Happy new (financial) year to all our readers!

One quick thing: India witnesses record-high electric two-wheeler sales in March 2024, IPO-bound Ola Electric grabs the top spot.

In today's newsletter: 

• Namma Yatri drives into a solo lane
• Byju's salary snags amid investor dispute
• Beardo's Mane-agement changes

P.S. Don’t miss out on our annual Money calendar that helps you keep track of the most important dates in the upcoming financial year.

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Ola and Uber challenger Namma Yatri's got wings now and is ready to go solo.

SoftBank-backed Juspay, which launched and operated Namma Yatri, has hived off the mobility business as a separate entity called 'Moving Tech Innovations Limited'

• Juspay launched the Namma Yatri app in November 2022, in collaboration with Nandan Nilekani's BECKN Foundation and with the support of Bengaluru’s Auto Rickshaw Driver’s Union (ARDU). 

The growing user adoption of Namma Yatri, which promises zero commission rides for auto drivers, has resulted in the business growing so much that it needs special attention now. (Psst: The app has clocked 3.28 crore completed trips, with 57 lakhs registered users on its platform)

• To sustain an app of this magnitude, the mobility platform has been trying everything from cost-cutting to launching subscription services. 

This spinoff will likely help Namma Yatri raise funds from venture capital investors.

• We hear that Juspay will continue to be the majority investor and support the ride-hailing firm’s payment systems.

Namma Yatri has already charted its expansion plans, including launching cab services in Bengaluru. But we have more news for you!

• On this very same day, the firm has also patched up things with Bengaluru’s Auto Rickshaw Union (ARDU) folks. 

• Remember that the firm had a fissure with ARDU over internal matters like pricing and promotions, which led to a breakup last year. 

The union patch-up will come in handy for Namma Yatri as it switches to the next gear!

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As investors and founders of troubled edtech firm Byju’s remain at odds, it's the employees who are facing the consequences.

For the second month in a row, Byju’s has held off salaries to staff amid a massive cash crunch.

• In an email to employees, Byju’s management assured that the salaries will be credited by April 8 through an alternative source of credit.

Byju's had previously withheld February salaries, later paying a portion of the dues in the middle of March. 

• The edtech major is yet to pay the remaining February salaries to its staff.

This move comes as Byju's awaits a go ahead from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to use funds from the recent $200 million rights issue.

• The funds are held in an escrow account as per NCLT's order until the outcome of the plea alleging oppression and mismanagement by four of Byju's investors against the company.

Meanwhile, the dissenting investors of Byju's seem unwilling to budge as they may stay away from the recently floated rights issue, signalling that the feud is far from over.

"Nothing has changed in the way the management operates and the information, financial transparency and governance controls," a person familiar with the development told us.

Last week, the embattled edtech company extended an olive branch to shareholders such as Peak XV Partners, General Atlantic, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, and Prosus, offering them a 72 hour window to participate in the issue.

It now comes down to the next hearing of the investors’ oppression and mismanagement plea scheduled on April 4.

Go deeper

Marico-owned Beardo's bigwigs are bidding goodbye to the grooming company. One after the other!

Beardo CEO Sujot Malhotra has gone on a sabbatical for a year and it is unclear if he will return to Marico, sources told us. 

• Darayus Mehta (Head of Marketing) and Ketan Jain (Head of Finance and Operations) have also exited in the past three months 

• While Mehta has started his own venture, Jain has returned to work with Beardo co-founder Ashutosh Valani’s new venture, sources said. 

These moves essentially mean that all key executives who brought Beardo under Marico’s fold are no longer at the company. Sanjay Mishra, who played a key role in closing the deal, was first to leave in September 2023. 

In Malhotra's absence, there will be a natural change of guard. His role will now be split in two.

• Beardo CBO Siddharth Vaya and Koteshwar LN, head of Digital first businesses at Marico, will together lead the brand’s operations now.

Beardo was the first new-age company that Marico acquired, initially buying a 45% stake in the grooming startup in 2017. 

• Three years later, Marico purchased the remaining 55% and gave founders, such as Valani and other investors, a full exit.

Since then, Marico has expanded its digital brands portfolio by buying brands such as True Elements, Plix, Just Herbs, and Satiya Nutraceuticals.

Dig deeper

About 63 million Indians suffer from significant auditory impairment, or in other words, are deaf or hard of hearing, according to World Health Organization (WHO).

To address this problem, Pune-based startup Glovatrix has developed gloves that leverage artificial intelligence to translate sign language into voice.

"What we are doing is essentially providing two way communication for the deaf individual. If I am deaf, I will do the sign language, the gloves will convert that to speech. But whenever you say something, there will be microphones and a screen retrofitted to the gloves, which will be able to translate from voice to text or image" said Glovatrix co-founder Parikshit Sohoni

Read our special story

• The AI funding gold rush, in which billions of dollars are pouring into startups, is obscuring scientific progress in the field, says Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis.

• OpenAI showed off its Voice Engine technology, which can clone a person’s voice, but says it won’t yet release it publicly due to safety concerns. The company has also discussed training GPT-5 on transcripts of public YouTube videos.

A common adage on the Internet is to not believe anything that was announced on April’s Fools day. But, several companies have upended that notion by actually launching their operations on April 1. 

Naukri, MakeMyTrip, and Indiamart - three of India's pre-eminent Internet companies - launched on April 1. 

Why, you ask? It's simply for regulatory simplicity. 

"If you launch in Q4 of the previous FY, you need to file an additional IT and Service Tax return for that year. Might as well push it out and file fewer returns” Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikchandani said on X (or as majority of people still call it Twitter).

Of course, there is also Gmail which turned 20 today. Interestingly, if you read its launch post, you would easily dismiss it as yet another prank from Google, known for its annual April Fools' pranks. Have a look.