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Also in this letter:
■ Oyo to offer free accommodation to Ukraine refugees
■ Locofy.ai raises $3 million, and other done deals
■ Alibaba hikes share buyback from $15 billion to $25 billion
Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal defends 10-min food delivery after backlash
Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal
Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal took to Twitter on Tuesday to defend the company’s decision to start testing food delivery in 10 minutes after the move was widely criticised on social media.
Catch up quick: We were the first to report on March 18 that the food delivery platform was in talks with restaurant partners and cloud kitchens to pilot the 10-minute delivery service from Gurugram. Goyal announced the pilot in a blog post on Monday.
It’s Twitter time: In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Goyal posted details about the 10-minute delivery model, explaining how it would work.
- “Ten-minute delivery is as safe for our delivery partners as 30-minute delivery,” Goyal claimed.
- He added that Zomato would not penalise delivery workers for late deliveries and offer no incentives for on-time deliveries either.
- In fact, delivery partners are not informed about the promised delivery time, Goyal said.
MP raises concerns: Among those who criticised Zomato’s decision to offer 10-minute food delivery was Member of Parliament Karti P Chidambaram.
Terming quick deliveries “absurd”, he said the move would put “undue pressure” on delivery workers. He added that these workers were “not employees…have no benefits or security, [and] no bargaining power with Zomato”.
Goyal responded to Chidambaram’s tweet with the same points he had posted earlier.
The Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union also criticised Zomato and other quick commerce firms, saying competition between them was putting the lives of delivery workers in danger.
How fast is too fast? Blinkit (formerly Grofers) faced similar criticism when it pivoted to 10-minute grocery delivery last year. At the time, founder Albinder Dhindsa said, “Our stores are so densely located that we can deliver 90% of orders in under 15 minutes even if our riders drive at 10 kmph.”
Zomato is currently in talks to merge with Blinkit, as we reported on March 15, and plans to loan it $150 million in phases.
Ad controversy: In August 2021, Zomato was criticised for an ad that depicted delivery workers as too busy to take selfies with celebrities such as Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif. Zomato said in response to the backlash that the ads were “well-intentioned”.
Oyo to offer free accommodation to Ukraine refugees
Homegrown hospitality technology platform Oyo said it will offer free accommodation to refugees fleeing Ukraine.
Starting with Poland, the company has initiated concerted efforts to appeal to its 600-plus Belvilla homeowners on its platform in Poland to open their holiday homes to refugees.
Quote: “These stays will be free for refugees who cannot pay for them, and the costs will be borne by the company and its homeowners, who volunteer to host refugees. The company will support administratively, and help cover operational expenses incurred by the homeowners,” Oyo said.
Biden warns US firms of potential Russian cyberattacks: Meanwhile, President Joe Biden urged US companies to make sure their digital doors are locked tight because of “evolving intelligence” that Russia is considering launching cyberattacks against critical infrastructure targets as the war in Ukraine continues.
Russia responds: The Kremlin rejected US warnings that it may be preparing to conduct cyber attacks in response to Western sanctions and said it does not engage in “banditry” at the state level.
ETtech Done Deals
■ Enterprise software firm Locofy.ai has secured $3 million in a funding round from Accel, January Capital, Golden Gate Ventures and Boldcap. The company will use the funds to scale its engineering and data science teams.
■ Decentralised finance (DeFi) protocol firm Struct Finance on Tuesday announced it has raised $3.9 million from Antler, Arcanum Capital, Assymetries Technologies and Avalaunch, among others. It plans to use the funds to build tools that would allow institutions to easily customise their interest rate products.
■ Indian software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup Zocket has raised $3 million in a funding round led by Kalaari Capital. The funding round also saw participation from an early-stage investor, Kettleborough Venture Capital, and angel investor Jasminder Singh Gulati, founder of NowFloats. Zocket plans to use the funds to launch a full-fledged adtech solution for small and medium businesses.
■ Chennai-based travel startup Pickyourtrail has raised an undisclosed amount from a group of investors including Cred founder Kunal Shah, Freshworks CEO Girish Mathrubootham, and GoFrugal founder and CEO Kumar Vembu.
Alibaba raises share buyback from $15 billion to $25 billion
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd raised its share buyback programme to $25 billion on Tuesday, its second increase in less than a year to prop up its stock, which has been battered by concerns over slowing growth.
Biggest share buyback since listing: The announcement marks an increase from its earlier plan to buy back shares worth $15 billion, and marks the biggest share repurchase since it went public in 2014.
Alibaba said it had already re-purchased about $9.2 billion of its US-listed shares as of March 18 under its programme, which was initially slated to last until the end of this year.
Turmoil: The company’s shares slumped in December 2020 after the earlier buyback amount of $10 billion failed to ease concerns about a regulatory crackdown on co-founder Jack Ma’s e-commerce and financial empire. Alibaba went on to raise its buyback to $15 billion last August.
Its Hong Kong-listed shares have now lost nearly 57% of their value since the start of 2021.
Central banks, BIS develop digital currencies platform prototype
Several central banks and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) have developed prototypes for a common digital currencies platform that could make cross-border payments more efficient.
Potential benefits: Codenamed ‘Project Dunbar’, the prototype also proves that financial institutions could use central bank digital currencies to transact directly with one another on a shared platform, reducing the need for intermediaries and cutting costs and time.
Central Bank FOMO: Globally, central banks are exploring digital currencies as they come to terms with emerging payment technologies pioneered by tech firms including China’s Ant Group. The rapid growth of cryptocurrencies — which are distinct from digital currencies issued by central banks — also poses a potential threat to traditional banking and finance.
Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Arun Padmanabhan in New Delhi and Zaheer Merchant in Mumbai. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.
