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In today’s newsletter:

• Why is Zomato reshuffling food delivery leaders?
• How AI startups scale with less
• Sweet Dreams! Sleep Company tucks in fresh funding

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Zomato’s shaking up the food chain — but is it just seasonal or a sign of something simmering?

Zomato’s food delivery CEO Rakesh Ranjan will step down after almost two years at the helm — but he’s not leaving the firm just yet.

• Ranjan, who took charge in June 2023, will continue at Zomato in a new role yet to be defined

His exit is part of a regular internal reshuffle, Zomato claims it undertakes every few years.

• The company disclosed the move to stock exchanges after we broke the story on Wednesday night

Meanwhile, group CEO Deepinder Goyal is back steering food ops amid a period of flux and slower market momentum.

• Goyal will run the food delivery unit for now, stepping into day-to-day operations

The change comes shortly after COO Rinshul Chandra also exited the food delivery business.

• Eternal (Zomato) says the leadership shuffle is part of its drive to sharpen efficiency

It’s not just the leadership bench that’s shifting – demand in the food delivery business is cooling too.

• Zomato flagged a demand slowdown starting in November, echoed by competitor Swiggy

Market share, too, is see-sawing, with no clear long-term leader between the top players.

• Industry-wide headwinds have added urgency to the company's executive overhaul.

Can Zomato’s move to reshuffle its top deck yield results?

Dig deeper

Mantra for AI startups: Do more with less

At a time when legacy firms are downsizing and cutting costs, AI-native startups are rewriting the playbook by clocking millions in revenue with small teams.

• AI code editor Cursor hit a staggering $300 million annual recurring revenue with just 20 people
  
  
• AI app builder from Sweden, Lovable, did $40 million with only 15

Indian firms are not far behind. Sarvam AI and Karya AI are a few names to start with.

The formula? Gen AI startups today are building low-code, no-code platforms with fewer hands on deck, but hugely monetisable tools.

Sameer Dhanrajani, CEO of 3AI, told us that with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) techniques now mainstream, the need for giant AI teams has shrunk.

“What was once the domain of tech giants is now open to startups,” Soumendra Mohanty, Chief Strategy Officer of Tredence, told us.

The picture is not all rosy. As AI automates more mundane work, mid-level tech jobs are most at risk.

• Staffing firm TeamLease’ cofounder Rituparna Chakraborty says the survival of software engineers depends on personal reskilling: “Do I want to be an AI creator or an AI operator?”
  
  
• Tech investors like Dima Shvets are already betting on ultra-lean teams that can punch above their weight

The Silicon Valley scout for venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has a dream team: A business brain, a product visionary, and a systems builder, a departure from the ubiquitous CEOs, CTOs, and CFOs.

Dig deeper

The mattress wars are heating up! 

Mumbai-based The Sleep Company is negotiating with Kedaara Capital, ChrysCap, IIFL and others to raise over Rs 500 crore ($60 million), sources told us.

• The Sleep Company is expecting a valuation of $400 million (around Rs 3,400 crore) -- more than double its last valuation of $180 million in November 2023

The talks come as its rival, Wakefit, backed by Peak XV Partners, is preparing for an initial public offering and has appointed investment bankers for the process.

• If the deal goes through, the company is expected to command a valuation comparable to that of Wakefit

Fireside Ventures, an early backer, is partially exiting to make room for incoming investors, sources told us.

• The final size of the round may change in the coming weeks, depending on how many shares change hands and how the primary and secondary components play out

The company, which operates 100+ stores, plans to use the fresh capital to:

• Expand offline retail footprint

• Launch new products

Find out more

• San Francisco-headquartered data and AI company Databricks announced an investment of more than $250 million in India over the next three years to speed up innovation in data and AI.
  
  
• Perplexity AI launched an update to its iOS app, introducing Perplexity Assistant—a voice-powered AI that can now answer questions and perform real-world tasks, from drafting emails to booking rides.

WhatsApp just dropped a feature you didn’t know you needed. 

The messaging platform added a new stealth mode called Advanced Chat Privacy. The feature tightens the reins on what people can do with your messages, especially in group settings where not everyone may be familiar.

• It prevents others in a chat from exporting conversations, auto-downloading media, or using messages in AI features

It’s a proactive measure against leaks and unintended sharing—whether it’s screenshots, forwards, or AI data scraping, said WhatsApp.

Find out more

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