Online two-wheeler marketplace and financing platform Bike Bazaar has raised a debt of INR 25 Cr (nearly $3 Mn) from financial services company MAS Financial. 

As per Registrar of Companies (RoC) filings accessed by Inc42, the startup’s board passed a special resolution to allot 2,500 non-convertible debentures (NCDs) to MAS Financial at an issue price of INR 1 Lakh each. This translates to a cumulative sum of INR 25 Cr. 

As per the filings, Bike Bazaar raised the debt investment at an interest rate of 10.7% per annum for a tenure of 30 months. 

The development was first reported by Entrackr. 

Founded in 2017 by Srinivas Kantheti and Karunakaran Vadakkepat, Bike Bazaar operates an online marketplace for buying and selling pre-owned two wheelers. It also offers loans for buying new as well as old two-wheelers.

The startup also claims to provide electric three-wheeler loans and electric bikes on rentals.

The startup last raised $30 Mn in its Series D funding round last year from DEG, the investment arm of German state-owned development bank KfW, Women World’s Banking Asset Management (WAM), Elevar Equity, and Faering Capital. 

Overall, Bike Bazaar has raised over $101 Mn in funding since its inception. 

Bike Bazaar claims to have touch points spanning 100 locations across the country. It claims to have so far disbursed loans worth INR 3,400 Cr to 64 Lakh customers. 

Bike Bazaar reportedly trimmed its net loss by 21% to INR 43 Cr in the fiscal year ended March 2023 (FY23) from INR 55 Cr in FY22. Revenue from operations rose 20% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 180 Cr in FY23. 

With the fundraise, Bike Bazaar has joined the growing list of Indian startups that have raised debt in the recent past as funding winter and adverse macroeconomic pressures continue to loom over the startup ecosystem.

Earlier this week, Inc42 reported that logistics startup Ripplr has received board approval to secure INR 40 Cr in debt from IPO-bound Northern Arc. Prior to that, edtech unicorn upGrad was also said to be planning to raise INR 287.5 Cr in debt from financing platform EvolutionX Debt Capital.

In June, NBFC Northern Arc Capital raised $75 Mn in debt from Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO. Omnichannel jewellery brand Bluestone also bagged INR 100 Cr debt from Neo Markets last month. 

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Fintech major Groww’s asset management arm has paid INR 9 Lakh to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to settle a case related to alleged violation of norms. 

Groww Asset Management Company Ltd (formerly known as Indiabulls Asset Management Company Ltd) and Groww Trustee Ltd (formerly known as Indiabulls Trustee Company Ltd) filed a suo motu settlement application with SEBI to settle, by neither admitting nor denying the findings of fact and conclusions of law, the enforcement proceedings that may be initiated against them for the violation of a SEBI circular.

In the settlement application, Groww AMC and Groww Trustee said during April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2022, certain scheme related expenses were being paid by the AMC and were not paid from the schemes. 

This was in violation of SEBI norms, which say that all scheme related expenses, including commission paid to distributors, has to be paid from the scheme, and not from the books of the AMC, its associate, sponsor, trustee or any other entity through any route.

It is pertinent to note that Groww completed the acquisition of Indiabulls Asset Management for a consideration of INR 175.6 Cr in May 2023.

After the filing of the application, the authorised representatives of Groww AMC and Groww Trustee held a meeting with the internal committee of SEBI to discuss the aforementioned issues and the terms of the settlement.

Following this, the applicants proposed revised settlement terms to settle any enforcement proceedings that may be initiated against them for the violations.

“The High Powered Advisory Committee (HPAC) in its meeting held on December 21, 2023 and March 04, 2024, considered the revised settlement  terms proposed  by  the applicants and recommended the case for settlement upon payment of INR 9 Lakhs,” said SEBI in its order dated June 28. 

Following this, the applicants made the payment and the same was confirmed by SEBI.

The settlement will offer the company protection from any future “enforcement action” from SEBI in connection with the said violations. 

The acquisition of Indiabulls Asset Management paved the way for Groww’s entry into the mutual fund space. Groww AMC received SEBI’s nod to launch its first mutual fund in September last year. Earlier this year, it also got the regulator’s nod to launch India’s first Nifty non-cyclical consumer index fund.

Zerodha, Groww’s rival in the discount broking space, also received SEBI’s greenlight to launch an asset management company last year. Following this, Zerodha Fund House launched its maiden mutual funds in October last year.

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In a move that could impact the revenue of discount broking firms, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has barred market infrastructure institutions (MIIs) from offering discounts based on trading volumes or activity of its members. 

In a circular issued on Monday (July 1), the market watchdog directed MIIs to charge all its members uniformly, starting October 1, 2024. 

For the uninitiated, the members of MIIs include stock brokers, including discount broking platforms such as Zerodha, Groww and Upstox. 

“… The charge structure of the MII should be uniform and equal for all its members instead of slab-wise viz. dependent on volume/activity of members,” said SEBI.

Under the new directions, the onus will be on MIIs to ensure that the MII charges recovered from end-customers by its members are deposited entirely in the account of MIIs. 

In the circular, the market regulator said that it observed that a volume-based slab-wise charge structure is followed by some MIIs. SEBI said that while MIIs are receiving aggregate charges from its members on a monthly basis, the members are recovering such charges from the end  users on a daily basis. 

 “The aforesaid process can result in a situation wherein the aggregated charges collected by the members from the end clients is higher than the end of month charges paid to the MII (due to slab benefit). This can also result in an incorrect or misleading disclosure to the end client about the charges levied by MIIs,” the circular said. 

It also said that the volume-based slab-wise charge structure of MIIs could impact transparency and create a hindrance in ensuring fair access to all market participants due to size differentials. 

SEBI also issued the following diktats to MIIs through the circular:

• Redesign the existing charge structure and associated processes
• Take  necessary steps  to put in place requisite infrastructure and systems for implementation of the circular

The move could have an impact on the topline of new-age stock brokers such as Zerodha, Groww, Upstox and Angel One as they are charged lower rates by MIIs due to the high volumes they generate. 

The development comes a week after Zerodha cofounder and CEO Nithin Kamath, in a post on X, termed regulatory issues as the “biggest risk” for any regulated business. He made his comments in response to SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch saying that the market regulator is open to taking “some derivative products” off the market as the country is in the middle of a period of excess options trading. 

It is pertinent to note that there has been a sharp jump in retail investors participation in futures and options since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. As per a Reuters report, the turnover of Indian index options contracts surged to $135 Bn in March 2024, 6X compared to the four years earlier. 

“We have been a big beneficiary of this jump in volume (of options trading) but have always been aware that it can be significantly reduced in size due to regulations, which can significantly hurt revenues, and that’s also why we have never made any forward projections.But yeah, times will be tough for the broking industry going forward because almost everyone’s business model is skewed towards earning from options,” Kamath said in his post. 

The directives come at a time when online stock broking space continues to see heavy competition as major players Zerodha and Groww eye a bigger pie of the users. In terms of active investors, Groww raced ahead of Zerodha with 1.03 Cr active users on its platform at the end of May with the latter coming in second with 75 Lakh active investors.

However, in terms of profitability, Zerodha clocked a net profit of INR 2,908.9 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), up 37% year-on-year (YoY), while Groww reported a net profit of INR 448.7 Cr in the year under review. 

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Data restrictions proposed under the draft Digital Competition Bill may “compromise” the user interface (UI) of major digital apps in the country, a report by think tank CUTS Institute for Regulation and Competition (CUTS CIRC) said.

“Data use restrictions may compromise the seamlessness of consumers. Thus, it may enhance the effort and time while using the digital services,” said the report. 

The comments were part of a report that surveyed the plausible impact of the modified UI on account of the changes proposed by the draft Bill. 

CUTS CIRC also said that the Bill may mandate systematically significant digital enterprises (SSDE)-designated companies to undertake “changes” in the product architecture. 

As per the draft Bill, large digital platforms will be designated as SSDEs if they meet certain financial and user base criteria. Some of the thresholds include a turnover of not less than INR 4,000 Cr in India in the preceding three financial years or a gross merchandise value (GMV) of not less than INR 16,000 Cr in the country. 

Citing unbundling requirements under the draft law, the think tank said that the upcoming norms may force users to access these services individually, which are otherwise currently available in a single app.

Flagging another issue, the organisation said that the user consent requirements under the draft digital competition rules may increase the time and effort for end-consumers without “yielding commensurate benefits in privacy and consumer welfare”.

The report also noted that 13 Indian startups and digital companies, including foodtech majors Zomato and Swiggy, fintech giant Paytm, ecommerce major Flipkart, traveltech startup MakeMyTrip, could come under the purview of the draft Bill and the SSDE designation. 

It is pertinent to note that a parliamentary panel, in December 2022, recommended the implementation of ex-ante regulation for digital markets in India. A few months later in February 2023, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) set up and tasked the Committee on Digital Competition Law to prepare a draft Digital Competition Bill. 

Eventually, in February this year, the CDCL released its report and examined the effects of designating a significant digital platform as an SSDE on consumer choice. In its report then, the committee defined SSDEs as platforms that “wield significant influence over various aspects of digital services”. 

It also flagged concerns regarding fair competition, data privacy, and consumer choice, and sought an overarching ex-ante law to regulate these players and curb anti-competitive practices. 

Alongside the report, a draft Digital Competition Bill was also opened for public feedback. In their comments, industry bodies panned the draft law and sought its overhaul. 

At the time, CUTS CIRC had said that Indian startups’ ability to build a cost-effective customer acquisition strategy may be adversely impacted due to excessive restrictions and may create additional hurdles to scale up their operations. 

The US-India Business Council (USIBC) had also claimed that some of the restrictions proposed in the draft Bill for tech players will raise costs for the end users.  

The post Digital Competition Bill May Compromise Seamlessness Of Digital Apps, Says Report appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Electric vehicle (EV) maker Ola Electric is reportedly working on developing solid-state batteries to power its electric scooters. 

As per Reuters, Ola Electric founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said that the company plans to roll out EVs with solid-state batteries by as soon as next year. “We are in very early stages of our experimentation on solid state batteries,” Aggarwal said reportedly.

