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Flipkart Big Shopping Utsav 2024 Sale announced: Date, top deals, offers, more

LivemintLivemint · 9m ago
Flipkart Big Shopping Utsav 2024 Sale announced: Date, top deals, offers, more
Medial

- Flipkart's Big Shopping Utsav 2024 sale begins on October 9, offering significant savings on mobile phones and electronic devices. - Top brands like Apple, Samsung, Vivo, and Google will have smartphones with heavy discounts, including the iPhone 15, Samsung Galaxy S23, Google Pixel 8, and Motorola G85 5G. - Discounts can reach up to 80% off on select models, with prices as low as ₹12,499 for the CMF Phone (1) with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. - Customers can benefit from exchange schemes, coupon discounts, and an instant 10% discount on select bank purchases. Flipkart Axis Bank credit card holders get 5% cashback on certain mobile phone purchases. - The sale will run until October 13, with discounts on personal gadgets, home entertainment systems, and large household appliances, including up to 80% off. Flexible payment options and credit benefits are available, including no-cost EMIs and up to ₹1 lakh credit limit for Pay Later users.

Nvidia may leapfrog Apple in value if the iPhone maker doesn't wow investors with AI soon, analyst says

Business InsiderBusiness Insider · 1y ago
Nvidia may leapfrog Apple in value if the iPhone maker doesn't wow investors with AI soon, analyst says
Medial

Apple's dominance in terms of market valuation over Nvidia, a leading chip giant in the AI space, is at risk if Apple fails to deliver better-than-expected generative AI services this year, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Nvidia has seen a 260% increase in its stock price over the past year, leading to a market cap of $2.06 trillion. In contrast, Apple's stock has only risen by 13%, resulting in a valuation of $2.78 trillion. Apple's push for AI is crucial due to iPhone sales challenges, particularly in China, where sales dropped by 24% in the first few weeks of 2024. Apple's precise plans for its generative AI efforts are still unclear, but speculation suggests integration into software updates and the development of an AI coding assistant.

Indian startups raise $972 Mn in November, powered by Zepto and Healthkart

EntrackrEntrackr · 7m ago
Indian startups raise $972 Mn in November, powered by Zepto and Healthkart
Medial

Indian startups nearly reached $1 billion in funding in November, boosted by major deals in e-commerce, healthtech, and fintech. While funding was slightly lower than in October, big investments in companies like Zepto and HealthKart showed strong investor interest. According to data compiled by TheKredible, Indian startups raised $972 million across 90 deals, with growth and late-stage funding dominating at $708.12 million from 14 deals. Early-stage funding contributed $263.5 million through 67 deals, while 9 deals remained undisclosed. On a monthly basis, November saw a 19% decline in funding from $1.2 billion in October to $971.61 million. However, total funding during the first 11 months of 2024 reached approximately $13.2 billion and surpassed 2023’s total of $11 billion. The November funding trend shows sharp fluctuations over four years. Startups raised $4.33 billion across 153 deals in 2021, dropping to $1.3 billion (130 deals) in 2022 and $437.5 million (89 deals) in 2023. In 2024, funding rebounded to $971.61 million across 90 deals. Growth-stage startups dominated the funding landscape in November. With $350 million funding, Zepto led the list followed by HealthKart with $153 million in Series I funding. Sarvagram also made a notable impact with $67 million in a Series D round, while Easy Home Finance and Zopper raised $35 million and $25 million, respectively. Other significant deals included Bhanzu's $16.5 million Series B round and MODIFI's $15 million for its B2B BNPL solutions. The ePlane Co., Locad, and ShopDeck rounded out the list with funding rounds that showcased innovation across diverse sectors like aerospace, logistics, and e-commerce. UnifyApps, a SaaS enterprise integration platform, led the chart of early-stage startups with $20 million in a Series A round, followed by OneCell Diagnostics, a cancer diagnostics startup, with $16 million. RetailTech platform Wheelocity raised $15 million, while SM Toys secured $13.22 million for its global manufacturing operations. BoldFit, a D2C fitness startup, and Guardians, a proptech company, raised $13 million and $12 million, respectively. November saw 13 merger and acquisition deals across diverse sectors. Nykaa acquired a 100% stake in Earth Rhythm in the e-commerce space, while Nodwin Gaming secured Trinity Gaming for $2.84 million. Moglix expanded into manufacturing by acquiring Khatema Fibres for $9.4 million, and The Good Glamm Group also acquired a 100% stake in The Moms Co. MakeMyTrip announced plans to acquire fintech platform Happay, and Unicommerce strengthened its SaaS offerings by acquiring Shipway. Check TheKredible for more information. In terms of city-wise funding, Mumbai-based startups led with $420.63 million raised across 14 deals, contributing 43.29% of the total funding. Delhi-NCR followed with $260.8 million from 26 deals, accounting for 26.84% of the funding. Bengaluru came next with $119.088 million raised through 28 deals, capturing 12.26%. Segment-wise, e-commerce startups dominated in terms of the amount raised, with 11 deals securing $535.79 million. This contributed 55.14% to the total funding. Fintech was on the second spot with 9 deals worth $155.7 million, accounting for 16.02% of the funding. SaaS startups completed 12 deals worth $53.13 million followed by EV startups which raised $26.47 million from 4 deals. Check TheKredible for more details. Regarding funding stages, 28 startups raised capital in the seed round, 26 in Series A, and 6 in Series B. Series F dominated with $350 million (36.02%), followed by Series I with $153 million (15.75%). Pre-Seed and debt funding contributed less than 1% each. For more details, refer to TheKredible’s report. Layoff activity continued to decline in November, with only two startups laying off 100 employees during the month. This is a drop from October, where layoffs by two startups affected over 110 employees. Throughout the first 11 months of 2024, approximately 4,700 employees were let go, a significant decrease compared to the 24,000 layoffs in 2023 and 20,000 in 2022. In November, the startup ecosystem witnessed notable leadership changes, with 9 senior executives, including CEOs, MD, CPO, and co-founders, stepping down. Simultaneously, 35 key executive roles were filled, marking a period of significant transitions. A detailed list of these changes can be accessed here. The funding landscape for Indian startups in November highlights a mixed bag of signals: a strong recovery from 2023 lows but still far from the peaks of 2021. The surge also reflects investor confidence in scaling businesses and continued interest in nurturing innovation. The notable dip in layoffs and leadership transitions signals a stabilizing ecosystem. With funding surpassing 2023 totals and a few more new-age IPOs on the horizon, the Indian startup ecosystem appears poised for a promising end to 2024, setting the stage for accelerated momentum in 2025.

