BUSINESS
Razorpay-owned Ezetap sees 88% growth in offline payments in FY23: Report
Gurugram saw a growth of around 161 percent YoY, Pune around 154 percent YoY and Bengaluru around 145 percent YoY in in-store payment volumes clocked on the Razorpay’s offline payments platform, a report titled The Razorpay Payments Report 2023 released on April 11 showed.
BUSINESS
ZestMoney to lay off 20% of workforce after PhonePe deal collapse
Founders and the top leadership team of ZestMoney held a Townhall on April 6 to inform the layoffs to employees. The company had about 450 employees and is planning to lay off across its workforce.
BUSINESS
Bombay High Court dismisses PhonePe's trademark lawsuit filed against BharatPe's BNPL arm PostPe
In 2019, PhonePe filed a suit against BharatPe in the Delhi High Court alleging that by using the trademark ‘BharatPe’, the company had infringed upon the registered trademark of‘PhonePe’.
BUSINESS
Zoho to take profit hit to manage macro slowdown, has a no-layoff policy: Sridhar Vembu
The Tenkasi model can be replicated if more entrepreneurs and private companies come on board, Vembu said.
BUSINESS
AI poses a threat to many programming jobs, we need a strong policy around this, says Zoho's Sridhar Vembu
Zoho's Sridhar Vembu, along with two other top industry leaders, has submitted a proposal to the Central government, calling for an AI policy that promotes openness, transparency, and prevents worldwide monopolies.
BUSINESS
Zoho continues to invest in rural India with plans for new tech hubs in Tirunelveli, Madurai and Uttar Pradesh
Zoho is also expanding its current facility, Kalaivani Kalvi Maiyam, which was established during the pandemic to educate young children from villages in and around Tenkasi
BUSINESS
ZestMoney weighs layoffs as deal with PhonePe falls through
On March 31, Priya Sharma, co-founder of the BNPL platform sent out a message to a few startups seeking help for outplacing ZestMoney employees. ZestMoney has around 450 employees
BUSINESS
Investment is needed for UPI to grow 10X and reach three billion transactions a day: NPCI’s Dilip Asbe
Asbe said at News18’s Rising India Summit that there are dialogues within the ecosystem with the government and the stakeholders on how to grow UPI to 10X and how to ensure that onboarding of a large number of customers and merchants is smooth with the right investment.
BUSINESS
Tense atmosphere, tough questions rule Freshworks' All-Hands as 114 heads are set to roll
Founder and CEO Girish Mathrubootham explained to employees that out of the 114 employees who were affected around 90 are performance layoffs and around 24 are role eliminations.
BUSINESS
VCs want start-ups to park money in ‘too big to fail’ banks, avoid GIFT City
VCs spurn GIFT City invitation as regulations are ambiguous about RBI control, transactions are expensive and Indian banks have branches rather than subsidiaries in the hub
BUSINESS
'A Messi from Madras': Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham builds Rs 100-crore football academy
The 23-acre facility has southeast Asia’s first hybrid football pitch, a functional strength and conditioning centre, medical and recovery facilities, a swimming pool, a school, and a hostel
BUSINESS
SVB impact: Venture debt firms and investors set up emergency lines of credit for startups
Debt firms and VCs are offering specific credit lines, term loans, EMI and revenue-based financing model fusion for helping startups complete their working capital and payroll commitments.
BUSINESS
Namma Yatri to use open source maps, optimise cloud cost to help increase driver earnings
Namma Yatri app's software, data, and roadmap are open for public review and collaboration and the platform is calling for citizen participation and volunteering to help develop the product.
BUSINESS
Freshworks undertakes another round of job cuts, impacting employees in India, US
Freshworks said that this layoff is primarily aimed at improving efficiency within the organization and is not related to any issues resulting from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
BUSINESS
Zoho's Sridhar Vembu calls estranged wife's allegations 'complete fiction'
Vembu claims that he never transferred shares and said that he will continue to support his wife and son as long as he is alive. He also blamed his uncle for the messy battle.
BUSINESS
'Our exposure to Silicon Valley Bank situation is minimal': Freshworks
In the wake of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) stock crash and eventual collapse, several Indian Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies with US-based operations were withdrawing funds and transferring them to other global banks.
BUSINESS
YCombinator-backed Indian start-ups are collateral damage in Silicon Valley Bank collapse
Startups funded by American incubator YC, which makes Indian companies flip their corporate entities to the US, are scrambling for working capital as California regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank.
BUSINESS
Indian SaaS companies are pulling out from Silicon Valley Bank amid stock crash
While SVB still remains a trusted bank for many startup founders and investors, there is panic in the market about funds getting frozen for the near to mid-term.
BUSINESS
Freshworks co-founder and CTO Shan Krishnaswamy quits
In September of 2022, Freshworks CEO and cofounder Girish Mathrubootham informed the employees about Krishnaswamy's exit during a townhall
BUSINESS
Data-based lending will be taking off in a big way with the Account Aggregators framework: Nandan Nilekani
The next big thing will be credit in India and getting a loan will be as easy as making a payment in the next 3-4 years, Nilekani said.
BUSINESS
Uber revamping app to bring down cancellations, maximise earnings for drivers
While the company has already introduced customer rating, mode of payment and destination features, the upfront pricing feature for drivers is being tested in a few cities to study the market reactions and imbalances if any, Manikandan Thangarathnam, senior director of mobility and platforms at Uber, has said
BUSINESS
MC Explainer | The expanding use cases of UPI
Innovation within UPI vis-à-vis GST, interoperability with the central bank digital currency, income tax breaks and cashbacks for digital payments are some other proposals that could give UPI a big push.
BUSINESS
SBI-backed Cashfree Payments acquires checkout platform Zecpe
This acquisition will likely enable Cashfree Payments to offer additional value-added services like Return to Origin reduction, fraud detection and address pre-filling
BUSINESS
Yulu joins hands with Bajaj to launch new rental scooter models, plans to deploy 50K e-scooters by 2023-end
Yulu is now looking to raise funds via debt and is in need of another $500 million in the next three years as it plans to deploy 1 million e-scooters in the next 3-4 years.
