1. Amazon carries out layoffs as part of a global reorganisation
What is the news?
Amazon India has carried out several layoffs since last week, as part of the impact of a global reorganisation and the number is expected to increase as the number of performance improvement plans given out has also been relatively higher in FY18, as per two sources aware of the developments.
Why now?
This comes even as Amazon is expected to double down on its fight against Flipkart, which has strengthened its armour with a SoftBank investment as well as a deal with Amazon-rival Walmart. It is also likely Amazon may be right-sizing after hiring aggressively over the last few years.
2. VC environment picks up pace
What's the news?
Venture capital funding in the Indian startup ecosystem is showing early signs of a turnaround, with the early-to-mid-stage deal flow in the first quarter of the 2018 showing strong recovery compared to the year-ago period. However, seed and angel investments, seen as the bedrock of the startup landscape, continues to lag.
What does this mean for the ecosystem?
After a relatively stagnant two years, VC investors are now looking to deploy capital at a more rapid pace, given the increased competition from deep-pocketed strategic players, such as Tencent, Alibaba and SoftBank that have come and aggressively closed deals, in the process, often shutting out even the biggest VC names in the business.
3. Zomato has a healthy FY18
What's the news?
Zomato claims a 45% in growth in FY18 revenues to clock Rs 481 crore ($74 million) buoyed by subscription-based services.
What do the numbers say?
While online ordering grew to form about 30% of revenues in FY18 from 19% last year, subscription services grew strongly with over 280,000 customers across Zomato Treats and Zomato Gold. Within 3 months of its launch, Gold forms about 12% of the revenues, Zomato claims.
While operational burn has marginally reduced to $11 mn from $15 mn in FY17, a large part was incurred in the last 2 months, incidentally just after the Gurgaon based firm raised $150 mn from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's payment affiliate Ant Financial. Read more.
4. Chennai to host fintech Centre of excellence
What's the news?
Chennai will host a Centre of Excellence for Financial Technology. This would be the first of its kind in the country. The facility, which is expected to launch before the end of this year, will be housed within the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), said Sanjay Tyagi, director, STPI, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.
What will this place offer?
With cloud infrastructure support from Amazon, Google and Microsoft, the CoE will have 100 seats at the time of its launch. The CoE will also be signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for guidance and technical assistance.
Banks and insurance firms have also shown interest in the initiative with support on payment gateways, application programming interfaces, security and compliance tools.
UIDAI/Aadhaar and India Stack will also provide support and tools to build and test products in a secured environment.
5. Paytm Mall receives Rs 3,000 crore funding
What's the news?
E-commerce platform Paytm Mall has raised approximately Rs 3000 crore in a round led by Japan's Softbank and Chinese online commerce giant Alibaba. This round values the company at $1.9 billion with Paytm Mall entering the coveted unicorn club.
Why this matters?
With this funding round, now all three e-commerce companies Flipkart, Amazon India and Paytm Mall have readied their war chest to compete in this fiscal year.
Flipkart raised a large amount of money last year with Softbank leading the pack and now with the Japanese conglomerate picking up a stake in Paytm Mall, it should be interesting to watch how the e-commerce battleground plays out - as America, China, and Japan battle it out in India.
6. India Quotient raises $30M for its third fund
What's the news?
Seed stage investment firm India Quotient has raised $30 million for its third fund, which is targeting a final close of about $50-60 million in the next two quarters. The new investors roped in by the fund include Dr. BR Shetty, a Dubai-based billionaire of Indian origin who was in news last year for financing the Rs 1000 crore Mahabharata movie.
Why it matters?
The new fund is a big step up for India Quotient, as it had just raised $23 million combined till now across it's first two funds. It is also a validation of its portfolio, especially the bets in areas like social media and financial technology. The total valuation of it's 40 company portfolio is expected to cross $1 billion soon.
What is the news?
Amazon India has carried out several layoffs since last week, as part of the impact of a global reorganisation and the number is expected to increase as the number of performance improvement plans given out has also been relatively higher in FY18, as per two sources aware of the developments.
Why now?
This comes even as Amazon is expected to double down on its fight against Flipkart, which has strengthened its armour with a SoftBank investment as well as a deal with Amazon-rival Walmart. It is also likely Amazon may be right-sizing after hiring aggressively over the last few years.
2. VC environment picks up pace
What's the news?
Venture capital funding in the Indian startup ecosystem is showing early signs of a turnaround, with the early-to-mid-stage deal flow in the first quarter of the 2018 showing strong recovery compared to the year-ago period. However, seed and angel investments, seen as the bedrock of the startup landscape, continues to lag.
What does this mean for the ecosystem?
After a relatively stagnant two years, VC investors are now looking to deploy capital at a more rapid pace, given the increased competition from deep-pocketed strategic players, such as Tencent, Alibaba and SoftBank that have come and aggressively closed deals, in the process, often shutting out even the biggest VC names in the business.
3. Zomato has a healthy FY18
What's the news?
Zomato claims a 45% in growth in FY18 revenues to clock Rs 481 crore ($74 million) buoyed by subscription-based services.
What do the numbers say?
While online ordering grew to form about 30% of revenues in FY18 from 19% last year, subscription services grew strongly with over 280,000 customers across Zomato Treats and Zomato Gold. Within 3 months of its launch, Gold forms about 12% of the revenues, Zomato claims.
While operational burn has marginally reduced to $11 mn from $15 mn in FY17, a large part was incurred in the last 2 months, incidentally just after the Gurgaon based firm raised $150 mn from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's payment affiliate Ant Financial. Read more.
4. Chennai to host fintech Centre of excellence
What's the news?
Chennai will host a Centre of Excellence for Financial Technology. This would be the first of its kind in the country. The facility, which is expected to launch before the end of this year, will be housed within the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), said Sanjay Tyagi, director, STPI, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.
What will this place offer?
With cloud infrastructure support from Amazon, Google and Microsoft, the CoE will have 100 seats at the time of its launch. The CoE will also be signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for guidance and technical assistance.
Banks and insurance firms have also shown interest in the initiative with support on payment gateways, application programming interfaces, security and compliance tools.
UIDAI/Aadhaar and India Stack will also provide support and tools to build and test products in a secured environment.
5. Paytm Mall receives Rs 3,000 crore funding
What's the news?
E-commerce platform Paytm Mall has raised approximately Rs 3000 crore in a round led by Japan's Softbank and Chinese online commerce giant Alibaba. This round values the company at $1.9 billion with Paytm Mall entering the coveted unicorn club.
Why this matters?
With this funding round, now all three e-commerce companies Flipkart, Amazon India and Paytm Mall have readied their war chest to compete in this fiscal year.
Flipkart raised a large amount of money last year with Softbank leading the pack and now with the Japanese conglomerate picking up a stake in Paytm Mall, it should be interesting to watch how the e-commerce battleground plays out - as America, China, and Japan battle it out in India.
6. India Quotient raises $30M for its third fund
What's the news?
Seed stage investment firm India Quotient has raised $30 million for its third fund, which is targeting a final close of about $50-60 million in the next two quarters. The new investors roped in by the fund include Dr. BR Shetty, a Dubai-based billionaire of Indian origin who was in news last year for financing the Rs 1000 crore Mahabharata movie.
Why it matters?
The new fund is a big step up for India Quotient, as it had just raised $23 million combined till now across it's first two funds. It is also a validation of its portfolio, especially the bets in areas like social media and financial technology. The total valuation of it's 40 company portfolio is expected to cross $1 billion soon.