The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is now reportedly planning to introduce its wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the call money market. 

As per reports by multiple news agencies, an RBI official said that the central bank is now planning to go into the interbank borrowing market with CBDC. The digital currency will reportedly be used as a token for interbank borrowing or call money market.

“The purpose of wholesale CBDC has been to try out different technologies…experimenting on technology is relatively easier for the wholesale pilot because participants are related,” the official was quoted as saying by PTI.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the RBI would launch the CBDC in FY23 during her Union Budget speech last year.

The RBI began the pilot of CBDC-Wholesale (e₹-W) in November last year and picked nine banks, including the State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, YES Bank, IDFC First Bank, and HSBC, for the pilot.

The central bank also launched the pilot for retail digital rupee (e₹-R) in December last year. It has been looking to further expand both the pilots by incorporating various use cases and features in the current fiscal year – FY24.

As per the latest PTI report, sources said the month of August saw 10.83 Cr overall CBDC transactions amounting to INR 24,000 Cr. However, currently there is no deadline as to when the pilots will end. 

As of March 31, 2023, the value of e₹-W in circulation stood at INR 10.39 Cr while the number for e₹-R was at INR 5.7 Cr.

On Monday, the State Bank of India said that it has integrated the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with its CBDC app, ‘eRupee by SBI’, where the app users will be able to scan any merchant UPI QR code for swift transactions.

Meanwhile, the RBI is also set to showcase its various digital initiatives, including CBDC, UPI One World, RuPay, and Bharat Bill Payment System, in the financial sector at the exhibition pavilion at the G20 Summit this week.

The post RBI Eyeing Call Money Market To Expand The Scope Of CBDC appeared first on Inc42 Media.

A month after foodtech giant Zomato started levying a platform fee of INR 2, and later increased it to INR 3 for some users, Kotak Institutional Equities has said the fee will increase the company’s customer take rate and contribution margin.

“On the app, Zomato says, ‘This small fee helps us pay the bills so that we can keep Zomato running.’ We note that over the past few quarters, bulk of the take-rate improvement has been driven by a restaurant take-rate increase and delivery take-rate has lagged,” the analysts at the brokerage said.

“The company’s intent seems to be to monetise select customers better, resulting in an increase in customer take-rate, which flatlined over the past few quarters,” said the analysts.

In simple terms, the take rate is the commission that Zomato charges from restaurants and customers for facilitating an order.

Early last month, Zomato began charging a platform fee of INR 2 per order for select users on its platform, mirroring the move of its rival Swiggy. Within a few week, Zomato increased the platform  fee to INR 3 for some customers in certain cities.

In response to Inc42’s queries on the matter, a Zomato spokesperson said that the platform fee would be applicable to all customers but the changes are still in the experiment stage and are being rolled out gradually across the country.

Giving a calculation of how the platform fee could increase Zomato’s margin, Kotak said the company reported 2.7 Mn high-frequency customers in 2022 with annual ordering frequency of more than 50. Assuming these customers transact 75 times a year on average, an INR 2 per order platform fee on all these orders would result in INR 40.5 Cr of incremental contribution to profit/EBITDA. 

The analysts said this would also imply about a 16 basis points (bps) increase in contribution margin, helping Zomato move towards its targeted 8% margin (as % of GMV) over the medium term.  

The contribution margin of Zomato’s food delivery business stood at 6.4% in Q1 FY24. 

Reiterating its ‘buy’ rating on Zomato, Kotak raised the fair value of the stock to INR 110 from INR 105 earlier, implying an upside of 12% to its last close.

Besides, Kotak also said that if Zomato increases the scale of business and control of overheads in its ecommerce business, Blinkit, and B2B business, Hyperpure, these segments can also achieve profitability over the next few quarters.

Zomato reported a net profit of INR 2 Cr in Q1 FY24 with an operating revenue of INR 2,416 Cr.

Shares of Zomato ended Tuesday’s session marginally higher at INR 98.2 on the BSE.

The post Here’s Why Kotak Sees Zomato Making A Bull Run appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In another top-level exit at fintech unicorn BharatPe, its chief business officer (CBO) Nishant Jain has resigned after being with the startup for over three years.

In a LinkedIn post on Tuesday (September 5), Jain said he was starting a new position as executive director and CBO (assisted business) at broking firm Angel One. 

“The past 3.5 years with BharatPe have been nothing short of extraordinary. It has been a thrilling experience, filled with the satisfaction of making a meaningful impact, achieving significant milestones, navigating thru (through) the challenges and triumphs & most importantly forging strong and enduring friendships,” wrote Jain in his social media post.

BharatPe was not immediately available to respond to Inc42’s query on the matter.

The latest exit comes days after it was reported that Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl, former chief operating officer of BharatPe who was recently appointed as the CBO for the merchant lending division, was set to quit the fintech startup this month.

BharatPe, which has been embroiled in multiple controversies since last year, has seen an exodus of senior executives, including chief technology officer Vijay Aggarwal, head of consumer product-PostPe Nehul Malhotra, and chief product officer of lending and consumer products Rajat Jain, over the last year or so. 

In January, its CEO Suhail Sameer also stepped down from his role. 

Prior to that, in 2022, BharatPe’s cofounder Bhavik Koladiya exited the company amid legal cases and the public mud-slinging with the startup’s former MD and founder Ashneer Grover, who also stepped down from his position last year.

Founded in 2018, BharatPe enables merchants to accept online payments through QR codes and PoS devices. BharatPe recently said its PoS business processes payments of over $3.5 bn annually on its machines.

In FY22, BharatPe’s operating revenue doubled to nearly INR 300 Cr while loss more than tripled to around INR 5,000 Cr.

The fintech unicorn has raised over $583 Mn in equity till date from marquee investors including Tiger Global, Peak XV Ventures, Steadfast Capital, Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, and Steadview Capital. 

As per a latest report, BharatPe is looking to raise $100 Mn in a new round of funding from existing and new investors.

The post Top-Level Exits Continue At BharatPe; CBO Nishant Jain Steps Down appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Gurugram-based investment tech platform Soonicorn Ventures has received the green light from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to launch an angel fund, which will operate as a Category-I Alternate Investment Fund (AIF). 

With a total corpus set at INR 250 Cr, it also has an additional INR 250 Cr green-shoe option, bringing the total fund capacity to INR 500 Cr.

The fund plans to back early-stage startups across sectors like drone technology, B2B SaaS, electric vehicles, fintech, supply chain logistics, among others.

The fund plans to invest in startups at the seed to Series A stages, with ticket size ranging from INR 50 Lakh to INR 4 Cr.

CA Vijay Singh Rathore, CEO and cofounder of Soonicorn Ventures, said that the platform had set a target of building a portfolio of 30 startups this year, which it has already achieved in less than eight months despite a funding winter.

“With the introduction of this Angel Fund, we aim to provide more flexibility to investors and facilitate single cap-table entries for startups. Additionally, we will assist syndicates in utilising fund-as-a-service,” said Rathore.

From the outset, Soonicorn Ventures’ vision was to create a community of High Net Worth Individuals (HNIs), Venture Capital Funds, family offices, and angel networks. 

“We are delighted to host a community of over 2,000 investors, and this number continues to grow organically. For investors, the SV platform is free to join, with no annual membership fees, making it easy for them to explore investment opportunities and diversify their portfolios,” added Rathore.

Founded in 2022 by Rathore and CA Pravesh Goel, Soonicorn Ventures has backed startups such as Zypp Electric, Zingbus, SupplyNote, Skylark, Cusmat, and Savart, among others. Recently, it participated in the $2.25 Mn Series A funding round of SupplyNote.

Soonicorn Ventures’ said that besides funding, the company will also be engaged with its portfolio startups in helping them with mentorship and global networking opportunities. 

It claims that the platform’s angel investors also collaborate closely with the founders, offering expertise in technology, marketing, and other areas of business development.

Despite the startup ecosystem battling with a severe funding winter since last year, in the recent past, there have been several fund launches – largely catering to the early stage startups. According to Inc42 analysis, over 38% (20) of the funds announced this year (52) are focussed on early stage startups.

Earlier today, early-stage B2B SaaS-focused Pentathlon Ventures announced the launch of its second fund with a target corpus of INR 450 Cr. Similarly, early-stage fund house Unicorn India Ventures also announced the first close of its INR 1,000 Cr fund III at INR 225 Cr.

Recently, gradCapital launched its $6 Mn second fund to invest in student startups.

In July, Micro VC fund CapFort Ventures also launched an INR 200 Cr tech fund to invest in 40 startups in the next two years.

