Latest news with #Engine
NDTV
3 days ago
- NDTV
Steam Engines That Run Darjeeling's Iconic Toy Train Turn 125
The steam engine-powered narrow-gauge railway known as the toy train or Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), a train service from the New Jalpaiguri railhead near Siliguri to the hill station of Darjeeling, has achieved a major milestone. The steam engines that run the toy train have turned 125, and they continue to function even today, hauling trains daily. The DHR, through its journey, climbs nearly 2,200 metres, and the vintage British-built B-Class steam locomotives are deployed on the heritage services available from Siliguri and Darjeeling. These steam engines that have been around since the early 1900s are perhaps the oldest surviving locomotives in India. The unmissable charm, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Steam Engine chugging along the mountainside, struggling up the mountain slope, brings back memories of a bygone era in the history of Indian railways. Nostalgia fills the air as the sounds of the musical rhythm of the chugging of the steam engine truly showcase the heritage of the 125-year-old steam engines of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway started its services in 1881 and is over 140 years old. The trains climb more than 2,000 meters into the mountains daily along the Hill Cart Road from New Jalpaiguri near Siliguri to Darjeeling. The Director of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, Rishav Choudhary, told NDTV, "First of all, it's not just 125 years, it is way more than that. We started our services in 1881, so some of our locomotives, which are running, are turning 125 years old. Recently, a month ago, we celebrated the 125th anniversary of our oldest running locomotives." "As far as the services are concerned, I would like to tell you that this is one of the only few railways in the world which has regular steam services for passengers. Very few railways in the world have steam services, and those that have them are only heritage have daily runs. This year, we have introduced a morning joyride at 7:15 in the morning, and we have had a tremendous response to that," he added. It is a huge challenge for the DHR staff to keep the steam engines fit for hauling trains as they turn 125. The stars of the show perform only when the few engineers bring all their skills and expertise together. Regular refurbishments, some good old Indian 'jugaad', and dedicated engineers at the Tindharia workshop have kept the charm alive by making sure the engines generate enough power to handle the slopes that it traverses. "The steam locomotive and the DHR as a whole are a big part of the people of Darjeeling. We at Darjeeling Himalayan Railways strive to better it. We are introducing newer technologies at the Tindharia workshop, where we maintain our locomotives and at the steam loco sheds at Siliguri and Darjeeling," Rishav Choudhary told NDTV. "We have expert engineers as well as loco pilots who continuously monitor the progress of the steam locomotive despite being 125 years old. All of these locomotives are running well only because of the efforts and the tireless nights that these loco pilots and engineers spend at the sheds and the workshop. We meticulously monitor every detail of the locomotive to ensure that it keeps on running well," Mr Choudhary added. For tourists, the steam engine brings back memories of Hindi films that have immortalised the DHR. From films like Aradhna, where in the song 'Meri Sapno Ki Rani', superstar Rajesh Khanna serenades Sharmila Tagore, who is aboard the DHR train, to Shahrukh Khan in 'Dil Hai Mera Deewana' in the opening song of the film, 'Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman' to more recently Saif Ali Khan in 'Parineeta' where he is on the train in the song 'Kasto Mazza', the DHR has a recall value for tourists from India and across the world. The film industry has often used it as a backdrop for romance, which the railway offers. Sanjana Sawant, a tourist from Mumbai who is visiting Darjeeling, told NDTV, "This experience was a lot of fun. Earlier, we had seen it in movies, and now we are seeing it in front of us." The toy train is beautiful, and it feels great to be at the highest railway station in India. It's a great experience, adds Sandeep Sawant, another tourist. Shashikant Salunkhe, another tourist, said, "I had seen that song 'Meri Sapno Ki Rani' and immediately realised that the song was filmed on this train." Brij Gupta, a tourist from Delhi, told NDTV, "I took the toy train ride, and it was a great experience to come to the highest railway station in India. I enjoyed it." Gaurav Raje, a tourist from Surat in Gujarat, told NDTV, "It was a one-of-a-kind experience." "This was once in a lifetime. It is a different feeling. It certainly feels like nostalgia, and I am enjoying the toy train experience here." The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, originally run on the steam engine, is now also hauled by diesel locomotives that run the services for tourists to enjoy a glimpse of the past, and the heritage associated with this mountain railway that is celebrating 125 years of existence.
