Electric vehicle (EV) maker Ola Electric has reportedly signed an agreement to raise $140 in a funding round led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek with participation from other existing investors.

Sources told Livemint that the agreement was inked on Monday (September 4) and the amount would be credited into the EV major’s account within four to five days. As per the report, Temasek will invest $90 Mn while the remaining $50 Mn will be pumped by remaining investors, primarily comprising family offices. 

The round reportedly pegs Ola Electric at a valuation of $5.4 to $5.5 Bn. This is higher than the company’s last funding round in January 2022 when the EV maker raised around $200 Mn from a clutch of investors at a valuation of $5Bn. 

A person familiar with the development told the publication that the capital will give the company more runway and ‘an additional buffer’ as it prepares for its much-touted public listing. 

A source reportedly also said that the EV maker will likely raise another round before the public markets debut. This comes days after reports surfaced that Ola Electric was looking to raise $350 Mn ahead of its initial public offering (IPO) in a round led by Temasek.

The fresh capital will give the company more heft as it lines up more investors for its potential listing early next year. The capital could also be deployed to scale up the production of its recently announced long line-up of electric scooters, bikes and a potential electric car. 

The announcement comes at a time when the EV original equipment manufacturer (OEM) has been grappling with losses. The company saw its net loss surge almost 4X to INR 784.1 Cr in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) compared to INR 199.2 Cr in FY21. The numbers are not comparable as the company only began delivering its EV scooters in December 2021. 

The company is yet to disclose its financial numbers for FY23, but, if reports are to be believed, it raked up a loss of INR 1,116 Cr ($136 Mn) against revenue of INR 2,750 Cr ($335 Mn), missing its targets for the fiscal year. 

As Ola Electric lines up investment banks for its purported 2024 IPO, the company has been mired in multiple issues, with losses being the least of its problems. The EV maker’s escooters have been involved in fires while top-level executives have been leaving in droves amid a leadership reshuffle. 

Alongside, expenses continue to pile up as Ola Electric continues to scale up its ambitious plans of setting up factories even as sales numbers dwindle in the aftermath of the FAME-II crisis. On top of that, the company has also fired many employees in the past one year as part of a cost-cutting exercise at the parent company. 

However, Ola Electric seems to be well-placed to capture the growth momentum of the Indian EV space, which has grown steadily lately on the back of higher adoption among the masses and government incentives. 

The post IPO-Bound Ola Electric Bags $140 Mn At $5.4 Bn Valuation From Temasek, Others appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Putting its rubber stamp on the 28% GST regime, the union government on Friday (September 1) notified amendments specifying valuation methodology to be used by online gaming platforms for calculating tax liability. 

Following the GST Council’s recommendations, the Ministry of Finance notified amendments to the Central GST law for calculating the value of supply by online gaming platforms. Further clearing the air, the order stated that winnings by any player will remain tax-neutral as the entire tax is collected at the first stage itself. 

The development comes a month after the Parliament approved amendments to the Central and Integrated GST laws to levy a 28% tax on the full face value of bets for online gaming.

Reacting to the development, EY Tax Partner Saurabh Agarwal told news agency PTI that the notification is expected to effectively settle the ambiguity and uncertainty around this matter. He, however, added, “… the aspect of whether the mere deposit of money in a wallet qualifies as a supply is unclear, and may be challenged by the industry.”

This follows the GST Council’s decision to impose a 28% GST on the amount being paid at the entry level for online gaming in July this year. As the government moved ahead with its plans to solidify the levy, Indian online gaming platforms made a beeline, seeking revocation of the proposed plans. 

Despite criticism from all quarters of the gaming industry, the Centre stuck with plans and passed the amendments in the Parliament. Since then, the gaming ecosystem has been gripped by crises. 

Last month, Mobile Premier League (MPL) slashed half of its workforce to cut corners. This was followed by Hike and Spartan Poker firing employees in droves as they grappled with the tax burden. 

On top of that, Inc42 recently reported that more than 20-25% of online gaming platforms are mulling to get acquired or acquihired. An analyst even said that these startups were selling for pennies on a dollar. 

As the crisis mounts, it remains to be seen how the industry reacts to the new curveball.

The post Taxation For Online Gaming Platforms: Govt Notifies ‘Tax-Neutral’ Stance For Winners appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the Centre is mulling various sops for the country’s electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem. 

In an interview with Moneycontrol, PM Modi said the potential incentives will be offered to ensure India achieves its carbon emission targets. He also applauded the homegrown EV industry for spurring innovation in the emerging space.

“The government has been working on providing incentives for the electric vehicle industry. The industry has responded with greater innovation and the people are responding to it with greater openness to try the alternative,” the PM said.

Speaking about the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), he noted that the platform will create a level playing field for various stakeholders. Terming ONDC a futuristic initiative, PM Modi said the platform is well-poised to revolutionise the tech arena. 

“For a long time, India was globally known for its tech talent. Today, it is known for both its tech talent and tech prowess, especially in digital public infrastructure… The ONDC is a futuristic initiative that will revolutionise the tech field by creating a level playing field on digital platforms for a number of different stakeholders,” he added. 

He also said that various state-backed public digital infrastructure initiatives and platforms unveiled in the past nine years are having a ‘multiplier effect on the economy’, adding that India’s tech revolution has had both economic and deep social impact.

The comments come at a time when the government has ramped up its focus on green technologies, especially the EV space. While work is underway on a new EV policy, the Centre is also mulling incentives in the form of lower import taxes for companies setting up manufacturing bases in the country. 

Even as the EV ecosystem grapples with the fallout of the FAME-II crisis, electric two-wheeler registrations continue to see marginal uptick. Total two-wheeler EV registrations in the country rose to 58,927 units in August from 54,498 units in July.

On the other hand, the Centre has pulled out all the stops when it comes to its ambitious ONDC initiative. Built on the idea of open protocol, the network aims to break the silos related to ecommerce using an open-network methodology that is not limited to a single platform.

The government aims to onboard 900 Mn buyers and 1.2 Mn sellers through the network, directly pitting it against the likes of behemoths such as Flipkart, Amazon, Zomato, Swiggy, among others, across various sectors. 

The post Govt Working On Various Incentives For EV Industry: PM Modi appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In another major push for digital payments in the country, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das on Wednesday (September 6) launched multiple new UPI products at the Global Fintech Fest 2023. 

The new offerings, built by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), included credit line on UPI, near-field communication (NFC)-based offline payment modules UPI LITE X and Tap & Pay, and conversational payment products Hello! UPI and BillPay Connect. 

In a statement, the NPCI said the products aim to create an inclusive, resilient, and sustainable digital payments ecosystem in the country. The launches are in line with the central bank’s earlier announcements. 

The move is part of the NPCI’s bid to achieve 100 Bn monthly transactions in the near future and to bring more Indians into the fold of digital payments.

Lauding the UPI ecosystem, the RBI governor said it has facilitated digital payments for small merchants, leading to greater financial inclusion.

“The UPI has played a phenomenal role in the fintech revolution in India. Its success story has in fact become an international model… UPI has also spurred innovation in the fintech space, leading to the growth and development of other payment systems,” said Das while addressing the gathering. 

The event also saw NPCI advisor and IT veteran Nandan Nilekani and NPCI non-executive chairman Biswamohan Mahapatra in attendance. 

The Digital Payments Push

Making waves at the launch were two conversational payment products launched by the NPCI – Hello! UPI and BillPay Connect, which are based on human-machine interaction and are facilitated by AI-enabled transactions.

Hello! UPI allows users to give voice commands to transfer funds and input UPI PIN through the UPI app, telecom calls, and IoT devices in Hindi and English. The feature is expected to be soon rolled out in other Indian languages as well. 

The product has been built in partnership between the NPCI and Bhashini program (AI4Bharat) at IIT Madras. 

“This expansion will broaden payment accessibility for most Indians who are fluent in their native languages, providing significant benefits to senior citizens and digitally inexperienced individuals,” the NPCI said.

Meanwhile, BillPay Connect allows users to fetch and pay bills through voice commands on their smart home devices. Feature phone users or offline users can also use the product by messaging or calling a pan-India single number to fetch and pay their bills. Afterwards, they will receive an immediate call back for verification and payment authorisation. 

