Also in this letter:
■ Flipkart’s fashion director to join Angel One
■ AI to boost efficiency in oil and gas companies
■ Hindustan Composites invests in Swiggy
Zerodha’s Rainmatter invests in Boson Whitewater and TruNativ
Dinesh Pai, director of Rainmatter
Early-stage investor backed by Zerodha Rainmatter Capital has invested in several startups In the last two months, around Rs 30 crore has been pumped into sectors such as fintech, healthtech and climatetech.
Driving the news: Rainmatter Capital has led a seed funding round in TruNativ and Boson Whitewater, investing Rs 10 crore in each startup. While TruNativ has raised Rs 25 crore as part of this round led by Rainmatter Capital, Boson Whitewater raised funding only from Rainmatter. Boson Whitewater was a new investment for Rainmatter, while Trunativ was a follow-on round.
Tell me more: Rainmatter Capital is committed to 1,000 crore from Zerodha founder Nithin KamathIn the last two months, early-stage startups such as Devil’s Circuit, GalaxEye, GreenWorms and Actlogica have received funding from Rainmatter. Between 2016 and now, the fund has invested around Rs 650 crore in startups.
IT companies shy away from outsourcers to focus on margins
The leader of India IT companies have reduced their outsourcing costs —or spending on high-cost temporary labor—to multi-year lows, driven by an increased focus on improving its margins.
What’s happening: Over the past 12-18 months, as growth in the $250 billion software services industry has slowed, major players such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra have been cutting back on low-margin outsourcing, which involves employing temporary workers at high costs.
Instead, they are focusing on upskilling existing employees, improving billable utilization and leveraging generative AI (GenAI) to meet the demands of increasingly complex projects, industry analysts said.
Cost Metrics: In FY24, outsourcing costs were at their lowest levels in years — TCS at 6.20 per cent of its revenue (lowest since FY16), Infosys at 7.70 per cent (lowest since FY21), Wipro at 11.50 per cent (lowest since FY16) and Tech Mahindra at 12.60 per cent (lowest since FY19), according to company data.
The data shows: The quarterly data shows that TCS and HCLTech progressively reduced their outsourcing expenses to 4.0 per cent and 12.1 per cent of their revenue, respectively, in the April-June period, from 6.8 per cent and 13.1 per cent in July-September 2023. Infosys and Wipro saw a minor pick-up in the June quarter, at 8.1 per cent and 11.3 per cent, respectively, from 7.8 per cent and 10.9 per cent, respectively, in the March quarter.
Flipkart’s Arief Mohamad to join Angel One as Chief Business Officer
Head of Fashion at Flipkart Arief Mohamad will join Angel One as its new commercial director, two people familiar with the matter told us.
Mohammad is leaving Flipkart, we reported on August 2, with his position being taken over by Myntra CEO Nandita Sinha.
Driving the news: Mumbai-based brokerage Angel One has been on a technology transformation journey for the past few years. Interestingly, it has preferred to hire tech talent at the CXO level rather than relying on core financial professionals. Mohamad, who was with Flipkart for nearly a decade, will replace Prateek Mehta, who quit in April this year.
Overview: Angel One has been unable to retain its top talents and has suffered from continuous turnover. It had hired former Uber and Google executive Narayan Gangadhar to be CEO in 2021but resigned last year. Even Mehta, who co-founded wealth tech startup Scripbox, left the company in April after joining in 2022.
Hierarchical order: With close to seven million active clients, Angel One is currently the third-largest stockbroker after Groww and Zerodha. It closed FY24 with a net profit of Rs 1,125 crore and total revenue of Rs 4,279 crore.
Other featured stories from our reporters
Oil and gas companies are searching for gold in artificial intelligence: Traditionally considered an engineering-focused industry, the The oil and gas sector is increasingly adopting AI and generative AI (GenAI) to optimize operations and drive efficiency through real-time data and insights.
Hindustan Composites invests Rs 5.2 crore in Swiggy: Auto materials maker Hindustan Composites Ltd said it has Invested Rs 5.17 crore in publicly listed SwiggyThe company has purchased 1.5 lakh shares of Swiggy in the transaction, it added in an exchange filing.
India to have 150 fintech unicorns with combined valuation of $500 billion by 2030: Report India is projected to have 150 fintech unicorns with a combined valuation of $500 billion by 2030with segments such as payments, lending, insurtech, wealthtech and neobanking poised for multiple growth, according to a report by investment banking firm JM Financial and venture capital firm Beams Fintech Fund.
Global Picks We’re Reading
■ Elon Musk is an unguided geopolitical missile (FOOT)
■ The impact of AI on elections is being exaggerated (MIT Technology Review)
■ The US Navy is betting everything on Starlink (With cable)
Disclaimer
The information contained in this post is for general information purposes only. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the post for any purpose.
We respect the intellectual property rights of content creators. If you are the owner of any material featured on our website and have concerns about its use, please contact us. We are committed to addressing any copyright issues promptly and will remove any material within 2 days of receiving a request from the rightful owner.