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.

The post Groww AMC Settles SEBI Case By Paying INR 9 Lakh appeared first on Inc42 Media.

After largely making it available in Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune, Zomato has now expanded its home-cooked meal service ‘Zomato Everyday’ to Mumbai.

As per the foodtech major, the service will be currently available in Malad and Goregaon, and will soon be expanded into more areas across the financial capital.

Saurabh Patel, a marketing professional at Zomato Everyday, said in a LinkedIn post, “After Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune, Zomato Everyday is now live in the City of Dreams! Currently serving in Malad and Goregaon, coming soon in more locations.”

This comes two weeks after the Zomato Everyday announced its foray into Pune. 

Earlier in May, Inc42 reported that Zomato is eyeing to scale up Zomato Everyday in Bengaluru and Mumbai. 

During Zomato’s earnings call for Q4 FY24, a company spokesperson said, “We want to continue expanding ‘Everyday’. Right now it’s largely in Gurugram, but over the next few months, we’ll see maybe Mumbai and Bengaluru being added as cities where we will launch ‘Everyday’ and then we’ll take it from there in terms of other cities that we want to expand in.”

Zomato launched this service in early 2023, which was a remodelled version of its earlier similar offering, Zomato Instant. With ‘Zomato Everyday’, the company offers fresh home-cooked meals starting at INR 89. 

The remodeling was reportedly due to low daily order volume, and the inability to scale the segment and pay fixed costs.

Initially, Zomato Everyday was piloted in select areas of Gurugram in February last year. Since then, the service has expanded to multiple cities across locations, underscoring that demand for affordable, homestyle food still exists.

With Zomato Everyday, the foodtech aggregator intends to target a new set of consumers, including working professionals residing away from their homes and looking for affordable home-cooked meal options.

Earlier in May this year, Zomato’s counterpart Swiggy also relaunched its homestyle meal delivery offering Swiggy Daily in Bengaluru. 

Swiggy introduced Daily in 2019 but had to shut down this offering following the slump in demand due to Covid-induced lockdowns. 

While Zomato witnessed some degrowth in the GOV of its core food delivery business in Q4 FY24 with its GOV falling 0.6% QoQ to INR 8,439 Cr, the company continues to remain profitable. 

Riding on the back of its quick commerce vertical, Blinkit, Zomato reported its fourth consecutive profitable quarter with profit after tax (PAT) rising almost 27% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to INR 175 Cr in Q4.

The development comes on the same day of Zomato’s shares touching an all time high of INR 209.80 apiece during the intraday trading following the shareholders’ approval to create a new employee stock option pool of 18.26 Cr shares.

The post Zomato Expands Its Meal Service ‘Zomato Everyday’ To Mumbai appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Foodtech major Zomato on Tuesday (July 2) said that its wholly-owned subsidiary Zomato Financial Services Limited (ZFCL) has decided to voluntarily withdraw its application with the Reserve Bank of India to operate as an non-banking financial company (NBFC).

In an exchange filing, the company said that it no longer wishes to pursue the lending/credit business.

The decision to withdraw the application was taken by the board of directors of ZFSL at a meeting held on July 2, the filings showed.

The company further said that the move will have no material impact on its revenues and operations.

The development comes days after Zomato’s subsidiary Zomato Payment Private Limited (ZPPL) surrendered its payment aggregator licence.

It is pertinent to note that Zomato, earlier this year, was said to be in talks with multiple NBFCs to offer working capital loans to its partner restaurants.

While Zomato incorporated ZFCL in 2022, ZPPL was incorporated in 2021, as part of the company’s broader digital lending plans.

The development comes at a time when the RBI has been cracking down on NBFC companies and certain fintechs due to lapses in governance and regulatory compliance.

Earlier this year, the RBI issued draft papers to regulate online payment aggregators, mandating physical KYC verification for merchant onboarding.  

Meanwhile, shares of Zomato touched an all-time high of INR 209.80 during Tuesday’s intraday trading session on the BSE.

The surge in the stock’s price came after Zomato announced that it has received approval from its shareholders to create a new employee stock option pool of 18.26 Cr shares.

Earlier this week, Zomato was slapped with a goods and services tax (GST) demand notice of INR 9.45 Cr by the Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Audit) in Karnataka.

Last month, the company launched a new platform in a bid to support restaurants in the recruitment process, as part of its broader portfolio expansion plans. 

The post Zomato Subsidiary Voluntarily Withdraws NBFC Licence Application appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Following the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) circular on Monday (July 1), barring market infrastructure institutions (MIIs) from offering discounts based on trading volumes or members’ activities, Zerodha cofounder and CEO Nithin Kamath has said that the brokerage might have to let go of its zero brokerage structure.

In a post on X, Kamath said, “With the new circular, we will, in all likelihood, have to let go of the zero brokerage structure and/or increase brokerage for F&O trades. Brokers across the industry will also have to tweak their pricing.”

SEBI, in its circular yesterday, said that the charges MIIs recover from the end client should be “True to Label”. Besides, the charge structure of the MII should be uniform and equal for all its members and not slab-wise. 

It is pertinent to note that members of MIIs refer to stock brokers, clearing corporations, and depositories, including discount broking platforms such as Zerodha, Groww and Upstox.  

As per SEBI’s circular, MIIs will have to ensure that their charges recovered from end-customers by its members are deposited entirely in the account of MIIs. 

In a blog post today, Kamath said, “This circular has an impact not only on brokers but also on trading and investing customers.”

Topline Of Brokerages To Take A Hit

He explained that stock exchanges charge a transaction fee based on the overall turnover contributed by a broker in a month. More turnover implies a lesser transaction fee. 

The difference between the brokers’ charges from the customers and the exchanges’ charges from the brokers at the end of the month is a rebate. Kamath said that such rebates are common across the major markets in the world. 

“We earn about 10% of our revenue from these rebates. This could range between 10% and 50% of the revenue for other brokers. For us, this has increased from about 3% to 10% in the last four years because of the increase in options turnover,” said Kamath. “Today, 90% of our revenue from these rebates comes from options trading alone. With the new circular brokers will no longer earn these rebates.”

Since 2015, Zerodha has been offering free equity trades. Kamath said this was possible because F&O trading revenues were subsiding equity delivery investors.

“This structure could now potentially change. As a business, we may have to introduce a brokerage fee for equity delivery investments, which is currently free, or/and increase F&O brokerage,” he said. 

He added that this is even more important given the big uncertainty around the future of F&O trading volumes. 

It is pertinent to note that SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch said last week that the regulator is open to taking “some derivative products” off the market amid a sharp jump in options trading in the country.

Responding to this, Kamath said earlier that Zerodha was a big beneficiary of the surge in options trading and SEBI’s regulatory action can hurt the revenues of brokerages, as most of them earn a large part of income from options trades. 

Meanwhile, Kamath said in his latest blog post that all brokers will be forced to tweak their pricing models in a few months following the latest circular. 

“We are still trying to ascertain the second-order effects of the circular. In all likelihood, we will probably have to let go of the zero brokerage structure for equity delivery trades which we have been able to offer for the past nine years,” he added.

SEBI circular will come into effect starting October 1, 2024. 

Meanwhile, stock brokerage platform Angel One’s shares slumped nearly 9% during Tuesday’s trading session. Shares of Motilal Oswal Financial Services also declined over 4%, while those of IIFL Securities’ fell 3.6% on the BSE today.

Explaining SEBI’s circular, Capitalmind founder and CEO Deepak Shenoy, in a post on X, said, “SEBI just said no more of this, and charge only true-to-label fees, meaning if you say it’s an NSE fee, it should be what goes to NSE. (and NSE needs to charge the same fee without lowered fees for higher turnover).”

To compensate for this, brokerage costs might go up, he added. 

“For a lot of F&O players, this can hurt somewhat, but it will hurt brokers more as brokerage numbers are competitive and those willing to keep lower margins will shine out,” he said.

The post SEBI Circular For MIIs: Zerodha May Discontinue Zero Brokerage Structure appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Zomato has reportedly brought back two senior executives to ramp up its Going-Out business amid the foodtech major’s discussions with Paytm to acquire its movie ticketing and events business.

The company has brought back Rahul Ganjoo and Pradyot Ghate, who left the company last year, Moneycontrol reported.

Ganjoo joined Zomato in 2017 and became its Co-CEO after three years, as well as the head of new initiatives in August 2022. 

He put down his papers in November and left the company in January 2023. Since then, Ganjoo has been serving as an advisor to a US-based GenAI conversation intelligence platform observer.ai., a position he has held since 2016. 

Ghate’s engagement with the foodtech major was similar to Ganjoo. After joining the company in 2014 as an associate vice president- growth, Ghate was elevated to VP role during his nine-year long stint. He left the company in July 2023, citing a career break.

According to the report, the company has asked both of them to incubate new ideas for its Going-Out business.

“Both of them are pursuing 0-1 ideas in the going-out business… which is closer to dining out, lifestyle and entertainment than the core food delivery segment. But, things change very quickly in Zomato. There’s no guarantee that what they are working on will eventually be launched,” a source was quoted as saying by the publication.

Inc42 has reached out to the company for a comment on the development. The story will be updated based on the response.

This comes shortly after it was reported that the company is looking to bolster its live entertainment and ticketing vertical with the acquisition of Paytm Insider for a speculated INR 1,500 Cr. 

