Startup Digest: Twitter drags govt to court; Ola may lay off 400-500 staff: Report & EU eyes $47 billion in private capital to fund deep-tech startups

Here are the top headlines from the startup space.

On the receiving end of the government's ire for failing to act as per content takedown orders, Twitter has decided to respond by moving the judiciary.

Twitter filed a plea before the Karnataka High Court, challenging the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's (MEITY) orders for suspending tweets and accounts.

In a strongly-worded notice to Twitter on June 27, MEITY had red flagged repeated cases of the company's alleged lack of action on takedown orders.

As per the notice, the government had warned Twitter that failure to act on takedown orders by July 4, would put the social media company at risk of losing protection under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.

Aggrieved by the government's orders and notice, Twitter has argued in its plea that the government's use of power to issue takedown orders is excessive and disproportionate.

As per Twitter, MEITY is authorised to issue directions for suspending accounts and tweets under Section 69A. But, the plea in HC argues that this power can be used only in cases involving national security, public order and incitement to offences. Twitter has submitted that several suspension orders by the government had no relation to national security, public order or incitement to an offence.

Twitter has also submitted that the IT Rules provide for a review of takedown orders. The plea argues that the government has tried to enforce suspension orders even while the review is pending, making the orders procedurally deficient.

Mobility giant Ola may lay off 400-500 employees, amid a delay in listing plans and a tough funding environment, sources told Moneycontrol.

"Key managers were asked to draw up a list of people from their respective teams last week who can be let go," the source said. The report further added that Ola has also hit the brakes on investments in overseas markets where it is present, such as the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

When CNBC-TV18 reached out to the company, Ola did not comment on these layoffs or the number of people who would be impacted, however it said, “Our core continues to be the broader mobility industry, be it ride hailing, auto retail, financial services or electric vehicles.”

Signalling cost-cutting ahead, the firm added, "Today our riding hailing business is delivering its highest ever GMV month on month. As we continue to grow, we will look at leaner and consolidated teams and capabilities and scale in a manner that keeps our strong profitability intact.”

After market automotive service and maintenance platform GoMechanic said it plans to issue shares worth Rs 30 crore to its service partners under an incentive plan.

''The company has proposed to issue stocks worth Rs 30 crore as a reward for its vast network of service partners. The stock options will have a 4-year vesting duration with yearly vesting at 25 percent and a cliff period of one year,'' GoMechanic said in a statement.

Announcing the launch of a 'partners incentive plan' for its services partners, workshops, retailers, distributors and consultants across India, GoMechanic said it also aims to train over 5,000 mechanics in more than 1,500 workshops across the country in partnership with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

In addition, the training will aim to create high-calibre job opportunities and adapt itself to the OEM industry standards, it added.

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has barred hotels and restaurants from levying service charge on customers and issued guidelines in this regard to prevent unfair trade practices and protect the interest of the consumers.

As per CCPA's guidelines, no restaurant or hotel shall add service charge automatically or by default in the bill, service charge shall not be collected from consumers by any other name and no restaurant or hotel shall force a customer to pay service charge and it shall clearly inform the consumer that the same is voluntary, optional and at the consumer's discretion.

The guidelines added that no restriction on entry or provision of services based on collection of service charge shall be imposed on consumers. Service charge shall not be collected by adding it along with the food bill and levying GST on the total amount, CCPA said.

The CCPA, which was established under the Consumer Protection Act 2019, issued the guidelines after taking note of many grievances registered on the NCH regarding restaurants and hotels levying service charge on consumers.

Fintech company BharatPe has hit $18.5 billion in annualised Total payment volume (TPV) in the first quarter of this fiscal. This is a growth of over 50 percent compared to the last quarter of FY22, the company said.

The firm has also announced that it closed one of the highest growth quarters as it facilitated over Rs 3,600 crore in loans, recording a growth of 112 percent over the last quarter. BharatPe has facilitated disbursals to over 1.2 lakh merchants in the first quarter of FY23, up from 66,000 merchants in the last quarter of FY22.

“Post a successful FY22 that we closed with a 3x growth in merchant loans, 2.5x growth in payments and a 4x jump in revenue, BharatPe has recorded its best ever quarter in Q1, FY23,” said Suhail Sameer, CEO, BharatPe.

The fintech giant further added that it is on track to achieve the target of $2 billion in loans facilitated through its NBFC/ bank partners across both consumer and merchant business by the end of FY23 as well as scaling TPV to $30 billion by March 2023.

Relevel, an Unacademy group company and platform for jobs and skill development, said it has delivered over 300 job offers in June.