Credit line on UPI was the other product launched today which will enable users to avail pre-sanctioned credit lines from banks through UPI. The launch came days after the RBI allowed scheduled commercial banks to offer credit lines to their customers through UPI.

As per the NPCI, the product will expand access to credit and foster a more streamlined and digital banking ecosystem. The payments corporation expects the process of availing, connecting, and utilising credit lines to significantly expedite and will enable banks and fintechs to create new and niche digital products. 

“The initiative encompasses several key features, including the linkage of pre-sanctioned credit lines, the creation of digital credit products by banks, the establishment of interest-free credit periods and corresponding interest rates, defined schedule of charges, customer engagement channels for credit sanction requests, and the ability to link various pre-sanctioned credit lines via UPI-enabled apps for transactions,” said NPCI. 

UPI LITE X and Tap & Pay, built at the intersection of NFC and offline payments, were the other products launched today.

Through UPI LITE X, offline users can make digital payments of up to INR 500 to anyone with an NFC-enabled compatible device. Meanwhile, UPI Tap & Pay allows customers to simply tap NFC-enabled QR codes at merchant outlets to complete their payments.

Meanwhile, fintech major Paytm announced its partnership with NPCI to launch products such as credit line on UPI, Billpay Connect and UPI Tap & Pay on its app. 

“As pioneers of mobile payments, we are proud to partner with NPCI to enable the launch of innovative new features like Credit Line on UPI, Billpay Connect and UPI Tap & Pay. Bringing these offerings first to our users, we will take Paytm UPI to the next level, driving further adoption,” said a Paytm spokesperson.

The developments come just days after UPI achieved a major milestone of 1,000 Cr monthly transactions in August 2023. The slew of offerings have been introduced with an eye on scaling monthly transactions on the UPI network to 10,000 Cr in the near future. 

The post Talk & Pay: NPCI Launches New UPI Offerings With An Eye On 100 Bn Monthly Transactions appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Airtel Payments Bank has partnered with French biometric solutions provider IDEMIA and Nokia parent HMD Global to launch an offline system for facilitating digital rupee payments on feature phones. 

Digital rupee is simply a tokenised digital version of the Indian fiat currency and is issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

In a statement, IDEMIA said the trio will work together to introduce an ‘advanced offline payment system’ over the course of the next few months. The new system will enable users to make payments via CBDCs without being connected to the internet or not having a smartphone. 

“This partnership will work towards further strengthening financial inclusion and digital payments, to make it possible to pay in digital currency even without having a smartphone or being connected to the internet, either temporarily or because of coverage limitations,” the statement said.

The product is currently in design phase and, as per the companies, is the first ‘industry attempt’ to facilitate the use of digital rupee on feature phones through an app interface. 

The new offering will leverage Airtel Payments Bank’s financial solution and IDEMIA’s CBDC stack to build the app, and will be available on Nokia feature phones. 

It will aim to fuel the adoption of CBDCs in the country, promote financial inclusion and address issues associated with facilitating digital transactions in areas with limited connectivity. The app will also enable the players to tap into the growing adoption of digital currencies in the country and acquire a first mover advantage in the arena. 

“… We are confident that once we move from the design phase and launch the solution commercially with all required approvals, it will play a pivotal role in advancing the accessibility of financial services and contribute to India’s transition towards a digitally inclusive economy,” said Prasad Routray, head of corporate business and alliances at Airtel Payments Bank.

Amit Kakatikar, senior vice president of payments solutions at IDEMIA, added that the alliance will provide ‘valuable insights and contributions’ to the evolution of offline retail CBDC systems.

The new system will also enable the trio to roll out the CBDC payments to a wide-range of population, or almost 40 Cr Indian feature phone users. 

The development comes at a time when CBDCs are witnessing rapid adoption in the country. On Wednesday, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that CBDC retail pilot has so far onboarded 1.46 Mn users and 0.31 million merchants at the end of August. A separate news report noted that last month saw 10.83 Cr overall CBDC transactions totalling INR 24,000 Cr. 

It is pertinent to note that retail CBDCs are still in pilot mode and were launched by the central bank in December 2022. 

Earlier this week, the State Bank of India (SBI) also integrated UPI with its digital rupee app to streamline user experience and enhance adoption of the new technology. 

The latest announcement from Airtel Payments Bank also comes as RBI tinkers with a host of novel technologies to spur the adoption of digital payments beyond metros and Tier-I cities. Earlier today, the NPCI launched four new UPI products – Credit Line on UPI, Near Field Communication (NFC)-based offline payments offerings UPI LITE X and Tap & Pay and conversational payments products Hello! UPI and BillPay Connect.

The post Airtel Payments Bank Partners IDEMIA, Nokia To Enable CBDC Payments On Feature Phones appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Ecommerce major Flipkart on Tuesday (September 5) announced the launch of its metaverse-powered immersive virtual shopping feature, Virtual Worlds. 

With an eye on enhancing customer experience and engagement, the new offering will be available on the Flipkart app. Virtual Worlds are 3D-rendered metaverse environments where users of the platform can engage with different brands and try out products. 

Modelled after offline stores, the new feature will allow Flipkart customers to participate in gamified web experiences while interacting with a product. 

Overall, the immersive shopping experience will be available to users in two formats. While brands will be able to create dedicated and customised Virtual Worlds on the Flipkart app for their products to attract and engage shoppers, they will also be able to simply list on a ‘co-tenancy’ basis within Flipkart’s own Virtual World called Flipverse. 

“Brands can establish 3D stores for standout discovery, inspiring purchases, and rewarding customers through gamification, thereby crafting a distinct brand image,” said Flipkat in a statement. 

Besides, the company also announced the launch of its ‘Laptops Virtual Showroom’, which enables buyers to explore laptops in an immersive setting.

Commenting on the development, Flipkart Labs’ head Ravi Krishnan said, “… Brands have the opportunity to virtually present their unique characteristics, forging closer relationships with customers. The co-tenancy feature within Flipkart’s Metaverses allows brands to present a variety of products in a shared 3D space, setting the stage for the future of shopping.”

Meanwhile, Flipkart Labs claims to have multiple new Virtual Worlds launches in the pipeline as the festive season approaches. The ecommerce major also added that brands will be offered a ‘special opportunity’ to allow users to explore products in 3D on Flipverse during the festive period. There was no further clarity on what this special opportunity was. 

Flipkart is also partnering with Bengaluru-based Web3 platform Layer-E to build these Virtual World experiences. 

“Flipkart Labs enables the Virtual World experiences in collaboration with brand-facing teams within Flipkart including the Ads & Category teams, and a key external tech partner – Layer-E. Layer-E builds immersive infrastructure for Web3 commerce with global brands and creators, as well as art, media, and entertainment IPs,” the company said. 

Flipkart claims to actively leverage emerging technologies such as 3D, augmented reality (AR), blockchain, and generative AI to enhance shopping experience for its 45 Cr users. Leading from the front, the ecommerce major has been tinkering with such technologies at least for a few years now. 

It launched the 3D and AR features back in 2021, and followed it up by the introduction of beauty and makeup try-ons on its app. It also piloted Flipverse last year, which, as per the company, achieved the largest ecommerce metaverse activation globally. During the six day trial, users from 2,300 cities streamed 20,000 hours of content on Flipverse to discover products virtually in an immersive fashion.

The post Flipkart Unveils Virtual Worlds To Offer Metaverse-Powered Shopping Experience appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL’s) demerged arm Jio Financial Services Limited (JFSL) will be excluded from the NSE indices, including the benchmark Nifty 50, from September 7. 

“In accordance with the index methodology, as JIOFIN has not hit price band on two consecutive trading days on September 4, 2023 and September 5, 2023 at NSE, the index maintenance sub committee (equity) of NSE Indices has decided to exclude JIOFIN from various indices as listed hereunder effective from September 7, 2023,” said NSE in a statement. 

It added that the exclusion shall not be deferred further even if Jio Financial hits the price band on September 6.

