Also in this letter:
■ No plan to rename Zomato app to Eternal: Deepinder Goyal
■ Byju’s receives clean FY21 audit from Deloitte
■ Tech Mahindra CEO unfazed by moonlighting; others disagree
Reliance and Meta announce grocery shopping on WhatsApp in India
Meta and Reliance Industries subsidiary Jio Platforms announced the launch of an end-to-end shopping experience on WhatsApp.
Details: The first-of-its-kind initiative will allow users in India to browse JioMart’s grocery catalogue, add items to their cart, and complete the purchase without leaving WhatsApp, they said.
The announcement was made at Reliance’s annual general meeting.
Launching an end-to-end shopping experience within WhatsApp has been a long-term goal of Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
In April 2020, Meta (then Facebook) picked up a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms in an all-cash deal worth Rs 43,574 crore to strengthen its presence in India.
In their words: Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook, “This is our first-ever end-to-end shopping experience on WhatsApp – people can now buy groceries from JioMart right in a chat. Business messaging is an area with real momentum and chat-based experiences like this will be the go-to way people and businesses communicate in the years to come.”
Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, Reliance Industries, said, “When Jio Platforms and Meta announced our partnership in 2020, Mark and I shared a vision of bringing more people and businesses online and creating truly innovative solutions that will add convenience to the daily lives of every Indian.”
5G rollout: Ambani also said Reliance Jio Infocomm plans to invest Rs 2 lakh crore in 5G. It will launch services in several key cities – including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata – by October and aims for pan-India coverage by December 2023
No plan to rename Zomato app to Eternal: Deepinder Goyal
Deepinder Goyal, cofounder and CEO of Zomato, said he has no plans to step back from the day-to-day functioning of the food-delivery company. He was responding to queries raised by shareholders following Zomato’s announcement earlier this month that it planned to rebrand itself to ‘Eternal’.
Clarification: In a letter to the exchanges, Goyal said Eternal remains an internal identity that aims to bind all of Zomato’s businesses under a common name and mission. “There is no plan whatsoever to rebrand the Zomato app to Eternal,” he clarified.
He added, “We didn’t want the Blinkit team to feel like a step-child once we completed the transaction. We needed to make sure that both Zomato and Blinkit were placed at par within the important hierarchy of our daily work lives.”
Catch up quick: ETtech reported on August 1, citing an internal communication, that Zomato was internally rebranding itself to ‘Eternal’, a larger organisation that would house multiple businesses, each with its own CEO.
Byju’s receives clean FY21 audit from Deloitte
Byju’s, India’s highest-valued startup, has finally received an ‘unqualified’ or clean report from auditor Deloitte on its financial results for FY21, which it will share with the company’s equity and debt investors next week, top sources privy to the development told IANS.
Catch up quick: On Monday morning we reported, citing sources, that Byju’s has told its investors it is likely to finalise the audited financials by September 6. It is expected to hold its board meeting next week once it receives the final report, which will be presented to the directors.
The development came after the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) asked Byju’s parent firm Think & Learn for the reasons behind the 17-month delay in filing its audited accounts.
Differences with Deloitte: Byju’s revenue recognition had been a point of contention between the company and Deloitte, according to multiple people in the know.
But in an interview with ET in May, founder Byju Raveendran had said the delay in filing its financials was on account of multiple acquisitions the firm had closed.
Fundarise talks: Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds are in active negotiations with Byju’s to join the company’s planned $400-500 million fundraise, people close to the development told us.
Tweet of the day
Tech Mahindra CEO unfazed by moonlighting; others disagree
CP Gurnami, CEO, Tech Mahindra
Top executives of IT giants TCS and Tech Mahindra have taken opposing stances on the controversial moonlighting policies of some tech firms. While Tech Mahindra CEO CP Gurnami claimed it was “not rampant”, TCS’s chief operating officer N Ganapathy Subramaniam said it was an “ethical issue”.
What’s moonlighting? Moonlighting refers to pursuing more than one job at a time. While this is not a new phenomenon, remote working in the Indian tech sector has allowed employees to take up this option in larger numbers.
Earlier this month, food delivery startup Swiggy introduced a moonlighting policy to allow its employees to take up projects after work hours and earn extra money.
Differences: Gurnami said Tech Mahindra was planning to make moonlighting a policy so that employees remained honest about pursuing more than one job at a time. “Frankly, I’m going to probably make it a policy. If you want to do it, sure. But be open about it and share with us,” said Gurnami.
His comments came days after Wipro CEO Rishad Premji termed moonlighting “cheating” in a tweet. IT giants have faced record attrition levels this year, with both Infosys and TCS seeing a rise in employee exits in the June quarter. Wipro was the only one that managed to keep attrition levels down.
Merak launches $100 million fund for early-stage startups
Early-stage venture capital firm Merak Ventures launched a $100 million fund on Monday to back 18-20 promising early-stage startups in the next three to four years.
Cofounded by Manu Rikhye and Sheetal Bahl, the VC firm said it would invest in seed-stage B2B and emerging technology companies creating sustainable business models and using new technologies to help solve real problems and create large-scale impact.
While the fund will continue to be sector-neutral, some investment themes that it will actively pursue are insurtech, enterprise SaaS, and climate tech. The company will also provide support in strategy, business development and fundraising by systematically tapping its networks.
Early-stage funding has been gaining traction lately as VCs remain cautious about cutting large cheques amid deteriorating macroeconomic conditions.
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.
