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.

Update | Jul 2, 3:30PM

Almost a month after Inc42 exclusively reported that D2C sneaker brand Comet was in advanced talks with Elevation Capital and Nexus Venture Partners for a fundraise, the startup confirmed the development in its regulatory filing. 

Comet has raised INR 42 Cr (about $5 Mn) from the investors, with Elevation Capital infusing about INR 33 Cr.

Original Story | May 11, 3:43 PM

Bengaluru-based D2C sneaker brand Comet is in advanced stages of discussions with Elevation Capital and Nexus Venture Partners to raise Series A funding, sources told Inc42.

“The round will be led by new investor Elevation Capital, while existing investor Nexus Venture Partners will also participate in this round,” one of the sources said. 

The terms of the deal have been finalised and the funding round will be closed soon, the sources added. However, Inc42 couldn’t ascertain the amount of capital the startup will be raising in this round.

Comet declined to comment on Inc42’s queries about the funding round and the deployment of the fresh capital. 

The sources said that the D2C startup would use the fresh funds to expand its team and product portfolio, grow its inventory, among others. Currently, Comet has a workforce of 10-20 employees.

The startup also plans to begin opening offline retail stores by early next year.

Founded by former Hotstar executive Utkarsh Gupta and ex-Urban Company executive Dishant Daryani in 2022, Comet was officially launched in 2023. 

The startup currently sells sneakers for both males and females in the price range of INR 4,000 to INR 4,500. It also sells slides and shoe laces. Currently, the startup primarily sells its product through its own website. 

Earlier, Comet raised seed funding from Nexus Venture Partners. 

Earlier this year, the startup collaborated with multidisciplinary artist Shantanu Hazarika to drop limited edition sneakers. 

Besides Comet, the Indian homegrown sneaker market has multiple startups like 7-10, Neemans, and Rare Rabbit. However, given its price range, Comet competes with the likes of Puma.

Meanwhile, Elevation Capital also counts popular D2C brands such as The Souled Store, Sugar Cosmetics, and Bliss Club among its portfolio.

It is pertinent to note that the last few years have seen the emergence of hundreds of D2C brands across sectors in the country. Not only this, these brands are also receiving strong interest from investors.

At the heart of all these is the rapidly expanding D2C market. According to an Inc42 report, D2C is one of the fastest growing subsector in the ecommerce sector. The country’s D2C market is poised to grow at a CAGR of 19% to reach a size of over $400 Bn by 2030.

The post [Update] Exclusive: D2C Sneaker Brand Comet Raises Series A Funding From Elevation Capital, Nexus appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-based Ripplr is raising INR 40 Cr ($4.7 Mn) debt from IPO-bound Northern Arc. According to Ripplr’s regulatory filings, the startup’s shareholders passed a resolution to allot up to 400 non-convertible debentures (NCDs) to the lender for a cash consideration of INR 40 Cr. 

Last month, the startup raised INR 6 Cr debt from another venture debt firm Trifecta Capital. 

In May, Ripple’s shareholders passed a resolution to raise up to INR 101 Cr through debt. The latest funding seems to be part of the same round.

Founded in 2019 by Abhishek Nehru and Santosh Dabke, Ripplr offers a B2B web platform and mobile application to connect retailers with distributors. The startup claims that the platform uses AI to make predictions and decisions which helps brands deliver an integrated customer experience by elevating certainty and quality for consumers.

It counts Dabur, Tata Consumer Products, and Godrej among its customers for the distribution service vertical, while its logistics services are used by the likes of BigBasket and Zomato. 

The startup raised $40 Mn in its Series B funding round in May last year, which was a mix of equity and debt. The equity funding was led by Fireside Ventures and also saw participation from Bikaji and Neo Foods, along with existing investors 3one4 Capital, Zephyr Peacock and Japanese conglomerate Sojitz Corporation.

Back then, Stride Ventures, Alteria Capital, Northern Arc Investments and Trifecta Capital participated in the debt part of the round. 

Ripplr has a presence in Maharashtra, Delhi, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It manages over 24 warehouses in these states. 

The startup has raised about $50 Mn in funding till date.

In recent times, a number of logistics startups have raised funding despite the ongoing funding winter. In May, supply chain and logistics startup 3SC bagged $4 Mn from its existing investor GEF Capital’s South Asia Growth Fund.

Prior to that, LetsTransport, a trucking aggregator, bagged $22 Mn in its Series E funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments. 

The post Exclusive: Logistics & Distribution Startup Ripplr To Raise $4.7 Mn Debt From Northern Arc appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Car-ownership solutions provider Park+ is piloting a new service which allows users to book drivers on demand. The startup’s founder and CEO Amit Lakhotia told Inc42 that Park+ is currently testing the new service in Gurugram.

“There’s a significant demand for on-demand driver services, especially in the metros. It is an essential service if you are in a car-related business,” Lakhotia said. 

While the startup currently allows select users to hire drivers for intercity travel currently, it plans to add intracity travel going ahead. 

Park+ will hire drivers from agencies for the services. However, Lakhotia added that the startup already has around 2,000 drivers on the platform who are working as valets for parking and car servicing services. The services of these drivers will be used for the new service.  

The development comes almost two months after Inc42 exclusively reported that used-car marketplace Cars24 was piloting on-demand driver hiring services. Park+ will compete against the likes of Cars24 and DriveU with its new offering. 

Founded in 2019 by former Paytm executive Lakhotia, Park+ offers a range of services for car owners, including car parking solutions, FASTag management, paying and viewing challans, car insurance, and locating EV charging stations. 

It also caters to businesses through deployment of products such as automatic boom barriers, gate automation, and a full fledged cloud-based vehicle access control management system.

On the financial performance, Lakhotia said that the startup posted an operating revenue of INR 140 Cr in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), while its burn stood at INR 70 Cr. The startup is yet to file its FY24 numbers with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. 

In FY23, Park+’s revenue zoomed 146% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 96 Cr while net loss jumped 65% YoY to INR 99 Cr. 

In January last year, the startup bagged INR 140 Cr in its Series C funding round led by existing investors Epiq Capital, Matrix Partners India, and Sequoia India at a post-money valuation of around $340 Mn. 

Park+ then said it would use the funding to expand its operations to around 100 cities and expand its team. Currently, the startup has around 700 employees. 

It has raised a total funding of about $54 Mn till date. Park+ competes with the likes of Get My Parking and ParkingRhino in the nascent parking solutions space. 

The post Exclusive: After Cars24, Park+ Pilots On-Demand Driver Hiring Services 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.

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.

Gold loan provider Rupeek is in advanced talks to raise around INR 200 Cr (about $24 Mn) in a funding round which will be a mix of primary and secondary transactions, sources told Inc42.

