Just in: Jumbotail acquires Solv to expand B2B e-commerce reach

One quick thing: Mobility aggregator Jugnoo to buy back Paytm’s stake for Rs 23.5 crore  

In today’s newsletter:

• Why Zerodha won’t go public yet  
• Double whammy for Swiggy and Zomato
• Private sector data boost for AIKosh

P.S.: Introducing the Tech3 Podcast, your daily dose of tech and startup insights. Monday to Friday! Check it out on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

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It’s a day of big IPO dreams for some, and no-FOMO vibes for others.

Zerodha co-founder and CEO Nithin Kamath has made it clear: the company doesn’t need external funds and isn’t looking for the added scrutiny of being a listed entity.

 “If regulators say we need to list, then we will have to,” Kamath admitted, but otherwise, it’s not happening.

Kamath’s views come at a time when its rival Groww is chasing a multi-billion-dollar valuation, preparing to hit the public markets soon.

For Zerodha, going public isn’t the dream—it’s just extra baggage. Kamath believes the company is doing just fine without the pressures that come with listing.

• Doesn’t need external funds, making an IPO unnecessary. Instead, it offers exits via annual ESOP buybacks
  
  
• Public company means dealing with quarterly targets and intense scrutiny
  
  
• Kamath doubts the market will offer Zerodha more than “1-2 times” its current worth 

With market activity cooling off and a “bear market of sorts” setting in, Kamath isn’t convinced this is the right time to chase the IPO hype.

As competition in stock broking heats up, a new contender is making its move.

• MobiKwik, through its newly formed subsidiary MobiKwik Securities Broking Pvt Ltd, is set to offer broking and derivatives trading services

It enters a crowded market dominated by Groww, which leads in active users, followed by Zerodha and AngelOne.

Dig deeper 

To do or to not do – is the dilemma that both Swiggy and Zomato face.

Quick commerce, as an industry, will continue to bleed and will incur more losses in Q4 than it recorded in Q3, as per a BofA note. 

• At the same time, BofA’s analysts predicted that food delivery, the core business of both these companies, will grow slower at 16-18% (vs 20% earlier)  

Remember, all quick commerce companies – including Flipkart Minutes, Zepto, BigBasket – will see their losses increase. 

However, Swiggy and Zomato will be more in focus because:

• They’re publicly listed companies and need to show results quarter after quarter
  
  
• Food delivery is their core business which is profitable and is currently funding losses from quick commerce
  
  
• A slowing business means lesser money for investments and also running the risk of ceding more market share to a rival/rivals

The numbers from last quarter were already rough:

• Swiggy’s losses widened 39% YoY to Rs 799 crore

• Zomato’s net profit dropped 57% YoY to Rs 59 crore

All’s not lost, though. BofA also added that losses will narrow materially beginning FY26. 

Dive deeper

AIKosh is expanding its data library—because good AI needs great datasets.

Weeks after launching AIKosh, the government is now calling on private companies, startups, and research institutions to contribute non-personal, India-specific datasets to expand the platform’s repository under the IndiaAI Mission.  

• The IT ministry has invited organisations to submit datasets that could aid AI research, innovation, and policymaking  

• Submissions will be accepted on an ongoing basis with periodic reviews for compliance 

Contributions must follow the Digital Personal Data Protection Act and the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy

• Entities must sign up on AIKosh, appoint a dataset representative

• Every dataset must include complete metadata, licensing terms

The platform will offer data standardisation, iterative refinement, and versioning to improve dataset quality.

AIKosh is a key pillar of the Rs 10,738-crore IndiaAI Mission.

• The platform underwent internal testing across government agencies before its March 6 launch  

Find out more

• Chinese AI startup DeepSeek launched its upgraded DeepSeek-V3-0324 model on Hugging Face, intensifying competition with US rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic.
  
  
• A California federal judge ruled in favour of AI company Anthropic, rejecting Universal Music Group's and other publishers' bid to block it from using their lyrics to train its chatbot Claude.

Imagine a future where humans and AI become one—a world where intelligence expands beyond biology. 

In The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI, Ray Kurzweil builds upon his 2005 work, reaffirming his bold predictions: 

• AI will match human intelligence by 2029, and by 2045, we’ll seamlessly integrate with it

Check it out on Amazon.com

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