✍️Some personal news: I’m taking on additional responsibilities at
@YourStoryCo
, alongside my role at
@thecaptableco
I want to thank
@SharmaShradha
and
@jarshadnk
for their trust—I’m excited to work closely with the YS editorial team to craft impactful stories.
Hello everyone!
I've some personal news to share. After a fantastic stint with Moneycontrol I have decided to move on.
Starting today, I'll be writing for
@thecaptableco
My focus will remain on covering edtech and the VC/PE ecosystem.
"Allen Career Institute enrolls 1.25 lakh+ students in Kota; eyes the Limca book of records for maximum number of classroom students in a city."
For what??! Are they teaching for breaking records?! How useless can this release be?!
🚨🆕 EPFO probes Byju's. The company has now cleared 97% PF dues between August 2022 and May 2023
On Monday, Byju's vehemently denied having any pending PF dues. After we, and other media reported delay in PF Payments, the EPFO opened an investigation.
🚨🚨🆕Byju's seeks $200 mn rights issue at $225 mn post-money valuation.
This means that the pre-money valuation was $25 million!! One-thousandth of its previous valuation.
But why was it done? A quick 🧵👇
1/8
🚨🚨In the latest setback for Byju's, ED has carried out searches at three locations in Bengaluru related to Byju Raveendran and his company, Think & Learn, which operates the popular online learning platform
@chandrarsrikant
But what's happening? A 🧵👇
🆕🚨Another Scoop on
#Byjus
Byju's has not cleared monthly payments of Salesforce and other data management tools, amounting to Rs 45-50 crore.
Yesterday, all employees lost access to Salesforce, Tableau, Tooljet.
@chandrarsrikant
I complete one year at Moneycontrol today.
A big thank you to the awesome
@chandrarsrikant
for guiding me throughout.
A small milestone but quite a journey as I look back at all the stories I have done in the last 12 months.
Here's a thread of my favourite ones👇
So the BCCI, having thousands of crores of rupees in profits, battled hard for a paltry amount of Rs 158 cr and settled it.
But spare a thought for the thousands of employees who were earning a few thousands a month, who didn't get their dues!
Justice?
🚨🚨 Byju's finally has a CFO!
The world's most-valued edtech startup did not have a CFO for nearly 16 months, since its last CFO PV Rao quit in December 2021.
🚨 Please join me in welcoming
@patwardhannn
to the
@moneycontrolcom
technology and startup team. Nikhil has been doing some excellent work and I'm thrilled to have him on board. He will be based in Bengaluru.
Monthly burn rates:
Swiggy down to $20mn from $45-50mn
Meesho down to $4 mn from $40-45mn
Cars24 down to $6-8 mn from $22 mn
Unacademy down to $4-5 mn from $25 mn
🚨🆕SoftBank-porfolio startups mirror the Japanese investor, go on ‘total defence’ to weather funding winter
Indian startups having SoftBank on its portfolio have cut costs by 50-75%, and have laid off over 5,000 people to weather funding winter
Unacademy: Too Much on its Plate?
India's second-most valued edtech has been in the news largely for the wrong reasons since April last year.
But what's happening inside?
Here's a deep dive into the challenges of the edtech startup.
A 🧵
🚨🚨ShareChat, which raised more than $500 mn since December 2021, has laid off close to 600 employees in a cost-cutting initiative.
The company was last valued at $5 billion, when it raised about $255 million in June from Google, Temasek and others.
A 🧵 on some details👇
🚨 Very important story today with
@Unibrowverse
Exactly a year back, on July 19, I had gone to Kota to see what's happening in the town with new players like Unacademy and PhysicsWallah coming in.
A 🧵👇
🚨🆕 Prosus, Byju's largest institutional shareholder will chair the EGM slated to happen on Feb 23.
The EGM is crucial for Byju's and its shareholders. But Byju Raveendran and his family do not plan on attending it. So what's next?
A 🧵👇
🚨🚨 At least 25,000 present and past employees of Flipkart group will likely benefit from its $700 million one-time cash payout, making it one of the biggest instances of wealth creation in India’s booming startup space.
@patwardhannn
& I report
🚨🆕 Earlier this week, ET reported Amazon is eyeing a pie of Swiggy's Instamart as it wants to jump into the quick commerce frenzy
But it looks like Amazon wants a pie of the entire biz, not Instamart
In today's Crux,
@prnvbal
and I explore why Amazon wants Swiggy in its cart
🆕 🚨Swiggy to deliver DRHP by September first week.
The SoftBank-backed foodtech platform, which confidentially filed papers with Sebi in April, will be filing draft papers for $1.3bn IPO. It's seeking a valuation of $16 bn.
@jarshadnk
@SharmaShradha
☕️🚨 What's brewing inside Third Wave?
At a time when VC investors are turning bullish on the specialty coffee segment, Third Wave Coffee, one of India's largest and fastest-growing chains, seems to be losing track.
More details in our deep dive today
@jarshadnk
@CatizenKane
🚨☕️A lot is brewing inside one of India's largest and fastest-growing coffee chains, Third Wave Coffee. Despite being backed by big-name angel investors and private equity firms, Third Wave appears to have bitten off more than it can chew.
