All stories by Aryaman Gupta
Startups Likely To Step Up Hiring
Rediff.com4 Jul 2024'In the second half of 2024, about 60% of startup jobs will be taken by entry-level candidates with 0-3 years of experience.'
IPO-bound startups find favour with investors amid funding resurgence
Rediff.com26 Jun 2024The tide of startup-funding is turning in India, with a rising trend of overall funding while the deal sizes grow bigger. However, the spotlight now is on late-stage startups, many of which are seen to be headed for initial public offerings (IPOs). Record surge in stock markets and consistently improving performances of listed startups are understood to have turned the sentiment for the better, especially for those that exhibit a clear path to an IPO.
D2C brands hitch a ride on the quick commerce wagon
Rediff.com17 Jun 2024As quick-commerce players find their foothold among consumers, brands are all set to step up their presence on these platforms.
Premium devices to dial up growth in India's smartphone market in 2024
Rediff.com23 May 2024Indian smartphone sales, traditionally dominated by the entry and mid-range segments, are set to change as high-end and super-premium devices capture consumer attention. The premium category is expected to grow by more than 20 per cent in calendar year (CY) 2024 compared to the previous year. While the overall smartphone market is expected to w
Swiggy gets one step closer to $1.25 bn IPO
Rediff.com26 Apr 2024Food delivery major Swiggy has received approval from its shareholders for a $1.25 billion initial public offering (IPO), according to filings made with the Registrar of Companies sourced by Tofler. The Bengaluru-based firm plans to raise as much as Rs 3,750 crore (around $450 million) via a fresh issue and up to Rs 6,664 crore (around $800 million) through an offer-for-sale (OFS) component, the filings stated.
Q3 sees startups turn a profitable corner
Rediff.com23 Feb 2024The third quarter (Q3) of 2023-24 (FY24) has proven to be pivotal, witnessing some startups turning profitable and others enhancing their performance as their businesses finally begin to deliver. Startups like Delhivery, Zomato, PolicyBazaar, Mamaearth, and Nykaa have either become profitable or improved their profit margins in Q3FY24. A renewed focus on profitability, supported by operational efficiencies, expense rein-in, and robust demand during the festival season, has empowered companies to strengthen their performance.
Fintech major PhonePe takes on Google, Apple with homegrown Indus Appstore
Rediff.com22 Feb 2024Fintech major PhonePe on Wednesday announced the launch of its homegrown Indus Appstore specifically for the Indian market, in a bid to compete with global incumbents like Google Play Store and Apple's App Store. The Indus Appstore is PhonePe's attempt at creating a more competitive and localised mobile app store economy for India, which is already the world's largest market for mobile apps.
UpGrad's founder blames Raveendran, investors for current state of Byju's
Rediff.com16 Feb 2024Byju Raveendran, chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Byju's, along with its nearly 51 investors, are responsible for the beleaguered edtech firm's current predicaments, said Ronnie Screwvala, executive chairman and co-founder of edtech platform UpGrad. Speaking at the second edition of the ASU+GSV & Emeritus Summit in Gurugram, he emphasised that "one rotten apple" should not affect the entire edtech sector.
Valentine's week: E-com giants record high demand for roses, chocolates
Rediff.com12 Feb 2024Leading up to Valentine's Day on February 14, quick-commerce platforms like Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart have witnessed a phenomenal uptick in the sales of products related to the occasion, such as roses and chocolates. Meanwhile, e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart have gone live with their respective Valentine's Day sale events, offering generous discounts on products. Sales of chocolates and roses on Zomato-owned Blinkit shattered previous records at the beginning of this year's Valentine's Day week, on February 7, which is celebrated as Rose Day.
Revealed: Swiggy, Ola, Flipkart's IPO Plans
Rediff.com7 Feb 2024Layoffs, corporate restructuring, governance and most importantly profitability: The 14 Indian startups that plan IPOs this year are pulling out all the stops to ensure successful market debuts.
Temple fever grips Indians, lifts travel demand and hotel bookings
Rediff.com20 Jan 2024Online travel portals are flooded with flight and train bookings, hotels teeming with requests for accommodation, and spiritual merchandise on e-commerce platforms is selling like hotcakes. As the consecration ceremony of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22 draws near, Indians across the country are putting their travelling boots on as the temple frenzy catches on. India's largest travel technology (traveltech) platform MakeMyTrip (MMT) has witnessed a substantial four-fold increase in bookings for Ayodhya compared to the previous year.
Lack of domestic capital a hurdle for startups: Infosys co-founder Murthy
Rediff.com19 Jan 2024The availability of domestic capital to fund startups and an ability to attract talent in the early days are among the biggest challenges faced by entrepreneurs, Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy said on Thursday. "It is desirable to create a policy that makes it attractive for domestic institutions like family offices of HNIs (high net-worth individuals), insurance companies or large corporations to invest in venture capital funding," he said at the T N Chaturvedi Memorial Lecture 2024 in New Delhi's Prime Ministers' Museum and Library.
Tech IPO Boom With Easing Headwinds
Rediff.com8 Jan 2024'The success of one or two IPOs does not dictate whether the upcoming IPOs will be successful or not, but it certainly indicates that the markets and investors are enthusiastic about startup IPOs.'
Angels continue to shine the light on fledgling firms
Rediff.com2 Jan 2024At a time when the Indian startup space is going through a funding winter, marked by investors tightening their purse strings, angel investments in fledgling firms have maintained their momentum. While overall deal volumes among startups have fallen, investment activity among the country's most-active angel investors have been relatively steady. We Founder Circle (WFC), a Mumbai-based network of angel investors, emerged as the most-active angel investment platform for the second consecutive year in 2023 with 82 investments.
Zomato gets Rs 402 cr GST notice over delivery fee
Rediff.com29 Dec 2023Food delivery major Zomato has received a Rs 401.7 crore show cause notice from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) over 'unpaid taxes' on delivery charges collected from customers, the company said in a regulatory filing late on Wednesday. The company claimed that it is not liable to pay the penalty for the period from October 29, 2019, to March 31, 2022, as the amount collected from customers is "on behalf of the delivery partners during the referred period."
Have Zomato, Swiggy finally figured out the right recipe?
Rediff.com22 Dec 2023Something is cooking in online food delivery. After 15 years of grappling with the demands of the business - read cash burn - Gurugram-based Zomato reported its first profit in the first quarter of 2023-24 (FY24). Not satiated, it reported a profit in the following quarter as well: Of Rs 36 crore in the second quarter compared to Rs 2 crore in the first. A year ago, in the second quarter of FY23, it had reported a loss of Rs 251 crore.
Entrepreneurs, $20 Bn Is Waiting For You
Rediff.com22 Dec 2023'In the next 15-20 years, India will have at least 50 new (AI-driven) billion-dollar companies that are going to solve problems for the largest companies around the world.'
'We can deliver market-beating growth'
Rediff.com6 Dec 2023'We will continue to build new engines of growth in terms of innovations, enter newer categories, and look at newer propositions.'
Festive Season To Create 700K Gig Jobs
Rediff.com17 Oct 2023'The World Cup alone is expected to create an additional 100,000 jobs, most of which will comprise gig workers in the delivery space, transportation, hospitality and event management.'
Tides turning for India's startups?
Rediff.com3 Oct 2023The recovering valuations, will lead to enhanced optimism among investors about funding startups.