🚀 Medial Secures Investment on Shark Tank India - Fueling the Future of Professional Social Networking. 🔥
Login

News on Medial

Related News

Amazon says it has purchased some assets of MX Player, not entire company

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Amazon says it has purchased some assets of MX Player, not entire company
Medial

Last week Entrackr reported that Times Internet-owned MX Player is very close to getting acquired by Amazon. The e-commerce giant has now confirmed that it has acquired some assets of MX Player. Entrackr understands that Amazon has signed an agreement to purchase some assets from MX Player. The transaction, however, isn’t completed yet. “We are always looking for ways to introduce new products and services that help improve customers’ lives. We’re excited to continue to entertain India with the great local originals and exclusive content available across our Prime Video and miniTV services in India,” said an Amazon spokesperson in a response to Entrackr queries sent on May 29. As mentioned above, Entrackr had reported that Amazon was close to acquiring MX Player and the contours of the deal have been chalked out. Sources had outlined that potential transaction is a distress one and valued MX Player in the range of $50 million. Sources also asserted that the MX Player team will join Mini TV and its chief executive officer Karan Bedi is likely to join as director. Amazon, however, didn’t comment on specific queries related to the management rejig and merger with its existing services. That said, Amazon’s official stand implies that the company is indeed looking to integrate MX Player’s content IP with Mini TV and Amazon Prime. Though, its emphasis on not acquiring the entire company suggests that it doesn’t want to cover liabilities and other sides of MX Player’s business. In case you didn’t know, MX Player is owned by MX Media which also used to operate short video entertainment app MX TakaTak. The TikTok-like platform merged with Google-backed ShareChat in February 2022. Times Internet hasn’t responded to our queries sent to them last week.

Funding and acquisitions in Indian startup this week [5 - 10 Aug]

EntrackrEntrackr · 11m ago
Funding and acquisitions in Indian startup this week [5 - 10 Aug]
Medial

