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IRDA imposes Rs 1 Cr fine on Go Digit Insurance

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
IRDA imposes Rs 1 Cr fine on Go Digit Insurance
Medial

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on IPO-bound Go Digit General Insurance for inordinate delay in the filing the particulars of the joint venture agreement related to the change in the conversion ratio of compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS) issued by its parent company to FAL Corporation. In November, the regulator had issued a show cause notice to the firm in the matter. About 63,00,000 CCPS were issued by Go Digit’s parent company—Go Digit Info Works Services Pvt. Ltd. (GDISPL)— to Fairfax Group-owned FAL Corporation. During the time of the joint venture agreement in 2017, it was agreed upon that the conversion ratio was “1 CCPS for 2.324 equity shares”, which was changed by the company to “2.324 CCPS for 1 equity share.” Instead of 63,00,000 CCPS, a total of 78,00,000 were issued by GDISPL, the regulator noted in the order date of May 2, 2024. The company’s response further admits that “the specific non-submission of JV agreement to the authority was purely inadvertent and unintentional.” Digit Insurance has been facing issues from the regulator ever since it filed its DRHP in August 2022. Initially, SEBI did not provide the approval and sought additional information while it also returned Digit’s prospectus over employee stock plans. In April 2023, the company refiled its draft IPO papers. In November, the firm received show cause notice and multiple advisories from IRDAI for non-disclosure of change in the conversion ratio of compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS). However, Digit managed to get SEBI’s approval to raise funds through IPO in March this year. Digit is among a bunch of companies which had also faced friction from the regulators in the past. Last month, FirstCry had to refile its draft IPO papers after SEBI’s concern. Earlier, fintech firm MobiKwik and travel tech company TBO also refiled their draft papers with reduced IPO sizes.

uKnowva raises $0.5 Mn in pre-Series A round

EntrackrEntrackr · 3m ago
uKnowva raises $0.5 Mn in pre-Series A round
Medial

uKnowva raises $0.5 Mn in pre-Series A round HR Tech and Human Capital Management (HCM) platform uKnowva has raised $0.5 million in pre-Series A funding round co-led by Parv Network, Growth 91, and Aapna Infotech. The Mumbai-based company has been acquired by Hinduja Global Solutions. Before this funding, it had raised $48.7K. The proceeds will be deployed towards strengthening its sales and marketing capabilities, accelerating geographic expansion through a robust partner network, and further advancing its AI-led roadmap, uKnowva said in a press release. Founded in 2010 by Abhay Talekar, Priyanka Bhor Jain, and Vicky Jain, uKnowva is an intelligent HR and workplace automation platform that simplifies and optimizes workforce management for businesses across industries looking to digitize and streamline their HR functions. The Mumbai-based platform offers a comprehensive suite of features spanning recruitment, onboarding, performance management, employee engagement, and analytics, powered by advanced AI capabilities. It aims to simplify HR and workplace automation. “Our aim is to spend this money wisely, keeping product excellence and profitability at the very core of our growth strategy, while continuing to deliver an intelligent, seamless experience to our customers,” said Vicky Jain, co-founder & CEO, uKnowva. In the next 12–24 months, uKnowva plans to significantly strengthen its partner ecosystem, scale its presence across Tier I and II cities, and enhance its AI-driven product offerings to stay ahead of the evolving needs of modern workplaces.

Games24x7 crosses Rs 2,000 Cr income in FY23; controls losses

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Games24x7 crosses Rs 2,000 Cr income in FY23; controls losses
Medial

Real money gaming platform Games24x7 has continued to grow its scale: their collection grew 70% year-on-year in FY23. The controlled spending on employee benefits and advertising helped the Mumbai-based firm keep its losses in check during the same period. Games24x7’s revenue from operations grew 70.1% to Rs 1,988 crore in FY23 from Rs 1,169 crore in FY22, its consolidated financial statements filed with the Registrar of Companies show. Games24x7 mainly runs RummyCircle and the fantasy sports platform, My11Circle. The platform fee deducted for joining tournaments or contests is the primary source of revenue for Games24x7 which accounted for 99% of the operating income. The rest of the operating revenue comes from selling virtual items in freemium games. The company also added Rs 35 crore from the interest and gain on current investment tallying the overall income to Rs 2,023 crore in FY23. For the gaming platform, advertisement and business promotion expenses accounted for 66% of the overall expenditure, which surged by 61.7% to Rs 1,421 crore in FY23 from Rs 879 crore in FY22. The firm’s burn on employee benefits, legal, traveling, training, recruitment, subscription membership, and other overheads took its overall expenditure up by 43.4% to Rs 2147 crore in FY23. The 70% growth in scale and controlled cost helped the firm’s losses go down to Rs 199 crore in FY23 from Rs 282 crore in FY22. Its ROCE and EBITDA margin improved to -18% and -4.6%, respectively. On a unit level, it spent Rs 1.08 to earn a rupee in FY23. FY22-FY23 FY22 FY23 EBITDA Margin -24% -4.6% Expense/₹ of Op Revenue ₹1.28 ₹1.08 ROCE -48% -18% Games 24×7 has raised over $107 million to date including its $75 million round led by Malabar Investment at a valuation of $2.5 billion. According to the startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Tiger Global is the largest external stakeholder with 22.39%. In March, Games24x7’s My11Circle became the new fantasy sports official partner for IPL (Indian Premier League) for five years, outbidding its rival Dream11. Games24X7 also said that it has tripled its marketing investment this year. This will reflect in the company’s financial performance in FY25.