The post Soonicorn Ventures Gets SEBI Nod To Launch INR 250 Cr Angel Fund appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In line with its announcement earlier this year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has now allowed scheduled commercial banks to offer credit lines to their customers through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

The move is expected to further increase the usage and scope of the payments interface. Till now, customers could link savings accounts, overdraft accounts, prepaid wallets, and credit cards with their UPI accounts. 

“Under this facility, payments through a pre-sanctioned credit line issued by a scheduled commercial bank to individuals, with prior consent of the individual customer, are enabled for transactions using the UPI system,” the central bank said in a circular issued to the banks.

Essentially, credit line on UPI is like a BNPL product, where customers can make payments using the credit line assigned by the bank to them if they don’t have the required balance in their linked accounts/wallets.

The RBI said that the banks may stipulate terms and conditions for credit lines as per their board-approved policies. These terms may include credit limit, period of credit, interest rate, among others.

The move is part of the central bank’s efforts to increase the penetration and scope of UPI. Digital payments have grown by leaps and bounds in India over the last few years, thanks to UPI.

The RBI has been constantly making new announcements related to UPI to increase its penetration in the country. It proposed allowing credit lines on UPI after its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in April this year. 

The RBI then said that it would reduce the cost of credit lines and help in the development of unique products for Indian markets.

There were demands from some quarters that non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), which offer credit products to retail and small businesses, should also be included under credit lines on UPI. However, the RBI hasn’t heeded to these demands.

The central bank introduced the offering after disallowing non-bank fintech players from loading their prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) with credit lines in mid 2022, which had come as a major blow to the Indian fintech players like KreditBee, jupiter, slice, and LazyPay. 

Meanwhile, the UPI ecosystem continues to show robust growth. It saw over 1,000 Cr monthly transactions in August 2023 for the first time in seven years.

Recently, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das also proposed two new technologies for UPI – allowing conversational payments on UPI and small-ticket payments using Near Field Communication through the UPI Lite on-device wallet.

The post RBI Allows Banks To Offer Credit Lines To Customers Through UPI appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Investment tech major Zerodha filed draft scheme information documents for two index funds with the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Monday (September 4) as it gets ready for the launch of its mutual fund business.

As per SEBI’s website, Zerodha Fund House has filed the documents for two funds – Zerodha Tax Saver (ELSS) Nifty LargeMidcap 250 index fund and Zerodha Nifty LargeMidcap 250 index fund.

The tax saver ELSS fund will have a statutory lock-in period of three years. It will replicate/track the Nifty LargeMidcap 250 Index.

It must be noted that Nifty LargeMidcap 250 reflects the performance of a portfolio of 100 large-cap and 150 mid-cap companies listed on the NSE. 

Zerodha has set the minimum application amount for the fund at INR 500 for new purchases and in multiples of INR 500 thereafter.

The product is suggested to be for investors looking for long term capital growth and the risk in the scheme is ‘very high’.

Zerodha Nifty LargeMidcap 250 index fund also comes under ‘very high’ risk category and is suggested for long term capital growth.

It is similar to Zerodha Tax Saver (ELSS) Nifty LargeMidcap 250 fund but would not have any lock-in period as it is not a tax-saver scheme.

The minimum application amount for the fund is INR 100 and in multiples of INR 1 thereafter for both new purchases and additional purchases.

Earlier this year, Zerodha cofounder Nithin Kamath said that the investment tech platform will team up with smallcase to foray into the mutual fund business through the launch of its asset management company (AMC). Last month, it received the final approval from SEBI to start the operations of its AMC. 

Reports were brewing for weeks now that the startup would soon launch its first new fund offer (NFO).

Zerodha Fund House is headed by former Nippon India senior executive Vishal Jain.

Kamath earlier said that Zerodha would launch simple products which investors can only understand. The fund house would only launch index funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs), he added.

Zerodha would compete with the likes of SBI Mutual Fund, Nippon India, Kotak Mahindra, and several others.

The asset under management (AUM) of the Indian mutual fund industry has grown six-fold over the last 10 years to INR 46.38 Tn, as on July 31, 2023, as per data by AMFI.

The post Zerodha Gears Up For Launch Of AMC, Files Draft Documents For Index Funds appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Amid mounting losses, B2B ecommerce unicorn Udaan has carried out a significant restructuring exercise in its teams and business units.

As part of this restructuring, the startup will be merging the Essentials business, comprising FMCG, staples, and pharma categories, with the Discretionary business, which includes general merchandise, lifestyle, and electronics categories.

As part of this merger of the two divisions, Vivek Gupta, who led the Essentials business, will transition from the role but will continue to be an advisor to Udaan’s board, the startup said in a statement.

As per Gupta’s LinkedIn profile, he has worked as the chief business officer of Udaan’s Essentials business for over three years now.

Meanwhile, Uday Bhaskar, who currently heads the Discretionary business division, will now lead the unified business unit.

“The integration of these two businesses units serves the twin objectives of ‘synergy in operations’ and building ‘excellence in commercial capabilities’,” Udaan said. 

As part of the rejig, Udaan CTO Gaurav Bhalotia will leave the startup.

Among other changes, Siddharth Reddy will now lead the engineering division and Abhilash Pillai will lead product management for the customer platform for Udaan. Both Pillai and Reddy will report to Udaan’s cofounder and CEO Vaibhav Gupta and also join the executive management team.

Speaking about the restructuring, Gupta said, “Over the last two years, we have made significant strides in building a strong business with sharp focus on customer centricity, cost leadership and building long-term capabilities with the sole objective of driving sustainable growth.”

He also said that led by Udaan’s executive leadership team, the company has witnessed a “steady and durable quarter-over-quarter progress” in key performance indicators across all business verticals.

“As we move forward in our journey, we are taking various steps to further optimise synergies across businesses to be able to offer better value to our customers, which is key to leveraging the huge $100 Bn eB2B opportunity that Bharat offers,” he added.

Founded in 2016 by Gupta, Sujeet Kumar, and Amod Malviya, Udaan enables supply chain and logistics operations focused on B2B trade. It claims to enable daily delivery across over 1,000 cities and 12,500 pin codes through udaanExpress.

Udaan’s Executive Management team will now comprise Gupta, group CFO Aditya Pande, group chief human resources officer Meenakshi Priyam, head of Essentials & Discretionary Business, Bhaskar; and others.

The rejig comes on the heels of Udaan appointing Nillambaran Ganenthiran as the newest board member of its parent company Trustroot Internet. Ganenthiran will reportedly represent  Lightspeed Ventures on the board.

Udaan, which is backed by the likes of Lightspeed, Microsoft, and Tencent, has raised close to $1.8 Bn in total funding so far. The startup fired 350 full-time employees in a second round of layoff exercise last year, soon after its $120 Mn debt round, in its bid to turn profitable.

In FY22, Udaan’s net loss widened 1.2X year-on-year (YoY) to INR 3,075.80 Cr on operating revenue of INR 9,943.8 Cr, which jumped 1.7X.

With profitability now becoming the key focus, the Indian startup ecosystem is witnessing not just an increasing number of layoffs but also more business rejigs and management-level exits.

Recently, Porter restructured its leadership team and cofounder Uttam Digga assumed the role of CEO. Ahead of its impending IPO, OYO also reshuffled its top management team.

The post Rejig At Udaan: Merges Essentials & Discretionary Businesses, CTO Resigns appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The State Bank of India (SBI) has integrated Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with its digital rupee (e₹), or Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), app with an aim to enhance user convenience.

SBI said that the feature will allow the users of ‘eRupee by SBI’ application to scan any merchant UPI QR code for swift and secure transactions.

“Bank feels that this integration will be a game changer for the digital currency ecosystem. The move is the outcome of our unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of digital innovation to accelerate the transition to a more cashless economy,” said SBI in a statement on Monday (September 4).

SBI was one of the first banks to participate in the retail digital e-rupee project by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) towards the end of last year. 

The RBI began the pilot of CBDC-Wholesale (e₹-W) in November last year and the pilot for retail digital rupee (e₹-R) commenced in December. 

Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, IDFC First Bank and HSBC were also among the first set of banks to participate in the phase-wise pilots.

In May this year, the RBI, in its annual report, said it was looking to further expand the pilots of the CBDC for retail and wholesale segments during the current fiscal year – FY24.

As of March 31, 2023, the value of e₹-W in circulation stood at INR 10.39 Cr while the number for e₹-R was at INR 5.7 Cr, according to the annual report.

At a time when India’s digital transaction ecosystem is booming, Reliance’s newest entity Jio Financial Services (JFS) is also set to explore new-age technologies such as CBDC for its products.