The funding round will see Elevation Capital joining the digital lending startup’s cap table. Besides, a couple of existing investors will also participate in the round.

Elevation Capital will be a “major contributor” in this funding round, which will value the startup at $250 Mn, – a decline of almost 60% from its peak valuation of $600 Mn, the sources added.

As part of the secondary transaction, Rupeek’s employees will be selling their shares to investors.

Earlier, Economic Times reported that Ranjan Pai’s investment office Claypond Capital is likely to join the funding round. 

The new funding round kicked off earlier this month, with Rupeek raising INR 51 Cr from 360 One Large Value Fund (formerly IIFL Wealth Management) and BlackSoil. 

Founded in 2015 by Sumit Maniyar and Ashwin Soni, Rupeek offers custom gold loans as well as other standard lending products, with gold as collateral. It claims to be present in more than 40 cities across the country and have a customer base of more than 5 Lakh.

Backed by the likes of Peak XV Partners, Accel, GGV Capital, and Bertelsmann, the startup has raised a total funding of over $164 Mn till date. 

Rupeek saw its net loss narrow more than 22% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 281.6 Cr in the financial year 2022-23. However, operating revenue also declined 27.7% to INR 88.9 Cr in FY23 from INR 122.9 Cr in the previous year.

The startup has been focussing on profitability for the last few years. As part of this, it fired almost 250 employees in two layoff rounds amid the ongoing funding winter.

The post Exclusive: Rupeek To Raise INR 200 Cr From Elevation, Others At 60% Haircut appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Nitro Commerce, a full-stack revenue-as-a-service platform built for ecommerce and D2C brands and cofounded by Wigzo founder Umair Mohammed, has raised INR 15 Cr (about $1.8 Mn) in its seed funding round led by Cornerstone Venture Partners.

The funding round also saw participation from Warmup Ventures, Lead Angels, Dholakia Ventures, India Accelerator, and individual investors like Arjun Vaidya and Kunal Khattar.

The funding is part of INR 50 Cr (about $6 Mn) round that the startup is aiming to raise over the next few months.

Founded in 2023 by Umair Mohammed, Atyab Mohammed, Shamail Tayyab, and Pratik Anand, martech startup Nitro Commerce aims to provide technologies to new-age online brands to solve the customer acquisition bottleneck and help them increase revenue. 

The startup claims to be India’s first revenue-as-a-service stack for ecommerce, D2C, and other retail brands. Nitro Commerce currently has one live product, Nitro X, which it claims is a cookieless technology for future-proof marketing. This technology is awaiting the grant of a patent.

Nitro’s Grand Vision

Speaking to Inc42, Nitro Commerce cofounder and CEO Umair Mohammed said, “The ecommerce and D2C industry is accelerating at a phenomenal pace and a lot of new and older merchants are coming online. So we are building core technologies that will aid the top and middle of the funnel for these brands. We want to democratise this technology for merchants so that it is easy to access and deploy, and we are also building it as an outcome as a service.”

The startup claims to have already onboarded more than 140 D2C and ecommerce brands as clients, including Revlon, The Ayurveda Co. (T.A.C), and Amrutam, for Nitro X.

CEO Mohammed said that India being a Chrome-dominated market, Google’s decision to phase out third-party cookies for Chrome users will impact online-first brands in the country as third-party cookies are the bedrock of advertising. 

“While third-party cookies collection has privacy hazards, the entire remarketing of brands was so far built on third-party cookies and remarketing generates almost 20% of revenue,” explained Mohammed. “So, this is where we found the first major problem to solve. Our technology does not compromise user privacy at all, yet it helps brands capture almost 20-30% more data into the funnel.”

Nitro Commerce expects to onboard over 1,000 brands on Nitro X by the end of FY25.

The funds will provide the startup a steady runway for the next few months until it turns profitable. It is eyeing profitability by the end of 2025.

Meanwhile, Nitro Commerce is also working on developing multiple other products. It plans to launch its next product Nitro AI in six to eight months to help ecommerce and D2C brands train large language models (LLMs) and other AI technologies on their proprietary data.

Its other product Nitro Collab, which will provide brands with the ability to seamlessly collaborate with other brands and influencers, is currently under beta testing and is expected to be launched in Q4 FY25.

It also has two other products – Nitro Store and Nitro Play – in the pipeline.

Commenting on the investment,  Nanika Kakkar, partner at Cornerstone Venture, said Nitro Commerce unlocks value for brands through the end-to-end customer journey – from identity resolution and centralised data enrichment to building targeted behavioural marketing – leading to superlative customer conversions.

Meanwhile, D2C entrepreneur and investor Arjun Vaidya said, “I am a big advocate of the ecommerce revolution and believe one needs to invest in gold and the shovel. This (Nitro Commerce) is the shovel!”

The investors expect Nitro Commerce to become an integral part of the country’s burgeoning D2C market and ecommerce sector. As per Inc42, the country’s ecommerce industry is likely to become a $400 Bn market opportunity by 2030, clocking a CAGR of 19%. At about $300 Bn, the D2C sector is expected to account for 75% of this market. 

The post Exclusive: Wigzo Founder’s New Startup Nitro Bags Funds To Solve D2C Brands’ Customer Acquisition Challenges appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Taking a major step towards its initial public offering (IPO), electric two-wheeler manufacturer Ather Energy’s board passed a resolution last week, during its annual general meeting, to convert the startup into a public company from private.

Following this, the startup’s name has changed to Ather Energy Ltd from Ather Energy Pvt Ltd earlier, its regulatory filings revealed.

Besides the conversion into a public entity, the startup is also increasing its authorised share capital to INR 50 Cr from INR 93.6 Lakh. It will also issue bonus shares to its shareholders and allot them 2.96 bonus equity shares for every share held. 

The developments come months after it was reported that the electric vehicle (EV) startup roped in HSBC Holdings Plc, Nomura Holdings Inc, and JP Morgan Chase & Co to handle its initial public offering (IPO). Ather Energy was said to be eyeing a listing in the second half of 2024 at a valuation of around $2 Bn.

Earlier this month, Inc42 reported that Ather Energy raised INR 286 Cr through a mix of debt and equity from Stride Ventures and its cofounders. While Stride Ventures invested around INR 200 Cr via debentures, cofounder Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain infused INR 43.28 Cr. 

Besides, Hero MotoCorp acquired an additional 2.2% stake in Ather Energy for INR 124 Cr. Hero MotoCorp bought this stake from Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal, who exited the startup by selling his entire 7.5% stake. Bansal sold the remaining part of this stake to Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath.

Hero MotorCorp now owns around 40% stake in the EV startup. 

