In January this year, Tata Digital's BigBasket announced its rebranding for slotted delivery service to “Supersaver”, promising to deliver products in under two hours. Back when Tata had acquired the BigBasket at a reported valuation of $2 billion in mid-2021, the company was loss-making. But for those at BigBasket, it was an opportunity to shift their focus back to the company’s core business: doorstep grocery delivery. While it was a bit too late when Tata realised its new acquisition was left...
Apr 05, 2024•12 min•Ep. 206
The government of India launched Digiyatra, a contactless, facial-recognition-based passenger-entry system, in December 2023. The idea was for those who sign up on the platform to avoid the tedious process of getting their ID and flight tickets checked by CISF personnel at airports. But lately, stories of passengers being forced to sign up for the app are surfacing on social media. Just this week, there were reports of Digiyatra forcing users to move to a new app without notice. Meanwhile, airli...
Apr 03, 2024•11 min•Ep. 205
The entire logic of buying online instead of going to a store rests on e-commerce companies making it easy to return stuff. What if it doesnt fit me? What if it is damaged? Just ask for a return and someone comes to your doorstep and picks it up. However, as it turns out, e-commerce companies hate returns because reverse logistics are a costly affair for them. Now, the likes of Ajio and Myntra are changing their return policies. Some are even blocking some customer accounts. But are customers re...
Apr 01, 2024•10 min•Ep. 204
Earlier this week, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) cleared Manipal group chief Ranjan Pai's investment in online pharmacy PharmEasy. So far Pharmeasy, once the highest-valued Indian healthcare startup, has raised Rs 3,500 crore through a rights issue. But it raised this money at a 90 per cent discount to its peak valuation. From $5.6 billion to $500 million! All because it had to take another debt to pay off its previous debt. The second time though, interest rates were not zero. What’...
Mar 29, 2024•12 min•Ep. 203
Beyond the nostalgia associated with meals on trains, quite often, there are also horror stories. In fact, even a recent Parliament Panel report pointed out how food quality on Indian trains is compromised. The IRCTC (The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation) has been trying to figure out how to make food a more enjoyable experience on trains and more importantly, a solid source of revenue. A decade ago, IRCTC launched its e-catering services. It now has a network of nearly 500 resta...
Mar 27, 2024•12 min•Ep. 202
Not long ago, Suhail Sameer, former BharatPe CEO had said UPI will do to credit what the likes of companies like BharatPe did to debit a few years back. India has more than 960 million debit cards in the country and only about 85 million credit cards. But conditions in the credit market are headed towards a disruption because of UPI and there’s one area of the whole credit ecosystem where it is undeniably going to change the game. In fact, we could go out on a limb to say that credit via UPI cou...
Mar 22, 2024•10 min•Ep. 201
More than 70% of fraudulent banking transfers in India are KYC-linked scams. A senior official at the Financial Intelligence Unit, a national agency responsible for analysing data on suspect financial transactions informed The Ken that KYC frauds amount to over Rs 900 crore ($108 million) per year. One such fraudster who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity said, ““KYC is an easy trick to pull off. People have heard about banks freezing accounts due to non-compliance with KYC norms. So they...
Mar 19, 2024•9 min•Ep. 200
Have you noticed how easy it has become to get loans? Whether you want to buy a whole house or you want to buy a pair of shoes, you can take an EMI for whatever you want. And of course, in India, an aspirational country, this means we finally have a way to attain the standard of living we have dreamed of. In the year that ended in March 2023 household debt saw its second-highest surge since independence. It now makes up almost 6% of the country’s GDP. But as indebtedness is rising, so are cases ...
Mar 18, 2024•13 min•Ep. 199
Swiggy has always been proud of the culture of innovation that it has fostered over the years for its employees. In fact, it is this very approach that helped it achieve the coveted unicorn status. But with the IPO scheduled for this year and its pursuit to profitability, innovation is no longer being encouraged. It has become way more challenging for newer projects to take off. And though it is natural for a company that is growing bigger to become more risk-averse, for Swiggy, this means a cul...
Mar 15, 2024•10 min•Ep. 198
From shadow-banning, content flagging, suspension and even account deletion, content creators are grappling with a variety of censorship methods on social media platforms—all in the name of maintaining community guidelines. But with social media platforms relying more and more on AI and machine-learning tools identify and remove violating content, even content aimed at creating sexual, social, and political awareness ends up being taken down. And sex-ed and news content creators on platforms lik...
