Neha Alawadhi And Peerzada Abrar

Stories by Neha Alawadhi And Peerzada Abrar

Ola's COO and CFO to exit firm amid its plans to go public

Ola's COO and CFO to exit firm amid its plans to go public

Rediff.com   20 Oct 2021

Mobility company Ola's chief financial officer Swayam Saurabh and chief operating officer Gaurav Porwal are leaving the company. These developments come at a time when the SoftBank-backed company's core ride-hailing unit is planning to go public and for which it raised $500 million from Warburg Pincus and Temasek in July this year. These investment firms had partnered with the company founder Bhavish Aggarwal for this round.

Urban Company tries to soothe frayed nerves of women partners

Urban Company tries to soothe frayed nerves of women partners

Rediff.com   15 Oct 2021

Urban Company, the home services firm, announced a 12-point programme on Thursday to improve partner earnings and livelihood for all partners on its platform in India. The announcement comes after most women partners on the platform staged a protest last Friday, demanding better layouts and safer working conditions. Among the provisions in the 12-point programme are reduction of highest commissions in the beauty category, in which most of Urban Company's female partners work.

Byju's is raising $300 mn, valuation may touch $18 bn

Byju's is raising $300 mn, valuation may touch $18 bn

Rediff.com   5 Oct 2021

Byju's is raising about Rs 2,200 crore ($300 million) as part of a larger round of new investment as the world's most valuable edtech company focuses on expanding its business in global markets and explores to do more acquisitions. According to industry sources, the new funding may value Bengaluru-based Byju's at $18 billion, up from a valuation of $16.5 billion in June this year. In June, Byju's became India's most valuable unicorn with a valuation of $16.5 billion, surpassing fintech company Paytm's $16 billion valuation.

How chip shortage is impacting automakers, other industries

How chip shortage is impacting automakers, other industries

Rediff.com   27 Sep 2021

Time was when you turned on your car's ignition, all that happened was that the mechanical system fired up your engine and made it run. Today, the moment you do so, your stereo system probably lights up, connects to the Bluetooth on your smartphone, and lets you make calls through an audio assistant or play music from your phone, which you can hear on the car's speakers. All these smart features in a car are powered by semiconductors, or chips, as they are commonly called.

E-com sales may cross $9-bn GMV this season

E-com sales may cross $9-bn GMV this season

Rediff.com   24 Sep 2021

E-commerce firms Amazon, Flipkart, and others are expected to witness blockbuster festival season sales of around $9 billion this year, surpassing pre-pandemic sales of $5 billion in 2019. The pandemic has accelerated the shift to e-commerce, with more consumers shopping online at a higher frequency than last year, observed analysts. This year's festival sales (gross merchandise value or GMV) are expected to grow 30 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to $4.8 billion during the first week of the season and potentially clock over $9-billion GMV during the whole festival month, revealed consulting firm RedSeer's e-commerce festival season report.

Meet the man behind CoinDCX, India's first crypto unicorn

Meet the man behind CoinDCX, India's first crypto unicorn

Rediff.com   16 Sep 2021

A large part of the work that CEO Sumit Gupta does is focused on educating users and the larger community about investing in cryptocurrencies, reports Neha Alawadhi.

Fed up with WFH, Indian professionals want to return to office

Fed up with WFH, Indian professionals want to return to office

Rediff.com   15 Sep 2021

One in three professionals in India is burnt out due to increased workload and stress, as the pandemic forces them to work remotely, even as the majority of the workforce feels they would want to return to work in some form, a study by professional network LinkedIn has found. LinkedIn on Tuesday launched findings of the "Future of Work" perception study by research firm Censuswide that focuses on the insights of 1,108 respondents in the age group of 16 to 68, who have worked from home during the pandemic due to Covid-19 restrictions. The survey captures the sentiment of the Indian workforce towards the impact of remote work, their plans to return to work, and work model preferences for the future.

Siliguri-based hotelier moves SC against Oyo for unfair practices

Siliguri-based hotelier moves SC against Oyo for unfair practices

Rediff.com   13 Sep 2021

A Siliguri-based hotelier has challenged a National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) ruling that closed insolvency proceedings against OYO and one of its units, in the Supreme Court. The hearing is scheduled for September 13 before a two-judge Bench. Oyo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Swiggy sets up development centre in Gurugram, home turf of rival Zomato

Swiggy sets up development centre in Gurugram, home turf of rival Zomato

Rediff.com   10 Sep 2021

Swiggy is rapidly scaling up its technology (tech) teams as the food delivery giant is witnessing strong recovery and growth over the past few months. The SoftBank-backed company is hiring across engineering, product, design, analytics, and data science functions in the next two quarters. Building this team, Swiggy is setting up a new development centre in Gurugram. Its rival Zomato, which had a stellar debut on the Indian stock exchanges in July, is also headquartered in Gurugram.