The timeline will reportedly coincide with the commencement of commercial production at its battery production “gigafactory” in Tamil Nadu next year. 

For the uninitiated, solid-state batteries offer a longer lifespan and faster charging compared with conventional lithium-ion batteries. However, EV makers veer away from solid-state batteries owing to issues such as high costs, constraints in raw material availability and intricate manufacturing process. 

The CEO reportedly also said that the EV maker has already begun manufacturing the “more efficient” 4680 form of battery cells for testing purposes. These cells are said to be more efficient than their widely used 2170 counterparts but issues remain over scaling up their production. 

As per the report, Aggarwal said that Ola Electric’s 4680 cells have received a key domestic certification, adding that the startup has invested $100 Mn to build an initial capacity to produce about 1.5 gigawatt hours (GWh) worth cells annually. 

According to a separate report by Economic Times, Aggarwal said that the EV maker is “okay” with the Centre “tapering off” Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) subsidies to focus on production-linked-incentive (PLI) schemes. 

His comments come in the backdrop of reports that the government is expected to earmark a budgetary outlay of INR 10,000 Cr for the upcoming FAME-III scheme, which is expected to cover electric two, three, and four-wheelers in the country. 

The comments come as Ola Electric continues its reign as the biggest player in the Indian electric two-wheeler space, in terms of sales, accounting for nearly 50% of the market. Additionally, the company has also rapidly scaled up its manufacturing capabilities and shored up partnership with key suppliers.  

Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) officially greenlit Ola Electric’s plans for an initial public offering (IPO). As per its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) filed with the markets regulator in December 2023, the company’s public issue will comprise a fresh issuance of shares worth INR 5,500 Cr and an offer for sale (OFS) component of up to 9.51 Cr shares. 

As it gears up for an IPO, the company has undertaken a company-wide restructuring exercise to cut costs and streamline operations. The EV player was also said to be planning to sack nearly 400-500 employees and also raised a debt of INR 100 Cr earlier this month in the run up to the IPO.

Ola Electric’s net loss widened 88% to INR 1,471.6 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) compared to INR 783.4 Cr in the year ago period. Meanwhile, revenue from operations surged 605% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 2,630.9 Cr in the period under review.

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The Gujarat government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with big tech major IBM to set up an artificial intelligence (AI) cluster at the Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT) City. 

In a statement, IBM said that the cluster will leverage the tech giant’s GenAI platform watsonx to foster innovation and collaboration among financial institutions at the City. 

As part of the pact, IBM will also offer financial institutions assistance in providing proof of concept and access to AI Sandbox, AI literacy programmes, and digital assistant solutions. 

In essence, the US-based tech juggernaut will offer cloud-based platforms to enable financial institutions to fine-tune large language AI models (LLMs) in a sandbox environment. Meanwhile, the potential digital assistant solutions will facilitate the deployment of these customised LLMs for financial institutions.

In addition, IBM will also develop a curriculum centred on AI for schools and universities across the state. Under the partnership, IBM will also offer certification programmes for professionals in Gujarat to upskill them in the emerging technology. IBM said that the initiative is part of its larger plan to train 30 Mn people globally by 2030 and 2 Mn learners in AI by the end of 2026.

“This MoU with IBM will help Gujarat to lead the country in efforts to adopt AI and drive digital transformation,” said Gujarat chief minister Bhupendrabhai Patel.

Commenting on the announcement, IBM India and South Asia managing director Sandip Patel added, “This collaboration is a significant step in our continued association with the Government of Gujarat to accelerate the digital transformation of the state. By establishing this AI cluster, our aim is to make the latest AI solutions easily accessible to the vibrant and growing number of financial institutions in GIFT City”.

The slew of initiatives are expected to give a major fillip to GIFT City by deploying GenAI. The development came on the same day as Nifty IX said that GIFT Nifty recorded its highest ever monthly turnover of 21.23 lakh contracts worth INR 7.97 Lakh Cr ($95.55 Bn) during the month of June.

This comes at a time when the Indian financial services and fintech sector is rapidly adopting the technology to improve customer service, efficiency, and reduce costs.

Vatsal Kanakiya, CTO at 100X.VC, recently told Inc42 that GenAI could see use cases in digitising and automating multiple redundant manual business processes within the sector. But, these company-specific LLMs are difficult to build from scratch. 

As a result, a slew of new Indian startups have emerged with offerings focussed on the sector including names such as Gnani.ai, Slang Labs, Vitrai.AI, and Alltius. As a result, the booming Indian GenAI space is witnessing healthy interest from investors. 

As per Inc42, homegrown GenAI startups have raised more than $600 Mn between 2019 and 2023. And the number is only expected to go up. 

The GenAI push also comes at a time when the Centre has rapidly ramped up its focus on promoting GIFT City as a global financial hub and a virtual offshore destination for startups and investors. 

As a result, both global and domestic investors are making a beeline for the much touted City. Earlier this month, Chennai-based VC firm Unifi Capital launched two new funds at IFSCA while the union government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) also inked a $23 Mn loan agreement to spur research and innovation in the fintech space at the City in March. 

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Amid the ongoing churn in the Indian edtech sector, Unacademy cofounder and CEO Gaurav Munjal has placed the blame of troubles at competitor BYJU’S on CEO Byju Raveendran not listening to “anyone”.

In a post on X, Munjal said, “Byju failed because he didn’t listen to anyone. He put himself on a pedestal and stopped listening. Don’t do that. Never do that. Don’t listen to everyone but have people who can give you blunt feedback.”

Sharing his learnings on the microblogging site, Munjal said that founders should always “act” on feedback even if they do not like it. 

With this, Munjal has become the latest Indian edtech cofounder to join the debate around troubles at BYJU’S. In February, upGrad’s Ronnie Screwvala said that due to ‘one rotten apple’ the industry was witnessing reputational damage. 

Responding to a tweet about shareholders of BYJU’S convening an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to oust Raveendran and his family, Screwvala, in a post on X, had said, “Finally someone smelt the coffee!! Hope it’s not a whiff and then whimper but they will stay the course and get this done – for the whole ecosystem! For India as an investment destination! For just credibility overall of an otherwise sunrise and sunshine sector”.

However, these potshots by peers are not without reason. 

Troubles Galore At BYJU’S 

At the top of the funding boom in pandemic-hit 2020 and 2021, BYJU’S raised billions of dollars from marquee names in the venture capital (VC) and private equity ecosystem. 

However, as the pandemic-era growth waned as schools opened, the edtech major was straddled with questions about sustainability and profitability. As funding winter made matters worse for raising capital in 2022 and 2023, the company found itself at crossroads, as the bevy of acquisitions in previous years failed to pay off. 

The aftermath saw the company undertake a series of layoffs as financial reports, which were delayed multiple times, painted a bleak picture of the company’s finances. Nearly 22 months after the end of the financial year 2021-22 (FY22), the edtech giant filed its financial statements which showed that its loss ballooned 81% to INR 8,245.2 Cr during the year from INR 4,564.3 Cr in FY21.

As a result, the company has fired more than 5,000 employees since 2023. Besides, it has delayed employee salaries multiple times, seen exodus of top leadership, and restructured its business multiple times. BYJU’S is also yet to file its financial statements for FY23.

Making matters worse are a dozen-odd legal and insolvency cases filed by its investors and vendors. Earlier this year, its shareholders banded together to convene an EGM to oust Raveendran and his family from the op management. 

While representatives of three major investors left the company’s board last year, shareholders such as Baron Capital and Prosus almost entirely wrote off their stake in the edtech startup this year. As if this was not enough, BYJU’S raised a rights issue at a $250 Mn post-money valuation, down 99% from its peak $22 Bn valuation in 2022. 

And there seems to be no end to the company’s troubles, as the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) is probing BYJU’S for alleged financial fraud. 

While BYJU’S troubles are well documented, the entire edtech sector has been affected by the ongoing funding winter and high cash burn in the last two years. Earlier this month, Inc42 reported that K-12 Techno Services was in talks to acquire Gaurav Munjal-led Unacademy.

Amid all these, Munjal took to X to share his learnings from the last two years. 

Munjal’s Lessons For Founders 

In a series of posts on X, Munjal said that all 2021 valuations for startups were “bloated” and the current time is reality, not 2021. 

Calling on all founders to be transparent, Munjal said it is important to increase transparency by 10X with investors and team members when times are tough. “When making tough decisions, don’t hide behind silent layoffs,” the Unacademy CEO added. 

He also asked founders to “learn” from people who have gone through a similar journey as theirs to avoid repeating mistakes. Munjal said that “understanding unit economics on Day One” is probably the “best thing” a founder can do. 

Warning entrepreneurs against holding any biases, he said it is important to focus on what customers want. He added that it is “must” to have some form of offline play while catering to Indian audiences.

Noting that “business model innovation” is more important than product innovation, Munjal said that while the best product does not always win, the best distribution does. He also said that experimentation is the key and founders should not “give up” on research and development (R&D). 

Without taking names, he also said that while some investors are assets, others are “liabilities”. He added that the “trick” is to figure out the backers that are “assets” and listen to them.

He also urged entrepreneurs to look inwards and learn from how the “best Indian companies” scaled up operations. Concluding his posts, he added that winning “matters most” when a company is facing “constraints”. 

The post Byju Raveendran Failed As He Did Not Listen To Anyone: Unacademy CEO appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Electric mobility startup Matter has raised INR 82.6 Cr (around $10 Mn) in a fresh funding round from Japan Airlines & Translink Fund, Info Edge’s Capital 2B Fund, Helena Special Investments Fund and Abhay Shah on behalf of Miracle Carriers.

As per Registrar of Companies (RoC) filings accessed by Inc42, the startup’s board approved the issuance of 1.12 Lakh (1,12,837 to be precise) compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS) at an issue price of INR 7,320 each. This translates into a total of INR 82.6 Cr. 

While Helena Special Investments Fund invested INR 41.75 Cr, Japan Airlines & Translink Fund pumped INR 25 Cr in the startup. Capital 2B Fund and Shah infused INR 10.8 Cr and INR 5 Cr respectively as part of the round. 

Entrackr was the first to report the development. As per the report, Matter was pegged at a post-money valuation of around INR 1,690 Cr ($204 Mn).