CNBC
3 days ago
- Automotive
- CNBC
Lyft is starting to make some right moves with urging from activist Engine Capital. What's next
Lyft (LYFT) is a multimodal transportation network in the United States and Canada. It offers access to a variety of transportation options through its platform and mobile-based applications. The Lyft Platform provides a marketplace where drivers can be matched with riders via the Lyft App, where it operates as a transportation network company. Transportation options through its platform and mobile-based applications are substantially comprised of its ridesharing marketplace that connects drivers and riders in cities across the United States and in certain cities in Canada, Lyft's network of bikes and scooters, and the Express Drive program, where drivers can enter into short-term rental agreements with its subsidiary, Flexdrive Services, LLC or a third party for vehicles that may be used to provide ridesharing services on the Lyft Platform. It makes the ridesharing marketplace available to organizations through Lyft Business offerings, such as the Concierge and Lyft Pass programs. Stock Market Value: $6.86 billion ($16.26 per share) Percentage Ownership: 0.81% Average Cost: N/A Activist Commentary: Engine Capital is an experienced activist investor led by Managing Partner Arnaud Ajdler, former partner and senior managing director at Crescendo Partners. Engine's history is to send letters and/or nominate directors but settle rather quickly. On March 25, Engine announced a position in Lyft and stated that they are calling for a strategic review, improved capital allocations and the elimination of the company's dual-class share structure. On April 16, Engine nominated two directors for election to the Board at the 2025 annual meeting, but ultimately withdrew those nominations following productive engagement with the company that led to several capital allocation initiatives, including the company committing to significant share repurchases in the coming quarters. Since David Risher took control as CEO of Lyft in 2023, Lyft has made some major improvements, streamlining operations, enhancing platform functionality, and expanding market presence. These have led to notable material enhancements in the company's operational and financial performance. From 2023 to 2024, revenue increased by 31.39%, EBITDA went from a negative$359.1 million to $27.3 million and free cash flow (FCF) increased from negative $248.06 million to $766.27 million, the latter two of which are in the green for the first time since its IPO. Despite these improvements, Lyft's share price decreased by 30% over the same period. There are a few factors that may help explain the company's current undervaluation. First is the industry's dynamics as Lyft operates in a duopoly with Uber in the rideshare market. In the US, Uber holds approximately 75% percent of the market while Lyft holds 24% with the rest controlled by niche areas (i.e. Curb, Alto, and Waymo). The company is in an inherently difficult strategic position due to Uber's dominance — while Lyft is only in the US and Canada, Uber is diversified across most global markets and has expanded into other synergetic areas like food and alcohol delivery. This makes Lyft particularly vulnerable to Uber's decisions regarding pricing and promotions, as management noted during the company's most recent earnings call. The market has sensed this situation, with Lyft's shares underperforming compared to Uber by 37%, 287%, and 210% over the past 1-, 3- and 5-year periods, respectively. Second to this is Lyft's suboptimal capital allocation practices. The company has experienced excessive share dilution. Since 2019, Lyft's shares outstanding have almost doubled. Currently, dilution is primarily caused by the company's stock-based compensation (SBC) practices, which are currently around $330 million annually, 4.9% of Lyft's market cap. Enter Engine, who is calling for a strategic review, improved capital allocation practices and the elimination of the company's dual-class share structure. These proposals are all worth evaluating. First, there are a few reasons why a strategic review, specifically a potential strategic acquisition, makes sense. As has been already discussed, one of, if not the largest challenge Lyft faces is their inability to scale and diversify at the pace of Uber. As the rideshare industry continues to grow and evolve, this will only become increasingly important to Lyft's potential long-term success. It seems like the most effective way to overcome this is to be either sold to or merged with a larger strategic entity that can give Lyft the scale and diversification it needs to compete with Uber. Large players in the food delivery or automotive industry make sense as potential acquirers. For example, Doordash, with a roughly $80 billion market cap, could easily afford Lyft, has synergies to better optimize both platforms, a global presence, and would create more revenue stream options for drivers. On the other hand, automative companies testing the rideshare autonomous vehicle industry like Google (Waymo) and Amazon (Zoox), which is potentially the next technological evolution in the rideshare space, also make sense as acquirers. Given Lyft's depressed valuation (EV to 2026 consensus EBITDA multiple of approximately 6.6x), recent growth, and large number of potential synergies, a large takeout premium is certainly possible here. Secondly, the company clearly needs to improve its capital allocation practices. While Lyft