While Zomato’s Going-Out business was instituted in 2018 and oversees IPs like Zomaland, it contributes in only single digits to the foodtech major’s overall business. For instance, it only brought in a revenue of INR 93 Cr in the quarter ending on March 31, 2024. 

Shortly after the companies acknowledged the talks, brokerage firm JM Financial said that acquisition of Paytm’s ticketing business will strengthen Zomato’s ‘Going-out’ business. “The deal could catapult Zomato to second position in the events & movie ticketing space, behind only BookMyShow,” it observed. 

Besides the experimentation with this vertical, the company is also aggressively expanding services under its other verticals. Recently, it introduced a restaurant services hub, large order fleet, last mile deliveries for office goers, priority deliveries in a pilot phase, and Zomato Everyday,, within this year. 

The company’s shares were trading at INR 209.05 at 3:40 PM on July 2, up 1.81% from previous close. 

The post Zomato Brings Back Two Senior Executives To Scale Up Its Going-Out Biz appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Shares of Zomato jumped more than 3% to reach an all-time high of INR 209.75 apiece during the intraday trading today (July 2) after the foodtech major received shareholders’ approval to create a new employee stock option pool of 18.26 Cr shares. 

The stock opened today at INR 203.45 per share, marking a 0.3% decline from the previous close.

After hitting a record high, the stock shed some gains and was trading 1.37% higher at INR 206.85 apiece on the BSE at 12:06 PM.

The price surge came on the heels of an announcement by Zomato that it has secured approval from its shareholders to formulate, adopt and implement a new employee stock option plan, Zomato ESOP 2024, to grant 18.26 Cr employee stock options, as per regulatory filings.

The food delivery giant in May said that Zomato ESOP 2024 will entitle the employee for one fully paid-up equity share of face value of INR 1 each against each ESOP exercised.

As per the stock’s opening price on Tuesday, the ESOP plan would translate to shares worth nearly INR 3714.9 Cr.

Zomato clocked a 26% sequential growth in consolidated net profit to INR 175 Cr for the quarter ended March 2024. Its consolidated net profit in Q3 FY24 stood at INR 138 Cr.

It is pertinent to note that global brokerage Morgan Stanley last month reiterated its overweight call on Zomato, setting a price target of INR 235 apiece, which implies an upside of 13% from the stock’s last close on Monday.

Overall, the stock has jumped 4.5% in the last five days.

Earlier this week, Zomato said it has been slapped with a goods and services tax (GST) demand notice of INR 9.45 Cr by the Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Audit) in Karnataka.

Meanwhile, the company has launched a new platform in a bid to support restaurants in the recruitment process, as part of its broader portfolio expansion plans. 

The post Zomato Shares Touch An All-Time High After ESOP Plan Gets Shareholders’ Nod appeared first on Inc42 Media.

TIMF Holdings, which owns stake in IPO-bound FirstCry and PharmEasy, bought 12 Lakhs shares, or 1.57% stake, of online gaming major Nazara Technologies on Monday (July 1) in a bulk deal worth INR 104.64 Cr.

TIMF Holdings lapped up some of the shares offloaded by Gyaana Retreat and Services, Fashion Brands, and Parijata Trading at INR 872 apiece. They cumulatively sold 18 Lakh shares in the company today worth INR 157 Cr.

TIMF Holdings is owned by US-based Think Investments, which counts the likes of Chaayos, Spinny, Dream11 and Swiggy in its portfolio.

It is pertinent to note that shares of Nazara jumped almost 7% on Friday (June 28) after its esports subsidiary NODWIN Gaming announced increasing its existing 13.51% stake in Germany-based Freaks 4U Gaming GmbH to 100%.

Nazara witnessed high trading volume in today’s session with over 2.2 Mn shares traded together on the BSE and the NSE. The stock ended the session 1.8% higher at INR 884.8 on the BSE.

In May this year, Nazara Technologies’ promoter Mitter Infotech also sold 48.84 Lakh shares, or 6.38% equity, to Plutus Wealth Management in an on-market block deal.

Nazara’s promoters and promoter groups held a 16.43% stake in the company at the end of the quarter ended March 2024. 

After witnessing a sharp slump from the beginning of the year, shares of Nazara have been rallying since the end of May. The shares have jumped over 43% so far since May 27, after the company published its Q4 and FY24 earnings.

The company’s consolidated net profit declined 98% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 18 Lakh in Q4, while operating revenue also declined 8% YoY to INR 266.2 Cr. However, certain metrics in its results were better than expected by analysts.

The post TIMF Holdings Buys 12 Lakh Shares Of Nazara In INR 105 Cr Bulk Deal appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Continuing last week’s rally, shares of PB Fintech surged 10.6% to touch a record high at INR 1,544.15 during the intraday trading on the BSE on Monday (July 1).

The shares of the parent entity of insurtech major Policybazaar have been on an uptrend since last week. On June 27, PB Fintech shares touched a 52-week high at INR 1,415 on the BSE.

The jump was followed by the Citi Group increasing its price target on the stock to INR 1,600 from INR 1,435 earlier. As per reports, the brokerage increased the target citing PB Fintech’s strong business momentum and the successful execution of its ‘phygital’ strategy.

Citi expects the company to reflect sustained growth in fresh retail health and term insurance premiums in the first quarter of FY25, along with a continued improvement in point-of-sale margins.

Overall, the stock had gained 4.6% last week.

After touching a fresh all-time high today, the stock pared some gains and ended the session 8.7% higher at INR 1,517.2 on the BSE.

It is also pertinent to note that Morgan Stanley also picked PB Fintech as one of its top stock choices in its internet coverage last week.

The fintech major posted a consolidated net profit of INR 60.2 Cr in Q4 FY24 as against a loss of INR 9.3 Cr in the previous year’s quarter. Its operating revenue saw over a 25% rise on a year-on-year (YoY) basis to INR 1,089.6 Cr in the quarter. 

Shares of PB Fintech have rallied over 91% year to date.

The post PB Fintech Shares Touch An All-Time High At INR 1,544.15 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Former SoftBank managing partner Lydia Jett has rejoined Flipkart’s board as an independent director, a regulatory filing by the company showed.

Moneycontrol reported the development first.

Jett had been representing SoftBank’s Vision Fund on Flipkart’s board since 2017. However, she departed from the company’s board after stepping down from the managing partner position at SoftBank Investment Advisers in February 2024.

It is pertinent to note that SoftBank had sold its almost 20% of stake in Flipkart to Walmart in 2018 but returned to its captable with a co-investment of $3.6 Mn in 2021.

Jett will be the newest addition to Flipkart’s board, which includes Flipkart group chief executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy, HDFC chief executive Keki Mistry, along with senior Walmart executives.

The development comes amid senior management reshuffle and mass layoffs at Flipkart as the company shifts its focus to profit.

Earlier this year, Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal stepped down from the company’s board due to a conflict of interest between his new B2B startup OppDoor and Flipkart.

The same month, reports said that Flipkart was planning to eliminate 5-7% of its workforce to cut costs.

Speaking at an investor conference in London last month, Walmart’s chief financial officer (CFO) David Rainey said Flipkart witnessed double-digit growth during the quarter ended April 2024 (Q4 FY24), adding that the ecommerce giant was on “path to profitability”.

Flipkart recently made its second bet on India’s fintech space with the beta launch of Super.Money. The app allows users to make UPI transactions and offers cashback returns of up to 10% on Flipkart, Myntra and Shopsy.

Amid a rise in demand for instant delivery services, Flipkart is also planning to make its foray into the quick commerce space to take on the likes of Swiggy Instamart, Blinkit and Zepto.

The post Former SoftBank Managing Partner Lydia Jett Rejoins Flipkart’s Board appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Ecommerce major Amazon’s cloud computing services arm Amazon Web Services (AWS) has rolled out its space accelerator programme, aimed at fostering spacetech startups in India.

AWS India has set aside $100K to back 24 spacetech startups under its 14-week accelerator programme, the company said in a statement.

The programme will help in fostering early and growth-stage startups in the spacetech sector by providing them with dedicated technical expertise, specialised AWS training, and mentoring from space domain and technical experts. 

This also marks AWS’s first-ever space accelerator programme in India. 

The initiative will also help these startups to build secure and scalable solutions using AWS technologies in GenAI, ML, data analytics and more. Besides, they will be trained on go-to-market strategies, fundraising and business fundamentals.

“Applications for the programme were evaluated based on the uniqueness and innovation of the solutions of the startups, product-market fit, innovation and sustainability, the creative application of AWS technology, and the team’s ability to deliver on their vision,” the statement said.

AWS’s Director of the Aerospace and Satellite Business Clint Crosier said, “We specifically chose to hold this first country-focused space accelerator in India because we see extraordinary growth opportunities in the India space sector.” 

“There are a record number of new Indian space startups forming, there is strong support from the Government of India as evidenced by our MoU with ISRO and IN-SPACe, and India has some of the best educated and proficient talent in the world in the technical areas that encompass space,” Crosier added.

This development comes a year after Amazon signed an MoU with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) to support spacetech innovations through cloud computing  

It was aimed at offering Indian spacetech startups with facilities such as research institutes and students with access to cutting-edge cloud technologies that accelerate the development of new solutions in the space sector.