Meanwhile, SBI in its statement today said that its move to bring UPI interoperability to CBDC makes the future of CBDC integration more promising.

The post SBI Rolls Out UPI On Its CBDC App To Promote Use Of Digital Rupee appeared first on Inc42 Media.

New-age tech stocks continued their winning run this week on the back of a recovery in the broader domestic equity market.

Ten out of the 16 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage gained this week between 1% and 15%, with the recently-listed Yudiz emerging as the biggest winner.  

Yudiz got listed on the NSE SME platform on August 17 this year at INR 185 apiece. This week, the startup’s shares jumped 14.8% to end Friday’s session at INR 202.7.

CarTrade Technologies, Nazara, EaseMyTrip, Delhivery, and Zomato were among the other gainers of the week.

However, despite the revival in the broader market that broke the five-week losing streak, shares of Paytm, Nykaa, DroneAcharya, MapmyIndia, Fino Payments Bank, and ideaForge fell this week. Paytm slumped almost 5%, emerging as the biggest loser this week.

In the broader market, Sensex rose 0.77% while Nifty 50 gained 0.9% this week. The benchmark indices rallied significantly on Friday alone, as Sensex jumped 0.86% and Nifty 50 0.94% to end the week at 65,387.16 and 19,435.30, respectively.

The rally on Friday was largely aided by Q1 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers. According to the National Statistical Office’s data, India’s GDP grew by 7.8% in the April-June quarter of FY24 as against a 6.1% growth in the preceding quarter – Q4 FY23.

Stepping into the new month, the market is brimming with various domestic and global macroeconomic indicators that are expected to sustain their momentum, said Pravesh Gour, senior technical analyst at Swastika Investmart.

However, he said that “below normal” monsoon rainfall this year is expected to have a significant impact on market trends.

Meanwhile, Amol Athawale, vice president of technical research at Kotak Securities, said, “While there will be some challenges going ahead due to weak monsoon activity, overseas funds may continue to bet on India due to signs of strong growth performance going ahead.” 

“Technically, the Nifty has formed a double bottom formation on daily and intraday charts, which indicates a strong possibility of a fresh uptrend rally from the current levels,” he added.

Now, let’s dig deeper into the performance of some of the new-age tech stocks this week.

The 16 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage ended the week with a total market capitalisation of $37.24 Bn as against $36.36 Bn last week.

Paytm The Biggest Loser

Reversing the 4.6% gain last week, shares of Paytm declined 4.7% this week. 

The drop came after Antfin (Netherlands) Holding B.V. sold 2.27 Cr shares, or a 3.6% stake, in the fintech major last Friday.

Besides, we must also note that after months of anticipation, Reliance announced this week that its newest entity Jio Financial Services (JFS) will offer products in the payments and insurance segments.

Earlier, many analysts said that the entry of deep-pocketed JFS could pose a significant competitive threat to Paytm.

During Reliance’s annual general meeting, its CMD Mukesh Ambani called JFS as the world’s highest capitalised financial services platform at inception.

However, Paytm’s gains still remain a significant 61.5% year to date (YTD).

Kotak Securities’ Athawale said Paytm looks positive on the technical charts and the stock is holding a higher-bottom formation and is ready for the next rally. 

“The immediate support for the stock is around INR 830-INR 840 and on the higher side INR 920 is possible,” said Athawale, adding that further upside is also possible which can see the stock rising up to INR 940.

Nazara Touches 52-Week High

Shares of Nazara Technologies jumped 8.2% on Thursday to reach a 52-week high of INR 814.30 on the BSE this week. Though the stock pared some of its gains to end the day at 777.75, it was at a level last seen at the end of April last year.

Overall, Nazara shares gained 7.4% this week, ending Friday’s session at INR 759.2 in the exchange.

In The News For:

• Nazara said this week it is looking to raise capital via issuance of equity shares or securities on a preferential basis and would seek board approval for the same.
• As per a report, Zerodha founder Nikhil Kamath could possibly increase his stake in the gaming company to 3.5% from his current stake of around 1%.

Though the stock is facing some profit booking at a higher level, the texture is largely bullish, said Kotak Securities’ Athawale.

“The immediate support for the stock is around INR 720-INR 725. As long as the stock is trading above that, the upside momentum is likely to continue,” said Athawale, adding that Nazara shares could reach INR 810-INR 825 in the medium term.

Nazara shares are currently training around 31% higher YTD.

SoftBank Offloads Almost Half Of Its Stake In Zomato 

SoftBank’s SVF Growth (Singapore) offloaded Zomato shares worth INR 947 Cr in a block deal this week. 

As of quarter ended June 2023, SVF held 28.7 Cr shares in Zomato, which translated to a 3.35% stake in the foodtech major.

In its latest block deal, the VC major sold 10 Cr Zomato shares, or 1.16% of its stake in the company.

Following SoftBank’s stake sale, Zomato shares fell in two consecutive sessions, reversing the sharp rise seen at the beginning of the week.

Despite the fall, the startup managed to gain 6.9% this week, ending Friday’s session at INR 97.23 on the BSE.

It must be noted that the shares sold by SoftBank were bought by several investment firms and banks, including BNP Paribas Arbitrage, Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius, Axis Mutual Fund, and Morgan Stanley Asia Singapore.

Meanwhile, Zomato, on Friday, informed its stakeholders that Lunchtime, a step-down subsidiary of Zomato Limited, situated in the Czech Republic initiated the liquidation process.

“…the dissolution of Lunchtime will not affect the turnover/revenue of the Company,” Zomato said.

This week, Zomato also announced the launch of a chatbot, Zomato AI, to enhance the customers’ overall food ordering experience.

After a rally, Zomato shares have started consolidating but the formation is positive, said Kotak Securities’ Athawale. 

The immediate support level for the stock is at INR 92-INR 93 and above that, it could rally till INR 110-INR 115 in the medium term, he added.

This week, Zomato once again crossed the $10 Bn market cap mark.

The post New-Age Tech Stocks Rally Amid Rally In Broader Market, Paytm Biggest Loser This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

At a time when the adoption of electric cars and escooters has been well received in the realm of electric vehicles (EVs), electric motorcycles have yet to become a common spectacle – both on roads and race tracks.

While the earliest reference to electric motorcycles can be traced back to the late 1800s, internal combustion engine (ICE) motorcycles manufactured by Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha, Royal Enfield, Hero, BMW, Harley Davidson, and Ducati have continued to rule roads worldwide.

The situation is no different In India, where the EV market is more nascent than some of its peers like China, the US, and Europe. 

Though India’s electric two-wheeler adoption has jumped by almost 4-5X year-on-year since 2020, helped by hundreds of escooter OEM players entering the market, electric motorcycles have yet to receive this boost. This is because there are fewer players in the market that want to entertain the intricacies, complexities and costs associated with building top-notch products to rival traditional ICE motorcycles.

Amid this, Bengaluru-based Ultraviolette Automotive has emerged as one of the pioneering startups to begin the production of high-performance electric motorcycles in India.

Founded in 2016 by Narayan Subramaniam and Niraj Rajmohan, Ultraviolette took six years to launch their first flagship vehicle, F77.

Before embarking on their entrepreneurial journey, Subramaniam and Rajmohan served the automotive sector for almost a decade, working with global tech companies. Their tech backgrounds have played a crucial role in paving the way for Ultraviolette, which today boasts India’s first lineup of high-performance electric motorcycles — F77 Original and two special editions, F77 Recon and F77 Space Edition.

Ultraviolette’s Race Has Just Begun

From building the core IPs for most technologies used in F77, including the battery tech, drivetrain, and software to establishing a well-integrated servicing network, Ultraviolette’s vision since its inception has been to create ‘top-of-the-line mobility solutions driven by progressive design and energy efficient technology’.

“Our focus has always been on innovation,” said Subramaniam, the cofounder and CEO of Ultraviolette.

We were told that Ultraviolette draws inspiration from the aviation and aerospace sectors, which is evident in the design philosophy of its bikes. All the standard and special edition bikes under its F series showcase jet-inspired design. 

As per the founders, what sets Ultraviolette’s approach apart is its application of principles from aircraft engineering, encompassing mechanics, electronics, and architecture, in building emotorcycles.

Further, the F77 lineup has been built keeping the future needs of the users in mind — as they are expected to use the product for at least 7 to 10 years. Given that the EV technology is growing and changing at an unprecedented scale, the founders told Inc42 that they have tried to make their motorcycles future-proof by selecting components that are durable and deploying technology that doesn’t become obsolete soon.

