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Time of India
21 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Logistics firms under pressure; The race to deliver style
Logistics firms under pressure; The race to deliver style Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox? Also in the letter: Ecommerce's in-house delivery turn flips third-party logistics biz script Driving the news: In March 2025, Valmo handled over two-thirds of Meesho's shipments, up from 30% a year earlier and just 5% in previous years, according to an ICICI Securities report. The Bengaluru-based online retailer once relied heavily on third-party players, including Delhivery, Ecom Express, Shadowfax, and Xpressbees. Now, Valmo acts as an aggregator, letting sellers choose their preferred transporter. Ecom Express, now part of Delhivery, still counts Amazon, Meesho, Shiprocket and Nykaa among key clients. Yes, but: Growth muted: Also Read: Rapid delivery's in fashion at ecommerce, new-age apparel companies Here's the catch: VC rush: The data play: Way ahead: Also Read: IT's growth search takes them to doors of mid-market firms New avenues: But, why: Number-wise: Also Read: Flipkart exits Blackbuck, Aditya Birla Fashion in block deals worth over Rs 1,250 crore ABFRL exit: Blackbuck stake sale: Other Top Stories By Our Reporters Swiggy may recover quick commerce share despite widening losses: Morgan Stanley | LTTS bags deal to set up offshore development centre for US firm Tennant: Global Picks We Are Reading Happy Thursday! With Indian ecommerce firms insourcing deliveries, the third-party logistics sector is likely to witness consolidation. This and more in today's ETtech Morning Dispatch.■ India IT shifts focus■ Flipkart cashes out■ Morgan Stanley on SwiggyAs Indian ecommerce companies bring deliveries in-house, pure-play logistics companies are scrambling to stay relevant , a shift that is likely to accelerate consolidation in the Flipkart and Meesho account for 82% of India's ecommerce parcel volumes. Meesho, for instance, increasingly relies on its logistics arm, Valmo Analysts believe Meesho won't fully internalise logistics. Still, third-party operators remain in an earnings call, Delhivery CEO Sahil Barua said the company cornered more than 100% of the industry's profit pool , calling out rivals for ongoing losses. After acquiring Ecom Express for Rs 1,407 crore in April, Barua said further consolidation is its bullish stance, Delhivery posted subdued ecommerce numbers in FY25. Express parcel revenue rose 5% year-on-year, while volumes edged up just 2%.New-age brands like Newme, Slikk, and Blipp, along with ecommerce players Myntra, Ajio, and Nykaa, are embracing the ultra-fast fashion delivery trend. The latest to join the race is Bengaluru-based D2C brand Snitch, which last week kicked off a pilot for its quick delivery service in the is it worth the hype?Some industry insiders regard this as yet another shiny take on the quick commerce narrative. Unlike groceries, fashion is an experiential category. Moreover, supply chains (or logistics) are more complex, and high return rates render ultra-fast delivery a challenging model to are piling in. Slikk, which promises delivery in under 60 minutes, recently raised $10 million in a round led by Nexus Venture Partners. Snitch secured $40 million from 360 One Asset to fund offline expansion and a deeper push into quick stay ahead of fast-moving trends, brands are leaning on proprietary AI tools and in-house data science teams. These systems sift through social media chatter, search patterns, and shopping behaviour to forecast demand, sometimes even before the customer knows what they buzz is real, but so are the hurdles. Brands still need to sustain consumer excitement, manage inventory risk, and tackle return rates. Quick fashion may be gaining ground, but the jury's still out on whether speed alone will win the a challenging year, India's IT industry is targeting growth beyond the Fortune Global 2,000 and Fortune 5,000, focusing on an underpenetrated segment: smaller and mid-sized enterprises with annual revenues of $1-5 large clients slow to deliver revenue, the natural pivot has been towards smaller companies, typically late adopters of technology, are now ramping up investments in cloud, cybersecurity, and digital transformation, driven by the rise of AI and accelerated digitisation. This shift presents a new opportunity for Indian IT cite several reasons these clients could