Besides Nifty 50, the stock will be removed from Nifty 100, Nifty 200, Nifty 500, Nifty Energy, Nifty India Manufacturing and 13 other indices. RIL spun off Jio Financial as a separate entity in July this year, after which the latter became a publicly listed entity in late August. 

The company had a lacklustre start on the bourses, hitting the lower circuit for five straight sessions before gaining at the fag end of August. However, the stock has pared losses since then. 

Shares of Jio Financial continued their rise on Tuesday as well, gaining 0.73% to end the session at INR 255.30 on the NSE. The stock touched an intraday high of INR 259.7.

Meanwhile, as per Nuvama Alternative Research, Jio Financial’s delisting could reportedly see the sale of nearly 105 Mn shares worth $324 Mn by Nifty passive trackers. The research firm also said that NSE would emulate BSE’s 20% filter even as retail investors await NSE’s price band circular for the stock.

The development comes days after the BSE removed Jio Financial from its indices. However, MSCI and FTSE indices continue to retain Jio Financial without any impact on inflow or outflow.

Amid all this, Jio Financial appears all set to shake up the financial services industry. At the conglomerate’s 46th Annual General Meeting (AGM) last month, chairman Mukesh Ambani unveiled a blueprint of the company saying it will launch products in the payments and insurance segments, apart from its already announced foray into the asset management space. 

Jio Financial will also explore blockchain technology and the central bank digital currency (CBDC) to build new-age products. 

As per the company, Jio Financial became the world’s highest-capitalised financial services platform at the time of its inception before the delisting announcement. 

Be it testing a soundbox for payments or building products in the general insurance and health insurance spaces, Jio Financial has a plethora of offerings up its sleeves and this has sent alarm bells ringing across India’s burgeoning fintech ecosystem. The Reliance Group company will take on startups like Zerodha, Paytm Money, INDMoney and Groww, among others. 

The post After BSE, Jio Financial Services To Be Excluded From NSE Indices appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Indian government is reportedly in talks with multiple South American and African countries to introduce the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and RuPay cards in these countries. 

A senior government official told Livemint that officials of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) are holding talks with their counterparts as well as high commissions and embassies of these nations.

The person further added that the discussions are at various stages of negotiations and are part of the government’s bid to internationalise UPI.

This comes close on the heels of NPCI International Payments Limited’s (NIPL) chief executive officer (CEO) Ritesh Shukla saying that UPI will double the number of countries where it is operational in the next 12-18 months. 

Recently, reports also said India is in deliberations with countries such as Namibia, Mozambique and Kenya to expand the scope of UPI. 

The move comes as UPI creates new benchmarks even as the government further pushes to scale the platform globally. Just days ago, UPI set a new record by processing more than 1,000 Cr monthly transactions in August 2023. 

Meanwhile, UPI continues to see global adoption. So far, the digital payments platform has already been deployed in countries such as France, Singapore, Nepal, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Singapore, Maldives, Bhutan, and Oman. 

In addition, India has also been in talks with New Zealand to deploy the digital payments system in the Pacific country to improve ease of business between two nations. 

On Monday, the RBI also allowed scheduled commercial banks to offer credit lines to their customers through UPI.

The post India In Talks With South American & African Nations To Introduce UPI appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Embattled streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar received another blow on August 31 with the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI’s) announcement that Viacom18 has won the media rights for the Indian cricket team’s international home matches as well as the domestic matches of the cricket board till 2028. Viacom18 will telecast the matches on Sports18 TV channel while streaming them on its OTT platform JioCinema. Earlier, these rights were with Star India and Disney+ Hotstar, respectively. 

Already reeling under the pressure of dwindling subscribers and loss of IPL media rights, Disney+ Hotstar lost yet another prized possession to the Reliance-backed OTT platform with the BCCI’s announcement. 

Echoing the disquiet was the former director of product management for ads at Disney+ Hotstar, Anurag Verma, who tweeted, “I guess the end of an era, having worked at Hotstar and seen crazy DAUs and MAUs the action will shift to JioCinema. Disney, in any case, was non-committal about Star and Hotstar and probably looking for a buyer. This most likely will be the beginning of the end.”

The warning stood in stark contrast with Star’s legacy, which counts itself as the first TV channel to broadcast matches in vernacular language. It also leveraged this capability to bring cricket to the smartphones of Indians when the streaming boom arrived. 

However, Disney+ Hotstar seems to have hit turbulent waters as JioCinema keeps on poaching its key digital allures one by one. Viacom18 winning the media rights to telecast the Indian cricket team’s matches in India for a sum of INR 5,963 Cr has once again brought attention to the ongoing streaming war in the country, which JioCinema looks set to win. 

Inflicting A Thousand Cuts

While it was initially launched in 2016, JioCinema largely came bundled with a slew of other apps from the Jio universe and was exclusively limited to its users, offering aggregated content. 

Two years later, in 2018, Star Sports India won both digital and television media rights for BCCI matches for a sum of INR 6,138.1 Cr for the next five years. Then, JioCinema decided to bide its time and strike at the opportune moment. 

It finally got this opportunity in 2022. In the past year, Jio mounted a big offensive against Disney+ Hotstar, which began with acquiring the rights to broadcast the FIFA World Cup 2022 in the country. Hot on the heels, JioCinema struck a major blow to the Star-backed streaming giant after it poached the rights of the coveted Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament from the latter. 

JioCinema made its intentions about dominating the OTT space clear by streaming IPL 2023 for free for both Jio as well as non-Jio users. 

Earlier, Disney+ Hotstar banked on the love for cricket in India to fuel its paid subscriber growth, which stood at a record 61.3 Mn at the end of the quarter ended September 2022. This was the last quarter of subscriber addition for the streaming major. 

The loss of the IPL in the cricket-crazy country resulted in an exodus of subscribers from Disney+ Hotstar. Its paid user base dwindled to 40.4 Mn at the beginning of July 2023 – by the time the IPL ended.

After poaching cricket fans, JioCinema set its eyes on another key digital property of Disney+ Hotstar — the premium English content viewers. The conglomerate-backed streaming player then signed back-to-back content partnership deals with HBO and NBCUniversal Media (NBCU) to bring premium English films and TV shows to India.

As a result, Disney+ Hotstar users were left bewildered as popular shows such as Euphoria, Succession, House of the Dragon, Chernobyl, and The Last of Us suddenly moved to JioCinema. 

Then came the final blow. JioCinema finally rebranded itself as a full-fledged premium offering, rolling out a premium ad-free subscription plan for INR 999 per year, supporting up to 4K resolution on four devices. In contrast, Disney+ Hotstar sells its lowest plan at INR 899 a year, which includes ads and supports a max of 1080p resolution and two devices.

Barring the media rights for the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) global tournaments in India, Disney+ Hotstar just has Marvel films and TV shows in its kitty, which may not prove to be an attractive hook for users leaving the platform in droves. 

Something For Everyone: The JioCinema Mantra

Over the course of the next year (2024), JioCinema is reportedly expected to stream 16 men’s matches (10 test and 6 T20 international matches) while Disney+ Hotstar may broadcast anywhere between 11 to 14 matches. This provides JioCinema an effective ad opportunity and a potential influx of paid subscribers if it decides to paywall the matches. 

Meanwhile, JioCinema has also complemented its cricket offerings by acquiring media rights pertaining to various games, including the 2024 Paris Olympics, Diamond League, NBA, Global Chess League, and BWF World Championships. 

Alongside, JioCinema also has the might and experience to build the needed digital infrastructure, even though it has faced some glitches in the past. 

On the other hand, Disney+ Hotstar seems to be a bit directionless at the moment. As its parent company weighs selling off the streaming platform or a joint venture, Disney+ Hotstar is streaming Asia Cup 2023 for free. It will also stream the upcoming ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup for free on its mobile app to counter JioCinema. 

With few premium English shows up its sleeves, the streaming major could be looking to pitch Marvel shows and films to a wider audience. Alongside, with a huge library of local and vernacular content, Disney+ Hotstar could also be looking to attract eyeballs of ‘Bharat’ (rural India) which still favours ‘desi’ content. 

However, over 100 Indian films and TV shows lined up by JioCinema, which are produced at a cost of INR 2,000 Cr, may well play a spoilsport for Disney+ Hotstar. 

