Latest news with #Softbank-backed
Time of India
28-05-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
With 98% R&D in India, Netradyne puts Indian deeptech on the global mobility map
Every year, about 1.2 million lives are snuffed out in road accidents worldwide, according to a World Health Organisation report. Of this, India reports the most number of fatalities. But this deeptech startup, which is also the first unicorn of 2025 in India, is out on a mission to improve road safety and efficiency by leveraging cutting-edge technology that transforms the transportation industry. Netradyne , founded in 2015 by Avneesh Agrawal and David Julian–both Stanford alumni–provides AI-powered fleet safety and video telematics solutions , a form of passive ADAS ( Advanced Driver Assistance System ). Its flagship product– Driver•i– powered by advanced AI analyses every minute of drive time with up to 99 per cent accuracy, recognising both risky and safe driving behaviours. With over 20 billion of driving miles analysed, the company claims the product has delivered a significant reduction in accident rates amongst its users. 'Our customers from India and the US have reported a 50 per cent reduction in accident rates,' Durgadutt Nedungadi, Senior Vice President, Netradyne, told ETAuto. Now, the San Diego-based startup is planning to launch a new line of products which will raise the bar further in its preemptive approach to road safety, with a focus on detecting driver fatigue. 'Shortly, we will launch products which focus on the sleep cycle. By using advanced technology, we have worked on a number of these sleep scales that study blink rates. In this way, we can raise an alert early in the cycle when a driver is sleepy,' said Nedungadi. In the near future, we will also work on technology that can capture pupil dilation to detect state of inebriation, he added. Profitability & R&D focus The Softbank-backed startup has recently announced its global expansion plans, with a target to expand its footprint to 15 countries. The company currently has commercial operations spanning 10 countries, including India, but counts the US as its biggest market. 'About 90 per cent of our sales come from the US. But, over the next few years, we want to reach a stage where the rest of the world contributes a far greater percentage of revenues so that we're truly a global kind of company, notes Nedungadi. Fresh from its Series D round funding, the company has set its eyes on revenue growth while chasing profitability. Over the last two years, the company registered a growth of over 50 per cent and intends to continue the momentum. While not specifying a timeline, Nedungadi emphasised the goal of achieving profitability in the near-term horizon. In 2024, it generated a revenue of $210 million (around ₹1,743 crore). The startup, which has over 3000 customers across the markets including Shell, IndianOil, among others, is also in talks with a number of OEMs from the commercial vehicle segment to explore potential collaborations and integration of its technology. The company has a deep focus on R&D, with about 550 of its 850 employees engaged in the tech area. " Our company has upwards of 30 patents to its name. For us, tech is the important aspect and unless we keep innovating, we will not get to where we really want to be," noted Nedungai. "Although the company is incorporated in San Diego, our tech headquarter is in Bengaluru," he added. With over 98 per cent of its R&D based in India, this startup is not just fostering the future of safe mobility, but also amplifying India's deeptech presence on the global map.
The Hindu
02-05-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Can ChatGPT's Shopify deal hurt Google's search business?
A year after OpenAI launched ChatGPT, on the company's developer community, one member broached: 'Looking for a shopify [sic] solution which can index product data from the store and recommend users with products based on user message.' In response, another one replied: 'You could build a dynamic web-scraper, using Selenium and beautiful soup [sic], to extract the html [sic] from web pages and then implement functionality to instruct the API to extract certain elements, like prices.' After roughly two years later, OpenAI took a different, but easy path to make the integration. On April 29, the Microsoft- and Softbank-backed AI startup announced it is experimenting with a shopping feature that will visually display product details and pricing to users based on the context of their interaction with the bot. While the Sam Altman-led company did not reveal how the back-end of this feature works or whether it has formally tied up with online commerce platform Shopify to make this happen, some developers spotted a new code in ChatGPT's public web bundle a few days earlier that revealed a Shopify checkout link, along with fields for shopping, price, product ratings and purchasing. Tobi Lutke, CEO of Shopify, put rumours to rest on platform X, saying, 'There is so much potential in this [integration]. The beginning of a totally new modality of shopping. Extremely excited.' A new shopping paradigm? Taking the cue for Mr. Lutke's post, this integration between Shopify and ChatGPT marks a turning point in the evolution of online commerce that could dramatically shift how consumers discover and purchase products. If the partnership unfolds as planned, it will usher in a paradigm shift in shopping, moving away from conventional browser-based searches and embracing a conversational, AI-driven shopping environment. Historically, online commerce has relied heavily on search engines, social media platforms, and digital ads to funnel traffic to online stores. Shoppers typically start with a Google search, scroll through product listings, compare prices across sites, and then navigate through checkout flows that often involve multiple clicks and forms. This process, while familiar, is fragmented. The ChatGPT-Shopify integration could potentially create a seamless, in-chat shopping model. For