One important thing: Amazon.com will eliminate more than 18,000 roles as part of a previously disclosed workforce reduction. The layoffs will impact the Amazon Stores and HR departments, said chief executive Andy Jassy. Read Amazon CEO's full statement

• Its layoffs now surpass the 11,000 job cuts at Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc as well as reductions at other tech-industry peers.

In today’s newsletter:  

• Why Satya Nadella is long on India 
• Layoffs at Moglix 
• BharatPe's huge loss has a devil in the detail

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was curious as to what ChatGPT considered to be the best south Indian tiffin. The answer? Idli, dosa, vada, pongal, and uttapam...as well as biryani!

While the debate over the best south Indian tiffin is yet to be resolved, Satya Nadella is certain of one thing — his bullishness on India.

Nadella described India's digital public goods infrastructure as "phenomenal" while speaking at the Microsoft Future Ready Technology Summit in Bengaluru.

• He said it was unbelievable for him to see the India Stack mature and the use cases there are between the technology and policy. ‘There's nothing like that I see anywhere else in the world’.

He also sat down for a quick chat with Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani.

• On his learnings whenever he visits India, Nadella stated that the age of tech for tech's sake is over, and that the common man can now use the greatest technology to do something that is useful to them.

The tech industry is witnessing a downturn currently, and the pain is being felt by companies that are turning to layoffs. Nadella expects the tech industry to experience a massive growth cycle after 'two years of pain', he told CNBC-TV18 Managing Editor Shereen Bhan.

However, he feels India is one of the exceptions to the macro challenges assailing many countries, such as inflation and recession.

Why Nadella heaped praises on digital public goods, on ChatGPT and more, find out here. 

If you thought the horrors for startup employees were over with the new year, think again because we are not there yet. Another unicorn laid off staff amid a pessimistic macro environment.

Tiger Global-backed Moglix has become the latest Indian unicorn to let go of its employees, sources tell us. 

• Our sources added that about 200 employees or 15 percent of Moglix's workforce would likely be impacted.

However, the company claimed in a statement that 2% to 3%, or approximately 40 employees, were affected by an annual review of employee performance.

"We keep a watch out for low performers and continue to automate tasks, for which annually 2-3 percent people can be impacted," the company said.

Moglix raised $250 million nearly a year ago, valuing it at $2.6 billion, more than double the valuation from its unicorn round in May 2021.

• The company's valuation skyrocketed as B2B marketplaces expanded faster than ever during the pandemic.

Go deeper

BharatPe spent Rs 17 for every rupee it made in FY22, or so it seems. BharatPe's huge loss of Rs 5,594 crore surprised some in the startup world, especially since it was followed by the immediate stepping down of its CEO Suhail Sameer.

• The company said its revenue rose 169 percent to Rs 321 crore in FY22, compared to Rs 119 crore in the preceding financial year

• Amid the chaos of Sameer's exit and Grover's potshots, the company said an accounting norm was the reason behind 85 percent of the loss

A financial instrument known as compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS), a quasi-equity instrument used for fundraising, is to blame for the ballooning loss.

• Conditions like repayment or buyback may be attached to CCPS. Due to such riders, CCPS is recognised as a liability on the balance sheet

• When there is a change in the company's valuation, the consequent change in the fair value of CCPS must be accounted for in the income statement

• The change in fair value of CCPS alone accounted for Rs 4,782 crore of the losses in FY22

Despite a string of top-level exits from BharatPe, Chairman Rajnish Kumar said that there is no leadership crisis in the company. "Crisis happens only in weak companies... We are attracting new talent,” he told Moneycontrol.

• When asked about Ashneer Grover terming him as a hiring mistake, Kumar said he won’t respond as he can’t stoop to Grover’s level

• On Grover’s criticism regarding SBI stock performance when he was at the helm, Kumar said it’s a ‘myopic view’

Was your 2022 a mix of great joy and tough challenges? You'll probably relate to the story of SaaS firm Chargebee! Backed by marquee investors Tiger Global and Sequoia, Chargeebee announced a massive $250 million fundraising round in February 2022, followed by layoffs in November of the same year.

• While macroeconomic pressure has impacted many SaaS firms, Chargebee cofounder Krish Subramanian stated that the reality is tougher and that it was high time to course correct and fix inefficiencies.

In an exclusive interview with us, Subramanian shares why and how he took this tough decision. Dismissing the idea of looking to sell his firm, he said that "When you build a house, you build and take care of it to live in it, not sell it to someone else, right? And that's how we think about it when it comes to building a company".

Psst! For all the young SaaS founders reading this, Subramanian has some tips to share too.   

Read the full interview

On this day in 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and NASA Administrator Dr James C. Fletcher met in San Clemente, California, to discuss the proposed Space Shuttle vehicle.

Nixon declared that the US would begin developing an entirely new type of space transportation system to help transform the space frontier into familiar territory. (Picture credit: NASA)

• Due to a lack of "necessary information," the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a "limited objection" to cryptocurrency exchange Binance.US's proposed $1 billion acquisition of bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Voyager Digital.
  
  
• Juno, a cryptocurrency banking firm, has advised its customers to self-custody their digital assets or sell them for cash while it works to migrate client funds to a new custodian.

A Finnish startup is poised to revolutionise food production with a method that produces protein from air and electricity and is independent of agriculture, the environment, or climate. 

Solar Foods, a Finnish food tech company, has developed a new natural source of protein it calls Solein.

The company is building its first commercial-scale factory near Helsinki, Finland, that can make food directly from carbon dioxide. Find out more

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