Founded in 2013 by Jain and Mehta, Ather Energy is one of the major players in the Indian electric two-wheeler market. Besides manufacturing and servicing electric two wheelers, the startup also operates its own charging infrastructure and is involved in storage, distribution and management of electric power and other ancillary services.

Ather Energy’s net loss surged 150% to INR 864.5 Cr in FY23 as against INR 344.1 Cr in the previous year. Meanwhile, operating revenue jumped 4.3X year-on-year (YoY) to INR 1,783.6 Cr during the year under review.

Ather Energy closely competes against Bhavish Aggarwal’s Ola Electric, which at the moment is dominating the EV two-wheeler segment in the country. It is pertinent to note that Ola Electric is also looking to go public and received the market regulator SEBI’s approval last week for its INR 5,500+ Cr IPO.

The post Exclusive: Ather Energy Converts Into A Public Entity As IPO Plans Gather Steam appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Delhi NCR-based logistics startup Ecom Express is in talks with existing investors Warburg Pincus, CDC Group, and Partners Group to raise a funding of about INR 350-400 Cr, sources told Inc42.

The discussions are in the final stages and the funding round could catapult Ecom Express’ valuation to over $1 Bn, making it the latest entrant to the country’s unicorn club, the sources said.

The startup intends to utilise the fresh funds to double down on reverse logistics and same-day delivery.

“The company will focus more on newer products in reverse logistics and same delivery. While reverse logistics has a better yield, there’s a growing demand for same day delivery in Tier-I and beyond cities,” one of the sources said. 

Reverse logistics is the process of moving goods back upstream from their typical final destination in the supply chain for various purposes such as returns, repairs, recycling, or disposal.

A detailed questionnaire sent to Ecom Express on the funding round didn’t elicit any response till the time of publishing this story. 

While Ecom Express is yet to file its financial statements for the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), Inc42 has learnt from sources that the startup turned EBITDA profitable during the year.

Founded in 2012 by Late TA Krishnan, Manju Dhawan, K Satyanarayana and Sanjeev Saxena, Ecom Express claims to have 3,000 delivery centres spanning 9.6 Mn sq. ft. of space. The logistics startup delivers packages to 27,000 pin codes in 2,700 cities and towns across the country.

The latest development comes almost a month after Inc42 exclusively reported that Ecom Express had partnered Skye Air for drone deliveries in Delhi NCR.

The startup last raised $39 Mn from Warburg Pincus, CDC Group, and Partners Group in 2022.

Last year, Ecom express appointed Ajit Chitkara as its managing director and chief executive officer following the demise of TA Krishnan. Earlier this year, it also roped in former founder of proptech venture Multiliving Technologies, Pankaj Singh, as the chief commercial officer (CCO). Last month, former Airtel vice president, product Pallavi Tyagi joined Ecom Express as the chief marketing officer (CMO). 

Ecom Express has raised a total funding of about $300 Mn till date and competes against the likes of publicly listed Delhivery, Xpressbees, and Shiprocket. 

The post Exclusive: Ecom Express In Talks To Raise INR 350-400 Cr From Existing Investors appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Delhi NCR-based AVIOM Housing Finance has raised $5 Mn debt funding from InsuResilience Investment Fund, the startup’s regulatory filings revealed. 

AVIOM raised the funds by allotting 500 secured, listed US dollar denominated bonds to InsuResilience Investment Fund. 

InsuResilience Investment Fund, formerly known as Climate Insurance Fund, is an initiative by the German development bank KfW on behalf of Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). 

The objective of the fund is to reduce the vulnerability of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) and low-income households to extreme weather events.

The fundraise comes almost a couple of months after Inc42 exclusively reported about AVIOM raising $10 Mn in debt funding from BlueOrchard Microfinance Fund.

Founded in 2016 by Kajal Ilmi, AVIOM provides housing loans to low-income households across the country. It claims to combine lending with social impact and caters to the niche informal housing market. The startup offers housing loans to individuals for home improvements, renovation, and sanitation. 

It primarily offers loans to women from predominantly semi-urban and rural regions who do not have any formal income documentation. It claims to have a live customer base of around 50,000.

AVIOM claims to have disbursed loans worth 80,000 loans across 13 Indian states till date. It has over 350 branches across the country. 

The startup counts BlueOrchard Impact Investment Managers, DFC, Triple Jump among its marquee investors. It is also backed by financial institutions like Vivriti Capital, Aditya Birla Capital, and Mahindra Finance Fund. 

In April last year, AVIOM raised $30 Mn in its Series D funding round led by Nuveen. It was a mix of primary and secondary investments and provided a partial exit to impact VC firm C4D Partners and Gojo & Co.

Prior to that, AVIOM raised $8 Mn in its Series C funding round. Overall, it has raised a total funding of $54 Mn till date. 

AVIOM competes against the likes of DMI Finance, Avanti Finance, and Moneyboxx. 

The post Exclusive: AVIOM Housing Finance Raises $5 Mn Debt From InsuResilience Investment Fund appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Climate-focussed venture capital (VC) fund Green Frontier Capital has exited EV battery-swapping startup Battery Smart with about 18X returns. 

Green Frontier exited Battery Smart during its Series B funding round of $65 Mn, which was led by LeapFrog Investments. The round, a mix of primary and secondary startup investments, also saw participation from MUFG Bank, Panasonic, Ecosystem Integrity Fund (EIF), Blume Ventures, and British International Investment (BII).

With this, Green Frontier became the first early backer of Battery Smart to fully exit the startup. Earlier, Orios Venture Partners announced its partial exit from Battery Smart with 29X returns. 

Sandiip Bhammer, the founder and co-managing partner of Green Frontier, told Inc42 that the exit is a testament to Battery Smart’s “phenomenal” growth over the years. 

“We are an early-stage VC investor and the company has gone beyond the stages in which we invest. To be precise, Battery Smart has effectively outgrown our fund mandate because of the rapid increase in its size. We are excited about their future as they partner with their new growth-stage investors and help the EV adoption in India from here on,” said Bhammer.

Founded in 2019 by IIT Kanpur graduates Pulkit Khurana and Siddharth Sikka, Battery Smart offers battery-swapping solutions across the country. The startup has emerged as one of the leading battery-swapping networks for electric two and three-wheelers. Currently, it has around 70% market share in the EV battery-swapping network.

Green Frontier invested in the startup in 2021 when Battery Smart used to do around 1 Lakh battery swaps per month. The number of battery swaps has zoomed to about 10 Lakh per month now, Bhammer said.

However, the VC firm declined to comment on the exact amount of returns it made from the exit.