Founded in 2019 by Mohal Lalbhai, Arun Pratap Singh, Kumar Prasad Telikepalli, and Saran Babu, Matter manufactures premium electric motorcycles. It is also working to develop lithium-ion batteries for use in electrical grids and solar energy.

The electric mobility startup last raised $10 Mn in a round in 2022 that saw participation from Capital 2B, Climate Angel Fund, and other Indian HNIs. Matter was said to be in talks with investors to raise $200 Mn to expand its operations, distribution and establish a factory. 

Still in pre-revenue stage, Matter clocked a loss of INR 25 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23). It is yet to file its statements for FY24. 

It competes with the likes of giants such as Ola Electric and Ather in the larger EV segment two-wheeler segment. But, Matter positions itself as a premium brand and sells products in the price range of INR 1.7 Lakh. In the e-bike segment, it locks horns with Tork Motors, TVS-backed  Ultraviolette and Revolt. 

Matter operates in the larger Indian electric bike segment, which is reportedly projected to be a $2.9 Bn market opportunity by 2032. On the back of this, the ecosystem is witnessed healthy investor interest. 

Earlier this year, TORK Motors bagged INR 50 Cr as part of a funding round from Maxis Capital. Last year, another EV startup Raptee raised $3 Mn in a Pre-Series A funding round led by VC fund Bluehill Capital.

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The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Thursday (June 27) barred regulated entities from associating with unregistered finfluencers.

The directions were passed at the markets regulator’s board meeting on Thursday (June 27). 

“The persons regulated by the Board and the agents of such persons shall not have any association… with any other person who… provides advice or recommendation or makes any implicit or explicit claim of return or performance, in respect of or related to security or securities…,” said SEBI in a statement. 

However, players and persons regulated by the markets regulator have been exempted from the ban. SEBI allowed regulated entities to “associate” with entities that do not offer any financial advice and digital platforms that have licence to offer recommendations. 

SEBI also said that regulated entities will be responsible if they partner with unregulated influencers or indulge in such “prohibited activities”.

It also defined prohibited activities as “any transaction involving money or money’s worth, referral of a client, interaction of information technology systems or any other association of similar nature or character, directly or indirectly”.

The market regulator’s board also approved a proposal to permit Category I and II alternative investment funds (AIFs) to borrow capital for up to 30 days for meeting temporary shortfall in drawdown from investors while making investments.

“The cost of any such borrowing would need to be charged to the specific investors responsible for the shortfall. Further, with a view to curtail any possible roll-over of borrowing, there shall be a cooling off period of thirty days between two borrowings availed by Category I and II AIFs,” added SEBI. 

The board of the markets regulator also approved a plan to limit extension of LVF (Large Value Funds for Accredited Investors) tenure to five years. It said that the extension would be contingent on the approval of two-thirds of the unit holders by value, as per SEBI. 

At the board meeting, the SEBI board also revised the eligibility criteria for entry and exit of stocks in the derivatives markets. Under the latest mandates, the criteria for exit shall apply to only those stocks which have completed at least 6 months from the month of entry into the derivative segment.

“In addition, a Product Success Framework has been introduced in single stock futures and options, to ensure that the liquidity and participation witnessed in the derivative markets are supportive of market development, regulation, and investor protection. The Product Success Framework would start to apply 6 months from the date of issuance of the circular,” added SEBI.

This comes weeks after brokerage firm JM Financial said that it expects Jio Financial Services and Zomato to be included in the Nifty index if added to futures and options markets.

On top of that, SEBI also streamlined the process for applying for public issue of debt securities via intermediaries. 

“Harmonisation of the procedure of applying in public issue of debt securities and NCRPS (non-convertible redeemable preference shares) through intermediaries with that in case of specified securities by mandating UPI for individual investors where the investment is up to INR 5 Lakhs,” it said. 

The developments come in the backdrop of SEBI cracking the whip on finfluencers in the recent past. Just last year, the regulator barred Hyderabad-based finfluencer Mohammad Nasiruddin Ansari from participating in securities markets while also mandating the disgorgement of INR 17.2 Cr. 

In May 2023, it also penalised PR Sundar for offering investment advisory services without SEBI registration since 2013. 

The post SEBI Bars Regulated Entities From Associating With Unregistered Finfluencers appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Telecom operator Reliance Jio will hike the tariffs for its prepaid and postpaid plans by 12% to 25% from July 3. 

While the cost of its lowest plan of INR 155 has been increased by 21% to INR 189, the INR 239 recharge will now be available at INR 299. 

Besides, the company also announced the launch of its new “unlimited” plans and increased the tariffs of its data packs. However, the price hike will not be applicable to JioBharat and JioPhone users. 

In a statement, Jio said that the “introduction of new plans” will enable it to drive sustainable growth and invest more in 5G and artificial intelligence (AI).

Commenting on the price hike, Reliance Jio Infocomm chairman Akash Ambani said, “The introduction of new plans is a step in the direction of furthering industry innovation and driving sustainable growth through investments in 5G and AI technology. Ubiquitous, high-quality, affordable internet is the backbone of Digital India and Jio takes pride in contributing to this. Jio will always put our country and customer first and will continue to invest for India.”

Meanwhile, the company has limited free 5G usage to high-end data packs. Jio said that unlimited 5G data will now only be available on packs that offer at least 2GB data per day. 

The price hike is expected to further shore up the telecom operator’s topline and improve its average revenue per user (ARPU). Additionally, the higher revenue inflow could also help the company bolster its play as its expenses continue to rise on account of 5G rollout and deployment of technologies such as AI. 

Meanwhile, Jio also announced the launch of two new apps – JioSafe and JioTranslate.

JioSafe is a “quantum-secure communication” app that will offer services such as calling, messaging and file transfers, and will be available for INR 199 a month. On the other hand, JioTranslate is an AI-powered app that will allow users to translate voice call, voice message, text and image. This offering will be priced at INR 99 per month.

However, both the apps will be accessible for free for Jio users for a year, the company said. 

Giving an update on its 5G rollout, Jio claimed that the telco accounted for 85% of the total 5G cells operationalised in India.

The development comes at a time when Jio has been witnessing net subscriber additions to its total user base for more than a year now. As per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data, Jio was the sole telecom operator in the country which saw widening of its subscriber base in April 2024. 

At the end of April 2024, Jio’s total active user base stood at 43.34 Cr and it accounted for a 40.48% market share of the country’s total wireless market. 

Jio’s parent Jio Platforms reported a 12% YoY increase in consolidated net profit to INR 5,583 Cr in Q4 FY24, while operating revenue jumped 13.4% YoY to INR 28,871 Cr during the quarter under review. 

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The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) has now reportedly sought details of the cashback given by online gaming companies to their users since the 28% goods and services tax (GST) regime came into effect on October 1, 2023. 

The DGGI has sought information in this regard from the likes of Delta Corp, which owns Adda52.com, and others for the period between October 2023 and June 15, 2024, the Economic Times reported. 

The report said that the directorate detected reimbursements of taxed money back to players as cashback in a separate promotional account by online gaming companies. The agency noted that these reimbursements were made post the implementation of the 28% GST on online gaming.

For the uninitiated, an online gaming player typically has three accounts — a deposit wallet, a payment wallet and a promo wallet. The companies, in question, were transferring taxed money as cashback in the promotional wallet of these players as cashbacks are not subject to GST.

“Investigation detected that the real money gaming companies were offering cashback to the players in their promo account for which summons had been sent,” a source was quoted as saying. 

As per the report, multiple gaming companies are being probed in connection with the matter. It added that the fresh summons is unrelated to the tax demand notices sent to these companies in the past.

In 2023, the GST Council announced the imposition of a 28% GST on online real-money gaming on the full face value of the bets. Despite criticism from multiple quarters, the Centre went ahead with the proposal and passed amendments to the Central Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in August last year. 

The mandates came into effect from October 2023. Right after that, authorities began sending tax notices to several online gaming startups, including Dream11, Gameskraft and Delta Corp, totalling INR 1.12 Lakh Cr. 

Many gaming companies have since moved the courts and urged the Centre to reconsider the mandates. The GST Council was expected to review the 28% tax regime last week during its meeting last week, but the issue did not feature on the meeting’s agenda. 

Meanwhile, online gaming startups continue to seethe under the impact of the new tax levy. As per a report by EY and US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), more than 50% of online gaming companies in India witnessed stagnant or declining revenues post the implementation of the new levies. 

The post DGGI Seeks Details Of Cashbacks Offered By Online Gaming Companies Since Oct 2023 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Infosys cofounder and chairman Nandan Nilekani said that the IT major is working on 225 generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) programs for its clients. 

In his address to the shareholders at the company’s 43rd annual general meeting (AGM) on Wednesday (June 26), Nikelani also said that the IT juggernaut has so far trained more than 2.5 Lakh employees in GenAI technologies. 

“Infosys is one of the largest adopters of GitHub Copilot globally. Our employees have already generated over 3 Mn lines of code using generative AI large language models,” Nilekani added. 

The software company also said that it filed more than 46 AI patents and 70 AI client advocacies in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24). 

Noting that the GenAI “revolution” is still in its nascent stages, Nilekani said that enterprise AI will take several years to unfold, unlike consumer-focussed AI space. 

The Infosys chairman’s comments come at a time when GenAI mania has gripped the world. Ever since OpenAI debuted its AI chatbot, ChatGPT, in late 2022, the emerging technology has seen rapid adoption. India too is racing to catch the bus. 

Be it the country’s first unicorn Krutrim or Sarvam AI, the homegrown GenAI landscape has made rapid strides in the past one year with the emergence of use cases in areas such as customer support, fintech, among others. 

As a result, investors are lining up to invest in startups leveraging the emerging technology. As per an Inc42 report, Indian GenAI startups raised more than $600 Mn between 2019 and 2023. Inc42 also estimates the homegrown GenAI market to cross the $17 Bn mark by 2030. 

Besides, the Centre has also earmarked INR 10,372 Cr for its India AI Mission. A recent Deloitte report said that India is at the top among 13 countries in the Asia Pacific region in terms of GenAI use and adoption.

Additionally, Infosys competitor Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) also unveiled a new platform recently to aggregate multiple GenAI services and LLM models under a single umbrella to enable businesses to adopt GenAI at scale. 