According to Inc42’s Indian Spacetech Startup Landscape & Market Opportunity Report 2023, the sector is estimated to reach $77 Bn by 2030 at a 26% CAGR.

Here is a list of all the 24 spacetech startups which made it to the AWS India’s space accelerator programme

Advick AgVenture

Founded in: 2023

Founded by: Nitesh K. Tank

Headquarter: Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Advick AgVenture is a farmer-focused satellite-based remote sensing technology provider.

AERO2ASTRO

Founded in: 2017

Founded by: Ted Solomon

Headquarter: Chennai, Tamil Nadu

AERO2ASTRO operates a research platform intended to become an aerospace manufacturer and have a private rocket launch program. The company is currently operating in stealth mode.

Aeroin SpaceTech Pvt. Ltd.

Founded in: 2021 

Founded by: M S Ragul

Headquarter: Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Aeroin SpaceTech Pvt. Ltd. is an aerospace company that researches and educates on space engineering development.

Agnihotri Aerospace

Founded in: 2022

Founded by: Mahabaleshwar Bhat

Headquarter: Mangaluru, Karnataka

Agnihotri Aerospace is a startup focusing on payload delivery and soft landing technologies.

AkashaLabdhi Pvt. Ltd.

Founded in: 2023

Founded by: Siddharth Jena,

Headquarter: Roorkee, Uttarakhand

AkashaLabdhi Pvt. Ltd. provides users with a company that specialises in aerospace engineering and developing advanced aerospace technologies.

Blurgs AI

Founded in: 2020

Founded by: Roshan Raj

Headquarter: Bengaluru, Karnataka

Blurgs AI is a startup that provides marine data tracking solutions.

Brahmaandco Spacetech

Founded in: 2023

Founded by: Satish More

Headquarter: Mumbai, Maharashtra

Bramhaandco Spacetech focuses on lunar exploration and mining. They specialize in the research, development, and manufacturing of rovers and landers, with plans to establish mining operations in the near future.

CoralComp Pvt. Ltd.

Founded in: 2017

Founded by: Bakthyaruddin Ahmed Syed and Hafsa Mohsina

Headquarter: Hyderabad, Telangana

CoralComp Pvt. Ltd. offers weather analysis services tailored to the aerospace industry.

Cosmicport

Founded in: 2023

Founded by: Liwaans Amuthan

Headquarter: Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu

Cosmicport focuses on developing Small Satellite Launch Vehicles and Earth Observation Satellites.

Cosmo Crawler

Founded in: 2018

Founded by: Yoga Raj

Headquarter: Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Cosmo Crawler is dedicated to creating reusable launch vehicles.

Expanse Cosmos

Founded in: 2023

Founded by: Mir Shaz Ali.

Headquarter: Delhi

Expanse Cosmos is a space tech startup building the next generation of launch vehicles for small satellites.

GISKernel Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Founded in: 2019

Founded by: Akshay Loya

Headquarter: Pune, Maharashtra

GISKernel Technologies Pvt. Ltd. collects and analyzes comprehensive geospatial maps and datasets.

Inbound Aerospace

Founded in: 2023

Founded by: Aravind B, and Vishal Reddy

Headquarter: Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Inbound Aerospace provides a spacecraft platform that uses the unique microgravity environment of space to develop numerous things that are critical to life on Earth which can’t be efficiently manufactured on Earth. Its targeted customers include companies engaged in in-space manufacturing of products for earth applications pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, fibre optics, and carbon nanotubes among others.

Insight360.ai

Founded in: 2023

Founded by: R Om Prakash

Headquarter: Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Insight360.ai leverages advanced AI algorithms and satellite imagery to enhance military intelligence and global security through Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) solutions.

KosmosOne

Founded in: 2022

Founded by: Atharva Barbudhe

Headquarter: Suryatola, Maharashtra

KosmosOne is a space-tech startup offering solutions for space exploration. It claims to be working on developing an autonomous space station that will be equipped with robotic arms, AI-powered operations and reusable re-entry vehicles.

Omspace Rocket and Exploration

Founded in: 2020

Founded by: Ravindra Raj B. M.

Headquarter: Gandhinagar, Gujarat

Omspace Rocket and Exploration manufactures small rockets to carry nano and cube satellites to Low Earth Orbit.

Onnes Cryogenics Pvt. Ltd.

Founded in: 2021

Founded by: Rama Krishna Prasad Aluru and Vikram Srinivasa Raghavan

Headquarter: Hyderabad, Telangana

Onnes Cryogenics Pvt. Ltd. manufactures a wide range of cryogenic products for space, military, defence, and commercial industries.

Pramatra Space

Founded in: 2022

Founded by: Richa Hukumchand and Vinay Hukumchand

Headquarter: Bengaluru, Karnataka

Pramatra Space is an encryption systems for digital ecosystems and enterprises. It offers data security solution preventing data leaks, and loss using quantum technology.

Satlabs Space Systems

Founded in: 2023

Founded by: Saisree Eega, and Sooraj Gopakuma

Headquarter: Bengaluru, Karnataka

Satlabs Space Systems provides a data relay satellite constellation (type of communications satellite) for network access to machines on Earth and in space.

Sisir Radar

Founded in: 2022

Founded by: Tapan Misra (former Director of Space Applications Centre, ISRO and Physical Research Laboratory), Soumya Misra and Urmi Bhambhani.

Headquarter: Kolkata, West Bengal

Sisir Radar is a startup focusing on radar technology. It claims to have developed high-resolution Ground Penetrating Radars (GPR) promising to reshape remote sensing across various industries, setting new standards for data accuracy and accessibility.

Space Aura

Founded in: 2017

Founded by: Aakash Porwal

Headquarter: Mumbai, Maharashtra

Space Aura is a space tourism and human spaceflight company from India for the world. It claims to offer space travel inside Spaceship SKAP1. 

SpanTrik

Founded in: 2022

Founded by: Hitendra Singh and Kajal Rajbhar

Headquarter: Hyderabad, Telangana

SpanTrik is developing reusable rockets to offer affordable and reliable launch services for satellites.

Taramandal

Founded in: 2022

Founded by: Vineel Judson

Headquarter: Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh

Taramandal develops sensors and controllers for orbital vehicles, providing systems for nano and cube satellites, and calibration of sensing devices and transducers.

Thrustworks Dynetics

Founded in: 2023

Founded by:  Manan Joshi and Kalyani Shinde

Headquarter: Pune, Maharashtra

Thrustworks Dynetics designs and develops propulsion systems for aerospace applications.

The post Meet The 24 Indian Startups Which Made Into AWS Space Accelerator’s List appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Foodtech major Zomato has received a goods and service tax (GST) demand notice of INR 9.45 Cr from the Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Audit) in Karnataka, the company said in a filing.

The notice, received on Saturday, demands a GST of INR 5,01,95,462 ( INR 5.01 Cr), which will be marked up with an interest charge of INR 3.93 Cr, and a penalty of INR 50.19 Lakh, bringing the total up to INR 9.45 Cr, the filing showed. 

The company has received the tax order for the financial year 2019-20 under the audit of GST returns and accounts.

The demand order has been received in respect of excess availment of input tax credit and interest, penalty thereon, stated the company in the filing.

Zomato responded to the show cause notice with detailed explanations and relevant documents, but the authority was not satisfied, it said.

The company said, “We believe that we have a strong case on merits and the company will be filing an appeal against the order before the appropriate authority.”

It is not unusual for the Gurugram-based company to be served with a tax notice, as it received its previous GST penalty notice of over INR 2.31 Cr from Delhi’s sales tax officer in May, pertaining to fiscal 2018-19.

Prior to that, Zomato got a GST notice of INR 23.26 Cr for financial year 2018-19 (FY19) from Karnataka tax authorities, and a notice of INR 8.57 Cr from Gujarat’s Deputy Commissioner of State Tax, pertaining to fiscal 2018-19.

Meanwhile, the Blinkit parent rolled out restaurant services hub, an initiative to cater to restaurants, as part of its portfolio expansion in June. This new platform will help restaurants plug in various operational requirements like hiring, FSSAI registrations, taxation and trademarking.

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Seventeen years is a long time in any era — for Flipkart most of this time was spent creating ecommerce in India. But now in 2024, ecommerce is more than just about marketplaces.

Flipkart and Amazon India created what was believed to be ecommerce for so long, but now things are changing and quick commerce is the belle of the ball. At the same time, ecommerce is also broadening and turning into digital commerce, that pretty much means selling anything and everything online — from electronics to fashion to unbranded products to insurance to travel and even personal loans.

The past year for Flipkart has been about seeing this market in transition. It tried some things to stay relevant, it reportedly looked to acquire startups that could fill the gap, but now Flipkart is going at it alone, launching its fintech product Super.Money in beta and is gunning for the quick commerce vertical next.

So this Sunday, we wanted to see how Flipkart is getting ready for the brave new digital commerce world. But first, here’s a look at the top stories from our newsroom this week:

• Indus Vs Google Play: Indian startups are growing increasingly wary of Google’s stronghold on the app ecosystem, and PhonePe’s made-for-India Indus Appstore is looking to become the alternative. Can PhonePe loosen Google’s grip?
• NODWIN’s Next Focus: Even as it commands 80% market share in the esports market, NODWIN Gaming is eyeing a wider presence in the youth-centric recreational entertainment space and plenty of acquisitions to get there

The New Flipkart 

When Flipkart started out in 2007, India’s internet economy was a newborn. It’s only come of age in the past eight to nine years after the 4G revolution made internet access ubiquitous for Indians. So it’s worth noting that for the first half of its existence, Flipkart was pretty much reliant on the consumers from metro cities.

