Breaking: Ashneer Grover’s Third Unicorn is foraying into fantasy sports with a cricket-focused app called CrickPe ahead of the IPL 2023.

One important thing: Twitter owner Elon Musk has no room for loyalty. Even the most loyal Twitter employees are not being spared from the continued layoffs at the social media firm. 

• Esther Crawford, the Twitter product manager who gained attention last year when a photo of her sleeping on the office floor went viral, has been let go. She was in charge of the crucial Twitter Blue service and was one of the most vocal Musk supporters at the company.

• Crawford's layoff is part of the latest round of job cuts at Twitter that has reportedly affected 200 employees, or 10% of its workforce.

In today’s newsletter:

• Bharti Airtel, Paytm deal talks collapse
• Yulu gears up for growth with franchise model
• Zomato's commission hike meets restaurant backlash

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Bharti Airtel and Paytm have failed to reach an agreement in a deal in which their respective payment banks were to be merged, according to sources privy to the matter.

• The telecom giant had also reportedly shown interest in acquiring a stake in the digital payments platform by acquiring shares from other investors

• Paytm refused to cede management control and saw no reason for a strategic alliance, as per sources

Paytm shares are currently trading at Rs 635 per share, down 70% from its IPO price of Rs 2,150 per share, due to concerns about profitability, business model, and regulatory flux.

• Pre-IPO investors like Alibaba and SoftBank have already sold a large part of their stakes in the company 

• Paytm conducted a Rs 850 crore share buyback in recent months in an effort to halt the slide and appease retail shareholders

When you're stuck in traffic in your car, you'll undoubtedly be envious of the people on Yulu bikes. Now, be prepared to see more Yulus on the road! 

The shared rental e-scooter startup has partnered with top two- and three-wheeler manufacturer Bajaj Auto to launch new models of e-scooters Miracle GR and DeX GR for retail and commercial use, respectively.

The startup intends to adopt a franchise model, wherein Yulu will transfer its asset and tech stack for a revenue arrangement to its ‘Business Partners’, to scale up faster and in a more capital-efficient manner.

• With Bajaj’s support and the franchise model plans, Yulu will now be able to enter smaller tier 2 and tier 3 cities
  
  
• In addition to India, the company intends to introduce this model to other Southeast Asian nations within the next three to four months

Yulu, which raised $82 million in a Series B funding round led by Magna International Inc in September 2022, is now in the market with ambitious plans to diversify its revenue sources. It now intends to raise $500 million in debt over the next three years in order to deploy one million vehicles on the road.

• In the short term, Yulu plans to deploy 50,000 e-scooters across India, primarily in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, by the end of 2023, as it aims for a 10X growth in revenue by the end of the year
  
  
• With this expansion, there is also a need for talent. The company is planning to add around 2,000 staff on the ground by mid-next year as it scales deployments across cities

It’s Zomato versus restaurants once again. 

Restaurant owners said they plan to launch a massive pushback against the food delivery company after it began renegotiating commission rates.

• Sources say that Zomato’s premise for approaching the eateries has been that the commissions were kept lower till this point 

This was to help them recover from the pandemic and to assist new-to-online restaurants in making the transition to food delivery.

Zomato plans to convince more restaurants to use its B2B grocery service Hyperpure and advertisement service, which will lower the effective commission rate, said a source

• The company has pointed out to some restaurants that its fees are a few percentage points lower than those of Swiggy

• Restaurants argue that such a move smacks of cartelisation and they might have to take legal recourse

Zomato's move is also seen as a desperate attempt to increase profitability during a difficult period for the wider tech sector.

• Its losses widened to Rs 347 crore in the December quarter, despite revenue increasing by 74% to Rs 1,112 crore as a result of new services such as Blinkit and Hyperpure

• However, the pace of quarterly growth in its food delivery segment has been slowing

The National Security Agency's IBM 7950 supercomputer, also known as the Harvest System, ceased operations on this date in 1976 after 14 years of service. The Harvest was a one-of-a-kind adjunct to the Stretch computer and was delivered in 1962. (Picture credit: Wikipedia)

• NanoLabs, the company behind the digital currency Nano, has sued Coinbase for trademark infringement. The firm claimed Coinbase's Nano Bitcoin futures contract and Nano Ether futures contract products violate their trademarks.
  
  
• Crypto exchange CoinFLEX is demanding that Blockchain.com return $4.3 million in FLEX coins or face legal action, claiming it lent the financial services company 3,000,000 last year.

It seems that even the most advanced technology is not immune to the economic pressures driving the tech industry's recent round of mass layoffs.

In a surprising move, Google's parent company Alphabet has decided to shut down its subsidiary, Everyday Robots, which developed and trained robots to perform various tasks such as sorting trash, cleaning tables, and even opening doors.

This decision comes amidst a larger restructuring effort announced by Google in January, which included the elimination of 12,000 jobs worldwide

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