Startup Digest: Nadella says Microsoft wants to be India's AI co-pilot, NCLT issues notice to Byju's, & Ant's quarterly profit falls 92%

Satya Nadella, who has completed 10 years as the Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, believes that an economy powered by artificial intelligence (AI) can drive growth by four times.

“If the Indian economy is going to be $5 trillion, the AI-driven part of it could be something like 10% of it, maybe $500 billion of it,” Nadella told CNBC-TV18.

Microsoft CEO believes AI is tangibly changing economic productivity, whether it's for software development, frontline work in retail and healthcare, or its access to citizens. He said he has not seen a general purpose technology like this that can have this kind of a broad impact.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has served a notice to Byju's, the Indian edtech giant, following an insolvency plea filed by France-based Teleperformance Business Services. The plea alleges that Byju's is indebted to the tune of ₹4 crore to the outsourcing firm.

The NCLT has granted Byju's a two-week window to respond to the insolvency claims, scheduling the case for a hearing on March 11. This notice comes as part of a broader legal process, with the NCLT having issued notices for all insolvency pleas against Byju's.

Teleperformance Business Services contends that it provided essential business process outsourcing services to Byju's, claiming that the edtech company has outstanding dues exceeding ₹4 crores.

Online gaming companies may get a breather as the Union government is likely to soften its stance on the retro goods and services tax (GST) demand notices, sources told CNBC-TV18.

Sources say the government realises the existential issue that gaming companies face if they have to pay GST demands raised for the period between July 2017 to March 2023.

The government now sees merit in the argument that a company cannot pay unrealistic tax demands. It is likely to have sought legal opinion on the way out of tussle with online gaming firms, sources added.

Nasdaq-listed SaaS platform Freshworks reported its first full-year operating profit at $44.5 million, its first since IPO in the US markets.

The firm also reported total revenues of $160 million for Q124, up 20% compared to same period in the previous financial year.

Freshworks reported a 19 percent year-on-year jump in its consolidated revenue of $153.6 million during the third & previous quarter of 2023. Net loss for the fourth quarter stood at $28 million, down from $55.4 million for the same period in 2022.

Business services provider Quess Corp has agreed to divest its wholly-owned subsidiary Qdigi Services to device-care provider Onsitego for Rs 80 crore.

As part of the transaction, the entire team and business of Qdigi will be transferred to Onsitego and the transaction is expected to be completed over the next 2-3 months, Quess Corp said in a statement.

Quess will receive total cash consideration of Rs 80 crore, subject to customary closing adjustments, and will acquire a minority stake in Onsitego.

Metafin, a cleantech-focused NBFC, has raised $5 million in equity funding led by Prime Venture Partners and Varanium Capital.

Currently specializing in rooftop solar loans for semi-urban and rural MSMEs, Metafin is solving the gap of providing affordable power to over 5 million rural businesses. The firm said it has enabled almost 1,000 installations in UP & Bihar (14+ MWs) of which 90% are off-grid, replacing diesel directly. These installations have helped avoid 147 million Kgs of CO2 to date, it added.

Metafin plans to utilize funds to expand across states, grow its loan book, enhance its technology and IoT stack, and hire key talent.

Cashinvoice, a supply chain finance platform, has raised $3.4 million as a part of its strategic Series A round from Pravega Ventures, HDFC Bank and existing investor Accion Venture Lab.

The fresh funds will be used to strengthen the existing business and facilitate the launch of new products across the supply chain finance (SCF) ecosystem, the firm said in a statement.

Cashinvoice claims to have achieved breakeven by facilitating disbursement of over 15 lakh invoices since September 2019, totalling more than Rs 15,000 Crore and is targeting $2.4 billion loan disbursals to MSMEs by FY25.

Smartphone renewal startup ControlZ, has raised $3 million in its seed funding, co-led by 9 Unicorn and Venture Catalysts in a combination of debt and equity.

The company said it will use the funds to further fortify its automation excellence while benchmarking towards advanced testing labs on par with OEMs to ensure just like new smartphones in the pre-owned category.

“With these resources, we aim to further strengthen our technology by automating the complete renewal process. Our efforts are towards increasing the lifecycle of as many devices possible because if a fraction of the resources used in making new phones were used in renewing, the world would be a better place,” said Yug Bhatia, Founder and CEO of ControlZ.

Advance Mobility, a start-up in the ridesharing mobility space has bagged $2 million in seed funding round led by Finvolve, along with participation from India Accelerator.

The startup is solving the problems of the entire value chain — from market players and customers to drivers, revolutionising the space of fleet operations

The company currently operating with a fleet of 425 CNG cars in Mumbai and Pune, will use the funds to expand to other cities.

Piscium, a nanotech startup specializing in medical devices, has raised Rs 6 crore in a Series A funding round led by Unicorn India Ventures.

The funds will be used to strengthen the sales and marketing team, build the brand, scale up production and operations, and launch international business, the firm said.

With its R&D in medical sciences, Piscium is creating a platform for reaching out to the largest patient pool for dentistry by manufacturing various dental products like Alpha Nano Diamond Burs, Epsilon Burs, Alginates and many more. Piscium’s portfolio consists of over 10 product categories.