Inc42 has learnt from sources that Green Frontier exited Battery Smart with 17.9X returns and 150% internal rate of return (IRR).

Meanwhile, Bhammer said, “Green Frontier has given outsized returns to its investors in a very short period. Both Pulkit and Siddharth are among the best climate entrepreneurs that we have backed. Their vision has been clear from day one. They have more than achieved what our expectations were for them.”

Founded in 2020 by Bhammer, Green Frontier counts the likes of BluSmart, ElectricPe, and Euler Motors in its portfolio. 

On the other hand, Battery Smart competes with the likes of Chargeup, RACEnergy and SUN Mobility. Prior to its latest funding round, the startup raised $33 Mn in pre-Series B funding round in July last year.

As per Battery Smart’s standalone financials, its operating revenue jumped 597% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 55.4 Cr in FY23. Net loss widened 401% YoY to INR 64.4 Cr in FY23.

The post Exclusive: Green Frontier Capital Exits Battery Smart With About 18X Returns appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-based GenAI-powered product photography startup Ayna has raised $1.5 Mn (about INR 12.5 Cr) in its seed funding round, led by Inflexor Ventures. The round also saw participation from a few angel investors, including Jabong founder Praveen Sinha and Credgenics cofounder Mayank Khera.

The startup plans to use the funds to further expand its AI capabilities, scale its team, and accelerate its mission to make high-quality product photography accessible to businesses of all sizes.

Founded in 2023 by Aastha Rajpal and Yash Bansal, Ayna leverages its proprietary compound foundational models (CFMs) and diffusion models to provide ecommerce brands with studio-quality product photoshoots.

The startup counts apparel brands like Reliance Retail’s Clovia, WomanLikeU, and Bummer, and D2C furniture and mattress brand Wakefit among its clients. 

Ayna cofounder Rajpal told Inc42 that the platform can create and customise an entire virtual human model around the clothes or any product, eliminating the necessity of human models for photoshoots.

Its GenAI-based platform allows creation of virtual human models with multiple options across ethnicities such as American, Russian, Indian, and Indian sub-cultures such as Kashmiri, Bengali, and others. It also gives the options to choose different body types, gender, age, as well as eye and hair colours.

Once the virtual model is created, the brands can upload the reference photos of their products. Ayna then extracts the products out of the reference images and generates the photographs. Users can also choose the number of photos they require, the kind of lighting, mood, and background. 

Ayna’s Global Ambitions

Commenting on the technology behind Ayna’s offerings, Rajpal said, “We took stable diffusion and fine-tuned it to get photorealism, and then built intelligent layers on top of it to get outputs like these.” 

However, she said that this is just the beginning and the startup has more advanced GenAI-based offerings in the pipeline. 

“Right now we keep the garments constant and diffuse everything around it. After this, we will start diffusing the garments too, so that they can also be reconstructed from scratch and look like the brands’ original garments/products. We are building a compound foundational model for this,” Rajpal added. 

While Ayna started by helping apparel brands make product photography for ecommerce use cases more seamless and cost-effective with its GenAI capabilities, the startup is doubling down on other products and lifestyle photoshoots. The recent addition of Wakefit is a testament to that.

It is also eyeing global expansion, particularly in the fashion hubs of the world, like the US and the European countries. It is likely to enter the US market this year itself.

Meanwhile, Ayna is also looking to expand its customer base. So far, it catered to enterprises only. Now, the startup is creating a portal for long-tail customers where any user can enter and do photoshoots.

The startup is looking to grow its customer base to over 1,000 by the end of 2024 from 15 currently.

Speaking on the investment, Inflexor Ventures principal Murali Krishna Gunturu said that the VC firm is betting on the startup’s strong founding team, its technology, and the quality of output.

“Though this is going to be a crowded market and multiple players are already trying to solve the same problem, Ayna’s innovative technology, distribution capability, and impressive early achievements highlight the team’s potential,” Gunturu said. 

“Eventually, most ecommerce platforms will not do physical photoshoots and rely on artificially generated images. We are confident that Ayna will emerge as a leader in this AI-driven fashion and ecommerce solutions space, changing the face of both shopping and brands’ experiences,” he added.

Ayna currently competes with the likes of NeuroPixel.AI, AlphaBake, and ModelVerse. 

As per Inc42’s analysis, India’s GenAI market is expected to cross the $17 Bn mark by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 48%.

The post Exclusive: GenAI Startup Ayna Bags Funding From Inflexor To Redefine Ecommerce Photoshoot appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-based slice has raised $20 Mn (about INR 170 Cr) in a debt funding round from Neo Asset Management’s Credit Opportunities Fund, as per the fintech startup regulatory filings. 

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 get the remaining amount soon.

slice would utilise the funds for corporate purposes and working capital requirements, people aware of the development told Inc42.

slice didn’t respond to Inc42’s queries on the fundraise. 

The fundraise comes on the heels of Neo Asset Management closing the first Special Credit Opportunities Fund by raising INR 2,575 Cr from HNIs and family offices. 

The wealth management platform said that the credit fund focuses on investing in non-triple-A rated companies that are at least posting operating profits. 

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 now awaits approval from National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for the merger. Following the merger, the fintech startup would get a banking licence. 

Founded in 2016 by Rajan Bajaj, slice (previously known as Slicepay) 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. 

The startup, 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 post Exclusive: Fintech Unicorn slice Raises $20 Mn Debt From Neo Asset Management appeared first on Inc42 Media.

KB NBFC, the non-banking financial company subsidiary of lending tech startup KreditBee, secured INR 268 Cr (about $32 Mn) debt funding from Yubi, Dzerv, Neo Group, OfBusiness, and Oxyzo, among others between April and June, the company’s regulatory filings revealed. 

The company received the latest tranche of INR 100 Cr last week from Dzerv and Neo Group after allotment of debentures.

The funding is likely to be used for working capital needs and to expand the business. 

KreditBee declined to comment on Inc42’s queries on the fundraise. 

It is pertinent to note that KB NBFC is one of the lending partners of KreditBee. Besides KB NBFC, KreditBee also has partnerships with Incred Finance, Vivriti Capital, Northern Arc, Pay U Finance, among others. 

The fresh development comes a little over two months after Inc42 exclusively reported about KreditBee raising $9.4 Mn from existing investors, including Advent International, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) Bank, Premji Invest, Motilal Oswal Alternates, NewQuest Capital Partners, and Mirae Asset Ventures.

Back then, a spokesperson of the startup confirmed the development and said the fundraise was part of its extended Series D round.

With the additional funding, KreditBee closed its Series D round at $209 Mn and was valued at around $700 Mn. 

