One quick thing: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman likely to visit India on February 5, to meet PM Modi

In today’s newsletter:

• Bhavish Aggarwal pumps in Rs 2,000 cr in Krutrim AI Lab
• Cred's loan book crosses Rs 19,000 crore
• Startup founders hail BIS e-commerce guidelines

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Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal is going all in on his third startup, Krutrim!

Aggarwal announced a Rs 2,000 crore investment in his artificial intelligence venture, Krutrim, with a Rs 10,000 crore commitment by next year.

• As India’s AI race heats up, Krutrim has unveiled new models like Krutrim 2, the next-gen LLM, AI models for vision, speech, and text-to-text translation

And, he launched Krutrim AI Lab, a frontier research initiative where most of the investments will be going.

"While we’ve been working on AI for a year, today we’re releasing our work to the open-source community and also publishing a bunch of technical reports. Our focus is on developing AI for India — to make AI better in Indian languages, data scarcity, cultural context, etc," Aggarwal said in a post on the X platform.

In another major milestone, Krutrim is procuring India’s first GB200 AI supercomputer, developed in partnership with Nvidia, and set to go live by March.

• Krutrim also launched AI cloud services, offering developers and enterprises access to powerful GPUs for AI training, 3D rendering, and scientific simulations

Krutrim's big announcements come just days after the startup deployed DeepSeek’s advanced AI models on its domestic servers, a move aimed at enhancing data privacy and reducing the cost of training AI models.

• DeepSeek, a China-based AI research company, has been making waves with its low-cost and effective AI models, and its impact is now being felt in India

In fact, the success of DeepSeek’s latest R1 LLM has sparked a debate about whether India is late in setting out to build its own foundational AI models, and what the nation needs to do next to remain self-reliant in computing systems.

Find out more

Big loans, big risks—Cred is riding the fintech lending wave, but can it keep up?

Kunal Shah-led firm has hit Rs 19,000 crore managed assets under management (AUM), making it one of the largest lending portfolios in the fintech space.

• NPA’s are under check at 1.1% vs. the industry average of 2.9%
  
  
• This is likely due to its focus on affluent customers, helping manage credit risks better than most

This comes as the industry grapples with rising credit costs and write-offs, withering the impact of RBI’s scrutiny on unsecured lending. 

Lending is a big money maker for Cred after payments and insurance.

• It offers loans via tie-ups and its own NBFC–Newtap Finance–which it has been positioning to lean more independently
  
  
• Newtap currently contributes 2.7% of Cred’s total AUM 

Notably, Cred’s earlier bid to increase its stake in the NBFC was blocked by the RBI, keeping its independence in check.

But there’s more to Newtap’s story—it is now seeking Rs 550 crore in fresh equity, forging new co-lending partnerships and stabilising the team.  

Cred is yet to demonstrate profitability, but the revenue growth is on track.

• Operating losses are set to drop 50% in FY25, with Ebitda breakeven likely by FY26
  
  
• The monthly transacting user base is booming—at 1.2 crore, growing at a 30% CAGR

However, managing the credit cost at Newtap, which slipped into losses in the first 9MFY25 with surged NPAs, would come as a challenge.

Dig deeper

Over the last year, India Inc. has had its hopes pinned on the Digital Competition Bill (DCB) to rein in Big Tech platforms' anti-competitive practices.

• However, since the release of its draft, there has not been much progress

Now, Indian startup founders are pinning their hopes on the Bureau of Indian Standards' (BIS) e-commerce guidelines, whose broad ambit and anti-competitive provisions have positioned it as an alternative to the DCB.

• Specifically, the definitions of e-commerce entity in the guidelines are broad enough to include app stores under its ambit

The guidelines define an e-commerce entity as “a company or organisation that operates an electronic commerce platform such as an online marketplace or web store, where buyers can purchase products or services from third-party sellers”.

It also includes anti-competitive provisions such as:

• Anti-bundling
  
  
• No preferential treatment
  
  
• Not influencing the supply or price of goods sold on the platform

"It is not just the definition.. but (also) the way other terms are defined, for example, marketplace e-commerce entity, business partners, platform, etc., the guidelines seem to include app stores within their scope," Bharat Matrimony CEO Murugavel Janakiraman told us.

Truly Madly’s co-founder and CEO Snehil Khanor said the guidelines provide a strong framework for regulating app stores since they operate similarly to traditional e-commerce platforms by offering digital apps as products.

Go deeper

After two years of persistent efforts and a disappointing outcome in the Union Budget 2025, with no reduction in virtual digital asset (VDA) taxes, crypto startups now await the much-delayed discussion paper from the Finance Ministry.  

• This discussion or consultation paper, originally scheduled for release in September of last year, was subsequently delayed to March 

However, recent comments from Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) Secretary Ajay Seth suggest a further delay, leaving startups in limbo.

• Once out, the discussion paper will seek feedback from the industry players for finalising the country-level framework for VDAs

Go deeper

• OpenAI said it will develop AI products for South Korea with chat app operator Kakao, unveiling a second major alliance with a high-profile Asian partner this week.
  
  
• Belgium's data protection agency has received a complaint about Chinese AI firm DeepSeek, potentially triggering an investigation, while Luxembourg's agency, though without complaints, may collaborate with European counterparts to examine DeepSeek's data processing practices.

If you're a Netflix subscriber, you're in for a treat with a lot of high-profile shows and films coming your way this year. What's in store, you ask? 

• The Ba***ds of Bollywood: A Bollywood-themed series that's created and directed by Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan
   
• Jewel Thief: The Heist Begins: A high-stakes drama film from director Siddharth Anand, that stars Saif Ali Khan and Jaideep Ahlawat
  
  
• Akka: A tale of gangster queens featuring Radhika Apte and Keerthy Suresh
  
  
• Nadaaniyan: The debut film of Saif Ali Khan's son, Ibrahim Ali Khan, which also stars another star kid, Khushi Kapoor
  
  
• Test: A Tamil cricket drama film starring Nayanthara, R. Madhavan, and Siddharth.

Of course, popular shows like The Great Indian Kapil Show, Delhi Crime, Rana Naidu, and Kohrra will also be returning with new seasons

Check out the full lineup or watch a quick video preview

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