Last week, Foxtale, an Indian D2C skincare company secured an $18 million funding in its series B round. Meanwhile, news also broke that the Deepika Padukone-led 82°E is planning to raise around $6 million from new and existing investors. Scores of new age skincare and beauty brands have cropped up since the pandemic and all of them harp on the science of skincare and their whole appeal is transparency. Among them one brand stands out: Minimalist. It is an active ingredients based skincare compa...
Jun 17, 2024•10 min•Ep. 251
There is something really concerning happening to India’s 200-million strong workforce. Nearly half of them, who are above the age of 45, have reached a point in their careers where they may have to retire much earlier than they planned. Against their will. In a nutshell, the usual career span that would last anything between 40 to 50 years even has been slashed by half almost….. to just 20 or 25 years. But this isn’t something that a lot of 40 and 50 year olds are taking lying down. They are fi...
Jun 13, 2024•43 min•Ep. 250
Zomato, the food delivery giant is all set to infuse more than $35 million into Blinkit. But not too long 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. A year later, in 2022, Zomato decided to ...
Jun 13, 2024•10 min•Ep. 249
When 29-year-old Deepa delivered a healthy baby boy six months ago, she thought her health insurance would cover her hospital expenses. But unfortunately, it barely covered 1/3rd of the Rs 1 lakh bill. So she ended up using her corporate health insurance that offered a higher limit. And this isn’t a one off. The Ken spoke to 13 women from six different cities who delivered babies in the last couple of years. Most of them had experiences just like Deepa. Seven of them said they got their maternit...
Jun 12, 2024•13 min•Ep. 248
When e-commerce giant Flipkart acquired online travel aggregator (OTA) Cleartrip back in 2021, the hope was that it would be able to turn things around. Cleartrip had hit rock bottom. And in many ways the only way from there on was up. But things haven’t quite played out as Flipkart and Cleartrip had hoped. One big reason is that Cleartrip under Flipkart may have veered too far away from what makes an OTA an OTA — the OG tried-and-tested strategies that made us keep going back to old school trav...
Jun 11, 2024•13 min•Ep. 247
Last year, Indians collectively drank nearly 600 million litres of energy drinks. This was almost 30X more than 2018. Among all the go to drinks in India, lately energy drinks have become super popular. People seem to clearly be attracted to their appeal as stimulants. And what’s crazy is that these drinks have become an alternative to chai at tea stalls for office goers. And even for daily wage workers who have to work in this insane heat, they are often a cheaper meal replacement. For the more...
Jun 10, 2024•10 min•Ep. 246
Desi dating apps are vying for parental approval. And their strategy seems to be working. A couple months ago, Agrima Srivastava, a 29-year-old media professional from Lucknow, had an awkward conversation with her mother. She wanted to know if Agrima had ever heard of Indian dating apps, Aisle and Better Half. That was the first time Agrima had an open conversation with her mother about her love life. She told her that she was on dating apps, but homegrown ones like Aisle and Better half, were "...
Jun 07, 2024•36 min•Ep. 245
It has been a tough couple of years for India’s Chartered accountants. This was and to some extent still is one of the most sought after jobs in the country. But lately, the amount of risk involved in their work has been amped up considerably. And as a result, CAs have been resigning left, right and centre. The reason this is happening is because the auditing industry has been undergoing a major shake-up. And behind this shakeup is a relatively new, independent audit regulator called the NFRA, o...
Jun 06, 2024•11 min•Ep. 244
According to a survey by S&P, more than 75% of Indian adults do not understand basic financial concepts. The gap is 5% more when it comes to women. So the rise of financial influencers who simplify complex financial jargon and provide investment advice is not really surprising. But often, they underplay risks and overplay returns, and try to ride the market waves. In fact, SEBI, the market capital regulator, has been receiving many complaints and is working on creating a framework of strict ...
Jun 05, 2024•11 min•Ep. 243
Since 2021, Toyota and Maruti have been engaged in somewhat of a marriage of convenience. The terms were pretty simple. Toyota would share its hybrid technology with Maruti Suzuki. In exchange, Toyota would get to re-enter the pocket-friendly segment. So what this meant was that the non-premium Toyota cars sold were actually built by Maruti. And the fully hybrid cars sold under the Maruti label were built by Toyota. This arrangement has worked well for both companies for multiple reasons. The bi...