instance, a user searching for the 'best running shoes' on a browser and clicking through 10 different links might switch to simply asking ChatGPT for a product recommendation. The bot would then suggest a curated set of products based on the query, user preferences, reviews, and possibly even previous interactions. Most importantly, the user could complete the purchase within the chat interface, thanks to the 'check-out' part included in the public web bundle. When AI connects buyers and sellers What we are witnessing with this type of integration is an entirely new, personalised way of shopping that could fundamentally change user behaviour, provided the integration is successful and the user finds value in the chatbot's recommendations. Also, in this model, ChatGPT will act as both the search engine and the storefront, blurring the lines between discovery, recommendation, and checkout. The bot's ability to play all these roles effectively will be put to the ultimate test, the result of which could disrupt the status quo in digital sales. While consumers could find this method to be faster and more personalised, for merchants hosting their service through Shopify, the stakes are even higher. And this integration could transform Shopify from a website-creating platform for merchants into a marketplace-like ecosystem, instantly giving its millions of merchants exposure to ChatGPT's user base, without extra marketing or integration work. This type of paradigm shift raises new challenges. Chief among them is visibility. For instance, if an AI chatbot acts as the new gatekeeper, how can brands ensure their products are featured? Would ChatGPT favour brands with more data, better reviews, or existing popularity, in effect reinforcing existing hierarchies as smaller or newer merchants may struggle unless AI ranking mechanisms are transparent and inclusive? Moreover, as chatbots summarise product descriptions in their own words, brands may lose control over how their products are represented. This could dilute brand identity and force companies to rethink how they communicate their value proposition, optimising not for human readers, but for AI comprehension. Despite these concerns, the broader trend is hard to ignore. As consumers grow more comfortable with AI tools and expect faster, more intuitive digital experiences, chatbot-based product discovery is poised to gain ground. ChatGPT meets Google Search To set the record straight, Google is still a colossal player in the global tech landscape with nearly 90% market share in the global search business. Alongside its search dominance, Google's advertising empire, bolstered by Google Ads, YouTube ads, and display ads, generates a significant portion of its income. However, the shopping feature in ChatGPT represents a looming threat to Google's dominance in this space. If consumers increasingly turn to AI chatbots for product discovery instead of browsing Google's search results pages, the Internet giant could see a significant disruption to its core business model. In a traditional search flow, users enter keywords into Google's search bar, explore links, compare products, and click on ads. Advertisers pay Google when their ad is clicked, driving much of its revenue. But, if ChatGPT becomes the preferred method of product discovery, users might no longer engage with Google's search engine as much for product searches. Instead, they could rely on the AI chatbot to instantly offer tailored product recommendations, complete with checkout options, without ever leaving the chatbot interface. The result could be a decline in click-through rates (CTRs) on Google ads for e-commerce-related queries, as users skip over traditional search results in favor of chatbot-driven, frictionless shopping experiences. Furthermore, if users no longer click through to external websites, Google's web traffic funnel, which supports a vast majority of its ad business, could shrink. Google's long game Google acknowledges the shift in the market and is enhancing its AI capabilities through AI Overviews, Gemini upgrades, and other AI features. Its AI chatbot has now surpassed others in leaderboards, and the company is focused on becoming an integral part of conversational commerce. However, its ability to compete with in-chat shopping tools will depend on its ability to innovate swiftly enough to deliver personalized and seamless customer experiences that consumers increasingly expect. While OpenAI's partnership with Shopify could potentially impact Google's search business in the near term, Google can easily mitigate this damage by leveraging its robust user data stack. This data stack, which spans search intent, behavioral, location, commercial, and contextual data, provides Google with a deep understanding of its users. This knowledge enables the company to predict demand, target ads, and train its own AI models for a more holistic user experience. Ultimately, Google's data stack could tip the balance in its favor in the long run. On the other hand, ChatGPT lacks a data stack that can compete against Google's. Additionally, Shopify, unlike Amazon, is merely a platform for sellers to build digital tools. Since the platform doesn't sell products, its data collection is limited to enabling merchants sell, and it doesn't retain any customer data. Given the nature of business Shopify is in, for OpenAI to compete against Google's search business with its Shopify integration, it must either own a browser or Shopify must become a sort of Amazon. Both of these changes are challenging to achieve. In fact, OpenAI, in November, considered building its own Chromium-based web browser. According to some reports, the company even hired top Google engineers who were part of building Chrome for Google. It is unclear where that plan stands currently. But, the Sam Altman-led company's anxiety came to the fore on this theme in April when they expressed interest in buying Google's Chrome browser if the US Judge Amit Mehta orders the Alphabet-owned company to divest Chrome.