Here’s what’s happening 🧵👇
🚨🚨 More pain in store for edtech firms in India?
Now, Practically, a K-12 immersive learning firm, lays off permanent and contractual employees, holds salaries of many, citing liquidity crunch amid a pending fundraise
Scoop w
@Unibrowverse
A 🧵👇
💥 I've spent nearly 10days in Kota capturing the town's mood
Some of the anecdotes are just incredible and hard to believe
Here's a special series of stories from Kota via
@moneycontrolcom
Stay tuned.. First story goes live tomorrow
📢Moneycontrol presents a special series,
#NotesFromKota
.
@patwardhann
delves into the high-pitched battle between the incumbents & the disruptors at India's coaching nerve centre, what a student's life is like & various businesses that have mushroomed here.
Goes Live on July 26
🚨🚨Exclusive: What's happening inside Accel?
The venture capital firm, one of India's largest, is witnessing a gradual transition as it eyes an eighth venture fund, reportedly its largest.
@SharmaShradha
@jarshadnk
@CatizenKane
@Mittermaniac
🚨🍿 A full-blown war is brewing between well-funded edtech companies. The battleground is India’s oldest and most famous higher education hub--Kota.
A long 🧵
💫 Over the last 3 wks I've been talking to a lot of people from Kota to understand the economics and emotions of the town
Here's an attempt at putting together some on-ground anecdotes of India's $500 mn education hub
Via
@moneycontrolcom
@chandrarsrikant
🚨🚨 The world's largest edtech company has posted a 14% decline in its FY21 revenue, when even bankrupt companies like Lido Learning saw their revenues surging manifold
What's next for India's edtechs?
@chandrarsrikant
@deepsekharc
🆕What's happening with India's edtech soonicorns?🤔
So many edtech companies raised funds during Covid and made headlines with their valuations. But we don't hear much about them, do we?
A 🧵👇
🚨🆕More layoffs at Byju's?
Over 5,000 employees across departments are said to have received performance notices. What lies in store for the world's most-valued edtech?
A long 🧵👇
On an average, a student in Kota pays up to Rs 2.5 lakh a year. About 150,000 students are admitted to the Kota coaching centres annually. Going by these estimates, the coaching centers of Kota have a market size of as much as $500 million or about Rs 3,800 crore.
🚨🆕 Unacademy, one of India's latest education companies, once thrived on the model of hiring star teachers.
But since the funding winter kicked in, the company fired a bunch of these teachers who were earning crores to cut costs
What are these teachers doing now?
A 🧵👇
Remember the time when founders used to say we will do an IPO in 2 years?
This was 2021 when Covid was at its peak and so was VC funding in India
It has been 2 years since then, but we haven't seen a single of those IPOs. So what's happening? When will we see tech IPOs?
A 🧵
👉Several summonses were issued to Byju Raveendran, but he remained evasive & never appeared during the investigation
An investigation was initiated on the basis of various complaints received from various private persons
🚨🆕Byju's has given up all its office spaces in the country, in the latest of cost-cutting initiatives undertaken by the embattled edtech firm
@thecaptableco
over the weekend, visited office spaces of Byju's in Delhi NCR and Bengaluru.
Details👇
🚨BREAKING🚨: Byju’s has given up nearly all its offices amidst a worsening cash crunch. The company’s employees have been ordered to work from home indefinitely. More details in our exclusive free story:
🚨🚨🆕Late night scoop w
@ishansp
Aakash has filed a claim of over Rs 1,400 crore on Byju's.
Aakash likely gave a working capital loan to Byju's and is yet to receive about Rs 1,400 crore as of August 19, 2024.
A small 🧵
@jarshadnk
@SharmaShradha
🚨🆕Scoop: A large deal in edtech after a long time
Lightspeed is set to invest in PhysicsWallah. It will lead a $150 mn round, along with participation from PW's existing investors
Lightspeed has previously invested in 3 edtechs including Byju's
@jarshadnk
@SharmaShradha
When Chandra met Chandra. At the TCS reception in Davos, an annual fixture on the sidelines of the
#wef
. With
@TataCompanies
chairman N Chandrasekaran
🚨SoftBank has now netted close to $600mn from Paytm alone.
We first reported last month that the Japanese investor would be selling Paytm and Zomato through open market in small tranches
🚨🚨 SoftBank has sold another 2 percent in Paytm’s parent One97 Communications Ltd, its biggest listed investment in India, over the past month via open market operations, netting $300 million, in another instance of the Japanese investor monetising its bets in the country.
👉Company has booked around Rs.944 crore in advertising and marketing expenses including the amount remitted to foreign jurisdiction
👉The company has not prepared its financial statements since financial year 2020-21 and has not got the accounts, audited which is mandatory.