Jun 04, 2024•14 min•Ep. 242
Credit card companies, in their rush to sell more and more cards use a whole gamut of attractive offers—the most popular one being free access to airport lounges. Thanks to this and the sharp rise in domestic air travellers, airport lounges saw of footfall of over 8 million people in 2022. What was once an exclusive service became a top-selling feature, even for non-premium cards issued by banks. Lounge access became overused and an expensive bill to foot for credit card issuers. Now, one after ...
Jun 03, 2024•10 min•Ep. 241
In today’s special Friday episode, The Ken’s Praveen Gopal Krishnan (aka PGK) joins hosts Snigdha and Rahel to talk about India’s complicated relationship with 10 minute delivery apps. They talk about how these apps are shaping our economy and society at large, and more importantly how we, as users, are shaping them. Why do we pick a particular app, what makes us switch to another one and what makes us abandon them all together? PGK asked his readers just that in a recent survey he carried out i...
May 30, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 240
At the time of demonetisation, the country was desperately seeking an alternative to cash. And a payments regulator called NPCI or the National Payments Corporation of India, was our unexpected knight in shining armour. The NPCI managed to launch UPI at just the right time. This was a revolutionary, once in a generation product that really put the NPCI on the map. Over the years, UPI also became a huge political asset for the Central Government. That’s evident from the fact that political leader...
May 30, 2024•12 min•Ep. 239
New-age D2C mattress brands like Wakefit and The Sleep Company have successfully made orthopaedic mattresses into a mass product. They are changing the landscape of the mattress market in India with their innovative science and tech based approach and clever marketing techniques. Wakefit, for example, literally offers a “sleep internship" where all you have to do is "sleep for 9 hours everyday for a hundred days and earn up to 10 lakh rupees." It's come to a point where even older and bigger mat...
May 29, 2024•9 min•Ep. 238
A couple months ago, Xiaomi released a new product – the SU7. This wasn’t a smartphone, or any other gadget that you would have otherwise associated with the Chinese company. The SU7 is actually Xiaomi’s first-ever Electric Vehicle. Now, this is a major milestone for Xiaomi. It has become the first smartphone maker to successfully launch an EV. Funnily enough, this is something that many smartphone makers and technology companies – from Apple to Samsung – have tried to do but failed at. Until no...
May 28, 2024•13 min•Ep. 237
Indians have really been warming up to credit cards lately. More than a 100 million credit cards are in circulation in India as of now. And this rise has a lot to do with the benefits customers get: cash back deals and reward points that you can collect and redeem for anything from flight tickets to stays at fancy resorts. But between the two, cashbacks are a more straightforward method of making the most of your credit card. Availing reward points, on the other hand, requires a combination of s...
May 27, 2024•10 min•Ep. 236
In this week's Daybreak Special episode, hosts Snigdha Sharma and Rahel Philipose speak to The Ken's Shivani Verma about her investigation into Pharmeasy's dubious business practices. The once IPO-bound company is under the scanner for its 'unethical' ways of upselling alternative medicines and supplements. Everyone – from Pharmeasy's own pharmacists, to the doctors who call behalf of the company to validate a customer's prescription – are under pressure to sell these supplements. The saga began...
May 24, 2024•27 min•Ep. 235
Thanks to Swiggy and Blinkit, it’s gotten to a point where getting everything – from your groceries to a literal water cooler – delivered to your doorstep within minutes has become pretty routine. Something we expect. But there is so much going on behind the scenes to make that delivery possible. Like one executive told The Ken, it’s a combination of solid logistics and precise inventory management. Pulling that off with just groceries that you can easily throw into a carrier and strap on to a b...
May 23, 2024•11 min•Ep. 234
If you were flying sometime last month, you may have noticed, staff from Digiyatra, the contactless, biometric entry system at airports, were repeating the same thing over and over again to passengers at the entrance: “The old app is discontinued, please download the new app.” Passengers were only given this information at the airport. None of them received any notifications or SMSes. Apart from inconveniencing passengers, this also sent alarm bells ringing among some of them. Because, think abo...
May 22, 2024•10 min•Ep. 233
No other payment aggregator has been able to pull off what Phonepe has in less than a year. Its nearly 50 per cent market share is obviously a huge draw for new merchants. And in the last couple years, its been able to onboard some pretty big names like Bharti Airtel and IRCTC. But the bigger the client, the more ruthless their demands. At the end of the day, they are only loyal to the aggregator that promises them the lowest prices and highest success rates. So how does PhonePe make sure that i...