prove lucrative, including quicker decision-making, a lower barrier to entry, and a broader scope for delivering tech many large enterprises are establishing global capability centres (GCCs) in lower-cost locations, such as India, and insourcing much of their tech work. This has pushed Indian IT majors to look beyond their traditional client opportunity is real, but still early. Mid-market clients (with $100 million to $5 billion in revenue) contribute only 20-30% of total revenue for the top five Indian IT firms – TCS, Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra. Large enterprises continue to account for 60-70% of their has fully exited its stakes in Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail (ABFRL) and Zinka Logistics, the parent company of trucking platform Blackbuck, offloading shares worth several hundred crores this Wednesday, Walmart-owned Flipkart Investments sold its entire 6% stake in ABFRL through a block deal worth Rs 587.7 crore. The transaction involved 73.17 million ABFRL shares changing hands at Rs 80.32 per share, a 6.6% discount to the previous closing price.A day earlier, Quickroutes International, another Flipkart subsidiary, offloaded its entire 9% stake in Blackbuck, according to exchange data. The shares were sold in the Rs 420.06–420.25 range, valuing the deal at Rs 671.76 house Morgan Stanley believes that online food and grocery delivery company Swiggy's quick commerce business has a bright future. Although quick commerce has helped drive Swiggy's revenue growth, the company's expenditure on the sector continues to drag its bottom line part of this collaboration, LTTS will establish a dedicated engineering centre in India to support Tennant's new product development, lifecycle management, and other core operations.■ Google DeepMind's CEO thinks AI will make humans less selfish ( Wired ■ Snap's Spiegel: Company is on 'cusp' of computing transformation ( The Information ■ Frugal tech: The start-ups working on cheap innovation ( BBC
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Rohit Kapoor on Swiggy's food delivery slowdown; Group life insurance gains traction
Rohit Kapoor on Swiggy's food delivery slowdown; Group life insurance gains traction Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox? Also in the letter: Pushing value meals and 10-min food delivery to revive growth: Swiggy's Rohit Kapoor What's happening: Expanding delivery-friendly categories Drawing low-frequency users into the fold with value bundles Scaling 10-minute deliveries via its Bolt platform By the numbers: Swiggy's food delivery GOV grew 17.6% YoY in Q4 Bolt now accounts for 12% of Swiggy's delivery volumes Food delivery covers around 700 cities; density, not geography, is now the focus Also Read: Why it matters: On restaurant partners: Also Read: New-age life insurance firms tap group products to boost business Driving the news: Acko has written life insurance premiums worth Rs 63 crore. Go Digit has crossed Rs 1,000 crore. CreditAccess has processed close to Rs 200 crore in life insurance premiums. Different paths: Beyond the numbers: It allows for quick ramp-up in premium volumes It helps test systems and processes for corporate sales, ahead of a retail push. It ensures a smoother claims settlement experience for customers. Challenges remain: Trust takes longer to build in life insurance Higher ticket size products need more persuasion and often, physical intermediation. Claims settlement is complex and often requires last-mile human support Also Read: Sponsor ETtech Top 5 & Morning Dispatch! Why it matters: The opportunity: Reach a highly engaged audience of decision-makers. Boost your brand's visibility among the tech-savvy community. Custom sponsorship options to align with your brand's goals. What's next: Krutrim finds few takers for its LLMs and cloud products Driving the news: Founders cited poor documentation as a key issue with Krutrim's products. They also flagged a lack of technical maturity. Many startups continue to prefer established hyperscalers like Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services. More than 20 employees have exited the company since 2024. Tell me more: Also Read: ETtech Done Deals Udaan closes latest funding round at $114 million: Round details: Furniture retailer Pepperfry raises Rs 43 crore: Wealthtech startup Stable Money raises $20 million: Other Top Stories By Our Reporters Tata Electronics eyes Malaysia foray via chip fab acquisition: Infosys paid CEO Salil Parekh Rs 80.62 crore as salary in FY25: Nykaa shares drop over 5% despite strong Q4 performance: Tesla unlikely to make in India: All you need to know | Global Picks We Are Reading Happy Tuesday! As the food delivery market cools, aggregators are scrambling to find growth avenues. This and more in today's ETtech Morning Dispatch.