Top tech and startup stories this week

High Tales This Week

Peyush Bansal, CEO, Lenskart

Lenskart sharpens concentrate on IPO at $10 billion valuation: Lenskart is contemplating a potential $10-billion valuation, double that of its final funding spherical, for its upcoming preliminary public providing (IPO), in keeping with individuals briefed on the matter.

Tesla plans Maharashtra debut | EV firm to make in India; state presents land: Elon Musk’s Tesla has begun scouting for land to arrange an electrical automobile (EV) manufacturing plant, with Maharashtra being its first port of name, individuals conscious of the event informed ET.

Tata Sons questions BigBasket’s qcomm lag, pushes for monetary investor amid rivals’ onslaught: Tata Sons isn’t too pleased with what it regards as BigBasket’s sluggish response to the speedy rise and widespread adoption of fast commerce, calling this a strategic misstep that has left the Tata Digital unit trailing rivals Blinkit and Zepto, stated individuals conscious of the matter.

ETtech Interviews

Albinder Dhindsa, CEO, Blinkit

ETtech Q&A | Replicating Blinkit’s fast commerce strikes gained’t guarantee success: CEO Albinder Dhindsa: In an unique interview with us, Blinkit CEO Dhindsa said that it’s a false impression to imagine that its closely loss-making rivals will obtain profitability just because the Gurgaon-based firm can handle to take action. Read the full interview here.

Also Read: Quick commerce gears up for a busy summer of ice creams and ACs

Behind the unconventional success of Wingify founder Paras Chopra: From bootstrapping Wingify to its eventual sale and stepping down as CEO, Paras Chopra has defied conventional venture-backed startup playbooks all through his entrepreneurial path. Having tasted success with SaaS and failure with AI (through Nintee), Chopra informed us he intends to double down on the latter with Turing’s Dream, an AI-focused hacker home.

Startups and Funding

Vaibhav Gupta, CEO, Udaan

Udaan raises $75 million from UK’s M&G, Lightspeed at flat valuation: Enterprise-to-business (B2B) ecommerce agency Udaan has secured $75 million in recent funding from present traders M&G Prudential of the UK and Lightspeed Enterprise Companions at a flat valuation, chief government Vaibhav Gupta informed staff in a city corridor on Monday.

Sirona founders purchase again firm from cash-strapped Good Glamm Group: Sirona founder Deep Bajaj on Tuesday announced the completion of the buyback of the female hygiene model from the cash-strapped content-to-commerce agency Good Glamm Group.

ETtech Explainer | Edtech firm Byju’s authorized woes take new flip: Embattled edtech agency Byju’s father or mother Assume & Study, appeared close to coming out of its insolvency proceedings on November 18 when the Board of Management for Cricket in India (BCCI) requested the Nationwide Firm Regulation Tribunal (NCLT) to think about its utility to withdraw its plea in opposition to the agency.

Crypto platform Kraken appears to restart India ops: San Francisco-based cryptocurrency buying and selling platform Kraken is chalking out a plan to relaunch its providers in India, and has appointed Shiprocket cofounder Vishesh Khurana as an advisor, a number of individuals conscious of the developments informed ET.

Additionally Learn: ETtech Deals Digest: Startups raise $158.5 million in week to February 21, up 76.9% on-year

Fintech Nook

Banks, fintechs await UPI subsidy payouts amid cuts in whole outlay: Banks and digital cost corporations are awaiting the release of subsidies provided by the union authorities for selling digital funds, in keeping with bankers and fintech trade executives.

Fintech agency Pop eyes $10-15 million spherical from Razorpay, others: Digital funds main Razorpay has held talks to invest in Pop, a Bengaluru-based funds and rewards startup, in keeping with two individuals within the know.

PhonePe begins IPO preparations to checklist in India: The fintech startup did not give a timeframe for the preliminary public providing (IPO), saying the plans obtained initiated after contemplating income progress and enchancment in its path in the direction of profitability.

IT Updates

TCS set to roll out hike letters with payouts: Tata Consultancy Companies (TCS), India’s largest IT providers firm, will roll out annual salary increases for FY25 in March with payouts beginning in April. The hikes are prone to common 4-8%, stated individuals with information of the matter.

Infosys presents decrease bonus in Q3 forward of pay hikes: IT providers firm Infosys has introduced efficiency bonus at an average 80% of the target to its eligible staff for the third quarter ended December, forward of the rollout of annual pay hikes anticipated earlier than the tip of March.

Additionally Learn: Cognizant alleges Infosys “caught red-handed” stealing trade secrets

Incoming LTIMindtree CEO Venugopal Lambu lays out 90-day fit-for-future plan: Venugopal Lambu, the CEO designate of LTIMindtree has laid out a 90-day plan, which features a technique to deepen shopper relationships and sharpen the organisation to be fitter to safe massive offers.

Additionally Learn: AI is a trillion-dollar opportunity, but not a magic pill: Genpact CEO

Tech Coverage

Bidders flag end-of-life GPUs provided underneath IndiaAI Mission: A couple of corporations have raised concerns about end-of-life (EOL) graphics processing items (GPUs) being provided underneath IndiaAI Mission. A few of the GPUs have been declared as EOL by Nvidia as early as January final yr.

Indian semiconductor corporations see little influence of Trump’s tariff risk: Whereas the proposed 25% tariff on semiconductors imports by the Trump administration is predicted to have a big influence on the worldwide chip trade, India is unlikely to experience any main short-term penalties since it isn’t a significant semiconductor exporter to the US, trade executives stated.

World Tech Developments

ETtech Explainer | Microsoft’s ‘new state of matter’ chips supply a quantum leap in tech: Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled Majorana 1 — the world’s first quantum processor constructed on topoconductor (not semiconductor), which chief government Satya Nadella termed a brand new state of matter after stable, liquid and gasoline.

Safety issues push nations away from DeepSeek revolution: Be it Australia, Italy, Eire, South Korea or the Netherlands – the checklist is rising – with governments expressing important security concerns about DeepSeek, resulting in bans on its use on authorities units as a consequence of fears about knowledge assortment practices

Grok 3 | Elon Musk’s new xAI chatbot out there: Grok 3, “the neatest AI on Earth” as Elon Musk describes it, launched on Tuesday. Musk, in a stay stream presentation with xAI engineers, claimed that Grok 3 has “greater than 10 instances” the compute energy of its predecessor Grok 2.