Additionally on this letter:
- Chatbot makers bullish on WhatsApp’s ecomm ambitions
- Crypto rules could convey unhealthy information for NFTs
- Shiprocket raises $185 million from Zomato, Temasek, others
With 60% market share, Flipkart has a cracker of a Diwali
The Flipkart Group, together with style portal Myntra, bagged a market share of around 60% during this year’s Diwali sales, in accordance with information from PGA Labs. Amazon India, in the meantime, accounted for 32% of complete gross sales, in contrast with round 25% final 12 months.
Festive king: This hole, whereas noteworthy, shrinks when the annual GMV is taken into account. PGA Labs estimates that Flipkart Group’s GMV shall be round $22 billion in FY22 and was round $18 billion in FY21. For Amazon India, its estimates are $18 billion in FY22 and $15 billion in FY21.
PGA Labs estimates that the scale of India’s ecommerce will improve to $60 billion in FY22 and to $75 billion in FY23.
Recap: This 12 months, each Flipkart and Amazon India reacted to one another’s gross sales strikes nearly immediately, displaying how intense the competitors was. Each companies modified the beginning dates of their flagship gross sales over the course of a single weekend to make sure their sale didn’t begin after the opposite’s. Finally, each gross sales kicked off on October 3.
Preventing on all fronts: Flipkart and Amazon India are additionally constructing their on-line grocery companies throughout India. Tata-owned BigBasket is the biggest participant within the house, which additionally consists of Zomato-backed Grofers.
No IPO timeline: Walmart chief monetary officer Brett Biggs stated there was no particular timeline for Flipkart’s preliminary public providing, at the same time as the net retailer is on its path to profitability, we reported on Wednesday.
“The (Flipkart) enterprise is performing nearly precisely like we thought it will. An IPO remains to be very a lot on the playing cards for that enterprise. Similar to the whole lot else; it is the timing. Is the enterprise precisely the place you need? Is the market proper? All these issues need to determine into what you do with an IPO,” Biggs stated.
Chatbot makers bullish on WhatsApp’s ecommerce ambitions
WhatsApp is getting into ecommerce in earnest, and chatbot makers couldn’t be happier.
What’s taking place? Because the world’s largest messaging app’s ecommerce plans take off in India, conversational synthetic intelligence (AI) platforms corresponding to Haptik, Yellow.ai, Gupshup and Verloop.io are busy creating chatbots for manufacturers to promote merchandise to clients.
JioMart lately stated it clients might now fill their procuring baskets inside WhatsApp and pay both by way of UPI or in money. Ever since, many direct-to-consumer manufacturers are eager to observe swimsuit, the top of a number of conversational AI platforms instructed us.
“WhatsApp is poised to be the WeChat of India,” stated Aakrit Vaish, CEO of Haptik, which constructed JioMart’s WhatsApp chatbot.
He added that he expects “each single model” to get into WhatsApp ecommerce within the subsequent six to 9 months. Vaish additionally stated that he expects 25-30% of Haptik’s estimated income of $100 million within the subsequent 3-5 years to come back from constructing for WhatsApp commerce.
D2C heaven: ‘WhatsApp commerce’ shall be notably helpful for smaller direct-to-consumer (DTC) manufacturers, as a result of “one of many largest issues for D2C manufacturers is distribution,” stated Rashid Khan, cofounder and chief product officer of Yellow.ai.
Not the primary: WhatsApp isn’t the primary app to attempt constructing an ecommerce layer on prime of its core providing. PhonePe and Paytm have additionally constructed layers on prime of their core fee product, aiming to be India’s first ‘tremendous app’. However WhatsApp is prone to get extra engagement for manufacturers than different apps, on condition that it has 400 million customers in India and is without doubt one of the most continuously used apps within the nation.
Tweet of the day
Crypto rules could convey unhealthy information for NFTs
India’s cryptocurrency bill may bring bad news for non-fungible tokens or NFTs.
Issues: The worry within the investor group is how the regulation will outline NFTs. The federal government is trying to categorise cryptocurrencies as commodities, however many really feel that placing NFTs into the identical bucket would solely create extra problems. Trade consultants say whereas NFTs are constructed on the identical blockchain know-how as cryptocurrencies, they have to be handled otherwise as they serve totally different functions.
NFT growth: The marketplace for NFTs – a sort of crypto asset by which every token is totally distinctive – is choosing up in India, with several celebrities such as Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan and Salman Khan jumping on the bandwagon.
Fallout: Many Indian exchanges that have been trying to launch separate NFT marketplaces have postponed their plans for worry of the impression of the brand new cryptocurrency regulation.
Quote: “It’s just about a pure development for any change to have NFT, however we’ll await about two quarters for readability on the regulation round cryptocurrency earlier than we launch this function,” stated Sathvik Vishwanath, cofounder and CEO of Unocoin, a cryptocurrency change.
Shiprocket closes $185 million funding from Zomato, Temasek and others
Shiprocket founders (from left) Akshay Ghulati, Vishesh Khurana, Saahil Goel and Gautam Kapoor
Shiprocket, a logistics aggregator, has raised $185 million in a Series E funding spherical co-led by Zomato, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek, and Lightrock India, a senior firm govt instructed us.
ET was the first to report on September 8 that the corporate deliberate to boost capital from Temasek and others.
Valuation: The corporate didn’t share the anticipated valuation after the funding spherical, however individuals briefed on the matter stated it will be $900-950 million.
