Also in this letter:
■ Zomato shares jump 20% in a day as Q1 results bring cheer
■ Oracle starts job cuts in US, India next on the list
■ Uber turns cash flow positive for the first time
BharatPe’s original cofounder Bhavik Koladiya moves on from troubled firm
Bhavik Koladiya, one of the original cofounders of BharatPe, is moving on from the company.
Koladiya, who was convicted of credit card fraud in the US in 2015, was removed from BharatPe’s cap table in December 2018, just before Sequoia came on as an investor. He was kept on as a consultant.
Now, his contract has not been renewed, according to two people aware of the discussions. BharatPe confirmed the development to us, saying Koladiya expressed an interest in moving on to “other assignments outside BharatPe”.
High stakes: The development comes five months after BharatPe cofounder and managing director Ashneer Grover resigned from the firm following a months-long controversy and an audit of the company’s finances.
In an interaction with ET on March 1, the day he resigned, Grover said he would lose out on management stock options worth Rs 100 crore as a result of the spat. We reported the following day that BharatPe was looking to claw back Grover’s shares.
On May 11, BharatPe said in a statement it had initiated action to do so.
Koladiya’s stake: Koladiya’s purported stake in the company also became a bone of contention after Grover resigned from the firm, as we reported on March 5.
But in April, Grover told us that Koladiya’s shares were bought in pre-Series A funding by himself, Sequoia Capital, cofounder Shashvat Nakrani, and angel investor Beenext.
Zomato shares jump 20% in a day as Q1 results bring cheer
Shares of Zomato soared almost 20% on Tuesday, a day after the online food delivery firm said its consolidated net loss narrowed by almost 50% in the June quarter.
The stock climbed 18.44% to Rs 54.90 in early trade on the BSE and closed the day 19.96% up at Rs 55.60 – the biggest one-day gain since its debut on the stock exchanges last July.
Credit: Yahoo Finance
Volatile: Last week, Zomato’s stock nosedived almost 23% in two days after the mandatory lock-in period for pre-IPO shareholders expired.
Q1 results bring cheer: On Monday evening Zomato reported a consolidated loss of Rs 186 crore for the quarter ended June, nearly half the Rs 359 crore loss it reported in the same quarter last year. The company’s revenue from operations came in at Rs 1,413.9 crore, up 67.44%.
New identity: We also reported on Monday that Zomato will rebrand itself internally to ‘Eternal’, an entity that will house its food delivery business and growing number of side businesses, and appoint a CEO for each of them.
“We are at a stage of life where we are maturing from running (more or less) a single business to now running multiple large companies,” Deepinder Goyal, CEO of Zomato, wrote on the company’s Slack channel on July 28.
He said Zomato was transitioning from a company where he was the sole CEO to one with CEOs for each of its businesses – Zomato, Blinkit, Hyperpure and Feeding India.
Oracle starts job cuts in US, India next on the list
After startups such as Byju’s, Ola, Unacademy and Meesho, software giant Oracle is set to lengthen the list of tech workers laid off in India, having already started layoffs in the US, as per The Information.
The report said layoffs in India, Canada and parts of Europe were expected in the coming weeks and months.
Oracle’s layoffs in the US will mainly affect workers at its San Francisco Bay Area offices. The company, which employs about 143,000 people globally, planned for the layoffs in July to combat rising inflation and cut costs.
Big Tech tightening: Tech giants such as Microsoft, Meta, Google and Apple have also discussed cuts or a slowdown in hiring plans of late, in response to rising costs and fears of a recession.
Tweet of the day
ETtech Done Deals
■ Customer engagement and retention platform WebEngage raised $20 million as part of a round led by Singularity Growth Opportunities Fund and SWC Global. Existing investors like India Quotient and Blume Ventures also participated. The company plans to use the funds to expand across India, the Middle East and North Africa, and Southeast Asia.
■ Voiz, a Bangalore-based marketplace for gig-work professionals, raised $2 million in funding led by Omidyar Network. Launched in July 2021 by Rajesh Bernard, Vineet Patil, and Sandeep Nyamati, Voiz helps businesses recruit gig workers for online roles such as customer service, tele-calling, sales, data entry and recruitment.
■ Ronnie Screwvala-led edtech upGrad acquired Exampur, a test-prep provider for government jobs, for an undisclosed sum. Founded by Vivek Kumar and Vardan Gandhi in 2018, Exampur offers over 200 test-prep courses for government jobs.
Uber turns cash flow positive for the first time
Uber on Tuesday reported positive quarterly cash flow for the first time ever. The company also forecast third-quarter operating profit above estimates, betting on steady demand for its ride-hailing and food-delivery services.
By the numbers: Uber generated free cash flow of $382 million in the second quarter, topping analysts’ expectations of $263.2 million, as trips exceeded pre-pandemic levels, boosted by the reopening of offices and a surge in travel demand.
The delivery segment’s revenue rose 37% to $2.69 billion, while that of the ride-share business surged 120% to $3.55 billion in the quarter ended June 30.
Analysts were expecting revenue of $2.58 billion for delivery and $2.93 billion for ride share.
The number of drivers and delivery agents on its platform rose 31% to an all-time high of almost five million, allaying concerns that soaring gas prices was deterring them from signing up with the company.
Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Zaheer Merchant in Mumbai and Ruchir Vyas in New Delhi. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.
