The iPhone 15 and its many iterations comprised more than half of Apple’s Q4 smartphone shipments of nearly 2.8 million units in India, Canalys said in its quarterly report.
Apple started selling the iPhone 15 series in India in the first batch of its availability in September.
Nonetheless, Apple is becoming a familiar brand in the Indian smartphone market and is rapidly growing its local presence.
However, the country saw a minimal 2% yearly drop, with 148.6 million smartphone units shipped in 2023.
“Canalys expects the Indian smartphone market to grow by mid-single digits in 2024, driven by affordable 5G and the pandemic period replacement cycle.
The deal would allow General Catalyst to tap deeper into India’s vibrant technology scene that has lured over $100 billion in startup investments since 2010.
The deal hasn’t finalized, so things may change, the sources cautioned, requesting anonymity as the deliberation is private.
The U.S. firm held conversations with many senior individuals in India last year looking to find an India-based partner, many people familiar with the matter said.
Its new focus on India follows the firm expanding in Europe last year by agreeing to merge with La Famiglia, an investor in several high-profile early-stage startups including AI firm Mistral.
Investing in India has proven uniquely challenging to many global venture firms that have entered the country or have explored such possibility, a partner at a India-based venture firm said.
Bitcoin spot ETF volume rose, Coinbase went to court, Solana Mobile announces new device and Google cuts crypto apps in IndiaWelcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction.
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Prior to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of the spot bitcoin ETFs, some experts told me they expected trading volumes to hit $10 billion in a year, not a week.
Monica has spent the last 10 years at Ripple, working her way up from the director of communications to now, president.
What else we’re writingWant to branch out from the world of web3?
International Battery Company, a startup developing lithium-ion battery cells for electric vehicles, has raised $35 million as it plans to bridge the demand-supply gap in the growing EV market in India.
International Battery Company touts to address these issues and fulfill both the current and projected demand of EV batteries in the country with its in-house Li-ion battery cells.
So, we want to participate in that journey in India,” Priyadarshi Panda, founder and CEO of International Battery Company, told TechCrunch in an interview.
“We are proactively preparing for the execution of building the gigafactory in India, which we will do with the additional fundraising.”Distinctive edgeNotably, International Battery Company is not alone in building Li-ion battery facilities in India.
“The [International Battery Company] founders, and the way they have approached so far is just very different from a lot of others.
Google has pulled many crypto exchanges, including Binance and Kraken, from its Play Store in India, the latest blow to already dwindling India’s crypto exchange already dwindling India’s crypto exchange.
Apple pulled the apps earlier this week pulled the apps earlier this week and on Thursday evening ISPs in India began blocking the URLs of the crypto exchange websites.
This only impacts users who attempt to access the Indian iOS app store or the Binance website from India,” Binance said earlier Friday.
On Tuesday, CoinDCX announced that it would provide rewards to customers who transfer their crypto assets from global exchanges to its India-based platform.
Coinbase, another popular global crypto exchange, stopped onboarding new customers in India last year.
In a phone conversation on Thursday, Hyundai Motor India spokesperson Siddhartha P. Saikia said the company would provide a statement.
The bug exposed the customer’s personal information through the web links Hyundai Motor India shared with customers over WhatsApp after receiving their vehicles for servicing at an authorized service station.
TechCrunch shared the details of the bug with Hyundai Motor India on the same day, and requested Hyundai Motor India fix the bug within seven days due to its simplicity and severity.
Established in 1996, Hyundai Motor India is among the top three carmakers in the country, alongside Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors.
Hyundai Motor India has a network of over 1,500 service stations in the country.
Fast-forward to Wednesday and the SEC approved the first spot bitcoin ETF applications for 11 issuers (TC+).
I spoke with two executives from Grayscale and Valkyrie about what’s in store for their spot bitcoin ETFs.
Anyways, that’s enough housekeeping and spot bitcoin ETF news for today.
And now, Grayscale’s bitcoin spot ETF was approved.
We dive into what a spot bitcoin ETF approval means for GBTC and market demand.
ByteDance is shutting down its music streaming service Resso in India at the end of this month as the company shifts its focus to expand TikTok Music globally.
The streaming service is still active for those who have the app, but it’s not possible to purchase a new subscription.
The company confirmed the development and said that it doesn’t plan to launch TikTok Music in India.
However, ByteDance launched TikTok Music in both those markets last July.
In May 2023, ByteDance made Resso a subscription-only service to offer “a better user experience for music fans, while increasing opportunities for rightsholders and artists.”Until now, ByteDance has launched TikTok Music in Australia, Singapore, and Mexico apart from Indonesia and Brazil.
Naturally, global crypto VC funds flooded into India, hoping to replicate the home runs that Accel, Sequoia and Lightspeed had hit a decade prior.
Bullish reports predicted India housed over 100 million crypto participants, despite far fewer participating in any investment instrument in reality.
Despite having an earlier blanket ban overturned in court, regulators persisted in likening crypto to Ponzi schemes and pressured banks from engaging with any crypto startups.
The pending removal across Google Play, internet providers and beyond caps a journey mired with shutdowns, pivots and relocations abroad for Indian crypto startups.
Some entrepreneurs are still fighting for the Indian crypto dream, requesting New Delhi reconsider the punishing 30% crypto tax.
VinFast, Vietnam’s electric vehicle manufacturer, plans to initially invest $500 million to set up an integrated facility in India and break into the world’s third-largest automobile market.
The memorandum of understanding with the state government of Tamil Nadu, unveiled on Saturday, earmarks an investment of up to $2 billion, the company said without giving a concrete timeframe.
“We are delighted that VinFast has chosen to invest in Tamil Nadu to establish its integrated EV facility.
Nonetheless, India has been an attractive market for global EV players as the country aims to have 30% electrification by 2030.
Its India deal announcement follows VinFast naming its founder and biggest backer, Pham Nhat Voung, as CEO earlier on Saturday.
