HomeStartup NewsStartup Digest: Nykaa Q4 profit slumps 70%, Uber steps up green energy push in India & more

Startup Digest: Nykaa Q4 profit slumps 70%, Uber steps up green energy push in India & more

Here’re the top headlines from the startup space.

By Aishwarya Anand  May 24, 2023, 6:28:16 PM IST (Published)

Nykaa Q4 profit slumps 70% to Rs 2.3 cr, revenue jumps 34%

Nykaa has posted a 70 percent fall in consolidated net profit at Rs 2.27 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2023. It was Rs 7.6 crore in the same quarter of last year and Rs 8.5 crore in the December quarter.

The online beauty platform's revenue from operations, meanwhile, surged percent 34 year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 1,301 crore for the quarter under review, as compared to Rs 973 crore in year-ago quarter.

The company reported an EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of Rs 70.6 crore for the March quarter, which is up 84 percent over the previous year's quarter. Meanwhile, margins during the quarter came in at 5.4 percent.

Uber partners with Jio-BP and GMR Green Energy for EV charging infra

Ride-hailing giant Uber has announced a partnership with Jio-BP and GMR Green Energy to create electric vehicle charging facilities in India.

According to the company, its driver partners will get access to Jio-BP's charging infrastructure, while GMR Green Energy will create bespoke charging facilities for Uber.

Deepinder Goyal's ESOPs cost Zomato Rs 143 crore in H2FY23

Employee stock options (ESOPs) given to Zomato co-founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal has cost the company Rs 143 crore in H2 FY23, as per filings by the company on the exchanges.

Goyal bagged Rs 216.3 crore in ESOPs in the first half of FY23, Rs 386.9 crore in the second half of FY22 and Rs 365.7 crore in the first half of FY22, the filings showed.

In addition, ESOPs worth Rs 13.5 crore and Rs 10 lakh were also awarded to senior executives of the company including Akshant Goyal, Chief Financial Officer and Sandhya Sethia, Company Secretary.

Thena raises $5 million from Lightspeed & First Round Capital

Thena, a customer communications and intelligence platform that helps businesses manage customers on messaging platforms like Slack, has bagged $5 million in seed funding round co-led by Lightspeed and First Round Capital.

“Thena not only has an inspirational vision and mission, but its core team has previously scaled a $100M ARR business from the ground up, proving their ability to build through market cycles with tenacity, innovation, and speed,” said Hemant Mohapatra, Partner at Lightspeed.

The startup intends to use the fresh capital to double down on product innovation and expansion.

Meet7 gets seed funding of $300,000 from Z1N Capital and others

Online dating platform Meet7 has raised $300,000 in a seed funding round led by Z1N Capital, Narendra Murkumbi and Suhas Chandak.

“We will use the funds raised to scale up from current proof of concept stage and add more features to the product to make it even safer for women, while also reinforcing the differentiation from current ‘swipe’ apps, which only focus on gamification, not genuine interactions,” said Saurabh Awasthi, Co-founder, Meet7.

The company said it currently has close to 60,000 users on the app, and aims to hit a million users over the next 12 months.

uFaber bags Rs 25 crores in Series A funding round

uFaber, an online learning platform, has secured Rs 25 crores in a Series A funding round led by Mastermind JPIN Capital Partners and Gray Matters Capital.

The edtech firm had previously raised Rs 2.5 crores from angel investors.

The company will use funds for expansion, increase system capacity, improve technology, and hiring. The startup said it aims to enroll over 1 lakh students and onboard more than 5000 trainers by 2024.

Covrzy raises Rs 3.2 crore pre-seed funding from Antler

Insurtech startup Covrzy has raised Rs 3.2 crore in pre-seed funding round led by Antler and saw participation from Veda VC.

Within a month of launch, Covrzy said it had more than 50 customers, including companies like Karbon Cards and Volopay and partnerships with leading insurers like ICICI Lombard.

The firm will use fresh capital to hire across tech, product, operations, business development, and marketing to drive its next phase of growth.

EvolveX to invest in 50 early-stage startups in 2023

EvolveX, a startup accelerator spearheaded by early-stage start-up investment platform We Founder Circle has announced that it will invest in 50 early-stage startups by year end.

The flagship accelerator will give out tick sizes of $20,000-$30,000 as seed funding and will help the companies raise up to $100,000 during the program.

To date, EvolveX claims to have invested $500,000 in startups, and the accelerator has set a target of investing up to $1.5 million through its program 2023.

Snapchat reaches over 200 million monthly active users in India

Visual messaging app Snapchat has crossed 200 million monthly active users mark in India and 120 million of them watch content on the platform.

The company has announced the launch of an experimental AI-powered chatbot customised for Snapchat, My AI, that can recommend birthday gift ideas, plan a trip for a long weekend or even suggest a recipe for dinner.

Snap said that now more than 120 Million Indian Snapchatters watching content across stories, spotlight (user generated content) and partnered content on the app.

AbhiBus sees 7x jump in bus bookings on Go First routes

Online bus-ticketing platform Abhibus said it has witnessed a substantial surge in bus bookings on certain routes following the recent Go-First crisis.