During the week, 29 Indian startups raised around $177.68 million in funding. These deals count 8 growth-stage deals and 19 early-stage deals while 2 early-stage startups kept their transaction details undisclosed. During the previous week, 32 early and growth-stage startups cumulatively raised $334 million in funding. [Growth-stage deals] Among the growth-stage deals, 8 startups raised $104.8 million in funding this week. Telehealth and wellness platform Visit Health spearheaded with its $30 million worth Series B round. Wealth and asset management company Neo, vernacular social media platform ShareChat, D2C dairy and daily essential brand Country Delight, and e-commerce solution provider ShopDeck followed with $26.5 million, $16 million, $8.45 million, and $7.85 million, in funding, respectively. [Early-stage deals] Further, 19 early-stage startups secured funding worth $9.8 million during the week. B2B agri-processing platform Agrizy led the list followed by platform for sourcing and manufacturing of specialty chemicals Scimplify, personal care e-commerce startup Kindlife, stock broking platform Punch, and extended reality (XR) startup Metadome.ai among others. As many as 2 startups did not disclose the funding amount raised are; IppoPay and FlexiBees. For more information, visit TheKredible. [City and segment-wise deals] In terms of the city-wise number of funding deals, Bengaluru-based startups led with 11 deals followed by Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Udaipur, and Chandigarh. Segment-wise, Fintech and Healthtech startups shared the top spot with 5 deals each. E-commerce, Foodtech, Biotech, SaaS, and Agritech startups followed this list among others. [Series-wise deals] During the week, Series A funding deals are on top with 10 deals followed by 7 Seed, 4 Series B, 3 pre-Series A, and 3 Debt deals. Series C and Angel round deals are next on the list. [Week-on-week funding trend] On a weekly basis, startup funding slipped 46.81% to $177.68 million as compared to around $334.04 million raised during the previous week. The average funding in the last eight weeks stands at around $297.56 million with 29 deals per week. [Fund launches] Three startup-focused funds launched this week. Consumer-focused VC firm Sauce VC closed its third fund at Rs 365 crore. Simultaneously, O’Neil Capital Management India launched a new quant fund aiming for stable returns. Pantomath Capital Management also secured a significant initial close for its second fund, focusing on value investing. [Key hirings and departures] Equivalent to 11 key hirings took place this week including Sairam Krishnamurthy by Swiggy Instamart, Ramesh Padmanabhan by Core Integra, Shashank Ranjan by EvenFlow, Ramesh Gururaja by Flipkart and Gaurav Kejriwal by Smart Joules among others. While, Amazon’s head of operations in India, Manish Tiwary resigned after an over eight-year stint with the company. [Mergers and Acquisitions] As many as six merger and acquisition deals were witnessed this week. Gaming firm Nazara acquired Fusebox Games, Instawork took over Able Jobs, Nazara’s Absolute Sports acquired DeltiasGaming.com, Shobitam acquired IsadoraLife, Exicom acquired Tritium, and Apax Partners picked up 52% stakes in greytHR. [Layoffs] BeepKart, a used two-wheeler retailer, let go of over 100 employees, constituting more than 20% of its workforce. Additionally, social media platform ShareChat announced a 5% reduction in its staff as part of its performance review process. [ESOP buyback] Fintech firm Propelld is conducting an ESOP buyback worth Rs 7.05 crore, benefiting 18 employees. In addition to the buyback, the company has increased its ESOP pool and granted additional ESOPs to its workforce. Visit TheKredible to see series-wise deals along with amount breakup, complete details of fund launches, and more insights. [New launches] Flipkart’s 10 min delivery service Minutes goes live in Bengaluru Niyo expands travel services with flight booking and visa Options [Financial results this week] PB Fintech reports 7.5% dip in Q1 FY25 revenue; maintains profit Mamaearth hits all-time high profit during Q1 FY25 Fasal reports Rs 34 Cr revenue in FY24; earns 91% from fruit sales [News flash this week] UPI daily transactions cross 500 Mn mark No appraisal for Unacademy employees in 2024 Namma Yatri expands zero-commission cab service to Delhi-NCR After a muted listing, Ola Electric’s share price surged 20% Tech IPOs subscription: Unicommerce 168X, FirstCry 12X Astroyogi accuses Astrotalk of trademark infringement SaaS unicorn Postman’s valuation takes a hit: Report [Conclusion] The weekly funding again shrank down by 46.81% to $177.68 million this week. Meanwhile, three startup-focused funds launched this week namely Sauce.vc, ONeil India Quant Fund, and IIOT. Edtech giant Unacademy has announced that there will be no appraisals for its employees in 2024. The decision comes after the company failed to meet its growth targets for the year, despite overall performance being described as “above average.” CEO Gaurav Munjal emphasized the company’s financial stability and resilience in a challenging market. Ride-hailing service Namma Yatri, known for its lifetime zero-commission model, has expanded its operations to Delhi NCR. The service, now branded as ‘Yatri,’ is part of the ONDC network. This follows the successful launch of the service in Bengaluru earlier this year. Ola Electric’s shares experienced a strong rally on their debut day despite a flat opening. The stock price surged nearly 20%, reaching a high of Rs 91.20, from its initial listing price of Rs 76. This positive performance comes after the company’s IPO was oversubscribed 4.27 times. Meanwhile, FirstCry, a kids-focused omnichannel brand, saw a 12.22X oversubscription led by qualified institutional buyers (QIBs). Meanwhile, enterprise tech startup Unicommerce witnessed an overwhelming response of 168X overall subscription rate from investors Astroyogi has filed a lawsuit against its competitor, Astrotalk, alleging unauthorized use of the ‘Astroyogi’ trademark. The company claims that Astrotalk has used the trademark name within its horoscope categories, leading to potential confusion among customers. Astroyogi has emphasized its commitment to protecting its brand and intellectual property rights. As per a media report, SaaS platform Postman has seen a significant decline in its valuation, with recent secondary deals happening at a 30-40% discount compared to its peak valuation of $5.6 billion. This sharp drop is attributed to the overall decline in valuations for SaaS companies. Angel and early-stage investors have partially cashed out their stakes in the Bengaluru-based API development platform.

Zerodha hits Rs 8,000 Cr revenue with over 50% profit margin in FY24

EntrackrEntrackr · 9m ago
Zerodha hits Rs 8,000 Cr revenue with over 50% profit margin in FY24
Medial

