Hudson's to buy Gilt Groupe

Gilt Groupe Holdings Inc, a New York-based start-up once valued at about $1 billion, has agreed to be acquired by Hudson's Bay Co for $250 million in cash. The business will be combined with Hudson's Bay's 'Saks Off 5th' division, giving customers more online shopping options. The deal is slated to close around February 1. Hudson's Bay plans to open Gilt concept shops at its Saks Off 5th stores, according to Bloomberg News.

$100-mn venture fund launched

A group of technology executives have launched a $100-mn venture fund targeting a range of business software start-ups across North America, a Reuters report said. Leaders Fund, based in Toronto and Atlanta, is in discussion with several potential portfolio companies and plans to announce a few investments in the coming weeks, according to David Stein, co-founder and managing partner of the fund.

Baidu's big plans for India

China's top online search provider, Baidu Inc, is in talks to invest in Indian e-commerce start-ups, including Zomato, BookMyShow and BigBasket. "The Indian market represents an enormous opportunity for us to connect more people with services, and we plan to put more resources there in the future," a Baidu spokesman told Reuters.

Y Combinator ropes in Buchheit

Silicon Valley's largest start-up factory, Y Combinator, is rejigging responsibilities at the executive level and adding more staff. Paul Buchheit, creator of Gmail and of Google's onetime 'Don't be evil', slogan replaces Sam Altman as managing partner of Y Combinator's main accelerator programme, which helped launch Airbnb, Dropbox, Reddit, and Stripe, says Bloomberg News.

GrabTaxi's centre in Seattle

Ride-hailing firm GrabTaxi has opened an engineering centre in Seattle, US. The centre, which will house a team of engineers that will complement the work done by teams at GrabTaxi's Singapore and Beijing-based research and development centres, would be headed by Raman Narayanan, who had previously worked for Microsoft and is one of the company's distinguished engineers, Tech in Asia said.

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