■ Krutrim AI's uptake struggles■ ETtech Done Deals■ Tata Electronics' Malaysia forayRohit Kapoor, CEO (food marketplace), SwiggyAs the food delivery market cools, Swiggy is turning to quick meals , affordable combos, and deeper city penetration to stoke an exclusive interview with ET, Swiggy's food marketplace CEO Rohit Kapoor said growth will now come from low-frequency users and category innovation, not merely from city expansion. He also called for a more open dialogue between platforms and restaurants on is focusing on three key growth drivers in food delivery:With quick commerce eating into food delivery profits, Swiggy and Zomato are under pressure to revive their core businesses. Kapoor says there's latent demand to tap — but unlocking it depends on restaurant supply, better aggregator-partner dynamics, and faster ties with restaurant partners have been strained in recent years over the commissions rates. Kapoor acknowledged the need for more conversation, but argued the current narrative often overlooks the larger economic shift aggregators have Go Digit and CreditAccess, three new age life insurance players licensed in 2023, have completed their first full financial year in FY25. Industry data shows that in their initial phase, all three have leaned heavily on group insurance policies to drive early sourced from the Life Insurance Council reveals sharp contrasts in their premium Digit continues to scale rapidly in general insurance, while Acko is betting on a digital-first, direct-to-consumer model to disrupt traditional trends suggest that the trio have focused on employer-employee group life products and credit-linked insurance policies. Why this strategy?While these players made waves in general insurance, industry insiders say life insurance will be a tougher battleground. Why is that?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 Reach out to us at spotlightpartner@ to explore sponsorship Aggarwal, founder, KrutrimIn a setback to Bhavish Aggarwal and the broader Indian AI ambitions, several founders and investors told ET that Krutrim large language models (LLMs) and cloud offerings have received a lukewarm response from the the AI venture backed by the Ola group, became India's first AI unicon in 2024, after raising $50 million at a $1 billion valuation . But the company has since faced product roadblocks and leadership offers a chatbot and cloud services, but usability issues persist. Two founders reported difficulties simply logging into the chatbot. Similar issues surfaced with Krutrim AI model also suffers from high latency, which refers to response time, deterring potential users. In tests reviewed by ET, Krutrim's AI chatbot took 41 seconds to generate a response to a single prompt. In contrast, ChatGPT-4o and DeepSeek responded in under 10 Gupta, CEO, UdaanB2B ecommerce platform Udaan has raised $114 million in a fresh funding round led by existing investors, M&G Prudential (UK) and Lightspeed Venture round closed at a flat valuation of $1.8 billion and includes the previously disclosed $75 million investment from the same two investors, which founder and CEO Vaibhav Gupta announced at a town hall earlier this furniture and home goods company Pepperfry has raised Rs 43.3 crore from existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs, General Electric Pension Trust, Growth Equity Opportunity Fund, and Panthera Growth Partners, among startup Stable Money, which provides digital fixed-return investment products, has raised $20 million (Rs 173 crore) in a funding round led by Infosys cofounder Nandan Nilekani's Fundamentum Electronics is in talks with several global semiconductor companies including X-Fab, DNeX and Globetronics to acquire a fabrication or outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) plant in IT major Infosys chief executive officer (CEO) Salil Parekh received a 22% rise in his annual compensation to Rs 80.6 crore for the fiscal year 2024-25 ending March, the company's annual report of Nykaa parent FSN E-commerce declined as much as 5.11% to 192.85 a piece during Monday's trade. The scrip closed 4.33% lower at Rs 194.45 per share, compared to a 0.09% decline in the benchmark Sensex. The counter opened 1.1% lower at Rs 201, against the previous closing of Rs 203.25 on the vehicle maker Tesla, helmed by Elon Musk, is not keen on manufacturing in India despite the government wooing it aggressively through policy incentives.■ A Neuralink rival just tested a brain implant in a person ( Wired ■ 'Humanity deserves better': Jony Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs on tech's next chapter ( FT ■ This giant microwave may change the future of war ( MIT Technology Review