Unpacking VerSe’s Josh: growth, monetization and future roadmap

EntrackrEntrackr · 9m ago
Unpacking VerSe’s Josh: growth, monetization and future roadmap
Medial

The short video entertainment space has seen consolidation with the merger of MX TakaTak, the pivot of Chingari, and the shutdown of Mitron TV. This has left the fledgling market with two main players: ShareChat’s Moj and VerSe’s Josh. While Moj’s parent company, ShareChat, has been struggling to scale its short video offering and secure follow-on funding, Josh remains well-capitalized and holds a leading position in the segment with approximately 180 million active users. “We have a monthly active user base of 179 million, along with 91 million daily active users,” said a Josh spokesperson in an interaction with Entrackr. “By the end of FY24, we had over 150 million downloads via playstore.” Josh is available in 12 Indian languages and reports that over 80% of its content is viewed in local dialects. This feature is particularly crucial as more than two-thirds of its users are from tier II and III cities such as Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, Patna, and Raipur. OEM partnership: Key to Josh’s growth Josh’s DAU and MAU numbers appear staggering, but they don’t align with data from app trackers like App Annie and Appflyer. “These trackers are irrelevant in our case, as majority of our downloads come from pre-installed mobile phones,” the spokesperson clarified. Josh has secured more than two-thirds of its downloads through partnerships with smartphone manufacturers such as Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi, and Samsung, among others. Creator-centric approach driving Josh’s topline The success of a short-video app largely depends on its creators and the ecosystem surrounding them. Josh has a community of over 100,000 creators and partnerships with 14 leading music labels. “Our monthly active creator base increased by 34% year-on-year, reaching 71 million in FY24,” added the spokesperson. Collaboration is a key focus for Josh, which launched Collab to tap into the influencer ecosystem. “Collab is designed to help brands discover influencers and engage with them seamlessly, without any friction,” said the spokesperson. After prioritizing traction for two and half years (September 2020 to mid 2023), Josh began monetization by opening the platform to brands for campaigns in the second half of 2023. Currently, Josh offers a range of advertising solutions which include diverse formats such as video ads, influencer-brand collaborations and influencer and content-led IPs. “Josh helps businesses in brand building, lead generation, user engagement, and creating overall awareness,” added the spokesperson. The platform has worked with 450 brands, including Amazon, Myntra, Nykaa, Xiaomi, since July last year. Around one-third of Josh’s user base was from tier 1 cities while 68% hailed from tier II and III cities. The popularity of short videos is 2X higher in tier II and III cities. Brands with a national presence who are looking to strengthen their brand recall in tier II markets and regional languages prefer Josh. While Josh didn’t give exact revenue numbers, it reported hitting an average revenue run rate of Rs 300 crore this quarter. “Our target is to achieve break even by the first half of 2025,” said the spokesperson. Live commerce/audio, audio stories to oil monetization roadmap In addition to tapping into the influencer ecosystem, Josh is exploring new formats such as brand shoppable commerce, live commerce, live audio, gifting and audio stories. As per the firm, these efforts aim to position Josh for revenue generation and profitability as it deepens its monetization road. The live audio feature on Josh enables users to have real-time conversations with specialised creators. Users initiating live audio calls pay per minute using Josh’s in-app currency, “Jems,” while creators earn “Diamonds,” redeemable in the Indian currency. Audio stories, particularly in regional languages, are also gaining traction. Josh offers subscription-based and micro-payments for specific content from partners like Velvet, Eight, and EarShot, viewing this as a substantial long-term opportunity. Josh has leadership in the Bharat-focused short video entertainment space and is actively working to demonstrate its platform’s ability to deliver real results and fulfil its promises to buyers. Josh’s strategic decision to remain closed to advertising until 2023 reflects its focus on building a robust user base and platform. With its recent monetization efforts, Josh is well positioned to address the market gap left by TikTok in India.