recently announced a $500 million buyback program, this is not even sufficient to counter the dilution over the next two years due to current SBC practices. With $2 billion of cash (approximately $700 million of net cash) and the company dramatically increasing their FCF, it appears that Lyft has the ability to much more aggressively repurchase shares to do more than just counter SBC dilution. Lastly, as a corporate governance investor, Engine will propose eliminating the dual-class structure. Originally set up to give control to the founders, this structure now seems unnecessary since co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green are no longer involved in day-to-day operations. These preferred shares carry 20 votes per share, which give them 30.8% of the total voting power while owning only approximately 2.3% of outstanding shares. Eliminating the dual-class share structure makes complete sense, is the right thing to do and would be supported by the vast majority of shareholders. However, there is virtually no way that Zimmer and Green will voluntarily give up this control position. As an experienced activist investor Ajdler knows that, but also as an experienced activist investor, he has to try. But at the very least, the Company can refine the board to reflect the changes over the past six years since its IPO – seven of the ten current directors have no public company experience other than Lyft - the Board has a lean towards directors with experience in startup companies or early-stage investments. While this background may have once been valuable, that is not where Lyft is as a Company anymore. A refreshment of these directors for people with public market, capital allocation and capital markets expertise, would better position the Company for what it is today. After launching a proxy fight for two board seats, this campaign came to a head when Engine withdrew their director nominations on May 8. This withdrawal came following the company's public announcement to increase its share repurchase authorization to $750 million and commit to utilize $200 million of such authorization over the next three months and $500 million within the next 12 months.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Chalk Raises $50M Series A to Power AI Inference
Chalk powers real-time decisions for industry leaders Socure, Doppel, and Sunrun SAN FRANCISCO, May 28, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Chalk, the data platform for AI inference, announced today that it has raised a $50 million Series A at a $500 million valuation. The round was led by Felicis with participation from Triatomic Capital and existing investors General Catalyst, Unusual Ventures, and Xfund. Aydin Senkut, Founder and Managing Partner at Felicis, will join Chalk's board. The capital will be used to accelerate development of Chalk's platform, onboard new customers, and grow its engineering and go-to-market hubs in San Francisco and New York. As AI adoption accelerates, compute is shifting from training to inference to improve predictions, transform customer experiences, and reduce costs. Existing solutions like Databricks and Snowflake solve training data pipelines, and feature stores provide low-latency access to pre-computed data. But these incumbents don't provide a solution for applications that require fresh data, with complex computation, at inference time. Chalk fills a critical gap in the market – inference data pipelines. Chalk's real-time data platform enables customers to make predictions with fresh data at inference time to prevent identity theft, issue instant loans, increase clean energy efficiency, and moderate harmful content. Senkut shared, "Chalk is poised to become the Databricks of the AI era. It's one of the fastest-growing data companies we've ever seen. The team has fundamentally redefined how data moves through the AI stack, a crucial advancement for chain-of-reasoning models. What's even more remarkable is Chalk's ability to deliver 5-millisecond data pipelines at massive scale - something that, until now, was considered out of reach. We couldn't be more excited to partner with Marc, Elliot, and Andy, who are all repeat technical founders passionate about building infrastructure that delivers an incredible developer experience." Marc Freed-Finnegan, Chalk Co-Founder and CEO, added, "We feel incredibly fortunate to have Aydin and Felicis as our partners for the next phase of our growth. We have a shared vision of the future, and we're honored to be part of the cohort of companies they have invested in." Chalk powers real-time ML across industries including fintech, identity, healthcare, and e-commerce. Companies like Whatnot, Found, Medely, and Iwoca use Chalk as a core infrastructure layer across their business. "Chalk helps us deliver financial products that are more responsive, more personalized, and more secure for millions of users. It's a direct line from infrastructure to impact," said Meng Xin Loh, Senior Technical Product Manager, MoneyLion. Chalk has become critical infrastructure for its customers by enabling teams to rapidly operationalize machine learning and AI. At its core, Chalk's Compute Engine empowers teams to write features in pure Python, automatically translating them into high-performance C++ and Rust pipelines to deliver real-time data without complex ETL. Additionally, Chalk's LLM Toolchain unifies structured and unstructured data, offering native vector storage, automated evaluations, and seamless integrations with major LLM providers. Rahul