Minister of State (MoS) for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasada has informed the Parliament that the Centre has constituted an advisory group to formulate a framework to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) in the country.

Responding to a question from Telugu Desam Party members of Parliament (MPs) Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayulu and GM Harish Balayogi, the MoS said that the panel has been tasked with building a framework to promote innovation while curbing the misuse of AI technologies. 

He further added that the group comprises government officials, industry leaders, academicians and other stakeholders. 

“The government has constituted an advisory group for India-specific regulatory AI framework… Its  mandate  is  to  promote  innovation  and  ensure  adequate  guardrails  to  protect  common  citizens against the possible misuse and user harms. Specifically, the terms of reference of the advisory group includes creating contextualised ethical guidelines which are adaptable in India and promote development of trustworthy, fair, and inclusive AI,” added Prasada.

In response to a separate question, MoS (independent charge) in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Jayant Chaudhary said that 2,914 individuals have so far been trained in AI-related courses under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) 4.0 till June 30.

MoS Chaudhary also said that an additional 8,909 applicants are undergoing training in various AI courses under the scheme as of June 30. He added that over 1.27 Lakh individuals have been trained in various AI-related courses on the FutureSkills Prime platform, which aims to reskill and upskill IT professionals in 10 emerging areas of technologies.

The comments come at a time when AI mania has gripped the world, which has spawned the rise of multiple startups in the space. This has led to a sharp rise in demand for talent pool catering to the domain and the upskilling programme aims to address that. 

Cognisant of this, tech giant Google announced a partnership with MeitY Startup Hub last month to upskill 10,000 homegrown startups in artificial intelligence. Infosys cofounder and chairman Nandan Nilekani last month also said that the IT major has trained more than 2.5 Lakh employees in GenAI technologies. 

Meanwhile, the growing penetration of generative AI (GenAI) has raised questions about issues related with the technology such as misuse, deepfakes and misinformation. In a bid to crack the whip on this, the Centre, earlier this year, issued an advisory that directed platforms to label undertrial AI models and ensure that no unlawful content is hosted on their sites. 

Notably, industry veterans including SaaS unicorn Zoho’s cofounder Sridhar Vembu have in the past also called for building appropriate safeguards before adopting new technologies.

The post Advisory Group Constituted To Build AI Regulatory Framework: Govt appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Bombay High Court (HC) has restrained a clutch of platforms and individuals from offering AI tools that allow users to convert their voice into Bollywood singer Arijit Singh’s voice.

In an ex-parte order dated July 26, Justice RI Chagla observed that the platforms were emboldening internet users to create counterfeit sound recordings and videos that misuse the Singh’s character and identity.

The directions came in response to a petition filed by the singer seeking protection of his personality rights. Granting the injunction till September 3, the HC has posted the matter for next hearing on September 2.

The plea named platforms such as Codible Ventures LLP, 100x Engineers, Hugging Face Inc., Audimee Me, Go Green Tale, Godehope and Kreate as respondents.

“In my view, creation of new audio or video content/songs/videos in the Plaintiff’s AI name/voice, photograph, image, likeness and persona without his consent and commercially using the same could potentially jeopardise the Plaintiff’s career/livelihood,” noted the HC.

Arguing for the singer, counsel Hiren Kamod and Vaibhav Keni said that the platforms were offering tools to their customers to unauthorisedly create AI-generated voice models of celebrities and popular fictional characters.

“Permitting the defendants (AI platforms) to continue exploiting/violating the Plaintiff’s (Singh) personality/publicity rights, without Plaintiff’s consent also jeopardises the Plaintiff’s career as a performer/singer and his status of a celebrity… The act of creating and disseminating videos… on how to use unauthorised AI models to replicate a celebrity’s voice such as Plaintiff without his consent cannot be shielded under the right of freedom of speech and expression,” argued Singh’s lawyers.

The development comes at a time when generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has paved the way for easy creation of deepfakes. Unlike previously, the emerging technology allows users to simply input their audio file onto a platform and generate the output in the voice of a popular celebrity. 

However, Arijit Singh is not the first to seek relief in such a matter. Earlier this year, an owner of a Rishikesh-based firm was arrested for allegedly creating several deep fake videos on social media platforms that showed actor Amitabh Bachchan promoting products related to sexual health.

In May, Delhi HC passed an injunction against the unauthorised use of actor Jackie Shroff’s voice, and other personal attributes and prohibited the exploitation of Shroff’s “persona” through deepfakes without his explicit consent.

In September last year, Delhi HC also restrained social media and ecommerce platforms from misusing voice and other attributes of actor Anil Kapoor and barred them from creating AI-generated videos from infringing on the publicity rights of Kapoor.

Last month, the Bombay HC also directed social media platforms to take down deepfakes that featured NSE MD and CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan offering stock recommendations

The post Bombay HC Restrains AI Platforms From Unauthorised Cloning Of Arijit Singh’s Voice appeared first on Inc42 Media.

It started with a tweet on July 8, 2024, when Ola founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal announced the launch of Ola Maps for developers. The CEO also officially announced that Ola Cabs was moving away from Google Maps, the company’s mapping partner until then. 

Incidentally, this came on the heels of Aggarwal’s tussle with Microsoft-owned LinkedIn and the company migrating away from Microsoft’s cloud solution Azure. So the move from Google to Ola Maps naturally attracted a lot of attention on social media. 

Since then, Ola Maps has been in the news for various reasons. 

For one, Aggarwal claimed that Google Maps reduced prices for certain core APIs by up to 70% in response to the Ola Maps launch.

But Developers that use the Google Maps API told Inc42 that Google had already announced a price reduction a few months before Aggarwal tweeted about Ola Maps. “We knew about it for at least a month before the announcement. Google, being a big company, likely planned it further in advance,” said the founder of a route planning and optimisation startup.

Then, Ola was hit by a legal notice from listed mapping major MapmyIndia for alleged data theft and reverse engineering Ola Maps by duplicating MapmyIndia APIs. Soon after, Aggarwal dismissed this notice as being opportunistic. 

But out of nowhere, India’s mapping services space has become a hotbed of competition, controversy and allegations. Ola and Aggarwal are at the centre of this frenzy, and the CEO is supremely confident that Ola Maps will be the next big thing from the house of Ola.  

Sources told Inc42 that the CEO is keen on spinning off Ola Maps as a separate entity and Aggarwal has eyes on creating yet another unicorn, after taking Ola, Ola Electric and most recently Krutrim to the $1 Bn valuation club. 

“A spin-off is on the cards[A few years down the line]; however, at present, the company needs a lot of nurturing from the Ola ecosystem. Once the product nears maturity and the brand achieves a sizable clientele outside the ecosystem, it will be something to look into,” a senior employee working on the platform told Inc42. 

But does Ola Maps even have a shot in this market, where the incumbents have decades of expertise and experience? 

Ola Maps Joins India’s Digital Mapping Frenzy

For the past 18 months, Ola Maps has been developed by Ola Cabs’ parent company ANI Technologies, building on the 2021 acquisition of Pune-based startup GeoSpoc. 

Unlike Ola Krutrim and Ola Electric, which were independent entities from inception and shared the Ola brand name and the company’s resources, Ola Maps is currently part of Ola Cabs’ parent company ANI Technologies.

This is why there is some speculation about Ola spinning off Ola Maps into a separate entity and offering it to developers and other product startups as an API-based service. Aggarwal on X mentioned that Ola Cabs has been spending around INR 100 Cr on third-party mapping services.

It will be interesting to see how Ola differentiates itself from the host of players that make up the mapping market. Although Google Maps and MapmyIndia are the two most dominant players, there are others such as Apple Maps, Dutch giant HERE Technologies, TomTom, MapBox, OpenStreetMaps among others. 

The digital maps and location intelligence services market consists of digital maps services, navigation solutions and telematics for business as well as consumer applications. And most of these companies have products that cater to both B2B and B2C or either of these verticals.  

The opportunity in the digital mapping space is very large. For instance, MapmyIndia’s operating revenue nearly doubled in the past two fiscal years from INR 200 Cr in FY22 to INR 379.4 Cr in FY24.

It is hard to estimate how much Google Maps is earning from India, as the tech giant does not disclose numbers for Google Maps nor its business in India. We do know that most service providers that operate at scale rely on Google Maps.

