WhatsApp's advantage is that it is the first app millions of Indian check first thing in the morning and innumerable times during the day and night.
However, the second quarter of FY24 is expected to be muted, and, with that, the hope of double-digit growth is now being pushed to FY25. However, analysts are expecting the momentum in the closure of record total contract values (TCVs) will continue, as has been the case over the last two quarters.
'As part of our D33 strategy, the plan is to establish 30 unicorns in Dubai within the next 10 years.'
With over 80 million Unified Payments Interface (UPI) users, Amazon Pay, the payments business of e-commerce giant Amazon, has been growing at 40-50 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), said Mahendra Nerurkar, chief executive officer (CEO) and vice-president (V-P), Amazon Pay India. "Leveraging just the micro peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions on UPI is not a business model. "While we have enabled those features, we do not chase monthly active users based on this.
Byju's, India's most-valued startup, has decided to put two of its key assets -- Epic and Great Learning -- on the block to generate $800 million-$1 billion in cash, with an aim to meet the edtech firm's various commitments, including repaying the entire $1.2 billion term loan B (TLB) within six months, according to sources. The cash-strapped company has proposed repaying $300 million of the $1.2 billion loan in the next three months, depending on whether the lenders accept Byju's amendment proposal, said the people familiar with the development. "This loan repayment proposal has been submitted to the lenders and conversations are going in the right direction," said a person in the know.
From those highs, the Bengaluru-headquartered company founded in 2011 is now looking to sell two companies it lists as "well-known acquisitions" on its website - Epic and Great Learning. But strategic buys have been critical to its quick expansion. The company got a valuation of about $8 billion by January 2020 after becoming a unicorn in late 2017.
The Indian startup ecosystem has lauded the inclusion of startups in the New Delhi Leaders' Declaration for the first time ever in the history of G20. Industry stakeholders say that the move will lead to easier access to capital, reduce regulatory hurdles, and may revive funding activity. The Declaration, through the Startup20 initiative, recognised startups as "natural engines of growth" and key to socio-economic transformation by driving innovation and creating employment.
The key risk factors would be anti-incumbency, small vote share swings causing large impact on outcomes and the 2004 example.
Three senior executives have resigned from Byju's at a time when the most valuable edtech company has been trying to address challenges such as due diligence issues, legal battles with lenders, challenges in raising fresh capital, and a markdown in its valuation by investors. Prathyusha Agarwal, the chief business officer of Byju's, has quit, according to sources. They said Himanshu Bajaj, business head of Byju's tuition centres, and Mukut Deepak, business head for Class 4 to 10, have also moved on.
The National Association of Software Services Companies (Nasscom) on Tuesday launched the Talent Connect portal to bridge the gap between recruiters and digitally skilled and certified candidates. The portal, which has been in the work for the last 28 months has 100,000 candidates and companies such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tech Mahindra and Salesforce recruiting from it. The platform, for the first time, is also making an attempt to bridge the gap of skill-based talent to employers, rather than the current practice of academic focused talent base.
Krithi Krithivasan is the kind of person one might look to when the need is to calm things down and put things back on track.
Ola Electric, India's largest maker of electric scooters, launched its most affordable ride on Tuesday, in an attempt to woo more customers and expand its electric two-wheeler lineup.
'Companies are coming to the campuses, and we have companies booking their slots for the placement season, but the overall number of companies signing is low, and the hiring numbers are also lower.'
'They have got the advisory council, a CEO has been appointed finally, and they have made some headway on the term loan B.'
Manipal Group chairman Ranjan Pai is in early discussions to invest in Byju's-owned Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL). According to sources in the know, Byju's founder and chief executive officer Byju Raveendran, who owns a 30 per cent stake in Aakash, is expected to partially offload his holding to Pai for $80-90 million (about Rs 650-740 crore). Raveendran may use the money to repay a large part of the Rs 800 crore loan that Byju's raised from US-based investment firm Davidson Kempner Capital Management in May, after facing a 'technical default', the sources said.
Walmart, the world's largest retailer, has paid $1.4 billion to buy out US-based Tiger Global's investment in e-commerce firm Flipkart, according to sources. The transaction puts Flipkart's valuation at $35 billion, against nearly $38 billion in 2021 when it raised funds from Japan's SoftBank, Walmart, and other investors. Tiger Global, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, and Accel now have all fully exited the e-commerce firm by selling their stake to Walmart.
'We have not seen too many large deals compared to last quarter.'
The first-quarter performance of top IT services players, as well as mid-cap firms, has been subdued, reflecting macro uncertainties. The numbers of the top four firms show several misses, hinting at difficult times ahead. One mismatch is the total contract value (TCV) signed by the firms and the revenue growth registered.
The gauge for the performance of informational technology (IT) stocks soared nearly 5 per cent-most in nearly three years-as growth worries eased following a robust order book posted by bellwether Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The Nifty IT index rose 4.5 per cent to close at 30,945. This was the biggest single-day gain since September 14, 2020. Industry titan TCS' shares rose 5 per cent to Rs 3,509.
India's information technology (IT) sector will witness subdued hiring in 2023-24 as macro uncertainties impact demand environment, with clients either taking a pause on spend or stopping discretionary spend, say human resource experts. To begin with, unlike earlier years, the three large IT players TCS, HCLTech, and Wipro have not provided any new hiring targets for the financial year. And Wipro has said that its hiring target will depend on the demand environment.
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