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Evify brings last-mile delivery to non-metro cities with EV logistics

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Evify brings last-mile delivery to non-metro cities with EV logistics
Medial

India’s electric vehicle market is set to be worth nearly $114 billion in 2029 with a CAGR of 66.5%, according to a report by Fortune Business Insights. The exponential growth in the EV space comes on the back of the government focus on sustainable mobility, increased VC capital infusion in the industry, and consumers’ wide embrace. Surat-based Evify is one of the relatively new startups that is looking to stand out with its strategy to focus on logistics in non-metro cities. Founded in 2021, Evify has essentially set up a facility where riders can come to their hub, pick up an EV to start deliveries, and return the vehicle at the end of the day. The company takes care of the maintenance of the vehicles. The startup currently operates in Surat and Ahmedabad, and has facilitated 11 lakh deliveries in the last one year. We spoke to the company co-founder and CEO Devrishi Arora to learn more about Evify, the idea behind the logistics EV startup, business model, and more. Here are the edited excerpts. What do you think are the key challenges in the emobility space? Since we come from a non-metro city, where the EV eco system is still at the nascent stage, there is no infrastructure available for the smooth functioning of the vehicles. There’s a scarcity of charging stations, inconveniencing EV users. Secondly, delivery riders lack awareness of EV benefits and savings. Thirdly, high initial EV costs, compounded by elevated RTO charges in states like Gujarat, and a scarcity of repair stations inflate expenses. Fourthly, concerns about EV range and charging infrastructure persist, particularly in Tier II cities with longer distances. Fifthly, limited availability of EVs and components, coupled with inadequate after-sales service, hampers adoption. Lastly, overcoming perceptions of EVs as less reliable requires client confidence, which we foster through pilot projects. How are you using technology to solve these challenges? We have also installed all the vehicles with telematics devices which helps us to geofence the vehicles, remote immobilization, study the rider driving pattern as well as idle time pattern of the riders. This has helped us to have control on our fleet as well as the riders. We have also been creating a full stack tech platform which will help us to study the rider analytics, battery analytics, BMS , IOT data, clients data, vendor data, ancillary industry data, repairs and maintenance, charging stations, etc under one single platform. How has your startup performed since inception? We started in September 2021 with just 30 vehicles and one client in Surat ie. Big Basket. Today, we have close to 500 vehicles servicing six major clients Zomato, Swiggy, Big Basket, Bluedart, Ecom Express, Flipkart in Surat and Ahmedabad. We are also launching our operations in Vadodara soon in the coming months. We have so far raised $1.3 million from GVFl and Piper Serica as the VC investors. The target is to have a fleet of 10,000 vehicles in the coming 2 years spread across 10 cities of Bharat. What are your short-term and long term goals? Our goals for the upcoming year involve expanding our presence in the four major cities of Gujarat and achieving a fleet size of 5,000 vehicles by the end of the next financial year. Additionally, we aim to establish the necessary EV ecosystem in these cities through collaborations with other EV players, fostering synergies, and raising awareness about this segment in Tier II cities. Looking ahead, our broader vision is to evolve into a green logistics service provider. This encompasses implementing green warehousing practices and facilitating first-mile, mid-mile, and last-mile deliveries using electric vehicles. Furthermore, we intend to partner with drop delivery services to offer comprehensive mid-mile delivery solutions to our clients.

XOBOX aims to tackle residential last-mile delivery hurdles

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
XOBOX aims to tackle residential last-mile delivery hurdles
Medial