Stage Set For Disruption?

“Basically, Jio has started at the top of the pyramid by signing content partnerships with big American studios, enabling them to acquire premium users who do not mind paying for high-quality English content. From there, JioCinema could come to the bottom of the pyramid and may pump a couple more billion dollars to acquire platforms that cater to Bharat,” IPVerse founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Pallav Bajjuri said on the Reliance-backed platform’s strategy.    

He, however, said that the space will eventually head towards consolidation, where bigger players would pick up smaller platforms. 

Going forward, Bajjuri said the next wave of innovation in the space could come from the streaming of gaming, vernacular content focused at Bharat and higher focus on reality shows. He believes that niche alone won’t be enough for sustenance, and content diversification and innovation would be the key to lead the market going forward. 

JioCinema seems to have understood this. The streaming platform has partnered with South Korean gaming giant KRAFTON India to broadcast the official Battlegrounds Mobile India Series (BGIS) in India, setting its eyes on the niche streaming space.

On top of that, its broadcast of IPL 2023 garnered more than 449 Mn viewers, while the streaming platform recorded ‘record’ revenues during the broadcast of IPL earlier this year. The final of the tournament clocked 32 Mn viewers, and it recorded more than 15,000 Mn video views in the first seven weeks of IPL.

With such impressive numbers and an ever-expanding content library, experts believe that JioCinema is well poised to disrupt the Indian OTT market, which is expected to grow to a size of $12.5 Bn by 2030, in the same way as Reliance’s telecom arm Jio. 

The post OTT Wars: BCCI Media Rights Add Another Weapon To JioCinema’s Arsenal appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In the middle of multiple top-level departures, BYJU’S-owned coaching centre chain Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) has reportedly constituted an executive council to appoint a new chief executive officer (CEO).

BYJU’S CEO Byju Raveendran, Group CFO Ajay Goel, Aakash’s chief business officer Anup Kumar Agarwal, and Aakash’s chief human resources officer Sachin Saxena will be part of the council, The Economic Times reported citing an internal note sent by Raveendran to employees. 

This follows the departure of incumbent CEO Abhishek Maheshwari and the impending exit of CFO Vipan Joshi. Sources close to the company told Inc42 that while Maheshwari has exited the company after the completion of his notice period, Joshi is also on his way out of the company. 

As per the ET report, Maheshwari’s exit was formally announced by BYJU’S to the employees on Saturday (September 2).

A BYJU’S spokesperson declined to comment on the story. 

The executive committee will spearhead the company during the transition period and conduct ‘scheduled’ meetings so that the coaching centre chain continues to operate ‘smoothly’.

“The executive committee has been assembled to provide guidance, support, and leadership during this transition period. We are committed to maintaining the excellence and growth that AESL has consistently delivered in terms of both current business operations and future prospects,” Raveendran said in the internal note.

C-Suite Execs Leave In Droves

The development comes in the middle of a series of top-level exits at multiple subsidiaries of the edtech decacorn. Just days ago, it was reported that the chief executive of BYJU’S subsidiary WhiteHat Jr Ananya Tripathi resigned from her position. 

This was preceded by the exit of BYJU’S chief business officer Prathyusha Agarwal, business head of BYJU’S Tuition Centers Himanshu Bajaj and business head for Class 4 to 10 Mukut Deepak in quick succession. 

In August itself, BYJU’S senior vice president for international business, Cherian Thomas, also announced his departure from the company. The company also fired more than 100 employees from the post-sale division last month for performance related issues.

Overall, BYJU’S has laid off more than 5,000 employees since the beginning of last year as it grapples with a funding crunch. As part of its cost-cutting measures, the company has shelved expansion plans and cut down on expenses to extend its runway. 

The edtech major has also been bogged down by a slew of legal and regulatory issues. While it is locked in multiple legal cases with its term B lenders, IPO-bound Aakash is also in the middle of a tussle between its shareholders. Amid ongoing negotiations with New York-based investment fund Davidson Kempner over an INR 2,000 crore credit line, there appears to be a major rejig in the offing at Aakash’s board. 

In a bid to pay Kempner, Aakash also appears to have finalised a $80 Mn cash infusion from Manipal Group chairman Ranjan Pai to tide over the debt crisis. 

With much at stake, it remains to be seen what the future holds for Aakash as troubles continue to pile up at its parent firm even as the aoching chain prepares for its much-touted public listing. 

The post BYJU’S-Owned Aakash Sets Up Executive Council To Appoint New CEO appeared first on Inc42 Media.

September 1, 2023 | 08:33 PM

Ride-hailing major Ola has reportedly joined the state-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and is piloting a food delivery platform. 

Sources told The Economic Times that the startup has been experimenting with ONDC since August and has embedded a new ‘ONDC Food’ feature within the Ola app itself. As per the report, the feature is currently available only for Ola employees.

The pilot enables Ola employees to access multiple restaurants listed on the network and order from them via Ola app. This pits the ride-hailing giant directly against foodtech giants Zomato and Swiggy. 

Meanwhile, the company management reportedly sent an email to all its employees on August 24 seeking their feedback on the trial run. 

“This ONDC integration works out great for Ola because now they do not have the hassles of figuring out integration of the restaurant partners and consumers. The next step would be to open the food delivery to consumers beyond employees,” a person privy to the development told ET. 

While it was largely expected that Ola would join ONDC as a mobility player, the move to take the food delivery route appears to be the Bhavish Aggarwal-led company’s latest attempt to dabble in the foodtech space. 

Be it launching the food delivery service called Ola Cafe in 2015 or the acquisition of Foodpanda India in 2017, all major attempts by the company to establish itself in the space have largely failed. The company shut Foodpanda in 2019 and subsequently wound up its quick commerce arm Ola Dash in 2022. 

Now, ONDC seems to be the new experimenting ground for the company to realise its foodtech dreams. The sector is currently largely a duopoly of Zomato and Swiggy. 

Original Story| August 31 | 10:05 PM

Ride-hailing giant Ola is reportedly planning to jump on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) bandwagon. 

As per Medianama, Ola’s chief executive officer (CEO) Bhavish Aggarwal, while addressing the India Internet Day event held on August 24 in Bengaluru, said that the company was planning to join the state-backed network. He, however, did not divulge any details.

Inc42 has reached out to the company for a comment on the matter, and the story will be updated accordingly.

The development comes five months after ONDC forayed into the mobility space to enable smaller local players to compete with behemoths such as Uber and Ola. With this, Ola could be looking to tap into the growing ONDC ecosystem, which counts Namma Yatri, the Juspay and Beckn Foundation-backed ride hailing app for autos, as the sole mobility player on its platform. 

While Namma Yatri currently offers services only in Bengaluru, Ola could be looking at a pan-India offering on ONDC, with its eyes set on getting the first-mover advantage. As and when Ola debuts on ONDC, the drivers of Ola may benefit from the high discoverability aspect of the network.

Simply put, the state-backed initiative will allow participating platforms (in this case mobility players) to broadcast their services across all apps on the network. As a result, a user looking for rides will simply be able to compare prices from both Namma Yatri and Ola and choose accordingly. 

As adoption grows and more and more players join the network, users could see more competitive pricing as companies undercut each other for a bigger pie of the ride-hailing market. This could pose a threat to the duopoly of Ola, which it enjoys with Uber in the ride-hailing space. 

On the other hand, Namma Yatri has so far banked on the zero commission model for drivers to drive adoption but the platform will begin charging drivers beginning September 1. 

Besides, buyer apps such as Paytm, Pincode and Spice Money may also potentially hold the key and emerge as an avenue for users to book rides on ONDC. Paytm, too, has plans to roll out support for booking rides, while other players may also follow suit. 

At a time when the ride-hailing giant is struggling with several issues, including increasing losses, customer complaints about its subpar services and growing competition from new and existing players, the move to list on ONDC may bode well for Ola.

This comes days after ONDC CEO T Koshy said that the platform is merely ‘creating sparks’ right now, adding that an ‘explosion’ would happen when the platform gathers volume. 