Time of India
26-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
India's supplements wild west; Payments firms' SaaS play
India's supplements wild west; Payments firms' SaaS play Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox? Also in the letter: Pills, promotions and a dose of doubt: Influencers, VC money fuel India's booming supplements market Growing concern: Most supplements are sold directly to consumers via ecommerce websites and quick-commerce apps. They're available over the counter – no prescription, no pharmacist, and often, no evidence that they work. Multiple experts and industry executives told us this supplement boom is driven by post-Covid-19 health consciousness, amplified by influencer marketing, and backed by venture capital (VC). Tell me more: The sector attracted over $500 million in funding between 2020 and May 2025, according to data firm Venture Intelligence. Brands like Plix, Kapiva, Fast&Up, and The Good Bug are leaning into influencer-led marketing, with some partnering with doctors and wellness experts to add a veneer of credibility. Industry analysts say brands spend anywhere between 15-30% of their budgets on influencer marketing. What about regulation? In India, most supplements are regulated by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, not the drug regulator. This means weaker scrutiny and lighter penalties. Online pay aggregators focus on anti-fraud tech to up revenues Tell me more: Quote, unquote: Zoom out: Sponsor ETtech Top 5 & Morning Dispatch! Why it matters: The opportunity: Reach a highly engaged audience of decision-makers. Boost your brand's visibility among the tech-savvy community. Custom sponsorship options to align with your brand's goals. What's next: IT's Q1 headcount growth likely to stay flat despite improved macro Driving the news: Hiring demand for new IT joinees continues to hover around 55,000, well below the brief peak of 80,000 seen earlier in 2025, according to staffing firm Xpheno. There are currently 60,000 open roles in the IT services segment. Job scenario: AI-led hiring: Quote, unquote: Other Top Stories By Our Reporters Tatas rope in Intel veteran Tim McIntosh to steer Assam chip assembly plant: Spacetech gets an opening as India seeks more eyes in the sky: Info Edge's shareholders clear Rs 1,000 crore VC fund play: Byju's app taken down from Google Play Store: Apple's India bet reflects global confidence: Rajeev Chandrasekhar | Global Pick We Are Reading Happy Monday! As over-the-counter health supplements are increasingly available online, concerns arise about their efficacy and regulation. This and more in the latest edition of ETtech's Morning Dispatch.■ Tepid IT job demand■ Top Tata Electronics' hire■ Info Edge readies VC fundFrom collagen powders and gut health liquids to magnesium tablets and hormone-balancing pills, wellness supplements have become lifestyle staples in post-pandemic India. However, as demand surges, so do questions around efficacy and oversight Payment companies are transforming their in-house fraud detection tools into software-as-a-service (SaaS) products for banks and fintechs, unlocking a new source of recurring revenue Payment aggregators (PAs) like PayU, Razorpay, and PhonePe have developed fraud detection systems to safeguard their platforms. Now, they are pitching these tools to lenders, promising improved transaction rates and enhanced customer security.'While we already work with large banks to address their payment fraud needs, many mid- and small-sized financial institutions need strong technology solutions to fight payment fraud. We are also targeting this segment, and the opportunity is significant,' said Anirban Mukherjee, chief executive officer, competition intensifies and regulatory caps squeeze margins, payment firms are eyeing SaaS as a more stable, margin-friendly revenue stream beyond their core payment Top 5 and Morning