In addition, to ensure quality control and affordability once rolled out, the startup has built the entire vertical integration, including battery technology, drivetrain electronics, the cloud-connected system, the architecture, vehicle chassis, and charging system over the years.

Ultravoilette’s F77s Get Ready To Race

The pivotal moment arrived in late 2019 when Ultraviolette introduced its F77 model with a range of 150 km. However, with the emergence of the pandemic in 2020, the company halted production and directed all its efforts towards enhancing battery technology.

Between 2019 and 2022, F77 underwent a whole revamp to achieve a range of 200 km for its Original model and later touched the 300 km mark for its F77 RECON limited edition. This transformation encompassed both architectural changes and the adoption of a new cell format to enhance the battery performance.

In November 2022, Ultraviolette finally launched its motorcycles in Bengaluru. 

But why did the startup choose the high-performance emotorcycle segment?

“In a diverse country like India, the first challenge is to make people excited about EVs. People still hold many misconceptions about this technology. So, we understood that if we had to change their mindset, it would be better to start with a segment that is exciting, engaging, and nuanced,” said Subramaniam, adding that it was a very calculated decision to start with the aspirational segment.

In the performance bike market, Ultraviolette bikes compete with quarter-litre or half-litre categories (300 to 500 CC) – a segment that alone witnesses sales of 1-2 Lakh ICE motorcycles per month in India.

So far, the startup has raised around $60 Mn in multiple rounds from Exor, TVS Motor Company, Qualcomm Ventures, Lingotto, and Zoho Corporation, among others. 

This financial support extends beyond capital infusion as many of these investors are actively engaged in augmenting Ultraviolette’s technological capabilities and expanding its market presence that would soon transcend beyond India.

Today, the startup’s emotorcycles run in six Indian cities — Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Kochi, and Hyderabad.

The startup believes that the pure D2C approach cannot work for motorcycles. Hence, the first step to expanding into these markets was establishing after-sales servicing facilities in each of these cities. These servicing stations are directly managed by Ultraviolette.

Taking On Global Players With Competent Price Point

Ultraviolette does not compete with players that offer commuter bikes in the range of INR 1 Lakh to INR 2 Lakh, but rather the players that offer high-performance ICE motorcycles. In its segment, the company counts players like Kawasaki, KTM, and BMW as its competitors.

Ultraviolette F77 starts from INR 3.8 Lakh onwards, ex-showroom. According to Subramaniam, Ultraviolette’s ebike may seem more expensive in comparison to its ICE counterparts, however, it costs quite less in the long run since it is an EV. 

“Also, if compared with the other high-end aspirational electric motorcycles in the global market, our bikes are at least 3-4X less expensive,” the CEO said.

However, when it comes to staying abreast of international players, the startup’s price point looks quite lucrative.

For example, US-based Zero Motorcycles, which is currently one of the global leaders in the electric motorcycles market, charges a minimum of $12,000 (INR 9.9 Lakh) for its ZERO FX dual sports variant that offers a range of approximately 145 km on a single charge and has a peak power of 46 HP with 106 NM torque. 

In contrast, Ultraviolette’s F77 Original offers a range of over 200 km with a peak power of 36 hp and 85 NM of torque — not much difference in power but a huge variation in range and pricing. 

(Note: While the two segments of bikes (ZERO FX and F77 Original) cannot be compared, we have picked the lowest-priced models of both companies)

Moving on, another example is Harley Davidson’s electric motorcycle LiveWire S2 Del Mar, which offers a 200 km range, 84 horses and a massive 260 NM of torque, is priced at around $15,499 (manufacturer’s suggested retail price), which translates to around INR 13 Lakh.

According to Ultraviolette’s cofounder and CTO Rajmohan, it is due to the company’s proprietary tech stack that they have been able to keep the pricing of their F77 lineup competent.

“There is always an additional cost associated when working with third parties because every player wants to keep their margins.

It is pertinent to note that players like Revolt, Oben Electric, Kabira Mobility, and Odysse, too, operate in the electric motorcycle segment, but they largely offer commuter vehicles.

Ultraviolette also unveiled its F99 Factory racing platform earlier this year at Auto Expo 2023, which comes with a peak power output of 65 horses and offers a top speed of over 200 km per hour. The startup plans to develop this technology further only for race tracks.

Ultraviolette’s In The Speed Lane

According to the cofounders, Ultraviolette is gross margin positive. The startup has a total headcount of around 350 employees with 200 of them dedicated solely to the R&D unit.

Ultraviolette recently launched a Space Edition of its flagship F77 as a tribute to India’s Chandraayan-3 mission and specetech development. The limited edition bike comes with aluminium, paints, and other materials used in spacecraft. It is available for only 10 bookings.

While Ultraviolette did not reveal the plans pertaining to its upcoming bike launches, the startup is expected to roll out a fast-charging network in various parts of the country soon.

Currently, the startup offers two chargers – a standard charger that takes around 8-9 hours to fully charge a vehicle and a boost charger that takes about 4 hours to fully charge an ebike. The startup is also coming up with a fast charger, which would take less than 2 hours to fully charge its ebikes.

As per Vahan portal data, Ultraviolette has seen the registrations of over 195 vehicles this year. The founders claimed that they project at least 1,000 Ultraviolette motorcycles to be on the road by the end of this year.

In the next 12 months, the startup plans to extend its footprint to 12-15 cities. Besides, it plans to jump the Indian borders starting next year, with eyes set on countries like Italy, Germany, Spain, the US, Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, along with Southeast Asian countries.

Meanwhile, in India, the enthusiasm of EV players to enter the electric motorcycle market is growing. Recently, Ola Electric announced that it will launch four electric bikes next year. 

Bengaluru-based Orxa Energies is also preparing for the launch of its flagship all-electric high-performance motorcycle, the Mantis.

As per a report, the global electric two-wheeler market is set to grow at a CAGR of 19.1% between 2022 and 2030, reaching $121.08 Bn in 2030 with electric motorcycles expected to cherish almost half the market during this period.

Even though the pace of adoption of electric motorcycles has been slow in India, the entire domestic two-wheeler electric market is set to reach $6.2 Bn in size by 2030. 

Nonetheless, for Indian EV players like Ultraviolette, who have also set their eyes on foreign lands too, these are some of the most exciting times. 

However, as more established players will enter the high-performance motorcycle market with global collaboration, the road ahead could get a bit patchy for smaller players. While this is just an anticipation, it would be interesting to see how Ultraviolette’s high-performance playbook inspires other Indian EV OEMs to make a paradigm shift in a bid to stay abreast of their western counterparts.

The post Inside Ultraviolette’s 6-Year Electric Revolution: How The Emotorcycle Maker Is Ready To Race It Out With KTMs & BMWs appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The electric two-wheeler market has once again started regaining some of its lost momentum, which is evident from the 8% month-on-month (MoM) rise in the total number of vehicle registrations in August.

As per the latest data available on Vahan (as on August 31), total EV registrations in the two-wheeler category rose to 58,927 units during the month from 54,498 units in July. 

We must note that the vehicle registrations nosedived to a 12-month low of around 46K units in June. 

Even though there was an uptick in the number of EV registrations, all major OEMs struggled to see a healthy number of vehicle registrations.

Meanwhile, Ola Electric continued to lead the two-wheeler EV market in August but saw a 10.4% decline in registrations to 17,331 units from 19,340 units in July. In June, the EV maker registered 17,655 units.

The dwindling number of sales comes in the month when the Bhavish Aggarwal-led EV major started the deliveries of its brand new S1 Air escooter.

After opening the purchase window of its latest model in July end, Ola Electric said last week that it had started the deliveries of its new escooters.

The startup also claimed to have already received 50,000 bookings for the escooters. While the Vahan portal does not show the booking numbers, it would be interesting to see if Ola Electric can pick up its vehicle registration pace in the coming months.

Moving on, TVS Motor continued to dominate the second position in the electric two-wheeler market for another month. Its vehicle registration jumped almost 40% MoM to 14,510 units in August.

The company continues to see steady growth. In July, its EV registrations increased to 10,383 units from 7,860 units in June.

We must also note that TVS Motor is plying boldly in the EV ecosystem. It recently launched an INR 2.5 Lakh escooter, TVS X, which is currently the most expensive escooters on sale.

On the other hand, Ather Energy witnessed muted growth as its vehicle registrations rose a mere 1.6% to 6,780 units in August from 6,671 units in July.

Ampere Vehicles saw its vehicle registration nosedive to more than a two-year low to 743 units. On a MoM comparison, its vehicle registration tumbled 47.4% from 1,414 units registered in July.