Stock broking platform Zerodha has reported more than Rs 8,000 crore in revenue and over Rs 4,500 crore in profit, according to a blog post by the company’s co-founder and CEO, Nithin Kamath. This marks a significant increase from the Rs 6,875 crore in operational revenue and Rs 2,907 crore in profit after tax reported in FY23. According to the company, these profits do not account for approximately Rs 1,000 crore in unrealized gains, which will reflect in its financials once recognized. The firm has not yet officially filed its audited annual report. The data disclosed by Zerodha indicates that more than half of its revenue has translated into profit. “Given the profitability of the last three years, our net worth is almost ~40% of the customer funds that we manage. It makes us one of the safest brokers to trade with,” said Kamath in the blogpost. Kamath also added that the firm is already encountering a plateau in revenue and profit, and it is gearing up for a substantial revenue decline later this year. The firm has linked the expected decline in scale to upcoming regulations from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which will eliminate the volume-based transaction fee model for free equity delivery trades affecting all brokers, including Zerodha. The SEBI’s true-to-label circular will go live on October 1 and Zerodha expects a 10% revenue dip due to the regulation. “We expect this paper to materialise into regulation sometime in the next quarter. Index derivatives today are a significant portion of our revenue, and any change will impact us. We anticipate a 30% to 50% drop in revenue,” said Kamath. Zerodha’s annual maintenance charges (AMC) will also be impacted by the new basic services demat account (BSDA) thresholds set by the regulator. Kamath explained that the company can charge the full AMC for customers with demat holdings of Rs 10 lakhs and above, up from the current threshold of Rs 4 lakhs. Along with the removal of the account opening fee, this would lead to a significant decline in revenue. Zerodha is confident that it can handle the slow period because of its small team, careful spending, and strong finances. It has 1,200 employees, but only a small portion of them runs the core business.

IPO Prep: Swiggy paints a healthy financial picture in first 9 months of FY24

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
IPO Prep: Swiggy paints a healthy financial picture in first 9 months of FY24
Medial

A decade after launching, foodtech and quick commerce decacorn Swiggy is eyeing a public listing this year and is leaving no stone unturned to present a healthy financial picture. The company seems to be achieving a steady 25-30% year-on-year growth in the ongoing fiscal year (FY24). During the first nine months of FY24, IPO-bound Swiggy’s revenue from operations was Rs 5,476 crore, according to a document drafted by an investment banker on behalf of Swiggy. While the company reported Rs 8,265 crore in revenue in FY23, the document revealed it did a collection of Rs 6,623 crore in the last fiscal year, it appears Swiggy changed its revenue recognition method. Within this, the food delivery business constituted 82.65% of the total operating revenue, amounting to Rs 4,526 crore. The remaining income came from Swiggy Instamart, the firm’s quick commerce vertical. Sources indicate that the company is exploring a secondary market deal as it wants to offer exits to its early as well as late-stage backers. “Swiggy is likely to go for an IPO in the second half of this year and the secondary transaction appears to be an attempt to spruce up its cap table,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity. Sources outline that Swiggy will be seeking its last primary valuation in the potential secondary transaction. “The company closed Rs 384 crore from Ramco Group in August at a valuation of Rs 73,520 crore [$8.85 billion],” mentioned the document, cited above. Just months after this funding, US-based assets manager Baron Capital Group marked up the valuation of Swiggy to $12.1 billion. It’s worth noting that Swiggy acquired Lynk Logistics around the same time (August 2023) and the above transaction might be linked to it. Queries sent to Swiggy didn’t elicit any response. The document further stated that during the first nine months of FY24, Swiggy’s gross order value (GOV) stood at Rs 24,230 crore, with food delivery comprising a substantial 76.2%, equivalent to Rs 18,472 crore. The remaining GOV is attributed to Instamart. With a sharp focus on profitability, the Bengaluru-based company has significantly improved its EBITDA margins which registered at -1.9% and -109.5% for the food delivery biz and Instamart, respectively during the nine-month period. These figures stood at -17.5% and -259% in FY23. Swiggy’s cost-cutting measures and IPO preparations have been evident. In January, Entrackr reported that Swiggy was planning to lay off 6% of their workforce to trim expenses. In February month, the company changed its registered name from Bundl to Swiggy and recently shortlisted seven bankers including Kotak Mahindra and JP Morgan. “Swiggy will file papers for IPO by May and ultimately go IPO around the festive season. The company will seek valuation in the range of $12-15 billion,” said another source who also requested anonymity. This person also said that the firm may give a discount in valuation as far as secondary transaction is concerned. The timing seems good, with closest peer Zomato doing well since its listing to approach a $20 billion valuation this week. Even after factoring in the lead for Zomato in topline, a $12 billion valuation or even higher should not be out of reach for Swiggy after it files its FY24 financials. However, it is clear that factors like market dynamics at the time of the IPO, the share of offer for sale versus funds for the firm, or the plans of Big Basket or even Zepto will likely impact perceptions on future profitability. Even as Zomato has achieved operational profitability, Swiggy was some way off when it last announced numbers, and that red ink is bound to weigh heavily on its price unless a turnaround is visible and sustained.

Download the medial app to read full posts, comements and news.