Pride Hotels to expand its presence to 100 hotels by 2030

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May 21, 2022

The Pride Group of Hotels, which currently operates 44 hotels around the country, announced on Friday that it wants to expand to 100 hotels by 2030.

When the new hotels open, Pride Group will have approximately 10,000 rooms scattered across 100 properties in diverse geographic regions, predominantly in tier 1 and tier 2 markets. According to the company, the focus for expansion is on an asset-light model, with a large portion of the portfolio handled directly by the company.

Resorts and hotels in Nainital, Jim Corbett, Jabalpur, Daman, Rishikesh, Surendranagar, Dwaraka, Bhavnagar, Bharuch, Agra, Somnath, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Neemrana, Rajkot, Bhopal, Aurangabad, and Haldwani are included in the new portfolio.

With its new brand, ‘Pride Suites,’ the Pride Group has entered the premium serviced apartment space, with the first property in Gurugram.

Following the obstacles posed by the pandemic in the previous two years, SP Jain, chairman and managing director of Pride Hotels Limited, said the chain is currently experiencing “exponential growth.”

“While we will have 50 properties by the end of this year we plan to expand our footprints nationally by doubling our portfolio to 100 hotels by 2030. With the market gaining rapid momentum we will soon come back to expansion mode for our flagship properties,” he said.

“The Pride Group performed exceedingly well in 2021-2022 compared to 2020-2021. The ADR and occupancy have gone up from 43 to 65 percent for the current year 2022-2023. We are expecting to clock a turnover of Rs 250 crore this fiscal year,” he added.

Currently, Pride Hotels operates and manages a chain of hotels under the brand names Pride Plaza Hotel, Pride Hotel, Pride Resorts, and Pride Biznotel.

Bengaluru developers see record sales bookings on increased housing demand

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BRL Editor

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May 20, 2022

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As the residential market has turned a corner, Bengaluru-based developers have seen strong housing demand, with sales momentum constantly improving over the year. Due to increased housing demand, Brigade Enterprises Ltd’s sales bookings increased by 9% to a record ₹3,022.7 crore in the previous fiscal year.

In its investor’s presentation, the Bengaluru-based developer said: “Achieved highest ever pre-sales of ~4.7 million sq ft with sale value of ₹30,227 million in FY22, an increase of 9% from FY21”.

Sales bookings in the housing segment increased by 11% to ₹2,950.5 crores in the last fiscal year, up from ₹2,657.9 crores in 2020-21.

“It is very encouraging to end FY22 on a good note with the best ever sales and collections, till date. This is notwithstanding the second and third waves of COVID-19 as well as an increase in construction costs,” said M R Jaishankar, Chairman and Managing Director, Brigade Enterprises.

Almost all real estate developers reported record sales bookings during the previous fiscal year. Prestige Estates, based in Bengaluru, recorded a 90% growth in sales bookings to a record ₹10,382.2 crores during the last financial year, perhaps the most among the listed real estate developers.

Meanwhile, the ‘Swaram’ plots in Tata Housing’s freshly launched project in Devanahalli, Bengaluru, were sold out within 36 hours of its opening. Sanjay Dutt, CEO and MD of Tata Realty and Infrastructure, said, “We sold all 157 plots for ₹130 crores.” According to Dutt, the demand for plots has surged dramatically during the pandemic.

Since last year, when the Indian real estate market dropped out in volumes and prices, it has shown a significant comeback. After a series of headwinds, including the pandemic, a bad-loan crisis, and a surprise 2016 cash ban dampened demand for new houses and apartments, the property market is rising after being in a negative cycle for the last six years.

K Hospitality plans to invest ₹150 crores on expansion

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BRL Editor

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May 20, 2022

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K Hospitality Corp, which operates restaurants and cafes, food courts, and airport stores with the brands such as TFS, Copper Chimney, Bombay Brasserie, and The Irish House, has allocated INR 150 crore for capacity expansion in the current fiscal year, according to a top company executive.