And the truth is that Flipkart has always been chasing the ‘eight ball’ ever since this inflection point. That’s because even the internet revolution has not been as equal as many claim it to be.

Consumers could access Flipkart, but logistics problems needed to be solved. Cash on delivery suffered a disruption with demonetisation. UPI solved this issue to a large extent after 2016, but then marketplaces suffered setbacks in terms of policy decisions and ecommerce rules in 2017 and 2018.

When Walmart acquired Flipkart in 2018, it was seen as a major validation for the business, but things were changing on the ground.

By 2019, D2C brands were rising, and many bemoaned the over-reliance on marketplaces such as Flipkart, leading to alternative channels, native stores and more. This was of course as true for Amazon India as it was for Flipkart.

Covid was the next big disruption to Flipkart and in some ways, it changed ecommerce for good. As all commerce moved online, Flipkart found itself part of this growing and evolving ecommerce ecosystem. As the pandemic ripped through the economy, access to credit was a major gap to be solved. The digital lending boom is a testament to how large this gap was.

From 2021 onwards and increasingly in the past year, the game has moved to quick commerce, and cross-selling, which has once again sparked off a super app race. This is the moment that Flipkart finds itself right now, and it is arguable that it’s definitely moving towards becoming a super app itself.

Flipkart’s Fintech Dreams

The newest piece in the Flipkart universe is Super.Money, which has launched with UPI payments but will see other financial services soon.

The cross-selling strategy is obvious when you see the introductory offers on Super.Money, which include cashback rewards of up to 10% on Flipkart, Myntra and Shopsy.

The other financial products include a credit card offering in partnership with Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, a pre-approved personal loan service called “superCash”, and a fixed deposit offering “superDeposit”, which would also require banking partnerships.

As Inc42 reported earlier this year, Flipkart initiated the fintech app’s development in July 2023 and earmarked an investment of $20 Mn for the project. Back in January, the company rolled out personal loans on the Flipkart app, which will soon be offered through Super.Money.

This after the company launched UPI services to select users in March. In its first month, Flipkart recorded 5 Mn UPI transactions worth INR 197.24 Cr.

Flipkart’s full-fledged fintech entry comes a year after its demerger with PhonePe, and interestingly, PhonePe will be one of the biggest competitions for Flipkart, along with the likes of Paytm, CRED, Jio Financial Services (JFS) and others.

The launch is one thing, scaling it up will be critical. PhonePe invested billions of dollars in scaling it up, just like Paytm or Google Pay, Amazon Pay or others. While the market is undoubtedly large, competition makes it hard to acquire and retain users.

Quick Commerce Rebuffs

We’ve written about it before — Flipkart is looking to get third time lucky with grocery deliveries and quick commerce, after two relatively unsuccessful attempts over the past few years. But before venturing out on its own, the company looked at its options, as per reports.

First there were talks with IPO-bound Swiggy some time late last year, as reported this week. The talks fizzled out as the two giants failed to come to consensus over a valuation. Besides this, Flipkart is also said to have demanded a majority stake in Swiggy, which proved to be a roadblock to the deal.

Separately, Flipkart reportedly held talks with Reliance-backed Dunzo which was in a severe cash crunch throughout last year, and has scaled back to B2B deliveries only.

Flipkart also held talks with Zepto, which is currently in the quick commerce spotlight thanks to its massive fundraise and high valuations. These talks also failed due to a lack of valuation consensus.

The biggest factor behind Flipkart’s most recent push into quick commerce is the revenue outcome. Ten-minute deliveries are no longer just a fancy proposition, as they were in 2020 and 2021. Cumulatively, Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, Blinkit — the three biggest quick commerce platforms — are on track to report combined revenue north of $1 Bn in FY24, as we had reported earlier.

Flipkart’s next-day grocery delivery business clocked 1.6X year-on-year (YoY) growth in FY24, but the company did not share the revenue numbers for this vertical, which is said to be present in over 200 cities already.

Over the past two years, Flipkart has watched as quick commerce platforms demonstrated massive growth, and indeed even encroached on ecommerce territory in recent months with larger warehouses and plans to deliver large products and electronics, which have been the forte of marketplaces for so long.

Instead of relinquishing the opportunity, Flipkart wants to build it anew. It’s not alone, Reliance Retail and JioMart also have plans to extend their reach into quick commerce, so here again, Flipkart is faced with a massive revenue opportunity but strong competition with a foothold on a segment that will be new for Flipkart.

On The Prowl For Profits

For Flipkart, these two new verticals come at a critical moment. Some might call it a defining moment for the company, which seems strange given that it has been around for nearly two decades. But Flipkart cannot afford to wait too long.

Earlier this month, Flipkart majority owner Walmart said that the company (along with PhonePe) is heading towards profitability. Interestingly, Flipkart brought Google on board as a minority investor as part of the funding round led by the US-based retail giant.

In a statement, Flipkart said, “Google’s proposed investment and its Cloud collaboration will help Flipkart expand its business and advance the modernisation of its digital infrastructure to serve customers across the country.”

This points to Flipkart looking to scale up its various digital commerce verticals across categories. It needs to do a lot to get back into the black after years of losses.

Flipkart’s B2C arm saw a 42% YoY jump in revenue to INR 14,845.8 Cr in FY23, while its loss reduced 9% to INR 4,026.5 Cr. On the other hand, the B2B arm of the company saw its standalone net loss widen to INR 4,845.7 Cr in FY23.

Last year, the company went through a reorganisation and also laid off employees to cut costs. But the new fintech and quick commerce play will be critical for Flipkart in turning the ship around and heading in the direction of profits.

Neither fintech services nor quick commerce are saturated by any means — opportunities exist to disrupt the incumbents and gain a foothold. But execution will be key and both these segments require diligent focus and operational efficiency.

Flipkart has watched Indian ecommerce and digital commerce evolve for the past few years, and now it’s ready to jump in from the sidelines. Can the ecommerce giant find new wings 17 years after it took off?

Sunday Roundup: Tech Stocks, Startup Funding & More

• The weekly startup funding fell to $196 Mn this past week, a 75% decline from the previous week, when the tally was inflated by Zepto’s $665 Mn round
• The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) had to step in to clear speculation around BYJU’S being cleared of financial fraud and major corporate governance lapses reportedly after a ministry probe
• Zoomcar cofounder Greg Moran has been removed as the CEO of the company after a 12-year tenure as the Nasdaq-listed company faces regulatory scrutiny

• Adding to its product portfolio, Zomato has rolled out a restaurant services hub to plug in operational requirements such as hiring, regulatory requirements, taxation and trademarking
• Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola is all set to roll out grocery delivery through ONDC on its app after seeing success with the food delivery pilot

The post Flipkart On The Chase Again appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Ecommerce giant Flipkart said its users cumulatively spent more than 2 Mn hours engaging with its video commerce offerings between June 2023 and May 2024.

In a statement, the ecommerce major said that more than 75 Mn users watched videos while shopping on the app between January 2024 and June 2024 on its curated video sections ‘Liveshop+’ and ‘Vibes’. 

“… Flipkart’s video commerce offering is designed to meet an array of evolving needs, with the intention of not only creating an enhanced shopping experience but also addressing possible barriers that exist when it comes to online shopping,” said senior director of video commerce at Flipkart Neha Agrahari. 

The ecommerce major also said that video content is rapidly gaining ground across the country, particularly among millennials and GenZ, and women in Tier-II and III regions. 

As per Flipkart, Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata led the charts in terms of engagement with its video commerce offerings. 

“The maximum viewership clocked (number of times the video was watched) on a single Live Commerce video was 1.4 Mn.” added Flipkart. 

The company also said that it is betting on its partnerships with influencers to drive its video commerce offering. In 2021, the company reported a 30% year-on-year growth in engagement with vernacular creators, making it a key component of their influencer marketing approach. 

The ecommerce major works with more than 500 influencers. Its video commerce offerings include influencer-led videos, product-focused informational videos, short-form content through Vibes, and real-time live streaming via LiveShop+.

While Flipkart has lately ramped up its focus on video commerce, the fate of the overall Indian live commerce brigade hangs in balance. The post-TikTok ban boom saw multiple local Indian players such as Moj and ShareChat emerge from the shadows and pick up hefty funding amounts. 

However, engagement numbers have dwindled in the presence of a resurgent Instagram. An Inc42 deep dive last year found that engagement levels of the Indian short-video platforms and live commerce companies is down by a big margin. 

On top of that, an absence of profitability and diminishing user base has raised questions over the viability of the space. Such has been the situation that ShareChat is seething under a funding crunch while Trell was under lens for financial irregularities. 

Meanwhile, MX TakaTak was acquired by ShareChart in 2022 as the latter now itself struggles with mounting losses and falling user engagement. 

On the other hand, there seems to be no clarity on how Flipkart’s competitor Amazon’s live commerce offering, which was launched in 2022, has been faring. 

While Redseer estimates the overall short-video user base to touch 600 Mn by 2025, questions remain over monetisation issues prevalent in the ecosystem. 