Irish Times
24-04-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Revolut profit more than doubles to €922m as it eyes mortgages launch
Revolut's net profit more than doubled last year to £790 million (€922 million), driven by card fees and interest earned on surplus deposits placed with central banks, as the London-based fintech prepares to boost its lending by launching mortgages this year. Profit for the year rose by 129 per cent, according to Revolut's latest annual report, published on Thursday. Group revenues rose by 72 per cent to £3.1 billion. The biggest contributor was $790 million of net interest income, which rose 58 per cent, as Revolut placed more of its growing excess deposits with central banks, including the European Central Bank (ECB), and 'reputable financial institutions', according to the report. The ECB deposit rate was 4 per cent for the first half of 2024, but had fallen to 3 per cent by the year end. READ MORE Card payment revenues – including fees on international money transfers, merchant fees for transaction processing, and charges on cash withdrawals outside customer plans – rose 43 per cent to £694 million. Revenues from foreign exchange increased 58 per cent and those from wealth products rose 298 per cent to £422 million, driven by crypto and equities trading. Subscription revenues for its various plans – which are as expensive as €55 a month, for its Revolut Ultra card – advanced 74 per cent to £423 million. Total customer balances rose by two thirds to £30 billion, including money held off Revolut's balance sheet in money market funds and with partner firms. Deposits held on balance sheet amounted to £22.3 billion, while its fledgling lending business – mainly personal loans – stood at £979.3 million, leading to a very low loan-to-deposits ratio of 4.4 per cent. Revolut has previously said that it plans to start mortgage lending this year, initially in Lithuania, home to its euro zone banking licence, and followed by the Republic of Ireland, where customers rose 14 per cent last year to 3 million. Some three-quarters of adults in the State are now Revolut customers, according to the company. 'We began internally testing mortgages in 2024, moving us one step closer to being a part of one of the biggest financial decisions of our customers' lives,' group chief executive and co-founder Nik Storonsky said in the report. Revolut received its second banking licence in Mexico earlier this month and is hoping to secure full authorisation in the UK – its main market, with more than 50 million customers – this year. UK regulators gave Revolut a restricted licence, following a three-year wait, last July, after the group managed to file its first annual report in years without needing a deadline extension. Full banking authorisation in the UK is seen as a major milestone before an initial public offering (IPO) of the Softbank-backed group, which industry observers expect to take place next year. The group was valued at $48 billion last month by Schroders Capital Global Innovation Trust, an investment trust that has a small stake in the company. That marked an upgrade from the $45 billion value last summer when Revolut completed a secondary share sale to provide more liquidity for employees.
Time of India
23-04-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Entrepreneur Jason Kothari launches Mythik
Entrepreneur Jason Kothari has launched Mythik , a new tech-first global entertainment company from India. Mythik's vision is to tell Eastern mythology , history and folktales to a worldwide audience for the first-time and create the ' Disney from the East '. These ancient stories have a total built-in audience of 3.5 billion people globally and will be brought to life in a modern, immersive way using cutting-edge technology. Mythik's mission is to tell these legendary stories in a way that is impactful and inspires happiness, peace, and hope, the press note stated . 'Global entertainment has been dominated by Hollywood and Western stories. It's time to share Eastern stories - our history, culture, values, and greatest legends - with the world, leveraging cutting-edge technology across all aspects of the business to create a new tech-first entertainment company,' said Kothari, founder of Mythik. Kothari is an experienced entrepreneur and turnaround chief executive officer in entertainment and technology. While a Wharton college student, he acquired his childhood favourite comic book company Valiant Entertainment out of bankruptcy and became the chief executive office at 24 years old. He recruited the management team behind the historic Marvel Entertainment turnaround and led the turnaround of Valiant, resulting in the sale of the company to China-based DMG Entertainment . Following this, Kothari was chief executive officer of Softbank-backed where he led the transformation of the company and merger with a News Corp portfolio company. He was also chief executive officer of FreeCharge, where he led the strategic sale of the company to Axis Bank.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Y Combinator neobank Djamo raises $17M with 1M users across Francophone Africa
