Kinara Capital aims to hire 700 employees

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May 31, 2022

Kinara Capital, a fintech firm, is hiring in 90 cities throughout India. The company expects to hire 700 people throughout its 125 offices and Bengaluru head office within the next six months.

According to a statement, the company has opened its doors to everyone from new graduates to experienced senior management interested in joining a fast-growing fintech, with job possibilities available at all levels.

Sales, collections, operations, credit risk, and internal quality audit are among the field roles available at the branch level (IQA). Kinara is hiring for positions in Data Science, Engineering, Data Platform, IT, HR, Business Operations, Finance & Accounting, Marketing, Products & Strategy, and more at its Bengaluru head office.

Freshers interested in field positions are also encouraged to enrol in Kinara’s LEAP high-skill training programme, which will help them jumpstart their careers. LEAP is a six-month intensive paid training programme that combines rigorous classroom learning with hands-on field training.

The programme assists freshers in establishing a solid foundation in the corporate sector. Over 100 freshers have participated in the programme in the last year, with some of the problem-solvers graduating to take on Hub Manager responsibilities.

Kinara Capital is one of the rare companies with a women-majority management team and has made gender equality a priority in every department. According to the statement, one of Kinara Capital’s core values is inclusion.

The company has established a progressive, inclusive culture by ensuring that no gender-related or other discriminatory questions, such as those concerning religion, familial origin, marital status, or plans to have children, are asked of applicants. Employees that are differently-abled and members of the LGBTQ+ community currently work for the company.

Hardika Shah, Founder & CEO of Kinara Capital, said, “Kinara was built on the assurance of providing underserved entrepreneurs with top-notch customer service. We are growing our team to support even more MSMEs, especially as we continue to expand in Tier 2 and Tier 3 geographies. Our national hiring drive is with the intent to seek out professionals who wish to lead a purpose-driven life and make an impact on others by furthering our mission of financial inclusion.”

Lemon Tree Hotels signs new property in Chirang, Assam

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May 31, 2022

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Lemon Tree Hotels Limited (LTHL) has signed a new property in Chirang, Assam. This 40-key hotel, branded as Keys Select by Lemon Tree Hotels, is set to open in June 2026.

Carnation Hotels Private Limited, a subsidiary and management arm of LTHL, will manage the property Bharati Brahma owns.

Manas National Park, a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site, is located in Chirang, a new district in Assam. It is recognised for its unique and endangered endemic wildlife, such as the Assam roofed turtle, hispid hare, golden langur, and pygmy hog, and is located in the Himalayan foothills. The closest airport is Borjhar Airport in Guwahati, and the district has multiple railway junctions in the vicinity.

LTHL opened its first hotel in May 2004 with 49 rooms and now has nearly 8,250 rooms in 84 hotels across 52 destinations in India and abroad under its various brands, including Aurika Hotels & Resorts, Lemon Tree Premier, Lemon Tree Hotels, Red Fox Hotels, Keys Prima, Keys Select, and Keys Lite. Nearly 10,650 rooms in 109 hotels across 66 destinations in India and internationally would be operated under the LTHL brands once the present pipeline is operational.

Sugar Cosmetics bags $50 million led by L Catterton

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May 31, 2022

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Sugar Cosmetics, a direct-to-consumer (D2C) cosmetics and personal care brand, has raised $50 million in a round led by L Catterton and joined by existing investors A91 Partners, Elevation Capital, and India Quotient.

The brand previously stated that the beauty brand’s current annualised sales run rate is around Rs 500 crore and that it expects to achieve Rs 2,000 crore in the next 24-36 months.

Sugar said it would expand its physical presence to over 40,000 retail outlets across 550 cities.

Sugar, founded in 2012 by husband-and-wife duo Vineeta Singh and Kaushik Mukherjee, focuses on online and offline sales.

“The firm’s brand-building and value-creation capabilities will fortify our growth as we continue on our journey of delighting and over-delivering on the expectations of our customers,” Singh said.

L Catterton’s expertise in building iconic consumer brands worldwide and strategic relationship with LVMH will empower Sugar to embark on its next stage of growth amid an expansion in India’s beauty and personal care market, the company said in a statement.

Singh said the company could look at more acquisitions in FY23 and FY24.

“We look forward to partnering with the company to thoughtfully unlock international exposure and drive further growth, leveraging our experience of working with over 20 beauty and personal care companies in L Catterton’s portfolio across the Americas, Europe, and Asia,” said Anjana Sasidharan, L Catterton Asia managing director.