Indian startups raise nearly $1.6 Bn in August

EntrackrEntrackr · 10m ago
Indian startups raise nearly $1.6 Bn in August
Medial

The Indian startup ecosystem seems to be bouncing back from the funding winter as venture capital investment has been steadily rising each month. August 2024 has been a standout, with several big funding rounds, important investments in growth-stage startups, many deals from tier II cities, IPOs, and major mergers and acquisitions. These factors make it unique compared to other months this year. Based on data compiled by TheKredible, homegrown startups raised nearly $1.6 billion across 112 deals in August. This total included 27 growth-stage deals worth $1.32 billion and 71 early-stage deals amounting to $267 million. Meanwhile, there were 14 undisclosed transactions mainly in early-stage deals. When compared, startups raised close to $1 billion in July. [Y-o-Y and M-o-M trend] The $1.6 billion raised in August is the second-highest funding amount of 2024, following June, and the third-highest in the past 12 months. On a year-over-year basis, August 2024 also ranked at the top for total funds raised. Also, Indian startups have raked in approximately $9.6 billion in the first eight months of 2024. If this trend persists, overall funding is likely to comfortably surpass the $11 billion achieved in 2023. For context, Indian startups received $38 billion in funding in 2021 and $25 billion in 2022. [Top 10 growth-stage deals] Among growth-stage deals, Zepto’s $340 million, DMI Finance’s $334 million, and OYO’s $175 million rounds together accounted for over 50% of the total funds raised last month. With the fresh funding, Zepto and DMI Finance attained $5 billion and $3 billion valuation milestones respectively. However, OYO saw more than 75% fall in its valuation to $2.4 billion from a peak of $10 billion. Just like in July, August saw the emergence of a new unicorn, as the Hero Moto-backed Ather Energy surpassed the $1 billion valuation mark with its latest funding round. Other notable growth-stage deals included Neo, Blue Tokai, Visit Health, Yubi, Livpure, and Syfe. Swiggy, which raised funds from Amitabh Bachchan’s Family Office, did not disclose the deal size. [Top 10 early-stage deals] EV startup Kinetic Green led the early-stage funding chart with a $25 million Series A round, followed by Even Healthcare with $20 million, FreshBus with $10.5 million, and both Beco and Investors AI, each raising $10 million. Agrizy’s $9.8 million funding was the fourth-largest in agritech for 2024, a sector that has been declining recently. Other major early-stage deals included Scimplify, a specialty chemicals firm; Kindlife, a new venture from ShopClues co-founder Radhika Ghai; automotive startup Kazam; and fintech startup Punch, all of which ranked among the top 10 early-stage investments. [Mergers and Acquisitions] In August, the number of merger and acquisition deals surged to 19, up from just 17 in July. Notably, the acquisition of Paytm’s movies and ticketing business by Zomato Limited for $244 million emerged as one of the largest M&A deals of 2024. Additionally, hospitality firm OYO acquired Checkmyguest for $27.4 million, and Fusebox Games Limited was purchased by Nazara in a $27.2 million deal. Some notable M&A deals in August included BrowserStack’s acquisition of Bird Eats Bug, Radio Mirchi’s parent ENIL’s purchase of Gaana, and VerSe’s acquisition of Valueleaf. Additionally, Emami Limited raised its stake in The Man Company from 50.4% to 100%, a development first reported by Entrackr in July. [City and segment-wise deals] In terms of city-wise funding, Bengaluru-based startups led with 38 deals totaling $265 million in August. However, startups in Delhi-NCR raised $724 million across 29 deals, more than double the amount raised by Bengaluru startups. Additionally, Mumbai-based startups surpassed Bengaluru in total funding, securing $453 million across 20 deals. Segment-wise, fintech startups led the show with 27 deals followed by e-commerce (including D2C brands), healthtech, SaaS, and proptech with 16, 8, 7, and 4 deals, respectively. Visit TheKredible for more details. Edtech was one of the least funded segments with 3 