Last-mile delivery hasn’t been perfect. Not that the likes of Dunzos of this world haven’t tried to address this. Recently, we saw Zomato experimenting with last-mile delivery through a unique concept of ‘walkers’ for corporate parks. Bengaluru-based XOBOX is one of the few startups that is trying to fix the last-mile delivery challenges especially for people living in urban areas. The company handles packages for residents in apartment complexes. Some of the features are securing the packages in smart lockers and dropping them to customers’ doorstep when they are back to their homes, and home delivery of essential items. We spoke to XOBOX founder and CEO Kiran Shivappa about his startup, what distinguishes it from the competition and the roadmap ahead. Here are the edited excerpts: How did you come up with this idea? I live in an apartment complex and even before the Covid deliveries were left scattered in front of the door and stray cats use to destroy especially milk packet which cause everyone to talk about it hours in community Whatsapp group, this made me think to find/adopt a solution to secure the deliveries when residents not able to receive it or may be they are not around. How does the platform work? Please help simplify the process. When we started the service, we started taking the request from residents to handle their packages and we coordinated with delivery guys to take the package, pay them if it is a COD [Cash on Delivery], and secure them in the locker until they come back, then we deliver it to their doorstep. We went one step ahead and made a contract with 3PL [Third-party logistics] and ecommerce companies to take every delivery coming to the society and our dedicated resources would hand them over to the residents, if the resident is not available then secure the package in the locker and hand it over once they come back. What are the key challenges in the industry that have not been addressed yet? And how do you plan to address them? Ecommerce companies have tried many solutions to optimize the last leg of the delivery process and achieved the Kirana model also, but they never got a chance to be inside the society exclusively and take care of the deliveries and achieve the customer delight to bring the most convenience to them in their package receiving time. We have dedicated resources inside each society to carefully handle the package and interact with residents and elderly people and become familiar to them so they feel comfortable to receive us at the doorstep at any time and feel secured as well. Industry major players tried to introduce the lockers but these lockers operate as a complete unmanned and fully automated, for this reason the adaptation was a big challenge and education was also a challenge. We adopted a 70/30 model where, way the lockers were built, operated and how people would feel easy to adopt this because the “30” percentage is the resources we introduced along with “70” percentage technology, our dedicated resource will work with all stake holders in the gated community to educate and make every one understand how to use the service. What are your short-term and long term goals in terms of product and business expansion and diversification? In the short term, we are looking to expand the service to 35 more gated communities in Bengaluru in 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2024 and then go to other cities. As far as long-term plans go, we are going to sign contracts with major ecommerce and 3PL companies to increase the volume in each society and serve the needs of elderly population in the community. We would want to reach 700-1000 gated communities and generate 150-180 cr annually.

Tata to rethink Starbucks' outlet expansion strategy amid lower footfall

VCCircleVCCircle · 7m 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

Indian startups raise $900 Mn in February: Report

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Indian startups raise $900 Mn in February: Report
Medial

Funding inflow improved in February on the back of a couple of large rounds of growth-stage firms. Some early-stage startups also received decent traction. At the same time, the Indian startup world continued to battle with ongoing challenges like layoffs and departures of key executives. Indian startups mopped up nearly $900 million across 121 deals in February, as per data compiled by TheKredible. This included 25 growth-stage deals worth $585 million and 83 early-stage deals amounting to $313.5 million. There were 13 undisclosed rounds. [Month-on-Month and Year-on-Year trend] February registered a modest jump in funding from $732.7 million in January. Even on a year-on-year basis, February 2024 surpassed the February 2023 funding mark