homestartup NewsStartup Digest: More layoffs at Meta, Amazon & Disney, Simpl lets go of over 150 employees
Startup Digest: More layoffs at Meta, Amazon & Disney, Simpl lets go of over 150 employees
In a statement to CNBC-TV18, a company spokesperson confirmed the layoffs, saying, "In lieu of the current economic condition & preparing for the new economic reality, we’ve re-looked at our headcount towards becoming a leaner and agile organization."
Disney plans another round of layoff after 7,000 job cuts in March
Walt Disney Company is expected to lay off thousands of employees starting next week. These job cuts will include 15 percent of Disney’s staff from the company's entertainment division.
According to Bloomberg, the job losses would include those employed by Disney's TV and film businesses as well as those working at theme parks and corporate positions.
Any region where Disney operates would be impacted by the most recent job cuts, according to the Bloomberg report. Affected employees will start receiving notifications as early as April 24, it added. Disney announced 7,000 job cuts earlier in February as part of its cost-cutting initiatives to reduce its annual expenditures by $5.5 billion.
The layoffs would result in a major decrease in the number of employees at Disney Entertainment, which houses the company's streaming, distribution, and film and television production operations. Disney Entertainment was established this year as a result of Walt Disney's restructuring.
OTHER STARTUP NEWS
Zomato breaks silence over Blinkit protests, says ‘no material impact on revenue’
The week-long disruption to Blinkit’s operations in the Delhi NCR region due to delivery partners protest over a new pay structure have caused no material impact on the financial performance, with a hit of less than one percent in revenue, the quick commerce company’s parent Zomato said in a stock exchange filing on Wednesday.
The ‘Blinkit Strike’, as the protests have come to be known, had led to the temporary shuttering of nearly half of the 200 dark stores that Blinkit operates in the national capital region. Brokerages such as ICICI Securities had earlier said, “Given that at least 3-4 days’ sales have already been lost, this implies ~1 percent loss in revenue from Blinkit and ~0.15 percent of consolidated revenue for Q1FY24—already.”
The protests, which began on April 12, eased up on Tuesday with the Blinkit app back online. “We had to shut down some stores for a few days to ensure safety of our employees at stores and the delivery partners. Most of these stores have now resumed operations,” said Zomato, which acquired Blinkit last year in a deal valued Rs 4,447 crore.
BluSmart picks EV fight with Uber: Report
Ride-hailing startup BluSmart is seeking to challenge Uber and Ola for market share in the country with bets on an all-electric taxi fleet and an aggressive bid to lure disgruntled passengers and drivers from the incumbents, as per a report by Reuters.
As a new entrant, BluSmart is looking to seize the moment by beating its combustion engine-powered rivals on electrification, cleanliness and reliability through direct management of its fleet and drivers. For starters, drivers cannot cancel bookings received on their BluSmart app, the report said.
"BluSmart has cracked quality of service with clean cars which are on time. Having your own fleet allows you to do that," Jasmeet Khurana who leads a mobility decarbonisation initiative at the World Economic Forum (WEF) told Reuters. "It used the transition to electric to get its foot in the door."
A confidential BluSmart investor deck from March, reviewed by Reuters, stated "Uber is losing drivers, riders and market share in India", and its growth model of driver-owners is "crashing" amid soaring fuel prices.
Safe Security bags $50M in Series B funding round
Safe Security, a cyber-risk management platform, has raised $50 million Series B round led by Sorenson Capital, with participation from Eight Roads, venture capital arm of Fidelity Investments, Telstra Ventures, WTI, and all existing investors. With this round, the firm has now raised a total funding of over $100 million.
“As we enter this next milestone in the company’s journey, we are focusing on continuing to innovate ahead of the market and lead the charge with the industry’s only realtime, data-driven platform for managing and mitigating cyber risk,” said Saket Modi, CEO and Co-founder, Safe Security.
The company claims to be growing over 200 percent year-over-year and serves some of the largest global enterprises.
Aequs secures $27.5 million from Amicus Capital for next phase of growth
Bangalore-based contract manufacturing company Aequs has received a fresh capital infusion of $27.50 million in a maiden round of external investment led by Amicus Capital.
The funds are intended to prime the company for its next phase of growth and will be used to expand manufacturing capabilities across its Aerospace, Toys, and Consumer Durable Goods verticals to serve both domestic and multinational OEM clients.
Aravind Melligeri, Chairman & CEO of Aequs, said, "The equity investment by Amicus Capital marks the first external funding into Aequs and sets us on a new trajectory to further expand operations in the three current verticals and continue to provide world-class manufacturing solutions to our global customers."