MoEngage raises additional $180 Mn in Series F, completes $15 Mn liquidity event

EntrackrEntrackr · 22d ago
MoEngage raises additional $180 Mn in Series F, completes $15 Mn liquidity event
Medial

MoEngage raises additional $180 Mn in Series F, completes $15 Mn liquidity event MoEngage, a customer engagement platform for consumer brands, announced that it has raised an additional $180 million as part of its Series F round. This follows the $100 million secured in November 2025, taking the total Series F raise to $280 million. The latest investment was led by new investors ChrysCapital and Dragon Funds, alongside Schroders Capital, with continued participation from existing investors TR Capital and B Capital. The capital will be used to accelerate innovation for the Merlin AI suite, scale go-to-market teams in North America and EMEA, and explore strategic acquisitions that extend the platform’s capabilities or accelerate global expansion. MoEngage has completed its second employee tender offer worth around $15 million, providing liquidity to 259 current and former employees. The transaction also included select secondary sales by early investors, including Eight Roads Ventures, Helion Venture Partners, Z47, and Ventureast. While the company declined to comment on its valuation, its post-money valuation is estimated to be in the range of $850–900 million. Founded in 2014 by Raviteja Dodda and Yashwanth Kumar, MoEngage provides insight-driven customer engagement tools that help brands reach users across web, mobile, email, and messaging channels. Its clients include SoundCloud, McAfee, Flipkart, Kayak, Domino’s, and Deutsche Telekom. MoEngage Inform enables reliable delivery of critical transactional messages such as OTPs and account updates through a single API, separate from marketing campaigns. Its Product Analytics offering combines behavioral data with real-time engagement, helping teams understand user behavior and drive retention and lifetime value. The company serves over 1,350 consumer brands across 75 countries, powering digital experiences for more than 2 billion users each month.

Hike’s revenue soars 8X to Rs 150 Cr in FY23; losses up 24%

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Hike’s revenue soars 8X to Rs 150 Cr in FY23; losses up 24%
Medial