of $845 million. Unlike January, February saw three-digit funding as Shadowfax raised $100 million in a new round. The M-o-M and Y-o-Y trends can be seen below. [Top growth stage deals] Flipkart-backed logistics company Shadowfax topped the charts with $100 million in a Series E funding round led by TPG NewQuest. While the company did not disclose its valuation, it is estimated to have reached closer to entering the unicorn club. SaaS firm Capillary Technologies saw $95 million in funding via a secondary round. Other funding rounds in the growth stage were below $50 million which included EV startup River, e-commerce company Kushal’s, and seafood company Captain Fresh. Rentomojo and Zeno Health also raised $25 million each. [Top early-stage deals] Blockchain startup Avail, spiritual tech startup AstroTalk, and metal supply chain company Metalbook led the chart with $27 million, $20 million, and $15 million in funding, respectively. Notably, the top eight startups in the early stage raised at least $10 million each in their new fundraise. The list counts Keus, OTO, Moove, Vidyut, and Interview Kickstart. [Stage-wise deals] Series-wise, Seed and Series A startup funding deals co-led the list with 33 deals each during February. Pre-Seed and Pre-Series A deals stood at 12 and 10, respectively. Among growth stage deals, Series B, Series C, Series D, and Series F are next on the list while as many as 10 startups raised debt funding during the month. [City-Segment] In terms of city-wise deals, Bengaluru retained the top spot with 45 deals worth around $482.6 million, or close to 54% of the total funding raised during February. Delhi-NCR and Mumbai-based startups were the next with 26 and 25 deals, respectively, collectively amounting to $311 million. Pune saw 9 deals followed by Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur, and Ahmedabad among others. E-commerce startups re-captured the top position this month in terms of segment-wise number of deals with 27 deals. This was followed by healthtech (12), fintech (10), and SaaS (10). EV, proptech, AI, edtech, and food tech startups also made it to the top 10. [Most active investors] Early stage venture capital firm Blume Venture and venture debt firm Stride Ventures have emerged as most active investors in February with 5 investments each. Fireside Ventures was next on the list with four deals followed by 9Unicorns, Antler India, IAN, Omidyar, and others. The full list can be found at TheKredible. [Mergers and acquisitions] February witnessed 12 mergers and acquisitions deals. Acquisition of investing platform Kuvera by CRED, LotusPay by Juspay, cybersecurity startup Difenz by Signzy, gaming firm Ninja Global FZCO by Nodwin, and seafood platform CenSea by Captain Fresh were some of the notable deals during the period. In comparison, January saw nine mergers and acquisitions deals. [Layoffs, Shutdowns, and top-level exits] Like January, the layoffs spree continued in February as more than 350 employees were let go of across six startups. Log9 Materials topped this list with 115 employees followed by Licious, Waycool, and Polygon. Meanwhile, Indian startups also saw 10 top-level exits. Flipkart alone saw three departures including senior vice presidents Amitesh Jha, Dheeraj A, and Bharat Ram. Paytm Payments Bank also saw the exits of two independent directors and the surprising exit of Vijay Shekhar Sharma who was the part-time non-executive chairman and board member of the company. The full list can be found here. [Conclusion] It might be early signs, but we would venture to say that the situation is actually improving steadily, as over a year of relatively tough market conditions have ensured a higher focus on resilience in startups. A booming stock market has also meant that amidst all the gloom of a shrinking job market, investible funds do exist for the right idea, and newer segments like Proptech that are riding the real estate boom are set to make a splash with a few big deals sooner than later. As expected, the AI rush is not getting anywhere in a hurry, and the impact will be visible over a much more extended period of time. Climate tech can also be expected to make a serious play for investor funds soon, with new opportunities in carbon markets and more. Global realignments that are underway across manufacturing and soon, services as well, augur well for India in the medium to long term, and we will soon see the first, early bets on these shifts being placed soon. While many will see the upcoming elections as a crimp for the coming quarter, we believe it will be a good time to see just how far investors have moved away from counting on favourable policies, and looking instead at stable and consistent policies to base their thesis on.