Google backs India’s ShareChat in $300mn funding round at $5 billion valuation

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May 30, 2022

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The parent company of India’s ShareChat has raised almost $300 million in fresh funding from Alphabet Inc’s Google, media behemoth Times Group, and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, valuing the social media platform at nearly $5 billion, according to two persons familiar with the deal discussions.

According to the sources, a deal might be revealed early next week.

After backing Josh, which competes with ShareChat’s sister firm Moj, this is Google’s second significant investment in India’s short video space.

According to one of the individuals, Google’s investment in a bearish market for Indian start-ups demonstrates the desire for the short video industry and the start-up’s investment thesis. India’s digital firms have been struggling to raise funding after raising a record $35 billion in new funds in 2021, as corporate governance concerns loom large for investors facing increased market volatility.

ShareChat has 180 million monthly active users at the moment. According to one of the sources, Moj and Mohalla’s newly purchased MX TakaTak have a combined user base of 300 million.

In a $266 million fundraising round led by Alkeon Capital and Temasek, ShareChat was last valued at $3.7 billion. Twitter and Snap are also investors in the company.

Tata Motors to buy Ford India’s Sanand plant

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May 30, 2022

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Homegrown auto major Tata Motors announced that its subsidiary had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat government for the possible acquisition of Ford India’s Sanand plant.

“Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited (TPEML), a subsidiary of Tata Motors Ltd, and Ford India Private Limited (FIPL), have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Government of Gujarat (GoG) for the potential acquisition of FIPL’s Sanand vehicle manufacturing facility,” the Tata Group firm informed in an exchange filing.

Subject to the signing of definitive agreements and receipt of appropriate permits, the potential acquisition will include land and buildings, a vehicle manufacturing plant, machinery and equipment, and the transfer of all eligible employees of FIPL Sanand’s vehicle manufacturing operations. TPEML will lease back the land and buildings of the Powertrain unit to FIPL, which will run the Powertrain manufacturing facilities.

The Ford India vehicle manufacturing site at Sanand is a state-of-the-art site. TPEML would invest in new machinery and equipment to commission and prepare the unit for vehicle production.

It expects to build an installed capacity of 300,000 units per year with the proposed investments, scalable to more than 400,000 units in a few months. The MOU will be followed by signing TPEML and FIPL’s definitive transaction agreements in the coming weeks.

“This MOU for a potential acquisition of this unit, is a win-win for all stakeholders and helps Tata Motors accelerate the enhancement of its PV/EV manufacturing capacity. This unit is adjacent to the existing manufacturing facility of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd at Sanand, which should help in a smooth transition,” the company added.

WelcomHeritage introduces ‘buy now, pay later’ offer

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May 30, 2022

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WelcomHeritage has announced a partnership with Simpl for instalment-based holidays, allowing guests to book any hotel on the WelcomHeritage website to avail of “Buy now, pay later” at checkout.

Guests receive a confirmed booking on the website by paying only one-third of the total purchase amount, with the remaining two-thirds paid in a series of interest-free instalments over the following months.

According to Abinash Manghani, CEO of WelcomHeritage, the major goal of the collaboration with Simpl is to make holidays more convenient and accessible for everyone.

“Easing the burden off our guests was the main intention behind this initiative. Everybody deserves a stress-free holiday – to be able to take a break, disconnect from the mundane to reconnect with nature and themselves, spend quality time with families, explore the world around them, immerse in luxuries and feel pampered, and experience life ‘outside the frame’ of otherwise hectic, monotonous schedules,” Manghani said.

“With interest-free installment payments, we are looking to make these precious holidays more convenient and accessible for all. Our guests can now simply drive off to the hills or to the next WelcomHeritage destination with only a few clicks and easy pockets too,” he added.

Ramco Systems looks to tap Madurai’s tech talent

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May 28, 2022

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Ramco Systems, a software product company, is establishing a new/alternate development centre (ADC) in Madurai. This is the company’s first product development centre outside of Chennai, and 50 people have already been hired.

Madurai ADC will focus on core product development, project execution and delivery, learning and development, and other areas as an extension of Ramco’s Chennai development centre.

This year, Ramco plans to hire 150-200 people for the centre, with 60% of them being freshers- engineering graduates who will be trained across multiple product lines.

Ramco, which specializes in software for the aviation and HR industries, claims it is reinventing itself as it celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. It also has a big R&D centre in Singapore, which is now being expanded. Singapore’s R&D labs are hard at work on cutting-edge technology like Metaverse and digital employee onboarding tools.