Ola Electric defers e-scooter sale to Sep 15 due to website glitch

Ola Electric defers e-scooter sale to Sep 15 due to website glitch

Rediff.com   10 Sep 2021

Ola Electric's technology team is working hard to iron out the technical kinks that marred the electric vehicle company's hyped online sale of its electric scooters (e-scooters) - the S1 and the S1 Pro - on Wednesday, said company sources. The SoftBank-backed firm is facing technical difficulties in making the website live for the purchase of its e-scooters. According to company sources, the website couldn't go live as there were integration issues.

Byju-Aakash's Plans for Test Learning

Byju-Aakash's Plans for Test Learning

Rediff.com   9 Sep 2021

'Hybrid learning is the future, and test prep is a big segment within the entire education space in India.'

HOTTEST Skills At Campus Placements

HOTTEST Skills At Campus Placements

Rediff.com   7 Sep 2021

'We are anticipating that the hiring trend will continue to see double-digit growth at least for the current financial year.'

Snapdeal plans $350-400 million IPO, eyes $2.5 billion valuation

Snapdeal plans $350-400 million IPO, eyes $2.5 billion valuation

Rediff.com   4 Sep 2021

JM Financial, Axis Bank, and Bank of America have been roped in as the bankers to run the mandate, say sources.

Twitter testing feature to auto block abusive accounts

Twitter testing feature to auto block abusive accounts

Rediff.com   3 Sep 2021

With this feature, tweets found by the microblogging platform's technology to be harmful or uninvited will be autoblocked. This implies that that such profiles will temporarily be unable to follow an account, see their tweets, or send them direct messages.

WhatsApp banned 3m Indian accounts, says 2nd compliance report

WhatsApp banned 3m Indian accounts, says 2nd compliance report

Rediff.com   1 Sep 2021

Indian accounts, identified by the "+91" in their mobile numbers, were actioned through WhatsApp's prevention and detection methods, for violating either the laws of India or the company's Terms of Service, the firm said in its compliance report.

Amazon asks Sebi to comply with SC order

Amazon asks Sebi to comply with SC order

Rediff.com   31 Aug 2021

US e-commerce giant Amazon has written to Ajay Tyagi, chairman of market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), to take action as is necessary to comply with the Supreme Court Judgment, related to the $3.4-billion merger deal between Future Group and Reliance. Amazon has requested Sebi to direct the Indian stock exchanges to withdraw the Observation Letters related to this deal with immediate effect. In January this year, Sebi had given a go-ahead onto Future Group's scheme of arrangement and sale of assets to Reliance, based on which the Bombay Stock Exchange also granted its "no adverse observation" report to the Rs 24,713-crore ($3.4 billion) deal.

Anita Kishore, Brain behind Byju's Acquisitions

Anita Kishore, Brain behind Byju's Acquisitions

Rediff.com   31 Aug 2021

Byju's, says Anita Kishore, has given the founders of the businesses it has acquired the independence to operate separately and maintain their core culture.

Will end of Bezos-Murthy's e-com JV hit Amazon's biz?

Will end of Bezos-Murthy's e-com JV hit Amazon's biz?

Rediff.com   27 Aug 2021

Last year in January at Amazon's flagship event Smbhav, Infosys Co-founder N R Narayana Murthy had to shorten his keynote speech from 20 minutes to about five because the event was delayed by 1.5 hours. "I will try to finish it in five minutes, because I am not used to delays," said Murthy, while addressing hundreds of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) about building businesses that last. In the audience was Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Murthy referred to Bezos' prediction that the 21st century will be the Indian century. "That confidence enhances our enthusiasm," said Murthy. The relationship between Murthy and Bezos dates to 2014, when Prione, a 49:51 joint venture (JV) between Amazon and Murthy's venture capital company Catamaran, was formed.

How Walmart plans to triple sourcing from India

How Walmart plans to triple sourcing from India

Rediff.com   27 Aug 2021

Walmart, the world's largest retailer, is tripling its sourcing from India to about $10 billion a year by 2027, said Judith McKenna, president, and chief executive officer of Walmart International, the segment which includes the company's operations outside the US. "To achieve this, we are growing our sourcing team in India," said McKenna, during a fireside chat with YourStory founder Shradha Sharma at Converge@Walmart, the flagship event of Walmart Global Tech India. "Walmart has a 20-year history of sourcing from India and already exports more than $3 billion worth of Made-in-India goods each year to 14 markets worldwide." McKenna said the company has expertise in processes such as international standards and demand forecasting that businesses need to get ready to export.

Software startup Postman's valuation tops $5.6 bn after $225 mn fundraise

Software startup Postman's valuation tops $5.6 bn after $225 mn fundraise

Rediff.com   19 Aug 2021

Postman, a leading application programming interface platform, has secured $225 million in a Series D round, placing its valuation at $5.6 billion. With this, Postman has emerged as the most-valued software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm started by Indian founders, overtaking web and mobile testing firm BrowserStack, which was valued at $4 billion in June. The valuation of the San Francisco-headquartered firm with offices in Bengaluru, where it was founded, has almost trebled in just about one year and risen multi-fold since 2019. Postman, with team members spread across four continents, had secured $150 million in a Series C investment round led by Insight Partners at a $2-billion valuation last summer.