Go Air's routes like Lucknow to Delhi has experienced a substantial 7x increase in bus bookings since May 5. With last minute airfares surging up to Rs 6,000 one-way (a 38% increase week-on-week) on the Delhi-Lucknow sector, buses have become the preferred choice for travelers on this route with prices starting from as low as Rs. 399 (and less than Rs. 1,500 for luxurious AC sleepers), said the company.

Mumbai-Goa route also witnessed the highest absolute growth in bookings. AbhiBus saw more than 350% increase in bookings during the weekend on the Mumbai-Goa route. Delhi-Jammu, another popular route served by Go Air, Abhibus said it saw a surge in daily bus bookings of more than 250% on this route.

Porter enters into international market with UAE

Porter, on-demand logistics startup has forayed in the UAE market with its first ever intra-city logistics services in Dubai. The firm plans to make an investment of $6 million in UAE for the next 3 years.

Additionally, the company is looking to bolster operations in these cities and further increase their customer acquisition by 2x to 40,000+ and vehicle base by 3.2x to 800+ by March 2024, a statement said.

“This expansion should help provide a logistics solution for businesses as well as offer consumers direct control over their deliveries,” said Ankit Dwivedi, AVP - International Business, Porter.

Allen appoints former Meta exec Abha Maheshwari as digital arm CEO

Allen Career Institute has appointed former Meta executive Abha Maheshwari as Chief Executive Officer of its digital arm.

Maheshwari will help build Allen’s digital and technology teams in Bengaluru creating digital-first products for enhancing delivery of outcome-based learning to students, the firm said in a statement.

Maheshwari previously served as a director and head of commerce and payments, product partnerships for India at Meta in their San Francisco office. She led strategy, product development and execution of commerce platform integrations and scaled it to a global program.

Myntra launches MyFashionGPT, powered by ChatGPT, for selecting product

Ecommerce fashion giant Myntra has introduced MyFashionGPT, powered by ChatGPT, to enable natural language based queries for selecting product.

MyFashion GPT will enable shoppers to search for specific outfit needs by typing text in a manner that closely resembles natural speech. Based on the nature of the query, customers will be shown up to 6 ensemble options including products across multiple categories from top wear, bottom wear, footwear, accessories to makeup, a statement said.

“It is a special launch as we are arguably the first fashion, beauty and lifestyle platform, globally, to roll out this feature to the entire customer base at this scale,” said Raghu Krishnananda, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Myntra.

GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY & STARTUP NEWS

EU court rejects Meta challenge to antitrust information requests

Meta Platforms suffered a setback as Europe's second-top court ruled as legitimate the EU antitrust watchdog's requests for information related to its investigation into Facebook's data and online marketplace.

A spokesperson for the U.S. tech giant, which had compared the European Commission to a fishing super trawler vacuuming up data over the requests, told Reuters it was "considering its options" over the court decision.

"The General Court finds that Meta Platforms Ireland has not successfully demonstrated that the request to provide documents to be identified by search terms went beyond what was necessary," the Luxembourg-based General Court said.

Moonfire Ventures raises $115 million to fund European tech startups and AI firms

Moonfire Ventures, launched in 2020 by former Atomico co-founder Mattias Ljungman, said that it had raised $115 million to invest in European startup technology firms and in the AI (artificial intelligence) sector.

The fund-raising by Moonfire Ventures highlights the growth in Europe of artificial intelligence, which has led politicians around the world to examine how AI could be better regulated.

"Europe has been a leader in AI and we find our best fit is to support the next generation of founders solving some of our greatest challenges within health, work, finance and gaming," said Ljungman in a statement.

Netflix expands password sharing crackdown around the world

Netflix has expanded its crackdown on password sharing to the United States and more than 100 other countries, alerting users that their accounts cannot be shared for free outside of their households.

The streaming video pioneer has been looking for new ways to make money as it faces signs of market saturation, with efforts including limits on password borrowing and a new ad-supported option.

Netflix said it was sending emails about account sharing to customers in 103 countries and territories, including the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, Mexico and Brazil.

Alibaba unit ordered to pay NetEase $7.2 million over game copyright violation

A Chinese court has ordered an Alibaba Group unit that developed the hit mobile game "Three Kingdoms Tactics" to pay NetEase 50 million yuan ($7.2 million) in compensation over copyright infringement, according to a statement from NetEase.

Ejoy, the Alibaba subsidiary behind the hugely popular strategy game, said on microblogging site Weibo that it would appeal the decision of the Guangzhou court, and that the game will continue to operate.

The fine, if upheld through the appeal, would be one of the heftiest issued by a court in China involving video games.

White House takes new steps to study AI risks, determine impact on workers

The White House said it would ask workers how their employers use artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor them, as it allocates federal investments in the technology, which is expected to change the nature of work.

The White House will hold a listening session with workers to understand their experience with employers' use of automated technologies for surveillance, monitoring and evaluation. The call will include gig work experts, researchers, and policymakers.

As part of its evaluation of the technology, the administration will also announce new steps, including an updated roadmap for federal investments in AI research, a request for public input on AI risks and with a new report from the Department of Education on how AI affects teaching, learning and research.

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