SoftBank to sell up to $215 million shares in Paytm

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November 17, 2022

SoftBank Group Corp plans to sell shares worth up to $215 million in Indian e-payments giant Paytm’s parent One 97 Communications Ltd through a block deal, according to a term sheet reviewed by Reuters.

As of September 30, SoftBank has a 17.5% stake in the fintech and digital payments company. According to the term sheet, the stock is sold between 555 and 601.45 rupees per share.

The lower end of the range is 7.7% below the stock’s most recent closing price. Later on Thursday, the sale’s final price will be determined.

Following losses of roughly $50 billion in just six months at its flagship Vision Fund unit, SoftBank has made some divestments in recent months. The transaction is the most recent in this string.

In the transaction, which Bank of America is leading, SoftBank is selling 29 million shares.

The news was released a day after the lock-in period for investors in Paytm’s November 2021 initial public offering. After reaching a five-month low on Wednesday, the company’s shares ended 4% lower at 601.30 rupees.

SoftBank raised $2.4 billion earlier this year by selling shares in T-Mobile US. For a realized gain of $5.6 billion, Vision Fund sold several assets in the April-June quarter, including the ride-hailing company Uber Technologies, the property platform Opendoor Technologies, and KE Holdings, which operates China’s Beike.

Infosys to roll out 65% variable pay for Q2

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November 17, 2022

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Infosys employees will receive 65% variable pay for the quarter of July – September. According to an internal mail, all eligible employees will receive this during the November payroll cycle.

“The average payout at an organization level is 65% for Q2FY23. Individual payout percentages will differ based on individual performance and contribution for the quarter,” the company said in an email on Wednesday.

The payout will be processed alongside the second biweekly November payroll for employees in the US and Canada. On November 17, direct communication on the variable pay will be delivered to the employees.

The average variable pay paid to employees for the July-September quarter was lower than the 70% provided for the April-June quarter. Infosys had then said that this was due to pressure on operating margins.

Infosys has over 50,000 BPM workers worldwide, with most operating out of India.

Employee volunteering platform Goodera bags Rs 80 crores

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November 16, 2022

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Goodera, a leading employee volunteering platform, announced that it had raised Rs 80 crore ($10 million) in a funding round.

Zoom Ventures, Elevation Capital, Xto10X Technologies, Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network India, Ursula Burns, and Binny Bansal are a few investors in the round.

In a statement, Goodera said that the funds would be used to scale up its workforce, technology, and catalogue.

Binny Bansal commented on his investment in Goodera, “Goodera’s journey to becoming a global business is truly inspiring. With a strong team and a clear mission, Goodera is poised to rapidly scale in a market ready for disruption. We are excited to partner with them.”

Ravi Adusumalli from Elevation Capital said, “Goodera’s growth in the last two years is the reward that the market gives you to build novel solutions from 0 to 1. Abhishek and the team at Goodera have unmatched expertise in the domain and are building a whole new category with their employee volunteering solutions, and we are excited to continue supporting them with scale.”

Abhishek Humbad, Founder and CEO of Goodera, said, “Every team in the world wants to volunteer, but there is insane friction in the process. From finding the right nonprofit to finalising the volunteering activity, logistics, and impact measurement, there are a lot of overheads.”

Humbad further said, “We simplify volunteering and eliminate these overheads. Millions of employees can now volunteer without spending time and effort on volunteer management. We are proud of the social impact we have created for thousands of nonprofits and relish the joy and empathy we bring to millions of employees.”

“This fundraise will help us scale our infrastructure to enable millions of employees to volunteer,” added Humbad.

According to the announcement, over 10 million employees have access to Goodera’s platform through its customers, and the company plans to reach over 100 million employees by 2025.

AI-based VuNet receives $5mn in a Series A round

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November 16, 2022

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VuNet Systems, a provider of artificial intelligence services, has raised $5 million in a Series A round of funding headed by Mela Ventures and Athera Venture Partners (formerly Inventus India). TVS Capital Funds and Dallas Venture Capital also took part in the round.

According to a statement, the company will focus on expanding its customer and existing product base.

With almost 20 years of combined deeptech space experience, Ashwin Ramachandran, Bharat Joshi, and Jithesh Kaveetil co-founded VuNet Systems.

“The startup will continue to focus on expanding its customer growth and its product base to create more intelligent, actionable insights for operations, business, and CXOs to accelerate the digital transformation,” said Ashwin Ramachandran, Co-founder, and CEO of VuNet Systems.

To the tune of 9 billion transactions per month, many significant financial institutions use the platform to offer real-time visibility into financial transaction journeys, including rapid payments, lending, etc.

“Real-time and in-depth visibility into the customer and business journey is fast becoming a key differentiating factor between realizing or missing the digital dreams. VuNet’s AI-based observability platform provides that missing intelligence for businesses,” said Krishnakumar Natarajan, Managing Partner at Mela Ventures.