However, some issues still remain. There are issues about upskilling the country’s talent pool in the emerging technology and regulatory bottlenecks. The technology has also spawned issues such as misuse, deepfakes and misinformation. 

As a result, the government has been looking to crack the whip on the misuse of GenAI. Earlier this year, it issued an advisory that directed platforms to label undertrial AI models and ensure that no unlawful content is hosted on their sites. The move was met with criticism from industry stakeholders, including founders and industry bodies, following which the advisory was withdrawn. 

Many including SaaS unicorn Zoho cofounder and boss Sridhar Vembu have even termed GenAI catastrophic, saying that adopting new technologies without appropriate safeguards could cause unprecedented disruption of the existing social order and could lead to job losses. 

The post Infosys Has Trained 2.5 Lakh Employees On GenAI: Nandan Nilekani appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Hours after a news report claimed that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has cleared BYJU’S of any financial fraud, the ministry rejected the report. 

In a statement, the ministry said that its probe into the affairs of the troubled edtech startup is “ongoing”. 

“It is categorically clarified that such reports are factually incorrect and misleading. The proceedings initiated by MCA under the Companies Act, 2013, are still ongoing and no final conclusion should be drawn in this matter at this stage,” the statement said. 

Earlier in the day, Bloomberg reported that the MCA did not find any evidence of any financial fraud or accounting malpractice by BYJU’S. The report, however, claimed that the investigation found weak corporate governance at BYJU’S.

Additionally, the probe reportedly also found that the startup failed to disclose full details of acquisitions with all directors and purportedly held meetings to approve such deals at a short notice.

It is pertinent to note that the corporate affairs ministry ordered a probe into BYJU’S books after it failed to file its audited financials for the financial year ending March 2022 (FY22) on time.

The latest development comes at a time when the edtech major is fighting fires on multiple fronts. 

The biggest thorn in its flesh appears to be soaring losses, which jumped 81% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 8,245.2 Cr in FY22. The company is yet to file financial statements for FY23 and FY24. Meanwhile, operating revenue rose 120% YoY to INR 5,014.6 Cr during the year under review.

Besides, it is also grappling with issues such as a looming debt crisis, about a dozen legal cases, mass layoffs, insolvency proceedings, allegations of lax corporate governance guardrails, salary delays and a public fallout with its investors. 

From being pegged at $22 Bn in 2021, the startup’s valuation plummeted by more than 99% tio $250 Mn after it raised a rights issue at the reduced valuation. The aftermath saw investors moving court seeking the ouster and founder and CEO Byju Raveendran. 

Piling on top, Dutch investor Prosus, just days ago, wrote off its entire 9.6% stake in BYJU’S. Meanwhile, US-based asset management company Baron Capital also slashed BYJU’s valuation by more than 99% to $120 Mn at the end of March 2024.

Earlier in the day, it was reported that the edtech major settled its insolvency dispute with French digital services company Teleperformance Business Services.

The post MCA Refutes Reports Of It Clearing BYJU’S Of Fraud, Says Probe Ongoing appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Fintech-focussed venture capital (VC) firm Cedar-IBSi Capital said it has received a sizeable commitment from Riyadh-based asset management company Hades Financial Private Capital Group (HFPCG) for its debut $30 Mn fund.

In a statement, the VC firm said that HFPCG is the second large institutional investor to join the fintech-focussed fund as a limited partner. As per the deal, the two parties will leverage each other’s expertise and network.

For the uninitiated, the fund has been floated by management consultancy firm Cedar and fintech market intelligence platform IBS Intelligence. The fund marked its first close in March this year and saw participation from two institutional investors, family offices and others. 

“We are excited to welcome a respectable institutional investor such as Hades to the Cedar-IBSi capital investor base and look forward to executing our common goal in unlocking the Indian B2B FinTech/BankTech journey…,” said Cedar-IBSi Capital founder and managing director Sahil Anand.

Commenting on the development, HFPCG co-CEO Mohammed Abrar Asif, “We are thrilled to partner with Cedar-IBSi Capital and support their mission of fostering innovation in the banktech and fintech sectors. This investment aligns perfectly with our strategy to back promising early-stage companies that are poised to disrupt traditional financial services and bring transformative solutions to the market”.

Cedar-IBSi Capital said that it is set to close its first investment and is currently mulling a second investment. As part of the fund, the VC firm will dish out cheques in the range of INR 4 Cr to INR 10 Cr and will invest in around 15 early-stage fintech startups. 

The fund will also focus on entrepreneurs building fintech startups catering to banks, enterprises and other use cases for insurance, NBFCs and other financial services players.

The development comes at a time when several VC and private equity (PE) firms are accumulating dry powder to invest in Indian startups. Despite the ongoing funding winter, 2023 saw the launch of 64 funds with a corpus of $5.6 Bn, including venture capital funds, micro-funds, and corporate VC funds. 

This momentum has continued well into 2024 also. Earlier this month, fintech startup Neo group’s asset management arm Neo Asset Management marked the final close of its maiden special credit opportunities fund at INR 2,575 Cr. In May, consumer VC fund RPSG Capital Ventures also marked the final close of its latest Fund II at INR 550 Cr. 

The post Cedar-IBSi Capital Ropes In Middle East’s Hades Finance As LP For $30 Mn Maiden Fund appeared first on Inc42 Media.

US-based retail major Walmart’s chief financial officer (CFO) David Rainey has said that ecommerce major Flipkart and digital payments giant PhonePe are on “path to profitability”. 

Speaking at an investor conference in London, parent Walmart’s CFO said that Flipkart’s “improving” losses are giving the the retail major a “lot of confidence” in what the ecommerce giant’s financial profile would look in a few years. 

“… They’re (Flipkart and PhonePe) all on their path to profitability. We’re seeing those ecommerce losses improve year after year after year, which gives us a lot of confidence in what the overall financial profile of this business looks like a few years from now,” said Rainey. 

On PhonePe, the Walmart CFO said that the fintech major is clocking “roughly $1.5 Tn of total payments volume (TPV)”. 

“They (PhonePe) are doing roughly $1.5 Tn of total payment volume… That has got to be up there as large as any payment company in the world, certainly outside of China. And how it’s resonating with customers there, it’s just amazing. So to be the largest payment provider in the largest market of the world, that’s exactly where you want to be,” Rainey added. 

He also expressed confidence over the growth clocked by PhonePe, saying Walmart is “pleased” with that performance of the fintech major. 

This comes a month after Walmart executives during a quarterly analyst call in May said that the initial public offerings (IPOs) of Flipkart and PhonePe could take a couple of years. During the same call, the CFO said Flipkart witnessed double-digit growth during the quarter ended April 2024. 

Interestingly, earlier this month, Rainey also said that Flipkart’s path to profitability would determine the timeline of the ecommerce major’s IPO.

This comes months after Flipkart group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy reportedly told employees that the ecommerce major was “close” to hitting profitability and had significantly trimmed its monthly cash burn. 

Overall, Flipkart continues to be one of the biggest players in the Indian ecommerce space and has been rapidly looking to expand its footprint in other categories, including quick commerce. The company last month added Google to its cap table. As per a report, the tech giant was part of a $1 Bn funding round, which valued Flipkart at $35 Bn to $36 Bn. 

On the financial front, the ecommerce giant’s B2C arm, Flipkart Internet Private Limited, saw its operating revenue surge 42% YoY to INR 14,845.8 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23). Meanwhile, loss reduced 9% to INR 4,026.5 Cr during the year under review from INR 4,419.5 Cr in FY22.

Meanwhile, PhonePe is another jewel in Walmart India’s crown. The fintech major is the biggest player in the digital payments space and has been accounting for nearly half of all the UPI payments almost every month.

However, PhonePe’s net loss grew 39% YoY to INR 2,795.3 Cr in FY23 while operating revenue rose 77% YoY to INR 2,913.7 Cr.

The post Flipkart & PhonePe On Path To Profitability, Says Walmart CFO appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Ecommerce major Flipkart reportedly held talks with Swiggy for a potential stake purchase in the foodtech major eight to ten months ago.

The talks fizzled out as the two segment giants failed to come to consensus over the valuation, Economic Times reported citing sources. Flipkart is also said to have demanded a majority stake in the foodtech major, which proved to be a roadblock to the deal. 

The report claimed that Dutch investor and Swiggy’s largest backer Prosus was also part of the negotiations and was “keen” on divesting some of its stake in the foodtech major. 

“There was a discussion for (a) majority stake for Flipkart where Prosus and other investors would offload stake. But besides valuation (mismatch), a majority stake (demand) was also a hurdle,” the report quoted one of the sources as saying. 

Swiggy was valued at about $11 Bn to $12 Bn at the time of the deliberations. 

Another source told the publication, “The talks were centred around the Prosus block and if others too can join and make a big enough chunk, as Flipkart was not interested in a minority stake”.

The report said that the discussions were verbal and there was no formal binding or non-binding offer on paper. As per the report, Swiggy, post the failed talks, filed its IPO papers via the confidential route in April 2024 to list on the bourses. 

Inc42 has reached out to Swiggy for a comment on the story. The story will be updated on receiving a response. Flipkart declined to comment on the matter. 

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Swiggy denied the development to ET and said, “No such conversation/negotiation/discussion has ever taken place”.

The deal, if successful, would have paved the way for Flipkart’s entry into India’s burgeoning food delivery and quick commerce segments. Earlier, it was reported that Flipkart also held talks with quick commerce startup Zepto to acquire a stake, but the deliberations failed after the ecommerce major sought a significant stake in the startup. 

The developments come at a time when the competition has intensified in India’s quick commerce space. Last week, Zepto raised $665 Mn funding, while other major players such as Zomato-owned Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart have also rapidly scaled up their operations. 

For now, Flipkart is preparing for its foray in the quick commerce segment. However, a stake in Swiggy would have also helped it leverage synergies with the IPO-bound company to make strategic gains in the Indian foodtech arena. It would have also given Prosus a partial exit. 