Swiggy and Zomato, for instance, would be contributing significantly to Google Maps revenue in India, given the millions of orders these platforms process daily for food delivery and quick commerce. Uber India too is a major customer for Google Maps, and Google Maps is pre-installed on millions of Android devices. 

It is hard to fight dominance of this scale, but MapmyIndia has looked to do that through customer acquisition and leading an antitrust battle with Google Maps, as we have written about in the past. 

For context, Google Maps entered the Indian market in 2007, a decade after MapmyIndia’s first product. Last year, MapmyIndia CEO Rohan Verma told Inc42 that MapmyIndia offers a superior product thanks to speed limit indicators, pothole indicators, 3D junction view (for exits and flyovers), several of which are still missing from Google Maps.

However, dethroning Google is no easy task, particularly because of its extensive tech industry network, deep pockets and Android’s dominance in the smartphone market due to which most Android devices come preloaded with Google Maps. 

For MapMyIndia and other majors in the space, it’s the B2B market which includes ride-hailing services, automobile, enterprise solutions, and delivery services that’s been the key addressable market.  

MapMyIndia claims to have captured over 80% of the connected vehicle market, where its apps and devices are installed on-board by the OEM. It also claims to be working with distribution companies, particularly in the food and beverages space. 

So the question is where can Ola even compete in such a market, where two large players already have deep roots. 

Ola’s Maps Journey From 2021

Ola’s journey into the mapping world began after the Indian government changed the guidelines for geospatial data in early 2021. The guidelines restricted foreign companies to a 1-metre accuracy and mandated the use of APIs for such companies from authorised domestic licensees. No such restrictions are applicable for Indian companies. 

The 2021 Guidelines liberalised the entire approach to how an entity could collect the mapping data. Before, it was heavily guarded. And, one needed to have a license and approval from the Indian government to enter the mapping data / streetview data collection.

“This was a major reason why Google could not be directly involved in mapping data collection in India before 2021. Instead, it has had to partner with entities such as Tech Mahindra to collect data for mapping solutions,” a former India-based Google Maps developer told Inc42. 

It was in this India-first milieu that Aggarwal set the roadmap for Ola Maps after the GeoSpoc acquisition. 

Aggarwal’s thesis was that domestic map solutions are critical to democratise access to digital services for all Indians, especially outside the metros. 

He also said that multimodal transportation options such as drones, autonomous vehicles or other new-ge connected vehicles will require more detailed geospatial data, including high-definition and three-dimensional (3D) maps. 

In its first Maps blog, Ola claimed that existing maps do not address challenges such as inaccuracy, inconsistency, varying street names, frequent changes in road networks, non-standardised streets, potholes, and road quality issues. 

Some of these problems are incidentally also MapmyIndia’s USP as Verma told us in January last year. 

But Ola Maps does offer a big upside for Aggarwal and Ola’s many verticals:

1. Cutting Costs: The company will no longer have to spend INR 100 Cr on mapping APIs and SDKs 
2. New Revenue Stream: The in-house mapping solutions is a new revenue stream for Ola 
3. Data Ownership: Ola Maps allows the company to have complete control over user location data, which feeds into other Ola businesses such as ride-hailing, Ola Electric as well as any other verticals launched by the company, including Ola’s recent push into food delivery with ONDC

Of course, competition is beneficial for the entire ecosystem, since this will create a race to offer more features at better prices. 

But building a mapping platform is no easy task. During an interaction with Inc42, a few weeks back, MapmyIndia CEO Verma said, “It is a huge infrastructural task to create a solid foundation of accurate maps based on ground reality for a large country like India (3.2+ Mn sq km to 6.6 Mn sq km!), and then an even more herculean task to maintain and keep the maps updated as the landscape changes.”

According to him, it is very hard to firstly build and maintain maps, and secondly make it into a viable business. “Many players have tried and failed after a few years,” Verma said. 

Ola Maps, which first appeared on the company’s EVs and inside Ola Cabs, is now being offered to developers.

For a moment, let’s put aside the controversy around MapmyIndia’s legal notice to Ola and see how the latter claims to have built Ola Maps.  

As per the company’s statements, it acquired data from Open Street Maps under a licence agreement, as well and from government sources, while also deploying sensors in some Ola Cabs and across the data operations fleet such as cameras, radar, and LiDAR. 

By processing this data, Ola said it developed a suite of APIs and SDKs for B2B use cases. Ola claimed that its maps platform ingested more than 5 Mn messages per second from various sensors and telemetry sources. The petabytes of data is collated, normalised, anonymised, and stored in a data lakehouse. Data streams from various sources are further divided into pipelines to collect relevant data for training AI models, analytics, and data ops for maps. 

The final output is stored in map databases for tiles, places, and routes systems. Ola Electric, meanwhile, has shelved its electric project which was unveiled in 2022, so for now, Ola will instead be relying on its EV two-wheelers and its fleet of cabs for further data collection. 

Suvonil Chatterjee, the chief technology and product officer of Ola Electric, said in a tweet that AI is at the heart of Ola Maps. The company leverages natural language processing for contextual searches, real-time traffic prediction, dynamic routing algorithms, and automated map updates, Chatterjee said. 

What Ola Can Learn From Apple Maps

While the Indian ecosystem has largely applauded the launch, some maps users pointed out bugs and shortcomings such as Ola’s reliance on Google Autocomplete API, routing issues and even about Ola using SDKs from other mapping solutions such as MapBox.

“The APIs offered by Google Maps are simply much more extensive, but the start by Ola Maps is promising. However, with Ola Maps currently being constrained to the Ola ecosystem, most issues are still not public as drivers rarely report them,” according to a founder of location-based services startup.

Moreover, some APIs are difficult to build in terms of accuracy and seamlessness and require multiple datasets to work together. Take for instance, Google Maps’ Places APIs. Industry insiders believe this is especially difficult to develop, because Google relies on high-quality data from Search and other products. This is partly why Google’s Maps APIs are so feature-rich. 

In fact, mapping platforms have transformed into super apps / super platforms incorporating a slew of vertical requirements. Users can directly reserve a table using Google Maps or seek appointments with a doctor or make inquiries about what products a nearby kirana store has in stock. 

MapmyIndia’s consumer app Mappls has partnered with ONDC to incorporate some of these features and more into its products, and the company has also tied up with wearables maker boAt to introduce some features for smartwatches, a category where devices running Google Maps and Apple Maps are typically more expensive than boAt’s smartwatches. 

Apple Maps has also built such features into its APIs but not all of these are available in India. In the US, where Apple is in a much more dominant position, these APIs are more feature-rich. 

What these feature-rich mapping solutions tell us is that mapping apps are no longer just about directions or finding the fastest route between two points. Maps apps are moving towards super apps in some ways. 

Apple’s example is most apt for Ola. Apple Maps was heavily criticised at launch in 2012 for having poor accuracy and mislabelled information. It took the company more than a decade to come close to Google in terms of service quality and features. 

It wasn’t easy for Apple, but having a revenue-generating machine such as the iPhone did help in staying the course. Does Ola have the tenacity that Apple showed? 

For Ola to directly take on Google Maps or Apple Maps, it is critical to add some of these consumer-friendly features, since they can have a snowball effect and bring more B2B customers  on board as well. For Ola Maps, the arduous task begins now. 

Ola Maps might well find itself in the unicorn club if Aggarwal decides to spin it off, but that will still be a valuation game. Dethroning Google, MapmyIndia and even Apple Maps won’t be as simple as going from point A to point B.

[Edited by Nikhil Subramaniam]

The post A Long Road For Ola Maps: Can Bhavish Aggarwal Dethrone Google Maps, MapmyIndia? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Good Glamm Group-owned D2C feminine hygiene startup Sirona’s net loss surged 97% to INR 33.10 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) from INR 16.83 Cr in the previous fiscal year on account of higher cash burn.

The D2C brand’s operating revenue grew 81% to INR 75.28 Cr during the year under review from INR 41.51 Cr in FY22. 

While the startup earned a majority of revenue from the sales of its products in India, it also managed to bolster its international play during the year under review. It earned over INR 10.77 Cr from trade outside India, almost double from the INR 5.57 Cr it earned in FY22. 