To date, KreditBee has raised around $400 Mn in funding across multiple rounds and counts the likes of Arkam Ventures, TPG Growth, and Mirae Asset Ventures among its backers. 

Launched in 2018 by Madhusudan Ekambaram, Karthikeyan Krishnaswamy, and Vivek Veda, KreditBee serves credit and other personal finance requirements and claims to have a user base of over 30 Mn individuals, predominantly young professionals. This includes both salaried employees and self-employed individuals. 

The startup claims it has more than 11 Cr registered customers and over 1.2 Cr unique loan customers.

KreditBee competes with the likes of Navi, PB Fintech, LoanTap, and Capital Float. With an eye on going public, KreditBee is said to be looking to reverse flip to India.

The post Exclusive: KreditBee Subsidiary KB NBFC Raises $32 Mn In Debt Funding appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Update | June 11, 13:30 PM

Almost three weeks after Inc42 exclusively reported that Battery Smart is raising its Series B, today the startup announced that it raised $65 Mn in a Series B funding led by LeapFrog Investments. The equity round is a mix of primary and secondary investments and saw participation from new and existing investors, including MUFG Bank, Panasonic, Ecosystem Integrity Fund (EIF), Blume Ventures and British International Investment (BII).

Pulkit Khurana, cofounder and CEO said that the fresh capital will enable the startup to accelerate its expansion, enhance technology, and strengthen its market presence

Original Story | May 16, 16:08 PM

Delhi NCR-based battery-swapping startup Battery Smart is raising around INR 376.3 Cr (about $45 Mn) from existing and new investors in what seems to be a Series B funding round. 

As per the startup’s regulatory filing, the funding round will see participation from Acacia Inclusion Ltd, Japan’s MUFG Bank, Blume Ventures, The Ecosystem Integrity Fund (EIF), British International Investment (BII) and Panasonic-Kurashi Visionary Fund. 

Acacia Inclusion Ltd, MUFG Bank and Panasonic-Kurashi Fund are the new additions to the startup’s cap table. 

Post this fundraise, Aracia Inclusion Ltd will hold 9.83% stake in Battery Smart, while Blume Venture Partners will have 14.43% stake and EIF 6.56% stake on a fully-diluted basis.

As per Inc42 estimates, the funding round has valued the startup at around $350 Mn. 

The startup, in the filing, said that the capital will be utilised for business growth and expansion. 

A detailed questionnaire sent to Battery Smart on the funding round didn’t elicit any response till the time of publishing this story. 

The fundraise comes almost a year after the startup raised $33 Mn in its pre-Series B funding round from Tiger Global, Blume Ventures, EIF, and BII. 

In June 2022, Battery Smart raised $25 Mn in a Series A funding round led by Tiger Global, along with participation from Blume Ventures and Orios Ventures. Back then, the startup said it was aiming to add 100K customers to its network by 2025 and expand its geographical footprint.

Founded in 2020 by IIT Kanpur graduates Pulkit Khurana and Siddharth Sikka, Battery Smart offers battery swapping solutions and charging infrastructure across the country. Currently, it has the highest number of swapping stations in Delhi NCR. 

As per Battery Smart’s standalone financials, its operating revenue zoomed 597% to INR 55.4 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) from INR 7.9 Cr in FY22. Meanwhile, net loss jumped 401% to INR 64.4 Cr in FY23 from INR 12.8 Cr in FY22. 

In the battery swapping space, Battery Smart competes against the likes of Chargeup, Sun Mobility, RACEnergy, among others.

The post [Update] Exclusive: Battery Smart Snags $65 Mn From LeapFrog Investments, Existing Investors appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Update | June 10, 11:00 PM

Nearly two months after Inc42 exclusively reported that Innoviti was looking to raise INR 115 Cr in Series E funding, the digital payments solutions provider on Monday (June 10) said it has initiated the second close of its Series E round with the participation of US-based Alumni Ventures.

“The second close of INR 75 Cr has been initiated with an investment by Alumni Ventures, USA,” it said in a statement.

The payment-focussed SaaS platform said additional investors are expected to join the Series E round in the coming weeks and the fundraise will be closed by June-end.

Meanwhile, the company also hinted at its IPO plans in its statement. “Series E is expected to be the last round before the company starts generating sufficient cash for its future growth, expected to happen in the next 12 months. The company will initiate its IPO planning subsequently,” it added. 

Innoviti said its enterprise business has been generating “operating profits for the past 10 quarters with operating profits of 18%”. It also said that the company’s electronics brand EMI mid-market business has been clocking an 8% month-on-month (MoM) growth and has captured 7% of the market in less than 12 months. 

“The online business is growing 10% month-on-month and is already operating at a contribution margin of 14% and expanding rapidly. Both mid-market and online business are growing 10% month-on-month and targeted to become operating profitable by September 24,” the statement added. 

Original Story | April 1, 06:01 PM

Digital payments solution company Innoviti is looking to raise INR 115 Cr ($13.7 Mn) in its Series E funding round from existing and new investors.

A company spokesperson told Inc42 that the round will comprise a rights issue and a preferential issue, and is expected to close by the end of April 2024.

Three new investors will join the company’s cap table following the fundraise, the spokesperson said but refused to disclose their names.

Earlier today, Innoviti announced raising INR 40 Cr via the rights issue, led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Patni Family Office. It also saw participation from early angels and founders.

Earlier, VCCircle reported that Innoviti was eyeing raising INR 124 Cr in a pre-IPO round. 

The company intends to utilise the fresh capital to fuel its mid-market and online expansion. Besides, it is also looking to expand its payment aggregator business. 

Last week, the company received the final approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for its payment aggregator licence. 

Innoviti operates payment aggregator ‘Innoviti Link’, which currently serves 2,500 online merchants.

The final approval for the licence came almost two years after Innoviti secured the central bank’s in-principle nod to operate as a payment aggregator. The company has been active in the digital payments space since 2002 and allows users to accept payments and integrate real-time sales data into critical business processes.

It also provides point of sale (PoS) terminals that enable retail enterprises to process card payments. Besides, it offers customer relationship management (CRM) solutions to retailers.

Innoviti last raised $45 Mn in its Series D funding round, led by Singapore-based equity firm Panthera Growth Partners.

Founded in 2002, the company claims to process over INR 75,000 Cr of purchase volume annually. It claims to have a network of over 20K retailers across 2,000 cities in India. 

The company is eyeing a public listing in the next 18-24 months. It is expected to post a revenue of $15 Mn in FY24. Innoviti claimed that its enterprise business has been profitable for the past 10 quarters, while the mid-market and online business combined are expected to break even in the next six months.

