🎓 Inside the tepid placement season at IITs

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15 May 2024 View in Browser

Hello,   Profitability is just around the corner for Urban Company.   The service marketplace’s Co-founder Abhiraj Singh Bhal shared that the company has turned profitable at the profit-before-tax level. While its India business had previously achieved profitability, it is now offsetting overseas losses.   Meanwhile, a familiar face is back at the Ola office.   Bhavish Aggarwal has roped in his brother, Ankush Aggarwal, to help lead the ride-hailing firm as part of the core team. He was also named CEO at Ola Financial Services—a second fintech stint after his lending startup Avail Finance was acquired by Ola parent ANI Technologies in 2022.     Elsewhere, early-stage accelerator 9Unicorns has rebranded to 100Unicorns, and is doubling down on investments. It launched 100Unicorns Fund II to invest in 200 startups, with a target size of $200 million and a $100 million green shoe option.    Also, Amazon has reportedly infused Rs 1,600 crore into its India entity, Amazon Seller Services, in a bid to match Walmart’s recent $600 million infusion into Flipkart as the ecommerce wars intensify.   ICYMI: All you need to know about the new OpenAI model, GPT-4o.   Oh, and did you know Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia church has been under construction for 124 years? In 2026, the church, which is entirely funded by people, will be the tallest in the world. Here’s how.   In today’s newsletter, we will talk about  Inside the tepid placement season at IITs A platform for affordable speech therapy PE firm ChrysCapital’s eyecare bet Here’s your trivia for today: Which is the only country in the world whose main territory touches all four hemispheres?

In-depth Inside the tepid placement season at IITs While entrance into the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) often takes years of hard work, passing the four-year course is a different beast altogether.    The promise of a lucrative career kept IIT students’ morale high. However, YourStory finds that many graduates are yet to find a job and are hoping against hope to get an offer before the end of this year’s placement season.   Reality check: At IIT Bombay, about 665 students, or 34% of the total participants in this year’s placements, remain unplaced as per the latest data (as of April 5) from the institute. It’s important to note that the placement season is scheduled to officially wrap up by June. This should be worrying because the number of students without offers at the end of the placement season is increasing each year. In 2021-22, 11% of the students were without any offers and the number was 18% in 2022-23. The total headcount across India’s top IT services companies saw a decrease of over 70,000 in the fiscal year ended March 2024. The IT firms reportedly had their lowest intake of fresh engineers in over two decades at the end of the last fiscal year. Read More

Funding Alert   1) Celcius Logistics: Rs 40 Cr|Pre-Series B 2) Highperformr.ai: $3.5M|Seed

Inspiration A platform for affordable speech therapyElizabeth Jean Thomas started Phonologix in 2020 to provide an assistive technology platform to enable users to access quality speech therapy services.    Phonologix has so far served over 2,800 children and provided almost 30,000 online speech therapy sessions in 10+ countries, including India and the GCC. The therapy sessions are conducted in seven languages, including English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, and Kannada.     Success: Starting with two therapists, Phonologix has now grown to a team of 14 in four years, offering speech therapy for children and adults, a parent coaching programme, applied behaviour analysis, occupational therapy, and special education. It has users from all over India, including Darjeeling, Jaipur, Ajmer, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, Kollam, Shimoga, Erode, Jammu, Tiruchirapalli, and many other semi-urban places. Thomas believes women founders are constantly judged, their abilities questioned, and they have to work harder to prove they are capable. Read More

Investor ChrysCapital’s eyecare bet India-focused private equity firm Chrys Capital will invest up to $100 million in the Delhi-headquartered eye care chain, Centre for Sight (CFS), in a mix of primary and secondary transactions. It will now hold a significant minority stake in the eye care chain.    Key takeaways: As part of the deal, ChrysCapital has acquired the entire stake held by Mahindra Holdings Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra Limited. The entity had invested Rs 206.5 crore in CFS in 2019.  Founded in 1996 by ophthalmologist and Padma Shri awardee Dr Mahipal Sachdev, CFS offers eye care services and surgeries. It operates 15 centres and 13 vision stores in Delhi-NCR.  This also adds to ChyrsCapital’s bet in the healthcare and pharma space. The firm, which recently announced the final close of its $700 million Continuation Fund, had invested $70 million in pharmaceutical company, La Renon. Read More

From the CapTable Zomato's next frontier: Blinkit's expansion signals quick commerce takeover Yesterday, foodtech major Zomato published its earnings for the quarter ended March 2024, reporting a fourth consecutive quarter in the green. However, despite Zomato posting a consolidated profit of Rs 175 crore, a 28% increase over the previous quarter, its core business—food delivery—wasn’t the star of the show. Instead, the limelight was stolen by the Gurugram-headquartered company’s quick commerce subsidiary, Blinkit. Even the main theme picture from the shareholder note of Zomato focused on Blinkit. Blinkit’s prominence in the Zomato story shouldn’t come as a surprise. In late April, a Goldman Sachs report stated that Blinkit’s contribution to Zomato’s market cap was larger than that of its food delivery business.    Zomato isn’t shying away from this. In its shareholder note,  Zomato made some big announcements about Blinkit’s aggressive expansion plans. The company plans to almost double its dark store count from 526 stores to 1,000 by March 2025. This would potentially see Blinkit—which reached adjusted EBITDA breakeven in March, according to Zomato—grow 4X.    What explains Blinkit’s aggressive expansion plan now after a relatively slow expansion over the last year? Read today’s story to find out.   Key takeaways: Blinkit’s aggressive expansion plans for the year ahead come amid increasing competition in quick commerce.  CEO Albinder Dhindsa, though, says the move has nothing to do with competition and claims Blinkit is the quick commerce leader in Bengaluru and Mumbai.  Blinkit’s company structure and operations appear to have helped it win meaningful market share from rivals on their turf. While analysts raised concerns about the expansion plans impacting key profitability metrics, it is unlikely to shake investor confidence in Zomato and its quick commerce story. Continue Reading

News & Updates Lucky money: Struggling theatre chain AMC Entertainment raised about $250 million of new equity capital through the sale of 72.5 million shares during the revived meme stock craze triggered by the return of “Roaring Kitty,” whose bull case on GameStop ignited the meme stock rally back in 2021. Slowdown: Sony Pictures Entertainment's operating income fell nearly 10% for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 to $808 million. Sony saw net sales for its Game and Network Services division, which includes PlayStation, rise by 17% YoY to $27.5 billion, while operating income rose 16% to $1.9 billion. Earnings: China's Ant Group posted a 19% fall in net profit of 7.87 billion yuan ($1.09 billion) in the quarter ending December. The ecommerce giant reports profit from Ant one quarter in arrears. Chinese authorities last announced a fine of 7.12 billion yuan for Ant Group for violating laws concerning consumer protection and corporate governance.

Here's what else we have for you   Code at the Speed of Thought: Revolutionising development with GenAI In association with Google Cloud   Join us as we explore the frontiers of technology! At the RoundTable on Code at the speed of thought: Revolutionising development with GenAI co-hosted by Google Cloud and YourStory during DevSparks 2024, we uncovered the transformative power of GenAI. From maximising efficiency to addressing complex challenges, GenAI is revolutionising the way we work and innovate. Delve into the conversations, discoveries, and breakthroughs shared by our panel of experts, and gain actionable insights to drive your organisation towards success in the digital era. Don't miss out on this opportunity to stay ahead of the curve!  Know More

Did you know?   Which is the only country in the world whose main territory touches all four hemispheres? Answer: The Pacific island nation of Kiribati.

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