deals amounting to $5 million. It contributed only 0.3% to the total amount raised in August. [Stage-wise deals] Regarding funding stages, 35 startups raised capital in the seed round, 28 in Series A, 13 in pre-Series A, and 9 in Series B. Debt-only funding made up 2.56% of the total funding for the month. For the complete breakdown of stage-wise deals, visit TheKredible. [Layoffs, shutdowns, departures, and key hirings] Layoffs experienced a significant drop from 650 employees in July to 290 employees in August. Notably, Google and Reliance-backed Dunzo reportedly fired 150 employees, Beepkart let go of 100 staff, and ShareChat reduced its workforce by 30-40 employees. Additionally, Kenko Health, My Tirth India, and Airtel’s streaming app Wynk Music shut down their operations. Wynk’s closure is attributed to increasing competition, while Kenko Health and My Tirth India ceased operations due to funding difficulties. In August, there was an increase in both hiring and the departure of key executives. Notable exits included Manish Tiwary from Amazon India, Prashant Sinha from Metadome.ai, and Srinivasagopalan Ramamurthy from Freshworks. On the hiring front, Meesho, Swiggy Instamart, EvenFlow, Zetwerks, Perfios, and OYO brought new talent into roles such as chief executive, co-founder, and independent director, among others. [Trends] More IPOs in pipeline: In the first eight months of 2024, ten startups have gone public. In August alone, Ola Electric, Unicommerce, and FirstCry completed their IPOs. Swiggy is targeting a listing in the first week of September, while companies like Infra.Market, Bluestone, Ecom Express, OfBusiness, and OYO are also progressing on their IPO plans. Additionally, Zappfresh has filed draft IPO papers with SEBI to list on the BSE SME platform. Quick commerce in action: The quick commerce sector is intensifying in competition, highlighted by Zepto’s mega-round, Flipkart’s recent entry, and BigBasket’s complete shift to rapid delivery. Amazon is expected to enter the market early next year. The e-commerce giant was also in talks to acquire Swiggy’s quick commerce business. At present, Zomato-owned Blinkit stands as the leading player in quick commerce followed by Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, and Tata Digital-owned BigBasket. Startups from tier II cities: In addition to major metro areas and startup hubs such as Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, and Hyderabad, there has been a notable influx of deals from cities like Mangalore, Raipur, Dehradun, Udaipur, Surat, Jodhpur, Nashik, and Lucknow. This indicates a significant, albeit minor, shift in traditional startup funding patterns. Founders fueling growth: OYO’s $175 million funding round included a significant $100 million investment from the company’s founder, Ritesh Agarwal, showcasing another instance of a founder investing in their own startup. Similarly, Yubi secured $30 million from its founder and CEO, Gaurav Kumar, while Cambrian Bioworks received an undisclosed amount from its founder during its seed round. This practice of founder investment has previously been seen with Ather Energy, Byju’s, and BluSmart. [Conclusion] While the decline of debt funding is something to be welcomed, as it doesn’t seem to sit well with the idea of backing startups, we would add a note of caution here on the sustainability of the current recovery. While, as indicated earlier, an expected interest rate cut by the US Fed will ensure the momentum stays well into 2025, the fact remains that significant parts of public markets are well into ‘exuberance’ territory in terms of valuations. Unlike the public markets, however, the private VC markets remain much more dependent on foreign fund flows, and that could yet be a disruptor in the ecosystem, despite the rise of domestic capital. Although with the US-China issues, and now, even Brazil moving arbitrarily against Twitter, India could find itself in a sweet spot yet again for global investors. It would perhaps be fair to say that the bottom has been reached, and a bounce is well on its way for Indian startups when it comes to their funding environment.

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