Djamo is one of several digital banking startups targeting Africa's underbanked. But unlike many that focus on large markets like Nigeria, Egypt, or South Africa, Djamo has carved out a niche in Francophone West Africa, specifically Ivory Coast and more recently Senegal, where it now serves over one million customers. The Y Combinator-backed fintech just raised $17 million to expand its product suite for retail customers and the thousands of small businesses it has onboarded in the last two years. The equity round, the largest ever for an Ivorian startup, surpasses Djamo's $14 million Series A in 2022 and reflects continued investor confidence in its mission to make banking accessible and affordable. Co-founder and CEO Hassan Bourgi declined to share the new valuation but said it has doubled since the last raise. Bourgi founded Djamo with chief product and technical officer Régis Bamba in 2020 to close the financial access gap in French-speaking African countries, where few adults have bank accounts. Traditional banks in the region often cater to the affluent, leaving most of the population reliant on mobile money, a cheaper method that includes using phone numbers to make financial transactions. Mobile money has been instrumental in expanding financial access across Africa. As of 2022, 28% of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa had a mobile money account, per the World Bank, and the region holds more than half of the world's total. But that progress has also created a ceiling. Most mobile money platforms offer basic services: cash-in, cash-out, P2P transfers, and bill payments. While useful, they don't unlock more advanced financial tools like credit, investments, or long-term savings. Djamo is positioning itself between mobile money and traditional banking. The startup offers the accessibility of mobile money with the financial depth of a bank account, a similar playbook that Softbank-backed OPay and Transsion-owned PalmPay have used to scale to tens of millions of customers in Nigeria. Its target is a growing segment of users, mostly younger customers, who've outgrown mobile money wallets but still find traditional banks expensive, outdated, or inaccessible, the founders say. 'These users are evolving,' said Bourgi. 'But they don't want to go where their parents went, into institutions with predatory pricing and aren't adapted to the new generation of customers. And this is what we are building, trying to become the go-to bank for this huge cohort of customers that is evolving now to more complex, wealth-building financing opportunities.' Consumer finance app Djamo eyes Francophone Africa expansion, backed by new $14M round Since our last coverage, Djamo has expanded beyond cards and peer-to-peer transfers. The Ivorian fintech now offers savings vaults, investment products — thanks to the region's first fintech-issued brokerage license — and salary-linked bank accounts, which Bourgi sees as important to boosting customer engagement. Like many neobanks, Djamo attracts banked users who treat it as a secondary account for smoother bill payments and mobile money integration. But it's the unbanked, more difficult to activate, who show greater long-term potential. These users, who make up over 55% of Djamo's base, often treat the app as their primary financial service. Bourgi says nine in ten users who rely on Djamo as their main account come from this segment. To reach more of them, Djamo has adopted a hybrid approach, combining its app with offline agents who meet customers in person to facilitate transactions, similar to the mobile money model now more broadly adopted by fintechs across the continent. Currently, only 5–10% of Djamo users receive salaries through the app. 'The next phase for us,' Bourgi said, 'is figuring out how to move from 10% to 50% of our users getting their salaries paid directly into Djamo.' Meanwhile, Djamo is also ramping up services for small businesses—about 10,000 of them, many of whom started as retail users. According to CTO Bamba, the startup now provides bulk payments, payment links, and QR code tools to help merchants accept and manage payments directly within the app. The fintech generates revenue from merchant fees on online card purchases and a premium tier plan, which 25% of users pay for. Bamba adds that the company is exploring additional revenue streams, including lending and earning interest on customer deposits. It is in the process of securing licenses that will allow it to offer interest-bearing savings accounts and credit products. Djamo's founders say the company has grown revenue 5x since 2022 and processed more than $4.5 billion in transactions since launch. Africa's newest fintech unicorns are winning by keeping their feet on the ground With its recent expansion into Senegal, Djamo has entered a market dominated by Wave, one of Africa's largest fintechs known for low-cost mobile money transfers. But rather than compete directly, Djamo positions itself as a complementary service, offering a digital banking experience where users can store funds and access more advanced tools like savings, investments, and credit. Now a 250-person team, Djamo is betting that its new round of funding, led by pan-African, gender-focused VC Janngo Capital, will help it scale those services across French-speaking Africa. 'We are thrilled to lead the largest VC round in Ivory Coast and double down on Djamo, a mission-driven fintech transforming access to financial services across Francophone West Africa,' said Fatoumata Bâ, founder and executive chair of Janngo Capital. 'In a region where fewer than 25% of adults have access to formal financial services, and where women are twice as likely to be excluded, this is a vital mission. With women making up a third of its users, Djamo is not only closing the gender gap but unlocking economic opportunity at scale.' Other investors participating in the round include SANAD Fund for MSMEs (managed by Finance in Motion), Partech, Oikocredit, Enza Capital, and Y Combinator. Sign in to access your portfolio
