Latest news with #OlaKrutrim
Mint
19-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
India's unicorn obsession has a human cost
Eight years ago, I spent days listening to exhausted employees of a high-profile startup. They shared troubling stories about brutal hours, abusive managers, and constant humiliation that was passed off as motivation. One engineer opened his inbox to show me countless farewell emails—a silent, heartbreaking testimony to the toll the company's toxic culture was taking. Employees were told to either push beyond their limits or find another job. Those brave enough to voice concerns were brushed aside, adding layers of fear and isolation. Yet all these red flags vanished behind headlines celebrating the glamorized chase of billion-dollar or 'unicorn' valuations and charismatic founders. Popular shows like Shark Tank that have taken startup culture mainstream often glorify aggressive pitches and cutthroat competition, rarely celebrating mindful, empathetic founders. Catch phrases or words like 'doglapan"—highlighting hypocrisy and ruthless tactics—have become normalized in startup discourse, reflecting deeper problems in how we view success and leadership. Also read | Growing health concerns force startup boards, investors to press for work-life balance Today, I am faced again with a tragic story. Nikhil Somwanshi, a bright 25-year-old machine learning engineer at Ola Krutrim, was found dead in Bengaluru's Agara Lake. Nikhil, who had a promising future and an impressive academic record, reportedly struggled with overwhelming workloads and relentless pressure. This tragedy feels painfully familiar. It reflects a deeper issue within India's startup ecosystem, one we have allowed to fester. We idolize ruthless ambition, glorify founders who see paranoia and aggression as virtues, and celebrate unicorn status without considering the human beings paying the price. In his sharp critique of Uber, Arun Sundararajan, a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business and an expert on digital technologies and organizational culture, highlighted a crucial point: a company's culture flows directly from its founders. Airbnb chose community and trust, while Uber embraced control and distance. Sundararajan's critique was published in Harvard Business Review in 2014. Not much has changed since. Also read | At the Big Four, work stress is taking a toll on both employee and employer Why have we allowed this narrative to persist? Why do we continue celebrating leaders whose success comes at such a significant human cost? Has our fascination with valuations, funding rounds, and unicorn labels blinded us to the suffering happening right in front of us? We urgently need deeper reporting and the courage to question whom we elevate as our heroes. Because behind these flashy startup stories, real people are hurting, and real lives are being destroyed. My heart breaks for Nikhil's family and colleagues. No unicorn valuation is ever worth losing our humanity. If you or someone you know is struggling, don't ignore the signs. Listen, support, and encourage reaching out for help. Also read | Work-life balance: Do employees dream of Excel sheets? Trusted helplines in India Vandrevala Foundation — Call or WhatsApp: +91 9999 666 555 (24x7) AASRA — Call: +91 22 2754 6669 (24x7) KIRAN (Govt. of India) — Call: 1800-599-0019 (24x7, multilingual) Sneha (Chennai) — Call: +91 44 2464 0060 (24x7)
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