Brainchild of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the network aims to ramp up ecommerce penetration to 25% in the next two years. At stake is the growing ecommerce opportunity, which is projected to reach $400 Bn by 2030. 

The post Ola Joins ONDC, Reignites Foodtech Ambitions With Food Delivery Pilot appeared first on Inc42 Media.

South Korean gaming giant KRAFTON has reportedly received full approval from the Centre to operate its battle royale game Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) in India. 

The nod was granted after the company passed a three-month long audit process, Moneycontrol reported citing sources. The game will now have to undergo quarterly assessments to keep the approval, the report added.

Inc42 has reached out to KRAFTON for a comment on the development. The story will be updated on receiving a response from the company.

The development is expected to provide a major relief to the company as BGMI, one of the top grossing games in the country, has been mired in multiple regulatory issues in the country.

The government’s move comes ahead of the expiration of the three-month trial period granted by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to KRAFTON in May this year for the India-only game. The pilot run came nearly 10 months after the ministry issued an order which led to the delisting of the game from Google Play and Apple App Store.

In May, Minister for State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the interim approval was accorded after the game complied with government directions on issues related to server locations, data security, among others.

The nod comes close on the heels of Singaporean gaming major Garena’s re-entry into the country after its game Free Fire faced suspension in the country for more than one-and-a-half years. Taking a leaf out of KRAFTON’s playbook, Garena has introduced an India-specific version of the popular game Free Fire, which will go live on September 5. Besides, it has also partnered with Hiranandani Group-owned cloud service provider Yotta to comply with data localisation norms. 

Both PUBG, now BGMI, and Free Fire were among the top grossing Android games in the country prior to their suspension. While BGMI has seen considerable success after its relaunch in India, Garena is also expected to cash-in on the growing petite of Indians for online gaming. 

As internet and smartphone penetration soars, India has emerged as one of the hottest gaming markets globally. As a result, a host of global companies from Taiwanese gaming giant Softstar to Chinese player Tencent have made a beeline for India and launched products for Indians. 

As per a report, Indians spent 8.5 hours per week, on an average, on mobile games in FY22. It is pertinent to note that major titles such as BGMI enjoy a much higher user base, with gamers spending more time while playing popular games. 

Going forward, India’s gaming space is expected to surge to a market size of $8.6 Bn by FY27 on the back of growing adoption of online gaming. 

The post After 3-Month Audit, KRAFTON Gets Full Approval To Operate BGMI In India appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Industry body Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has reportedly said that any framework that ‘leads’ to revenue sharing between OTT platforms and telecom operators would be violative of net neutrality norms. 

“Any ‘collaborative framework’ which may result in establishing a revenue-sharing mechanism between OTTs and telecom service providers will violate the net neutrality framework notified by the Ministry of Communications in 2018,” said IAMAI in its submissions to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). 

As per news agency PTI, the industry body also told TRAI that such revenue-sharing mechanisms would entail charging users twice for the same service as customers already pay telcos for the data tariffs. 

The submissions were filed in response to TRAI’s consultation paper on ‘Regulatory Mechanism for Over-The-Top Communication Services, and Selective Banning of OTT Services.’ 

IAMAI added that such revenue-sharing agreements could pile up costs that would eventually be passed on to the customers, thereby raising the cost of internet usage. 

Gunning for OTT platforms, the industry body noted that there was ‘no need’ for a separate licensing or regulatory framework for OTT platforms and that the current laws were ‘robust’ enough to regulate OTTs in the country. 

“Attempts to bring OTT service providers under regulations typically reserved for telecom companies fail to recognise that telecom service providers are subject to a special regulatory and licensing regime as they control valuable national resources such as spectrum. Therefore, the introduction of a telecom regulatory regime for OTT service providers would be an act of over-regulation,” IAMAI added. 

This comes months after TRAI released the consultation paper on regulating OTT communication apps in July this year. The paper sought public feedback on the identification of a regulatory mechanism to cover OTT communication apps and the examination of issues pertaining to selective bans on such apps.

The paper also explored themes that ranged from banning apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Google Meet to lawful interception of messages by authorities. It also invited feedback on the need for a collaborative framework between OTT communication apps and licensed telecommunication service providers and the potential challenges arising from such a plan. 

The development comes as the draft Telecom Bill, 2022, has also floated the idea of imposing licensing mandates on OTT platforms. With much at stake, it remains to be seen whether the government heeds the demands of the OTT ecosystem or sides with the telcos. 

The post Any Revenue-Sharing Pact Between Telcos & OTTs Will Violate Net-Neutrality: IAMAI Tells TRAI appeared first on Inc42 Media.

A number of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), under the umbrella of the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), have reportedly written a letter to the government and urged to defer the October 31 deadline for the implementation of licence mandates on the import of laptops and servers.

In the letter, written to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Secretary Alkesh Kumar Sharma and seen by The Hindu Businessline, the ICEA called for delaying the import restrictions by at least nine months after the implementation of INR 17,000 Cr production-linked-incentives 2.0 (PLI 2.0) for manufacturing IT hardware. 

“… Realistically, nine months after the PLI for IT hardware has been launched, the government may undertake a re-assessment of the investment pipeline and the supply situation before inviting the industry to discuss whether any further policy intervention is needed at that stage,” read the letter dated August 22. 

ICEA represents the interests of industry giants such as HP, Dell, HP Enterprises, Apple, Acer, Asus, and Lenovo.

This comes weeks after the government announced import restrictions on certain electronic items such as laptops, tablets and servers over national security concerns. Citing the promotion of local hardware manufacturing in the country, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) directed the OEMs to procure a mandatory licence before importing such products. 

While the Centre had initially set August 3 as the date of implementation, it later deferred the deadline to October 31 after protests from the industry.

In the letter, ICEA urged the government to wait at least nine months to assess the full implication of the PLI 2.0 scheme. 

While noting that its server manufacturer members called for a relook at the proposed mandates, ICEA called on the government to ‘layer interventions’ in a way that works well for the entire industry. 

“… Overall, we will request the government to layer any intervention in a manner that works well for the industry as a whole, since individual companies are differently placed, at varying degrees of investments and products at this stage,” the letter stated. 

Meanwhile, industry sources told the publication that the situation was volatile, adding that the government was pushing for all hardware manufacturers to apply for the PLI scheme while the sword of import restrictions dangled over their heads. 

Amid the row, global as well as domestic IT hardware companies continue to make a beeline for the PLI 2.0 scheme for manufacturing IT hardware. 

Just a day ago, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that major OEMs, including HPE, HP, Dell, Foxconn, Acer and Thomson, directly or in partnership with local companies signed up for the scheme. In total, 38 companies, including local players such as Dixon Technologies, VVDN Technologies and Netweb Technologies, applied for incentives under the scheme. 

In total, India is expected to see an investment windfall to the tune of INR 2,430 Cr from IT hardware players looking to set up a base in the country. The PLI scheme has been envisaged to promote domestic manufacturing of laptops, PCs and servers.

It is pertinent to note that the Indian market for laptops and personal computers (PCs) continues to be dominated by the likes of global companies such as Dell, HP, Acer, Samsung, and Apple, among others. 

As per a report, the homegrown laptop and PCs accounts for a market size of $8 Bn annually, with nearly 65% of the units being imported.

The post IT OEMs Urge Govt To Defer Oct 31st Deadline For Import Licensing Norms appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processed more than 1,000 Cr monthly transactions in August 2023 for the first time in its seven-year history.

“Drumroll please! UPI has just shattered records with an astonishing 10 Bn plus transactions. Join us in celebrating this incredible milestone and the power of digital payments. Let’s keep the momentum going and continue to revolutionize the way we make transactions with UPI!,” the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said in a tweet. 

UPI logged 1,024.1 Cr transactions worth INR 15.18 Lakh Cr till August 30 banking on the second consecutive month of growth in numbers. Month-on-Month (MoM), transaction count rose 2.8% from 996 Cr while transaction value declined around 1% from INR 15.34 Lakh Cr in July 2023. 

However, the number of transactions and value is expected to go further up with one day remaining for the current month. 