“Whatever progress we have made in the 25 years, we have ambitions to achieve much more in the next 2-5 years,” Sandesh Bilagi, COO at Ramco Systems, said. Distributed leadership and localization of teams are set to be our mantra for the next phase of growth, he added.

“While we will not change our core focus of aviation and HR, we will look into deepening our presence in allied areas and expanding geographically,” he added.

For instance, Ramco is intending to serve more enterprises in areas like MRO, defence, E-VTOLs, and defence under the aviation segment, and has increased its usage of new-age AI-based products in HR.

Ramco, like many other software companies, is investing in expanding its localization quotient across countries. In these markets, the company is developing local teams to enhance development, support, and implementation teams, among other things.

“We generate over 2.4 million payslips globally per month. It is not possible to service these from just Chennai,” Baliga said. “Payroll is an area which is not just about coding but also involves understanding local regulations, statutory aspects, and specifications for each market which is decentralised to corresponding markets to a large extent,” Rohit Mathur, CEO – Global Payroll & HR Business, said.

Rebel Foods aims to expand in 100 cities by 2023, plans to be present in all food categories

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May 28, 2022

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Cloud kitchen unicorn Rebel Foods plans to expand to 100 cities across India by the end of 2022-23, strengthening the brand’s global reach, according to Karan Singla, VP and Head of operations (India Business).

Regarding the company’s global expansion goals, Singla stated that the brand is currently present in 10 countries and over 70 cities, with plans to expand to over 20 countries in the coming year.

“While expanding globally, we want to keep on growing brands other than geographical reach. So in these 20 countries, we look forward to adding almost 250 to 300 additional locations in the coming year,” Singla said.

Speaking about the growing online food industry, Singla said, “We are part of cloud kitchen industry where online food industry is something which is disrupting the traditional offline food industry.”

As the offline market has yet to recover from the covid impact, he believes that increased online delivery demand has resulted in a shift in customer behaviour.

The brand saw these trends of online food ordering long back. Talking about their initial years, Singla said, “We were growing on top line, but we were not growing on bottom line, we were bleeding.”

According to Singla, delivery accounts for roughly 70% of the brand’s orders, therefore they came up with the cloud kitchen concept. Because, in Western countries, this competes with offline businesses and home kitchens. It also alleviates the cost of renting outlets in various expensive places.

Singla added that they focus on strengthening their operating system, which includes culinary knowledge, supply chain backward integration, and technology expertise for full-stack inventory solutions, to grow their business.

Riverwalk announces ₹150 crore fund to back early-stage startups

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May 27, 2022

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Riverwalk Holdings announced the launch of a $150 million early-stage venture capital fund. The fund will invest in consumer brands, software-as-a-service (SaaS), fintech, and consumer technology firms from seed to Series A.

The fund stated it will invest up to ₹10 crores in each startup and has already made four investments.

India-focussed The Thakral Group is the anchor of Riverwalk, which is backed by prominent Indian and Singaporean business houses.

Spotdraf, an AI-powered contract automation startup; The Ayurveda Experience, an ayurveda platform; Mylo, a community and commerce platform for parents; and Homeville, a housing finance platform, are among the companies in the fund’s portfolio.

“The founding principles of Riverwalk have been shaped by the Thakral Group’s 117-year legacy of building successful businesses based on long term partnerships. The lifecycle of a startup has its ups and downs and we are committed to being supportive throughout the journey,” said Satveer Singh Thakral, Founding Partner at Riverwalk.

“Riverwalk will leverage its stakeholder network to accelerate the growth of startups by providing access to leading enterprises across Asia,” he added.

“We are looking to partner with founders who are focused on building fundamentally strong and capital efficient businesses. This philosophy has worked out well for us in the past and we are just focused on replicating it,” said Jai Sumer Singh, Founding Partner at Riverwalk.

Wellness Forever, AML Platform, Silent Eight, Anchanto, and Mobilewalla are among the startups that Riverwalk has previously funded.

Rester Hotels announces launch of third Rester Select in Hyderabad

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May 27, 2022

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Rester Hotels & Resorts has opened a third Rester Select in Gachibowli, Hyderabad, aimed at both business and leisure travellers. Management contracts, franchise agreements, and joint ventures are also areas where the organisation sees opportunities.

Gachibowli is one of Hyderabad’s busiest and most significant IT suburbs. It has good connectivity to software companies, schools, colleges, hospitals, temples, parks, and markets.

“We are delighted that Rester Select opens today. This new hotel offers an inventory of 42 rooms which will cater largely to corporate clients by giving them access near their place of business,” said Rakshit Sharma, CEO of Rester Hotels & Resorts.

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