Mar 13, 2024•11 min•Ep. 197
After the pandemic years, Kota’s coaching industry saw an unprecedented boom. Money was pouring in from everywhere–from edtechs to investors. In the last five years, Kota saw about 2 lakh engineering and medical aspirants, on average, arrive from across the country. Kota runs on stiff competition not just among the students but also among the scores of institutes that host and prep them. But since the past four months, Kota’s reputation has been on the line. Student admissions have dropped, with...
Mar 11, 2024•11 min•Ep. 196
As we know, Paytm* is in deep trouble but you know what they say about one man’s loss? It is another man’s gain. When the RBI killed Paytm Payments Bank’s services, it also meant it could not to accept deposits or top-ups in its customer accounts, including wallets and Fastag. Fastag is India’s electronic toll-collection system. Its basically a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology-enabled card that is fixed on a car’s windscreen. It helps in making toll payments directly from the cus...
Mar 08, 2024•9 min•Ep. 195
A few years ago, Blinkit, the grocery delivery platform that was formerly known as Grofers, was on the verge of dying. It was the first year of the pandemic and the demand for quick commerce was at its peak. Grofers wanted to join the bandwagon but it didnt have the money. A year later in June 2021, it got its shot in the arm with a $120 Mn infusion from Zomato. Next thing we knew, Grofers had become Blinkit and also a unicorn company. And then in 2022, Zomato decided to go all the way in and ac...
Mar 06, 2024•10 min•Ep. 194
On Friday, Google removed a bunch of popular apps like Bharat Matrimony, Shaadi.com,Naukri.com and even some dating apps like Truly Madly and Quack Quack from its Playstore. The tech giant said it was because these apps were not compliant with its billing policy. The impact was immediately felt in the stock market. For example, shares of Info Edge that owns Naukri and 99 acres fell 3% on Saturday These apps were scrambling and somehow at the end of the day, the government intervened and we heard...
Mar 04, 2024•11 min•Ep. 193
Tata Motors' EV subsidiary, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited (TPEML), is prepping for a potential IPO in the next year or so. It wants to raise $1-2 billion. In the first half of 2023, Tata Motors dominated 75% of the passenger EV market share in India despite relentless competition from the likes of Mahindra & Mahindra and other newer rivals. The auto-maker's revenue for FY23 stood at almost $8 billion. The not-so-secret secret behind this success Tata Motors' its Xpres-T EV sedan—t...
Mar 01, 2024•10 min•Ep. 192
It was National Protein Day in India on February 27. The government initiative is meant to increase awareness about the importance of protein in India, a country where eight out of every ten of people don't meet their daily protein requirement. According to the ICMR every individual should consume at least 48 grams of protein everyday. But after the pandemic, people are actively looking to include protein rich foods in their diet. And that’s where Amul wants to come in. The behemoth wants to use...
Feb 27, 2024•11 min•Ep. 191
2024 is going to be the hottest month on record. Weather watchers have described the rise in new heat records around the world as “insane”, “total madness” and “climatic history rewritten” India is also witnessing a surge in the demand for electricity in general. and the crisis is at its peak in the summers. As incomes rise and populations grow, especially in the world’s hotter regions, the use of air conditioners is becoming increasingly common. An estimated 10 million ACs were sold in India al...
Feb 26, 2024•10 min•Ep. 190
Advertisements on the food-delivery giant Swiggy are only growing in number and variety— from banners and icons to full-blown video ads. If you're wondering what id going on, it's all a part of Swiggy's preparation for its upcoming IPO. It needs to boost its revenue and ads are a great way to make more money with every order. But while Swiggy is doubling down on its four year old advertising business to boost its topline, its restaurant partners are crying foul. Tune in to find out why. Daybreak...
Feb 23, 2024•11 min•Ep. 189
India’s nutraceutical market is estimated to be worth $4-5 billion and the government expects it to be worth almost five times more in the next two years. As important as it is to monitor the rapidly growing market, regulations have not really kept up. In a post-pandemic world where preventive healthcare has become all the rage, a dangerous situation is being created. Health supplement makers are flouting RDA guidelines and consumers have been paying little attention. Now, the health ministry of...
Feb 21, 2024•11 min•Ep. 188
Bengaluru is best known for two things: great weather and terrible traffic. The Silcon Valley of India is the sixth slowest city in the world! How come no one has come up with some innovative tech-based solutions? Actually, they have. But you’ll be surprised to know that one the key reasons why the city's traffic troubles never end is because the focus has mostly been only on tech driven efforts. Tune in. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken , India’s first subscriber-only business ...
