Alibaba to fund mobile commerce, Internet start-up incubator in India

Source:Agencies-Global Times Published: 2015-4-1 23:18:01

China's Alibaba Group Holding will set up a start-up incubator for mobile Internet and mobile commerce in the southern Indian city Bangalore, said local daily the Times of India Wednesday.

The project will be established with the Globals, a Bangalore-based mobile and analytics solution company, after a meeting between Alibaba chairman and founder Jack Ma Yun and Globals founder Suhas Gopinath.

The two companies want to focus on mobile Internet as e- commerce is moving rapidly to mobile.

"It becomes easier to mentor the start-ups, and find the right set of funders if you have a focused incubator," the report quoted Gopinath as saying.

The idea for the incubator came from Guru Gowrappan, chief operational officer and head of product and marketing in Silicon Valley-based Quixey, of which Alibaba is an investor.

The project is expected to start by May or June, according to the report.

Alibaba has had its eye on the Indian market recently.

On March 30, the e-commerce company's founder Ma met with the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi to discuss the potential cooperation in e-commerce sector, according to a press release e-mailed to the Global Times by Alibaba on Friday.

Alibaba has set up several teams to work on business in the Indian market, according to the press release.

In February, Ant Financial Services Group, an affiliate of Alibaba, agreed to buy 25 percent of Indian payment services provider One97 Communications, tapping into the country's smartphone and online boom.

One97 runs Paytm, an online platform through which users can shop or pay utility bills, whereas Ant runs Paytm's Chinese peer Alipay.



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