Dispatch are must-reads for India's tech and business leaders, including startup founders, investors, policy makers, industry insiders and Reach out to us at spotlightpartner@ to explore sponsorship growth in the IT sector is expected to remain flat , experts say, even as a pause on US President Donald Trump's 'reciprocal' tariffs lifts some clouds of 88% of active demand is concentrated in technology and engineering roles. The remaining 12% spans consulting, project management, business development, analysts, and other support functions, Xpheno firms prioritising quality over volume, demand is shifting towards 'future-ready' specialised roles in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, cloud, and cybersecurity. These segments are reported to grow by 30-75%, depending on the area, according to another staffing firm, Teamlease.'Although there is long-term optimism, companies remain cautious in the short term, reflecting a careful approach to hiring amid ongoing global uncertainties,' said Neeti Sharma, CEO, Teamlease Electronics has appointed Tim McIntosh as vice president and head of operations and manufacturing for Tata Semiconductor Assembly and Test (TSAT), marking the latest leadership hire of an Intel veteran at the India currently has around 10–11 defence satellites operated by ISRO, "revisit times are long" and there's an urgent need for more satellites , Lt Gen AK Bhatt (Retd), DG of the Indian Space Association (ISpA), told Noida-based firm will invest up to Rs 1,000 crore in Info Edge Ventures Fund III , paving the way for increased startup Byju's app has been removed from the Google Play Store due to payment disruptions for its services, while other apps remain available on the ongoing expansion of its iPhone manufacturing operations in India indicates increasing global confidence in the country's electronics manufacturing ecosystem, said former IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.■ India's richest man can't crack e-commerce, even with Shein ( Rest Of World ■ Gemini in Chrome feels like a small step toward Google's agentic era ( The Verge ■ founder plots potential deal to buy failed company ( FT
Time of India
19-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
PhonePe's pre-IPO challenges; VC funds get AI edge
PhonePe's pre-IPO challenges; VC funds get AI edge Also in the letter: PhonePe's 5% dilemma: Payments still dominate revenue as it gets IPO-ready Driving the news: Poor timing of entry. A focus on insurance, typically a push product with limited scalability compared to lending. A sluggish scale-up in stock broking, where competitors have raced ahead. Hesitant start to credit: PhonePe has taken a conservative approach to lending. It prioritised secured loans, which are harder to distribute and offer thinner margins. It entered the consumer credit market only after it had cooled, amid tightening regulations. This cautious strategy has helped keep its loan book clean, but it has also constrained revenue growth. Meanwhile, the credit market has become intensely competitive, with players like Paytm, BharatPe, Cred, and Groww rapidly expanding. Steady growth: Also Read: Indian VC funds leverage AI to evaluate deals, boost workflows Driving the news: What VCs use AI for: Researching potential deals Identifying target portfolio companies Conducting due diligence Productivity boost: Quote, unquote: Also Read: Sponsor ETtech Top 5 & Morning Dispatch! Why it matters: The opportunity: Reach a highly engaged audience of decision-makers. Boost your brand's visibility among the tech-savvy community. Custom sponsorship options to align with your brand's goals. What's next: Other Top Stories By Our Reporters Social media abuzz about toxic work culture at Ola Krutrim after employee's 'suicide': Zoho founder warns of LLM-led job disruption in software development: Kaynes Semicon opens chip design centre in Oman: Global Picks We Are Reading Happy Monday! Digital payments leader PhonePe is struggling with diversifying its revenue streams on the road to IPO. This and more in today's ETtech Morning Dispatch.