Meanwhile, Swiggy is gearing up for its public listing. Earlier this year, the company received board approval for a INR 10,400 Cr ($1.25 Bn) public issue, comprising a fresh issue of shares worth INR 3,750 Cr ($450 Mn) and an offer for sale (OFS) component of INR 6,664 Cr ($800 Mn). 

In preparation for this, Swiggy aggressively cut costs, streamlined operations and scaled up revenues. Just a day ago, Prosus, in its 2024 annual report, said that Swiggy posted a 24% year-on-year (YoY) jump in its revenue in the calendar year 2023, excluding mergers and acquisitions, largely on the back of a 26% YoY increase in gross order value (GOV). 

Earlier this year, Inc42 reported that Swiggy was set to clock about INR 10K Cr in revenue in FY24, fueled by the rise in its Instamart orders and platform fees related to food delivery.

The post Flipkart Held Talks With Swiggy For Stake Purchase, Says Report; IPO-Bound Startup Denies appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will reportedly vote on the norms to crack the whip on unregistered finfluencers at its upcoming board meeting on June 27. 

Sources told Zee Business that the regulations may come up for vote as the markets regulator is looking to curb the revenue model of unregistered finfluencers in the country. 

As per the report, the proposed rules may include provisions that bar SEBI-regulated entities from dealing, in any manner, with such unregistered financial influencers. In addition, the upcoming norms may also mandate registered finfluencers to display their registration details clearly.

Within SEBI, the concerns were reportedly around the mass appeal wielded by these unregistered finfluencers, who could, in turn, influence investments. Additionally, the markets regulator believes a section of these unregistered financial influencers may not possess the required knowledge and understanding of the product or services they may be selling to their followers. 

This comes a year after SEBI floated a consultation paper that defined “financial influencers” or “finfluencers” as persons who provide information and/or advice on various financial topics such as investing in securities, personal finance, banking products, insurance, real estate investment, etc. through social/digital media platforms/channels and can influence the financial decisions of their followers.

The paper had also directed intermediaries registered with SEBI to sever ties with any unregistered entities. Earlier this year, SEBI whole-time member Kamlesh Varshney said that the regulator was mulling bringing finfluencers under the regulatory net to monitor compliance with security laws. 

Apart from regulatory intervention, SEBI has also cracked the whip on finfluencers in the recent past. Late last year, SEBI also took action against Hyderabad-based finfluencer Mohammad Nasiruddin Ansari and barred him from participating in securities markets while also mandating the disgorgement of INR 17.2 Cr.

In May 2023, SEBI also penalised PR Sundar for offering investment advisory services without SEBI registration since 2013. He was ordered to pay INR 46.8 Lakh to SEBI as a settlement and INR 6.07 Cr to clients and investors as disgorgement. 

In addition, Capital Gain Research’s Ruchit Gupta was also ordered to return INR 79 Lakh in May to investors last year and was barred by the regulator from accessing the securities market for six months.

The post SEBI To Vote On Regulating Unregistered Finfluencers On June 27 Board Meet appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Temasek, JP Morgan and Warburg Pincus cumulatively offloaded 64.57 Lakh shares of auto marketplace CarTrade via separate bulk deals on Monday (June 24) for INR 535.03 Cr. 

As per BSE and NSE data, private equity (PE) major Warburg Pincus-owned Highdell Investment sold 40.65 Lakh shares for INR 828.58 apiece. This translates into a sum of INR 336.8 Cr. 

Meanwhile, Temasek’s affiliate MacRitchie Investments sold 20.32 Lakh shares for INR 828 apiece in an INR 168.2 Cr block deal. JP Morgan’s PE fund CMDB II also dumped 3.6 Lakh shares for INR 29.92 Cr at INR 830.27 apiece.

Highdell Investment held a 17.36% stake in the startup at the end of the March quarter of 2024, while MacRitchie owned a 16.31% stake.

The shares that flooded the markets were lapped up by Societe Generale, Verition Fund Management, Royal Bank of Scotland, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, CLSA Global Markets, among others. 

While Societe Generale picked up 5.95 Lakh shares, Verition bought 5.04 Lakh shares. Additionally, Goldman Sachs India Equity Portfolio and HSBC Global Investment funds bought 6.19 Lakh shares and 4.34 Lakh shares, respectively. 

Last week, CarTrade said that it received a demand notice from the Income Tax (I-T) Department for a shortfall in payment or collection of tax deducted at source (TDS) or tax collected at source (TCS).

The company said that the notice would have “no material impact” on its financial and operational performance.

Earlier today, CarTrade shares slipped 4.3% during the early trading hours on the bourses on Monday. However, the stock pared some of the loss later and closed the day 2.33% lower at INR 836.95 on the BSE. 

Last month, Taiyo Greater India Fund also offloaded 2.65 Lakh shares of CarTrade in a bulk deal worth INR 21.7 Cr. In March, CarTrade’s pre-IPO shareholder March Capital also dumped almost 9.5 Lakh shares of the company in bulk deals worth over INR 70 Cr.

It is pertinent to note that the stock has surged nearly 17.3% on a year-to-date (YTD) basis, while it has jumped more than 75% in the past 12 months. 

CarTrade returned to the black in the fourth quarter (Q4) of the fiscal year 2023-24 (FY24) with a net profit of INR 25 Cr compared to a loss of INR 23.5 Cr in the preceding quarter. Meanwhile, operating revenue surged 51.5% YoY to INR 145.3 Cr in Q4 FY24.

The post Temasek, JP Morgan, Warburg Pincus Offload CarTrade Shares Worth INR 535 Cr appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Before November 2022, OpenAI was a little-known startup in the US. However, that very month, the company unveiled a chatbot, ChatGPT, which in just two months crossed 100 Mn monthly active users, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history. 

OpenAI’s GPT-3, a large language model (LLM), has since paved the way for GPT-4 and $11 Bn+ in funding for OpenAI, mostly from Microsoft.

At the time when OpenAI was making waves across the globe, India’s GenAI ecosystem was still very much in its infancy.

However, the country’s GenAI space seems to have made massive strides since then. Not only have we been able to mint India’s first AI unicorn, Krutrim, but also attracted major interest from investors and entrepreneurs to cause a stir in this space.   

Consequently, India is home to more than 100 GenAI startups and these startups have raised more than $600 Mn since 2019.

Spearheading this transition are names like SarvamAI and Krutrim, which are focussed on building Indic LLMs, while others like ObserveAI, having secured $214 Mn, are leveraging AI to offer customised customer and operational support to businesses. 

Today, a large number of startups across sectors and industries, from OYO to Unacademy, are seen using this emerging technology to streamline user experience and operations.

According to Inc42, India’s GenAI market is expected to see a major boom in the coming years and is projected to cross the $17 Bn mark by 2030. 

In line with the growing market opportunity in this space, we have endeavoured to collate a list of Indian startups that are causing a stir in the rapidly evolving Indian GenAI space.

(Note: The startups below have been listed in the order of the amount of funding raised since their incorporation. This is not an exhaustive list, we will be updating it periodically. If you would like to refer a GenAI startup to be featured in this list, write to us @ editor@inc42.com)

Meet The GenAI Startups Putting India On The Global AI Map

1. Observe AI

Founded in 2017 by Sharath Keshava Narayana and Swapnil Jain, Observe AI is a conversational intelligence platform for contact centres. 

Observe.AI has raised a total of $214 Mn in funding over 6 rounds. It bagged 125 Mn in its last funding round in 2022. 

The platform is supported by marquee investors such as Zoom, Bossanova Investimentos, Y Combinator, Menlo Ventures, and Nexus Venture Partners. It competes with the likes of companies like Noogata, TUNGEE, Osense Technology, Slang Labs, etc.

2. Pixis

Founded in 2020 by Harikrishna Valiyath, Shubham A Mishra, Vrushali Prasade, Pixis provides a codeless AI infrastructure platform for brands to monitor and orchestrate their marketing campaigns.

Since its inception, the startup has raised $209 Mn in capital. It raised $85 Mn in its last funding round in 2023. 

Pixis is backed by startups like Grupo Carso, General Atlantic, Celesta Capital and Chiratae Ventures. It competes with the likes of Utilidata, HeadSpin, and Navikenz in the larger AI-powered technology space.

3. Ola Krutrim 

Founded in 2022 by Ola and Ola Electric founder Bhavish Aggarwal, Krutrim is experimenting with GenAI to develop an India-specific LLM. The startup’s family of LLMs is said to be capable of working with 10 Indian languages. However, Krutrim has yet to release any publicly-available products.

The startup made headlines in January 2024 when it became the first pure-play AI startup in India to hit a unicorn valuation over its recent $50 Mn funding round. So far, it has secured $74 Mn in funding, becoming one of the most well-funded AI startups in the country, from backers such as Matrix Partners India.

The startup competes with the likes of Sarvam AI, Mistral AI, and DeepMind.

4. SarvamAI

Founded in 2023 by AI4Bharat creators Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, SarvamAI aims to develop custom-made LLMs, specifically designed for India-centric use cases.

Backed by names such as Peak XV Partners and Khosla Ventures, the Bengaluru-based GenAI startup raised a Series A funding of $41 Mn (around INR 342 Cr) led by Lightspeed Venture Partners in December 2023.

5. Avaamo

Founded in 2014 by Ram Menon and Sriram Chakravarthy, Avaamo is a deep-learning software company that specialises in conversational interfaces to solve specific, high-impact problems in the enterprise tech realm. 

Avaamo is building fundamental AI technology across a broad area of neural networks, speech synthesis and deep learning to make conversational computing for businesses a reality.

Over the years, Avaamo has raised more than $30 Mn from the likes of Intel Capital, Ericsson Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, WI Harper Group and Mahindra Partners. It raised 7 Mn in its last funding round in 2021. 

Avaamo counts PolyAI, Zira, Odeza, and wrnchAI as its competitors.

6. InVideo

A brainchild of Sanket Shah and Anshul Khandelwal, InVideo was founded in 2019 as a web-based video editor that allowed users to convert existing pieces of static content into videos and add automated voice overs in native languages.

However, it has come a long way since then. Currently, the startup operates a full-fledged AI-powered video editing platform that leverages GenAI to create videos with just text prompts. Users just have to input the topic and the platform generates a script, adds scenes and voiceovers, among other things. 