We must note that Ampere, along with more than a dozen other two-wheeler EV players, came under the government’s security for allegedly violating the minimum localisation norms that were required to claim the subsidy benefits under the FAME-II scheme.

Earlier this year, the central government started penalising these EV players and started claiming back the subsidies they had received from the government.

Ampere was expected to pay INR 124.91 Cr to the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI).

While the situation has become difficult for most of these leading OEMs, Ampere parent Greaves Cotton Limited said during its Q1 FY24 earnings that the escooter brand continued its leadership position and achieved a cumulative secondary sales milestone of 2 lakh units till the quarter.

The other most battered electric two-wheeler player, Okinawa Autotech, also saw its vehicle registration decline 14.4% to 1,938 units in August from 2,263 units in July. 

Following the penalties imposed on several OEMs for misappropriation of subsidies, Okinawa was liable to refund subsidies worth INR 116.85 Cr to the MHI.

Despite its escooters catching fire, Okinawa’s vehicle registration stood at 8,759 units in August last year.

Meanwhile, Bajaj Auto has now started taking up more market share in the two-wheeler EV space. Its vehicle registration jumped almost 49% MoM to 6,130 units in August. 

Last month, Bajaj Auto’s EV registrations had seen an over 36% MoM rise to 4,116 units in July.

On the other hand, following the FAME-II woes, Hero Electric’s escooter registrations fell to 756 units, the lowest since 2021. While the EV maker’s registrations slipped 3% MoM, the same was down 14X from 10,602 units in August last year.

Amid the falling demand, the company on Monday (August 31) announced to diversify into the premium EV bike market under the brand, A2B.

Overall, EV sales, including all categories, increased to 1.22 Lakh units in August from 1.16 Lakh units in July. On a year-on-year basis, this is a significant increase from the August 2022 EV registration of 89,006 units.

However, as of now, it remains to be seen if the upcoming FAME-III could change the course of the domestic EV industry, especially after the FAME-II fiasco.

The post Two-Wheeler EV Registrations Rise A Mere 8% MoM In August As Major OEMs Snail Ahead appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-based healthtech startup MediBuddy has raised an additional funding of $18 Mn from its existing investors Quadria Capital, Lightrock, and TEAMFund for expansion through strategic acquisitions.

The latest round comes more than a year after the startup raised $125 Mn in its Series C round in February last year. 

MediBuddy said the latest funding puts it in a “solid position” to navigate the current landscape and achieve its ambitious growth targets over the next three years.

A “formidable portion” of these funds will be channelled into strategic acquisitions and fortifying existing offerings, enabling exponential growth, the startup said in a statement.

“MediBuddy’s growth trajectory has consistently achieved a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 95.5% over the past three years. The additional funds will be critical in driving our strategic acquisition initiatives, further expanding our reach, and enhancing the depth and breadth of our services,” said Satish Kannan, cofounder and CEO of MediBuddy.

In February this year, the startup acquired vHealth by Aetna, the Indian business of US-based Aetna Inc, to expand its geographical footprint.

Prior to that, in July last year, MediBuddy acquired rural India-focused online consultation platform Clinix.

In its statement today, the startup said that both strategic acquisitions have further amplified its presence in the healthcare domain.

However, amid its aggressive growth plans, MediBuddy also took the layoff route earlier this year. Inc42 exclusively reported in January that the telemedicine startup laid off around 200 employees across departments.

The startup had attributed the restructuring exercise to re-alignment with its long-term stability and growth goals.

Founded in 2015 by Kannan and Enbasekar Dinadayalane, MediBuddy offers video consultations with doctors, surgicare consultations, and allows customers to book lab tests and order medicines. It claims to have a network of over 90,000 doctors, 7,000 hospitals, 3,000 diagnostic centres, and 2,500 pharmacies covering 96% of pin-codes in India. 

MediBuddy claims to currently have a customer base of over 3 Cr Indians. The startup said its recent growth has been fuelled by its presence in both corporate and retail domains. 

While the healthtech ecosystem has been one of the worst-hit due to the ongoing funding winter, the Indian healthtech market is expected to reach a size of $25 Bn by 2025, as per a report by LoEstro Advisors.

The post MediBuddy Raises $18 Mn From Quadria, Lightrock, TEAMFund For Acquisitions appeared first on Inc42 Media.

As part of its attempts to make the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) global, India is now in talks with New Zealand to introduce the homegrown payments system in the country to improve the ease of doing business, and trade and tourism between the two.

The matter was discussed during a bilateral meeting between Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and New Zealand’s Minister for Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor, as per a joint statement.

“Ministers welcomed early discussions between National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Payments NZ regarding the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system and agreed that both sides should continue deliberations on this issue. They agreed that introduction of UPI in New Zealand would promote ease of doing business between both the countries and promote trade and tourism as well,” the statement said.

It is important to note that India, as part of its trade relationship with New Zealand, imports logs and forestry products, wool and edible fruit and nuts, wood pulp, among others, from the country while exporting precious metals and gems, textiles, and motor vehicles, and more. 

Besides, Indian students comprise the second-largest number of international students in New Zealand.

Digital payments in India have grown by leaps and bounds since the launch of UPI. Over the last few years, the Centre has signed pacts with different nations for usage of UPI to improve cross border payments and facilitate trading and tourism.

In 2022, NPCI’s international arm signed an MoU with France-based Lyra Network for the country to accept UPI and RuPay Cards. In July this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India and France agreed to use UPI. 

Meanwhile, Bhutan, Nepal, UAE, and Canada have also adopted the UPI system in their countries. 

NPCI’s international arm is also in talks to extend the UPI services to the US, other European countries, and West Asia.

India’s UPI transactions almost reached the 1,000 Cr mark in the month of July, rising over 6.6% month-on-month (MoM) to 996 Cr. If compared with the last year, the number of transactions jumped 58% from 628 Cr in July 2022.

The post India In Talks With New Zealand To Introduce UPI In The Island Country appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-based healthcare financing startup Kenko Health has laid off at least 20% of its workforce (around 80 employees), more than a year after raising $12 Mn in its Series A funding round, Inc42 has learnt from sources close to the company. 

However, it is not immediately clear if this is the actual tally of laid-off employees. Other sources indicate the number could be as high as 50% of the workforce. Overall, Kenko is said to have had over 400 employees before the layoffs. 

Inc42 couldn’t independently ascertain the exact number of impacted employees, as neither Kenko nor its cofounder Aniruddha Sen responded to our questions till the time of publishing this story.

The development was first reported by Entrackr, which also said the number of laid off employees could be higher than 20% of the workforce. 

The sources attributed the layoffs to the ongoing funding crunch and Kenko’s failure to generate revenue on a consistent basis.

The layoffs impacted employees from support, processing, sales and tech teams in Delhi NCR and Bengaluru offices, the sources said. Many employees were put on a performance improvement plan (PIP) and then fired without any warning, they added.

Founded in 2019 by Sen and Dhiraj Goel, Kenko provides healthcare financing through its monthly subscription plans which cover expenses like medicines, doctor fees, lab tests, mental health and OPD hospital bills.

The subscription plans for these services start at INR 175 per month and go up to INR 950 per month. The startup claims to have over 3 Lakh subscribers.

In February last year, Kenko raised a Series A round led by Peak XV Partners (then Sequoia Capital), with participation from BEENEXT, Orios, 9Unicorns and Waveform. 

The startup had said at the time that it would use the investment to ramp up hiring, strengthen product development and acquire new customers. As per LinkedIn data, the company had seen an increase of 31% in hiring since last August. 

Layoffs at Kenko come amidst the ongoing funding winter which has resulted in a number of Indian startups laying off employees. As per Inc42’s layoff tracker, at least 30,000 employees across several startups have been laid off since 2022.

Most recently, crypto exchange CoinsSwitch laid off 44 employees. Last week, Inc42 exclusively reported about Chingari firing over 50% of its workforce in a second round of layoffs.

[With inputs from Debarghya Sil] 

The post Peak XV-Backed Kenko Health Lays Off Over 20% Of Employees appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Delhi High Court on Monday reportedly said that Rahul Yadav’s 4B Networks has lost its right to file a response in the arbitration case filed against the company by coworking space provider Innov8.

The court delivered the order after 4B Networks failed to file a response despite the HC granting a “last opportunity” to the company in association with Innov8’s arbitration plea against it for not paying rent amounting to INR 1.08 Cr, as per an Economic Times report.

Innov8 filed the case against 4B Networks under Section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act earlier this year after it failed to receive any response to calls and emails from Yadav pertaining to the rent payment.

During the previous hearing in the case on July 31, 4B Networks had sought more time to file its reply and the HC granted it an additional time of 10 days. 

