World's richest person Jeff Bezos has revealed his stepfather Miguel Bezos came to Miami from Cuba alone aged 16 with three shirts, three pants and three underwear. "Mike's parents were not allowed to enter the airport...He only spoke Spanish...His grit, determination, and optimism are inspiring," said Jeff as Mike was honoured at the opening of Statue of Liberty's new museum.

Naveen Tewari, the Co-founder of India's first billion-dollar startup InMobi has said, "I connect cricket a lot to the journey of an entrepreneur." "Think of the rhythm of a bowler bowling and a batsman batting. Entrepreneurship is that rhythm," the Harvard Business School graduate said. Tewari also said at one point all of his passwords had references to Sachin Tendulkar.

Gurugram-based online grocery startup Grofers has closed an over $200 million (over ₹1,400 crore) Series F funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund (SVF) at a valuation of almost $1 billion, Bloomberg revealed. Investors including Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital and KTB also participated in the round. Grofers was founded in 2013 by Albinder Dhindsa and Saurabh Kumar.

World's richest person, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos took to Twitter to announce an investment of $1.5 billion in a three million square feet air hub in Kentucky, US for faster deliveries. "It's going to create 2,000 jobs," he said. He shared a video of the groundbreaking ceremony, adding, "If you're guessing that driving a front loader was fun, you're right."

Declaring 2019's first quarter earnings, Walmart said its international operating income dipped 38% in constant currency "largely due to dilution from Flipkart". "The decline was expected, partially offset by deconsolidation of Brazil," Walmart added. Walmart bought 77% stake in Flipkart for $16 billion last May and had lowered its profit forecast for the fiscal ending January 2019.

E-commerce platforms have reduced discounts on most products and are not selling them below cost price to comply with FDI policy. Puma India MD said discounts were down by 11-14% in January-March but the company's sale still increased by 16% on Flipkart and 21% on Amazon. Traders' body CAIT had termed the discounts "predatory pricing", alleging it upsets market dynamics.

TV host Rannvijay Singh Singha's retail brand Disrupt has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-Series A funding round at a valuation of over ₹17.5 crore. The investment saw participation from Fynd Co-founders Harsh Shah and Farooq Adam and former CEO of FCB Ulka Ambi Parameswaran, among others. Singha ventured into the fashion business with 'Disrupt-Defy Ordinary' in 2018.

Two teams have jointly won $10-million prize of Global Learning XPRIZE, which counts Elon Musk among supporters and benefactors. Kitkit School, from the US and South Korea and Onebillion from the UK and Kenya, both developed tablet apps to aid student learning. Bengaluru's Chimple was among five finalists in 2017, which received $1 million and tested their technology in Tanzania.

E-commerce major Flipkart-owned fashion e-tailer Myntra-Jabong has appointed former YouTube executive Harish Narayanan as head of marketing. Narayanan will be taking over from Mithun Sundar, who currently heads revenue and marketing, and will report directly to Myntra-Jabong head Amar Nagaram. The IIM Lucknow alumnus headed B2B marketing for YouTube Asia-Pacific for over 2.5 years.

Flipkart is in talks with international original equipment manufacturers to make electronics for sale on its platform, as per reports. It's reportedly in advanced-stage talks with Nokia and Motorola, which plan to introduce TV models in India by next year. Flipkart also aims to collaborate with Sansui to launch smaller home appliances such as juicers, grinders and other kitchen appliances.

US-based home-renting platform Airbnb has appointed Angela Ahrendts, former Senior Vice President of Retail at Apple, as its third independent non-affiliated board member. Ahrendts joined Apple in 2014 after serving as CEO of the British fashion house Burberry for eight years. Notably, Ahrendts had been one of the highest-paid employees at Apple with total compensation of $26.5 million in 2018.

Bengaluru-based Ola invested about $60 million in its international business over the last 15 months, as per Ola Singapore's regulatory filings. The invested amount reportedly only reflects costs of local operations, marketing and incentives as its technology, people and call centres are present in India. Ola Singapore controls Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and US operations.

China-based coffee chain Luckin Coffee has raised about $561 million after setting its US IPO price at $17 apiece, gaining a valuation of nearly $4 billion. It added it may raise up to around $650 million if underwriters purchase additional 'greenshoe' shares after the listing. Luckin previously said it aims to displace Starbucks as China's largest coffee chain this year.