UPI also logged a 55% year-on-year (YoY) growth rate in terms of transaction count, jumping from 658 Cr in August 2022. On the other hand, transaction value soared more than 41% in August 2023 from INR 10.73 Lakh Cr in the year-ago period. 

The numbers are testament to the growing popularity of UPI as a digital payments tool. From crossing the 100 Cr monthly transaction mark in October 2019, the platform has scaled 10X in a span of just four years. Meanwhile, NPCI has set its eyes on growing the platform to accommodate 100 Cr transactions on a daily basis.

The payments corporation is yet to disclose the app-wise data of the UPI transactions for the month of August 2023. PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm are likely expected to continue their dominance over the digital payments system.

In July, the three players together accounted for 95% of the total transaction count on the UPI network. 

Curiously, UPI also somewhat bucked the general trend of slowing MoM growth every alternate month. Building on the positive growth in July, the platform yet again clocked hefty growth in terms of count but recorded negative MoM growth in value. Despite this, UPI continues to see widespread adoption amid a major push from the government. 

Just days ago, it was reported that India was in talks with New Zealand to introduce the payments system in the Pacific country to improve trade, tourism  and the ease of business between two nations. 

In August, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also proposed two new technology additions for the UPI which would enable users to make payments via mere conversation and through Near Field Communication (NFC). RIght afterwards, the central bank also increased the per transaction limit for UPI Lite to INR 500 from INR 200.

The post UPI Sets New Record With 1,000 Cr Monthly Transactions In August 2023 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Shares of gaming unicorn Nazara Technologies jumped more than 8.2% on the BSE to reach a 52-week high of INR 814.30 during Thursday’s early trade (August 31). 

As the day progressed, the stock pared some of the gains and remained flat before gathering pace again at around 2 PM. Nazara stock closed the day up 3.46% at INR 777.75 on the BSE.

The company’s market capitalisation stood at INR 5,146.69 Cr, while around 57,308 shares of Nazara exchanged hands on Thursday. 

A day ago, on August 30, the company announced that it would seek board approval to raise capital via the issuance of equity shares or securities on a preferential basis, likely paving the way for the spurt in the stock. 

For the next two days, the trading window for dealing in securities of the company shall be closed for the ‘designated persons and their immediate relatives and the connected persons’ till the Nazara board votes on the proposal to approve raising funds.

It is pertinent to note that the gaming giant secured the board’s approval, in July, to raise up to INR 750 Cr and increase authorised share capital to INR 50 Cr from INR 30 Cr. However, since then, there have been no reports confirming the shareholder approval of the same. 

Meanwhile, there is also no clarity on the reason why the startup wants to raise fresh capital. However, the funds could likely be deployed to fuel the company’s acquisition and expansion plans. 

Earlier in August, Nazara pumped $500K into an Israeli game developer, Snax Games, to acquire the exclusive rights to publish the latter’s games in the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East on a revenue-sharing basis for the next five years. 

In May, the company said that it would increase its stake in Next Wave Multimedia to nearly 72%. In March, it acquired a 73.27% stake in Pro Football Network through its subsidiary SportsKeeda.

The development comes at a time when Nazara has been logging healthy and profitable numbers. The company’s consolidated net profit jumped to INR 61.4 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) while revenue from operations soared 75% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 1,091 Cr during the period under review. 

Consequently, the stock has seen hefty trading on the bourses. In the past week, Nazara’s shares have zoomed 6.25% while growing nearly 30% so far this year.

The post Amid Plans To Raise Fresh Capital, Nazara Stock Touches 52-Week High appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is all set to host the maiden edition of the Global IndiaAI 2023 summit in October. 

The conference aims to spur investment opportunities in the country’s AI startup ecosystem and nurture talent.

The event is expected to see participation from both global and domestic artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, researchers, startups, and investors. 

In a statement, the ministry said that the summit will cover a wide spectrum of topics, allowing all major stakeholders to deliberate on the future of AI and its impact on India Inc.

“The Global IndiaAI 2023 conference is tentatively planned for October 14/15 and it will bring together the best and brightest in AI from India and around the world… The Global IndiaAI summit will also catalyse India’s AI landscape and innovation ecosystem,” said Minister of State (MoS) for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar. 

As per the ministry, the event will centre around emerging areas in the AI space, including next-generation learning and foundational AI models, future research trends and AI computing systems. In addition, stakeholders will also deliberate the application of AI in areas such as healthcare, governance and next-generation electric vehicles.

With this, the government wants to emulate the ‘huge success’ of the SemiconIndia summit held in July this year and catalyse the local AI industry. 

As per an official statement, the event will showcase the state-backed IndiaAI ecosystem that comprises projects such as the Digital India Bhashini India Datasets Program and IndiaAI Future Design Program for startups.

Chandrasekhar is chairing the steering committee that has been given the task of organising the Global IndiaAI 2023 summit. The panel comprises members from MeitY’s Digital Economy Advisory Group and other industry experts in the field of AI.

Lauding the role of startups and academia, Chandrasekhar said that a holistic framework developed in partnership with stakeholders for the IndiaAI initiative will serve as an integral part of the upcoming conference’s agenda. He also called for the responsible use of AI to curb user harm and encourage innovation. 

“… What we want is that AI should be responsible so that user harm is curbed and innovation is encouraged. Our primary aim is to ensure a collaborative and participatory approach, steering AI to enhance governance and transforming lives while building global partnerships and actively shaping the world’s technology landscape,” the MoS said. 

This comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for building a global framework on the ethical usage of AI while addressing the B20 Summit India 2023. 

Not just this, industry veterans, such as Sridhar Vembu, have also raised concerns over the emerging technology, while Tata Sons’ chairman N Chandrasekaran has expressed optimism over the positive impact of AI on the job market in India.

The post With AI Startups At The Core, India To Host Maiden Global IndiaAI 2023 Summit In October appeared first on Inc42 Media.

A Mumbai Court has reportedly denied the anticipatory bail plea by 4B Networks’ cofounder Rahul Yadav after Interspace Communications’ country head Vikas Nowal filed a complaint with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) over non-payment of dues to the tune of INR 10 Cr.  

As per Moneycontrol, a city sessions court bench rejected the plea on Wednesday (August 30), two days after Yadav moved the bail application. 

4B Networks’ cofounder Rahul Yadav and founding member Sanjay Saini had sought relief in connection with an FIR filed against them under various sections of the IPC, pertaining to fraud, cheating and criminal breach of trust.

The matter harks back to February 2022 when 4B Networks empanelled an advertising agency, Interspace Communications, for an outdoor media campaign. As per the FIR, Interspace claims that the company owes INR 10 Cr for installing 83 ad hoardings in Pune from April to August 2022.

In July, Inc42 exclusively reported that Interspace was one of the many vendors that the beleaguered startup had yet to pay. 

Nowal first knocked on the doors of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and then approached the EOW to file an FIR in the matter. 

4B Networks has been surrounded by multiple legal tangles, including an arbitration case involving its investor Info Edge. After pumping in INR 288 Cr in the Rahul Yadav-led startup, Info Edge wrote off the entire investment, including INR 12 Cr in debt, as allegations of financial allegation surfaced. 

Subsequently, the investor initiated a forensic audit of the startup. As per Info Edge, Yadav refused to cooperate and disclose financial transactions, forcing the investor to approach the Delhi High Court. The case is now in arbitration. 

The Delhi HC has barred Yadav, along with another party to the shareholders’ agreement of 4B Networks, Pratik Choudhary, to not sell, transfer or alienate any assets or properties of 4B Networks and to preserve all records and information.

Making matters worse for 4B Networks has been its separate arbitration proceedings with coworking space provider Innov8 over unpaid dues to the tune of INR 1.08 Cr.

The post Mumbai Court Denies Rahul Yadav’s Anticipatory Bail Plea appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Troubled quick commerce major Dunzo has reportedly yet again deferred payment of salaries to its employees by another month. 

As per an internal email seen by Moneycontrol, the startup has told employees that it will transfer their pending payments by the end the first week of October. The company had earlier told its employees that their June and July salaries would be cleared by September.

As per the report, the company has also promised to pay an interest of 12% per annum on pending dues. 