Nazara’s founder Nitish Mittersain invests in Knocksense
Hyperlocal content driven commerce platform has secured an undisclosed investment from Nitish Mittersain, Founder & Managing Director of Nazara Technologies. The startup is raising $1 million as part of its Pre-Series A round, with participation from We Founders Circle, Lets Venture, Mumbai Angels Network, and Imperial Holdings.
The firm claims to have acquired over 25,000 paid subscribers and 80 lakh plus monthly impressions and with the fresh funds, plans to expand to newer geographies, such as Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Bhubaneshwar, Agra, and Bhopal. Knocksense is currently present in 4 Lucknow, Kanpur, Indore, and Ahmedabad.
"We believe that our content-tech platform is perfectly positioned to serve the young users and local brands of tier II/III India, and we are excited to expand to new geographies and connect with more communities across the country," said Vibhore Mayank, Co-Founder, Knocksense.
Manipal’s Ranjan Pai invests in e-commerce platform Meolaa
E-commerce startup Meolaa has bagged an undisclosed amount as part of its seed funding round led by Ranjan Pai, chairman of Manipal Education and Medical Group.
The company said it will use the fresh capital to hire key leadership team members across primary functions, including category, marketing, logistics & customer support, and product & engineering. In the next quarter, Meolaa expects its headcount to grow to 35 members.
The platform claims to have onboarded over 750 brands and over 50,000 products across 6 major verticals. It had a team of 20 members and a user base of 3 Lakh as of March 2023.
PE-VC Investments in India decline by 12 percent in 2022: Bain & Company and IVCA Report
Private equity and venture capital investments in India declined by 12 percent in 2022 compared to the previous year, however, the future still remains resilient despite tough macro-economic conditions, said a report by Bain & Company and IVCA.
The India Private Equity report 2023 highlighted that PE-VC investments in India declined from a record high of $70 billion in 2021 to $62 billion in 2022 due to global headwinds. The report said that since 2020, PE-VC investments in India have surpassed $60 billion, indicating that the market is still thriving.
The report also showed that India’s share of Asia-Pacific grew from approximately 15 percent to 20 percent in a single year, courtesy, China + 1 tailwinds and the country’s macro-robustness, which made it a bright spot for investing amid decelerating capital flow in the region.
ESG emerged as a breakout theme in 2022, with investments in clean energy and EV accelerating to reach $7.9 billion, the report said. Traditional sectors led by BFSI, healthcare, energy and manufacturing demonstrated resilience and grew by 50 percent to ~$28 billion enabled by strong domestic consumer sentiment, it added.
CISCO and Villgro announce 7 women-led climate tech startups as winners of TVARAN Acceleration Program
Incubator for social enterprises, Villgro and CISCO, through its India Cash Grant Program, have jointly selected seven women-led startups in the climate action space for their 6-month targeted acceleration program- TVARAN.
The seven winners who will participate in the program are Climate Sense, Green Grahi, Green Delight, MOWO Fleet, Swachha Eco Solutions, KNP Arises Green Energy and Bharat Krushi Seva. This initiative aims to expand the market presence of women-led startups innovating in renewable energy, water and waste management, and climate-smart agriculture, a statement said.
Villgro and CISCO will deploy support mechanisms in the form of financial support of Rs 1.4 crore (up to Rs 20 Lakhs - Grant support of 18 lakhs & technical support of 2 lakhs per startup). Additionally, the startups will also be provided support in capacity building, business planning, mentorship, and peer learning, focussed towards the implementation of go-to-market strategies, it added.
Rockstud Capital enters into Portfolio Management Services
Alternative asset management firm, Rockstud Capital has announced its entry into Portfolio Management Services and is set to launch an open-ended concentrated PMS portfolio called Rockstud Capital Yuva Bharat, focused on the mid and small market cap.
The fund aims to invest in companies based on India's GDP growth, rising middle-class income, consumption, and digital wave to cater to the aspirational set of the population by identifying and investing in high-growth sectors.
In a statement, the firm said that, "the fund will be managed by a dedicated team with over three decades of experience and will leverage its successful track record in the Rockstud Capital Investment Fund - Series I hybrid equity venture capital fund, where some investments generated multi-bagger returns over ~5x. The company has received the final license from SEBI to start its PMS business operations."
Gameskraft Foundation partners with GoSports Foundation for the Para Champions Programme
Gameskraft Foundation, the social arm of the leading online skill-based gaming company Gameskraft, has announced its partnership supporting the ‘Para Champions Programme’ by the GoSports Foundation.
As their ‘Associate Partner’ for the programme, Gameskraft Foundation is empowering 45 para-athletes in their sporting journeys, a statement said.