That said, Flipkart continues to strengthen its video commerce offerings at a time when it is on an expansion spree. Just a day earlier, it launched its fintech app super.money in beta mode, with an eye on launching other financial services soon.

Additionally, the company is also set to foray into the quick commerce space soon. However, this rapid expansion has come at a financial cost. Flipkart’s B2C arm reported a loss of INR 4,026.5 Cr in FY23, albeit down 9% YoY. 

The post Flipkart Says Video Commerce Offering A Big Success; 75 Mn Users Engaged In H1 2024 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Continuing its portfolio expansion spree, foodtech major Zomato has rolled out restaurant services hub, an initiative to cater to restaurants.

The new platform will help restaurants plug in various operational requirements like hiring, FSSAI registrations, taxation and trademarking. It can be accessed through Zomato’s restaurant partner app, website or dining app. 

The company had been piloting the service for the past six months and claims to have already helped service over 3,200 restaurant partners, which include Havmor, Dastaan-e-Dawat, Berry on Top, Nutri Bar and Cheelizza among others.

It plans on adding multiple services like point of sales integrations and hygiene audits in the near future. 

For hiring, it has partnered with vendors Apna, WorkIndia, Shiftz, Rozgaar Inc and Kaam.com. The hiring services would cost restaurants in a range between INR 299-5,250. 

For FSSAI registrations, trademark security and GST registrations, it has partnered with vendors like SRV Taxcon, GoAuditz, Plans4U, among others. 

“The restaurant services hub platform is only a step towards our vision of creating a full-stack solution for any restaurant owner looking to set up shop or scale their existing business,” Zomato food delivery’s CEO Rakesh Ranjan said in a statement.

This comes a week after Swiggy, the company’s primary rival in the foodtech space, also rolled out a restaurant partner focused service. On June 20, Swiggy launched a recruitment support initiative to assist restaurant partners with staff recruitment. It partnered with Apna, WorkIndia, Kaam and Shiftz for the initiative, which is available on the Swiggy Partner App. 

The startups’ restaurant partner focused initiatives come at a time when their battle to achieve dominance in Indian foodtech is heating up. While they compete across services like quick commerce and live events, Zomato has an advantage over Swiggy in the food delivery space as of now. 

On June 25, brokerage firm Goldman Sachs pegged Zomato’s share in the food delivery market to be around 56-57%. Taking Swiggy’s 2023 results as a base, the brokerage said Zomato’s gross order value (GOV) in 2023 was about 30-35% higher than Swiggy’s. It added that Zomato was well poised to gain further market share on the back of improving profitability.

The listed company’s latest experiment comes at a time when it has been aggressively expanding its services. It has recently introduced a large order fleet, last mile deliveries for office goers, priority deliveries in a pilot phase, and Zomato Everyday.

Besides its bread and butter food delivery business and crown jewel Blinkit, the company is now turning its purview towards its events business.

On June 16, it intimated the bourses that it is in discussion with fintech major Paytm to acquire its events and movie ticketing business, Paytm Insider for an estimated INR 1,500 Cr. If materialised, the deal could catapult Zomato to second position in the events and movie ticketing space, behind only BookMyShow, brokerage JM Financial ascertained. 

Shares of Zomato ended today’s trading session 1.44% higher at INR 200.15. 

The post Zomato Launches New Platform To Help Restaurants In Hiring, Licensing appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Update | June 27, 03:35 PM

Coworking startup Smartworks said it has raised $20.24 Mn (around  INR 168 Cr) this year so far from investors like Keppel Ltd, Ananta Capital Ventures Fund I, Plutus Capital LLC, family trusts, and a host of individual investors.

In a statement, Smartworks founder Neetish Sarda said, “We thank our investors for their continued confidence in our capabilities and the office experience and managed campus platform. Capital from the latest fund raising will be used for the growth and expansion of the business of the company and to meet its general corporate expenses.”

—————————————————————————————————————————

Original Story | June 11, 08:05 PM

Coworking startup Smartworks has raised around $12 Mn (about INR 100 Cr) in a fresh funding round led by Ananta Capital, the backer of Bella Vita Organic.

As per the startup’s filing with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), the funding round saw participation from around 45 investors, including Plutus Capital, Kili Ventures LLP, and Dhawan Family Trust.

Smartworks didn’t respond to Inc42’s queries on the development till the time of publishing this story. The article would be updated on receiving a response from the startup.

The fresh investment comes almost a couple of months after Inc42 exclusively reported that the startup raised nearly $4 Mn from its existing investor, Singapore-based Keppel Land. 

It is pertinent to note that Smartworks cofounder Neetish Sarda said in May last year that the startup was looking to raise $70 Mn to $90 Mn. The latest fundraise could be a part of this funding round. 

Prior to this, the startup raised $25 Mn in its Series A funding round from Keppel Land. 

Founded in 2016 by Sarda and Harsh Binani, Smartworks is a shared workspace provider. It provides office spaces that can be rapidly configured and customised to the needs of enterprises. 

The startup claims to have over 8 Mn sq. ft. of office space across 40+ locations in 13 cities, including Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Pune. It caters to over 600 organisations, including Forbes 2000/ Fortune 500 companies, multinational companies, unicorns and soonicorns.

Last month, the startup entered the Pune market by leasing a 14-floor tower in Balewadi area. The building is expected to accommodate 8,000 desks. 

SmartWorks’ revenue soared 98% year-on-year to INR 711 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), while net loss increased 44% to INR 101 Cr.

 The startup competes against the likes of WeWork India, IndiaQube, and recently-listed Awfis. 

The post [Update] Exclusive: Smartworks Raises $20 Mn From Ananta Capital, Keppel, Others appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Prosus-owned digital payments giant PayU India’s credit service LazyPay has partnered with Blinkit to facilitate its users with one tap mobile payments.

With the introduction of LazyPay’s advanced payment solution, Blinkit users will now be able to get a credit line, with no additional cost to merchants.

Additionally, Blinkit merchants will gain access to LazyPay’s payment mode and dashboard, enabling them to monitor business performance more efficiently.

“By integrating LazyPay’s advanced payment solutions with Blinkit’s platform, we enable customers to utilize their credit line through a seamless and secure platform. This partnership aligns perfectly with our mission to provide swift, reliable, and secure ‘Pay Later’ services, streamlining digital payments,” said Niket Shrivastava, head of merchant business at LazyPay.

With the Blinkit addition, LazyPay has expanded its portfolio of quick commerce clients, which includes Swiggy Instamart, Zepto and Big Basket.

PayU India enables businesses to collect online and offline payments via more than 150 payment modes, including debit cards, credit cards, net banking, BNPL, QR, UPI, EMIs, and wallets. It competes with the likes of Razorpay and Cashfree in India.

In 2017, PayU entered the consumer credit segment with LazyPay, a lending platform which offers point-of-sale credit solutions.

The development comes at a time when PayU India is looking to make its stock market debut. As per media reports, the fintech giant could file its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Commission of India (SEBI) this year for an initial public offering of at least $500 Mn.

In April, PayU India received an in-principle authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a payment aggregator (PA). The nod allowed the company to onboard new merchants for its payments business. 

Earlier this week, Dutch investment company Prosus, in its annual 2024 report, said that PayU India posted a 11% year-on-year (YoY) jump in its revenue to $444 Mn in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24).

The growth in revenue came primarily on the back of the rise in volumes from its existing merchant user base and growing “value added” services.

While PayU India’s total payment value (TPV) rose 22% YoY in FY24, its payment service provider business logged a 3% trading loss as against a 3% trading profit in the previous year.

The post PayU’s LazyPay Integrates With Blinkit To Enable One Tap Mobile Payments For Customers appeared first on Inc42 Media.

What happened when tech giant Google flexed its muscles and delisted 10+ popular Indian apps from its world-leading app store, citing the long pendency of billing compliance? Well, homegrown Internet companies got angry; #EvilGoogle started trending and government intervention was sought to redeem the situation.

A temporary truce is in place, but Indian developers are now actively seeking a robust alternative. And that’s where fintech giant’s PhonePe four-year plan comes into the play, with a made-for-India Indus Appstore.

Much of this narrative is familiar. Once again, Google is up in arms, trying to ensure that all Play Store apps, annually earning $1 Mn or more, use its billing system so that it can collect 30% commission on every in-app purchase — more on the current fee structure later.

Google has been at it since 2020, allowing a year’s grace period for non-compliant apps to integrate the technology. After that, the tech giant faced roller-coaster legal battles in India regarding its alleged market dominance and anti-competitive practices on Play Store. Petitions have also been filed before the NCLAT against Play Store’s billing policy. 

Unsurprisingly, Google lost its initial lawsuits and was fined a little over INR 1,337 Cr and INR 936 Cr in two separate cases by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). After all, the tech behemoth owns the Android operating system, and Google Play Store, a leviathan of an app marketplace, comes preloaded on almost all Android smartphones. The reach and the convenience typically make the Play Store the go-to choice. Hence, it might have hit Google harder when Walmart-owned PhonePe launched the Indus Appstore in February this year to challenge Google’s dominance.

No doubt Google restored the apps after MeitY’s (ministry of electronics and information technology) intervention. But it is merely an extension of the payment deadline, and the tech giant will continue to send invoices to ‘non-compliant’ apps. Unless developers from all categories are ready to shell out the 30% ‘Google tax’ and want to abide by the company’s aggressive approach (the outright ban slapped on the Indian apps is proof enough).