Besides not responding on the matter to HC, 4B Networks and its founder Yadav reportedly had no representation in the court during Monday’s proceedings. 

The HC scheduled the next hearing in the case on October 10. However, no arbitrator has reportedly been appointed in the case.

Currently, the startup is also under arbitration with its former investor Info Edge. 

In July, Info Edge filed an arbitration suit against 4B Networks after the startup failed to provide crucial information during the forensic audit into the affairs of the proptech startup.

Prior to that, Info Edge wrote off its entire investment in 4B Networks. Inc42 exclusively reported after that about the troubles at 4B Networks, including unpaid dues of vendors and pending salaries of employees.

Meanwhile, a Rajasthan-based vendor has also filed an FIR against Yadav for alleged fraud and criminal breach of trust under sections 406, 409, 420, 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

The post Rahul Yadav’s 4B Networks Fails To Respond To Innov8’s Arbitration Plea In Delhi HC appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery and cell manufacturer Log9 Materials’ production at its Bengaluru unit may take a hit due to the late arrival of Chinese experts in India on account of delays in their visa process. 

Speaking to Inc42, Log9 cofounder and director Pankaj Sharma said that India doesn’t manufacture any of the equipment needed for building cells. Most of these are developed in some European countries, China, and South Korea. Hinting at the lower price for the Chinese equipment, he said the country is the go-to place for Indian cell manufacturers.

“The equipment need upgradation, changes in software parameters, customisation of the software, and more such maintenance. For these, the developers of these machines need to work with engineers here to help them set those up,” he said.

“However, these Chinese engineers are not able to come to India because the government is not processing their visas at all,” Sharma said, adding delay in granting visas will not only impact Log9 but the entire cell manufacturing sector.

Last month, a few other reports documented how the strict approval process for granting visas to Chinese nationals was hurting Indian businesses. In fact, the India expansion plans of some Chinese tech players have also been impacted by the same.

Reuters was the first to report on the developments around Log9. As per the news agency’s report, an Indian government official said earlier this month that some domestic manufacturers who rely on Chinese expertise have sought faster approval for visa applications of their vendors from China. 

The development comes at a time when the relations between the two countries have taken a hit due to the ongoing border stand-off. Amid this, India has also increased the scrutiny of Chinese investments in the country.

Besides, the Indian government has also taken various measures to boost investment and manufacturing in the country to reduce dependence on China for raw materials and finished goods and establish the nation as a major manufacturing hub in the world.

The Indian government came out with a Production Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme for domestic manufacturing of advanced chemistry cells (ACC) in order to achieve a manufacturing capacity of 50 Giga GWh. It set a budgetary outlay of INR 18,100 Cr for the same. 

In March this year, Ola Electric, Rajesh Exports, Hyundai Global Motors Company, and others won the bid for the PLI scheme. The Bhavish Aggarwal-led EV player is setting up facilities and is in talks with global suppliers for cell manufacturing.

“By blocking Chinese engineers, we are not serving the purpose, which is to make India Atmanirbhar. The root to Indianisation is to start to build with what is available from China, bring it to India, start building it, and then acquire that indigenised capability where a few years down the line we wouldn’t need any help from China,” Sharma added.

On the other hand, Log9 is one of the pioneering Li-ion cell manufacturers in India – a fast-growing electric vehicle (EV) market that heavily depends on China for Li-ion cells and batteries.

Log9, founded in 2015 by Dr. Akshay Singhal, Kartik Hajela and Pankaj Sharma, launched the country’s first commercial Li-ion cell manufacturing facility at its campus in Bengaluru in April this year. Its commercial Li-ion cell manufacturing line has an initial capacity of 50 MWh.

So far, its batteries have powered vehicles of EV manufacturers such as Quantum Energy and Hala Mobility as well as the electric fleet of last-mile logistics companies including Maersk and Blue Dart.

Sharma also said that Log9 has sold over 1,000 battery units so far in 2023. As of now, its battery manufacturing unit is not impacted by the Chinese visa issue as equipment used for batteries are imported from elsewhere and Log9 cells are not yet used in the batteries that are currently in production.

Log9 raised $40 Mn in a mix of equity and debt in its Series B funding round led by Amara Raja Batteries and Petronas Ventures earlier this year.

The post Log9 Says Delay In Granting Visa To Chinese Experts May Hit Its Production appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Reliance’s newest entity Jio Financial Services (JFS) will have products in the payments and insurance segments in India besides being in the asset management business, Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani said during the 46th annual general meeting (AGM) of the company on Monday (August 28).

“In payments, JFS will consolidate its payment infrastructure with a ubiquitous offering for both consumers and merchants, further driving digital adoption,” said Ambani, adding that JFS products will not only compete with current industry benchmarks but also new-age features such as blockchain-based platforms and the central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Further, as speculated, JFS is set to enter the insurance market in India, offering general insurance, health insurance, and life insurance products. JFS is partnering with global players to deliver insurance products digitally. 

As per recent report, the company is also planning to offer full-fledged insurance services starting 2024. 

Ambani said today that financial services is a highly capital-intensive business and Reliance has capitalised JFS with a net worth of INR 1.20 Cr. In fact, Ambani claimed that JFS has become the world’s highest capitalised financial services platform at inception, which also sets the path for the company to achieve “tremendous” success. 

“I have three reasons to be absolutely confident about JFS achieving tremendous success over the next few years. First, the digital-first architecture of JFS, will give it an unmatched head start to reach millions of Indians. Second, this is a highly capital-intensive business. Your company has provided JFS with a strong capital foundation to build a best-in-class trusted financial services enterprise and achieve rapid growth,” he said.

Besides, the company’s strong board led by KV Kamath would also help the company achieve greater heights, Ambani added.

JFS was demerged from RIL in July and listed at a slight discount earlier this month. With the deep-pocketed player set to enter the market of insurance and payments, competition for the new-age Indian players including Zerodha, Groww, Paytm, PhonePe, and PB Fintech increases considerably.

JFS has also tied up with the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock to take a bet on India’s $540 Bn mutual fund industry dominated by the likes of SBI, ICICI, and HDFC along with startups such as Zerodha, and Groww.

Following the announcements at the AGM, JFS shares ended Monday’s session marginally down at INR 211.65 on the BSE while RIL closed the session down 1.1% at 2442.55 on the exchange.

The post Jio Financial Services Set To Disrupt Insurance, Payments, And Asset Management Businesses In India appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Telecom giant Reliance Jio has surpassed the 450 Mn subscribers mark, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani said during the 46th annual general meeting (AGM) of the company on Monday (August 28).

“Jio’s overall customer base has now crossed the milestone of 450 Mn subscribers reflecting a year-on-year (YoY) revenue growth of over 20%,” Ambani said.

The per-user data consumption on Jio’s network has also surged with the average user now consuming over 25 GB every month, he informed the company’s stakeholders.

“This translates to a monthly data traffic of 1,100 Cr GB, representing a 45% YoY growth,” Ambani added.

Speaking on the 5G network deployment in the country, Ambani said Jio’s 5G services are already available in 96% of census towns and the company is on track to expand the 5G services across the country by December 2023.

From December this year, Jio would be able to promptly fulfill all the demands for Jio 5G broadband connection across India, he said.

“Today, nearly 85% of the total 5G cells operational in India are in Jio’s Network. At our current pace, we are adding one 5G cell to our network every 10 seconds,” said Ambani, adding that 1 Mn 5G cells are expected to be operational in Jio’s network by December.

It is pertinent to note riding the wave of digitalisation in the country and growing subscribers in the telecom vertical, Reliance Jio Infocomm reported a 12.5% YoY rise in its consolidated net profit to INR 5,098 Cr in the Q1 FY24.

At the end of June 2023, Reliance Jio’s total subscriber base stood at 448.5 Mn as against 419.9 Mn a year ago. In that, the telco saw a net subscriber addition of 9.2 Mn in Q1.

The company also introduced the True 5G Developer Platform and Jio 5G Lab today during RIL’s AGM. It will enable startups and enterprises to develop 5G use cases on Jio’s 5G network, edge computing, and partner solutions.

Today, Ambani also informed that RIL’s broadband internet service JioFiber has crossed 10 Mn subscriptions in India while announcing the launch of a fixed wireless broadband (FWB) offering,  Jio AirFiber, on September 19.

Meanwhile, Jio has also unveiled Jio Smart Home Services today, which will be based on JioFiber and Jio AirFiber. It aims to improve home appliance control.

Following the AGM, shares of RIL closed today’s trading session 1.1% lower at INR 2,442.55 on the BSE.

