TCS rises, Infosys debuts on Kantar BrandZ global 100; Microsoft, Zara, and IBM lead on the new sustainability index

Tata Consultancy Services rose 12 positions from last year to rank number 46 on Kantar BrandZ’s annual list of global brands. Rival Infosys debuted on the list, joining the top 100, ranking at number 64 on the widely followed ranking of the world’s biggest brands every year. Accenture improved its ranking by one spot to place at number 26. Microsoft, Zara and IBM, however, lead the list on a new sustainability index that Kantar has started this year. Notes: Tata Consultancy Services rose 12 positions from last year to rank number 46 on Kantar BrandZ’s annual list of global brands. Rival Infosys debuted on the list, joining the top 100, ranking at number 64 on the widely followed ranking of the world’s biggest brands every year. Accenture improved its ranking by one spot to place at number 26. Microsoft, Zara and IBM, however, lead the list on a new sustainability index that Kantar has started this year. This year, the number of Indian brands in the Global Top 100 rose to four: Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, Infosys, and LIC. That’s more than the amount that Japan, Italy, and the UK placed — combined, Kantar said in its report. Formerly a challenger brand, TCS now isn’t far from Accenture by market value, the report notes. TCS and Infosys also made it to the top 20 brands under the business solutions and technology providers category, while IBM and Accenture continue to rank higher on this list as well. Microsoft, Zara and IBM lead the way in the new Kantar Sustainability BrandZ Index, which shows sustainability accounts for 3 percent of brand equity and is expected to rise. Consumer sustainability perception rose significantly in recent years, with Chinese consumers ranking second, next only to the Americas, according to Kantar. Wipro, India’s fourth-biggest IT services company, and Eros Investments, a portfolio of media and entertainment businesses, have signed an alliance agreement to develop an artificial intelligence and machine learning-based content localisation solution. It will automate the time-consuming manual content localisation process of subtitling and dubbing with near human-level accuracy, delivering cost and time savings for global media organisations, post-production, and direct-to-consumer over-the-top streaming platforms, the companies said in a press release. Ecozen has raised Rs. 54 crore of additional funding as part of its Rs. 200 crore Series C round. The new funding round was led by Dare Ventures, the venture capital arm of Coromandel International, with participation from existing investors Caspian and Hivos-Triodos Fonds. Northern Arc, UC Inclusive Credit, Maanaveeya, and Samunnati also participated with debt funding. Early investors in Ecozen include IFA and Omnivore. Ecozen makes motor controls, IoT devices, and energy storage devices for agriculture, irrigation and cold chains. Headquartered in Pune, Ecozen was founded on-campus by three IIT Kharagpur alumni, Devendra Gupta, Prateek Singhal and Vivek Pandey. Fanbuff Technology India, better known as FanClash, a two-year-old Indian fantasy esports startup, has raised $40 million in series B funding from investors including Alpha Wave Global, Sequoia Capital India, Info Edge and Polygon, TechCrunch reports, citing the company’s founder and CEO Richa Singh. FanClash previously raised $10.5 million, including a $10 million Series A round. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds