Digital lenders stay cautious; Swiggy sees no easy wins for Rapido

Time of India

6 hours ago

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Happy Thursday! Some digital lending startups reported modest profit growth in FY25, while others have pulled back on IPO plans. This and more in today's ETtech Morning Dispatch.■ Ride-hailing GST ruling under review■ Infosys' Nilekani flags global risks■ NPCI reports 42% profit surgeDigital lending startups closed FY25 with mixed results . While some posted profit growth, others slowed down disbursals to maintain capital buffers in a volatile regulatory environment.Fibe reported a 100% rise in net profit to Rs 100 crore for FY25. KreditBee posted a modest increase, with net profit reaching Rs 221 crore versus Rs 200 crore a year earlier. Axio, on the other hand, saw pressure on its operating metrics during the first half of the year.Industry executives told us that several digital lenders are preparing draft red herring prospectuses (DRHPs), but few are expected to list before early 2026. Many are looking to secure Sebi approvals in advance and time their public offerings around improved market sentiment — possibly post the festive season.Founders say regulatory uncertainty has stabilised and asset quality is holding up. With improved metrics expected this fiscal, some lenders are hoping to hit the public markets early next year. Swiggy 's Majety on Rapido's food delivery pushSriharsha Majety, group CEO, SwiggySwiggy says it remains agile and ready to respond, as Prosus-backed Rapido prepares to enter a market with few winners.With Rapido finalising its entry into the food delivery market, Swiggy founder and group CEO Sriharsha Majety said the company remains ' super agile and paranoid ,' and won't hesitate to act if the market shows signs of disruption. It's noteworthy that Swiggy is an investor in Rapido.Speaking at an investor event hosted by Prosus in London, Majety said the food delivery market has seen multiple entrants — Uber, Ola, Amazon, and ONDC — come and go, with only Swiggy and Zomato managing to survive and scale.'There were a dozen players in 2015… and we're still standing. Credit to us and Zomato. It's not easy to find an opening that's a home run,' he said. 'But if we see one, we'll be out there in weeks.'Swiggy holds a 15% stake in Rapido, and both companies share Prosus as a common investor. Rapido is offering significantly lower restaurant commissions compared to incumbents as it enters the space.Karnataka AAR questions earlier tax exemption for Juspay platform, citing possible misrepresentation and transfer of control.The Karnataka Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) has said it may revoke its 2023 ruling that exempted Namma Yatri from collecting GST on auto rides booked via its app.Juspay had originally secured the ruling on grounds that it offered a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform charging drivers a subscription fee — not a per-ride commission. Since then, Juspay has transferred Namma Yatri to a subsidiary, Moving Tech Innovations.The AAR says the ruling may no longer apply since the business has changed hands and the original applicant, Juspay, no longer owns the platform. The authority also hinted that the initial exemption may have been based on incomplete disclosures.The case could impact GST treatment across other ride-hailing platforms like Uber, Ola, and Rapido, all of which are seeking clarity from the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC).ETtech Top 5 and Morning Dispatch are must-reads for India's tech and business leaders, including startup founders, investors, policy makers, industry insiders and employees.Interested? Reach out to us at [e-mail] to explore sponsorship opportunities.Nandan Nilekani, cofounder, InfosysAmid multiple global challenges and AI becoming unavoidable, Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani said that the ongoing tariff wars is pushing businesses to derisk sourcing and that the energy transition adds another layer of uncertainty.The National Payments Corporation of India, which runs UPI, IMPS, AePS and BBPS, reported a Rs 1,552 crore surplus for FY25 — up 42% year-on-year — on revenues of Rs 3,270 crore.Agentic and and generative AI are now becoming part of the large deals for LTIMindtree , although with slightly longer closure cycle than the traditional vendor consolidation projects, its new CEO Venugopal Lambu told ET.Online bond investment platform IndiaBonds raised Rs 32.5 crore ($3.77 million) from investors, including QiCAP.Ai founder Amit Rathi, former Delhivery CBO Sandeep Barasia, and Sanctum Wealth CEO Shiv Gupta, among others.■ Who is most at risk from the billions of leaked Facebook and Google passwords? ( Rest of World ■ Snake Venom, Urine, and a Quest to Live Forever: Inside a Biohacking Conference Emboldened by MAHA ( Wired ■ Here's a running list of all of Tesla's robotaxi mishaps so far ( The Verge