The timing of Indus’ launch could not have been better. Indus went live on February 21, just ten days before Google made its delisting announcement on March 1, and nearly throttled a host of major apps such as Matrimony.com, Jeevansaathi, Shaadi, Naukri, 99acres, KukuFM and STAGE, among others. In essence, the all-new app store had a fortuitous entry amid a growing clamour for fair industry practices, while developers started looking for an India-focussed robust alternative. 

In contrast, the Indus Appstore offers a hyper-localised and affordable pp marketplace, aligning better with Indian customers through multilingual solutions.

Within three months of its launch, the new app store has started to make a dent in Google’s ‘alleged’ monopoly, as it offers a developer-friendly environment, charges zero commission on in-app transactions for the first year and has zero publishing fee. (Google charges a one-time publishing fee of $25, but Apple’s App Store is more expensive as it charges $99 per year.) It lists more than 2 Lakh apps across 45 categories and has surpassed 2 Mn installs, a PhonePe spokesperson told Inc42.  

Indus supports 12 Indian languages for access to localised content and has introduced a host of India-specific features such as voice search,  video-led discovery, multi-format ads and more.

“We are seeing a steady increase in the number of users. The app store has gained significant traction since its launch, especially in Tier II cities, which account for 45% of the user base. Popular app categories include finance, games, social media, entertainment, tools, communication and shopping,” the Indus Appstore and PhonePe spokesperson added.

For context, PhonePe has moved its domicile from Singapore to India, shifting all businesses and subsidiaries to India, including the Indus Appstore. Besides this, it had also been fully hived off from Flipkart, which had acquired PhonePe, and currently Walmart is the majority owner of PhonePe.

Why Google Play Store Has Won So Far 

Indus is not the first app marketplace to challenge the Play Store. Earlier, there were several app stores such as Nokia Download (SymbianOS), Download Fun, Pocket Gear, GetJar, Handango, Handmark and MiKandi. Others like Opera Mobile Store, BlackBerry World and HP App followed suit after the Play Store was launched in 2012. But challenging Google’s monopoly in the app marketplace was not possible even for pure-play tech companies like Opera, Firefox or others.

While Google fights lawsuits in various courts over industry practices and commission rates, will Indus be able to gain a strong position in the app marketplace? Before we delve into the pros and cons of the new app store’s success potential, let us look at the existing marketplaces and their fee structures.

Going by how Google Play Store stacks up compared to the competition, will it be fair to suggest that its contentious billing policy may pave the path for success for the likes of Indus? Amit Ranjan, founder of SlideShare (acquired by LinkedIn for $120 Mn) and architect of the Indian government’s project DigiLocker, said the priorities would tend to differ in this case. 

“Building an app store requires deep technical expertise and a strong technical team. The business aspect comes later. You also need to maintain ‘cyber hygiene’ by tracking and filtering out fraudulent apps. This is an ongoing process, and any misstep will directly impact the store’s reputation,” Ranjan told Inc42.

Ranjan has a point. Consider how Opera Mobile Store was fully decommissioned last year, although it catered to 130 Mn+ monthly active users and clocked 1 Mn daily downloads of apps at one point. The reason for shuttering: Opera was allegedly involved in unfair and illegal data transactions.

Even the Google Play Store drew flak and suspended or removed around 4.7K fraudulent loan apps between April 2021 and August 2023, according to Rajya Sabha data. Therefore, nothing short of a robust tech ecosystem and stringent compliance can ensure success for independent app stores despite significant download numbers. 

Nevertheless, a few Android app stores like Samsung have thrived as they have built robust technology and business ecosystems. Interestingly, Google has reportedly struck a deal with the Samsung Galaxy Store to keep its Play Store as the default app marketplace on Samsung mobiles. According to media reports, Google offered Samsung exclusive gaming content, deals and events on the Play Store and YouTube and agreed to ‘white label’ its Play Store as the Galaxy Store so that Samsung could maintain its branding.

When negotiating with Samsung, Google preferred a lump sum payment model over a user-focussed payment strategy.

Will these ‘agreements’ make it difficult for developers and users to opt for alternative app stores? We have an intriguing parallel here. In an antitrust lawsuit held in the US last year, states and the federal government questioned Google’s stand regarding its search engine dominance and how it tried to squash competition by paying Apple and other tech companies to ensure that Google search remained the default option. The search giant defended itself by saying none of these agreements were ‘exclusive’ in nature and users could easily change default settings and opt for other search options.

Although Inc42 cannot independently verify whether similar ‘business deals’ are impacting the app economy in India, Google’s agreements with different OEMs cannot be ignored. And these may warrant more scrutiny from the regulators in the near future (more on these challenges later). Incidentally, a company spokesperson has confirmed that the new app store no longer caters to the Samsung Galaxy Store.  

A user-friendly interface, a supply-demand match (enough engaging apps across categories are required to keep users coming back) and a robust revenue model for developers and publishers are also critical for an app marketplace to survive, according to Karan Lakhwani, India head at the app intelligence firm AppTweak. The major challenge is surpassing the Play Store’s consumer experience, validated by reviews, ratings and download numbers, he added.

How PhonePe Joined The App Store Bandwagon

Google Play Store may enjoy cutting-edge tech prowess and a better business network, but the biggest USP of Indus Appstore is its made-in-India tag, according to the PhonePe spokesperson. 

“Most users are driven to download and use the app store because it is made in India, for India. On the other hand, the developer-friendly ethos of the app store makes it an ideal platform for app creators – that’s the general feedback. They also think the integrated phone login, targeted advertising and engaging features will help them reach niche audiences, driving widespread adoption and engagement,” PhonePe said.

However, the Indus Appstore was not built in a day. Here is a brief look at the backstory, from the initial launch of Mofirst by three IIT-Bombay alumni to many pivots and developments – first as a smartphone maker and then as an app bazaar. Eventually, the company was acquired and rebranded by PhonePe after an intense valuation dispute with key stakeholders, including Affle. 

Many think that the Indus Appstore will soon emerge as the darling of the Indian market, offering unique features to empower consumers and enhance user delight.

How Indus Appstore Is Building A Moat Against Google Play

Indus parent PhonePe is aware that no standalone app store can counter Play Store’s power of innovation and deep pockets. However, it has a long-term plan to take on Google’s ubiquitous app marketplace by leveraging its knowledge of the local market and the subsequent rise in user base. 

Unlike other independent app stores that looked to take on Google, PhonePe holds an edge with more than 535 Mn registered users and 260 Mn monthly active users (MAU), which guarantees a significant number of quality users, and, hence, monetary success for developers.

However, this may not be comparable to what one earns on the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. 

PhonePe aims to create a moat around its app store business by partnering with smartphone makers such as Nokia and Lava. The goal is to pre-install Indus Appstore on up to 300 Mn devices by the end of 2024.

“Our collaborations will ensure seamless app installations and updates. We want to make the Indus Appstore a default choice on smartphones in India, signifying a shift towards a more inclusive, autonomous and developer-friendly app ecosystem,” the company’s spokesperson said.

PhonePe has also acquired a payment aggregator licence from the RBI to enable seamless in-app transactions (payment aggregators allow clients to accept various payment methods and disburse to multiple stakeholders). 

PhonePe Technology Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of the group, was also issued an account aggregator (AA) licence by the RBI. AAs typically share financial data across accounts and institutions securely so that financial information users or FIUs (like lenders or insurers) can make informed decisions. However, no data can be shared without the explicit consent of account holders.

“Some of our clients are keen to be on the Indus Appstore,” said Lakhwani of AppTweak. “I understand that its way of communication and advertising is very different from others. Google Play Store requires a different set of app metadata to succeed. So does Apple. And Indus, too, has a different strategy. Each has created a unique strategy for its app store to succeed.”

However, to attract more users, the company must target different segments uniquely, which Koo should have done when it tried to become as a Twitter killer.

“There’s always a value-seeking user, a discount-seeking user and a luxury or premium user seeking a high-quality experience. Indus should target different types by tailoring its communications to highlight discounts, user experience or specific apps,” said Lakhwani.

Can Indus Become The Atmanirbhar App Store? 

For a long time, Indian entrepreneurs and app developers have demanded that a truly Indian app store be built to look after their interests and counter the Play Store. Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma was particularly vocal, saying Google’s charges were costlier than the business taxes the internet businesses paid in India. Paytm also launched a mini app store, and a few more popped up, thinking it was an opportune moment. One such entity was Mitron, a short video app that hurriedly launched an app discovery platform. However, none of these lasted for long after the initial euphoria died.

Given these ground realities, can PhonePe’s app store topple the Google Play Store this time? Two of the five experts with whom Inc42 spoke doubted whether it would be viable in the long run due to Google’s near-monopoly across the Android ecosystem. 

For instance, the entire Android market can be split into five major segments – the licensable OS market for smart mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, and more), app stores, web search services and online video hosting platforms (OVHP). Google has standardised agreements with various companies to maintain its dominance in these segments. Its crucial agreements with OEMs encompass mobile application distribution, anti-fragmentation (for seamless versioning), Android compatibility commitment, revenue sharing and mobile service distribution/placement bonus.

