary design-to-manufacturing platform to more designers, vendors and installers; and expand to 8-10 new cities in India.
ByteDance has no sale plans for TikTok, media report untrue, says head [The Star Malaysia]
Chinese social media firm ByteDance has no plans to sell part or all of its TikTok app, the short video platform’s head said on Tuesday, denying a media report which said the company was currently weighing options to do so due to US concerns.
Bloomberg reported that the company was considering a TikTok stake sale.
“From time to time you may read stories in the media that are not true. Today there is an inaccurate report claiming that ByteDance has considered selling part or all of TikTok,” Alex Zhu said in an internal company note seen by Reuters.
Bombay Shaving Company raises US$6.3M led by Sixth Sense Ventures [The Economic Times]
Bombay Shaving Company (BSC) has raised Rs 45 crore (US$6.3 million) in a new financing round, led by Sixth Sense Ventures with participation from existing investor Colgate Palmolive Asia Pacific.
Following the fundraising, a clutch of angels and early employees have exited the men’s grooming brand, which has picked up Rs 80 crore till date.
Close to 30 angels, including 16 partners from McKinsey including Noshir Kaka and Gautam Kumra, as well as S Ramadorai, former managing director of TCS; Kiran Deshpande, former CEO of Tech Mahindra, and Maninder Gulati, who heads strategy for Oyo, had backed the company in 2016, according to regulatory filings.
Ather appoints Deepak Jain as its CFO [press release]
Ather Energy’s senior leadership team is joined by Deepak Jain as Chief Financial Officer.
Jain brings over 20 years of experience across global brands like First Advantage, Apple India, P&G and Gillette. He joins Ather after a five-year stint at First Advantage as CFO for their India Business.
Jain has been a finance leader with exposure to large multi-location and transnational revenues. He began his career at E&Y before moving on to Gillette and Procter & Gamble, where he took on key leadership roles in distribution modelling & sales finance.
In 2010, he joined Apple India as the CFO and led the finance team during a period of exponential growth for five years. Specialising in conceptualizing, leading and executing business expansion strategies in manufacturing, trading and services business environments, Deepak will play a key role in Ather’s aggressive expansion plans.
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