From $10 billion deployed in Indian start-ups in 2017, $6 billion went to unicorns
There is a new energy in 2015 and a new breed of young, ambitious innovators and entrepreneurs who are coming up with creative solutions to many of India's problems, says Mallika Kapur.
Unacademy may see a funding dry spell for at least next 12-18 months and even last till 24 months and will cut costs to weather the lean period, said the chief executive of the education technology unicorn that recently laid off more than 600 employees. "This is a test for all of us. We must learn to work under constraints and focus on profitability at all costs. We must survive the winter," said Unacademy's co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal in a letter to the employees. "Winter is here. We are looking at a time when the funding will dry up for at least 12-18 months.
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.
Vogo, which has a fleet of over 12,000 vehicles mainly across Hyderabad, Mysuru and Bengaluru, is also betting big on India's growing traffic congestion.
Ex-AAP strategist Shefali Misra to join Uber as head of public policy
Most of the unicorns or billion-dollar valuation firms including Flipkart, Paytm and Ola have had the maximum stakes owned by foreign funds. The founders of all these firms have either single digit stakes in their companies or in low double digits.
Mahindra launches e-mobility platform 'Glyd' to take on Ola, Uber. Targeted at office-going executives, it offers web-conferencing, curated entertainment and music content from selective partners.
Hyundai, which is also toeing Maruti's lines, said special schemes are offered to engage the cab aggregators, including annual-maintenance-contract packages and extended warranty.
SBI Cards on Tuesday launched a credit card especially meant for transactions on e-commerce websites.
With a new $100-billion technology fund, SoftBank is likely to go after market leaders.
'All these incidents go to show that the day of the anodyne, apolitical corporation is running out fast,' says Kanika Datta.
Vijay Mallya, who faces prosecution in India, is reportedly in London.
The Indian arm is the second largest unit for the company, crosses 500 mn trips milestone
Rediff readers share their experience about taxis and autorickshaws in India.
Leaders need to be ready to adapt to technological changes as quickly as possible, while they build the tech capabilities, Nadella said.
Uber and Ola both welcomed the move as a step in the right direction.
100,000 cabs and 45,000 autorickshaws would be plying on the Delhi-NCR routes to handle the rush.
The cloud kitchen market in India will hit $1.05 billion by 2023. Just 13% of the total market has been utilised so far.
The mines ministry has put a conditional offer to offload 10 per cent stake in Nalco, saying that the money accrued from such a sale would be invested in the PSU.
That's because India does not have a serious venture capital industry with an appetite for risk, observes T N Ninan.
Live commerce, quick commerce, group buying, WhatsApp commerce, dukaantech have made their mark.
Investments are at risk if operators are unable to resolve concerns of authorities and customers after the rape accusation.
Reliance Retail has bought a 25.8 per cent stake in Dunzo, India's leading quick commerce player, for $200 million (around Rs 1,488 crore) as it looks to expand its presence in online grocery delivery business. Dunzo has raised $240 million (about Rs 1,787 crore) in its latest funding round that was led by Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) - the retail arm of Reliance Industries, the two firms said in a statement. Existing investors Lightbox, Lightrock, 3L Capital and Alteria Capital also participated in the funding round.
India Inc is facing threat from non-traditional sources.
India's first true e-commerce marketplace is struggling for its survival and in it lies valuable lessons for pure play aggregators, say experts.
Drawn in by fuzzy promises about unleashing the entrepreneur in each of us and the benefits of being one's own boss, people find themselves instead oppressed by an algorithm, notes Rahul Jacob.
The ban on app-based taxi services will continue and vehicles violating it will be seized, the city government on Tuesday submitted in the Delhi High Court in New Delhi while Uber India Systems Pvt Ltd withdrew its plea against the December order stopping its operations.
A draft policy will be issued for public consultation in the coming weeks.
HR Guru Mayank Rautela offers practical advice.
Even as the semiconductor shortage has limited the demand for new cars, the pre-owned car segment is seeing a surge. A preference for personal mobility, availability of multiple organised online platforms, including e-commerce channels, aggregators, and classifieds, have been fuelling growth. The growth rate of the pre-owned car market is expected to be 1.5x that of the new car market over the next five years.
The company, which rents cars by the hour, day, week and month, has Mahindra E2O Plus and Tata E Tigor available on the platform for which it charges a subscription fee of Rs 15,000-20,000 per month.
As Indians start travelling in the new normal, strong recovery in smaller towns underscores success for ride-hailing giant's 'India to Bharat' strategy, which offers new products in regional markets.
The ride-hailing company will soon launch UberEATS, which has been testing food and grocery deliveries since 2014, in India. Alnoor Peermohamed reports.
The problem is major, and the problem affects hundreds of millions of people. Ignoring it must have a sound reason. Ignoring it must in some way be more important than addressing it, notes Aakar Patel.
India has a history of jugaad, and retrofitting vehicles is one such manifestation of the legendary Indian skill. Not so long ago autorickshaws and small Marutis used to strap on subsidised LPG cylinders and power themselves to a cheap ride. There were the odd explosions, lives were lost, but the jugaad continued. Then compressed natural gas (CNG) was introduced in Delhi following a court order. Initially, customised CNG kits were fitted to conventional (internal combustion engine or ICE) autos cheaply, enabling commuting at less than half of what you would cough up for diesel. The industry is better organised now with Suzuki and Hyundai designing CNG-fired vehicles, and Mahindra and TVS manufacturing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)-powered three wheelers.
Palo Alto-based electric carmaker Tesla has initiated talks with the government on the modalities of setting up fully-owned retail outlets. The company needs to comply with the foreign direct investment (FDI) guidelines related to single-brand retail, including local sourcing norms, to sell directly in India. At least two other foreign majors - Apple and Ikea - were engaged in talks with the government long before the sourcing norms were eased under the single-brand retail route.
The recent protests by employees of Urban Company and the case of a a Zomato delivery executive who died in a road accident point to the severely straitened condition of gig workers during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Budget 2021 had promised several measures to help the cause of gig economy workers, but most of them are yet to see the light of day. Even after a year, the country's gig workers continue to be without any social security cover or a minimum wage guarantee. "In Budget 2021, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that the government is looking toward including migrant and gig workers for social security benefits," says Srinivas Kotni, managing partner, Lexport, a consulting firm. Parliament had passed the Code on Wages in 2019 and Code on Industrial Relations, Social Security and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions in 2020.
The state governments of Karnataka and Maharashtra have also moved to exert more control on app-based taxi aggregators.
As many as 81 per cent people support having rules for consumer e-commerce, but want more services-based platforms to have more clearly defined roles, a survey by community social media platform LocalCircles has found. The survey asked respondents to answer questions based on the recent draft Rules proposed by the ministry of consumer affairs. The responses found 81 per cent consumers wanting sales of products and services over electronic or digital networks to be governed by a set of electronic commerce rules.
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