The post Jio’s Subscriber Base Crosses 450 Mn Mark, 5G Services Now Available In 96% Census Towns appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Indian new-age tech stocks largely witnessed a northbound movement this week despite the weakness in the broader domestic equity market.

Twelve out of the 16 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage gained in a range of 0.2% and over 7% this week, while EaseMytrip emerged as the biggest winner with 7.3% gain on the BSE.

Other gainers of the week included MapMyIndia (jumped 7.1%), Paytm (up 4.6%), CarTrade Technologies (up 3.8%), Nykaa (rose 2.8%), and Zomato (up 1.7%).

Meanwhile, Delhivery, IndiaMart, ideaForge, and Tracxn were the only losers this week, declining between 1% and 4% on the BSE.

In the broader market, Sensex fell 0.1% to 64,886.51 while Nifty 50 declined 0.23% to 19,265.8 this week. The indices fell sharply in two consecutive trading sessions on Thursday and Friday, largely due to the weakness in global markets.

“Markets tumbled sharply tracking weak global equities, as rapidly-rising bond yields continue to weigh on the sentiment. Bets for more Fed rate hikes continue to boost bears’ confidence ahead of Jerome Powells’ speech at the annual Jackson Hole Symposium event,” said Prashanth Tapse, senior VP (research) at Mehta Equities.

Tapse sees a possibility of a massive sell-off in the domestic market amid deteriorating technical and fundamental catalysts that are denting sentiments.

The market is also expected to react to the upcoming annual general meeting of Reliance Industries on (August 28). 

Besides, India’s Q2 GDP and Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data in the coming week, along with cues from China, foreign investor activities, and fluctuations in the dollar index and US bond yields, will play a pivotal role in shaping market dynamics throughout the week, said Santosh Meena, head of research at Swastika Investmart. 

Now, let’s take a detailed look at the performance of some of the new-age tech stocks this week.

The 16 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage ended the week with a total market capitalisation of $36.36 Bn as against $34.45 Bn last week.

Ant Group Offloads 3.6% Stake In Paytm

Antfin (Netherlands) Holding B.V. sold 2.27 Cr shares or 3.6% stake of Paytm worth over INR 2,037 Cr on Friday.

The latest share offloading came shortly after Antfin transferred 10.3% Paytm stake to founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s Resilient Asset Management via an off-market transaction.

At the end of the June quarter, Antfin held 15.09 Cr shares or 23.79% stake in Paytm.

Paytm shares saw a major jump mid-week, however, it ended Friday’s trading session in the red at INR 899.3 on the BSE. Overall, Paytm shares rose 4.6% this week.

It is pertinent to note that Paytm also published its annual report for FY23 this week in which CEO Sharma informed stakeholders about the company’s intention to disrupt the small mobile credit market in the country.

“By helping enable digital loan collection on app, we are now creating a small revolution for financial inclusion, where a loan of as small as a few hundred rupees can be disbursed and collected at very minuscule cost,” Sharma said.

Following a significant rally in its shares in the last few months, the shares of the fintech major have gained almost 70% year to date (YTD).

Rupak De, senior technical analyst at LKP Securities, said Paytm is currently in an uptrend and the support for the stock is at INR 880.

“If it sustains above INR 880, then the uptrend might continue. Else, there could be some consolidation,” De said, adding that the overall trend is sideways to positive.

The target for the stock in the medium term is INR 1,160 and it is INR 1,000 for the short term, he said.

EaseMyTrip Biggest Winner

After a significant downfall since last month, shares of traveltech giant EaseMyTrip regained momentum this week. Its shares jumped 7.3%, ending Friday’s session at INR 40.1 on the BSE.

It is pertinent to note that EaseMyTrip was the second-biggest loser among the new-age tech stocks last week, with its share nosediving 7.5%. Its shares were largely hurt by Q1 results where it reported a decline in profit.

However, this week, the stock gained in three consecutive sessions to emerge the biggest winner.

LKP Securities’ De said that the stock is facing a near-term resistance at INR 42, which, if cleared, would make it rally towards INR 48 in the short term.

EaseMyTrip’s support lies at INR 38, he added.

While most of the new-age tech stocks have bounced back this year after the sharp falls in 2022, shares of EaseMyTrip are trading 24% lower YTD.

Zomato’s Monetisation Experiments 

Almost a month After Zomato started levying a platform fee of INR 2 per order for select users, the foodtech major increased the fee to INR 3 for some users in Tier II cities this week.

While the fee was initially levied only on select users, the company told Inc42 that it would ultimately be applicable to all customers. However, the development is currently in the experiment stage.

It must be noted that Zomato has been trying and testing different ways to increase its revenue. It also became profitable in the June quarter of FY24.

Meanwhile, the lock-in period for investors who received Zomato shares following the Blinkit deal in August last year ended this week. As per reports, SoftBank is now looking to offload its shares in the company via block deals and book profit.

Shares of Zomato slumped 3% on Friday alone, ending the week at INR 90.94 on the BSE. However, the shares gained 1.7% this week.

The current support for the stock is at INR 88, said LKP Securities’ De. Till the time Zomato manages to sustain above this level, there is a chance that it will move towards INR 108-INR 110 in the short term.

However, if the stock goes below INR 88, it could tank further till INR 82, De added.

The post New-Age Tech Stocks Shine Amid Broader Market Weakness; EaseMyTrip Biggest Winner This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Peak XV Partners-backed edtech startup Cuemath has reportedly fired another 100 employees to bring down its costs. 

“…unfortunately, our revenue and cost trajectories are still divergent from expectations, and our problems are compounded by the bad macro situation around capital availability, particularly for edtech,” Cuemath founder and CEO Manan Khurma told the employees in an email on Friday (August 25), as per a Moneycontrol report.

“This means that we will have to move to a leaner team structure, in which some roles will get redundant. That exercise is being carried out today,” the email reportedly read.

Inc42’s email to Cuemath did not immediately elicit a response till the time of publishing this article.

The development comes three months after the Bengaluru-based edtech startup fired around 100 employees in May this year, within a year of it raising a funding of $57 Mn.

After the May layoffs, Khurma had reportedly told the Cuemath employees saying there wouldn’t be any need for more layoffs. 

“And at that point, I had full conviction in saying that. But clearly, I had underestimated the extent of the turnaround required to get the company into a healthy situation,” Khurma said in his latest mail. 

“For what it’s worth, I and our leadership team worked very hard in the last few weeks to avoid this outcome. But we’ve come to the conclusion that we still have a long way to go and this action is inevitable,” he was quoted as saying.

In May, Khurma also returned as the full-time CEO of the company.

Founded in 2013 by Manan and Jagjit Khurma, Cuemath offers mathematics courses to K-12 students and is present in over 80 countries. The startup is backed by marquee investors like Google, Alpha Wave Incubation, and Lightrock India.

Cuemath’s standalone net loss widened 65.7% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 216.6 Cr in FY22, while its operating revenue jumped 64% to INR 148 Cr. Employee benefit expenses accounted for almost 34% of its total expenses of INR 369.6 Cr in the year.

Cuemath is yet to file its FY23 financial statements.

The edtech sector is one of the worst hit due to the ongoing funding winter. Since 2022, at least 22 edtech startups in the country, including five of the seven edtech unicorns, have fired 9,871 employees, as per Inc42’s layoff tracker.

Many Indian edtech startups have also been involved in controversies. While BYJU’S is in the line of fire for a range of issues, including corporate governance and delay in filing financial statements, last week Inc42 exclusively reported about various allegations levelled by students against Skill-Lync.

The post Edtech Startup Cuemath Fires Another 100 Employees To Cut Costs appeared first on Inc42 Media.

A security researcher has claimed that a technical glitch at BYJU’S exposed sensitive data of students, including their loan and payment details. However, the embattled edtech giant told Inc42 it was a temporary glitch and no data was compromised.

The glitch came to notice after security researcher Bob Diachenko posted on X (formerly Twitter) about it on August 23. “Byju’s, an education technology giant and India’s most valuable startup, exposed data of its customers via misconfigured service instance. While there is no response from the company, personal data of students, incl. loan and payment details along with other info, is at risk,” he said.

TechCrunch reported that names, addresses, phone numbers and email IDs of the students were also exposed.

However, BYJU’S said that no personal data was exposed. “There was a temporary exposure of a small fraction of our systems for a very short duration. Please note, no data or information was exposed or compromised during this event,” BYJU’S CTO Anil Goel said. 

“Our technical team has promptly resolved this issue as soon as it came to our notice. We would like to reiterate that all our systems have been built around safeguarding the privacy and security of our data,” Goel added.