“We expect to set up over 70 stores in the current financial year. We have signed up six large food courts, and another six are planned for the year,” K Hospitality Corp executive director Karan Kapur said.

With the travel sector recovering from the pandemic’s impact, he said the group had found potential opportunities for food courts on highways.

“For the April month, we have seen like-for-like 17 percent growth in numbers across our restaurant and banquets businesses versus pre-Covid numbers, which indicates a strong rebound in consumer sentiment and dining out,” Kapur said.

The company said it would invest Rs 200 crore in its Joshh quick service restaurant chain over the next five years to expand operations.

Over 500 restaurants, bars, cafes, food courts, banqueting, outdoor catering, corporate food services, and airports are part of the privately-owned F&B company. According to the company, under its new business segment, Fire Foods Africa, it entered Africa with exclusive franchise rights for Domino’s Pizza in Ghana.

The hospitality industry is reviving after two years of pandemic-related closures, state-level curfews, and operating limitations.

Rester Hotels & Resorts opens two hotels in Hyderabad

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BRL Editor

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May 19, 2022

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Rester Hotels & Resorts, a homegrown hospitality management company, has launched two hotels in Hyderabad’s HiTec City and Kukatpally to provide meaningful moments to guests, team members, and stakeholders.

Rester Select Hotels are conveniently placed near major commercial hubs. They are easily accessible from the RGI International Airport and the city’s business areas and IT hubs such as Raheja, Mind Space, and Knowledge City.

Commenting on the launch, Rakshit Sharma, CEO, stated, “The opening of these two hotels is a significant achievement for us as a new era of post-pandemic travel has begun. Hyderabad has always been a very important market for us and will play a major role in the growth of our brand. Our hotels boast of fully equipped conference rooms, refreshing and contemporary guest rooms, multi-cuisine restaurants to rest, revive and rejuvenate.”

Rester Hotels & Resorts are a chain of mid-market hotels in India.

Slice introduces UPI for its existing and waitlisted users

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BRL Editor

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May 19, 2022

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For all of its existing and waitlisted users, Slice has implemented UPI into its app. Slice will become a one-stop payment app as a result of this. According to the firm, the company is now rolling out the integration in phases for its users, following a trial run in 2021.

Slice users may now create a UPI account on the app by linking their bank accounts, just like other UPI apps. Users will be able to make payments simply by searching for andy (&ID), the unique ID on Slice.

Rajan Bajaj, founder and CEO of Slice, said, “While building our UPI product, we ensured that we removed all the friction – there is no advertisement, there is no cross-selling, and there are no 100+ CTAs. The question we keep asking ourselves is “how can the user do this in 1 second or even less time?” And we wanted to make this happen, now.”

Previously, Slice’s simple and intuitive interface was only available to credit users. The company will now be able to give an equally great experience to its 10 million waitlisted customers by expanding UPI services to them.

Rajan added, “The Payments network in India is very open with interoperability. Due to this, I believe that a product with the best consumer experience will eventually win people’s hearts. The significant growth which we have seen in the last few years on our Slice super card proves that we have really struck a chord culturally with our consumers and they would love to use us for all their payment needs..” Slice became a unicorn in November 2021 after receiving $220 million in a Series-B round headed by Tiger Global and Insight Partners. It claims to have grown by 40% month over month.

Ascendas India Trust to buy industrial property in Chennai

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BRL Editor

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May 19, 2022

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Ascendas India Trust has entered into formal agreements for the proposed acquisition of Casa Grande – phase 1, a 0.42-million-sq-ft industrial property at Mahindra World City in Chennai, for Rs 212 crore, through its trustee-manager Ascendas Property Fund Trustee.

This is in accordance with the Chengalpattu Logistics Parks shareholders’ forward purchase agreement, which was disclosed on March 5, 2021.

The definitive agreements for acquiring all of Chengalpattu Logistics Parks’ issued share capital, which owns Casa Grande-phase 1, have been signed.