US-based co-working space startup WeWork's parent The We Company has launched ARK, its global real estate acquisition and management platform. ARK will initially deploy $2.9 billion in total equity capital, with reportedly $1 billion from Ivanhoé Cambridge, a unit of Canada-based investor, CDPQ. Founded in 2010, The We Company also operates WeLive and WeGrow.

Bengaluru-based online healthcare service provider Docttocare has raised about ₹4 crore in seed funding from Krishnakumar Devnally, Founder and Director at mPower Solutions. Founded in 2016, the startup provides doctors, clinics, hospitals along with brief information and virtual walkthroughs to users. Its CEO Sugandha Agarwal previously worked at Oracle and Infosys.

E-commerce platforms like Paytm Mall, Snapdeal and ShopClues will face difficulty in raising funds to subsidise discounts, market research firm Forrester claimed. It said Paytm Mall's business model is no longer sustainable, adding it will find it difficult to survive in the long term even if it raises funds now. Reliance Industries' entry will disrupt Indian e-commerce, it further said.

Angel investor and New Delhi-based co-working space startup Innov8 Co-founder Ritesh Malik, on being asked what qualities he looks for before investing in startups, said, "I don't invest in companies but founders." "I truly believe what can change the Indian startup ecosystem is founders investing in founders," he said, adding this was the primary reason for Silicon Valley to bloom.

US-based interview platform Karat has raised $28 million in a Series B funding round led by Tiger Global Management. Existing investors Norwest Venture Partners and 8VC also participated in the round. Founded in 2014 by Mohit Bhende and Jeffrey Spector, Karat offers help to firms by conducting human-powered technical rounds of engineering job interviews online for them.

Gurugram-based home services startup UrbanClap has reported a 150% increase in operating revenue at ₹116 crore in 2018-19 as compared to ₹46 crore in previous financial year. However, operating loss rose to ₹72 crore in 2018-19 from ₹57 crore. Founded in 2014 by Abhiraj Bhal, Raghav Chandra, and Varun Khaitan, UrbanClap is backed by Accel Partners, Ratan Tata, among others.

Bengaluru-based online doctor consultation platform DocsApp has raised around ₹12 crore in a debt round of funding led by VC firm InnoVen Capital. DocsApp, owned by Phasorz Technologies, was launched in 2015 by IIT Madras alumni Satish Kannan and Enbasekar Dinadayalane. It had raised over $7 million in a Series A funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners in 2017.

Billionaire Elon Musk-led tunnel-digging startup The Boring Company (TBC) is set to receive its contract to build a high-speed underground transit system in Las Vegas for $44 million. However, the city withholds over two-thirds of payments until construction is complete and specifies heavy penalties if it fails to accommodate enough passengers. TBC has built one 1.8-km-long test tunnel to date.

US-based food delivery startup DoorDash is raising at least $500 million in a new funding round that could likely value it at around $13 billion, Bloomberg reported. It last raised $400 million in a Series F funding round at a valuation of over $7 billion in February. Founded in 2013, DoorDash is backed by investors including SoftBank, Sequoia and Temasek.

US e-commerce giant Amazon has led a $575 million investment in UK-based food delivery startup Deliveroo. Existing investors including T Rowe Price, Fidelity Management and Greenoaks also participated in the Series G funding round. Founded in 2013, Deliveroo was last valued at over $2 billion in its last funding round in 2017 and has raised over $1.5 billion till date.

NASA has selected 11 American entities, including billionaire rivals Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos' aerospace startups SpaceX and Blue Origin, to conduct studies and produce prototypes of human landers. The entities will share total amount of over $45 million for NASA's Artemis lunar exploration program. This effort will help put American astronauts on Moon's south pole by 2024, NASA said.

Agritech startup DeHaat, led by IIT Delhi graduate Shashank Kumar, has received a commitment of ₹20 crore in venture debt from Trifecta Capital. Earlier in March, the startup had raised around ₹30 crore from Omnivore and America's AgFunder, among others. Founded in 2012, DeHaat offers end-to-end agricultural services to farmers such as giving access to high-quality agri inputs, among others.