Feb 19, 2024•12 min•Ep. 187
While most startups were facing a reckoning earlier last year with mass layoffs, Licious, the meat delivery platform, was sitting proud, unaffected. Both the founders, Hanjura and Gupta, were giving interviews talking about how their company had made no job cuts and how they did not want that kind of bad karma. It became the anomaly in a market that was seeing a bloodbath that going on all around. But to be honest, the strategy of not laying off, didnt really help Licious. In fact, it saw some o...
Feb 16, 2024•11 min•Ep. 186
The Reserve Bank of India has barred Paytm from continuing all its banking services via Paytm Payments Bank after February 29. It's been operational since 2017 and its services include current and savings accounts, fixed deposits with partner banks, and balance in wallets, UPI, and FASTag, among other services. The RBI has basically said it cannot take any more deposits or conduct credit transactions. This also means no top-ups on any customers accounts, prepaid instruments, wallets, and cards f...
Feb 14, 2024•10 min•Ep. 185
Season 3 of one of the country’s most popular reality TV shows, Shark Tank India, premiered on January 22, 2024. The show has given rise to a significant demand for startup investing. Investors are able to put in as little as Rs 5000 via online fundraising platforms like Tyke Invest and Infubiz. They offer investments in startups through Community Subscription Offer Plans. But these fundraising campaigns are not subject to securities laws and investors in these instruments do not have any shareh...
Feb 12, 2024•11 min•Ep. 184
The results for the latest quarter for Freshworks are out and the US-based Saas company has beaten Wall Street estimates. It posted a revenue of nearly $600 million for FY 2023. Its losses, meanwhile, have narrowed by over 40%. Just a year ago, the story was slightly different. In the same quarter in 2023, the company saw a decline in its net dollar retention rate. Even though the free cash flow was healthy and the revenue climbed 20%, it looked like the comapny was struggling to retain its cust...
Feb 09, 2024•11 min•Ep. 183
It wont be a stretch to say that the Meftal Spas is life-changing for those who suffer from dysmenorrhea. The medicine which is a combination mefenamic acid and dicyclomine was launched more than 40 years ago by Blue Cross Labs, an Indian pharma company. Meftal Spas enjoys the lion’s share of the market at nearly 90%. But at the end of November last year, the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, issued a drug safety alert on m...
Feb 07, 2024•9 min•Ep. 182
It took Bajaj Finance over 15 years to become the most valued NBFC in the country. And then came along Jio Financial Services Ltd (JFSL) and took the no. 2 position in a span of just two months. It is currently valued at more than $17 billion. Its all set to take the top space. Currently, the company is on a serious hiring spree and it seems to have taken a particular liking to former ICICI Bank employees for its key executive roles. After all, a lot of its future success will depend on the team...
Feb 05, 2024•12 min•Ep. 181
When the govt of India came up with the budget, taxpayers were given 2 options: move to the new tax regime or continue with the old one. The tax rates in the new regime were clearly lower. But despite this, most chose to stick to the old regime. Even with comparatively higher tax rates the old tax regime has remained popular amongst Indian taxpayers. Tune in. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken , India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, de...
Feb 02, 2024•9 min•Ep. 180
It was Dominoes that made delivery under 30 minutes a thing. Before Swiggy and Zomato came along, Domino’s was more or less the only place you could order in from. It showed Indians that pizza could be cheap and also enjoyed in our own houses. Jubilant, the company that runs the Dominos franchisee in India has nearly 3/4ths of the pizza market share which is also why it is among the first to be affected down by the slowdown in consumption. Jubilant’s shares have grown up by just under 3% in the ...
Jan 31, 2024•8 min•Ep. 179
Byju’s financials for the Financial year 2022, are finally out. Almost 2 years late. And unsurprisingly, it doesn't paint a very pretty picture. The edtech giant posted a consolidated loss of more than 8000 crore rupees on an operating revenue of around 5000 crores. And that’s not all…its valuation has dipped from about 22 billion dollars in the last funding round to less than a billion now. Its quite the fall. Now the cash strapped company is desperately looking to raise $100 million via a righ...
Jan 29, 2024•9 min•Ep. 178
Happy Republic Day, dear listeners. Today is a public holiday but if you're still tuning in, here is an older episode of Daybreak you might like: All the twists and turns in the journey of startups have been well-documented since VC funding began drying up over the past year or so. In the first half of 2022, Indian startups received more than $17 billion dollars. But a year later in 2023. they just got a little over $5 billion. What’s we’ve barely heard about, though, is what is happening to the...
Jan 26, 2024•10 min•Ep. 177
