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Tata to rethink Starbucks' outlet expansion strategy amid lower footfall

VCCircleVCCircle · 10m ago
Tata to rethink Starbucks' outlet expansion strategy amid lower footfall
Medial

Tata to rethink Starbucks' outlet expansion strategy amid lower footfall An employee takes a customer's order at a Starbucks' outlet in New Delhi | Credit: Reuters India's Tata Consumer Products "will calibrate" its plans to open Starbucks stores in the near term at a time when fewer customers are walking into its cafes in the world's most populous country, its top boss said on Monday. City dwellers in India are cutting spending on everything from cookies and coffee to fast food as persistently high inflation squeezes middle class budgets, with wages failing to keep pace. Tata Starbucks, a joint venture between U.S. coffee brand Starbucks SBUX.Oand the Indian conglomerate, operates the largest cafe chain in the country with more than 450 outlets. Advertisement Starbucks has more than 40,000 stores globally. "We will calibrate for the short term ... In the near term there will be pressure," Tata Consumer CEO Sunil D'Souza told Reuters, adding that its Tata Starbucks joint venture is still focused on reaching its 2028 goal to operate 1,000 stores by 2028. However, Tata Consumer's CEO still expects its bet on coffee to pay off in the longer run as the country's coffee culture grows and cafe density is still low compared with other Asian countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Advertisement Separately, D'Souza also said Tata Consumer's revenue would increase in the double-digit percentage range in the second half of the financial year, with profit coming under pressure due to higher prices of raw materials, including tea. Share article on Leave Your Comments

Elon Musk just threw down the gauntlet at Sam Altman, and there's no going back

Business InsiderBusiness Insider · 1y ago
Elon Musk just threw down the gauntlet at Sam Altman, and there's no going back
Medial

Elon Musk has sued OpenAI, a research lab that he was once a part of, on the grounds that the company violated its mission by putting profit before open-source technology. Musk alleges that OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft goes against their agreement to make technology available to benefit humanity. While legal experts suggest Musk's case is weak due to the lack of a written agreement, they also point out that the lawsuit could still have negative consequences for OpenAI, including distracting the organization from its day-to-day operations and damaging its reputation. A win for Musk could set a precedent for other donors to seek returns from non-profit organizations.

RBI opens interoperable tokenisation for all: No edge for Apple and Google

EntrackrEntrackr · 23d ago
RBI opens interoperable tokenisation for all: No edge for Apple and Google
Medial

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has fired a shot across the bow of global tech giants by mandating that tokenisation and authentication services must be offered on an open, interoperable basis. In its newly issued Authentication Mechanisms for Digital Payment Transactions Directions, 2025, the regulator has directed that if a device or operating system enables tokenisation, the feature must be accessible to all apps and payment providers in that ecosystem, not just to the company that owns it. This move has significant implications for players like Apple Pay and Google Pay, which globally enjoy a competitive edge by locking core features such as NFC chips, secure elements, or tokenisation frameworks within their own apps. On the iPhone, for example, only Apple Pay can use the device’s NFC chip and tokenisation infrastructure, effectively sidelining third-party apps and giving Apple a gatekeeper role in mobile payments. This strategy has helped Apple capture a premium share of digital transactions in markets like the US and Europe, where regulators are still grappling with the anti-competitive impact. RBI’s mandate disrupts this model. By insisting on open access, the regulator is emphasizing that if tokenisation is available on a device in India, then PhonePe, Paytm, or an SBI app must be allowed to use it on equal terms. This could transform the competitive dynamics of India’s payments ecosystem, preventing big tech companies from ringfencing critical infrastructure and ensuring that Indian fintechs are not locked out of advanced authentication technologies. Tokenization, which replaces sensitive card numbers with randomly generated “tokens” during transactions, has become the global standard for securing payments. While Apple and Google have leveraged it to build dominance in their respective ecosystems, RBI’s framework ensures that no single player can monopolise tokenisation in India. In effect, India is one of the few large markets to pre-emptively curb walled gardens in digital payments, a regulatory stance that could give local fintechs a level playing field while forcing global giants to open up their closed ecosystems if they want to operate in the country.

Groww receives RBI approval to operate as payments aggregator

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Groww receives RBI approval to operate as payments aggregator
Medial

Fintech unicorn Groww has received approval from the Reserve Bank of India to operate as a payment aggregator. The firm has joined several fintechs which recently received similar in-principle approval from the central bank. RBI has granted the licence to Groww Pay, the UPI payments platform of broking firm Groww. The licence will allow the Tiger Global and Peak XV Partners-backed firm to facilitate e-commerce transactions through its UPI app. Launched in July last year, Groww’s UPI app allows bill payment services such as making loan and credit card repayments, paying electricity and water bills and DTH recharge, among others. In October last year, Groww surpassed its arch rival Zerodha for the first time in terms of active users. Further, Groww ended 2023 with 7.5 million monthly active users whereas Zerodha and AngelOne had 6.7 million and 5.3 million MAUs, respectively. In terms of valuation, Zerodha stood at the top with $3.6 billion followed by Upstox and Groww with $3.4 and $3 billion, respectively. Last week, Groww’s Mutual Fund also received SEBI’s approval to launch the Nifty Non-Cyclical Consumer Index Fund through a new fund offering (NFO). Groww registered more than 260% jump in its operating revenue to Rs 1,277 crore in FY23, according to startup data intelligence platform TheKredible. The company also posted Rs 448.7 crore profit against Rs 239 crore loss in FY22. Like several fintechs, Groww is also planning to move its domicile to India. Entrackr exclusively reported the development in May last year. Other companies on the list include KreditBee, Pine Labs, Groww, Razorpay, Meesho and Zepto. Most recently, PayU received in-principle approval from RBI to operate as a payment aggregator. Besides PayU and Groww, fintech firms Razorpay, Cashfree, Open, EnKash, Juspay, and Infibeam also received PA licence from the apex banking body.

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