The post [Update] Innoviti Initiates Second Close Of INR 115 Cr Series E Fundraise, Hints At IPO appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Update | June 6, 03:30 PM

A week after Inc42 exclusively reported about Amazon acquiring MX Player, the ecommerce giant confirmed the development saying it has signed an agreement to purchase some assets of the video streaming platform. 

However, the company said that the transaction is not completed yet. 

“We are always looking for ways to introduce new products and services that help improve customers’ lives. We’re excited to continue to entertain India with the great local originals and exclusive content available across our Prime Video and miniTV services in India,” a spokesperson of Amazon said.

Original Story | May 29, 16:30 PM

After months of delays and speculations, US-based ecommerce giant Amazon is in the final stages of acquiring Times Internet-owned video streaming platform MX Player.

Sources told Inc42 that the ecommerce major is acquiring MX Player in an all-cash deal for a little over $100 Mn. 

“Everything’s in place and the due diligence process is over. A formal announcement will be made within a week,” people aware of the matter said. 

Post the acquisition, MX Player’s senior management will join Amazon. 

A query mail sent to Times Internet didn’t elicit any response till the time of publishing this story. Amazon India was not immediately available for a comment. The story will be updated on receiving responses.

It is pertinent to note that cash-strapped MX Player has been in the market for nearly a year for an acquisition.

Founded in 2011 as a video player by a South Korean firm, MX Player was acquired by Times Internet in 2018 for about $140 Mn. It was eventually remodeled to an ad-supported video streaming platform. 

In 2019, it raised $110 Mn funding from Tencent, which was considered one of the largest funding rounds at that time. As per media reports, the platform was valued at around $500 Mn during its last fund raise. 

Karan Bedi is currently the CEO of MX Player. He has been helming the top post since 2017.

It is important to note that Times Internet has been divesting its assets for some time now. Last year, it sold MX Takatak, Dineout, MensXP, iDiva and Hypp.

Amazon Resumed Acquisition Talks This Year

It was first reported last year that Amazon was planning to acquire MX Player to bolster its advertisement-supported MiniTV service in India. During the same time, MX Player announced that its chief operating officer Nikhil Gandhi stepped down from his role. 

However, as per a Mint report, the deal failed because of due diligence and valuation mismatch, resulting in MX Player to look for funding in the private market. The talks for the acquisition resumed again earlier this year.

While MX Player’s financial statement for FY23 is not publicly available, it incurred a net loss of $100 Mn on a revenue of $36.8 Mn in FY22. 

MX Player claims to have more than 150 Mn active users in the country. It competes against the likes of Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV in the crowded Indian OTT market.

The post [Update] Exclusive: Amazon In Final Stages Of Acquiring MX Player From Times Internet For Over $100 Mn appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In yet another top-level exit at Paytm, chief human resources officer (CHRO) Swati Rustagi is leaving the fintech giant, sources told Inc42.

Rustagi recently resigned from the Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led startup after a stint of over a year and is currently serving her notice period. Prior to joining Paytm, she worked with Amazon, Max Healthcare, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, among others. 

Rustagi is likely to join US-based design software company Adobe, the sources said.

Query emails sent to Paytm and Adobe didn’t elicit any response till the time of publishing this story. Rustagi didn’t respond to our messages and calls. 

The development comes at a time when Paytm is going through a period of upheaval after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ordered a number of curbs on Paytm Payments Bank, bringing the payments bank’s business to a halt.

Consequently, besides the disruption in its lending business, Paytm has seen a number of key leaders quit the startup.

Earlier this month, Inc42 reported that Ajay Vikram Singh, Bipin Kaul, and Sandeepan Kashyap,  who were chief business officers handling three different verticals, left the company. 

These departures followed the resignation of president and COO Bhavesh Gupta. In addition, the company named new CEOs for its Paytm Money business, and also saw the exit of other business heads.

“We are committed to ensuring a sustained growth across key business verticals as we are going through a restructuring initiative that signals a reinvigorated approach under Paytm’s CEO. These changes are part of our approach to strengthen Paytm’s next line of leaders,” a spokesperson for Paytm said then.

Amid these exits, there have been some elevations as well. On Wednesday, Paytm Insider elevated its business head for live entertainment (intellectual properties and partnerships) segment, Varun Khare, to the position of chief operating officer (COO).

Last week, Paytm reported over 225% widening of its net loss to INR 550.5 Cr in Q4 FY24 from INR 167.5 Cr in the year-ago quarter. Revenue from operations declined 2.9% YoY to INR 2,267.1 Cr from INR 2,334 Cr in the same period last year. 

The startup’s payments business revenue grew by 7% YoY to INR 1,568 Cr in the fourth quarter, whereas financial services revenue dropped by 36% to INR 304 Cr YoY. 

The post Exclusive: Paytm CHRO Swati Rustagi Quits, Likely To Join Adobe appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Travel tech startup Atlys, which counts Andreessen Horowitz, Elevation Capital, and South Park Commons among its investors, is reportedly in talks with existing investor Peak XV Partners and others to raise $15-18 Mn in its Series B round.

The startup is eyeing a valuation of nearly $70 Mn, Entrackr reported citing sources.

The funding round will be led by Peak XV. However, the talks are in initial stages and the round may close in two months, the report added.

Atlys declined to comment on Inc42’s queries on the development. 

Founded by former Pinterest engineer Mohtak Nahta in 2020, Atlys is an online visa platform that claims to ensure on-time delivery of visas. The startup claims to provide the applicants an exact timeline for their visa arrival.

In September last year, Atlys raised $12 Mn in its Series A funding round co-led by Elevation Capital and Peak XV Partners. 

Back then, the startup said the funding would help it strengthen its tech stack, expand its product line and recruit staff.

At the time, Atlys said it would use a portion of the capital to solidify its foothold in the global e-visa market, which is projected to reach a size of $4.03 Bn by 2032 from $1.82 Bn in 2023.

Atlys claims to have processed over 5 Lakh visas so far and enabled e-visa applications for over 100 countries from India, including UAE, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Argentina, Russia and Sri Lanka. 

Atlys enables users to apply for a visa in under 3 minutes. Recently, it rolled out a refund feature to ensure financial security in case of visa rejection. All Atlys users are eligible for a refund up to INR 8,000 in the event of visa rejection, unless the user is banned from entering a country.

Atlys operates in both B2B and B2C segments and competes against the likes of VisaHQ and iVisa.com.

The post Visa Processing Startup Atlys In Talks With Peak XV, Others To Raise $15-18 Mn appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Edtech giant Unacademy is accused of having changed its hiring terms for several candidates after floating offers letters for the role of business development associates (BDAs) and senior business development associates, multiple candidates told Inc42. 