Exclusive: Flipkart to take on Zepto, Blinkit with quick commerce foray

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Exclusive: Flipkart to take on Zepto, Blinkit with quick commerce foray
Medial

The quick commerce sector is all set to heat up once again as India’s e-commerce giant is now eyeing the segment. Flipkart has started ramping up infrastructure for its quick commerce play, three sources aware of the details of the plan told Entrackr. “Flipkart will launch 10-15 minutes delivery in at least a dozen cities in the next six to eight weeks,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity. “It’s building up a chain of dark stores across several cities including Bengaluru, Delhi (NCR) and Hyderabad among others.” Flipkart’s foray into quick commerce comes at a time when experts anticipate that quick commerce would end up eating into the e-commerce pie sooner than later in India. The total addressable market for quick commerce in India is nearly worth $45 billion, according to a 2022 Redseer report. More importantly, quick commerce has proven to be surprisingly resilient in the last couple of years, with both Zepto and Zomato’s Blinkit doing more than enough to convince investors that the concept has a future in India. While Zepto was rewarded with a unicorn round, Blinkit’s (formerly Grofers) turnaround and Swiggy Instamart’s growth have been bright spots in terms of scaling up with improving margins for their owners. “If you look at Flipkart’s recent launches, it hints at the firm’s foray into quick commerce. It launched same-day delivery in 20 cities a couple of weeks ago… the company began delivering flowers and cakes around the Valentine season (February 2024),” an analyst covering the e-commerce and quick commerce segments, requesting anonymity, told Entrackr. Sources indicate that Flipkart will have a wider catalog than incumbents such as Zepto and Blinkit. “The company will have a sharp focus on FMCG, grocery and daily essentials but it would also push categories such as electronics, fashion,” added the person quoted above. It’s worth mentioning that the current quick commerce players have also been steadily expanding and diversifying their offerings. Responding to queries sent by Entrackr, a Flipkart spokesperson said they are working towards delivering a wide range of products with speed. “Over the past few months, we have made several investments to enhance our delivery capabilities, including adding same-day delivery in 20 cities. This covers mobiles, essential items, electronics, home appliances, fashion, books and lifestyle products,” said the spokesperson. “We are committed to meeting evolving customer expectations and delivering excellence in value, selection and speed, with more initiatives expected on this front in the coming months.” Over the past three years, quick commerce gained quick ground in top 15 Indian cities and top three players in the segment—Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto—managed to gain sizable scale. Sources outlined that BlinkIt does around 6 lakh orders a day while Swiggy InstaMart and Zepto’s daily volume hover around 5 lakh and 3 lakh, respectively. According to Entrackr sources and data available in the public domain, Blinkit has an average revenue run rate of Rs 12,000 crore in the ongoing fiscal year whereas Swiggy Instamart ARR (read as GMV) stands at around Rs 8,000-8,500 crore. Zepto’s gross merchandise value has neared Rs 7,000 crore. Fresh from its last funding round, Zepto has been noticeably feistier — with a larger catalog and stronger marketing push. Meanwhile, Reliance and Google-backed Dunzo lost its mojo. The firm failed to raise a new round in the past two years and reported only Rs 226 crore in revenue in FY23 with losses of Rs 1,801 crore. As per reports, Flipkart engaged in discussion regarding a potential acquisition of the Kabeer Biswas-led firm. While all that might sound good, the fact that no one disagrees is that the market is not big enough for so many players, making this a matter of staying in power for most. Or perhaps, even newer operating models that might ensure sustainable growth. The broad direction so far, of an ever widening catalog and higher value transactions like electronics items etc, indicates the bleeding will not stop anytime soon.

