 Unwrapped |
Top tech and startup stories this week
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Welcome to a new edition of ETtech Unwrapped – our weekend newsletter packed with the most important stories this week. Let’s take a look.
Spurring food delivery growth, keeping discipline intact for Blinkit key: Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal │ Zomato will introduce multiple initiatives in the coming months to accelerate growth in its key food delivery business, its founder and chief executive, Deepinder Goyal, told us. He said India’s food delivery sector is facing multiple systemic issues that need to be fixed amid the larger slowdown in the industry.
Quick commerce sector burning Rs 5,000 crore per quarter: Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal │The quick commerce sector in India is burning approximately Rs 5,000 crore in cash each quarter, with Zomato-owned Blinkit accounting for 2-3% of the amount, the Gurugram-based company’s founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal told us in an exclusive interview.
Also Read: Zomato vs Zepto: Deepinder Goyal's statement on Zepto cash burn 'verifiably untrue': CEO Aadit Palicha
Lenskart’s Peyush Bansal charts global expansion amid IPO buzz: Peyush Bansal, cofounder of Lenskart said that while discussions around an initial public offering continue, the company remains focused on scale and consistency with customers which is key to delivering long-term success.
Founders on a second innings: For some, it’s a venture out; for others, a point to prove | Over the past 12-15 months, as the technology and venture investment ecosystem underwent a reset, more than a dozen entrepreneurs stepped down from active roles at their startups and went on to launch new ventures.
Dealmaker Rajeev Misra’s son sets out with a $150 million fund: Former SoftBank Vision Fund chief executive Rajeev Misra’s son, Rohan Misra, is following in his father’s footsteps but with a fund of his own. Setting up Gravity Holdings—based out of London—Rohan has raised around $150 million for the fund that will invest in Indian technology startups, people aware of the plans said.
Blinkit, Zepto hike commissions to boost per-order earnings: Blinkit and Zepto, the top two quick commerce platforms, are increasing commissions they charge to boost revenue amid intense competition and a push for profitability.
Indian investors are hoarding crypto post Trump's reserve call: US President Donald Trump's word of creating a national crypto reserve has got Indian investors hoarding crypto coins.
Ola Electric cuts 1,200 jobs amid financial losses, declining market share | Ola Electric Mobility has laid off around 1,200 employees and contract workers over the past two months, as the electric two-wheeler maker grapples with a declining market share and widening financial losses, people familiar with the matter told us.
(L-R), Girish Mathrubootham, Manav Garg, founders, Together Fund
Girish Mathrubootham’s Together eyes final close of Fund-II by June to up AI play: Venture capital firm Together Fund, set up by Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham and Eka Software founder Manav Garg, is ramping up its focus on artificial intelligence (AI) companies and expects to make the final close of its $150-million Fund-II by June.
Micro VC AJVC bags Rs 100-crore corpus for early-stage bets: AJVC, an early-stage venture capital firm founded by Aviral Bhatnagar, who formerly led enterprise software and artificial intelligence (AI) investments for Venture Highway (now merged with General Catalyst), has raised its planned corpus of Rs 100 crore, and is planning to exercise a greenshoe option to raise another Rs 50 crore.
HR services SaaS startup Darwinbox closes $140 million round led by Partners Group, KKR, others: Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) unicorn Darwinbox, which specialises in human resource (HR) services, has closed a $140 million funding round co-led by global private equity firms Partners Group and KKR.
InsuranceDekho closes $70 million funding round led by Mitsubishi UFJ, others: Insurance marketplace InsuranceDekho has raised $70 million in a funding round co-led by Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), insurer BNP Paribas Cardif through its insurtech fund, and Beams Fintech Fund.
Also Read: M2P Fintech in talks to acquire AI startup Vue AI in distress deal
Public sector banks eye fintech tie-ups for MSME loans: Large public sector banks are exploring stronger partnerships with fintech startups as they seek to step up loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME). This follows a government push in the budget for accelerating credit flow to the MSME sector and priority sector loans.
RBI-fintech meet discusses expanding digital payments market, checking fraud: Means to expand the digital payments market beyond the top 200 million Indians, along with issues around tackling frauds and charges on Unified Payments Interface-based transactions were some of the major issues discussed at a meeting Wednesday between top officials of the Reserve Bank of India and fintech industry executives.
Paytm gets show cause notice from ED over alleged Fema violations: One 97 Communications (OCL), which runs the digital payments application Paytm, has received a show cause notice from the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) over alleged violations of foreign exchange rules involving Rs 611 crore at the company and two of its subsidiaries.
How digital payments company Easebuzz quietly broke into the big league: In the hyper-competitive world of digital payments where profits are mostly elusive, a little-known Pune-based startup Easebuzz appears on track to close this financial year with a net profit of Rs 25 crore.
DOGE’s federal spends slash unlikely to bleed Indian IT companies: The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) move to cancel some federal contracts could hit consulting-focused technology companies hired by the US government for discretionary projects, but Indian IT will largely remain insulated, or face a limited impact, industry experts said.
Infosys rolls out 'system intervention' for 10-day work from office: Infosys, India’s second largest software services company, on Wednesday told its technology workforce to comply with its mandate to work 10 days a month from office, in a bid to get more people back onto the campus.
IT services firms see proactive deal renewals by clients on AI upsurge: Deals of technology service providers are seeing a proactive renewal before end of tenures, with shorter and smaller contracts over the past more than a year. This is driven by artificial intelligence (AI)-led productivity and efficiency that has permeated into the $280 billion IT services industry at large.
IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw switches on IndiaAI compute portal offering 14,000 GPUs: Startups, researchers, application developers and others can now access 14,000 GPUs (graphics processing units) on the IndiaAI Compute Portal, with 4,000 more in the pipeline, said union electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday
Top Stories This Week
Spurring food delivery growth, keeping discipline intact for Blinkit key: Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal │ Zomato will introduce multiple initiatives in the coming months to accelerate growth in its key food delivery business, its founder and chief executive, Deepinder Goyal, told us. He said India’s food delivery sector is facing multiple systemic issues that need to be fixed amid the larger slowdown in the industry.
Quick commerce sector burning Rs 5,000 crore per quarter: Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal │The quick commerce sector in India is burning approximately Rs 5,000 crore in cash each quarter, with Zomato-owned Blinkit accounting for 2-3% of the amount, the Gurugram-based company’s founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal told us in an exclusive interview.
Also Read: Zomato vs Zepto: Deepinder Goyal's statement on Zepto cash burn 'verifiably untrue': CEO Aadit Palicha
Lenskart’s Peyush Bansal charts global expansion amid IPO buzz: Peyush Bansal, cofounder of Lenskart said that while discussions around an initial public offering continue, the company remains focused on scale and consistency with customers which is key to delivering long-term success.
Founders on a second innings: For some, it’s a venture out; for others, a point to prove | Over the past 12-15 months, as the technology and venture investment ecosystem underwent a reset, more than a dozen entrepreneurs stepped down from active roles at their startups and went on to launch new ventures.
Dealmaker Rajeev Misra’s son sets out with a $150 million fund: Former SoftBank Vision Fund chief executive Rajeev Misra’s son, Rohan Misra, is following in his father’s footsteps but with a fund of his own. Setting up Gravity Holdings—based out of London—Rohan has raised around $150 million for the fund that will invest in Indian technology startups, people aware of the plans said.
Blinkit, Zepto hike commissions to boost per-order earnings: Blinkit and Zepto, the top two quick commerce platforms, are increasing commissions they charge to boost revenue amid intense competition and a push for profitability.
Indian investors are hoarding crypto post Trump's reserve call: US President Donald Trump's word of creating a national crypto reserve has got Indian investors hoarding crypto coins.
Ola Electric cuts 1,200 jobs amid financial losses, declining market share | Ola Electric Mobility has laid off around 1,200 employees and contract workers over the past two months, as the electric two-wheeler maker grapples with a declining market share and widening financial losses, people familiar with the matter told us.
Startups and Funding News
Girish Mathrubootham’s Together eyes final close of Fund-II by June to up AI play: Venture capital firm Together Fund, set up by Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham and Eka Software founder Manav Garg, is ramping up its focus on artificial intelligence (AI) companies and expects to make the final close of its $150-million Fund-II by June.
Micro VC AJVC bags Rs 100-crore corpus for early-stage bets: AJVC, an early-stage venture capital firm founded by Aviral Bhatnagar, who formerly led enterprise software and artificial intelligence (AI) investments for Venture Highway (now merged with General Catalyst), has raised its planned corpus of Rs 100 crore, and is planning to exercise a greenshoe option to raise another Rs 50 crore.
HR services SaaS startup Darwinbox closes $140 million round led by Partners Group, KKR, others: Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) unicorn Darwinbox, which specialises in human resource (HR) services, has closed a $140 million funding round co-led by global private equity firms Partners Group and KKR.
InsuranceDekho closes $70 million funding round led by Mitsubishi UFJ, others: Insurance marketplace InsuranceDekho has raised $70 million in a funding round co-led by Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), insurer BNP Paribas Cardif through its insurtech fund, and Beams Fintech Fund.
Also Read: M2P Fintech in talks to acquire AI startup Vue AI in distress deal
Fintech Updates
Public sector banks eye fintech tie-ups for MSME loans: Large public sector banks are exploring stronger partnerships with fintech startups as they seek to step up loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME). This follows a government push in the budget for accelerating credit flow to the MSME sector and priority sector loans.
RBI-fintech meet discusses expanding digital payments market, checking fraud: Means to expand the digital payments market beyond the top 200 million Indians, along with issues around tackling frauds and charges on Unified Payments Interface-based transactions were some of the major issues discussed at a meeting Wednesday between top officials of the Reserve Bank of India and fintech industry executives.
Paytm gets show cause notice from ED over alleged Fema violations: One 97 Communications (OCL), which runs the digital payments application Paytm, has received a show cause notice from the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) over alleged violations of foreign exchange rules involving Rs 611 crore at the company and two of its subsidiaries.
How digital payments company Easebuzz quietly broke into the big league: In the hyper-competitive world of digital payments where profits are mostly elusive, a little-known Pune-based startup Easebuzz appears on track to close this financial year with a net profit of Rs 25 crore.
IT and Policy
DOGE’s federal spends slash unlikely to bleed Indian IT companies: The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) move to cancel some federal contracts could hit consulting-focused technology companies hired by the US government for discretionary projects, but Indian IT will largely remain insulated, or face a limited impact, industry experts said.
Infosys rolls out 'system intervention' for 10-day work from office: Infosys, India’s second largest software services company, on Wednesday told its technology workforce to comply with its mandate to work 10 days a month from office, in a bid to get more people back onto the campus.
IT services firms see proactive deal renewals by clients on AI upsurge: Deals of technology service providers are seeing a proactive renewal before end of tenures, with shorter and smaller contracts over the past more than a year. This is driven by artificial intelligence (AI)-led productivity and efficiency that has permeated into the $280 billion IT services industry at large.
IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw switches on IndiaAI compute portal offering 14,000 GPUs: Startups, researchers, application developers and others can now access 14,000 GPUs (graphics processing units) on the IndiaAI Compute Portal, with 4,000 more in the pipeline, said union electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday
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