OEMs must adhere to these stringent agreements, which prevent them from developing Android non-compatible hardware. Moreover, they can only include Google Mobile Services (a collection of applications and APIs such as Google Search, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube and more that help support functionality across devices) after signing the mobile application distribution and anti-fragmentation agreements. 

Also, Android prevents installations from third-party sources. When users manually download apps from a third-party app store, they receive multiple security warnings that the apps sourced from elsewhere may harm the device. These warnings often deter users, while developers have little choice but to operate through the Play Store.

Of course, such ‘trade practices’ under the guise of security have been challenged worldwide, including in India. The CCI had already fined the tech giant, but these penalties have been challenged in the Supreme Court. In a separate case, Winzo Games is also fighting a case in the apex court regarding these ‘security warnings’ and other issues. 

Elsewhere, in the Epic Games versus Google case, a California jury found that the latter violated antitrust laws (laws to ensure economic competitiveness and counter monopoly) in Google Play Store’s billing practices. The presiding judge will announce the measures to be undertaken in 2024. 

In May 2022, the European Commission and the Competition and Markets Authority also probed Google Play Store’s business practices. South Korean regulators are also investigating Play Store’s billing, including a formal review of Google’s compliance with new billing regulations.

Rameesh Kailasam, CEO at IndiaTech.Org, a think tank for Indian tech startups, pointed out that the Play Store makes in-app purchases prohibitively expensive and economically unviable for startups and internet economy companies.

To begin with, 15-30% commissions are an issue if transactions are done within the Google Play Billing system. Google came with an alternate billing system, where the app developers can use their payment gateways but have to pay a service fee of 11-26%, which is currently being investigated by CCI. But until now, it has not been a win-win for small developers, paying a cut to one of the world’s richest tech companies.

“Moreover, many of these apps are built outside India despite catering to the Indian market. It means the income from apps or the commission does not accrue to India. Although Google allows for some bypass routes, these are still prohibitively costly,” Kailasam added.

Even when developers list their apps on another app store, integrating them with Google Ads requires Google Play Store listing IDs. Therefore, anyone looking for a wider reach through Google’s pay-per-click advertising platform is compelled to list the apps on the Play Store.

But there’s more to this narrative. While developers struggle to cope with all sorts of arm-twisting, winning a business battle with an industry heavyweight could be too difficult, as the Aptoide App Store soon found out. The Portugal-based mobile app marketplace runs on the Android OS, and the store can be accessed and installed via the store’s official page. Moreover, unlike Google, developers can manage their stores on the platform.

“With Aptoide, that moment [of contention] came in 2018. We took Google to court after the tech Goliath tried by all means unnecessary to suffocate the company’s activity and kill the competition,” founders Paulo Trezentos and Álvaro Pinto shared on their website. “They told users that Aptoide was a menace to the mobile society. They made Aptoide’s app vanish from Android phones without warning. They kept circling more wagons around Google Play Store, making Android app downloads increasingly difficult outside of the platform.”

Google eventually lost the case. The courts and the European Commission found it guilty of abusing its dominant position and anti-competitive behaviour. The tech giant was heavily fined and ordered to backtrack.

But one thing is clear. Given its influence, capital and resources, it will always be tough to beat Google at its own game. Closer home, it will be even more difficult. After all, 95% of smartphones in India run on Android and the Google Play Store has been the default app store for most of these users.

Just like Aptoide, PhonePe or even Walmart may have to lock horns with Google sooner or later for a greater market share. However, the success of the Indus Appstore will largely depend on its ability to deliver a superior user and developer experience that can convince all stakeholders to give it a shot. 

PhonePe’s founder and CEO Sameer Nigam once said that a billion people or more could not be dictated regarding app discovery or transaction if they wanted a change. Indus and PhonePe could be heralding that change.

[Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal]

The post An App Store For India: Can PhonePe’s Indus Loosen Google’s Grip? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Expanding its automotive play, insurtech unicorn Acko has forayed into the car repair and service space with the launch of ‘Acko Drive Service Centre’. 

The startup has launched two such service centres in Bengaluru. It plans to open 100 service centres in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Chennai in the next six months.  

Acko said that the personnel employed in these centres are well trained and will exclusively use original OEM spare parts to guarantee the longevity and reliability of the repairs. 

“Our commitment to deliver an unparalleled retail experience, leveraging cutting-edge technology, and fostering deep industry partnerships, underscores our vision to become a one-stop shop for all things automobiles,” Acko’s vice president of strategic partnerships Saumitra Raj said. 

Explaining the rationale behind the move, the startup said that the aftermarket service space is largely dominated by unorganised players and it is looking to cement its position as a holistic service provider in the space.

“By entering the aftermarket space, the company will attain the capability to seamlessly direct accidental repair vehicles arriving at Acko for insurance claims to Acko Drive Service Centres,” it added.

In this segment, Acko will compete with the likes of Cars24, Droom, and CarDekho. 

Founded in 2016 by Varun Dua and Ruchi Deepak, Acko offers insurance for vehicles, health and travel. It counts the likes of General Atlantic, Multiples Private Equity, Lightspeed, and Intact Ventures among its investors. Last year, it also launched an insurance plan for batteries of electric vehicles (EVs). 

Acko has raised a total funding of over $450 Mn till date and counts the likes of Amazon, General Atlantic, and Multiples Private Equity Fund among its backers. Its net loss jumped 53% year-on-year to INR 738.5 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), while operating revenue grew 32% to INR 1,758.6 Cr.

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Bengaluru-based fintech unicorn slice is piloting a new lending product under the name ‘slice personal loan’, under which users can avail a loan of up to INR 5 Lakh for a tenure of 5 years (60 months), sources told Inc42. 

Currently, the product is being offered only to select users, the sources said, adding that it would be expanded to cover more consumers in the coming months. slice is charging an interest of up to 14% on these loans.

The startup is targeting users with high credit scores for the new product. The new offering is an extension of its existing product slice borrow, under which its users can borrow up to INR 2 Lakh from the startup and its NBFC partners with a repayment period of 12 months.

A query mail sent to slice on the new offering didn’t elicit any response till the time of publishing this story. 

Earlier this month, Inc42 exclusively reported that slice is raising $20 Mn (about INR 170 Cr) in a debt funding round from Neo Asset Management’s Credit Opportunities Fund. The funding is part of a larger $30 Mn (about INR 255 Cr) debt round. While the startup has received $20 Mn, it is expected to receive the remaining amount soon.

Back then, Inc42 learnt that slice would utilise the funds for corporate purposes and working capital requirements. 

Founded in 2016 by Rajan Bajaj, slice operated as a buy now pay later (BNPL) platform till 2022 and offered a credit card-esque prepaid payment instrument (PPI) that came with no annual fees, interest, or late charges. 

However, after the RBI cracked the whip on fintechs in 2022 and barred NBFCs from offering credit on PPI, slice discontinued the service. The regulatory headwinds forced it to change its business model and the startup began exploring merger options.

slice currently offers UPI payments, consumer credit, and a prepaid payment banking account through its app. 

Earlier this year, slice received the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) approval for its merger with Guwahati-based North East Small Finance Bank.

slice, last valued at $1.5 Bn, is backed by marquee investors such as Tiger Global, Gunopsy Capital, Blume Ventures, Advent International’s Sunley House Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Anfa.

The startup competes against the likes of KreditBee, MoneyTap and CASHe.

The post Exclusive: slice Doubles Down On Its Lending Play; Pilots Personal Loans Of Up To INR 5 Lakh appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Karnataka High Court has directed the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to take a fresh call on its April 24 order that allowed the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) access to confidential information on Swiggy’s business practices.

Justice SR Krishna Kumar on Wednesday asked the CCI to “expeditiously” decide on the report access after Swiggy filed a petition against India’s competition regulator’s order, calling it “arbitrary” and arguing that allowing the NRAI access to sensitive information could harm its business, Bar and Bench reported.

While Justice Kumar directed the antitrust watchdog to take a decision promptly, he did not fix any specific timeline.

The matter stems from the CCI’s April 2022 investigation into Swiggy and Zomato, based on a complaint filed by the NRAI in 2021 that alleged that the food delivery giants engaged in anticompetitive practices such as bundling of services, exorbitant commissions, delayed payment cycle and imposition of one-sided clauses.

The NRAI had also alleged that both Swiggy and Zomato indulged in deep discounting which hurt the interests of local restaurants, as well as argued that these pricing practices violated platform neutrality.

It is pertinent to note that Zomato and Swiggy have a near duopoly in the food delivery market, with Zomato extending its lead over Swiggy with a 56-57% market share.

After conducting a probe into these allegations, the CCI’s Director General (DG) compiled a detailed report containing confidential information concerning the business practices of Swiggy and Zomato.

While the CCI shared the confidential findings with a specific set of people at the time, on April 24 this year, the antitrust watchdog passed an order giving the NRAI’s representatives access to the report as well.

Consequently, Swiggy petitioned the Karnataka High Court last month against the CCI’s April 24 order, reportedly arguing that the decision violated the regulator’s obligation to preserve confidential information under Section 57 of the Competition Act, 2022 and Regulation 25 of the Competition Commission of India (General) Regulations, 2009. 

The development comes amid reports that Walmart-backed ecommerce major Flipkart previously held talks with Swiggy to acquire a stake in the foodtech company.