Pride Group of Hotels signs Pride Biznotel in Whitefield, Bengaluru

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November 16, 2022

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The Pride Group of Hotels has signed the ‘Pride Biznotel’ contract in Whitefield in Bengaluru’s garden city. The hotel is conveniently close to commercial and leisure destinations, educational institutions, hospitals, and entertainment venues, owing to its prominent location on the main road in Whitefield, Bengaluru’s largest IT hub.

In addition to 65 spacious rooms, Pride Biznotel Bengaluru will have a banquet room with a capacity of approx 200 people, a board room, a multi-cuisine restaurant with seating for approx 150 people, an open-to-sky restaurant with a bar, and a live kitchen. Beginning in January 2023, the hotel will be open to guests.

Announcing the signing, Atul Upadhyay, senior vice-president of Pride Hotels Ltd, said, “We are delighted to expand our presence in Bengaluru with the signing of Pride Biznotel at Whitefield, Bengaluru. This will be our second property in the city, with our flagship Pride Hotel Bengaluru located at Richmond Road. Bengaluru city, popularly referred to as the Silicon Valley of India, has witnessed exponential industrial growth with major Technology and corporate establishment centrally located in the Whitefield area. We believe Pride Biznotel at Whitefield, Bengaluru, with its strategic location, imposing décor, delectable food options, banqueting, and host of hospitality services, will appeal to business and leisure travellers in this region as it has done since 1987.”

Tech Mahindra to hire 500 for T Systems work

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November 16, 2022

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T-Systems International and T Systems India have partnered with Tech Mahindra. At Tech Mahindra’s unit in the Mihan-SEZ, a new center that emerges from the arrangement will be established.

Tech Mahindra will initially employ 500 people and operate according to a build, operate, and transport (BoT) strategy. The new workers would be situated in Nagpur and work for T-Systems’ clients. According to a note given to TOI, they would be employed for positions in Java, AWS cloud, cloud engineering, and artificial intelligence. Eventually, T Systems, which plans to expand its headcount by 6,000 over the next two years under the BOT model, would also absorb the recruits.

As part of the partnership, Tech Mahindra will build a specialized team to deliver technology solutions, enabling T-Systems to scale its workforce. According to a note, the company’s access to talent from Tier II locations would help in the development of flexible capacity for T-Systems’ requirements.

Mr. Adel Al-Saleh, CEO of T-Systems International, said, “The partnership with Tech Mahindra and the expansion into Nagpur will benefit T-Systems’ strategy to scale in India to support our growth plans. With our strong software solutions and our global delivery centers, we will continue to push towards our target of being theleader in our select markets by building an integrated portfolio of scalable Digital & Cloud services.”

CP Gurnani, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Tech Mahindra, said, “Ease of Doing Business (EODB), availability of manpower, and access to infrastructure has accelerated Nagpur’s potential to become the next digital hub for cutting-edge innovation. The new Cloud and Digital Services Centre in Nagpur today marks another milestone in our long-standing partnership with T-Systems and will enable them to expand their digital foothold, unlock new business opportunities, and help enhance global customer experience & solution delivery. This will further help generate employment for local talent and provide them with opportunities to learn and grow with a global team.”

As of 2021, T Systems had about 28,000 people and a 4 billion euros annual revenue. According to the note, its core industries, for which it produces industry-specific solutions, include transportation, healthcare, and the automotive industries. The company has its headquarters in Europe. The first investor in Mihan-SEZ was Tech Mahindra, formerly known as Satyam.

Iba Cosmetics bags $10mn in Series B from strategic investor Believe

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November 15, 2022

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As part of a strategic alliance between two businesses with common values, Singapore-based Believe has invested $10 million in Iba Cosmetics, an Ahmedabad-based Halal-certified and PETA-certified vegan cosmetics and personal care brand from Ecotrail Personal Care Pvt Ltd.

The company is currently in Gujarat, Delhi, Maharashtra, and Kerala through offline retail. It sells primarily online through its website and platforms, including Bigbasket, Nykaa, Amazon, Flipkart, and Purplle.

“In today’s beauty landscape, brands need an omnichannel approach. This strategic alliance with Believe is going to help us with distribution and scale not only within India but in international markets as well, thus ensuring that a new and much larger segment of Halal and vegan consumers get to experience the brand,” said Mauli Teli, CEO, Iba Cosmetics.

With its headquarters in Singapore, Believe Pte Ltd manages a range of brands in the health and beauty market. Since its inception in 2019, Believe Pte has raised $80 million from investors, including Accel, Jungle Ventures, IIFL, and Venturi Partners, for its expansion. The company currently distributes its products in 9 countries, including India, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, and Qatar. It manufactures its vegan and Halal-certified products in 10 countries, including Korea, India, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, France, Spain, and Germany.