Indian startups mop up $2.77 Bn in March 2024 quarter: Report

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Indian startups mop up $2.77 Bn in March 2024 quarter: Report
Medial

Indian startups registered a steady growth in fund inflow during the first quarter of 2023 as they managed to cross $2.75 billion in funding. Importantly, funding in March stood out for crossing the $1 billion threshold for the first time in 2024. However, even as funding recovers, layoffs, shutdowns and departure of top-level executives continue to loom. Indian startups mopped up $2.77 billion across 326 deals in the March quarter or Q1 2024, as per data compiled by TheKredible. This included 74 growth-stage deals worth $1.87 billion and 213 early-stage deals amounting to $898 million. There were 39 undisclosed rounds. Unlike in the first quarter of 2023, two startups – Krutrim SI Designs and Perfios – entered the unicorn club after their latest fundraise in the first quarter of 2024. [Month-on-Month and Year-on-Year trend] March saw a decent jump in funding to $1.18 billion from $875 million in February and over $700 million in January. However, on a year-on-year basis, Q1 2024 recorded a fall from $12 billion in Q1 2022 and $3.4 billion in Q1 2023. [Top growth stage deals] Biotech startup Engrail scooped up $157 million in its Series B funding round to become the top-funded growth stage company in the first quarter of 2024. Audio series platform Pocket FM and logistics company Shadowfax managed to go past the $100 million funding mark in Q1 2024. Capillary Technologies, Perfios, Vivifi, Lohum, AiDash, ShareChat and Wow! Momo, were among the top 10 growth-stage deals. [Top early-stage deals] Digital lending platform mPokket, AI company Krutrim, energy tech company International Battery Company (IBC), blockchain company Avail, and generative AI startup Ema topped the list of early-stage startups. Check TheKredible for a full list. [City and segment-wise deals] City-wise, Bengaluru-based startups remain on top with 122 deals, contributing around 54% of the overall funding in the first quarter of 2024. Delhi-NCR and Mumbai followed with 77 and 54 deals, respectively. The list further counts Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and Thane among others. Segment-wise, e-commerce startups (including D2C brands) led the list with 64 deals followed by fintech (47), healthtech (31), SaaS (26), EV (15), AI (13), and edtech (13) startups. The complete breakdown of the city and segment can be found at TheKredible. [Stage-wise deals] Series-wise, 95 startups raised funding in Seed round followed by 71 Series A, 35 Pre-Series A, and 33 Pre-seed deals. Among early-stage, as many as 4 startups raised funding in their angel round. While 22 startups raised debt funding worth $276.65 million during the period. [Most active investors] Early-stage venture capital firm Inflection Point Ventures and Blume Ventures have emerged as the most active investors in Q1 2024 with 11 and 10 investments, respectively. Venture Catalysts was next on the list with nine deals followed by Fireside Ventures, Anicut, Accel, and Stride Ventures. The full list can be found at TheKredible. [Mergers and acquisitions] The first quarter of 2024 registered 26 merger and acquisition deals. Acquisition of Tapasya Educational Institutions by Veranda, InSemi by Infosys, Qdigi Services by Onsitego were the top 3 disclosed mergers and acquisitions deals. During the period, listed gaming firm Nazara’s subsidiary Nodwin acquired two startups: Comic Con India and Ninja Global FZCO. Among the undisclosed deals, Kuvera was acquired by fintech unicorn CRED, Captain Fresh took over CenSea while OneVerse acquired three startups including Spartan Poker, BatBall11, and Calling Station. Check the full list here. [Layoffs, shutdowns and departures] Layoffs continued in the March quarter as more than 1,100 employees received pink slips. Among them, foodtech company Swiggy topped the list with laying off of 350 employees followed by Cult.fit, InMobi, and Pristyn Care with 150, 125 and 120 employees, respectively. During the first quarter, five companies shut their operations. The list includes Resso, Rario, OKX India, GoldPe, and Muvin. Rario, however, added that it will launch a brand new platform that will enable users to play new and engaging cricket-based games. Besides layoffs and shutdowns, nearly two dozen top-level executives hung up their boots. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm Payments Bank, resigned as the part-time non-executive chairman and board member of the company. Meanwhile, Third Wave Coffee’s chief executive officer Sushant Goel stepped down from his position to become a board member. The list also includes Indus Appstore CEO Rakesh Deshmukh, DealShare’s co-founder Sourjyendu Medda, and Fashinza’s co-founder Jamil Ahmed. [ESOP buyback] Amid all the ups and downs, the startup ecosystem witnessed employees stock buyback by growth and late-stage companies. For context, e-commerce company Meesho rolled out its largest ESOP buyback worth $25 million for 1,700 employees. Community management app MyGate and edtech company Classplus also announced their employee stock buyback program earlier this year. The full list can be found here. Visit TheKredible to see series-wise deals along with amount breakup, complete details of fund launches, and more insights. [Conclusion] As funding revives, it is safe to say that the trend in layoffs will also subside in the coming months, if not weeks. The strength in fintechs continues, and the category will continue to seek more money and throw up the next big startups, as scale arrives faster for many. Newer categories, be it AI, Chip Design, or niche parts of healthtech look set to emerge soon, going by the churning in the markets. The big hope is that the many corporate governance issues that have plagued the ecosystem in the past two years will also take a backseat now, thanks to lessons learnt hopefully. Looking at the numbers, especially for Q1 2022 ($12 billion), many would say that opportunities and capital have been wasted. But that is the very nature of the Startup world, with tiny amounts of money and a dollop of innovation sometimes achieving what no amount of money thrown at a problem doesn’t. We remain optimistic that by Q4 of this year, India’s startup ecosystem will be stronger and more diversified than ever before.

Layoffs, departures continue as Indian startups raise $1 Bn in April: Report

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Layoffs, departures continue as Indian startups raise $1 Bn in April: Report
Medial

