News Roundup: 14 Indian Startup News That You Don’t Want To Miss This Week[30 Oct -04 Nov]

We bring you the weekly dose of important Indian startup news of the week.

This week in the Indian startup ecosystem was mainly revolved around profits and losses. One97 Communications, the parent of digital wallet Paytm, clocked $126 Mn (INR 813.8 Cr) in total revenue for the fiscal year ending in March 2017. As per filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), the company’s net worth for the year stood at $368 Mn. According to sources, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma received a gross salary of $526K (INR 3.4 Cr) last year.

Further, online travel firm MakeMyTrip posted net losses of $62.3 Mn for the quarter ended September 30, 2017. The online travel company had posted a net loss of $39.5 Mn for the corresponding period of the previous financial year. However, the company’s revenue stood at $152.9 Mn for Q2 2017-18, up almost 84% from the $83.1 Mn for the same period a year ago.

Also, Info Edge (India) Ltd posted a 7% increase in operational revenuesin the second quarter of FY 2017-18 compared with the same quarter a year ago. As per the company’s latest filings, operational revenues rose to $34.7 Mn (INR 225.2 Cr) in the latest quarter from $32.4 Mn (INR 209.9 Cr) in Q2 2016.

Besides these, FirstCry, saw losses soar to $60.6 Mn (INR 393 Cr) in FY 2017, from $42.7 Mn(INR 277 Cr) in FY 16. The total revenue rose to $36.8 Mn (INR 239 Cr) for the period, from $26.6 Mn(INR 173 Cr) the year before. Logistics startup Rivigo posted a loss of $21.1 Mn (INR 137.1Cr) from a little over $770K (INR 5 Cr) in the previous year. Revenues, however, rose 170% to $61.9 Mn (INR 401.8 Cr) in 2016-17, from $22.9 Mn (INR 148.6 Cr) in the previous year.

Important Indian Startup News Stories Of The Week

After Amazon, Uber Claims To Be An Indian Company

Uber India head Amit Jain stated that Uber is as Indian as any of its local competitors. Amit’s statement comes a week after a similar assertion from Amazon’s Amit Agarwal who hit back at the lobby group Indiatech which is advocating a protectionist approach in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Local Taxi Unions Win Over Ola, Uber In Lonavala

Amidst regular fierce protests, the city authorities have asked the app-based cab services to stop their ‘outgoing services’ within the Lonavala Municipal Council limits in the city. Ola and Uber can now bring in passengers from different cities to Lonavala, however, cannot pick the outstation passengers from the city itself.

In a separate development, Ola’s wholly-owned cab leasing subsidiary, Ola Fleet Technologies raised $7.7 Mn (INR 50 Cr) from its parent company, ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd. As per filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the fresh funding was secured on October 12. As part of the fundraising, the cab leasing arm of Ola issued 50 Mn equity shares at a subscription price of $0.15 (INR 10) apiece.

Quikr To Roll Out On Demand Grocery And Food Delivery Services

Quikr plans to make this foray by partnering with neighbourhood storesand restaurants from where customers can order products ranging from grocery to food items. Unlike rival online grocery platforms like Bigbasket, Grofers, and others, which initially did not charge an extra delivery fee, Quikr plans to levy a nominal fee on each doorstep delivery order, from the very beginning.

Kishore Biyani To Launch Retail 3.0

Retail Giant Future Group’s Founder and CEO Kishore Biyani has announced to launch Retail 3.0 business model in India soon. “It is a model called Tathaastu. This will help you get anything you want,” said Biyani.

Find the complete list of all the startup news from last week →