“Believe now operates in 1,000+ shop-in-shop counters in India and services more than 60,000 outlets through its direct field force. The Iba alliance combines the best-in-class distribution that Believe has built in India, along with the tremendous consumer love that Iba has generated over the last eight years of its existence. Combining our respective strengths, we thus project brand Iba to deliver a 4x growth over the next 12 months,” said Afroz Hossain Arefin, Business Head, Believe Singapore.

“Believe targets to grow to a $100 million revenue global conglomerate by March 2023, which would be a global monopoly business serving consumers seeking Halal and clean beauty across the world. The company has grown more than 100% y-o-y over the last 12 months and expects to continue that growth rate,” added Afroz.

Google launches UPI Autopay option for subscription-based purchases in India

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November 15, 2022

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Google announced that it is adding the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) Autopay payment method to its app marketplace in India for subscription-based purchases.

After changes to automatic payments in India were made by RBI (Reserve Bank of India) regulations, UPI Autopay would enable users to make recurring payments using any UPI application that supports the feature, streamlining the process of setting up subscriptions.

“With the introduction of UPI Autopay on the platform, we aim to extend the convenience of UPI to subscription-based purchases, helping many more people access helpful and delightful services–while enabling local developers to grow their subscription-based businesses on Google Play,” Saurabh Agarwal, Head of Google Play Retail and Payments Activation – India, Vietnam, Australia, and New Zealand said in a media statement.

After users select a subscription plan to purchase on Google Play, the UPI Autopay option streamlines the payment process. They only need to tap on the payment method in the cart, choose “Pay with UPI,” and then confirm the purchase in a UPI app that supports their bank.

The National Payments Corporation of India launched UPI Autopay as part of UPI 2.0 (NPCI). In addition, in India, the UPI payment option was launched on Google Play in 2019.

“We have invested in our commerce platform to add popular and effective forms of payment around the world to ensure people can pay for apps and in-app content conveniently,” Agarwal noted in a blog post. He added that Google Play helps consumers transact in more than 170 markets. “We have also been focused on removing complexities associated with finding and integrating local payments, including access to over 300 local payment methods supported in more than 60 countries.”

After receiving two consecutive financial penalties totaling Rs 2,274 crore from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for abusing its dominant position regarding its Play Store policies and engaging in anti-competitive practices concerning the licensing of its Android Operating System (OS) and proprietary mobile applications, Google made its announcement.

Instant food brand Yu secures Rs 20-Cr in Series A led by Ashish Kacholia

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November 15, 2022

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Yu, an omnichannel food brand for consumers, has acquired Series A funding in a combination of equity and venture debt.

With participation from previous investors and Asian Paints Promoter Group (Manish Choksi and Varun Vakil), the round was led by prominent public market investor Ashish Kacholia.

DPIIT’s Start Up India Seed Fund programme, which funded Yu as part of its Rs 945 crore programme to support tech-enabled startups, also participated in the current funding round.

The startup plans to expand its offline and online distribution in India and double its capacity while expanding its global presence across regions like Africa, the Middle East, and the US.

Yu was founded by Bharat Bhalla and Varun Kapur and has created a variety of 15 unique products, including noodles, pasta, oats, and halwa, that can be made in 4-5 minutes by adding hot water.

“The next 12 months will also see us aggressively expanding our presence in global markets like the US, Africa, and the Middle East,” the founders added.

Over 12 months, it entered a variety of distribution channels, including offline stores (3,000+ stores), online (e-Com and Q-Com servicing pan India), over 100 institutional campuses, and exports (South Africa and the US).

The brand is experiencing strong customer traction, has over 200% QoQ growth, and is on track to sell 1 million bowls by Q3-FY23.

The company recently made a foray into the non-vegetarian market with its iconic Butter Chicken Pasta and Chilli Chicken Noodles. Over the following 12 months, the brand hopes to expand its current product portfolio by introducing ten more unique products.

Infosys announces 3-phase hybrid plan for work-from-office

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November 15, 2022

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Infosys announced a three-phase work-from-office plan in an internal communication after pushing staff to adopt a hybrid working mode. Employees can come to the office twice a week in the first phase based on their convenience.

Employees can take a transfer or relocate to a branch office of their choice in the next phase. Finally, the last phase will involve the company deciding on its hybrid work policy based on the feedback from the first two phases. In an email to staff members, Infosys’ HR director, Krish Shankar, stated that the company’s objective is to “not have a one-size-fits-all approach” and to allow for some flexibility in the adoption of a hybrid workplace.

“It will be exciting to see how our teams will explore their own return to office plans by creatively and pragmatically blending project and business imperatives along with collective working convenience,” Shankar said.

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