The startup has raised capital to the tune of $52.5 Mn to date and is backed by marquee names such as Peak XV Partners, Tiger Global, Hummingbird, RTP Global and Base. It competes with the likes of Kapwing, Synthesia, Veed, and Rephrase.ai, among others.

7. Senseforth

Founded in 2017 by Krishna Kadiri, Ritesh Radhakrishnan, and Shridhar Marri, Senseforth is a leading Conversational AI solutions company that enables automated human-like conversations between organisations and people.

Since its inception, Avaamo has raised more than $16 Mn from the likes of Tenity and Fractal Analytics. It secured its last funding round of $14 Mn in 2021.

It competes with the likes of MoonShot AI, Locofy, and Suki.

8. Rephrase AI

Founded in 2019 by Ashray Malhotra, Nisheeth Lahoti and Shivam Mangla, Rephrase AI leverages GenAI to create professional videos with the ease of writing text within minutes. 

The growth-stage startup has raised a total funding of $12 Mn. In its last funding round, it raised $10.6 Mn in 2023.

The company counts Techstars, Silver Lake, 8VC, Red Ventures and AV8 Ventures among its investors. It competes with the likes of Imaginario AI, VideoDubber, MURFAI, etc. The Bengaluru-based AI video creator was acquired by Adobe in 2023.

9. Murf AI

Founded in 2020 by IIT-Kharagpur graduates Sneha Roy, Ankur Edkie, and Divyanshu Pandey, Murf AI uses AI to create high-quality voiceovers without recording equipment for its users in minutes. 

The growth-stage startup has raised a total funding of $11.5 Mn. In its last funding round, it raised $10 Mn in 2022. 

It is backed by investors like Matrix Partners, and Elevation Capital. It counts Imaginario AI, VideoDubber, and Rephrase AI as its competitors.

10. DhiWise

Founded in 2021 by Vishal Virani, DhiWise is an AI-enabled programming platform where developers can convert their designs into developer-friendly code for mobile and web apps. 

It automates and fastens the application development lifecycle and instantly generates readable, modular, and reusable code.

The growth-stage startup has raised a total of 9 Mn since its inception. It raised 7 Mn in 2022. DhiWise is supported by marquee investors like Accel, AngelList India, Storm Ventures, Abhishek Deo, and Pentathlon Ventures. It competes with the likes of Observe AI, Pixis, QpiAI, and Kombai.

11. Spyne

Founded in 2018 by Deepti Prasad and Sanjay Kumar, Spyne is helping businesses and marketplaces create and upgrade high-quality product images and videos at scale with AI. 

The growth stage company has so far raised $7.6 Mn from Accel Partners, Storm Ventures, and other investors. It raised $7 Mn in its last funding round in 2022. 

The Gurugram-based startup competes with companies like zapero.ai, Dresma, Ayna, Blend, and Orbo AI.

12. LimeChat

Founded in 2020 by Aniket Bajpai and Nikhil Gupta, LimeChat leverages AI to enable a brand to instantly respond to its customer queries throughout the buying journey across mediums such as WhatsApp, Meta Messenger and Instagram.

When it comes to WhatsApp commerce, it is working with 300+ brands like HUL, ITC, Mamaearth, Wow Skin Science, Neemans Shoes, and Snitch.

Backed by investors like Stellaris Venture Partners, Google, IFC, and Pi Ventures, the Faridabad-based company has raised a total funding of $5 Mn to date.

The seed-stage company competes with Noogata, TUNGEE, Osense Technology, Slang Labs,  etc.

13. QpiAI

Founded in 2019 by Dr Nagendra Nagaraja, QpiAI is a Bengaluru-based AI startup working in the areas of both AI and quantum computing. The startup’s key product, QpiAI Pro, helps deploy AI solutions at the production stage.

The startup also manufactures hardware solutions for quantum computers, including compute architecture, quantum processors and cryogenic controllers, and also offers quantum computing as a service (QCaaS) software. In 2021, it tied up with IISc Bengaluru to offer certification courses in AI and quantum computing.

QpiAI has yet to raise any funding.

14. Kombai

Founded in 2022 by Dipanjan Dey and Abhijit Bhole, Kombai is an AI model trained to understand and code UI designs like humans. It offers developer tools for web app developers, which helps them do away with mundane automatable tasks like writing and maintaining CSS and other boilerplate JS code. 

It has so far raised a total of $4.5 Mn from Foundation Capital and Stellaris Venture Partners.

Kombai competes with Locofy.ai, Adobe XD, Figma and Relume, which have a similar approach towards web design.

15. Contlo 

Founded in 2021 by Ishaan Bhola and Mukunda NS, Contlo is a GenAI-powered martech platform that helps businesses run and optimise end-to-end marketing campaigns. 

The seed-stage SaaS platform claims to help brands build personalised campaigns and automate customer journeys across all major channels including email, SMS, as well as social media platforms. 

The US-headquartered startup has raised $4.3 Mn in funding to date. It is backed by the likes of names such as Kae Capital, Better Capital and Titan Capital as well as angel investors such as Mamaearth’s Varun Alagh as well as Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar of Razorpay, among others.

16. Scalenut 

A brainchild of Mayank Jain, Gaurav Goyal, and Saurabh Wadhawan, Scalenut was founded in 2020. The startup is an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered SEO and content marketing platform.

Its AI co-pilot handhelds businesses through the entire content lifecycle, from keyword planning and content creation to SEO optimisation and competitive analysis.

The California-based startup has raised $3.5 Mn in funding till date and is backed by the likes of names such as Titan Capital, First Principles VC, AngelList, among others.

It claims to have so far catered to more than 200 businesses including homegrown startups such as PharmEasy and LeapScholar. 

17. Blend 

Founded in 2021 by Vaibhav Prakash, Vishwanath Kollapudi and Jamsheed Kamardeen, Blend is a GenAI-powered design tool that helps ecommerce sellers create social media graphics, product photos and SEO-optimised content. 

Incubated by Peak XV Surge and Google For Startups, the Bengaluru-based SaaS platform has raised $3.14 Mn in funding till date. Catering largely to ecommerce sellers, Blend is backed by names such as 3one4 Capital, Blume Ventures, PointOne Capital, among others.

The startup boasts of 15 proprietary AI models that have been trained on more than 80 Mn visuals and keywords.

18. Zocket

Founded in 2021 by second-time entrepreneurs – Karthik Venkateswaran, Nandha Kumar Ravi, Sundar Natesan, and Mukund Srivathsan — Zocket, with Gen AI, helps businesses launch their digital ads in less than 30 seconds. 

It has secured 3.1 Mn in its overall funding with support from investors like Surge Ventures, Surge, and PointOne Capital. 

It competes with the likes of Hexo, Metabrix, Predis.ai, and PostifyAI in the digital ads space.

19. Alltius 

Founded in 2022 by Vibhanshu Abhishek and Siddhant Mishra, Alltius’ no-code platform enables businesses to seamlessly create, train and deploy AI assistants within a day. These AI assistants can then be leveraged by enterprises to transform sales and support journeys.

The company claims that these AI assistants can be trained on a slew of company resources, including documents, images, PDFs, among others. Subsequently, these assistants can be deployed to answer queries, create pitches, compare insurance plans, create tickets, draft emails, among other things. 

The Bengaluru-based horizontal AI startup has raised $2.4 Mn till date and is backed by the likes of names such as Stellaris Venture Partner, Blume Ventures, Gemba Capital, peercheque, among others.

20. vPhrase

vPhrase offers a SaaS tool that leverages AI, machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to help businesses derive insights from huge swathes of complex datasets. 

It has two products – Phrazor and Explorazor. While Phrazor is a report automation tool that converts complex graphs into actionable taking points, Explorazor helps users perform root cause analysis across multiple datasets via a No-SQL interface. It claims to have three granted patents under its kitty. 

The New York-headquartered startup was founded back in 2015 by Neerav Parekh and Naimisha Neerav Parekh. vPhrase has raised $2 Mn in funding till date and counts Falcon Edge Capital, Bharat Innovation Fund, Alpha Wave Global, among others as its backers. 

Its clientele includes giants such as Danone, GSK, Sanofi, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Fidelity, Abbott, Motilal Oswal, among others

21. Dubdub AI

Founded in 2021 by Anubhav Singh, Rahul Sankhwar, Rahul Garg and Anchal Jaiswal, Dubdub.ai is an online tool which leverages AI for making multilingual video content. It supports audio and video dubbing.

The growth stage startup has raised a total funding of $1.8 Mn since its inception. In its last funding round, it raised $1 Mn in 2022. 

Waveform Ventures, Accel Atoms, Forward Capital Fund, and Force Ventures are among the investors backing the company.

Dubdub.ai competes with the likes of names such as Pieces, Noogata, and ClearCOGS.

22. Gnani AI

Founded in 2017 by Ganesh Gopalan and Ananth Nagaraj, Gnani.ai offers a full-stack conversational AI product suite to help businesses automate and enhance customer support across all digital and conventional communication channels.

It also caters to the fraud detection market with its voice biometrics product, which is largely centred on its clients in the BFSI sector. 

The B2B platform claims to have a customer base of over 100 companies including multiple Indian lending companies such as TVS Credit, Muthoot Finance, and Fibe (formerly Early Salary). It also boasts more than 12 patents in its kitty.

The Bengaluru-based startup has raised $4 Mn in funding till date and counts the likes of names such as Samsung Ventures and angels such as Lakshmi Narayan, and BVR Mohan Reddy as its investors. 

It competes with the likes of names such as Rezo.ai, Haptik and Verloop.io. 

23. Floworks

Founded in 2022 by Sudipta Biswas and Sarthak Shrivastava, Floworks offers an AI assistant that helps sales personnel effectively utilise Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software from the confines of their Slack accounts.

Sales teams can just instruct the AI assistant in plain natural language to send CRM updates, send emails, raise escalations and get reports, without having to go through multiple applications.

Incubated by Y Combinator, the startup raised $1.5 Mn in seed funding in August last year. The US-based GenAI startup also counts names such as Sense AI, Gaingels, Entrepreneur First and ThinKuvate as investors. 

24. GoodMeetings

A brainchild of Srinivasan Narayan and Abhijeet Sahoo, GoodMeetings is a remote sales platform that leverages video, AI and analytics to help teams sell effectively. 