Deal particulars: Zomato invested $75 million whereas Temasek infused $50 million and Lightrock $40 million. Information Edge Ventures pumped in $10 million whereas Moore Capital invested $5 million. The remaining got here from numerous particular person traders.
Of the entire $185 million, $25 million was in a secondary share sale, by which a few of its early traders, worker inventory choice holders and angel traders offered some or all of their shares. In a secondary share sale, new traders purchase shares from current traders; the cash doesn’t go to the corporate.
ETtech Performed Offers
■ Consulting, know-how and managed providers supplier to the Connectedness vertical, Prodapt introduced that it has acquired SLR Dynamics, a UK-based firm focussed on digital engineering and automation providers within the TMT business. The scale of the deal was not disclosed. That is Prodapt’s second acquisition for the 12 months following its acquisition of Silicon Valley-based Modern Logic in August.
■ Direct-to-consumer private and residential care merchandise startup Clensta on Thursday stated it has raised Rs 20 crore funding from Hem Angels, a part of Hem Securities Ltd, Enterprise Catalysts and Inflection Level Ventures. Current traders N+1 Capital (RBF) and different traders additionally invested within the Collection A spherical.
■ Zumutor Biologics, a biotechnology startup within the immuno-oncology house, has raised $6.2 million in fresh funding led by Siana Capital, because it appears to be like to get to part 1 medical trials within the US for its lead antibody molecule for prostate most cancers (ZM 008) by the center of subsequent 12 months. The most recent spherical additionally noticed participation from current traders Accel and Bharat Innovation Fund, bringing the entire capital raised by the Boston-headquartered agency thus far to $27 million.
MapmyIndia IPO subscribed 2.02 occasions on day 1
The preliminary public providing (IPO) of CE Information Programs, which runs MapmyIndia, opened for public subscription on Thursday with a value band of Rs 1,000-1,033 a share. The three-day concern will shut on December 13 and the corporate’s shares are anticipated to checklist on exchanges on December 21.
Day 1 particulars: The provide was fully subscribed inside a number of hours and by the top of the primary day of bidding, it was subscribed 2.02 occasions. The corporate acquired greater than 1.42 crore bids throughout each the inventory exchanges for the 70.45 lakh shares on provide.
Right here’s the breakup:
- Retail quota: 3.28 occasions (3,522,381 shares on provide)
- Certified institutional patrons quota: 0.46 occasions (2,012,789 shares)
- Non-institutional patrons quota: subscribed 1.17 occasions (1,509,592 shares)
IPO particulars: The IPO contains solely a suggestion on the market (OFS) of as much as 10,063,945 fairness shares by current shareholders and promoters. This implies the corporate itself is not going to obtain something from the IPO. On Wednesday the digital mapping firm stated it had raised Rs 312 crore from anchor traders forward of the general public concern.
No Razorpay IPO simply but: In the meantime, RazorPay cofounder and chief govt Harshil Mathur stated that an IPO, whereas very a lot within the firm’s plans, was still a couple of years away. He stated he desires to scale the corporate’s banking and lending arm earlier than going public.
“If you wish to exit and lift cash within the public markets, it’s higher to be a full-fledged monetary ecosystem firm, slightly than only a funds firm, which is a core a part of our enterprise at this time,” he stated.
US Dept of Labor says Cigniti violated H-1B pointers
The US Division of Labor has recovered $64,244 from IT services firm Cigniti Technologies for illegally ‘benching’ an H-1B employee within the US, in violation of the visa programme.
Cigniti Applied sciences in Irving employed a system analyst below the H-1B visa programme, then failed to make use of and pay the employee the required prevailing wage for non-productive time—an unlawful follow referred to as ‘benching’, the DOL stated in a press release.
The investigation by the division’s New Orleans District Workplace led to the restoration of $64,244 in wages owed to the worker.
Quote: “The division’s Wage and Hour Division decided Cigniti Applied sciences Inc benched the worker illegally over a 15-month interval, and didn’t pay the total, pro-rated quantity of the employee’s prevailing wage for durations of non-productive work. By doing so, the employer violated the necessities of the federal H-1B visa programme,” it stated.
“Employers who rent staff below the H-1B visa programme should adjust to all authorized necessities, that are clearly detailed within the programme’s software course of,” stated Wage and Hour District director Troy Mouton in New Orleans
In a press release, Cigniti stated it had reached an amicable settlement with the worker.
Different High Tales By Our Reporters
Crypto token ought to be handled as particular class of securities: The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) on Thursday suggested the government treat the crypto tokens as ‘securities’ of a particular class. The business physique’s suggestion comes when the federal government is about to introduce the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Foreign money Invoice, 2021, within the Winter Session of Parliament.
Covid19, FarmersProtest, TeamIndia have been the highest tweeted hashtags of 2021: Hashtags Covid19, FarmersProtest, TeamIndia, Tokyo2020, IPL2021, IndVEng, Diwali, Grasp, Bitcoin and PermissionToDance have been probably the most tweeted hashtags of the 12 months on microblogging platform Twitter whereas Australian cricketer Pat Cummins’ tweet about his donation for Covid-19 reduction in India was probably the most retweeted tweet of the 12 months. Cricketer Virat Kohli’s tweet saying the beginning of his daughter was probably the most preferred tweet.
World Picks We Are Studying
Discover more from News Journals
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
