
Internet firm Rediff explores options to raise USD 100 mn
The company, which is majority owned by financial technology company Infibeam Avenues Ltd, is considering options such as launching an IPO, private placement, or through private equity participation to raise capital, sources privy to the development said.
Mumbai, Aug 4 (PTI) Internet company Rediff is exploring options, including an initial public offering, to raise up to USD 100 million (around Rs 875 crore) to accelerate its push into enterprise-grade email, business productivity suite and digital payments, according to sources.
When contacted, Rediff Senior Vice-President for Corporate Development, Ashish Mehrota, said, 'Yes, our company explores various fundraising options from time to time. At this stage, we do not have anything specific to share, but we are evaluating options.' Sources said that the company will use the funds to accelerate its push into enterprise-grade email and business productivity suite -RediffOne, and digital payment – RediffPay.
Infibeam has been investing aggressively in data centres, AI platforms, and now, sovereign digital services — all areas where Rediff is expected to play a central role, sources said. The firm had launched its AI-powered productivity suite RediffOne last year and looks to offer similar services that global majors like Microsoft, Google, and Zoho are offering, sources said.
While almost all major productivity suites — Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Zoho — are headquartered in the US or elsewhere in the West, Rediff remains the only large-scale Indian player in this category.
The company claims over 20,000 businesses currently use Rediffmail Enterprise, in addition to millions of individual users on its flagship email platform. PTI IAS MR MR
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.

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Indian Express
19 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Six years since the abrogation of Article 370 in J&K, belied promises
Article 370 was seen as a development dampener. Its abrogation was expected to bring about economic transformation in Jammu and Kashmir. The promised bargain underlying the constitutional, governance and administrative downgrade was an era of unprecedented economic growth and prosperity. The development dividend that Kashmiris had been deprived of for the last seven decades and more would be shared with them, as in the rest of the country. Today, J&K completes six years as a Union Territory. This anniversary, like a forced pause, allows us to take stock of how J&K's economy has fared as a centrally administered unit. Have the promise of opening the floodgates of corporate investments and the promises of prosperity been delivered? Far from it. The macroeconomic performance of J&K post-2019 is disappointing. J&K's $30 billion economy has grown at a much slower pace post the abrogation. The growth in Gross State Domestic Product has declined both in nominal and in real terms. The fall is much sharper in real terms, placing J&K far below the national rate of growth. As a result, the contribution of J&K to the national GDP has declined to 0.77 per cent. The tertiary sector, which accounts for 60 per cent of the local economy, has borne the brunt of the slowdown with its rate of growth getting halved to 5.8 per cent in 2023-24 from 11 per cent in 2022-23. Income growth from hotels and restaurants declined from 38 per cent to 13 per cent. The growth in real per capita income has also been halved — from 6 per cent to less than 3 per cent. In 2011-12, J&K's per capita income was 84 per cent of the national average, but now it has declined to 76 per cent. The gap between the two is the highest ever in 2024. Besides the slowdown in income growth, unemployment has been volatile post-2019 with temporary spikes much higher than earlier peaks. The unemployment rate spiked to 23 per cent in March 2023 and remained at 17 per cent in 2024. 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This continued low level of credit is validated by the credit-to-GSDP, which is as low as 38 per cent in 2024, compared to, say, Maharashtra, where it is 99 per cent. The low level of credit adds to the shortage of capital in an already capital-scarce economy and will have a crippling effect on the growth potential of the economy. Inflation has normally been aligned with or slightly above the national averages. This is expected of an import-dependent sub-national economy like J&K. There was a sharp spike in 2019, after which the inflation threshold has remained the same, even as the average rate of inflation has been marginally higher than earlier. J&K is a high-wage economy. Inflation has resulted in the average daily wages of agricultural or construction labour in the UT being the second-highest in the country, after Kerala. In the last six years, the historical structural features of J&K — a high-cost, import-dependent economy with parts of it being export-oriented — have only accentuated. An expansionary public expenditure policy continues as in the past, with the added feature of an overleveraged budget. Hardly the signs of an economy set for a take-off a la Rostow. It is unlikely to engender long-term sustainable economic growth, let alone transformation. The writer is former finance minister of Jammu and Kashmir


Mint
19 minutes ago
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AI is listening to your meetings. Watch what you say.
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Before attendees file in, or when one colleague asks another to hang back to discuss a separate matter, AI notetakers may pick up on the small talk and private discussions meant for a select audience, then blast direct quotes to everyone in the meeting. Nicole and Tim Delger run a Nashville branding firm called Studio Delger. After one business meeting late last year, the couple received a summary from Zoom's AI assistant that was decidedly not work-related. Zoom AI documented a private conversion between Nicole and Tim Delger, who run a branding firm. 'Studio discussed the possibility of getting sandwich ingredients from Publix," one bullet point said. Another key takeaway: 'Don't like soup." Their client never showed up to the meeting, and the studio had spent the time talking about what to make for lunch. 'That was the first time it had caught a private conversation," Nicole said. Fortunately the summary didn't go to the client. 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Hans India
19 minutes ago
- Hans India
Promoters' holding in listed cos slip to 8-yr low of 40.58%
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