The candidates were given offer letters as part of the startup’s extensive hiring drive for sales positions in March and April this year, but the terms of employment were changed soon after these initial offers were made.

Inc42 learnt that Unacademy issued revised fresh offer letters to several such candidates on the joining date, and added a seven-day training programme as a final round for screening candidates even after they had seemingly been given the offer letters.

Notably, this clause was absent from their original ‘Letter of Offer’ sent to candidates.

Inc42 has seen both the offer letters (original and the revised), along with the email communication, issued to the candidates who failed to clear the graduation mock call (GMC).

As per the new offer letters, the training programme concluded with the GMC test, and only those candidates who cleared this test would be offered the jobs for the BDA position, and even paid for the “time devoted towards passing the GMC”.

Some candidates Inc42 spoke with said they were puzzled to see on their joining date that they were not yet selected for the jobs and their employment hinged on them passing the GMC test. 

“There were several batches of 30-40 candidates who were earlier selected for BDA, senior BDA positions but were later asked to take a 7-day training (which was paid) and a GMC test thereafter… There was no such clause in the first offer letter. Eventually they [Unacademy] selected only 2-3 candidates from each batch,” a candidate said. 

The candidates added that Unacademy’s HR department was unresponsive when approached with questions about the GMC test.

Unacademy did not respond to questions on the changes in hiring terms for BDAs.

Some candidates also alleged that while many of them were selected for the inside sales vertical, the startup later told them that they would have to do field sales too. 

Many candidates, who were initially selected by Unacademy for the sales roles, were former employees of troubled edtech startup BYJU’S who were laid off earlier this year.

“Even the packages being offered now across the sales positions in edtech are almost 50% lower than what were being offered a year ago. BYJU’S laid off employees en masse, which has flooded the edtech market with job seekers,” according to the founder of a Bengaluru-based HRtech startup.

It is pertinent to note that Unacademy has also faced a fair share of problems amid the ongoing funding winter and the slowdown in the edtech sector over the last couple of years. Earlier this month, Unacademy-owned PrepLadder fired 150 employees as the company rejigged its sales strategy.

It’s not clear why the company has taken this step, but in recent months, Unacademy’s focus has primarily been on the offline learning space, where it competes with PhysicsWallah, Vedantu, BYJU’S-owned Aakash, Allen and other major players. The startup appointed Pratik Dalal as the CFO for the offline business and elevated Jagnoor Singh to the COO of the vertical. It currently has centres in 20+ cities across the country.

Unacademy’s Cost-Cutting Spree 

Amid the slowdown in the edtech sector, Unacademy, like many other edtech startups, laid off employees in multiple restructuring exercises over the last couple of years. As per Inc42’s layoff tracker, the startup downsized its workforce by over 2,000 employees during this period. 

The edtech giant also saw multiple exits of top-level executives over the past year or so. The following are some of those who left the startup:

• Arnab Dutta – Senior Vice President Strategy
• Vivek Sinha – Chief Operating Officer
• Abhyudaya Singh Rana – Chief of Staff, Chief of Compliance Officer
• Subramanian Ramachandran – Chief Financial Officer
• Siddharth Manchanda – General Counsel
• Tina Balachandran – Senior Vice President, Talent and Culture
• Sachin Aggarwal – Head Franchisee Business (Offline Centres)
• Karan Shroff – Partner & Chief Operating Officer
• Ashish Arora – Senior Vice President & National Head Academics

The aforementioned layoffs resulted in an improvement in the bottom line of the SoftBank-backed startup. In FY23, Unacademy’s loss reduced to INR 1,678.1 Cr from INR 2,847.9 Cr in the previous fiscal. Meanwhile, operating revenue rose 26% to INR 907 Cr during the year from INR 719.2 Cr in FY22. 

It must be noted that Unacademy previously poached educators/ trainers from rivals Allen Career Institute and Aakash Education Services, among others, at exorbitant salaries as part of its offline push.

However, in FY23, employee costs dropped 28% to INR 1,281.2 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,771.6 Cr in the previous fiscal year. The startup also brought down the payment to educators by 31% to INR 564.2 Cr during the year from INR 814.2 Cr in FY22.

In December 2023, Unacademy group CEO and cofounder Gaurav Munjal said that the startup’s cashburn reduced by 60% in 2023, and it had enough cash for a runway of more than four years.

The post Exclusive: Unacademy’s New BDA Hires In A Fix Over Mandatory Training & Quick Termination appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-based healthtech startup MediBuddy is raising $8.4 Mn (about INR 70 Cr) debt funding from existing debt investors, including Innoven Capital and Alteria Capital, Inc42 has learnt.

Confirming the development, the startup told Inc42 that the funds would be used for sustained growth and potential acquisitions. 

“MediBuddy is strategically raising INR 70 Cr in debt from our trusted existing debt partners. Our core business remains financially robust and does not require immediate capital, this initiative is a vital component of our comprehensive business strategy to further fuel expansion,” a MediBuddy spokesperson said in a statement. 

The spokesperson added that the debt funding will enhance its cash reserves for new strategic priorities. 

MediBuddy also claimed in the statement that it closed FY24 with a marginal loss and approached EBITDA neutrality. Now, it is focussed on acquiring companies within key healthcare sectors, including women’s health, mental health, diabetes, and chronic disease management. 

“… To enhance our cash reserves for new strategic priorities, we are undertaking this debt raise, which is non-dilutive to our equity… This infusion of capital will enable us to continue investing in innovative healthcare solutions, expanding our reach, and enhancing the quality of our services,” the statement added.

The fresh debt infusion comes almost nine months after the startup bagged $18 Mn from its existing investors, including Qadaria Capital, Lightrock, and TEAMFund, for expansion and strategic acquisitions. 

Founded in 2015 by Satish Kannan and Enbasekar Dinadayalane, MediBuddy offers doctor video consultations, end-to-end surgery care, online lab test booking and medicine ordering services. Besides this, the startup also offers insurance solutions with the help of Medi Assist.

MediBuddy claims to have a network of over 90,000 doctors, 7,000 hospitals, 3,000 diagnostic centres, and 2,500 pharmacies, covering almost 96% of Indian pin codes. The startup currently claims to have a customer base of over 3 Cr. 

With the latest fundraise, the startup’s combined equity and debt funding would increase to about $218 Mn. The soonicorn startup counts the likes of Bessemer Venture Partners, India Life Sciences Fund III, Rebright Partners, JAFCO Asia, and TEAMFUND LP among its backers. 

MediBuddy directly competes against the likes of Tata-owned 1mg, Practo, and Reliance-owned Netmeds in the burgeoning Indian market. 

Telemedicine startups saw a stupendous increase in demand with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. On the back of this, a number of healthtech startups raised capital to expand their offerings and infrastructure.