“Please note that pending salaries for the months of June and July, due to be paid on September 4th, will be paid in the first week of October. You will receive the salary dues along with a 12 percent p.a. interest, which will now be calculated for an additional month,” said the email. 

While ‘apologising’ for the delay, the company said that crediting pending compensation ‘as early as possible’ is its ‘top priority.’ Dunzo added that it is doing ‘everything’ to clear dues and is ‘confident’ that there would be no further delays. 

This is the third major delay by the quick commerce startup in releasing the salaries of its employees. Prior to the September 4 deadline, Dunzo also missed the July 20 threshold set for clearing the pending employee salaries. 

In July, Inc42 reported that the Reliance-backed startup postponed the payment of salaries to 500 employees, or 50% of its total workforce, and capped salary payouts at INR 75,000 per month per employee. As a row broke out, the company held a town hall with employees and promised them that their pending salaries would be cleared by September 4.

Amid a funding crisis and resignations of employees, the startup undertook mass layoffs and culled 30% of its total workforce, amounting to about 300 employees. 

Amid all this, the company is also facing legal notices from seven vendors for non-payment of dues to the tune of more than INR 11 Cr. It has also begun cost-cutting measures across the board, ranging from shutting most of its dark stores to pivoting to a marketplace model. 

It has also been knocking at the doors of investors seeking cash infusion. Earlier this month, Inc42 exclusively reported that the beleaguered startup was in advanced talks to raise $100 Mn as part of its Series G funding round, which would be a mix of equity and debt, from existing investors, including Lightbox and Lightrock. 

The post Dunzo Defers Employee Salaries Yet Again, Sets October As New Deadline appeared first on Inc42 Media.

According to a study conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) on the Indian gig worker ecosystem, the average real monthly income of food delivery executives in the country saw a drastic decline between 2019 and 2022. 

As per the findings, the average monthly real income of long-shift workers, working 11 hours a day, tanked to INR 11,963 at the end of May 2022, compared to INR 13,470.8 in 2019. 

Real monthly income accounts for inflation rates while nominal income does not adjust for the same. 

This fall was largely attributable to rising fuel costs and growing inflation, which emerged as a major factor for the high-attrition rate in the gig economy. 

“…it has become increasingly difficult to achieve daily/weekly targets over time… due to increased traffic and greater competition. On the other hand, fuel costs had (have) gone up… so workers have relatively little left,” the study noted.

The report also highlighted that the ability of long-shift food delivery workers to meet current household expenditures went down during the period under review. While noting that the surveyed gig workers were breaking even in 2019 and 2020, the report said that delivery executives found it difficult to eke out monthly expenditures from their income from delivery platforms due to rising fuel costs and inflation in the subsequent years. 

Another major takeaway of the report was that an Indian long-shift food delivery executive, working 11 hours a day, earned an average of $1.1 (INR 90.96) per hour. In contrast, a food delivery worker currently earns an average of $20.63 per hour in the US, according to another report. 

The findings were part of a telephonic survey conducted by the NCAER of 924 food delivery executives belonging to one particular food company spanning 28 Indian cities. The survey was carried out between April and May 2022 and the results were tabulated in a report — ‘Socio-economic Impact Assessment of Food Delivery Platform Workers’.

What stood out glaringly in the report was the mismatch between the skills required for the job and the qualifications of the workers. A third of the surveyed workers were found to have a graduation degree, while more than 12% of the respondents had a technical or a vocational degree (or diploma).

The study also highlighted the overarching dependence of workers on food delivery platforms. Consequently, nearly half (43.7% to be precise) of the surveyed gig workers were sole bread earners while another 20.6% were the primary breadwinners of their respective families. 

A Tiring Job, Nonetheless

Of the total respondents, gig workers undertook an average of 15.2 deliveries a day. Of this, 18.4 deliveries were done by long-shift workers while 10.3 deliveries were done by executives working on weekends or 5 hours a day. 

As per the report, the average base rate per delivery for active long-shift workers stood at INR 25.1, varying from city to city. Further, long-shift delivery executive made an average of INR 461.8 per day without incentives.

Besides, these surveyed delivery workers travelled an average of 95 km a day while making deliveries. For active long-shift workers, the number stood at 118 km, while the metric hovered around the 59 km mark for short-shift workers.

The study also highlighted the point that the Indian gig platforms have been able to formalise a large section of gig workers and bring them under the ambit of the social security net. It also noted that platform work largely generated local jobs with 70% of the surveyed workers operating out of their hometowns. 

Meanwhile, the NCAER, in its report, also urged the government to adopt a balanced approach while formulating policies to manage the flexibility of the gig ecosystem, along with improving the working conditions of workers.

“A balanced approach needs to be worked out so that the nature of the work is kept intact while simultaneously improving the condition of the workers. The answer lies in improving the social security of the workers and recognising their skills learned while working at the platform, which helps them to move on successfully,” the report added. 

The report also termed the government as the ‘best medium’ to provide social welfare support to gig workers, adding that consumer internet platforms may divert additional revenue to the authorities to finance social security initiatives in a centralised fashion. 

As India’s digital economy grows by leaps and bounds, it has also brought the focus on the condition of gig workers in the country, who operate outside the ambit of full-time employment offered by these platforms. These delivery executives are not offered similar rights as other regular employees and, as such, may or may not be able to avail social security benefits.

As per a NITI Aayog report, India was home to more than 7.7 Mn gig workers in FY21, a number that it projected to soar to 23.5 Mn by 2029-30. The NITI Aayog report then stated that gig workers would likely form 4.1% of the total livelihood in India by 2029-30. As such, the focus has turned to these platforms to offer equitable benefits to these workers. 

Questions have been raised, especially at a time when major startups such as Ola, Uber, and Dunzo scored a duck on Fairwork India Ratings 2022, on the working conditions of gig workers in India. Even growing incidents of gig workers meeting with accidents while on duty have also raised concerns about the need for the extension of social welfare benefits to the country’s  gig workers. 

With the country’s labour laws failing to do much for these workers, it remains to be seen how authorities develop a full-fledged regulatory framework to put the onus on the employers to enhance their standard of living. 

The post Rising Inflation, Fuel Costs Eat Into The Earnings Of Food Delivery Executives appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Japanese tech investor SoftBank is set to offload a 1.17% stake in Indian foodtech giant Zomato for at least INR 940 Cr. 

As per the deal terms, the investment firm’s affiliate SVF Growth Singapore plans to offload 10 Cr Zomato shares at a floor price of INR 94 per share, according to a CNBC report. This price represents a discount of nearly 0.7% compared to Zomato’s stock closing price on August 29.

As per the report, Kotak Securities will be the sole book runner for the deal. This comes days after reports said that the tech investor was looking to offload more shares of the foodtech major via block deals.

The development follows the expiration of the lock-in period for Blinkit investors, who received Zomato shares following the acquisition of the quick commerce player by the latter, on August 25. SoftBank, which was an investor in Blinkit, received a stake of 3.35% in Zomato post the acquisition last year. 

Even at the floor price of INR 94, SoftBank will still be able to book hefty profits as the implied value of the Zomato shares that it received following the Blinkit deal stood at INR 70.76 per share.

This is the second major Zomato investor selling a stake in the foodtech giant. Just yesterday, US-based hedge fund Tiger Global exited Zomato by selling 1.44% stake via open market transactions for INR 1,123 Cr.

The Japanese tech investor has realised exits to the tune of $5.5 Bn from its India portfolio since starting operations from Mumbai in late 2018. Of this, $1.5 Bn has been made through exits in the past 12 to 18 months.

The latest development comes amidst a wave of share sales by major global investment firms in new-age tech startups following a rise in their stock prices this year on change in investor sentiments.

Prior to this, Chinese tech investor Tencent sold 2.1% of its stake in PB Fintech, the parent of Policybazaar and Paisabazaar, for INR 562 Cr ($68 Mn). Chinese internet major Ant Group also dumped 3.6% stake in fintech giant Paytm for INR 2,037 Cr through multiple block deals earlier this month. 

Meanwhile, Zomato shares have been witnessing an uptick on the bourses on its improving financial numbers. The foodtech major reported a net profit of INR 2 Cr in the June quarter of 2023. On a year-to-date (YTD) basis, Zomato shares have zoomed 59.70%.