Plant-based home care brand Koparo has raised Rs 5.2 crore from 4P Capital Partners in addition to Rs 70 lakh from Shark Tank India.

Aman Gupta, co-founder, boAt and Vineeta Singh, co-founder, Sugar have come onboard as investors in the Company.

The brand, which has raised the money at the valuation at Rs 70 crore, is planning to invest the funds in brand building and distribution.

Fintech firms Juspay and Decentro and software-as-a-service company Zoho have received the final authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as payment aggregators.

With this, the three players join the likes of Stripe, Zomato and Tata Pay who were a part of the regulator's approval list in January, besides fintech majors like Razorpay and Cashfree who secured the licence last year.

Instamojo, Paytm Payments Services, Freecharge were among many players whose applications were returned as they failed to fulfil the eligibility criteria and were directed to halt new merchant onboarding.

Amazon Web Services has announced the ‘AWS Space Accelerator: India’, a technical, business, and mentorship opportunity designed to foster startups focused on space technology.

The program aims to accelerate their development with support from, T-Hub, and Minfy.

This is AWS’s first accelerator program in India focused on startups in the space sector, and follows the MoU it signed with ISRO and IN-SPACe in September last year.

Fintech firm MobiKwik has made appointments to its leadership team to drive growth of its payment business. The firm has elevated Mohit Narain to the role of Chief Operating Officer - Consumer Payments.

Additionally, Harvinder Singh Chadha has joined Zaakpay, wholly owned subsidiary of MobiKwik, as Vice President to lead the payment gateway business.

The move comes at a time when Paytm has been under fire for gaps in compliance and governance.

Urban Company, an on-demand home services firm, has introduced a comprehensive policy against gender-based violence for its fleet of service professionals. This policy, released under the aegis of Project Nidar, will help the company’s active service professionals who are currently facing or have faced domestic violence and abuse by creating awareness and supporting them during challenging times, a statement said.

Under Project Nidar, Urban Company has partnered with the Invisible Scars Foundation, an NGO supporting survivors of gender-based violence, to spread awareness about domestic abuse and to implement this initiative. The company, with the help of the foundation, will provide counseling, legal assistance and emergency lodging support.

Apart from this, the company will provide medical support, beyond the already existing Rs 1 lakh insurance cover, and financial aid of up to Rs 50,000 to service partners seeking help. This policy is applicable to all active service partners on the Urban Company platform in India.

Agritech startup Ninjacart has forged a strategic partnership with Cairo-based entrepreneurship think tank Entlaq to identify and support promising farm-to-fork agricultural startups in Egypt.

Ninjacart will provide these startups with its advanced tech platform, supply chain management solutions, and specialised advisory services, a statement said. The partnership will focus on enhancing supply chain efficiency through advanced technology and establishing direct connections between farmers and markets in Egypt.

Additionally, it aims to foster financial inclusion throughout the agricultural value chain, expand marketplaces, and reduce waste, the statement added.

China's Ant Group made net profit of 24.5 million yuan ($3.41 million) in the three months to September 31, down 92% from a year earlier, according to Reuters calculations from Alibaba Group report.

The e-commerce giant reports profit from Ant one quarter in arrears.

Chinese authorities last announced a fine of 7.12 billion yuan ($984 million) for Ant Group for violating laws concerning consumer protection and corporate governance, ending a years-long regulatory overhaul of the fintech company. Both groups were co-founded by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma and Alibaba has a 33% stake in Ant.

China's Alibaba Group missed analysts' estimates for third-quarter revenue, hurt by softness in the retail market and sagging economic recovery in the world's second-largest.

Alibaba announced the split of its business into six units last March in a transition overseen by CEO Eddie Wu and Chairman Joe Tsai, both Alibaba co-founders.

The company reported revenue of 260.35 billion yuan ($36.19 billion) for the three months ended December 31, compared with 262.28 billion yuan expected by 19 analysts polled by LSEG.

Snap slumped more than 31% after fourth-quarter revenue missed Wall Street expectations, with the company struggling to compete for advertising dollars against heavyweights such as Meta and Alphabet.

The Snapchat owner's results are in contrast to strong advertising sales that rivals reported, a sign that advertisers are gravitating towards larger, stable companies amid an uncertain economy.

The company's fourth-quarter revenue came in at $1.36 billion, missing estimates of $1.38 billion, according to LSEG data.

Uber has forecast quarterly core profit and gross bookings above estimates and reported market-beating results for the holiday quarter, fueled by higher demand in its ride sharing and food delivery businesses.

Uber, which posted its first full-year profit on net basis, is expanding initiatives like memberships, corporate travel and advertising. Coupled with a pickup in travel, this is helping the company improve user retention.

The company expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of $1.26 billion to $1.34 billion in the quarter ending March, compared with expectations of $1.26 billion, according to LSEG data.

TikTok owner ByteDance said that Zhang Nan has resigned as the CEO of Douyin Group, the popular short video platform's sister app in China, while assuming a new role to shepherd ByteDance's video editing app.

Zhang, who also uses the English first name Kelly, posted on her personal social media account on WeChat that she was resigning from the position, in a move confirmed by ByteDance.

Zhang said she would be joining the team at Jianying, a video editing app owned by ByteDance, but she did not reveal her position at the unit. She said she would help grow the product in the age of artificial intelligence.