May 21, 2024•13 min•Ep. 232
The lure of appearing on the popular reality show on national television is so strong that even startups that already have been funded by VCs and institutional investors want to get on Shark Tank. In fact, investors themselves are asking their founders to go on the show. Money or funding is not the goal for these startups. It's the marketing opportunity they want. But Sony, the producer of the Shark Tank is trying its best to make sure that the show doesn't lose its real purpose: to be an invest...
May 20, 2024•9 min•Ep. 231
Contrary to its name, the US-based skincare brand 'The Ordinary' pulled off something pretty extraordinary when it was launched in 2016. From the beginning, it was all about transparency. It veered away from fancy packaging, instead opting for simple labels that list out all of the main ingredients, or 'actives', that were used to make the product. And just like that, the brand managed to demystify active ingredients for everyone! This kicked off somewhat of a skincare revolution around the worl...
May 17, 2024•29 min•Ep. 230
CP Plus, one of the most popular CCTV camera-makers in India, gets 80% of its supplies for its parent company, Aditya Infotech Ltd (AIL), from the Chinese security-equipment manufacturer Dahua Technology. Dahua and Hikvision, another Chinese surveillance-tech firm, are facing sanctions in the UK, US, Australia, and other countries, for their connection to the Chinese government. But in India growing surveillance tech market, both these companies enjoy more than a 50% market share. And bringing t...
May 16, 2024•12 min•Ep. 229
A few days ago Meesho closed the first tranche of its $600 million funding round by securing $275 million. The e-commerce unicorn has impressed investors lately thanks to its sustainded operating growth and the reduction in its monthly burn rate. Over time, the platform has built a kind of dominance in India’s smaller cities and towns that become the envy of its competitors —all thanks to its super affordable unbranded products. But now, Meesho wants to boost its profits. For it, it's relying on...
May 15, 2024•9 min•Ep. 228
You may be surprised by how often bank lockers are robbed. According to Finance Ministry data, close to Rs 200 crore has been stolen from locker facilities in the last three years alone. This is pretty disconcerting, especially considering that for the longest time the bank locker has been considered the safest place to store your most precious valuables. It also doesn’t help that every aspect of locker management in banks – from actually opening your locker, to eventually closing it – is extrem...
May 14, 2024•14 min•Ep. 227
When Gaurav Munjal started Unacademy, the edtech unicorn, he hated the offline coaching business. Edtech companies have tried to stay away from offline because of a number of reasons like low profit margins and huge capital. But with the edtech downturn, Gaurav Munjal, finally admitted to the press that he’d been wrong and had overestimated the online business. This came at a time when Unacademy's online business was free falling. So the edtech shifted focus to its offline coaching network which...
May 13, 2024•12 min•Ep. 226
When it comes to debit cards and ATM networks, no one can beat the State Bank of India. But being the market leader of debit cards in India is actually turning out to be a problem for the public lender. With Indians becoming more open to credit cards and UPI swamping the market, debit cards are dying a slow death. In fact, a lot of industry experts agree that debit cards, in their current physical form, may actually become obsolete in the coming decade. And by being the biggest player in this ma...
May 10, 2024•12 min•Ep. 225
With increased competition within the country, the world leader of Ayurveda brands, Dabur, is looking to acquire and expand. It wants to change its story and focus on a new target consumer. For example, the company's toothpaste brand Dabur Herb'l Charcoal recently collaborated with Disney for its Star Wars franchise and hired Darth Vader as its chief innovative officer. Just last year in October, it also acquired a 51% stake in Badshah Masala, one of the country’s leading spices companies. But w...
May 08, 2024•12 min•Ep. 224
Aditya Birla Fashion is arguably one of India's most complex listed retailers. It has dozens of really diverse fashion brands and retail formats under it. On one hand it has high-end luxury labels like Sabyasachi and Tarun Tahiliani, and on the other, it also owns the retail chain Pantaloons and labels like Allen Solly, and Louis Phillip — names that we all know because they are accessible to most people. Now, you would think this we-have-something-for-everyone strategy must be working out great...
May 07, 2024•14 min•Ep. 223
A few years ago, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy had set a target of 40% growth across all categories for Flipkart. But in 2023, it was still stuck at 20%. So the company is now on a mission. It wants to push growth, gain market share, and turn a profit. So in January this year, Flipkarts top execs along with the CEO came together for a meeting to outline a roadmap for 2024. Krishnamurthy wanted Flipkart to introduce a loyalty programme for top spenders, give out more incentives to ensure cust...
May 06, 2024•10 min•Ep. 222