However, these startups saw a sharp decline in their user base after the pandemic subsided, resulting in many healthtech startups shutting down. Manipal Group-backed Phable, and MojoCare were among the startups which shut operations. 

The post Exclusive: MediBuddy To Raise $8.4 Mn Debt Funding To Fuel Expansion Plans appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The rapid expansion and adoption of foodtech majors Zomato and Swiggy is set to hurt the sale of the quick-service restaurant (QSR) sector, which includes pizza and burger chains, as per a report by brokerage BNP Paribas. 

In its QSR Tracker report, the brokerage said that Zomato’s average monthly active restaurant partners surged to 2.70 Lakh by FY24 from 61,000 in FY19. In comparison, listed QSR chains had a cumulative store count of 5,300 stores as of FY24.

Meanwhile, IPO-bound Swiggy had 2.72 Lakh active restaurants on the platform at the end of FY23.

“This implies that the scale of food delivery companies has expanded significantly over the past few years, which has helped improve customer reach, especially for smaller restaurants,” the report said.

Analysts at the brokerage said that restaurants active on Zomato increased to 51X of total branded QSR stores in FY24 vs 22X in FY19, and this will continue to expand rapidly.

“… with consumers now having more options, sales are likely to get fragmented. This is further denting the already weak average daily sales of the QSR industry, along with the general weakness in demand,” they added.

At the segment level, the report said that the revenue growth for listed QSR companies was down by 9% year-on-year in Q4 FY24, against an 18% increase in FY23 for the same quarter. At the heart of this decline lies the low demand, macroeconomic conditions, and lower consumer spending among others. 

Despite the low demand and slow sales growth, QSR companies have retained their plans to open new stores or spend on capital expenditure, the report added.

Jubilant FoodWorks, Devyani International – a franchisee for Yum Brands (KFC & Pizza Hut) in India, and Restaurant Brands Asia, which runs Burger King, are among the major QSR brands in India which are looking to increase the number of their outlets in India. 

The report comes at a time when both Zomato and Swiggy have been taking steps to further increase the restaurant count and help the existing restaurants on their respective platforms. 

Earlier this year, Swiggy introduced a marketing tool called ‘Smart Links’ that enables restaurants to redirect customers from social media posts and advertisements to their menu pages on the food delivery app. It also launched a digital learning academy to support the growth of its restaurant partners last year.

In January, Zomato also rolled out a daily payout feature for select restaurants. 

However, Swiggy increased its restaurant collection fee to 2% last year after Zomato imposed a similar ‘payment gateway fee’ of around 1.8% on all orders. 

Besides, both the platforms have also introduced platform fees, which seems to have helped them shore up their toplines without any major impact on the demand for their services. 

Zomato’s consolidated profit surged to INR 175 Cr in Q4 of FY24, up 26% from INR 138 Cr in the same quarter last year. For the same period, its operating revenue rose 73% to INR 3,562 Cr in Q4 FY24 against INR 2,056 Cr in Q4 FY23.  

Along similar lines, Swiggy’s operating revenue zoomed 40% to INR 8,264 Cr in FY23 compared to 5,704 Cr in FY22. 

Amid all these, Swiggy is also preparing for its IPO, which is likely to comprise a fresh issue worth INR 3,750 Cr and an offer for sale component of INR 6,664 Cr. 

With increasing smartphone penetration and adoption of online food ordering, the food delivery market in the country is expected to rise rapidly and have 34.66 Cr users by 2028, as per Statista.

The post Rapid Growth Of Zomato, Swiggy To Hurt QSR Sales: BNP Paribas  appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Delhi NCR-based Ecom Express has become the latest Indian logistics company looking to leverage drones for faster deliveries. The Warburg Pincus-backed startup will begin a drone delivery pilot this week in the Delhi NCR-region, Ecom Express COO Vishwachetan Nadamani told Inc42.

The startup plans to expand the pilot in a staged manner. After Delhi, it will be launched in Bengaluru, and later in parts of Chandigarh.

Ecom Express has partnered drone startup Skye Air for the pilot. 

Responding to a question about the type of packages that would be delivered via drones, Nadamani said, “At this point we expect beauty products, personal care products, and medicines to be the categories which will see drone delivery.”

How Drone Deliveries Will Work

Explaining the procedure for drone deliveries, Nadamani said that the packages will be delivered to Skye Air’s mother pod during Ecom Express’s milk run in a particular area. 

For the uninitiated, a milk run is a daily fixed route taken by a logistics company to pick and drop packages. 

From there, drones, which can carry a weight of up to 5 kg, will carry the packages to the delivery pod zone — located within a radius of 500 metres to 1 km from the recipients’ addresses. Delivery executives of Skye Air will then deliver the packages to the customers either on foot or bicycle.

The routes for the pilot will be decided based on the number of shipments in the area and the drone startup’s coverage. 

“Firstly, the area has to have a decent shipment density and secondly the route must fall under Skye Air’s coverage. Whichever shipment they can fly, we will give it to them,” Nadamani said. 

Ecom Express plans to start drone deliveries with 500 shipments per day for the first two weeks, and then increase it to 2,000 shipments per day. 

The startup, founded in 2012, claims to deliver packages to 27,000 pin codes in 2,700 cities and towns across the country.

The Drone Race In India’s Logistics Market

As per the partnership agreement, Ecom Express will be paying a per delivery fee to Skye Air for the pilot. However, Nadamani said that drone deliveries have the potential to make shipping faster, help logistics companies earn extra revenue, and improve their ESG scores by reducing their carbon footprint.

“We are looking forward to a lakh shipments in drone delivery. At that scale, it will have an impact on the cost side, reduce carbon footprint, add safety net, and beat traffic. This is better than the traditional logistics,” he added. 

The development comes at a time when a number of logistics companies are adopting drone deliveries to reduce the time taken to deliver shipments.

Late last year, Shiprocket also partnered with Skye Air for drone deliveries around Gurugram. 

Founded in 2019 by Ankit Kumar, Swapnik Jakkampudi and Chandra Prakash, Skye Air is backed by LetsVenture, Chiratae Ventures, and Agility Ventures. Earlier this year, the startup bagged contracts from 10 government medical institutions to deploy its drone mobility solutions.

Earlier this month, listed logistics startup Delhivery also said that it is setting up a wholly-owned subsidiary to manufacture drones and provide freight air transportation services. 

At the heart of all these is the burgeoning drone market of India. As per an Inc42 report, the Indian drone market is expected to reach a size of $13 Bn by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 21% between 2022 and 2030. Two drone startups – DroneAcharya and ideaForge – also went public in the last couple of years. 

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