After years of stagnant growth and change in business, Hike posted a notable increase in its scale in the last fiscal year. Hike’s Rush Gaming Universe (RGU)—which hosts multiple skill-based casual games—grew nearly 8X and crossed the Rs 150 crore revenue mark in FY23. The firm’s losses, however, also stood close to Rs 150 crore in the same period. Hike’s revenue from operations skyrocketed 7.8X to Rs 150.5 crore during the fiscal year ending March 2023 as opposed to Rs 19.21 crore in FY22, according to its standalone financial statement with the RoC. Hike generates revenue from commission on entry fees, winning amount and membership fees for joining the application as a VIP member. Previously, Hike used to be a P2P messaging application but in January 2021 it shut down the product and switched to a different domain by introducing two new platforms Vibe and Rush. Vibe is a social media platform to watch videos together whereas Rush is a real money skill-based gaming platform which hosts multiple casual games. The company also earned Rs 1.4 crore via interest and gain on investments and other non-operating income during the year. Including these, its overall revenue reached nearly Rs 152 crore in FY23. As per startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, marketing expenses emerged as the largest cost element for Hike which grew 4X to Rs 142.65 crore in FY23 from Rs 35.86 crore in FY22. Its employee benefit expenses accounted for 35% of the total expenditure and went up 46.2% to Rs 104.42 crore in FY23. Importantly, this cost also includes employee share based payment (settled in equity) of Rs 26.71 crore. Due to the GST crackdown on real money gaming companies coupled with a challenging funding environment, Hike’s Rush Gaming Universe (RGU) had fired around 55 people or 22% of the total workforce. To check complete Expense Breakdown visit thekredible.com View full data Hike’s expenses on server, information technology consultancy, payment gateway and other overheads catalyzed its total expenditure by over 2X to Rs 299.3 crore in FY23 as compared to Rs 140.4 crore in FY22. Visit TheKredible for complete expense breakdown and YoY performance. Despite rising expenses, the company’s losses didn’t increase at that pace. Its losses increased 24% to Rs 147.3 crore during FY23 as compared to Rs 118.7 crore in FY22. Moreover, its outstanding losses mounted to Rs 1,923 crore in the last fiscal year. Hike’s cash outflows from operations, however, declined by 9.5% to Rs 94.5 crore during FY23. Its EBITDA margin improved to -93.92% during the year which can be ascribed to the rising scale. FY22-FY23 FY22 FY23 EBITDA Margin -525% -93.92% Expense/₹ of Op Revenue ₹7.31 ₹1.99 ROCE -61.20% -136.21% On a unit level, the firm spent Rs 1.99 to earn a rupee of operating revenue in FY23. Hike turned unicorn in 2016 when Temasek led a $175 million funding round at a $1.4 billion valuation. In January 2021, it shut down its chat services to enter the real money skill-based gaming space. Since then, it has raised three undisclosed funding rounds from various investors. Its last funding round came in May 2022 led by Web3 investor Jump Crypto to develop Rush Gaming Universe (RGU) — a web3 based social gaming metaverse. Hike’s efforts to find a perfect fit seem to have paid off as the company generated a healthy revenue — even though it took a long time to get there. The company’s losses, however, are still a point of concern. From the time it first raised money in 2013 to the present day, Hike has seen its earliest investor Bharti Airtel grow five times in revenue. Even Softbank, the other early backer, has written off its interest in the firm sometime back as inconsequential. While that takes some pressure off, there is no denying that its legacy weighs heavily on Hike, even when it seemingly is the closest to discovering a viable business model. Will it be able to sustain this new momentum long enough to finally deliver a worthwhile return to any of its investors? Time will tell.

Clear cuts 16% of workforce amid peak tax-filing season

EntrackrEntrackr · 5m ago
Clear cuts 16% of workforce amid peak tax-filing season
Medial

Clear (formerly Cleartax) has laid off around 20-25% of its workforce in a fresh round of job cuts that took effect on August 1, according to sources aware of the matter. The layoffs have affected several recently hired employees including freshers who had joined just two months ago. "The company is letting go of 20-25% of its workforce as part of a restructuring exercise," said a source on condition of anonymity. "Around 145 employees have been impacted, and most of them have received standard severance packages.” Clear has confirmed the layoff exercise but said that only 16% staff were asked to go. “At Clear, we have always prided ourselves on being an employee-first organisation - a place where learning, innovation, and growth are core to the experience. We recently undertook a broader strategic organisational restructuring, impacting around 16% of our workforce, including a small number of early-career employees,” said a Clear spokesperson. “To support them, we have extended enhanced severance packages, continued health insurance, and active outplacement assistance through outreach to industry partners,” the spokesperson added. As per sources, the layoff also came as a surprise to many new joiners who had barely completed a quarter at the consumer fintech company. Multiple impacted individuals took to LinkedIn to share their experiences. Anoop Singh, a graduate from IIT Guwahati who joined as a software engineer in June, wrote that the decision felt profoundly unfair as he did not get a chance to prove himself. In his post, Singh mentioned that he was seeking opportunities and connections rather than sympathy. Another employee Harshit Swarnkar said his offer for the role of software engineer was revoked citing difficult business decisions. Clear offers taxation and financial solutions for businesses and individuals. For businesses, it provides accounts payable, e-invoicing, and invoice discounting through Finance Cloud, Compliance Cloud, and Supply Chain Cloud. For individuals, it simplifies tax filing and related services. The fresh layoffs at the company are taking place exactly three years after the last round. Interestingly, the layoffs come during the peak income tax return filing period, a crucial season for the company. Clear earns most of its revenue from taxation-related and corporate secretarial services, and the Indian government has set September 15 as the deadline for filing returns. According to a source, Clear was facing a cash crunch, which led to the sacking of a large number of employees. The company has not been able to raise a fresh round since October 2021. According to startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Clear has raised $140 million to date, with Kora, Composite Capital Management, and Stripe as its lead investors. The job cuts come even as the company reported a sharp rise in revenue for the financial year ending March 2024. Clear posted 93% jump in its operating revenue to Rs 209.84 crore in FY24 from Rs 108.77 crore in FY23. The company also reduced its losses by nearly 59% to Rs 96.24 crore and brought down its total expenditure by almost 10%. Clear has yet to file its annual report for the last fiscal year (FY25).

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