Also in this letter:
■ ‘Mini Cloudtails’ mushroom on Amazon after largest seller shuts down
■ India’s techade is here: PM Modi in Independence Day speech
■ Recession could drive further demand for digitalisation, says Druva
Ola to launch electric car in 2024; CEO says ride-hailing biz is profitable
Ola Electric said on Monday it will launch its first electric car in 2024. At a press briefing in Bengaluru, coinciding with celebrations for India’s 75 years of independence, the company also introduced the S1, a sub-Rs 1 lakh version of its maiden electric scooter, the S1 Pro.
Reservations for early access to the S1 opened on Monday. Ola also plans to release MoveOS 3 this Diwali.
Electric car: Ola plans to debut its four-wheeler EV by the summer of 2024 and claims the car will be one of the fastest in India, with the ability to go from 0-100 km/h in four seconds, and a range of more than 500 km per charge.
Ola’s ambitious electric car project will see it build a separate manufacturing facility next to its two-wheeler factory in Tamil Nadu. We reported on August 13 that the company was looking to hire about 3,000 people for the car project.
Ride-hailing biz ‘profitable’: The announcement also comes on the back of layoffs at Ola’s ride-hailing business, as we reported on July 29.
Ola has been increasingly focussing on its EV initiatives and many key employees from its core ride-hailing business have been shifted to Ola Electric.
“Both are very different businesses. Ola is a ride-sharing company, we are leaders in India, we are doing very well in India, we are very profitable, it is a very well-run business. We have professional teams running the company,” Aggarwal told us.
‘Mini Cloudtails’ mushroom on Amazon after largest seller shuts down
Even as Cloudtail, the erstwhile largest seller on Amazon India disbanded its operations, a bunch of new seller outfits that have been formed for the ecommerce major show a common pattern.
What’s going on? Many former Cloudtail and Appario Retail executives are now running these seller operations, signalling the connection between Cloudtail and Amazon, people in the know said. These include chief executives of the seller firms, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
- Mouli Venkataraman, previously an executive at Cloudtail, is now the CEO of Cocoblu Retail, which sells books, apparel, office products and other categories on Amazon India.
- Former Cloudtail category leader Rehan Shaikh has taken over as CEO of Clicktech Retail, according to their respective profiles on LinkedIn.
ET found several other executives across levels in the new seller firms who have previously worked at Cloudtail and Appario Retail.
Concerns: Sources aware of the matter said this may raise concerns once again, as proximity between sellers and an ecommerce marketplace has consistently been red-flagged by the Indian government.
Catch up quick: Appario Retail, among the top sellers on Amazon India, is a joint venture between the Patni group and Amazon.
Cloudtail functioned under a joint venture between Amazon and Infosys cofounder NR Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures but shut operations as an Amazon seller earlier this year amid regulatory pressure. Amazon doesn’t own a stake in the new seller outfits.
India’s techade is here: PM Modi in Independence Day speech
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday emphasised that this is ‘India’s techade’ while addressing the nation in his Independence Day speech at the Red Fort.
“India’s techade is here,” he said. “With 5G, semiconductor manufacturing and optical fibres in villages, we are bringing a revolution through Digital India to the grassroots level.”
He said that all of this will revolutionise education and healthcare and bring about a change in the lives of the common people.
He went on to add that the country’s science missions and startups are shaping the future of India. He also stated that the success of Digital India and startups has been driven by youth from tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
Catch up on the best of our Independence Day coverage in Countdown to 2047:
Recession could drive further demand for digitalisation, says Druva
Cloud data protection provider Druva said that while some of the growth seen during the pandemic had started to taper, any slowdown in economic activity could result in another wave of digitalisation, boosting demand for cloud-based services.
“There is a slowing down in demand. One reason is because of the supply chain issues a lot of enterprises are prioritising buying hardware and delaying the cloud buys,” said Jaspreet Singh, CEO, Druva. “If there is a slowdown in the economy, I think that digitalisation will happen faster, and there will be a shift from capex to opex and moving systems to the cloud.”
Druva had raised $147 million in April 2021 at a valuation of more than $2 billion, and is likely to go in for a public offering soon.
Singh said the company will wait for the US markets to improve before deciding on when to go ahead with its initial public offering. “We will continue to monitor market and industry conditions,” he said.
Corporates tap real-estate tech firms for productivity boost
Corporates are reaching out to real estate tech firms for help in getting employees back to work as the focus has shifted from sanitisation to improving productivity, said Sandeep Dave, global head-digital & technology, CBRE.
Corporates are also making use of artificial intelligence (AI) to learn how employees’ days can be more productive. “Now it is very much about how a company can ensure that when an employee decides to go to the office, he will be productive,” said Dave.
Corporates are now using data to increase the efficiency of employees.
State of play: Almost 73% of the occupiers in India are evaluating hybrid working arrangements going forward, according to the ‘2022 India Office Occupier Survey’ by CBRE. The trend emerged after the pandemic forced companies to opt for flexible working arrangements.
Andreessen Horowitz backs Adam Neumann’s real estate firm Flow
Adam Neumann
Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz said on Monday it would be investing in Adam Neumann’s residential real estate company Flow, backing the WeWork Inc co-founder who has often drawn criticism for his allegedly erratic management style.
The investment was announced in a blog post by Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner at the venture capital firm. The blog did not disclose the financial details of the investment.
“Adam is a visionary leader who revolutionised the second largest asset class in the world – commercial real estate,” Andreessen wrote.
In 2019, Neumann agreed to resign as chief executive officer of WeWork and give up majority voting control of the company after Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp and other shareholders turned on him over a plunge in the company’s estimated valuation ahead of a planned initial public offering.
Other Top Stories By Our Reporters
Byju’s tax woes: Deloitte’s delay in signing the FY 21 financials of Byju’s has led to compliance issues for the unicorn, including payment of the income tax, four people close to the development said. In the absence of an audited financial statement, the company had to file the income tax returns under the supervision of a Chennai-based audit firm—Suri & Co., using a special provision [rule 6 (g) of the income tax act].
Instagram adding 100M Indian users every nine months: Instagram is adding 100 million users in India every nine months and will reach the 400 million user mark in India this month, media planners familiar with matters at the company told ET.
Global Picks We Are Reading
■ Streaming services see more disloyal subscribers (WSJ)
■ Spyware scandals are ripping through Europe (Wired)
■ How frustration over TikTok has mounted in Washington (NYT)
