Hello, and welcome to today's edition of Founders International, your daily newsletter where we cover the stories, trends, and companies in tech and startups from outside of the US.

Here's what we have in store for you today:1. BibeCoffee has something brewing, and it's not just coffee2. Big movements in India's ecommerce and payments3. A car subscription service? I think that's called leasing?

Read time: 2 minutes and 59 seconds

BibeCoffee is shaking up the coffee space

BibeCoffee, a startup based in London and Athens, brewed up €2.1 million (~$2.28 million USD) to try and make your morning cup of joe a little bit better. And that ain't the only thing their coffee brewed up this morning...

They are trying to help coffee shop owners and brewers by creating an IoT (internet of things) device that connects to their coffee machines allowing them to remotely manage all of their machines, and make changes on the fly.

They also aim to help their customers have insight into when their machines might need maintenance, parts might be faulty, or their coffee is not up to all the Karen's of the world coffee standards. Yes I'm looking at you Deborah from Starbucks yesterday, you held up the entire line.

But actually, their goal is to make the quality of the coffee better, reduce waste, maximize revenue, identify if there is coffee dilution, predict coffee machine malfunctions, streamline maintenance, and much more.

They are already in 20 countries, and trusted by some of the biggest brands in coffee, and this new round of funding is going towards increasing headcount and R&D costs.

And they even mention AI in the future?? I think I hear VC's scrambling for their wallets, unlike my father in law when it comes to grabbing the check for dinner.

Trend: India and the growth of e-commerce

As India's population continues to grow, so does the demand in their e-commerce and payments sector, and Walmart has just doubled down.

Walmart reportedly just readied $2.5 billion of their cash to invest in the rapidly growing space in a couple of ways:

1. PhonePe

2. Flipkart

PhonePe is a mobile payment application that enables users to transfer money instantly. Their goal is to make digital payments so easy, safe, and universally accepted that people never feel the need to carry cash or cards again

Walmart had to fork over nearly $800 million in taxes earlier this month as PhonePe moved its home base to India after separating FROM Flipkart who acquired them in 2016. Plus, Walmart is preparing to invest $2-300 million more into their newest round of funding. 

Walmart also already owns a stake in Flipkart, the e-commerce behemoth in India, and is about to pony up $1.5 billion to buy back the firm’s shares from early backers. Sheesh, Walmart is taking "double or nothing" to a new level.

The funny thing is, they're not even alone. Amazon has spent a reported $9 billion in the region over the past 10ish years, not to much success so far after they got tricked into buying a company with some dud assets and threw a public temper tantrum. It's called due diligence my friends.

With PhonePe facilitating 40% of all transactions on India's payment networks, and Flipkart owning the lions share of e-commerce in India, Walmart is well positioned at the end of the day to ride off into the sunset winning this battle, you know, as long as its kids stop fighting.

Car subscriptions?

A company called Finn is trying to bring car subscriptions to the US after deciding to expand from individual consumer rentals in Munich.

Oh, sorry! FINN! Not Finns...

Anyway, the company out of Munich, Germany are not targeting individuals any longer, they are expanding their offering to businesses, and likely startups who do not have the cash handy to pay for a fleet of cars.

The company says "car subscriptions offer flexibility, maintenance, roadside assistance and, in many cases, delivery of the vehicle directly to your door, and all for around the same price of a lease."

Oh! Okay, so you're just offering leases, but to businesses... and calling it a subscription. Speaking of, it is the end of the month, I think I have my house subscription due soon.

Okay I know, that's not fair. It does actually function more as a subscription as their monthly prices include roadside assistance, insurance, titling, registration, and doesn't require a down payment of any sorts.

The big benefit is also time lengths, as in most leases you're committing to years worth of payments, where with Finn you are able to have subscriptions for lower amounts of time, even down to just weeks. 

But does that mean my BMW heated seat subscription is included, or do I still have to pay extra for that? :(

They say that most of their partners are keen to trying out their EV's, which consist of about 30% of their total fleet as of right now. Businesses are liking this aspect due to regulatory changes that are incentivizing them to make their fleets electric, and savings it may present to them.

Finn has raised a total of $908.3 million dollars, with it's most recent funding being for a total of $110 million back in May of last year, and hopes to get into California, Florida, and some other states soon.

And that's all for today, if you want to get more follow us @Founders_Intl, or respond to this email. Yes, we respond to all emails, including yours. Try us.

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💯 Freaking sick dude🤷‍♂️ Meh, do better next time😑 Bruh, I might unsubscribe after reading that