Shares of Zomato ended 2.51% higher at INR 94.65 on the BSE on Tuesday (August 29).

The post SoftBank To Sell 1.17% Stake In Zomato For INR 940 Cr appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Ahead of Asia Cup 2023, Ashneer Grover-led fantasy cricket platform CrickPe has unveiled subscription plans with zero platform fees. 

Called CrickPe Pro, the paid plans will be available in two denominations – INR 200 monthly pack and INR 1,000 yearly subscription. Users can simply top up their in-app wallets to avail the paid plans.

As per the app, CrickPe Pro users will not be liable for 10% platform fees on winnings and will get access to the ‘full pot with 0% admin fees’. Typically, real money gaming platforms earn revenue by charging a platform fee from users participating in games or tournaments on their platforms. 

Besides, the paid plans will also enable gamers to ‘share’ their teams and earn 5% extra on such winnings. However, it is not clear from the app as to what this offering entails.

Inc42 has reached out to Grover for a comment on the new offerings. The story will be updated with a response as and when it is received. 

The launch of the subscription plans comes close on the heels of the beginning of the biennial Asia Cup cricket tournament on August 30. The announcement could likely be a part of the company’s strategy to cash-in on the booming viewership during the tournament. 

The subscription plans could also likely be part of CrickPe’s strategy to create an alternate revenue stream. However, questions remain over whether the subscription plans would be enough to offset the revenue loss on account of the 10% platform fees waiver. It could all well depend on how well the product is received by users and economies of scale. 

In addition, the plans could also help CrickPe to attract more users and mount an attack against incumbents such as Dream11. 

Launched earlier this year, CrickPe is the brainchild of former BharatPe managing director Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain Grover and Aseem Ghavri. The platform debuted on app marketplaces just ahead of the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in March this year. 

Since then, the app has amassed more than 1 Mn downloads on Google Play Store. It is operated by the parent company Third Unicorn. The startup has so far raised nearly $4 Mn in seed funding led by ZNL Growth Fund.

In simple words, CrickPe allows users to create a virtual team of cricket players and earn cash prizes based on their performance in real life. 

The move comes at a time when the homegrown gaming industry has been reeling under the impact of the GST Council’s decision to impose 28% goods and services tax (GST) on the full value of the bets placed on online gaming. The new tax rate will come into effect from October 1. 

Following the government’s decision, many gaming startups have undertaken layoffs or temporarily shut operations. 

Despite the hiccups, the Indian gaming market continues to offer big opportunities for the startups and companies in the space. As per a report, the homegrown gaming market is projected to balloon to a size of $8.6 Bn by FY27 from a mere $2.6 Bn in FY22.

The post Ashneer Grover-Led CrickPe Unveils Subscription Plans Ahead Of Asia Cup appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In the middle of a flurry of cases, troubled 4B Networks’ cofounder Rahul Yadav and founding member Sanjay Saini have now approached a Mumbai Court seeking anticipatory bail.

As per CNBC-TV18, the duo have sought bail in connection with a first information report (FIR) filed by Vikas Nowal, country head and cofounder of Interspace Communications, against Yadav for alleged fraud and cheating with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW).

The Mumbai police plans to oppose this anticipatory bail application, according to the report.

The duo is being questioned by the agency for the past few days. During interrogation, both Yadav and Saini insistently told the agency sleuths that they would pay the money owed to Interspace, although they refrained from giving a reason for the initial default.

Earlier this month, Nowal filed an FIR with the EOW under sections 406, 409, 420, 34 of the Indian Penal Code, alleging criminal breach of trust and fraud amounting to INR 10 Cr. At the centre of the dispute is the advertising agency Interspace Communications which Broker Network empaneled to undertake outdoor ad campaigns in February 2022. 

According to the FIR, Interspace installed 83 ad hoardings in Pune from April to August 2022. Nowal has alleged that Broker Network has defrauded Interspace and is yet to make the INR 10 Cr payment for the ad activity undertaken in 2022.

Inc42 first broke the story back in June this year, which delved into how Interspace was one of the many vendors that the troubled startup has not paid. 

The development came around the same time as the Delhi High Court,  while hearing an arbitration case filed by coworking space provider Innov8, noted that 4B Networks had forfeited its right to file a response in the matter. This forfeiture occurred because the startup failed to file a response despite being given a “last opportunity” to do so for not paying rent amounting to INR 1.08 Cr to Innov8.

Added to that, Broker Network is embroiled in another arbitration proceeding with its investor InfoEdge. After investing INR 288 Cr in the Rahul Yadav-led startup, the investor had to write down the investment due to allegations of financial misconduct.

Yadav refused to disclose financial transactions and related-party activities details during a forensic audit initiated by Info Edge, which led to full-blown arbitration proceedings. 

The investor has also approached the Delhi High Court against Yadav and Pratik Choudhary, who was also a party to the shareholders’ agreement of 4B Networks. According to Info Edge, the HC has directed Yadav and Choudhary to not sell, transfer or alienate any assets or properties of 4B Networks and to preserve all records and information.

The post Rahul Yadav Seeks Anticipatory Bail In INR 10 Cr Alleged Fraud Case appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The layoff saga continues to unravel for the Indian startup ecosystem. Now, Tiger Global-backed crypto exchange CoinsSwitch has laid off 44 employees as part of a restructuring exercise.

As per the startup’s LinkedIn, it employs 519 people which would mean that 8% of the CoinSwitch’s total employee base has been impacted by the layoffs.

A CoinSwitch spokesperson confirmed the development to Inc42, stating that the layoffs predominantly impacted  the customer support team. As per the company, the layoffs at the company took place earlier this month with impacted employees ‘voluntarily resigning’ from their positions. 

“We continuously evaluate our business to stay competitive, prioritising innovation, value, and service for our customers. To that end, we right-sized our customer support team to align with the present volume of customer queries on our platform. This impacted the roles of 44 members of our customer support team, who voluntarily resigned from their roles after a detailed discussion with their managers earlier this month,” said a CoinSwitch spokesperson.

However, according to a Moneycontrol report, the company has also laid off employees in the operations department. Several positions including team leads, agents, support staff, senior managers and quality analysts were also impacted by the layoffs, the report added citing an employee.

In response to this, the company said, “At CoinSwitch, we embrace a flat organizational structure with minimal hierarchy. As an example, our Head of Customer Support directly reports to the COO. Our Customer Support team is also sometimes referred to as the Customer Operations team. There is no separate operations team for our Virtual Digital Assets Business.”

Meanwhile, a source familiar with the developments revealed that CoinSwitch has hired 60 employees since April and was actively recruiting for various roles. The person further claimed that the crypto exchange still has a funding runway of five years.

Launched in 2017, CoinSwitch has raised over $300 Mn since its inception from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital India, Ribbit Capital, Paradigm, and Coinbase Ventures. As of May 2023, the crypto exchange had 13 Mn users.

The layoffs come at a time when the entire crypto ecosystem has been reeling under the impact of the government’s heavy taxation posture towards the industry. Be it 30% tax on gains from sale of virtual digital assets (VDAs) or 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) for all cryptocurrency transactions worth INR 10,000 and above, the crypto industry has been mired under regulatory uncertainty. 

This heavy taxation regime has more or less dissuaded the general populace and has led to sharp drop in volume in the range of 85-90%. The collapse of the crypto giant FTX also added fuel to the fire, raising questions over the legitimacy of crypto exchanges. 

Back home, crypto exchanges have seen multiple raids by enforcement agencies even as WazirX’s cofounder Nischal Shetty publicly sparred with Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao over alleged acquisition of Zanmai Labs in 2019. 

Meanwhile, the industry has seen three crypto startups shutting shops, including Pillow, Flint Money, and WeTrade. Just last week, another crypto unicorn CoinDCX also slashed 12% workforce citing macro conditions in the prolonged bear market and the impact of TDS on domestic exchanges resulting a dip in the startup’s overall revenue.

The post Layoff Saga Continues: Crypto Exchange CoinSwitch Fires 44 Employees appeared first on Inc42 Media.