Including other income, total revenue grew 80% to INR 75.75 Cr in FY23 from INR 42.20 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Founded by Deep Bajaj and Mohit Bajaj in 2015, Sirona sells an array of female hygiene products such as herbal pain relief patches, period stain remover, oxo-biodegradable sanitary napkins and menstrual cups.

Content-to-commerce platform The Good Glamm Group first acquired a stake in the startup in December 2021 by investing INR 100 Cr. It increased its stake in Sirona to 50.58% by the end of FY23 from 41.15% at the start of the fiscal year.

However, earlier this year, the founders of Sirona, along with another startup acquired by The Good Glamm Group – The Moms Co, and the Indian Angel Network (IAN), reportedly filed default notices against the content-to-commerce platform. They claimed that The Good Glamm Group did not make the final payments due to them.

Despite the rise in its loss in FY23, Sirona acquired vegan condom brand Bleü in May 2023 to enter the sexual wellness category. 

Where Did Sirona Spend?

The startup’s total expenses zoomed over 86% to INR 108.85 Cr in FY23 from INR 58.50 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

Advertising Expenses: Advertising and promotional activities continued to be the focus of the D2C brand in FY23. Its ad expenses shot up 83% to INR 30.90 Cr during the fiscal from INR 16.85 Cr in FY22. 

Employee Expenses: The D2C startup managed to decrease its employee expenses by 13% to INR 9.82 Cr in FY23 from INR 11.29 Cr in the previous year.

Miscellaneous Expenses: The expenses under this head, which included bad debts written off, assets written off, contractual staff costs, saw a big increase. The startup spent INR 13.98 Cr on these expenses in FY23 as against INR 2.99 Cr in the previous year. Its provisions for doubtful debt jumped to INR 37.63 Lakh from INR 4.03 Lakh in the previous fiscal.

Purchase Of Stock In Trade: The expenses under this bracket shot up to INR 32.89 Cr for Sirona in the fiscal, an increase of 73% from INR 18.92 Cr it spent to make the purchases of finished goods required for conducting its business in FY22.

Sirona competes with the likes of Soothe, Paree, Sofy, and Evereve. As per estimates, the country’s feminine hygiene market is expected to reach $1.79 Bn by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 14.85% from 2024.

Meanwhile, Sirona’s parent The Good Glamm Group saw its net loss widen 153% to INR 917 Cr in FY23 from INR 362.5 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Operating revenue rose 185% to INR 603 Cr from INR 211.4 Cr in FY22. 

The post Sirona FY23: Net Loss Almost Doubles To INR 33.10 Cr, Revenue Up 81% YoY appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-based spacetech startup GalaxEye has raised $6.5 Mn (about INR 55 Cr) in its ongoing Series A funding round, led by venture capital firm Mela Ventures and existing investor Speciale Invest.

The round also saw participation from listed dronetech startup ideaForge, Rainmatter Capital, Navam Capital, Faad Capital, and Anicut Capital.

The startup said it plans to close the funding round by September this year but didn’t disclose the amount it is looking to raise. 

Founded in 2021 by Suyash Singh, Denil Chawda, Kishan Thakkar, Pranit Mehta, and Rakshit Bhatt, GalaxEye claims to be building the world’s first multi-sensor earth observation satellite. Besides, it also aims to have a constellation of indigenous micro-satellites with data fusion capabilities.

GalaxEye CEO Suyash Singh told Inc42 that the fresh capital will help the startup launch its first satellite, Drishti Mission, by mid-2025. 

Initially, the startup planned to launch its first satellite in the September quarter of 2023. Responding to a question on the delay, Singh said, “Satellite launch is a highly complex procedure and requires a whole set of mechanics to fire at the right time together. For us, we have been seeing complications at all sides of the launch like delays in vendors sending in components, in testing, among others. The funding will allow us to realise the launch soon enough.” 

Besides the launch, the startup also plans to use the funds to expand its team. 

Singh said that the experience of Mela Ventures’ managing partners Parthasarathy NS and Krishnakumar Natarajan, who previously founded listed IT company Mindtree, will help GalaxEye in its growth journey. 

Commenting on the investment, Natarajan said, “The MSI/SAR technology of GalaxEye can help defence, maritime, insurance and agriculture with real-time visibility and significantly reduce their response time. We look forward to being part of the journey and are excited to see the ‘Drishti Mission’ satellite reach space.” 

Earlier this month, Inc42 reported that ideaForge had picked up a minority stake in the IIT Madras-incubated GalaxEye for INR 8.28 Cr. The investment was part of the ongoing Series A round.

It is pertinent to note that ideaForge also inked an agreement with GalaxEye in September last year to jointly develop an unmanned aerial vehicle with Foliage Penetration Radar. Singh said that the product is now in the final stages of development and will be launched in the market soon. 

While GalaxEye’s primary focus is on building a viable business from its satellite launch, it is also looking at other industries and sectors that can benefit from its data-as-a-service solutions. 

Singh said that the startup is also keenly watching the government’s measures to promote public-private partnerships in the homegrown spacetech sector. 

Earlier this year, GalaxEye also signed an agreement with the Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) to build a multi sensor fusion processing system for miniature satellites that would be capable of carrying multiple payloads of up to 150 kg for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Prior to this funding round, GalaxEye raised $3.5 Mn in its seed funding round in 2022. It is among a number of homegrown spacetech startups like Agnikul Cosmos, Dhruva, Pixxel that have emerged over the last few years. These startups are eyeing a pie of the country’s burgeoning spacetech market, which is expected to become an over $77 Bn opportunity by 2030.

The post GalaxEye Bags $6.5 Mn From Mela Ventures, Others To Launch Its First Satellite appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Artificial intelligence (AI) startup Cogniquest has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from fintech-focussed venture capital firm Cedar-IBSi Capital and angel investors. 

The round saw participation from more than 25 Indian angel investors, including QuantGro cofounder Dhiraj Sinha, ex-Infosys executives Umashankar Malapaka and Visveswara Gupta, former Accenture India managing director Rajesh Bhat, Anup Naik and Santosh Rao of Zeliot, ReadyAssist’s Vimal Singh, Srinivas Majji, among others, Cedar-IBSi said in a statement. 

Founded in 2022 by Satish Grampurohit and Girish Kerodi, Cogniquest claims to have built a context-aware AI platform that can capture key data points and generate actionable insights from documents and information repositories. 

It claims to offer 200X faster document processing and caters to names such as IT giants Infosys and Tech Mahindra so far. 

Cogniquest cofounder and chief business officer (CBO) Kerodi told Inc42 that the fresh capital will be deployed to further scale up technology development, expand use cases, and “build a strong team”.

He added that the investment from Cedar-IBSi will help it leverage the VC firm’s expertise to build “deep-domain vertical” solutions catering to finance and banking sectors. 

However, Kerodi didn’t disclose the funding amount and the post-money valuation of the startup.

Commenting on the fundraise, Cogniquest cofounder and CEO Grampurohit said, “Securing seed funding from Cedar-IBSi Capital and esteemed angel investors marks a significant milestone in our journey… Fuelled by enthusiastic responses from clients and partners, we are excited about the opportunity to build a globally renowned enterprise tech SaaS platform from India”.

The investment comes within months of Cedar-IBSI marking the first close of its INR 240 Cr fintech fund in March this year by raising capital in the range of INR 50 to 75 Cr. It plans to invest INR 10-15 Cr each in 15 early stage fintech startups in B2B fintech and banktech space

“… We are excited to partner with Cogniquest, which is building a disruptive AI- enabled platform to extract relevant, refined, classified and validated data from complex and unstructured documents. All of this is guided by the able leadership of Satish, Girish and their diverse team,” Cedar-IBSi associate partner Subit Saurav said.

The development comes at a time when AI mania has gripped the Indian startup ecosystem. From customer service to fintech, the emerging technology has found use cases across the board, resulting in renewed investor interest.

Last month, Inc42 reported that GenAI startup Gnani.ai raised $4 Mn as part of a Series A round from Info Edge. Prior to that, IIFL Fintech Fund invested an undisclosed amount of funding to pick up a 10% stake in Gen AI startup Vitra.ai.

Last month, AI sales development platform Pintel.ai also bagged $1 Mn as part of its seed funding round led by IvyCap Ventures.

The post Cogniquest Bags Funding To Help Enterprises Generate Insights From Complex Documents appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In a development that will have a direct bearing on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has said that C-Edge, a technology service provider for banks, has potentially been hit by ransomware attack. 

“It has been brought to NPCI’s notice that C-Edge Technologies Ltd, a technology service provider who caters mostly to cooperative and regional rural banks, has been possibly impacted by a ransomware attack impacting a few of their systems,” the NPCI said in a statement on Wednesday (July 31).

A ransomware attack involves a malware software that encrypts files and denies access to the actual user. Generally, in such cases, cyberattackers demand a ransom from the victims in return for a decryption key to enable the latter to gain access to their servers and files. 

The payments body also said that it has temporarily isolated C-Edge Technologies from accessing the NPCI’s retail payment systems to prevent “larger impact” on the payments ecosystem. 

It also said that the customers of the banks (primarily cooperative and rural banks) serviced by C-Edge will not be able to make UPI payments during the unspecified “period of isolation”.

“Restoration work is underway on a war-footing along with C-Edge Technologies and necessary security review is in process. Connectivity to the affected banks shall be restored at the earliest,” added the NPCI.

While there was no clarity on which banks were impacted, C-Edge’s website mentions Meghalaya Cooperative Apex Bank and Maharashtra Gramin Bank as its new clients. 

For the uninitiated, C-Edge Technologies is a joint venture (JV) between Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and State bank of India (SBI). It offers SaaS and technology solutions to financial services companies. 

The development comes at a time when ransomware attacks are on the rise against Indian companies and government organisations. As per a report, nearly 64% of surveyed Indian organisations faced such attacks in 2023, with average ransomware demands hovering around $4.8 Mn. The report also noted that the median ransom paid was around $2 Mn.

A separate Kaspersky reported that 2.35 Lakh ransomware incidents hit businesses in India in 2023.

In 2022, All India Institute of Medical Services (AIIMS) Delhi too was hit by a major ransomware attack which saw hackers reportedly demanding INR 200 Cr in cryptocurrencies to provide the decryption key.

The likes of IndusInd Bank, Taj Hotels and RailYatri have also suffered data breaches or major cyber attacks in the recent past.

The post UPI Services Impacted As Ransomware Attack Hits A Tech Service Provider For Banks appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed alternate methods of additional factor of authentication (AFA) for digital transactions, including PIN, passwords, cards, and biometrics such as fingerprints, among others.

The central bank’s draft “Framework on Alternative Authentication Mechanisms for Digital Payment Transactions” released on Wednesday (July 31) aims to widen the choice of authentication factors available to payment system operators and users. 

“Over the years, the Reserve Bank of India has prioritised security of digital payments, in particular the requirement of Additional Factor of Authentication (AFA) for making payments. No specific factor was mandated for authentication, but the digital payments ecosystem has primarily adopted SMS-based OTP as AFA. While OTP is working satisfactorily, technological advancements have made available alternative authentication mechanisms,” said the RBI.

An AFA requires the use of more than one factor for authentication of a payment instruction.

The release of the draft framework is in line with the central bank’s announcement in February to adopt a principle-based “Framework for authentication of digital payment transactions” for digital security.

The central bank terms any credential input by the customer that is verified for the purpose of confirming the originator of a payment instruction as the factor of authentication. These factors are broadly categorised as something the user knows (such as password, passphrase, PIN), something the user has (such as card hardware or software token), and something the user is (such as fingerprint or any other form of biometrics).

The central bank has proposed that all digital payment transactions, other than card present transactions, ensure that one of the factors of authentication is created dynamically. This means that the factor should be generated after initiation of payment, be specific to the transaction, and cannot be reused.

It said that the issuers –  bank or non-bank where the customer’s account is maintained – can decide the appropriate AFA for a transaction based on the risk profile of the customer and/ or beneficiary, transaction value, channel of origination, among others.

The following transactions will be exempted from customer authentication: 

• Small value card present transactions for values up to INR 5,000 per transaction in contactless mode at point-of-sale (PoS) terminals. 
• Transactions in respect of subscription to mutual funds, payment of insurance premiums, and credit card bill payments up to certain values 
• Digital toll payments
• Offline payment transactions up to a value of INR 500

The RBI has sought comments and feedback on the draft framework by September 15, 2024.

“All Payment System Providers and Payment System Participants (banks and non-banks) shall ensure compliance with this framework within three months from the date of issue of these directions,” the central bank said.

The development comes at a time when the number of digital transactions as well as digital frauds are on the rise in the country. A recent report by Amazon Pay said that Indian merchants process 69% of their transactions via digital payments. Meanwhile, the central bank said in its annual report that the number of online frauds in the country surged 334% year-on-year to 29,082 in FY24.

Earlier today, the RBI also proposed tighter norms for Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS) touchpoint operators to curb frauds.

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IPO-bound Unicommerce’s net profit more than doubled to INR 13.1 Cr in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) from INR 6.5 Cr reported in the previous year.

The startup, backed by AceVector (formerly Snapdeal), saw its revenue from contracts with customers or operating revenue rise 15% to INR 103.58 Cr in the reported fiscal as against INR 90.06 Cr in FY23.

In that, revenue from contracts with customers outside India increased over 54% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 3.8 Cr.

Total income stood at INR 109.4 Cr in FY24 as against around INR 93 Cr in the previous fiscal.

Unicommerce said in its red herring prospectus (RHP) that the growth of revenue from contracts with customers and annual recurring revenue (ARR) was possible as its revenue model is based on a transaction fee and a monthly minimum commitment for enterprise clients. 

“Our pricing and billing model allows us to earn revenue on incremental transactions processed by our clients, allowing us to grow revenues as volumes on our platform increase,” the startup said.

However, it is also pertinent to note that its ARR witnessed a marginal decline of 0.8% YoY in FY24 to INR 106 Cr.

Founded in 2012, Unicommerce is an ecommerce SaaS startup that enables end-to-end management of ecommerce operations for brands, sellers and logistics service provider firms. It was acquired by Snapdeal in 2015, but the latter sold 30% of its stake in Unicommerce to SoftBank later.

The startup said that for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, it had an annual run-rate of processing 791.63 Mn order items for 795 enterprise clients and 2,707 SMB clients.

Unicommerce’s RHP said that it was the largest ecommerce enablement SaaS platform in transaction processing in terms of revenue in FY21, FY22, and FY23, while also being the only profitable entity in this segment among the top five players. Increff, Vinculum, Browntape, and Easyecom are among the other players in the top five.

Zooming Into Expenses

Unicommerce’s total expenses rose over 9% to INR 91.9 Cr in FY24 from INR 84.1 Cr in the previous fiscal year, with employee benefit expenses continuing to account for the largest portion. 

Employee Cost: The startup’s employee benefit expenses increased 4.7% to INR 64.9 Cr during the year under review from INR 62 Cr in FY23. 

It accounted for 70.64% of the company’s total expenses in FY24, a decline from 73.74% in FY23.

Unicommerce spent INR 57.4 Cr towards salaries, wages and bonuses, while INR 3.7 Cr was spent on share-based payment expenses in FY23.

Server Hosting Expense: Unicommerce’s spending under this head saw a marginal increase of 0.2% YoY to INR 5.41 Cr in FY24.

While the increase in this expense was low in FY24, Unicommerce saw a significant 65.84% YoY increase in server hosting expense in FY23. The startup said that this rise was primarily due to an increase in the use of its platform and in items processed during this period.

Advertisement and Publicity Expense: Unicommerce’s ad expenses witnessed a 3.4% YoY decline to INR 3.8 Cr during the year under review. 

Legal and Professional Charges: The company spent INR 3.9 Cr in this bucket in FY24 as against INR 93 Lakh in the previous fiscal.

The public issue of Unicommerce comprises only an offer-for-sale (OFS) component of 2.56 Cr equity shares. Its IPO will open for subscription on August 6 and close on August 8. 

Besides Unicommerce, the IPOs of Ola Electric and FirstCry will also open this month. A number of new-age tech startups have gone public in the first seven months of 2024, and this number is expected to increase further amid the IPO boom.

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is pulling out all stops to combat the rising incidents of frauds and has now proposed tighter norms related to the onboarding process of Aadhaar-enabled touchpoint operators. 

The central bank has streamlined the guidelines and released a draft version of it.

As part of the move, banks are mandated to carry out due diligence on all Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS) touchpoint operators that are being onboarded by them. 

This due diligence is as per the customer due diligence procedure laid out in RBI’s master directions on KYC since 2016.

Besides this, the banks will also carry out an update of KYC in cases where the AePS touchpoint operator failed to perform any financial transactions in the six months at length. 

Not to mention, the acquiring bank has to monitor all activities of AePS touchpoint operators regularly besides setting operational parameters. Notably, respective transaction limits will also be set for AePS touchpoint operators in accordance with their risk profiles. 

It is pertinent to note that the draft guidelines are open to comments and feedback from industry participants till August 31.

This development follows RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das’s statement last month outlining that the regulator would enhance the robustness of AePS. 

AePS is a bank-led model which allows online interoperable financial inclusion transactions at PoS (MicroATM) through the Business correspondent of any bank using the Aadhaar authentication. 

AePS enables different types of transactions including cash deposit and withdrawal, balance enquiry and mini statement, Aadhaar to Aadhaar fund transfer, eKYC, tokenization and aadhaar seeding status, among others. 

Notably, inputs like bank name, aadhaar number and biometrics captured during enrolment are the only inputs required to make a transaction under AePS.

Signzy’s cofounder and CEO Ankit Ratan said, “This initiative aims to bolster customer trust and ensure the safety of transactions, particularly in rural areas where digital literacy may be lower.”

“By implementing ongoing due diligence and monitoring, along with tailored transaction limits based on risk profiles, the RBI is proactively addressing potential fraud risks. Additionally, the RBI has emphasized the importance of robust cybersecurity measures and effective management of third-party risks, urging banks to combat digital fraud and raise customer awareness.”

Earlier, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its annual report for the fiscal year ended March 2024 outlined that the number of online frauds in the country surged 334% year-on-year (YoY) to 29,082 in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) as against 6,699 in FY23.

This comes at the heart of RBI as well as the government taking proactive steps to crack the whip on online frauds. In April, the Centre held deliberations with fintech startups and law enforcement agencies to collaborate and address challenges related to digital financial fraud.

In the same month, it was reported that the Ministry of Home Affairs was working with SBI and some telcos to develop a solution to alert about stolen one-time passwords (OTP) to combat phishing attacks.

In February, markets regulator SEBI also issued an advisory that alerted investors against practices employed by fraudulent trading platforms to lure customers such as online courses, seminars and mentorship programmes.

Additionally, the RBI was also said to be planning to set up the Digital India Trust Agency to check illegal lending apps, earlier this year.

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Fino Payments Bank posted a profit after tax (PAT) of INR 24.27 Cr for the quarter ended June 30, 2024 (Q1 FY25), up 29.7% from INR 18.7 Cr in the year-ago period.

However, the payments bank’s PAT declined 3.7% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) in Q1 FY25 from INR 25.21 Cr in Q4 FY25.

Revenue from operations jumped 25.4% to INR 436.86 Cr during the quarter under review from INR 348.31 Cr in Q1 FY24. On a QoQ basis, operating revenue was up 8.8%.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 31.4% to INR 53.2 Cr from INR 40.5 Cr in Q1 FY24. However, it contracted 1.8% QoQ from INR 54.2 Cr in Q4 FY24.

The company said it opened more than 68,000 digital accounts in the reported quarter and facilitated 57 Cr UPI transactions.

The current account savings account (CASA) segment contributed INR 93.6 Cr to Fino’s net income in Q1 FY25.

Meanwhile, the payments bank earned INR 66.8 Cr from its digital payment services vertical during the period under review.

The domestic money transfer (DMT) segment turned out to be the biggest money maker for the payments bank, adding INR 112.5 Cr to its top line.

During the June quarter of FY25, Fino Payments Bank saw its merchant network rise 25% YoY to 18.1 Lakh. Meanwhile, average deposits surged 37% YoY to INR 1,699 Cr in Q1 FY25.

Ahead of the earnings announcement, shares of Fino Payments Bank closed 1.3% higher at INR 321.6 apiece on the BSE on Wednesday (July 31). 

Commenting on the Q1 results, Rishi Gupta, CEO and managing director of Fino Payments Bank, said, “Our new vertical ‘digital payment services’ is growing on a profitable basis and giving the necessary impetus to our TAM (transaction, acquisition and monetisation) strategy..”

Going forward, the payments bank will focus on moving up the customer value chain, diversification and innovation, Gupta added.

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Ola Electric CEO Bhavish Aggarwal has called geotech company MapmyIndia’s move to send a legal notice to the IPO-bound electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer opportunistic.

Addressing media questions at a pre-IPO press conference, Aggarwal said, “We think it is very opportunistic of them given that Ola Electric is not even in the map business. We as a group have three different entities, Ola Cabs, Ola Electric, and Krutim. There are opportunistic players across the board and we will definitely respond to them at the right time.” 

On July 29, MapmyIndia’s parent entity CE Info Systems accused Ola Electric of illicitly copying its data to build its recently launched Ola Maps interface. The company sent a legal notice to Ola Electric for co-mingling and reverse engineering its licensed product.

Ola Electric then called the allegations “false, malicious and misleading”. “We would like to state unequivocally that these allegations are false, malicious and misleading. Ola Electric stands by the integrity of its business practices. We will suitably respond to the notice shortly,” a company spokesperson said. 

It is pertinent to note that the two warring companies inked an agreement in June 2021, which gave Ola Electric the licence to use MapmyIndia’s data . 

Ola Electric’s Attractive IPO Pricing

Meanwhile, Ola Electric is set to make its public market debut. The company’s IPO will open on August 2 and close on August 6. The EV maker has set a price band of INR 72-76 per equity share for the public offer via which it is aiming to raise over INR 6,145.6 Cr at the upper end of the price band.

On the pricing of the public offer, Aggarwal said that the company has a very big opportunity to grow and it wanted to keep the pricing attractive. 

“Ola Electric is essentially an India story and we wanted the Indian investor community to be part of the story. We want their partnership, we want their support, and we also want them to also create wealth for themselves… We wanted to price it so that the investor community feels excited about it,” he said. 

However, the company is looking for a listing at a time when its losses are widening. For the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), Ola Electric’s net loss widened 7.6% to INR 1,584.4 Cr from INR 1,472.1 Cr in the previous year.

While its topline surged over 90% to INR 5,009.8 Cr in the fiscal, its total expenses also shot up over 60% to INR 6,277.4 Cr from INR 3,883.4 Cr in the previous year.

A majority of its burn is attributed to the jump of over 75% in the cost of materials consumed, which stood at INR 4,390.9 Cr during the year under review from INR 2,504.8 Cr in FY23.

Ola Electric’s Dependency On China

As per the RHP, Ola Electric’s imported supplies accounted for 37.03% (a majority of it from China) of the cost of materials consumed in FY24 as against 31.11% in FY23. Meanwhile, domestic supplies comprised 62.97% of the cost of materials consumed in FY24 as compared to 68.89% the previous year.

Addressing a question on the dependence on China, Aggarwal said he anticipates the dependence on China to reduce in the long term. Breaking the process of building electric batteries into three parts, he said that the majority of the company’s dependence on China is for processing raw materials to build cell components (midstream process). 

He said that the company is currently looking to bring the process of assembly of the battery cells, the “Level I” of battery manufacturing, in India via its Gigafactory. Post that, he said that the company plans to bring the midstream process to the home soil as well. 

Aggarwal also lauded the government’s decision to quash custom duties on the import of key minerals required for EV battery manufacturing. He said that the move will benefit the company’s push to Indianise battery production.

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The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has reportedly postponed its decision on approving the INR 158 Cr settlement between BYJU’S and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after the embattled edtech startup’s US-based lenders raised allegations, questioning the source of the capital.

As per Moneycontrol’s report, the lenders requested the tribunal not to accept the settlement, calling it a “tainted settlement”. They also alleged that the settlement amount is from “stolen money”.