The larger objective of the programme is to use sports excellence as a vehicle to create national role models who can impact the prevailing sentiment about general persons with disabilities.
Dream11, Games24x7 and 15 more debut as best workplaces: LinkedIn's 2023 Top Companies List
Professional network platform LinkedIn has launched its seventh annual edition of the Top Companies list for India. This year’s list reveals the 25 best workplaces where professionals in India can grow their careers, and many of these companies are currently hiring for specific roles.
Tata Consultancy Services (#1), Amazon (#2), and Morgan Stanley (#3) emerged as the top three companies this year. A majority of the companies, 10 out of 25, are from the financial services/banking/fintech space, including companies such as Macquarie Group (#5), HDFC Bank (#11), Mastercard (#12), and Yubi (#14).
For the first time, e-sports and gaming companies such as Dream11 (#20) and Games24x7 (#24) made it to the list, reflecting the growing popularity of gaming and the presence of this sector.
GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY & STARTUP NEWS
Netflix misses revenue estimates, delays password-sharing crackdown
Netflix beat Wall Street earnings estimates for the first quarter but offered a lighter-than-expected forecast on Tuesday, demonstrating the challenges the mature streaming service faces in its pursuit of growth.
Revenue and earnings for the first quarter came in roughly in line with the average analyst estimates from Refinitiv. Earnings per share hit $2.88 with revenue of $8.162 billion.
"We are growing and we are profitable," Co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos said. "We have a clear path to accelerate growth in both revenue and profit, and we're executing it."
A large price cut on subscription tiers in India helped Netflix increase its engagement in the country by roughly 30 percent (year over year) in the first quarter of 2023, the streaming giant announced.
"These reductions — combined with an improved slate — helped grow engagement in India by nearly 30 percent year on year while F/X neutral revenue growth in 2022 accelerated to 24 percent (versus 19 percent in 2021)," the company said.
Twitter removes policy against deadnaming transgender people
Twitter has quietly removed a policy against the "targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals," raising concerns that the Elon Musk-owned platform is becoming less safe for marginalized groups, as per a report by Associated Press.
Twitter enacted the policy against deadnaming, or using a transgender person's name before they transitioned, as well as purposefully using the wrong gender for someone as a form of harassment, in 2018.
Twitter also said it will only put warning labels on some tweets that are "potentially" in violation of its rules against hateful conduct. Previously, the tweets were removed.
Google wins appeal of $20 million US patent verdict over Chrome technology
Google has convinced a U.S. appeals court to cancel three anti-malware patents at the heart of a Texas jury's $20 million infringement verdict against the company.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said that Alfonso Cioffi and Allen Rozman's patents were invalid because they contained inventions that were not included in an earlier version of the patent. Google spokesperson José Castañeda said the company appreciated the decision.
Cioffi and the late Rozman's daughters sued Google in East Texas federal court in 2013, alleging anti-malware functions in Google's Chrome web browser infringed their patents for technology that prevents malware from accessing critical files on a computer.
Google to open up UK in-app payments to satisfy regulator's concerns
Britain's competition regulator said proposals from Google to give app developers the freedom to break away from Google Play's billing system looked to be sufficient to address its concerns about in-app payments.
Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said in June that Google's complete control over in-app payments unfairly restricted developers by forcing them to use Google Play's billing system, reducing competition and hurting users.
The CMA said on Wednesday that Google's proposals would allow app developers to offer a different payment system "of their choosing" or give users a choice between an alternative payment system and Google Play's billing system. Third-party payments providers could market their services to app developers, as per the proposal.
Google said it had made the commitments after constructive conversations with the regulator. It said the roll out of user billing in Britain would build on its experience of offering similar systems in the European Economic Area and other parts of the world.
German authors, performers call for tougher ChatGPT rules amid copyright concerns
Forty-two German associations and trade unions representing more than 140,000 authors and performers have urged the European Union to beef up draft artificial intelligence rules as they singled out the threat to their copyright from ChatGPT.
Trade unions for the creative sector Verdi and DGB and associations for photographers, designers, journalists and illustrators set out their concerns in a letter to the European Commission, European Council and EU lawmakers.
The letter underlined the growing worries about generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT which can mimic humans and create text and images based on prompts.
"The unauthorised usage of protected training material, its non-transparent processing, and the foreseeable substitution of the sources by the output of generative AI raise fundamental questions of accountability, liability and remuneration, which need to be addressed before irreversible harm occurs," the letter seen by Reuters said.
The European Commission, which last year proposed AI rules, will in the coming months thrash out the final details with EU lawmakers and member states before the rules become legislation.
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