■ Ola Krutrim's workplace woes■ Zoho founder's AI warning■ Kaynes' Oman forayPhonePe is preparing the prospectus for its initial public offering (IPO) after closing the last financial year with over Rs 5,000 crore in revenue and profit, excluding Esop expenses. But a key challenge looms: diversifying its revenue streams Despite venturing into insurance, wealth broking, digital lending, and managing these verticals for a few years, PhonePe still derives 95% of its revenue from core payments. While the company has built undeniable strength in this space, its newer businesses have struggled due to:PhonePe remains the clear leader in payments. It has capitalised on UPI to build strong businesses in merchant payments, offline card acceptance, online payment aggregation, and orchestration platforms. While these provide some diversification, the Walmart-backed fintech is still primarily a payments-first company and is some way from evolving into a full-stack fintech venture capital funds are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to automate tasks that junior staff and analysts once shift to AI has compressed timelines—what once took a week now just takes a day or two. Still, some experts caution that technology alone can't replace the human element in venture agents like ChatGPT and Claude are enabling VC funds to assess markets and opportunities far more quickly than traditional methods. Firms with portfolio management responsibilities also use AI to analyse performance data.'Generative AI tools distil information and give us synthesised versions to help us understand an industry, a company or its opportunity,' Rajeev Kalambi, general partner at Catus Venture Partners, told Top 5 and Morning Dispatch are must-reads for India's tech and business leaders, including startup founders, investors, policy makers, industry insiders and Reach out to us at spotlightpartner@ to explore sponsorship Aggarwal, founder, KrutrimSocial media has been abuzz with posts about toxic work culture at Ola's AI arm, Krutrim , after a machine learning engineer at the firm allegedly took his life on May Vembu, founder of software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm Zoho, has sounded an alarm over the potential disruption in software jobs driven by the adoption of large language models (LLMs) and modern Semicon, a subsidiary of Kaynes Technology India, opened its first overseas chip design centre in Muscat, Oman, in partnership with the nation's ministries of transport, communications and information technology, and labour.■ Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode ( Wired ■ How the Signal knockoff app TeleMessage got hacked in 20 minutes ( Wired ■ Crypto high rollers are hiring bodyguards to deter kidnappers ( Bloomberg
Time of India
16-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
UPI extras miss mark; Amazon streamlines India ops
UPI extras miss mark; Amazon streamlines India ops Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox? Also in the letter: UPI Lite and wallet-based pay off to a slow start as UPI payments climb Driving the news: Going deeper: Fintechs such as PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm have done little to promote these features. The lack of financial incentives means big players primarily use UPI to drive traffic to their revenue-generating products. Banks are reluctant to invest in building and maintaining tools that show weak traction. Fresh challenges: Also Read: Amazon India's board clears logistics arm & marketplace biz merger Driving the news: Reduce legal and regulatory compliance requirements Enable more efficient management of infrastructure and resources across both companies. For context: Rival watch: Flipkart operates its own logistics arm, Ekart Logistics. Meesho, backed by SoftBank, launched Valmo last year to serve its sellers. Financial snapshot: ATS reported a 7.6% YoY rise in operating revenue for FY24 to Rs 4,889 crore. Amazon Seller Services reported Rs 25,406 crore in operating revenue during FY24, up 14%. Also Read: Flipkart helps deliver strong Walmart ad business Walmart Q1 results: Walmart International reported net sales of $32.1 billion for the February-April quarter, marking a 7.8% year-on-year increase. Growth in constant currency terms was primarily driven by Flipkart, alongside strong performances from Walmart's businesses in China and Walmex (Mexico and Central America). In numbers: Also Read: 🚀 Sponsor ETtech Top 5 & Morning Dispatch! The opportunity: Reach a highly engaged audience of decision-makers. Boost your brand's visibility among the tech-savvy community. Custom sponsorship options to align with your brand's goals. What's next: PB Fintech profit triples in Q4, revenue up 38% Q4 highlights: Net profit: Rs 171 crore, up 181% YoY Rs 171 crore, up 181% YoY Revenue: Rs 1,508 crore, up 38% YoY Rs 1,508 