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 the run up to its IPO, Swiggy aggressively cut costs, streamlined operations and scaled up revenues. Earlier this week, 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 Karnataka HC Orders CCI To ‘Expeditiously’ Decide On Swiggy’s Confidential Data Sharing appeared first on Inc42 Media.

As part of its fintech push, ecommerce giant Flipkart has launched super.money app in beta mode. The app went live on Google Play Store on June 23.

While the app currently offers UPI services, Flipkart aims to soon offer other financial services via the app.

As per the app description, it will not offer “useless rewards” but “real cashback”. The app will offer up to 5% cashback and rewards of up to 10% on Flipkart, Myntra and Shopsy.

Besides, the company also claims three times faster UPI payments with “default camera scan-on mode”.

The app description also says that a suite of financial products will be launched soon. These will include a credit card offering “superCard”, which will be issued in partnership with Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, a pre-approved loan service called “superCash”, and a fixed deposit offering “superDeposit” 

The development was first reported by TechCrunch.

super.money confirmed the development with Inc42. “With an uncluttered UX and focus on great rewards for every transaction, super.money intends to change the way people engage with and consume financial services. The super.money team will continue to assess customer feedback in the coming weeks and improve the product further,” a spokesperson of super.money said.

super.money founder and CEO Prakash Sikaria said that the landscape of digital payments and financial services is evolving rapidly and this presents incredible opportunities for innovation. 

“super.money aims to democratise access to financial services by leveraging UPI infrastructure, which is aligned to the government’s larger vision of financial inclusion. We have been working on several exciting products that we will launch soon,” Sikaria added.

Earlier this year, Inc42 reported that the ecommerce major initiated the fintech app’s development as early as July 2023 and earmarked an investment of $20 Mn for the project. Back in January, the company rolled out personal loans on the Flipkart app. 

In the same month, the company also started offering UPI services to select users. In March, its first month of full-fledged UPI launch, Flipkart recorded 5 Mn UPI transactions worth INR 197.24 Cr. 

super.money marks Flipkart’s full-fledged fintech entry more than a year after its demerger with PhonePe. In December 2022, the ecommerce major completed the full ownership separation process of PhonePe.

PhonePe dominates the UPI market and has been accounting for nearly 50% share every month. It accounted for 48.6% of the total UPI transactions in May. The value of these transactions stood at INR 10.33 Lakh Cr.

With super.money, Flipkart will take on PhonePe in the fintech space. Earlier this week, Walmart said that both the entities are heading towards profitability. 

The operating revenue of Flipkart’s B2C arm rose 42% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 14,845.8 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23). Meanwhile, its loss reduced 9% to INR 4,026.5 Cr during the year under review from INR 4,419.5 Cr in FY22. On the other hand, 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.

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Tata Sons has paused fresh investments into its ecommerce and omni-channel electronics ventures, including super app Tata Neu, Croma and Tata Cliq in FY24, for the first time in eight years.

The group is now shifting its focus towards revamping strategies, enhancing accountability, and boosting operational efficiencies to secure profitable growth, as per ET’s report.

It has invested an estimated INR 19,000 Cr till date in Tata Digital, the holding company for the group’s ecommerce businesses.

“There is a strategic reason for not making any equity infusion even as organisational changes are being made,” a source said as quoted by ET. However, new fund infusion will commence after the strategy and organisational changes for better operational efficiencies are in place.

Tata Digital, the holding company for Tata Unistore (which operates Tata Cliq), Innovative Retail Concepts (BigBasket), Tata 1MG Healthcare Solutions, and Infiniti Retail (which runs over 500 Croma stores), also owns the super app Tata Neu.

In FY23, the combined losses of Tata Digital’s key businesses, including Tata Digital, Croma, Tata Cliq, and BigBasket, surged to over INR 4,700 Cr from INR 3,130 Cr in FY22. To address this, new CEO Naveen Tahiliani has enforced strict cost management and is prioritising a data-centric approach to enhance operations as part of the company’s restructuring efforts.

While Tata Sons has strategically allocated significant capital to businesses requiring growth funding, there is now a firm directive to achieve profitable growth within a set timeframe, an executive said.

Businesses need to focus on effective ground execution to scale up. Until this is accomplished, fresh funding will only be considered if absolutely necessary.

Recently, Tata Digital, rejigged the senior leadership team of its super app Tata Neu three months after Naveen Tahilyani took charge as the new CEO of Tata Digital, replacing Pratik Lal.. Hardeep Singh Guru has been appointed as the new chief financial officer (CFO) while Gaurav Motani has been named as the new chief product officer (CPO).

The top-deck rejig was undertaken with a focus on streamlining the existing leadership structure of the company and making the digital juggernaut nimbler and business-focussed.

The change in strategy coincides with Tata Neu struggling to gain traction. Despite the conglomerate investing billions of dollars into the super app, it has not met expectations.

The post Tata Sons Stalls Fresh Investments Into Its Ecommerce, Electronics Ventures : Report appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Ecommerce major Amazon India has reportedly acknowledged lapses in workplace safety at its Haryana’s Manesar warehouse.

As per Economic Times’ report, the company in its communication to central labour commissioner, admitted to breaching workplace safety standards on May 16 at its Manesar warehouse and committed to taking immediate corrective measures.

Responding to the central labour ministry’s inquiry on the matter, Amazon India clarified that one of its employees at the facility led a small group of employees and associates in a pledge following a scheduled breaks, perceiving it as a motivational activity of the team, the report added.

“In this case, we conducted a detailed investigation, found an isolated incident of poor judgement by an individual that was totally unacceptable and against our policies, and took disciplinary action,” an Amazon spokesperson told Inc42.

“There’s nothing more important to us than the safety and wellbeing of our employees and associates, and we comply with all relevant laws and regulations,” the spokesperson added.

This comes days after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) sought a detailed report from the Centre over allegations of labour law violations at Amazon India’s warehouse in Manesar. The NHRC took suo motu cognisance of a report by the Indian Express which alleged harsh working conditions at the ecommerce major’s warehouse.

Some of the complaints alarmed by the workers from the warehouse based on reports were that a female worker claimed her long standing duty for nine hours a day and was required to evaluate 60 small products or 40 medium-sized products per hour while on duty.

Another worker at the facility was also asked by his supervisor to take a pledge that he would not take toilet or water breaks till the unloading of packages from six trucks was completed, while yet another female employee alleged that no restroom facilities are available at the Manesar unit.

“We take the lessons learnt from this disappointing incident seriously and will double down on our efforts to re-train our managers on workplace health, safety and well-being,” Amazon India assured the government.

The company also said it has taken note of the government’s suggestion concerning ramping up its seating capacity and deploying a female nurse at its medical room to attend to the medical needs of women working on night shifts.

The post Amazon Admits To Flouting Safety Norms At Manesar Warehouse, Claims Action appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Tata Electronics, which is building India’s first semiconductor fabrication plant in Gujarat’s Dholera, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with US-based Synopsys to accelerate production at the fabrication unit.

The US-based giant provides electronic design automation, silicon IP and system verification and validation, among other services to semiconductor players.

The collaboration will help Tata Electronics in developing a foundry design platform to accelerate chip development at its AI-enabled semiconductor fab plant at Gujarat’s Dholera. It will also enable the establishment of factory automation, data analytics, TCAD (Technology Computer Aided Design) flow set-up, process design kits, IP development, among others. 

“We view Synopsys as a key partner and accelerator in our journey by virtue of the expertise they bring in semiconductor design and services,” Tata Electronics’ CEO and managing director Randhir Thakur said. 

In February, the Union Cabinet approved the establishment of the Tata Group’s semiconductor fab in Dholera in partnership with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (PSMC). 

The Tata Group has earmarked an investment of INR 91,000 Cr for the factory. It is looking to manufacture 50,000 wafers per month at the unit. The chips produced at the factory are expected to power entities in eight sectors, including high power compute, EV, telecomm, defence, consumer electronics, automobile, power electronics. 

As of now, Tata Electronics has started exporting semiconductor chips packaged at a pilot line at its Bengaluru R&D centre to partners in Japan, the US, and European countries. It is also nearing completion of the design process for semiconductor chips in various sizes, including 28nm, 40nm, 55nm, and 65nm.

“With this intended collaboration with Synopsys, Tata Electronics solidifies a critical pillar for a holistic approach to achieve its targets to be the first to bring semiconductor manufacturing to India,” the company said in a statement. 

Besides the Dholera plant, the company is also building a fab plant at Assam’s Jagiroad with an investment of INR 27,000 Cr. 

Behind the Tata Group’s decision to enter the semiconductor space is a market opportunity pegged north of $150 Bn. According to Inc42’s report, “The Rise Of India’s Semiconductor Startups Report 2024”, the country’s semiconductor market will witness an impressive CAGR of 24% during 2023-2030. 

Eyeing a piece of the semiconductor pie, SaaS giant Zoho is also looking to set up a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Tamil Nadu with an investment of around $700 Mn. Besides, US-headquartered Micron Technology is also building an INR 22,000 Cr semiconductor testing and packaging plant in Gujarat’s Sanand.

The companies’ semiconductor push has been fuelled by the multiple initiatives taken by the Centre, including the INR 76,000 Cr allocation for the Semicon India programme to develop the semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem in the country.

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