The startup’s proprietary platform helps users automate processes, generate human-level summaries and derive insights and actionable pointers from a real-time video. It also nudges the sales person about what to say and when during the video call itself.

Founded in 2020, GoodMeetings has raised $1.7 Mn in funding till date. It is backed by marquee names such as Chiratae Ventures, FortyTwo.VC, First Check, Adept Ventures, 100X Entrepreneurs, among others.

25. VisualDub

Founded in 2021 as NeuralGarage, VisualDub.ai is the brainchild of IIT Kanpur alumni Mandar Natekar, Subhabrata Debnath, Anjan Banerjee and Subhashish Saha. The GenAI startup is developing a proprietary tool, VisualDub, which syncs recorded voice overs with lip movement and visual cues. 

It claims to provide visual lip-sync delivered at 2K to 4K resolution with zero artefacts. VisualDub claims to transform the face under the eyes, including jaws, mouth, chin, smile lines and micro muscles in the cheeks and upper neck to offer a glitch-free video.

VisualDub claims to cater big-ticket clients such as Amazon, Coca-Cola, Britannia, Microsoft, GSK, and Ultratech Cement. Backed by Exfinity Venture Partners and AWS, it has raised $1.5 Mn in funding till date.

26. Orbo AI

Orbo leverages AI and augmented reality (AR) to help consumers virtually try-on products in real-time without stepping foot outside their homes. 

Catering to the ecommerce and retail sectors, the startup’s flagship product, Beauty GPT, offers immersive solutions such as makeup try-ons, deep skin analysis, embedded hairstyle, hair colour augmentation, among others. 

Founded by Manoj Shinde, Abhit Sinha and Danish Jamil, Orbo AI also featured on the third season of the popular TV show Shark Tank India and went home with an INR 1 Cr deal from SUGAR Cosmetics cofounder Vineeta Singh.

The startup has raised $1.5 Mn since its inception and counts names such as Venture Catalysts, YourNest Venture as investors.

27. Phot.AI

Founded in 2022 by Venus Dhuria and Aneesh Rayancha, Phot.AI is a full-visual design platform that leverages GenAI to enable users and brands to generate images from just text.

Catering to both B2B and B2C users, Phot.AI allows customers to generate photos, create design concepts and visualise them with GenAI. It also leverages this emerging technology to help users enhance their images and turn their “PDF” documents into any format.

Another key product of the startup is its AI training module, which allows end-users to train their AI models. It caters to businesses operating in areas such as ecommerce, packaging and branding, advertising and marketing, media, and BFSI, among others. 

Its clients include names such as Shiprocket, Fashinza, and Dukaan, among others. The two-year-old startup is bootstrapped and is yet to raise capital from external investors.

28. Wokelo

Founded in 2022 by Siddhant Masson and Saswat Nanda, Wokelo leverages OpenAI’s GPT and open source models such as LLaMA to produce detailed due-diligence reports for enterprises in a matter of minutes from publicly available data. 

Its proprietary “cognitive engine” sifts through the tonnes of data to build concise and customised reports and presentations without hallucinations. 

Backed by investors such as Untapped Capital, SeaChange Fund, Pack Ventures, Array Ventures, and Upsparks Capital, the Seattle-based startup has raised $1.5 Mn in funding since inception. 

Its solutions cater to clients in private equity, venture capital, investment banking, and management consulting. It counts names such as Tata Group, Deloitte, Seven Seven Six, among others as its customers. 

29. NeuroPixel.AI

Founded in 2020 by Arvind Nair and Amritendu Mukherjee, NeuroPixel.AI is a GenAI platform that allows online marketplaces to offer AI-enabled fashion cataloguing, synthetic model generation, and virtual try-ons. 

Leveraging advanced AI and ML as well as computer vision and image processing, the startup helps small online retailers with offerings such as automated cataloguing, improving customer experience, and reducing the time spent on clicking photos manually and editing images.

The Bengaluru-based startup has raised $1.2 Mn in funding till date and is backed by the likes of ecommerce major Flipkart, Inflection Point Ventures, Entrepreneur First, Huddle, DLabs, Dexter Angels, among others. 

NeuroPixel competes with the likes of OSlash, Vue.ai, Chargebee, and SaaS Labs in the broader Indian deeptech SaaS space.

30. Beatoven.AI 

Founded In 2021 by Mansoor Rahimat Khan and Siddharth Bhardwaj, Beatoven.ai’s genesis lay in the vast demand for original, royalty-free music suitable for commercial use. 

Beatoven.AI addressed this issue by simply leveraging GenAI to create background music for video, podcast, and game creators. Riding on the AI wave, the startup now boasts close to 1 Mn registered users worldwide, majority of them outside India.

Backed by the likes of Capital2B (Info Edge), IvyCap ventures, Upsparks Capital, the Bengaluru-based startup has raised more than $2.4 Mn in funding till date. 

31. Expertia AI

Founded in 2020 by Akshay Gugnani and Kanishk Shukla, Expertia AI is an AI-powered HR Tech platform that offers end-to-end hiring solutions from talent discovery to decision.

The B2B platform’s AI tool goes beyond the resume and understands the skills, personality and background of the candidate to offer a certain Expertia score. Not just this, it also identifies skill gaps in an applicant and actively engages with candidates on various fronts and makes them offer-ready. 

It caters to names such as Cognizant, Decathlon, Tech Mahindra, Reliance Jio, Justdial, among others. 

Incubated by Google For Startups, Expertia AI is backed by Chiratae Ventures and Endiya Partners. It has raised more than $1.2 Mn in funding till date.

32. Hypergro.ai 

Founded in 2022 by Rituraj Biswas, Neha Soman, Abhijeet Kumar and Arijit Mukhopadhyay, Hypergro.ai leverages AI to help brands conceptualise and create compelling video ads using user-generated content (UGC).

The startup’s proprietary AI platform helps its clients in understanding market trends and behaviour of their target customers, thereby optimising campaign performance. The platform then connects brands with creators who can craft videos that resonate with their target audience. 

The SaaS startup’s platform also offers its clients visibility into the entire video creation process and to monitor campaign results. 

Backed by the likes of Silverneedle Ventures, Huddle, TDV Partners, HME Ventures, Dholakia Ventures, among others, the martech startup last raised $1 Mn in funding in 2023. 

33. Dubverse.ai

Founded in 2021 by Varshul Gupta and Anuja Dhawan, Dubverse.ai harnesses the power of GenAI to help brands and video producers dub their video content. The platform helps its clients convert text into “natural-sounding” voice overs in multiple languages and generate subtitles. 

It currently claims to offer the functionality in 60 Indian and other global languages. Dubverse.ai’s text-to-speech engine also offers a broad range of AI voices as per the tone and style needs of its customers.

The SaaS platform claims to have so far worked with 5 Lakh brands including the likes of Mahindra FInance, Zupee, BluSmart, Ullu, among others. 

The startup last raised $800K in seed funding from Kalaari Capital in June 2022. 

34. SilcoFix

Founded in 2023 by Rajesh Jajodia, SilcoFix is a GenAI startup that helps brands generate images based on a text input. SilcoFix’s proprietary technology offers its clients the option to access multiple AI models including Stable Diffusion as well as other custom models. 

The startup has raised $770K in funding from the likes of IvyCap Ventures and 8i Ventures since its inception.

It competes with the likes of names such as Unstudio, Rephrase.ai, DhiWise, among others.

35. Vitra.ai

A brainchild of Satvik Jagannath and Akash Nidhi PS, Vitra is an AI-powered startup that helps creators and businesses leverage the emerging technology to translate videos, images, podcasts and text to 75+ languages in just one click.

Founded in 2020, Vitra.ai was incubated by Google India and was part of the tech major’s seventh cohort of Google for Startups Accelerator. The startup can be integrated with 250+ apps and services including Adobe Photoshop, Figma, Shopify, HubSpot, Google Drive, among others to offer a seamless experience to the end users. 

The startup has raised $571K in funding till date and is backed by the likes of 100X.VC and Inflexor Ventures. 

[This is not an exhaustive list, we will be updating it periodically. If you would like to refer a GenAI startup to be featured in this list, write to us @ editor@inc42.com]

[Edited by Shishir Parasher]

The post Indian GenAI Startup Tracker: 60+ Startups Putting India On The Global AI Map appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has introduced two new standards to enhance the safety and quality of electric vehicles (EVs) in India. 

Called IS 18590: 2024 and IS 18606: 2024, the two new standards pertain to L, M and N categories of electric vehicles. It is pertinent to note that while L category relates to two-wheelers, M and N categories correspond to four-wheelers and good trucks respectively. 

In an official statement, authorities said that the new standards mandate stringent safety and performance requirements for powertrains and batteries. 

“The BIS has introduced two new standards, IS 18590: 2024 and IS 18606: 2024, aimed at enhancing the safety of EVs in the L, M, and N categories. These standards focus on the critical component of electric vehicles—the powertrain—ensuring it meets stringent safety requirements. Additionally, they emphasize the safety and performance of batteries, ensuring they are both powerful and secure,” added BIS.

With this, India now boasts 30 local standards dedicated to electric vehicles and their accessories, including charging systems. 

For the uninitiated, IS 18590: 2024 mandates stringent safety protocols for powertrains of EVs, which are a critical element of any electric vehicle and covers components such as the motor, battery pack, and transmission system. This will enable BIS to mitigate risks related to EV operation and maintenance. 

On the other hand, IS 18606: 2024 sets benchmarks for battery durability, thermal management, and safety features. This, in turn, is expected to increase the safety and reliability of electric vehicles plying on Indian roads. 

The new mandates come as temperatures hit scorching highs in Northern India. In the past two years, summers have coincided with a spurt in incidents related to EV fires. 

In April this year, a Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) electric bus caught fire but no casualties were reported. 

In March, a shocking video emerged online which featured at least four Ather Energy escooters engulfed in flames inside a transport truck. Multiple such incidents have also been reported online so far but questions remain over their veracity. 

In the past too, a spate of such fire incidents grabbed headlines across the country and included major EV players such as Ola Electric, Okinawa Autotech, and Pure EV, and even legacy brands like Tata.