crore, up 38% YoY Expenses: Rs 1,437 crore, up 29% YoY (from Rs 1,145 crore in Q4 FY24) Tell me more: Insurance business (Policybazaar): Q4 premium collection: Rs 7,030 crore (vs Rs 2,176 crore in Q4 FY24) FY25 total premium processed: Rs 23,486 crore Also Read: GIC seeks CCI nod for Groww stake ahead of IPO Why it matters: The big picture: Also Read: Other Top Stories By Our Reporters Trump wants Apple to stop moving iPhone production to India: SaaS sees an uptick in mergers, buyouts as AI flips the script: New-age ice cream brand Hocco raises $10 million: Global Picks We Are Reading Happy Friday! Most new features on United Payments Interface (UPI) have struggled to gain meaningful traction over the years. This and more in today's ETtech Morning Dispatch.■ PB Fintech profit triples■ GIC seeks CCI nod for Groww stake■ Uptick in SaaS M&A dealsIn recent years, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has rolled out several new features—UPI Lite, wallet-based payments, recurring payments via UPI, UPI through RuPay credit cards, and UPI Circle. Yet, most have seen limited adoption According to multiple sources, features like UPI Lite, wallet-based UPI payments, and RuPay card usage on UPI are seeing just 80-150 million monthly transactions. While not insignificant, these numbers appear modest given UPI's massive insiders cite several challenges hindering adoption:Despite UPI's runaway success, NPCI must now prove its innovation muscle. Features like UPI Lite and wallet-based payments were designed to ease pressure on core banking systems. Their failure to scale undermines that goal and the NPCI's ambition to evolve the Transportation Services (ATS), the logistics arm of American ecommerce giant in India, is merging with Amazon Seller Services, the primary marketplace unit in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has granted interim approval for the merger. In its filings with the NCLT, Amazon stated that the move aims to:ATS was launched in 2013 as an in-house logistics service for Amazon's ecommerce marketplace in India. The unit still generates more than 95% of its revenue from Amazon. In 2023, ATS began offering its services to third-party clients as giant Flipkart has powered a strong quarter for its US-based parent Walmart, contributing to a 20% rise in international advertising revenue for the three months ending April Internet, the marketplace arm of Flipkart, earned nearly Rs 5,000 crore from advertising in the financial year ending March 2024, outpacing the Rs 3,734 crore generated from marketplace it matters: 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 Reach out to us at spotlightpartner@ to explore sponsorship Bansal and Yashish Dahiya, founders, PB Fintech groupPB Fintech posted an 181% year-on-year (YoY) jump in net profit to Rs 171 crore for the quarter that ended March 2025, driven by strong performance across its business robust profit growth was fuelled mainly by steady momentum in the insurance business, alongside strong disbursals in secured loans such as home loans and loans against property, which boosted the lending vertical. The slower pace of expense growth relative to revenue also contributed to the improved bottom Keshre, CEO, GrowwSingapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC has sought the Competition Commission of India's (CCI) nod to acquire a 2.14% stake in wealthtech startup Groww through its affiliate Viggo move is part of Groww's $200 million pre-IPO funding at a 6.5 billion valuation , as reported by ET on March 26. As we reported earlier, this will nearly double its 2021 private market now India's largest stockbroker by active clients, recently shifted its domicile to India and is gearing up to file its IPO papers Donald Trump asked Tim Cook to halt production in India and move back to the US, as the iPhone maker plans to diversify its manufacturing beyond smaller software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies struggle to raise funds and scale operations amid the AI boom, M&A deals increased 19% sequentially and 31% annually in the March latest funding round was co-led by the Chona family office and Sauce VC, and funds were earmarked for expansion, capex, innovation, marketing, and more.■ US tech visa applications are being put through the ringer ( Wired ■ AI therapy is a surveillance machine in a police state ( The Verge ■ Apple finally launches next-gen 'CarPlay Ultra' software, starting with Aston Martin ( TechCrunch