Back in 2021, a similar case was reported with BYJU’S data that involved a security lapse and “this time it is much worse”, Diachenko’s post on X said. 

Diachenko told TechCrunch there were several IP addresses with the misconfigured server that enabled anyone to access the queue to read the students’ records without a password.

The company used the misconfigured Apache Kafka server to send and receive data in real time, he said. 

The misconfiguration was apparently fixed after the researcher’s post on X.

Earlier in 2020, personal data of 2.8 Lakh students and teachers enrolled on BYJU’S-owned WhiteHat Jr was reportedly exposed due to vulnerabilities in the company’s server.

Diachenko reportedly claimed 1 Mn-2 Mn records were accessible due to the latest issue at the startup.

BYJU’S Many Troubles

The incident adds to the woes of BYJU’S, which has been plagued with multiple controversies and issues pertaining to corporate governance, funding crunch, layoffs, delay in filing financial statements, and $1.2 Bn Term Loan B.

The beleaguered edtech decacorn also witnessed a major overhaul of its board and core team recently.

In June this year, three of its board members, including GV Ravishankar, MD of early-backer Peak XV Partners, resigned, along with representatives of Prosus and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. 

BYJU’S former auditor Deloitte also quit from its role citing the delay in the filing the financial statements for FY22.

The company’s SVP for international business, Cherian Thomas, left the company this month.

Meanwhile, the startup recently roped in former Infosys executive VP and HR head Richard Lobo as an exclusive advisor in an attempt to transform its HR function. BYJU’S has also hired former upGrad CEO Arjun Mohan as the CEO of its international business. 

The edtech company also appointed former SBI Chairperson Rajnish Kumar and ace investor TV Mohandas Pai as members of its advisory council in July.

The post Security Researcher Claims Tech Glitch Exposed BYJU’S Students’ Data; Co Denies Leaks appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Revolt Motors has reportedly repaid INR 50.02 Cr to the government that it claimed as subsidies under the FAME-II scheme, including interest, after it was found to have claimed the subsidies in violation of the norms of the scheme.

“We have received a cheque worth INR 50.2 Cr from Revolt Intellicorp, which has been encashed today (Thursday),” Hanif Qureshi, joint secretary in the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI), was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

He also said that the ministry will give “a few weeks more” to six other companies who were found to have violated the Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) norms.

To recap, in July this year, reports emerged that the MHI asked seven two-wheeler EV manufacturers to return subsidies worth a total of INR 469 Cr for flouting localisation norms under FAME-II.

Okinawa Autotech, Hero Electric, Ampere Vehicles, Benling India, Amo Mobility, and Lohia Auto were among the players who received the notice.

While Hero Electric was asked to pay the highest amount of INR 133.48 Cr, Ampere was expected to pay INR 124.91 Cr. Okinawa was asked to return INR 116.85 Cr. 

However, as per the news agency’s report, some of these players have maintained that they have not violated norms. Hence, they would have to submit documents validating the claims.

“We’ll give them a few weeks more. Still giving them 2-3 chances in case they want to furnish some documents. Otherwise, we will initiate legal proceedings,” Qureshi was quoted as saying. The recovery process will be initiated post that.

As per Qureshi, testing agencies, which were involved in examining if the EV manufacturers flouted localisation guidelines, submitted 13 reports to the MHI. Out of the 13 companies, six were found in compliance with the norms while seven were found to have violated them by importing components but claiming they were domestically manufactured.

Following this and the penalisation of four other manufacturers for allegedly keeping their vehicle prices lower to claim subsidies, the Indian government slashed the incentives under the scheme significantly.

Meanwhile, industry body Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) has criticised the government’s moves. The SMEV, in multiple letters to various departments of the government, requested to rethink the policy, provide other options, and even called such steps “detrimental” to the country’s EV growth story.

The post FAME-II Subsidy: Revolt Motors Pays Back INR 50 Cr To Govt appeared first on Inc42 Media.

There seems to be no end to the troubles of Rahul Yadav-led 4B Networks as Guerrilla Infra Solutions Private Limited, or Innov8, a coworking space provider, has dragged the startup to court over unpaid rents.

Innov8 filed an arbitration case in the Delhi High Court in April this year against 4B Networks.

“We had an entire floor of Innov8 in Boston House, Andheri East apart from other two partial floors in the same building,” a source told Inc42.

Meanwhile, Moneycontrol reported citing sources that 4B Networks did not pay rent amounting to INR 1.08 Cr for the Innov8 office space it rented in Mumbai. The troubled company reportedly did not give any notice to Innov8 and simply left the office one day.

Given the agreement between both parties had an arbitration clause, Innov8 had to go through the arbitration process before filing a criminal case, a source told the publication.

Innov8 filed the case under Section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act after its attempts to resolve the issue failed as Yadav did not respond to calls and emails, the publication reported.

As per the last court order dated July 31, 4B Networks sought more time to file a reply. 

“Last opportunity is granted to file the same within a period of 10 days from today,” the court order accessed by Inc42 said. 

The next hearing in the case was scheduled for August 28.

Last month, Info Edge, an investor in 4B Networks, said both the parties had agreed for an appointment of an arbitrator for their dispute. Info Edge alleged it did not receive crucial information from 4B Networks despite initiating a forensic audit into the affairs of the proptech startup, following which it moved the Delhi HC. 

Earlier this year, Info Edge wrote off its entire investment in 4B Networks. In June this year, Inc42 exclusively reported about the troubles at 4B Networks, including unpaid dues of vendors and pending salaries of employees.

Recently, a Rajasthan-based vendor filed an FIR against Yadav for alleged fraud and criminal breach of trust with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW). Yadav allegedly defrauded Interspace Communications to whom Broker Network owes INR 10 Cr.

The post After Info Edge, Innov8 Files Arbitration Case Against Rahul Yadav’s 4B Networks appeared first on Inc42 Media.

India is reportedly working on a new electric vehicle (EV) policy that would reduce import taxes for foreign automakers who commit to some local manufacturing.

The development reportedly follows a proposal by US automotive giant Tesla, which is considering entering the Indian market after its earlier tussle with the government over import tax-related issues. 

The new EV policy under consideration could allow automakers to import fully-built EVs into India at a reduced tax of 15%. Currently, the import tax is 100% for cars that cost above $40,000 and 70% for the rest, Reuters reported citing sources.

Tesla’s current best-selling Model Y starts at $47,740 in the US, before tax credits.

However, the policy is still in the initial stages of deliberation and the final tax rate could be different.

“There is an understanding with Tesla’s proposal and government is showing interest,” a government official familiar with the matter was quoted as saying.

A source also told the news agency that the lower import taxes could help Tesla sell its entire range of car models in the country, and not only the new car it wants to manufacture locally.

Tesla has been looking to enter the Indian market for years now. However, in 2021, Tesla boss Elon Musk said that though he wanted to launch the cars soon in the country, it was stalled because of the high import duties, which he claimed to be the “highest in the world”.

After a long standoff, Musk and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met in the US in June this year.

“I am confident that Tesla will be in India and will do so as soon as humanly possible,” Musk told the media during the meet.

Tesla is also in talks with the Indian government for setting up a manufacturing plant in India and has reportedly leased an office space in Pune.

It is pertinent to note that a change in the EV tax policy right now could lead to an influx of global EV players entering the slow but steadily growing Indian EV market. Besides, it could also lead to a significant reduction in the cost of imported EVs.

However, this would also mean higher competition for Indian EV players like Tata Motors and Mahindra, who are trying to build the culture of vehicle electrification in the country.

The report cited a source as saying that the Centre is moving slowly on the policy proposal keeping in mind that such a drastic reduction of taxes on imported EVs could disrupt the market. 

“This is going to go through a lot of deliberations even though (the) government is keen on getting Tesla. That’s because of the impact on domestic players,” the official was further quoted as saying. 

It must be noted that the Indian government has been focusing on boosting local manufacturing for EVs and their components in the country for the last few years. In the last year or so, it also penalised several escooter players and reframed the FAME-II subsidy policy on finding over a dozen of them largely importing the parts and not manufacturing them domestically.

Despite FAME-II disruptions, the electric two-wheeler market has grown significantly since 2022. However, electric cars are still less than 2% of the total car sales in the third-largest automotive market in the world.

Currently, international players like MG Motor, Renault SA, Nissan, Volkswagen, and BYD are among the leading players in the electric car market in the country.

The post Amid Talks With Tesla, India Mulls Cutting Import Tax For EVs If OEMs Build Locally appeared first on Inc42 Media.