📈 Zomato's profits grow on the back of Blinkit; The unicorn report card

The most interesting news selected specially for you! 19 May 2024 [View in Browser]( POWERED BY Hello, Now, startups and enterprises can enhance their brand engagement by partnering with YourStory and advertising on our YS Buzz and Weekly Wrap newsletters. [Click here]( to know more. In today's newsletter, we will talk about: - Zomato's profitable FY24 as Blinkit grows - The unicorn report card - AI overlords at the Indian workplace - Inside the tepid placement season at IITs - Can FamPay survive reputational damage? Here’s your trivia for today: Which planet in the Solar System has moons named after characters from Shakespeare's plays? --------------------------------------------------------------- Foodtech Zomato's profitable FY24 as Blinkit grows startup Zomato's revenue from operations has shot up 71% YoY to Rs 12,114 crore on a standalone basis in FY24 on the back of strong performance of its food delivery and quick commerce. It earned a net profit of Rs 351 crore in FY24. In the fourth quarter of FY24, Zomato earned Rs 3,562 crore in revenue from operations—a massive 73% YoY jump. Key takeaways: - Zomato earned Rs 175 crore net profit in Q4 FY24—a turnaround from Rs 188 crore lost in the year-ago period. - The Deepinder Goyal-led company plans to increase the number of its [quick commerce]( stores for Blinkit to 1,000 by March 2025. - Zomato highlighted that it is already seeing diminishing growth in its B2B business, Hyperpure, as revenue growth in the segment has fallen from 146% YoY in Q4 FY23 to 99% YoY in Q4 FY24. - Its subsidiary Zomato Payments Private Limited has surrendered the online [payment aggregator]( (PA) licence it obtained from the RBI earlier this year. ZPPL's other businesses will continue to operate. [Read More]( --------------------------------------------------------------- From the CapTable The unicorn report card: A snapshot of how India’s top startups fared over the past 5 years Over the past five years, India's startup scene has seen many highs and lows. If 2018 and 2019 were a time of feasting for startups, the early days of the pandemic were a time of funding famine. And while funding subsequently poured in through the rest of the pandemic, the last two years have been marked by a frigid funding winter.These ups and downs have meant that India's startup landscape today looks vastly different compared to 2019. Across this period, investors minted 70 new unicorns—startups valued at over a billion dollars—and four decacorns—valued at over $10 billion. Today, India’s startup and unicorn ecosystem is the third largest globally, with several tech startups even going public.Now, with funding gradually returning to India's startup ecosystem and many top unicorns preparing to raise capital in the coming quarters, they must contend with more rigorous examinations about their path to profitability and unit economics. Do the numbers of India’s top unicorns stand up to this scrutiny? Key takeaways: - As India’s top unicorns look to raise funding over the coming quarters, investors will ask tough questions about their path to profitability and unit economics. - Profitability remains a distant dream for the majority of unicorns, with only two of the top 10 posting a profit in FY23. - Startups have been trying to cut their burn over the past few quarters. However, this has led to a substantial decline in their growth. - Slower growth and the long road to profitability has seen the valuations of several unicorns called into question. [Continue Reading]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Artificial intelligence AI overlords at the Indian workplace Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption is gaining momentum among India’s workforce, with 92% of knowledge workers leveraging AI at work, above and beyond the global figure of 75%, according to a Microsoft and LinkedIn report titled, ‘AI at work is here. Now comes the hard part.’ Into the future: - According to the report, 91% of Indian leaders recognise the necessity of AI adoption for maintaining competitiveness, yet 54% express concerns about their organisation’s absence of a clear implementation strategy. - Employees aren’t hesitating to leverage the advantages of this technology, as evidenced by 72% of Indian AI users bringing their own AI tools to work. - AI proficiency in India holds more weight than experience, with 80% of leaders expressing a preference for hiring a less experienced candidate with AI skills over a more experienced candidate lacking them. [Read More]( --------------------------------------------------------------- In-depth Inside the tepid placement season at IITs entrance into the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) often takes years of hard work, passing the four-year course is a different beast altogether. The promise of a lucrative career kept IIT students’ morale high. However, YourStory finds that many graduates are yet to find a job and are hoping against hope to get an offer before the end of this year’s placement season. Reality check: - At IIT Bombay, about 665 students, or 34% of the total participants in this year’s placements, remain unplaced as per the latest data (as of April 5) from the institute. It’s important to note that the placement season is scheduled to officially wrap up by June. - This should be worrying because the number of students without offers at the end of the placement season is increasing each year. In 2021-22, 11% of the students were without any offers and the number was 18% in 2022-23. - The total headcount across India’s top IT services companies saw a decrease of over 70,000 in the fiscal year ended March 2024. The IT firms reportedly had their lowest intake of fresh engineers in over two decades at the end of the last fiscal year. [Read More]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Fintech Can FamPay survive reputational damage? a year ago, FamPay was hailed as a promising new kid in the fintech sector. FamPay's proposition was to create a pocket money, wallet-type app for children, with a numberless card linked to it. However, FamPay has moved away from its youth-focused plans to position itself as a transaction or payments wallet after its breakup with IDFC last year triggered a costly transition. 'Spray and pray' policy: - FamPay’s switchover to the Tri O Tech-based platform was haphazard and glitchy. Users reported that, despite redoing their KYC for Tri O Tech, they could not access the balance in their IDFC-backed accounts. - A decline in user engagement and the abrupt surge in expenses, exacerbated by the unfortunate timing of a funding winter, significantly dampened investor enthusiasm for the company. - As per the seven current employees YourStory spoke to, the sentiment internally is quite bad, and the morale is low. “We don’t have job security here…everyone knows they can toss you out whenever things get tough again,” says an employee. [Read More]( --------------------------------------------------------------- News & Updates - [Tech bets:]( Microsoft and Amazon are ploughing billions of dollars into France. Microsoft said that it’s committing 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) toward expanding its cloud and AI infrastructure in France. Amazon, meanwhile, made a commitment of its own to invest 1.2 billion euros in France. - [Indian spices:]( The UK's Food Standards Agency has applied extra control measures on all spice imports from India, becoming the first to ramp up scrutiny of all Indian spices after contamination allegations against two brands, MDH and Everest, sparked concerns among global food regulators. - [Earnings:]( China's Ant Group posted a 19% fall in net profit of 7.87 billion yuan ($1.09 billion) in the quarter ending December. The ecommerce giant reports profit from Ant one quarter in arrears. Chinese authorities last announced a fine of 7.12 billion yuan for Ant Group for violating laws concerning consumer protection and corporate governance. Did you know? Which planet in the Solar System has moons named after characters from Shakespeare's plays? Answer: Uranus. We would love to hear from you! To let us know what you liked and disliked about our newsletter, please mail nslfeedback@yourstory.com. 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