“The acquisition of Casa Grande-phase 1 marks Ascendas India Trust’s first investment in the industrial segment. This is a high-tech asset focused on assembly of cellphone products and components. The property is located at Mahindra World City, a leading industrial township and an established industrial micro-market in Chennai. This acquisition validates our diversification strategy in the industrial and logistics segments,” said Sanjeev Dasgupta, CEO of Ascendas Property Fund Trustee.

The facility is fully leased to a leading international electronics contract manufacturer.

The first of the industrial facilities covered in the March 2021 forward purchase agreement is Casa Grande-Phase 1. Ascendas has the option to fund the development of Casa Grande-phase 2, which will consist of two industrial buildings with a total net leasable area of about 0.31 million sq ft.

Self-driving startup Wayve taps Microsoft for ‘supercomputer muscle’

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BRL Editor

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May 18, 2022

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Wayve, a British startup, announced on Wednesday that it would handle massive volumes of data using supercomputer infrastructure built for it by its investor Microsoft as it develops machine learning-based models for self-driving cars.

Instead of depending on precise digital maps and code to inform vehicles how to operate, Wayve’s technology depends on machine learning using camera sensors mounted on the outside of the vehicle, where the system learns from traffic patterns and the behaviour of other drivers.

“Microsoft is providing supercomputing muscle,” Wayve Chief Executive Alex Kendall said. “What we’re looking to do goes beyond the bounds of what’s possible for commercial cloud offerings today.”

Kendall claims that Microsoft will be able to process the terabyte of data – 1 trillion bytes, or equivalent to around an hour of consumer video – that Wayve’s cars generate every minute.

This will aid the business as it expands its self-driving technology in preparation for testing on last-mile delivery vehicles with UK online grocery retailer Ocado and supermarket chain Asda.

The trials for grocery delivery will begin this year, with a human safety operator on board.

“We see this as being a commercial fleet offering,” he said. “That’s how we think autonomy is first going to come to market.”

Amazon introduces Smart Commerce, aims to transform local stores into digital dukaans

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BRL Editor

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May 18, 2022

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Amazon India announced the launch of Smart Commerce, a new initiative to transform local stores into digital dukaans, during its annual summit Amazon Smbhav, and to accelerate its goal to digitize one crore small enterprises by 2025. Amazon.in is already used by over 1.5 lakh local retailers to sell online.

Stores may now use Smart Commerce to digitize their offline operations, improve in-store shopping experiences for walk-in customers, and develop their online storefronts to service customers directly.

Stores of any size can now take advantage of Amazon’s best shopping innovations, logistics, digital payments, and more to provide a reliable and trustworthy experience to their customers regardless of where they are: in their physical store, directly through their online storefront, or on Amazon.in.

Smart Commerce will also introduce its first set of solutions to assist local businesses in digitizing billing and inventory management and providing customers with a better in-store experience. Following that, capabilities will be released to allow them to construct their online storefront in minutes and service their consumers using a simple voice and chat-based shopping experience.

In a statement, Amit Agarwal, SVP, India and Emerging Markets, Amazon, said, “We are humbled by how neighborhood stores from across India are taking advantage of our Local Shops on Amazon program to go online and grow their business, with over 1.5 lakh stores already selling on Amazon India within two years of launch. Today, we are excited to launch Smart Commerce that will enable any store to truly become a digital dukaan, and serve customers with the best of Amazon no matter where they are – in their physical store, directly through their own online storefront, or on Amazon.in. We are just getting started and remain committed to our pledge to digitize one crore small businesses by 2025.”

Amazon pledged to digitize 10 million MSMEs, generate $10 billion in cumulative exports from India, and create 2 million jobs in India by 2025 at the inaugural Smbhav Summit in January 2020. The Company is on track to meet these commitments and, in certain cases, exceed them. Amazon increased their export goal from $10 billion to $20 billion in the same time frame.

