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Also in this letter:
■ Zomato’s 10-min food delivery pilot goes live in Gurgaon
■ No scooter malfunction in recent Guwahati accident, says Ola
■ Snap warns inflation could hit revenue growth
Nykaa makes strategic investments in Earth Rhythm, Nudge Wellness and Kica Active
Nykaa has made a number of strategic investments in brands across categories such as clean beauty, athleisure, and neutri-cosmetics.
Driving the news: In a stock exchange filing, the company said it has acquired:
- 18.51% of Earth Rhythm, clean beauty, and personal care cosmetics brand, for Rs 41.65 crore
- 60% of Nudge Wellness a dietary supplement and nutri-cosmetics products maker, for Rs 3.6 crore
- Kica Active, an activewear brand, for Rs 4.51 crore
It also said it will partner with D2C brand incubator Onesto Labs “to create a new category of nutraceuticals and wellness products under Nudge Wellness Private Limited”.
“This partnership with Onesto Labs is one among a slew of Nykaa’s recent partnerships with homegrown D2C brands, aimed at bolstering the early-stage beauty and lifestyle,” the company added.
Also Read: How Falguni Nayar built Nykaa to stand out from the crowd
Earth Rhythm, formerly known as Soapworks India, was launched in 2015 by Harini Sivakumar.
Onesto Labs, founded by Rohit Chawla, Sifat Khurana, and Vimal Bhola in 2018, owns brands such as Chemist at Play, Bare Anatomy, and SunScoop SPF.
Kica Active, founded by Aneesha Labroo in 2017, offers active-wear and athleisure apparel. It will be housed under Nykaa’s fashion vertical Nykd, the company said in its filing.
Quote: “This partnership with Onesto Labs is one of its kind because we are now entering the ‘edible beauty’ category as we reimagine what clean and green beauty and wellness could look like in the coming years,” said Anchit Nayar, CEO, ecommerce beauty, Nykaa.
Zomato’s 10-min food delivery pilot goes live in Gurgaon
The pilot of Zomato’s 10-minute food delivery service Zomato Instant is now live in Gurgaon. The food delivery company has partnered with various brands including Biryani Blues, Dana Choga, and Chaayos for the pilot.
“We are scaling up as we speak and looking to expand into most of Gurgaon over the next month,” said a Zomato spokesperson.
Catch up quick: We first reported on March 18 that Zomato was in talks with restaurant partners and cloud kitchens to pilot the 10-minute delivery service in Gurgaon, using its own cooking facilities.
It charges an 18-25% commission per order for 10-minute deliveries, depending on its arrangement with restaurant partners.
Details: According to multiple sources, the company is exploring a model for Zomato Instant in which it buys food in bulk from restaurant partners and sells it to consumers at a markup. Doing so will help Zomato capture a larger chunk of the commission, another source added.
“Zomato may stand to make up to 40% per order since it owns the entire supply chain in the Zomato Instant model,” a source told us.
Ultra-fast delivery: The 10-minute food-delivery service had stirred up a huge debate on social media after Zomato’s chief executive officer Deepinder Goyal made it official on March 21.
The proposed pilot also caused concern among lawmakers on road safety and possible traffic violations in southern states including Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, ET reported on March 28. Goyal defended the move, saying it was safe for delivery staff.
We reported previously that other players such as Ola and Swiggy were also exploring ultra-fast food delivery.
No scooter malfunction in recent Guwahati accident, says Ola
Ola Electric has said a recent accident involving one of its electric scooters in Guwahati, Assam that left the rider seriously injured was not caused by a malfunction in the scooter.
What happened? On April 15, the person’s father claimed on Twitter that the scooter accelerated when the rider tried braking, leading to the accident.
“My son was severely hospitalised on March 26 where he had fractures in left hand and 16 stitches in right hand due to a fault in Ola S1 Pro,” claimed Balwant Singh.
Rebuttal: Ola Electric said in a statement posted on Twitter that the “rider was overspeeding” and that “he braked in a panic, thereby losing control of the vehicle. There is nothing wrong with the vehicle,” it said, citing data collected from the electric scooter.
The incident comes amid a severe backlash from Ola Electric customers who have been facing a myriad of issues. An Ola S1 Pro scooter caught fire in Pune on March 27, one of many such incidents involving electric two-wheelers of late.
Explosion: The battery of a Pure EV electric scooter burst in a home in Nizamabad town on Tuesday night, killing an 80-year-old man and injuring his wife and grandson. A case was registered against Pure EV.
Voluntary recall: On April 21 we reported that the union government has asked EV makers to voluntarily recall defective two-wheelers.
In a series of tweets, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said, “Companies may take advance action to Recall all defective batches of vehicles immediately.” He said that an expert committee was constituted to enquire into these incidents and make recommendations on remedial steps.
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Crypto trading exchange CoinDCX, cricket NFTs platform Rario, and collateral-free micro, small & medium enterprise (MSME) loans provider Kinara Capital were among the startups that raised funds this week. Here’s a look at the top funding deals of the week.
Snap warns inflation could hit revenue growth, forecasts higher users
Snap Inc forecast a rosy outlook for user growth on its Snapchat app, but said supply-chain disruptions and inflation could continue to hurt advertising demand.
The company forecast second-quarter daily active users at between 343 million and 345 million, above Wall Street estimates of 340 million.
Also Read: Snap to port its India localisation playbook elsewhere, says CEO Evan Spiegel
But it warned that inflation, labour shortages, and other economic challenges could pressure revenue. It forecast second-quarter revenue growth between 20% and 25% over the previous year. The growth rate so far in the current quarter has been 30%.
Snap is the first of the major tech apps to report first-quarter earnings, and the results could cast a shadow over Facebook owner Meta Platforms and Twitter, which also earn revenue by selling digital advertising. They will report their results next week.
Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Zaheer Merchant in Mumbai. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.