The year 2024 started on a good note for Indian startups: an average of $1 billion in monthly funding, which is a significant growth when compared to the previous year during which monthly funding went below $500 million three times. In April 2024, however, startups crossed the $1 billion threshold on the back of a couple of pre-IPO funding, a few late-stage rounds, and debt deals. Indian startups raked in more than $1 billion across 124 deals in April, according to data compiled by startup data intelligence platform TheKredible. This included 36 growth-stage deals worth $813 million and 65 early-stage deals amounting to $225.75 million. Moreover, there were 23 undisclosed rounds, primarily early-stage deals. During the recent Startup Mahakumbh festival, Peak XV Partners’ managing director Rajan Anandan said that Indian startups are expected to raise $8 billion to $12 billion this year. He also added that around $20 billion of private capital is lying uninvested and is committed to investment in private firms and startups in India. This estimate appears close considering the current rate of monthly funding. [Month-on-Month and Year-on-Year trend] In April 2024, there was a 14% year-on-year jump in funding from $912 million in the same month last year. Even on a monthly basis, April almost matched March’s $1.18 billion funding. Interestingly, only one startup i.e. PharmEasy managed to raise funding in three digits during the last month. Since January, homegrown startups have raised close to $4 billion, and at this rate, it may cross the $11 billion funding raised in 2023. [Top growth stage deals] Healthcare startup PharmEasy’s $216 million pre-IPO round stood at the top, though its valuation dropped nearly 90% from $5.6 billion to $710 million during the latest fundraise. Financial services firm Northern Arc also announced its $80 million Series C round while Ola Electric raised $50 million in debt even after filing draft IPO papers. Altum Credo, ProcMart, SingleInterface, Infinity Fincorp, CloudExtel, and LetsTransport also featured in the top 10 growth stage deals in April. [Top early-stage deals] Omnichannel fashion startup Lyskraft, founded by Zomato’s co-founder Mohit Gupta and Myntra and Cultfit’s co-founder Mukesh Bansal, scooped up $26 million in a seed funding round and was on the top of the list in early-stage deals in April. Gen AI startup Neysa bagged $20 million whereas spacetech company Dhruva Space and edtech firm Emversity (Beyond Odds) raised $15 million and $11 million, respectively. The rest of the early-stage startups in the top 10 list raised less than $10 million each. The list includes Traya, LightFury Games, GTM Buddy, FincFriends, and Accacia. [City and segment-wise deals] City-wise, expectedly, Bengaluru-based startups are on top with 42 deals, contributing around 26% of the overall funding in April. Delhi-NCR and Mumbai followed with 30 and 26 deals, respectively. However, Mumbai-based startups topped the list in terms of the total amount raised. The list further counts Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, and Ahmedabad among others. Segment-wise, e-commerce startups (including D2C brands) and fintech startups co-led the list with 19 deals each followed by healthtech (16), SaaS (15), EV (5), automotive tech (4), and foodtech (4) startups among others. Visit TheKredible for more details. [Stage-wise deals] Series-wise, 44 startups raised funding in the Seed round followed by 20 Series A deals, 13 Pre-Series A, 11 Series B deals, and 7 Pre-Seed deals. As many as 14 startups raised debt funding worth $199.2 million during the period. [Mergers and acquisitions] Indian startups saw nearly a dozen mergers and acquisitions in April of which most deals were undisclosed. Among the disclosed deals, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) acquired a majority stake in digital infrastructure solutions company iBUS for about $200 million. US-based Aurionpro Solutions also acquired Indian fintech company Arya.ai for $16.5 million. The notable list of M&A also includes the acquisition of Shy Tiger brands by Ghost Kitchens India, Orbit by Postman, Awign by MyNavi, and Magzter by Dailyhunt’s parent company VerSe Innovations. [Layoffs, top-level exits, and shutdown/s] The mass firing in startups continued in April as they laid off nearly 1,500 employees during the month. April surpassed the cumulative layoffs of 1,100 employees during the first quarter of 2024. Troubled edtech company Byju’s remained on top with 500 layoffs, followed by The Good Glamm Group, Healthify, and Scaler with 150 layoffs each. Check the full list here. April also saw high-profile exits from startups including five chief executives. Sujot Malhotra, CEO of Beardo, Surinder Chawla, CEO of Paytm Payments Bank, Arjun Mohan, CEO of Byju’s India, Sukhleen Aneja, CEO of The Good Glamm Group’s D2C Brands Division and Hemanth Bakshi, CEO of Ola Cabs, have quit this month. Besides layoffs and departures, Nintee, a digital health startup launched by Wingify founder Paras Chopra, announced shutting down its operations after a year of launch. During the first three months of 2024, six startups announced their shutting down operations in India. [ESOP buyback] Employees’ stock buyback also continued in April as three growth-stage companies – Pocket FM, XYXX, and The Sleep Company – announced their ESOP buyback program last month. Pocket FM bought back $8.3 million worth of stocks from employees while the rest two did not disclose the transaction details. The March quarter saw four ESOP buybacks including MyGate, Meesho, Classplus, and Imagekit. Visit TheKredible to see series-wise deals along with amount breakup, complete details of fund launches, and more insights. [Conclusion] While the trajectory of fund raising is positive, its quality might worry some, as it has gone to a firm that was clearly in distress and at a massive haircut (PharmEasy), besides the large, lumpy deal from NIIF. It might also be time to relook debt funding numbers as part of overall startup funding figures, as debt is usually taken by startups that are running operations sustainably from a financial perspective, or where founders do not want to dilute stakes any more. So it’s not quite the risk capital that equity funding is. With a host of IPOs being lined up, we expect the growth trajectory to sustain as pleased investors return to find the next big opportunity.

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