“Over the last two years, we have invested significantly towards the pledges we announced at the inaugural Smbhav Summit in 2020. We are humbled to share that we have already digitized over 4 million small businesses and local stores, are on track to enable $5 billion in cumulative exports and have created over 1.16 million direct and indirect jobs in India including 135K new jobs added in the last one year,” said Manish Tiwary, Country Manager, India Consumer Business, Amazon India, in a statement.

Bhumika group raises ₹100-cr, planning to raise more for Udaipur mall

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BRL Editor

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May 18, 2022

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Bhumika Group, a real estate developer, based in NCR, has raised close to Rs 100 crore through debt and two Lease Rental Discounting (LRD) transactions, according to Uddhav Poddar, MD of Bhumika Group.

To fund the construction of phase 2 of its 3.5 lakh sq. ft. retail space in Udaipur mall, the company is in talks to raise another Rs 200 crore in debt. The majority of the first phase has already been leased.

The tenants have begun fitting out the mall, which will be the largest in Udaipur in August 2022.

“Keeping in mind the demand for more space, we have advanced the construction of phase 2, which will be of a similar size. In addition to the retail area, there will be a hotel and office tower as well,” Poddar said.

“In the next phase of our mall in Udaipur, we will invest another Rs 400 crore at the group level. We also have a logistic business and the funding will be used to expand that business,” Poddar added.

The group is in talks with the landowner to develop villas and low-rise buildings in Udaipur and Alwar under a joint development agreement.

In Udaipur and Alwar, the residential townships will cover 15-20 acres.

“We are also planning a retail project in Jaipur. Post pandemic, tier 2 cities have emerged as the main destination for retail stores. Many luxury brands are also willing to open stores in these cities,” said Poddar.

“The mall’s utility is demonstrated by the regular attention displayed by prominent brands in it. We’ve always talked about positioning, and this mall will help brands achieve their goals. The goal is to provide the greatest lifestyle for the city’s residents, while also catering to the international tastes of visitors,” Poddar said.

Bhumika Group also has expansion plans in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Bikaner, Ajmer, and Delhi NCR.

Edtech startup SpeEdLabs bags ₹14.31-cr from Mumbai Angels, others

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BRL Editor

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May 17, 2022

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In a pre-series fundraising round, Mumbai Angels, LetsVenture, Ecosystem Ventures, and SucSeed Ventures invested $14.31 crore in AI-based EdTech platform SpeEdLabs. The funds will be utilized to expand the company’s presence and enhance its infrastructure.

SpeEdLabs has grown 10 times in product revenue in just 8 months and now has over 3000 clients. By June 2022, the startup is on track to generate INR 1.5 crore each month. SpeEdLabs receives over 2 million questions per month from its Question suggestion engine, resulting in more than 10 million analytical data points per month.

Nandini Mansinghka, Co-Founder and CEO of Mumbai Angels, said, “The advent of AI enabled Platform-as-a-Services solutions have been revolutionizing the hitherto unorganized after school tuition market. There is a tremendous demand for the non-generic mode of learning given the one size fits all education system prevalent in India today. We are confident that the unique tech driven learning solutions will continue to enrich students’ learnings and fuel future demand for personalized coaching.”

“As the world gradually moves toward a hybrid model of education, it’s high time children/students receive education personalized as per their requirements. Pure Online Tutoring was a forced choice during Covid lockdown, but now the Offline classroom model using technology will be the successful hybrid model. SpeEdLabs platform uses data-driven hyper personalization, dynamic adaptive learning, algo driven automated content management and analytical data visualization to help students achieve their potential as we bring the best of both worlds. We are also delighted to have marquee investors supporting our journey. Currently present in 200+ cities, enabling 100,000+ students and empowering over 5000 teachers, SpeEdLabs will soon be expanding their presence to 800 cities across 23 states in the country,” said Vivek Varshney, Founder of SpeEdLabs.

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