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Pine Labs India posts Rs 1,384 Cr revenue in FY24; losses jump 3X

EntrackrEntrackr · 9m ago
Pine Labs India posts Rs 1,384 Cr revenue in FY24; losses jump 3X
Medial

The Indian unit of merchant commerce and payments platform Pine Labs has reported flat revenue in the fiscal year ending March 2024. However, the Delhi-based firm’s losses swelled 3X in this period. Pine Labs’s operating revenue increased modestly by 2.8% to Rs 1,317 crore in FY24 from Rs 1,281 crore in FY23, its annual financial statements sourced from the Registrar of Companies show. Caveat: Pine Labs is registered in Singapore and has not yet submitted its FY24 results there. Based on the previous fiscal year’s report, the parent entity is expected to post approximately Rs 400 crore more or over Rs 1,700 crore in operating revenue in the last fiscal year. As for the revenue channels of Pine Labs’ Indian entity, income from transaction processing and settlement was the main contributor, accounting for 61% of total operating revenue, which rose a modest 1.5% to Rs 805 crore in FY24. Income from digitization and services provided at petroleum outlets amounted to Rs 67 crore during the same period. Pine Labs also offers gifting solutions through Qwikcilver, Pine Perks, and Google Wallet. Income from this segment declined by 44.5% to Rs 111 crore in FY24. Revenue from device sales, plastic cards, and other miscellaneous sources brought the total revenue to Rs 1,384 crore during the last fiscal year, compared to Rs 1,328 crore in FY23. In terms of cost breakdown, Pine Labs allocated 38.5% of its total expenditure to employee benefits, which grew by 3% to Rs 625 crore in FY24, including Rs 58 crore in non-cash ESOP expenses. Legal and professional fees were the next largest expense category. Other significant costs included materials, travel, advertising, e-commerce site listings, database communication, and repairs, bringing total expenditures up by 15.8% to Rs 1,624 crore in FY24. FY23-FY24 FY23 FY24 EBITDA Margin 14.91% 10.55% Expense/₹ of Op Revenue ₹1.09 ₹1.23 ROCE -1.65% -7.87% The modest growth in scale, combined with a nearly 16% rise in expenditure, led Pine Labs to report a more than threefold increase in losses, reaching Rs 187 crore in FY24 compared to Rs 56 crore in FY23. Its ROCE and EBITDA margin stood at -7.87% and 10.55%, respectively. On a per-unit basis, Pine Labs spent Rs 1.23 to earn a rupee in FY24. Pine Labs recently received approval from a Singapore court to relocate its domicile to India. It also obtained initial approval from the National Company Law Tribunal to merge its entities in India and Singapore. Pine Labs has been pursuing an initial public offering (IPO) for several years. Last year, the company appointed bankers for a U.S. IPO, but the attempt did not materialize. While the firm has not yet confirmed a listing timeline, it is likely to debut on one of the Indian stock exchanges sometime in the next fiscal year (FY26).

SaaS unicorn Amagi acquires Argoid AI

EntrackrEntrackr · 7m ago
SaaS unicorn Amagi acquires Argoid AI
Medial

Amagi, a cloud media SaaS technology firm, has announced the acquisition of Argoid AI, an AI company specializing in recommendation engines and programming automation for OTT platforms. By integrating Argoid AI’s advanced algorithms into Amagi’s existing platform, this acquisition will significantly boost the functionality of Amagi’s product suite, Amagi NOW and CLOUDPORT offerings. This will enable the media companies to make faster, smarter, and personalized content scheduling decisions at scale. With the acquisition, Argoid’s founders, Gokul Muralidharan, Soundararajan Velu, and Chackaravarthy E, will join the Amagi team. Argoid AI has developed innovative AI products that enhance content recommendations and enable real-time programming decisions. According to the company, its solutions have been pivotal in increasing viewer engagement and optimizing channel operations for customers in the streaming media space. Amagi has emerged as a rare comeback story in the B2B SaaS space. The company pivoted in 2018 from providing advertising solutions for local businesses on television channels to a SaaS-based monetization platform for TV networks and content owners. Amagi achieved unicorn status after securing $95 million in a new funding round led by existing investor Accel in March 2022 along with an additional $110 million in November. According to media reports, it was in discussions to raise $250 million in a forthcoming round. According to data intelligence platform, TheKredible, Amagi’s revenue from operations spiked to Rs 879.15 crore during the last fiscal year from Rs 680 crore in FY23.

Licious acquires My Chicken and More

EntrackrEntrackr · 9m ago
Licious acquires My Chicken and More
Medial

D2C meat and seafood brand Licious has acquired Bengaluru-based offline retailer My Chicken and More for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition marks Licious’ strategy to build an omnichannel presence complimenting its digital commerce that reaches 4 million households currently. With My Chicken and More’s 23 stores, Licious will expand its physical retail footprint to 26 points of sale. My Chicken and More is known for its in-store experience. Between 2021 and 2023, the brand claims to have expanded from 10 to 23 outlets, generating revenues of Rs. 110 crore in 2023. My Chicken and More claims to processes 1.6 to 1.8 million orders annually, with some stores with an average monthly footfall of 10,000 to 12,000 customers. Founded in 2015 by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, Licious sells meat, seafood and ready-to-cook items across 25 cities. The sale of these products formed the majority source of revenue for Licious in FY23. The company turned unicorn following a $52 million round led by IIFL AMC’s Late Stage Tech Fund in October 2021. During the same year, it also scooped up $192 million in Series F round. In total, it has raised $490 million to date. Despite back-to-back funding during FY23, Licious’s operating income remained flat with mere 9.6% growth to Rs 747.7 crore from Rs 682.5 crore in FY22. It also saw a modest increase of 3.1% in its losses to Rs 500 crore in FY23 from Rs 485 crore in the previous fiscal year. Its flagship loyalty program Infiniti has amassed 2 lakh weekly active subscribers, contributing to 58% of the monthly business.

