MAM
Mobile 365 powers SMS service for Skype
MUMBAI: Mobile 365, mobile messaging and data services provider has announced that it will provide SMS services to Skype, allowing Skype users to send an SMS to a mobile phone from their PC’s.
This service allows Skype internet users to keep in touch via SMS to mobile subscribers anywhere in the world. The service features a straightforward pricing plan wherein users can pay using their existing Skype Credit. For example, a Skype user can now contact a friend who is offline, via a mobile message and arrange a Skype call, thus extending Skype’s reach beyond the PC.
When a Skype user sends a message, Skype distributes the message via Mobile 365’s global inter-operator network to over 60 countries across the world. Mobile 365 accommodates high traffic volumes via its upgraded platform, which recently benefited from a $15 million investment, further enabling the network to reliably deliver messages into over 180 countries worldwide, informs an official release.
“Skype chose to work with Mobile 365 not only because of its unrivalled global SMS reach, but also because of its ability to access difficult, but highly important markets such as China and India,” said Skype Paid Products director Michael Jackson. “As a global partner, Mobile 365 offers both service reliability and availability, using multiple routes to each destination, enabling us to deliver messages with speed, quality, and ultimately, cost effectively.”
Skype is available to download at www.skype.com.
Mobile 365 CEO Gino Picasso said, “Skype is leading the way in global communications and we are delighted to have been chosen as a strategic partner in their quest to revolutionise the way consumers utilize SMS. Skype needed a global partner that is able to provide connectivity into rapidly growing regions including China and India.”
As Mobile 365 claims to be the only international aggregator with a local presence and premium connectivity into China and India (with over 500 million, and growing, mobile subscribers combined) therefore, it is well placed to help Skype deploy value-added services to its users, via premium SMS, thus opening new revenue streams in such lucrative emerging markets.
Picasso added, “We expect to build upon our SMS delivery and expand our product offerings with Skype for the global marketplace.”
Brands
Dabur buys minority stake in Ras Beauty for Rs 60 crore
Dabur Ventures deal backs fast-growing luxury skincare brand
MUMBAI: Dabur India Limited has dipped into the world of luxury skincare, signing a definitive agreement to acquire a minority stake in Ras Beauty Private Limited for Rs 60 crore. The investment marks the first bet from Dabur Ventures, the FMCG major’s Rs 500 crore platform set up in October 2025 to back high-potential, new-age direct-to-consumer brands.
Founded in Raipur by Shubhika Jain, her sister Suramya Jain and their mother Sangeeta Jain, Ras Beauty has grown from a family-led passion project into a fast-scaling “Farm-to-Face” skincare label. Its range of face elixirs, serums and moisturisers blends essential oils with nature-derived actives, striking a balance between botanical purity and laboratory precision.
The numbers tell their own story. Ras has clocked a three-year Cagr of around 75 per cent and an annual run rate of approximately Rs 100 crore, all while maintaining strong gross margins. That growth has been fuelled by a digital-first approach, in-house R&D and manufacturing, and a sharp focus on clean, sustainable sourcing.
Dabur India executive director and group head corporate strategy Abhinav Dhall, said the company was drawn to Ras’s distinct positioning at the intersection of nature, science and luxury. He added that the premium beauty segment is poised for robust expansion over the coming decade, and that Ras is well placed to capture that opportunity.
For Ras, the partnership is as much about scale as it is about shared philosophy. Co-founder and CEO Shubhika Jain said Dabur’s 141-year legacy of building trusted, purpose-led brands makes it a natural ally. The capital infusion, she noted, will help accelerate the brand’s omnichannel footprint, deepen research capabilities and invest in team and brand building, with an eye on establishing Ras as a leading Indian luxury skincare name both domestically and overseas.
With this move, Dabur is not just investing in a skincare label. It is placing an early wager on India’s growing appetite for premium, conscious beauty, and signalling that heritage FMCG players are ready to play in the new-age D2C arena.