Madduluri, CTO at Doppel, said, "Chalk powers our LLM pipeline, turning complex inputs — HTML, URLs, screenshots — into structured, auditable features. It lets us serve lightweight heuristics up front and rich LLM reasoning deeper in the stack, so we detect threats others miss without compromising speed or precision." Chalk was co-founded by Freed-Finnegan, Elliot Marx, and Andrew Moreland — veterans of fintech and data infrastructure. After meeting at Stanford, Marx and Moreland solved large-scale data problems at Affirm and Palantir before co-founding Haven Money, acquired by Credit Karma. Before Chalk, Freed-Finnegan helped launch Google Wallet and started Index, acquired by Stripe (it's now called Stripe Terminal). Across these ventures, the team saw how real-time data pipelines enabled entirely new product categories and business models. Fast forward to today — real-time decisions at inference are essential for all modern applications, and Chalk makes that possible. About Chalk Chalk is the data platform for inference, providing critical infrastructure that empowers teams to rapidly operationalize machine learning and AI. The developer-friendly platform consists of a Compute Engine that automatically compiles features into high-performance Rust pipelines without complex ETL, and an LLM Toolchain that seamlessly unifies structured and unstructured data. Chalk powers real-time, low-latency machine learning for the world's leading companies, enabling instant loans, fraud prevention, personalized recommendations, and even clean energy optimization. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in San Francisco, Chalk has raised over $60M from Felicis, General Catalyst, Triatomic Capital, Unusual Ventures, and Xfund. To learn more about Chalk, visit View source version on Contacts Media Contacts ChalkKyla Keefekyla@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Starling Bank profits slide after FCA fine and Covid loan issues
Starling Bank has revealed its annual profit fell by a quarter after being hit with a fine for weak financial crime controls and setting aside cash to cover issues with Covid bounceback loans. The bank reported a pre-tax profit of £223 million for 2024, down 26% from the £301 million made the prior year. It marks the company's fourth year in a row of profitability since launching a decade ago. The drop in profit was partly driven by Starling being fined £29 million by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority last year. The regulator described the bank's financial crime screenings as 'shockingly lax', leaving the system 'wide open to criminals and those subject to sanctions'. It was also found to have repeatedly breached a requirement not to open accounts for high-risk customers. Starling said it has learned lessons from the investigation and has built a stronger framework – but it still faces some restrictions in relation to banking with higher-risk customers. Profits were also dragged lower by the bank putting aside £28.2 million to cover a group of bounceback loans which it said 'potentially did not comply with a guarantee requirement'. Starling offered the loans to struggling businesses during the Covid pandemic as part of the Government-backed lending scheme, which guaranteed to cover any losses incurred by lenders. The bank said it agreed to remove the Government guarantee on the group of loans that had potential issues. Meanwhile, Starling revealed its revenues rose to £714 million, from £682 million in 2023, with the amount deposited by customers topping £12 billion. It also highlighted growth of its banking software platform Engine after ramping up investment and signing Salt Bank in Romania and AMP Bank in Australia as its first two customers. The London-based bank, which also has UK offices in Cardiff, Manchester, and Southampton, hired about 3,940 people on average last year – some 700 more than in 2023. This drove up staff costs by nearly a third year-on-year, while marketing spending reduced as bosses focused investment on financial crime controls. Chief executive Raman Bhatia said: 'In the last year we demonstrated our commitment to addressing legacy matters, investing in our people and capabilities so we now move forward from a position of strength. 'We will leverage our robust capital position to continue to scale our growth in the UK by helping our customers become better with money. 'We will also make great strides in turning Engine by Starling into a global success.'
Finextra
7 days ago
- Business
- Finextra
Starling profit declines on FCA fine and Covid loan delinquencies
Starling Bank has reported a decline in full-year profits after booking exceptional charges against FCA non-compliance and Covid-era loans. 0 While the challenger increased revenue to £714m in the twelve months to 31 March 2025, from £682m in the prior year, profit before tax declined to £223m from £301m. The Financial Conduct Authority in October fined Starling Bank £29 million for failings related to its financial sanctions screening. The bank has also taken taken a £28.2m provision in this year's accounts after removing a Government-backed guarantee erroneously applied to some bounce back loans during the pandemic. Elsewhere, customer deposits rose to £12.1bn from £11.0bn - primnarily driven by a market-leading savings product - and open accounts inched up from 4.6m from 4.2m. While the bank views its Software-as-a-Service strategy as a future money-spinner, Engine's fee income contribution to the group was fairly modest at £8.7m.