As a result, NCLAT has asked the founder Byju Raveendran to ensure that the source of the money was not tainted and that no court orders were violated in obtaining the capital.

The development follows the report of BYJU’S reportedly transferring INR 50 Cr to the BCCI as part of the first tranche of payments to settle the ongoing insolvency dispute. 

This 50 Cr settlement was reportedly made via Byju Raveendran’s brother Riju Raveendran and the remaining INR 83 Cr lot was scheduled to be paid by August 8, the reports added. 

Citing the findings of a US court, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi who represents the US lenders added that both Byju and Riju conspired to siphon off over INR 500 Cr. 

As per Bar and Bench’s report, Rohatgi said that this settlement money belonged to the US lenders. “And now the debtor is offering to pay off the dues of 158 crores. It is our money that has been withdrawn by these fellows.” 

Meanwhile, senior advocate Harish Salve who represents the BCCI also assured that the cricket control authority would never accept any tainted money.

Alongside this, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, who is also representing BCCI, pointed out that the creditor’s concerns were based on assumptions.

“They (creditors) have argued before me that don’t believe Riju Raveendran. Then they showed me the US order of prohibitory injunction on the use of that 533 million,” NCLAT was quoted as saying in the report.

Seeking relief on the development, Byju Raveendran’s counsel replied that some assurance should be given to ensure that the insolvency process against BYJU’S does not come in the way of the proposed settlement.

It is pertinent to note that earlier this month NCLT admitted the BCCI’s plea to initiate the corporate insolvency resolution process against BYJU’S for not paying the dues to the tune of INR 158.9 Cr to the cricket body for a sponsorship deal.

Following this, Raveendran took the matter to the Karnataka High Court to suspend the NCLT order. However, the HC headed by a single bench of Justice S R Krishna Kumar disposed of Raveendran’s plea. 

This comes at the heart of multiple other entities, including BYJU’S US-based Term Loan B lenders, also filing insolvency petitions against the beleaguered company in the past.

BYJU’S, once the poster child of the Indian startup ecosystem, is battling multiple issues, including mass layoffs, a severe cash crunch, delay in filing financial statements, a slew of legal cases and mounting regulatory scrutiny. Making matters worse is a public spat with investors even as losses continue to mount for the company.

BYJU’S net loss surged 81% year-on-year YoY to INR 8,245.2 Cr in FY22.

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Market intelligence platform Tracxn Technologies posted a profit after tax (PAT) of INR 1.27 Cr in the June quarter (Q1) of the financial year 2024-25 (FY25), a 84.6% jump from INR 68.93 Lakh in the year-ago quarter.

However, on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis, Tracxn reported a 10.5% decline in its PAT from INR 1.42 Cr in Q4 FY24.

Revenue from operations stood at INR 20.53 Cr in Q1 FY25, up 3.6% from INR 19.82 Cr in the corresponding quarter previous year. On a QoQ basis, operating revenue rose 1%.

The startup said that 39% of its revenue came from India, while 61% came from the international market.

Tracxn’s total expenses stood at INR 20.27 Cr during the quarter under review, up 2.1% from INR 19.84 Cr in the year-ago period.

Employee costs emerged as the biggest expense for Tracxn during the quarter review. The company spent INR 17.67 Cr towards employee benefit expense in Q1 FY25 as against 17.37 Cr in Q1 FY24.

Founded by Abhishek Goyal and Neha Singh in 2013, Tracxn is a market research and data platform that tracks company financials and captables of entities worldwide. 

It caters to a wide range of clients including private market investors such as venture capital and private equity firms and investment banks as well as corporates, government agencies, government banks, academic institutions, and startup accelerators.

Currently, Tracxn covers private company financials across more than 20 countries and cap tables across more than 15 countries.

In the quarter ended June 30, 2024, Tracxn added 101 new customers. With this, Tracxn’s customer base rose to 1,413 in Q1 FY25 from 1,312 in Q4 FY24.

 The company said it has been investing across various growth initiatives that are expected to fuel new customer acquisition as well as customer expansion. It said it has been seeing a high volume of inbound leads from startups and has set up a dedicated team to focus on acquisition and expansion of customers in this segment.

Additionally, Tracxn has set up a specialised sales team for private equity as well as doubled down the data production specifically for the PE customer segment.

Ahead of the earnings announcement, shares of Tracxn ended Wednesday’s (July 31) trading session 3% lower at INR 94.44 apiece on the BSE.

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Electronic waste and battery recycling startup Attero has marked its foray into the direct to consumer (D2C) space with the roll out of an integrated e-waste consumer take-back platform called Selsmart.

With this platform, the company aims to transform the e-waste recycling landscape and combat India’s growing e-waste crisis, which is projected to reach 14 Mn tonnes by 2030, it said in a statement.

Selsmart will enable consumers to schedule doorstep pickups of used electronic gadgets and appliances, and receive fair market equivalent prices in return.

The company also said that this platform will provide full data security with top-of-the-line data wiping, degaussing and physical destruction processes. Besides, Selsmart will facilitate disposal of e-waste through Attero’s recycling processes.

Founded in 2008 by Nitin Gupta and Rohan Gupta, Attero offers recycling of the electrical and electronic devices. As one of the leading e-waste recyclers, the company claims to process 144,000 metric tonnes of e-waste annually at its Roorkee plant and plans to expand it to 415,000 metric tonnes in next five years.

The company counts Kalaari Capital, Granite Hill Capital, IFC and Forum Synergies among its investors.

Nitin Gupta, cofounder and chief executive said, “Selsmart addresses the significant gap in household electronics disposal. We are aiming to establish Selsmart as India’s largest consumer take-back platform and are forging partnerships with leading brands and OEMs to incorporate circularity & sustainability into their business models.”

This development comes on the back of the boom in India’s D2C market, which is likely to reach a size of $100 Bn by 2025. The growth is contributed by the pandemic, higher internet penetration, growth of digital infrastructure and cost of living that have shored up the D2C brands.

Most manufacturing and electric vehicle companies depend highly on lithium-ion batteries for their production.

Banking on the rise of battery usage, Gupta claimed that the company is cash flow positive and growing exponentially, in September 2023. Attero claims to have clocked revenues to the tune of INR 300 Cr in FY23.

With the new label introduced in the market, the Noida-based company now looks to achieve an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of INR 100 Cr, by collecting 14,000 metric tonnes of e-waste. By the third year, Attero is forecasting to make INR 1,000 Cr in annual recurring revenue, with 140,000 metric tonnes of e-waste collected.

Startup nurturing platform India Accelerator has floated a new vertical to back businesses operating in the cleantech sector, by writing a cheque of INR 1.5 Cr to each startup via its Finvolve Accelerator Fund. Besides, it will also allocate INR 4.1 Cr to each startup through the Finvolve Seed Fund to support growing startups looking for expansion.

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As entrepreneurs in India continue to make their mark in the startup ecosystem, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has cautioned against a conspiracy to end the country’s entrepreneurship culture even before it fully blooms.

“Hardworking entrepreneurs are building this country. The conspiracy is to end India’s entrepreneurship culture even before it fully blooms, thereby hitting at India’s core backbone, which is India’s entrepreneurship of small and medium units and enterprises that are building India,” the minister said.

While addressing to the general discussion on the FY25 Budget in the Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said that entrepreneurship itself was being made a villain as a part of this conspiracy. 

Without disclosing any name, the finance minister said that some forces are working behind to show India’s instability on the strategic, political and economic fronts. 

On the investment front, Sitharaman said that there is a conspiracy to send a message that India is not safe for foreign investors and that Indian institutions cannot guarantee security to foreign investments.

“There is a conspiracy to send a message to the entire world that India is not safe for investors. This is not good. Rumours are being spread that Indian institutions cannot guarantee security to foreign investments, which is really a sad situation,” she said. 

This development comes against the backdrop of the finance minister making a flurry of announcements during her Union Budget 2024-25 speech for the startup ecosystem. 

These announcements include the abolition of angel tax, reduction of the tax deducted at source (TDS) for ecommerce platforms to 0.1% from 1% earlier, and an additional cut in basic customs duty (BCD) rates on several mobile phone parts, among others. 