Krutrim acquires BharatSahAIyak from tech consulting firm Samagra

EntrackrEntrackr · 27d ago
Krutrim acquires BharatSahAIyak from tech consulting firm Samagra
Medial

Krutrim acquires BharatSahAIyak from tech consulting firm Samagra. The acquisition is aimed at helping the company accelerate deployment of its technology across public infrastructure, including sectors like healthcare, education, and governance. Bhavish Aggarwal-led AI startup Krutrim has acquired BharatSahAIyak, a company focused on public-sector AI solutions, from technology consulting firm Samagra. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Launched in 2023, Krutrim has been building a full-stack AI ecosystem with proprietary models in language, vision, and speech. The acquisition is aimed at helping the company accelerate deployment of its technology across public infrastructure, including sectors like healthcare, education, and governance. BharatSahAIyak has been working on AI-led implementations for public services. The acquisition gives Krutrim a stronger execution arm for real-world use cases, particularly in partnerships with government agencies. “This integration enhances our ability to build AI that is inclusive, intuitive, and deeply rooted in the lived realities of India. With Krutrim, we remain committed towards making ‘AI for all’ a reality, empowering every individual with technology they can truly call their own,” said an Ola Krutrim spokesperson. The deal follows a series of recent announcements by Krutrim, including the launch of Krutrim AI Lab and BharatBench, an open-source initiative for Indian AI research. The company has also revealed plans to scale its data center capacity to 1 GW by 2028 and has committed up to $1.2 billion in funding over the next few years. Krutrim has raised approximately $75 million and joined the unicorn club in January 2024. Its investors include Z47 (formerly Matrix), the Sarin Family, and others. The company was recently in the news regarding a potential new fundraise. However, Krutrim has officially denied any such discussions. The acquisition comes at a time when three senior leaders have exited Ola Krutrim. As per an ET report, Senior Director John Williamson, Head of Engineering Dinesh Mittal, and Director of Applied AI Sharath Adavanne have recently left the company.

Baron and Invesco mark up Pine Labs’ valuation

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Baron and Invesco mark up Pine Labs’ valuation
Medial

US-based investment firms Baron Funds and Invesco have marked up the valuation of fintech unicorn Pine Labs. While Baron increased its valuation to $5.8 billion, Invesco marked the firm’s value up to $4.8 billion as of December 2023. Earlier, Baron Funds valued the firm at $5.3 billion in September last year whereas Invesco cut its valuation to $3.9 billion as of October 31. Invesco had last invested $100 million in Pine Labs in September 2021 while Baron Capital led a $285 million round in the fintech unicorn in May. ET reported the development first via regulatory filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Pine Labs has been facing ups and downs in its fair valuation since last year. For the record, Fidelity marked up its stake value in July last year but later slashed its valuation to $3 billion from $4.7 billion as of October. Pine Labs’ revenue continued to climb in FY23 as its collection spiked 56% to Rs 1,588 crore. However, its losses still not tapering down and grew by 12% to Rs 227 crore. The firm is yet to file its FY24 numbers. Pine Labs has been trying to go public for the past few years as its backers including Peak XV Partners are eyeing an exit. Last year, it finalized bankers for an IPO in the US but the attempt didn’t materialize even though the firm’s chief executive Rau refuted the reports of delaying the public listing plan on NASDAQ. On the lines of other large fintechs such as Groww and Razorpay, Pine Labs is seeking to move its domicile to India which appears to have a better public market sentiment for tech companies. Besides Pine Labs, Swiggy, Meesho, FirstCry and Ola Electric also saw markups in their valuation in the last six months.

Adda247 acquires CA test prep platform Ekagrata

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Adda247 acquires CA test prep platform Ekagrata
Medial

Google-backed edtech company Adda247 has acquired chartered accountancy (CA) test preparation platform Ekagrata Eduserv for an undisclosed amount. Adda247 had previously acquired StudyIQ in January 2021 and Veeksha in July 2023. This acquisition is expected to significantly expand Adda247’s user base, which currently has 40 million monthly users (MAU). It will position Adda247 to capture a substantial share of the booming CA test preparation market, the company said in a press release. As a part of the acquisition, Anshul Agrawal, founder of Ekagrata , will be appointed as the director of CA vertical at Adda247 to lead the category. The strategic acquisition will also see Ekagrata’s employees becoming a part of Adda247. According to market research, the CA test preparation market is valued at Rs 800 crore (nearly $100 million). The acquisition comes soon after Adda247’s expansion into the skilling, up skilling, and higher education sectors. Co-founded in 2016 by Anil Nagar and Saurabh Bansal, Adda247’s offerings include live online classes, on-demand video courses, mock tests, and e-books. As per startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Adda247 has raised over $55 million to date from investors like Westbridge, Google, Info Edge, and Asha Impact. The firm was valued at $175 million during its last fundraise in October 2022. Gurugram-based Adda247’s revenue from operations jumped nearly two fold to Rs 115 crore in FY23 from Rs 61 crore in FY22. During the period, the firm’s losses increased by 4X to Rs 110 crore.

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