As a result, many users and critics have raised questions over the safety of such vehicles and have sought government intervention in reining these incidents. Such was the clamour that the CTO of Dutch semiconductor design company NXP, Lars Reger, said that the use of “cheap” laptop chips in battery management systems (BMS) of EVs was responsible for such fire incidents.

Meanwhile, the Centre has cracked the whip on such incidents and has instituted multiple probes to investigate the matter. Last month, authorities also reportedly ordered an investigation into a fire incident involving a Tata Motors electric vehicle. 

Despite the issues, EVs continue to see rapid adoption in the country, primarily in the two-wheeler space. As per data from the VAHAN portal, EV sales stood at 1.23 Lakh in May 2024, up 8.8% sequentially from April’s 1.12 Lakh units.

Additionally, the Ministry of Heavy Industries, in April, also allocated INR 500 Cr for the new Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme 2024 till July 2024 to promote EV sales in the country.

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The Income Tax (I-T) Department has issued a demand letter to auto marketplace CarTrade for shortfall in payment or collection of tax deducted at source (TDS) or tax collected at source (TCS). 

In a filing with the BSE, CarTrade said that the startup received the demand notice for INR 15.79 Lakh (INR 15,79,805 to be precise) on June 21. 

“The Income Tax Department has issued (a) demand letter against outstanding TDS demand of INR 15,79,805/- with regards to late filing/ interest on late payment/ manual demand/ short payment…,” said CarTrade in the filing.

CarTrade said that the demand letter would have “no material impact” on the financial and operational performance of the company. 

“The company will file necessary rectification to rectify the demand and take necessary action in this regard,” it added.

There was no clarity on the accounting year for which the demand was raised by the I-T Department. For the uninitiated, the demand notice includes tax, penalty and interest payable by a company for settling outstanding dues. 

The development comes at a time when more and more startups have come under the lens of authorities. A recent report said that a startup was directed to settle a tax and penalty amounting to INR 37 Cr on account of INR 40 Cr funding secured by the startup.

On the other hand, GST authorities have also been actively cracking the whip on new-age tech companies for tax-related issues. The situation has been especially dire for foodtech major Zomato, which received a goods and services tax (GST) penalty notice of INR 2 Cr from Delhi’s sales tax officer for FY19. In April, it also received a GST notice of INR 11.8 Cr from Gurugram GST authority.

In the same month, Karnataka GST authorities directed Zomato to pay a service tax of INR 92 Cr and a separate GST notice of INR 23.26 Cr for FY19.

Meanwhile, the worst hit have been online gaming companies which have been reeling under the impact of GST Council’s decision last year to levy 28% tax on the industry. The Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI) has issued notices totalling over INR 1.12 Lakh Cr to multiple online gaming companies.

The tax notice comes at a time when CarTrade is on an upward spiral. The auto marketplace returned to the black in the fourth quarter (Q4) of FY24 with a net profit of INR 25 Cr, up 43% year-on-year (YoY) from INR 17.5 Cr in the year-ago period. 

Meanwhile, operating revenue soared 51.5% to INR 145.3 Cr in Q4 FY24 compared to INR 95.9 Cr in Q4 FY23. 

Banking on this, brokerage firms are bullish on the startup. Last month, Goldman Sachs increased its stake in the startup to 5.15%, becoming a substantial shareholder. 

CarTrade shares closed 3.67% higher at INR 856.90 on the BSE on Friday (June 21). 

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Logistics company Blue Dart on Friday (June 21) said that it has commenced drone deliveries in partnership with homegrown drone maker Skye Air.

In a statement, Blue Dart said that it will initially focus on ecommerce deliveries and will deploy drones to offer last-mile services, although it did not specify the cities where the service will be operational. 

Meanwhile, a report said that the company is already offering the service in Haryana’s Gurugram city.

In a filing with the BSE, Blue Dart said that it plans to cover additional pin codes across the country in subsequent stages with its partners.

Commenting on the launch, Blue Dart managing director Balfour Manuel said, “…The nation’s robust economic growth, coupled with the aspirations of its consumers and growth in Tier II and Tier III cities, has significantly boosted purchasing power. This surge in demand emphasises the need for innovative solutions that drive growth while ensuring efficiency and sustainability. As we witness the marvel of drone technology, we eagerly anticipate extending this service further, with plans to cover additional pin codes in subsequent stages with our partners”. 

The listed logistics company plans to undertake drone deliveries by installing containers called Skye Pods in housing societies. These containers will serve as collection points where delivery executives can pick up parcels and then deliver them to the final customers.

The launch comes nearly three years after Blue Dart first began experimenting with drone deliveries by piloting visual line of sight (VLOS) drones in Hyderabad’s Vikarabad area in September 2021. A few months later, it also conducted trials for its beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drones under the Telangana Government’s “Medicine from the Sky” initiative.

Blue Dart has followed the suit of a slew of logistics startups and companies adopting drone deliveries to reduce the time taken to deliver shipments. Last month, Ecom Express said that it would soon commence a drone delivery pilot in the Delhi-NCR region.

In May, listed logistics unicorn Delhivery announced that it would set up a wholly-owned subsidiary, Delhivery Robotics India, to manufacture drones and provide freight air transportation services. Late last year, Shiprocket also partnered with Skye Air for drone deliveries around Gurugram. 

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Investment firm WestBridge Capital on Friday (June 20) offloaded 14.6 Lakh shares in B2B marketplace IndiaMART InterMESH for INR 379.7 Cr via open market transactions. 

WestBridge Capital sold the shares via three separate bulk deals at INR 2,601 apiece, a discount of 1.8% to the stock’s last close on Friday. IndiaMART shares closed 1.25% higher at INR 2,648.80 on the BSE on June 21. 

While SBI Mutual Fund picked up 10.8 Lakh shares for a total of INR 280.9 Cr, Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) PTE purchased 1.9 Lakh shares for nearly INR 50 Cr. Both of them lapped up the stocks at INR 2,601 apiece. There was no clarity on who purchased the remaining 1.9 Lakh shares.

The bulk deals came on the same day as IndiaMART announced that it received the approval of its shareholders for the reappointment of Dinesh Agarwal as the managing director and CEO of the company for another five years. Agarwal will be at the helm of the B2B marketplace till January 7, 2030. 

Interestingly, the company is in the middle of a top deck reshuffle. The startup’s shareholders recently approved the proposal to reappoint Brijesh Kumar Agarwal as the director of IndiaMART till January 7, 2027. It appointed Jitin Diwan as its new chief financial officer (CFO) last week while CEO Prateek Chandra transitioned into a new role within the company as chief strategy officer.

Founded in 1996 by Agarwal, IndiaMART connects buyers with suppliers. It enables sellers to list on the platforms and earns revenues from leads, business enquiries and services offered to its clients. 

The B2B marketplace posted a 78% year-on-year (YoY) surge in its consolidated net profit to INR 99.6 Cr in the fourth quarter (Q4) of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) compared to INR 55.8 Cr in the year-ago period. Meanwhile, revenue from operations also jumped 17% to INR 314.7 Cr during the period under review as against INR 268.8 Cr in Q4 FY23. 

What is, however, interesting is that domestic brokerage firm Nuvama Institutional Equities recently slashed its 12-month price target on IndiaMART to INR 2,650 from INR 2,800 earlier owing to the company’s subdued subscriber addition rate.

It is also pertinent to note that IndiaMART acquired a 10% stake in fraud detection startup Baldor Technologies for INR 89.7 Cr via a secondary transaction last month. 

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Amid the ongoing layoffs at Paytm, several employees of the fintech major have reportedly knocked on the doors of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, alleging “unlawful termination” without compensation.

As per Moneycontrol, multiple Paytm employees have filed complaints on the ministry’s Samadhan portal.  

Citing grievances dated June 1 to June 12, the report claims that the aggrieved employees have sought the reinstatement of their employment, alleging unfair and unethical termination by the Paytm management.

The online complaints also include supporting documents such as emails and other other papers. “We are awaiting a response from the ministry and hope the case will be taken up by them. If not satisfactory, will take the court route,” a complainant reportedly said. 

Another laid-off employee also reportedly added, “There is a clause in the offer letter which mentions that in case any dispute arises between the employer and the employee, it has to be resolved via a third-party arbitration committee and be settled amicably. We cannot take them (Paytm) to the courts directly and will have (to) first settle this via the committee”.

Meanwhile, All India Professionals’ Congress (AIPC) has also extended its support to the impacted employees of Paytm. In a post on X, the Congress wing sought details from the impacted employees allegedly “forced to resign without compensation”. 

“News reports say Paytm has sacked professionals in violation of their contractual obligations. Are you an Ex-Paytm Professional? Were you forced to resign without compensation? All India Professionals’ Congress will fight for your cause,” AIPC said. 

This comes just a week after Inc42 reported that the fintech startup was forcing employees to resign voluntarily or face disciplinary action. At the time, many aggrieved employees also claimed that Paytm was looking to claw back the joining and retention bonuses of the employees. 

The development comes at a time when Paytm is grappling with fires on multiple fronts. It started after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced curbs on Paytm Payments Bank in January, citing “material supervisory concerns”. The central bank barred the payments bank from undertaking any deposits or processing any UPI transactions. 

On account of this, the fintech major’s revenue from operations declined 2.9% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 2,267.10 Cr in the March quarter (Q4) of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24). Meanwhile, net loss soared 3X YoY to INR 550.5 Cr during the same period.

To rein in the losses, the company has been aggressively looking to cut costs and streamline operations. As a result, it has undertaken mass layoffs. In a letter to shareholders on May 22, founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said that the fintech major would take steps to cut employee costs, which will help the company save up to INR 400 Cr to INR 500 Cr annually.

Meanwhile, top-level exits continue at Paytm. Earlier this week, Neeraj Arora resigned as the non-executive independent director of the fintech major and was replaced by former SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) board member Rajeev Krishnamuralilal Agarwal.

As a result, the company’s stock has been under selling pressure since the RBI announced its curbs. The fintech major’s stock is down 35.3% year-to-date (YTD). Paytm shares closed 0.09% lower at INR 411.30 on the BSE on Friday (June 21). 

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