Additionally, Sitharaman also announced a 1000 Cr VC fund for the spacetech sector and a credit guarantee scheme for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the manufacturing sector. 

Contrary to these supportive announcements, the centre slashed the budget allocation for incentivising digital payments in the fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25) by over 42% to INR 1,441 Cr.

It is pertinent to note that the government on July 29 informed the Parliament that the over 1.4 Lakh startups registered with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) have created over 15.5 Lakh direct jobs in the country. 

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Snapdeal-backed SaaS startup Unicommerce has filed a red herring prospectus (RHP) with the markets regulator Securities Exchange of India (SEBI) for its initial public offering.

Unicommerce’s IPO will open for subscription on August 6 and close on August 8. The bidding for anchor investors will open for a day on August 5, according to the RHP.

Unicommerce’s IPO has no fresh issue component to the IPO. Instead, it solely comprises an offer-for-sale (OFS) component with 2.56 Cr equity shares.  

Under the OFS, AceVector Ltd (formerly Snapdeal) and SoftBank will be selling up to 94.38 Lakh equity shares and up to 1.61 Cr equity shares.

Meanwhile, Snapdeal cofounders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, who hold a joint stake in Unicommerce via their VC firm B2 Capital Partners, have withdrawn from the OFS. Earlier, they planned to offload 22 Lakh equity shares.

AceVector is the largest shareholder in Unicommerce with a 38.18% stake. Meanwhile, SoftBank holds a 29.23% stake in Unicommerce via its UK-based entity SB Investments Holdings (UK). 

It is pertinent to note that Unicommerce filed a draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI in January. It earlier planned to sell up to 2.98 Cr shares via its IPO.

Founded in 2012, Unicommerce is an ecommerce SaaS startup that helps businesses manage inventory across all online marketplaces. It was acquired by Snapdeal in 2015 but the latter sold 30% of its stake in Unicommerce to SoftBank.

Unicommerce posted a net profit of INR 6.3 Cr in the first half (H1) of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24). Revenue from operations stood at INR 51 Cr during the period under review.

In FY23, the startup’s net profit rose 8% to INR 6.4 Cr from INR 6 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Revenue from operations jumped 52% to INR 90 Cr from INR 59 Cr in FY22.

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BrainBees Solutions Ltd, which operates omnichannel kidswear brand FirstCry, has filed its red herring prospectus (RHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

As per RHP, the company’s initial public offering (IPO) will open on August 6 and close on August 8. The price band for the IPO will be announced on August 1.

The Pune-based company has reduced the size of its fresh issue by around 8% to INR 1,666 Cr from INR 1,816 Cr.

FirstCry is offering equity shares with a face value of INR 2 each, totaling up to INR 1,666 Cr, while the offer for sale (OFS) component comprises shareholders selling 5.4 Cr equity shares.

According to its RHP, FirstCry will use the net proceeds from the IPO for several key expenditures. The company plans to spend INR 108.1 Cr on setting up new modern stores under the ‘BabyHug’ brand (INR 93.9 Cr) and establishing a warehouse in India (INR 14.2 Cr).

Additionally, INR 93.1 Cr will be allocated for lease payments for existing identified modern stores owned and operated by the company in India.

Investment in the subsidiary Digital Age will total INR 299.6 Cr, with INR 169 Cr dedicated to setting up new modern stores under the FirstCry brand and other home brands, and INR 130.6 Cr for lease payments for existing identified modern stores owned and controlled by Digital Age in India.

For overseas expansion, FirstCry will invest INR 155.6 Cr in the subsidiary FirstCry Trading, which includes INR 72.6 Cr for setting up new modern stores and INR 83 Cr for establishing warehouses in KSA.

Furthermore, INR 169 Cr will be invested in the subsidiary GlobalBees Brands for acquiring an additional stake in step-down subsidiaries. The company will also allocate INR 200 Cr towards sales and marketing initiatives and INR 57.6 Cr for technology and data science costs, including cloud and server hosting-related expenses.

Lastly, funding for inorganic growth through acquisition is also planned, although a specific amount is not mentioned.

FirstCry’s initial offer size was INR 1,816 Cr, as per its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP). The Supam Maheshwari-led ecommerce unicorn first filed its DRHP in December.

Later, it refiled its DRHP after markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) claimed that the Supam Maheshwari-led startup failed to disclose certain key indicators in its draft papers filed last December.

The company reported a revenue of INR 6,481 Cr in FY24, up 15% from INR 5,633 Cr in FY23, as per filings. It narrowed its losses to INR 321 Cr in FY24, down 34% from INR 486 Cr in FY23.

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Low code and no code platform Nected has secured $1.5 Mn (INR 12.4 Cr) in a seed funding round led by Binny Bansal’s fund Three State Ventures.

The round also saw participation from  Endurance Capital, Relentless VC, Climber Capital, Lykke Capital and Forward Slash Capital.

The startup plans to deploy the fresh proceeds to boost product usability, simplify integration with various technologies and scale operations to meet growing international demand. 

It also aims to invest in research and development to integrate AI-powered features into its existing building blocks.

Founded in 2022 by Prabhat Gupta and Mukul Bhati, Nected offers pre-built tech components such as rule engines, workflow automation and A/B testing tools. 

The platform aims to help businesses overcome inefficiencies and delays associated with traditional software development.

Bhati said, “We envision a future where technology is a catalyst for growth and innovation, not a bottleneck and for this Nected.ai is dedicated to creating a seamless development experience.”

The platform claims that currently it is being used by over 20 customers across five countries, including Tata 1mg. 

In India, the low-code/no-code market is currently valued at approximately $400 Mn and is expected to grow to $4 Bn by 2025. Nected competes with global players such as Instapage, Unbounce, and Leadpages in the larger AI-powered martech space. 

Other notable players in the Indian low-code/no-code space include Zvolv who recently raised $2 Mn in a round led by Silverneedle Ventures, to offer no-code automation solutions to enterprises.

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SaaS cybersecurity startup TAC Infosec has secured approval from its board for the formulation, adoption and implementation of a new employee stock option plan (TAC ESOP 2024).

However, the startup did not disclose the amount of stock options that will be granted under the scheme. 

In an exchange filing on Wednesday (July 31), TAC Infosec said it will now conduct a postal ballot to seek shareholders’ nod for the implementation of ESOP 2024.

“At TAC Security, it’s best time to reward team members working for company’s vision for many years, our employees are our greatest asset .. we are confident that this initiative will drive innovation and excellence, ensuring TAC Security remains at the forefront of the cybersecurity industry,” said Trishneet Arora, founder, chairman and CEO of TAC Infosec.

Shares of TAC Infosec were trading at INR 522 at 1.15 PM on the NSE today, up 1.56% from the previous close. 

Alongside this development, the startup also announced that it has added over 500 new clients from 50 countries in Q1 FY25. 

Autodesk, Salesforce, Zoominfo, Dropbox, Blackberry, Xerox, Brady Corporation, FAO of United Nations, FUJIFILM, CASIO, Nissan Motors, Juspay, One Card, Zepto, and MPL Gaming were among the new clients that were added.

Besides this, the company also aims to increase its global headcount going ahead with acquiring 10,000 customers globally. 

It is pertinent to note that TAC Infosec made its stock market debut on April 5, listing at INR 290 which is a premium of 173.6% on its issue price of INR 106 on NSE.

The IPO constituted a fresh issue component of 28.29 Lakh equity shares and its price band was set in the range of INR 100-106 per share. 

Founded in 2016 by Trishneet Arora, the startup offers risk-based vulnerability management and assessment solutions, and other SaaS cybersecurity solutions to enterprises and small businesses. 

On the financial front, TAC Infosec posted a net profit of  INR 6.33 Cr in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), a 23% jump from INR 5.12 Cr in FY23. For the same period, its operating revenue zoomed 17% to INR 11.84 Cr from INR 10.09 Cr in FY23.

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Content-to-commerce platform The Good Glamm Group has seen its net loss inch closer to INR 1,000 Cr mark in the financial year ending on March 31, 2023 (FY23). 

Almost after a 15 months delay, the startup’s financial document with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs revealed that it incurred a net loss of INR 917 Cr in FY23, a 153% higher than INR 362.5 Cr it incurred in FY22. 

