TECHNOLOGY
From GoMechanic to ZestMoney: Why thousands of startups shut shop in 2023
While companies such as Zestmoney and Striker saw their business models fail after a tighter regulatory landscape, several others simply couldn’t find their product market fit (PMF).
TECHNOLOGY
SoftBank-backed FirstCry, Ola Electric to file draft IPO papers in the next week
While FirstCry is likely to list only after the general election in 2024, Ola Electric's management has already begun roadshows with domestic and international investors
TECHNOLOGY
Unacademy ex-COO Vivek Sinha raises $11 million from Lightspeed, Matrix for edtech venture
Sinha’s previous bosses, Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal and Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal, are also backing his latest venture
TECHNOLOGY
Udaan fires over 100 employees days after securing $340 million in capital
This is the second instance, in the last 13 months, where Udaan has sacked staffers soon after raising a new round of capital.
TECHNOLOGY
Third Wave Coffee fires 120 employees months after raising $35 million
Employees across teams like tech, finance, marketing, business development and app were let go.
TECHNOLOGY
Omidyar Network to exit India market by end of 2024
Moneycontrol checked with six portfolio companies and none of the founders had a clue about a move of this magnitude.
TECHNOLOGY
Rocky road? Lightrock India partner and CFO Kushal Agrawal to leave by month-end
This comes at a time when Saleem Asaria has also stepped back from daily operations, per sources who added that Raghav Rungta has already left Lightrock. Ashish Garg left in September 2022 to join a startup.
BUSINESS
Dunzo's woes deepen as November salaries remain unpaid
This is despite the company having tied up with OneTap, a revenue financing firm, earlier this year.
TECHNOLOGY
Conflict of interest, harsh deal terms: More skeletons tumble out of SphitiCap
Apart from conflict of interest, the little-known VC firm shares an auditor with two firms of a partner and has demanded ‘sweat equity’ from the founders of startups in its portfolio.
TECHNICALS
The era of operator founder: Why investors love executives leaving startups to start up
While a majority of the departing executives are going back into the ecosystem and starting a new business, a small portion of them have chosen to simply change their sectors. The remaining are going back to safety.
BUSINESS
DealShare gives up office space in Bengaluru, lowers monthly rental cost by Rs 25 lakh
Prior to the shutdown of the HSR office, DealShare was paying a monthly rent of around Rs 40 lakh. DealShare now joins a list of companies like Byju’s and Dunzo which have also given up their office spaces in Bengaluru to cut costs.
BUSINESS
Dunzo moves employees from Google Workspace to Zoho to bring down costs
Google, also one of Dunzo’s largest investors, charges at least Rs 1,600 per user per month for its suite of offerings under the enterprise plan but Zoho charges only Rs 489 for the same arrangement.
BUSINESS
Prosus and Naspers interim CEO Ervin Tu to visit India later this month
Tu is likely to visit Delhi and Bengaluru during his time in India, sources said. They however added that his plans may change slightly closer to the actual dates.
BUSINESS
SphitiCap: The VC fund inking deals without transferring funds
At least five firms that had looked to the promised funds to scale up their businesses are engaging with other investors to raise interim capital as SphitiCap awaits SEBI's approval.
BUSINESS
Festive cheer for e-commerce driven by premiumisation of purchases, say industry experts
Consumers bought costlier mobiles, more jewelry and high-end beauty products even as order volume grew at a slow pace during the festive season
BUSINESS
The Sleep Company in talks to raise $15-20 million in round led by Premji Invest
The fund-raise comes at a time when competition in the mattress space is heating up, even Wakefit is likely to raise $15-20 million from Elevation Capital
BUSINESS
Deloitte casts doubt on Dunzo's ability to continue as going concern
A company is typically considered a 'going concern' if it has sufficient resources to continue to operate indefinitely and to avoid any potential bankruptcy risks. This is not, however, the case with Dunzo.
BUSINESS
Cost of a delayed festive season: 300 basis points taken off from growth, says Nykaa’s Falguni Nayar
Most sales had begun in September last year, which reflected in the Q2 performance of companies, but a delay this year means Q2FY24 growth will look subdued when compared to Q2FY23.
BUSINESS
Swiggy's Karthik Gurumurthy to exit and start his own venture
Gurumurthy plans to set up a chain of offline retail stores, similar to what Aldi does in Germany. Swiggy has hired former Amazon executive Dipak Krishnamani to head Swiggy Mall
BUSINESS
Why WeWork India is not losing sleep over WeWork's bankruptcy
Even at a time when WeWork struggles to keep operations afloat, WeWork India said it clocked revenues of Rs 1,400 crore in FY23, had an EBITDA of Rs 250 crore and a profit after tax of roughly Rs 60 crore.
BUSINESS
PayPal CTO Sri Shivananda to quit; acting CFO Gabrielle Rabinovitch also set to depart
Like Shivananda, even Rabinovitch's next move was not immediately known. The two join a growing list of top level executives who have been leaving PayPal in the recent past.
BUSINESS
Festive season sale wars: The Amazon Vs Flipkart battle has no clear winner yet
The Amazon and Flipkart sales, which both commenced on October 8 this year, have thrown up some category winners. But there does not appear to be an overall winner yet.
BUSINESS
YCombinator-backed unicorn Zepto clocks Rs 2,024 crore revenue, incurs Rs 1,272 crore loss in FY23
In the whole of FY23, Zepto opened about 100 new stores, mostly in existing locations, as it saw more customers coming on to its platform.
BUSINESS
Reduced IPO size as investors think current valuation not attractive enough to sell, says Mamaearth
Mamaearth’s current valuation of Rs 10,423 crore (around $1.25 billion) is unchanged from what it commanded during its fundraise in January 2022.