“Travel only if it is absolutely needed. Meetings that save travel cost and that can happen on Zoom, should happen on Zoom”
Read more here by
@Unibrowverse
🚨🆕 Scoop: A new rivalry is brewing between two SoftBank-backed fintechs
Paytm, touted as the OG fintech, is eyeing a share in the payments routing business, currently dominated by another SoftBank-backed co Juspay
@thecaptableco
gets you all the exclusive details
w
@Tyagi0G
💳 While India’s fintech narrative has largely revolved around digital lending, there’s a new fintech rivalry brewing between Paytm and Juspay for control of the country’s payment space. A thread.
🚨🆕Scoop: SoftBank is looking to fully exit Zomato via open market transactions in coming months.
SoftBank sold 1.17% stake yesterday and booked a profit of over Rs 100 cr. It now seeks a full exit.
Earlier this week, Tiger Global also fully exited Zomato.
@chandrarsrikant
🚨🆕Who is Riju Ravindran?
In today's
@thecaptableco
we write about a person known to none outside Byju's.
Here's the curious case of the silent Byju's co-founder, who made millions in secondary share sales over the last year, without having an active role in the company.
🚨Ola Cabs is now Ola consumer
@bhash
announces a bunch of things for Ola Cabs
>Loyalty program called Ola Coin
> Ola share (share cabs) is back
>It's quick commerce/e-commerce foray
@YourStoryCo
If Byju's fails to complete the payment by September 23, the company will have to seek an extension from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for closing the transaction, according to lawyers Moneycontrol spoke with.
So in about 30 days, if this rights issue actually happens as the PR says, Byju will buy new shares at a 99% discount, increase his stake, and thus have more control over the company, while "dissenting" shareholders will have less say
Interesting twist this.
8/8
💫 Over the last 3 wks I've been talking to a lot of people from Kota to understand the economics and emotions of the town
Here's an attempt at putting together some on-ground anecdotes of India's $500 mn education hub
Via
@moneycontrolcom
@chandrarsrikant
This is important
👇
Some employees, who were just laid off, also said that while they were getting their salaries on time, provident fund (PF) contributions were not reflected in their PF accounts.
What does this mean?🤔
🚨 Udaan raises $340 mn via equity and convertible notes
Another late-stage startup raises funds through convertible notes
@thecaptableco
did a detailed story last month, where we called out this trend.
@jarshadnk
@SharmaShradha
@Mittermaniac
Exclusive: Organic dairy startup Akshayakalpa Organic initiates its Series C round with $12 million led by A91 partners.
➡️ The round also saw the participation of existing investors Rainmatter Capital and BII.
➡️ The company has been valued at around $72 Mn post-allotment.
🚨🚨 Newsbreak confirmed
In November
@thecaptableco
had exclusively reported that PierSight had raised a $6 mn round led by Alpha Wave Global
This also was a hint of a possible shift in Alpha Wave's strategies
Read more about it-
@SharmaShradha
@jarshadnk
🚨🆕Scoop: Another SoftBank-backed company becomes an IPO candidate.
OfBusiness taps bankers for a $500 mn IPO next year.
The recent listings of Ola Electric, FirstCry, GoDigit etc have encouraged the profitable company.
@SharmaShradha
@jarshadnk
.
@Uber_India
@UberIN_Support
how can all Bangalore cabs have a problem with AC? Not a single driver agrees to switch on the AC. Why will anyone pay ₹2000 for a filthy cab without AC for a ~40 km journey?
In Mumbai, this is never the case.
🚨🚨Scoop: PhysicsWallah in talks to raise at least $250 million at $3.3-bn valuation
A huge potential markup for an Indian edtech firm at a time when the overall sector is struggling
💲💰Zepto's massive $665 million fundraise, valuing the company at $3.6 billion, stands out as an exception in the current funding landscape. It's the third largest round since 2022 and the largest this year (excluding Flipkart).
More about the funding landscape on
@thecaptableco
🚨🚨🆕 Big story today from
@thecaptableco
's
@PratapVikramSin
Over the past 18 months, Indian telcos have been hit hard by thefts of radio equipment from their telecom towers. An investigation revealed that this scourge has its origins in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
🚨🚨As 2022 draws to a close, we take a deeper look at what went wrong with the new poster boy of India's startup ecosystem
From raising one of India’s largest funding rounds to sacking the most in one go, 2022 was a year of reckoning for the country's most-valued startup
A 🧵👇
👉FEMA searches revealed that the company has received foreign direct investment to the tune of Rs 28,000 crore
👉Company has also remitted Rs.9,754 crore to various foreign jurisdictions
🚨Trigger warning
In one case, a female candidate sent a suicide note to Relevel, a copy of which was seen by us. The candidate, eventually was refunded by the company
Brilliant strategy to plant a story with another publication to help manage any potential impact from a more in-depth report that might emerge. Kudos to the marketing team. 👏
#journalism
🆕🚨Scoop: Verlinvest, ChrysCapital eye a stake in coffee chain Blue Tokai.
Blue Tokai is negotiating the deal at a pre-money valuation of $160 million (Rs 1,300 crore)
More in our story today
@jarshadnk
@SharmaShradha
@CatizenKane
@Mittermaniac
First attempt to deliver news in Hindi
Earlier in the day,
@moneycontrolcom
wrote how SoftBank might look to book profit by selling shares in Paytm and Zomato.
Details 👇