While the loss increased, the startup’s revenue increased by 2.8X in the financial year under review. In FY23, the startup’s operating revenue rose to INR 603 Cr, 185% higher than INR 211.4 Cr. 

The startup’s primary source of revenue was selling beauty products, as it accounted for almost 93% of its operating revenue. In FY23, the startup earned INR 560.2 Cr from sale of products, while the remaining INR 40.6 Cr came from the services it offered. 

Good Glamm under its umbrella brand owns or has partnerships with D2C brands, including Sirona, The Moms Co, Organica Harvest, and St. Botanica and Wyn Beauty, among others. 

Including other income, the startup’s total revenue rose to INR 638.5 Cr, a 176% higher than INR 231.22 Cr in FY22. 

Where Did Good Glamm Group Spend?

The primary reason behind the startup’s increase in loss is its stupendous increase in expense. In FY23, the startup’s total expenditure rose to INR 1,559 Cr, 170% higher than INR 577.7 Cr it spent the previous year. 

• Marketing & Sales Promotion Cost: The startup’s contributor in its growing expense was its increase in marketing and sales promotion cost. This shot up by 254% to INR 466.2 Cr from INR 131.8 Cr it spent last year. 
• Procurement Cost: Being an ecommerce platform, the procurement cost rose to INR 269.4 Cr, a 276% increase from INR 97.8 Cr in FY22. 
• Employee Cost: The startup’s employee cost rose to INR 420 Cr, 105% higher than INR 204.9 Cr it spent in the previous fiscal year.

Darpan Sanghvi founded D2C brand MyGlamm in 2017, Priyanka Gill founded digital media platform POPxo in 2013, and Naiyya Saggi founded online parenting startup BabyChakra in 2015. The three brands came together and rebranded as The Good Glamm Group in September 2021. 

Since then, The Good Glamm Group has acquired almost a dozen brands, including ScoopWhoop, Organic Harvest, and Sirona. 

Currently, The Good Glamm Group has four verticals – The Good Brands Co, which has a portfolio of D2C beauty and personal care brands, digital content platform The Good Media Co; tech-enabled influencer platform The Good Creator Co; and Good Community, an omni-channel network of consumers and experts focusing on beauty, parenting, sexual and intimate health. 

To date, the startup has raised $270 Mn in funding and counts the likes of Prosus Ventures, Warburg Pincus, L’Occitane, Bessemer Ventures and Amazon among its investors.

Earlier this year, the startup raised $30 Mn at a flat valuation from its existing investors and laid off around 150 employees or 15% of its workforce  in a restructuring exercise undertaken with an aim to turn profitable in FY25.

A part of the restructuring exercise also resulted in adding several new names to the C-suite. Besides appointing Kamal Lath as the Group CFO, the company saw Manan Jain take charge as Group COO, Kartik Rao as Group CPO, Avalok Langer as new Group CCO, among others. 

At the end of April, content-to-commerce unicorn’s CEO of D2C vertical The Good Brands Co, Sukhleen Aneja, departed from the startup. Earlier, Priyanka Gill moved away from day-to-day operations at The Good Glamm Group to join Kalaari Capital as a venture partner.

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Nasdaq-listed Indian SaaS major Freshworks’ consolidated net loss narrowed 43.5% year-on-year to $20.1 Mn in the second quarter of 2024.

The Chennai-based firm posted a loss of $35.6 Mn in the corresponding quarter of previous year.

Total revenue jumped 20% to $174.1 Mn in the second quarter ended June 30, 2024 on the back of improved sales and growing customer demand for AI-enabled solutions.

Commenting on the Q2 results, Dennis Woodside, CEO and president of Freshworks, said, “Freshworks delivered a solid Q2, growing revenue to $174.1 million with a free cash flow margin of 19%”.

On the other hand, Freshworks’ gross profit surged 21.3% to $145.9 Mn in Q2 2024 from $120.2 Mn in Q2 2023.

The company said that the number of customers contributing over $5,000 in ARR stood at 21,744 in the reported quarter, an increase of 14% YoY. Kayak, Davidson Kempner Capital  Management, Paul Smith UK, Asian Paints, Tile Mountain, San Diego Unified School District were among the new customers added in Q2. 

The company’s free cash flow stood at $32.8 Mn at the end of Q2 2024.

Freshworks aims for its Q3 2024 revenue in the range of $180 Mn-$183 Mn, registering a 17-19% growth YoY.

For the full calendar year 2024, Freshworks expects revenue in the range of $707 Mn-$713 Mn, clocking a growth of 18.5-19.5% YoY.

In its Q2 2024 earnings report, the company also announced that it completed the acquisition of Device42 to strengthen its IT offerings for mid-market and enterprise companies with enhanced IT asset management solutions.

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Shares of B2B marketplace IndiaMART tanked 6% during intraday trading today (July 31) to INR 2,955.45 after it reported an addition of 1,500 subscribers during June quarter (Q1) of the financial year 2024-25 (FY25).

The shares were trading at INR 2944.80 at 12:03 PM, as compared to INR 3146.55 at previous close.

During Q1, IndiaMART experienced a decline in traffic, falling to 267 Mn from 269 Mn by the end of the March quarter. This marked the third consecutive month of decreasing traffic.

However, the company posted a 37.3% rise in its consolidated net profit to INR 114 Cr in the Q1 FY25 from INR 83 Cr in the same period last year.

The company’s operating revenue grew 17.4% to INR 331.3 Cr in the quarter under review from INR 282.1 Cr in Q1 FY24.

IndiaMART’s revenue from web and related services increased at the same rate, 17.4% year-on-year (YoY), to INR 315.6 Cr in Q1 FY25, while revenue from accounting software services rose 16.3% YoY to INR 15.7 Cr.

The company said in a statement that its collections from customers grew 14% to INR 366 Cr during the quarter, which primarily comprised standalone collections of INR 341 Cr and Busy Infotech’s collections of INR 24 Cr.

IndiaMART’s total expenses increased a mere 3.5% to INR 221.9 Cr in Q1 FY25 from INR 214.4 Cr in the year-ago quarter.

Employee expenses continued to be the biggest expense head for the company, growing 15.2% to INR 143.2 Cr during the quarter under review from INR 124.3 Cr in Q1 FY24.

Earlier this year, IndiaMART acquired a 10% stake in fraud detection startup Baldor Technologies for INR 89.7 Cr (about $10.7 Mn) via a secondary transaction.

Baldor Technologies offers products and solutions for know-your-customer (KYC), background verifications, risk mitigation, digital onboarding and digital privacy under the brand name IDfy.

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Fintech unicorn BharatPe has secured a debt funding of INR 85 Cr (around $10.1 Mn ) from Trifecta Venture and InnoVen Capital through issuance of non-convertible debentures (NCDs).

The company’s board issued 500 Series E1 secured, unlisted, unrated and redeemable debentures with a face value of INR 10 Lakh each and 3500 Series F1 debentures at a face value of INR 1 Lakh each to raise INR 85 Cr, as per regulatory filings.

At INR 50 Cr, Trifecta Venture led the debt funding round while InnoVen Capital invested the remaining INR 35 Cr.

Entrackr reported the development first.

Notably, this is the second instance where BharatPe has raised debt funding this year. In January, the Peak XV-backed startup secured $100 Mn in debt from InnoVen Capital and Credit Saison.

At the time, it was reported that InnoVen Capital was looking to invest $60Mn-$70 Mn in BharatPe.

The latest INR 35 Cr debt infusion by Innoven Capital appears to be part of that deal.

It was also reported earlier that Nalin Negi has been promoted as the CEO of BharatPe. Negi was appointed as interim CEO and CFO of the company following Sameer Sohail’s exit in January 2023.

Recently, BharatPe ended its five-year long legal dispute with PhonePe over the use of the trademark with the suffix ‘Pe’ in their brand names. 

Earlier this year, BharatPe rolled out an ‘all-in-one’ payment device ‘BharatPe One’ that integrates point-of-sale (PoS), QR code scanner, and speaker.

BharatPe widened its net loss to INR 926.9 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), up 12% from INR 828.6 Cr in FY21. 

Revenue from operations jumped 125% to INR 1,028.9 Cr in FY23 from INR 456.8 Cr in the preceding fiscal.

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