The company claims to have onboarded over 800 partner firms of which 600+ have been onboarded in the last four months. Some of these organisations include CRED, MoEngage, Practically, oneCode, Cultfit, MyGlamm, HT Media, among others.

These companies will be hiring applicants for various roles based on their performance in the Relevel Test, a statement said. Relevel also announced that it has so far delivered employment offers worth more than Rs 50 crore in annual CTC, out of which 18 crore were delivered in June. The majority of its users come from tier-II and tier-III cities.

MyShubhLife, a digital lending and full-stack financial service platform, has announced that it aims to disburse Rs 550 crore worth of loans amid signs of economic recovery and pent-up demand among the salaried professionals, gig workers and small merchants.

The startup aims to reach a disbursal target of over Rs 250 crore by this financial year and Rs 550 crore in the next.

With a 20 percent month-on-month growth rate, the company said it has been disbursing loans worth over Rs 20 crores in a month and growing exponentially.

Agritech startup Gramophone has announced its plans to expand its offline retail network to 10,000 stores across the country by the end of September this year. The company already has 5000 stores up and running across key geographies.

“We’re doubling the number of our stores in this fiscal year, which, in turn, also expands the size of our online network. Since the first 5000 stores helped our monthly business grow at the rate of 100 percent MOM within a month, we confidently anticipate the additional stores will help us achieve 5X growth and grow our overall GMV to Rs 1000 crore in FY23,” said Tauseef Khan, co-founder and CEO of Gramophone.

In October 2021, the company had raised $10 million from investors led by Z3 Partners, along with participation from existing investors and family offices.

Agritech company Samunnati has entered into a co-lending partnership aimed at the Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) space with State Bank of India. The initial programme amount is Rs 100 crore.

This partnership will enable Samunnati to scale its outreach to FPOs with customized financial solutions at affordable interest rates, leveraging the vast resources available with SBI, a statement said.

SBI and Samunnati has also entered into a non-financial MOU to develop the FPO Sector, to mainstream FPO as an asset class and increase awareness of this class of farmer-owned institutions in the Banking sector, it added.

Digital services provider Instamojo has launched Smart Pages, a landing page creator to help build and grow brands online.

A landing page is a one-page website that allows the customers or clients to view and book the services. The product will benefit service-based businesses, freelancers, coaches/trainers, donation drives, and crowdfunding initiatives, the firm said in a statement.

“We look forward to supporting the expansion of independent businesses and entrepreneurs online in India with newer enhancements and products that enable full stack facilitation for DTCs,” said Sampad Swain, CEO & Co-founder, Instamojo.

Early-stage backer 100X.VC has appointed Utpal Doshi as partner to oversee the investment firm’s corporate venture capital practices.

Utpal, a seasoned tax and finance professional, with an experience of over 20 years, will bring to the table his expertise of working closely with startups as an angel investor for international and domestic corporate clients, a statement said.

Through Corporate Venture Capital services, 100X plans to unlock strategic, financial and technological ROI through access to credible deal flow with the long-term objectives of the corporates.

With Utpal’s appointment, 100X.VC now has six partners: Sanjay Mehta, Ninad Karpe, Yagnesh Sanghrajka, Shashank Randev, and Vatsal Kanakiya.

India’s hiring activity has shown an upward growth trajectory, with the latest Naukri JobSpeak Index observing a 22 percent year-on-year growth in June 2022 v/s June 2021.

The demand in metros and non-metros especially showed an optimistic upward trend. Amongst metros, Mumbai continued to lead the race in three consecutive months at 43 percent y-o-y growth. Other metros such as Kolkata (29 percent), Delhi (29 percent), Chennai (21 percent), Bengaluru (17 percent), Pune (15 percent), and Hyderabad (11 percent) continue to show positive growth in June 2022 as against last year.

The demand for entry-level talent continued to record the highest yearly growth (30 percent) in June 2022. Additionally, growing hiring sentiment was observed for other experience brackets such as 4–7 years (19 percent), 8–12 years (17 percent), 13–16 years (21 percent), and over 16 years (17 percent) in June 2022 v/s June 2021.

Growth in hiring for freshers was led by various sectors including Travel & Hospitality (158 percent), Retail (109 percent), Insurance (101 percent), Accounting Finance (95 percent), BFSI (88 percent), and Education (70 percent).

Around 81.4 percent of students said that they feel safe about returning to schools, while 67 percent expressed excitement on returning to class, despite the spike in Covid-19 cases, according to a survey by Brainly.

The report further showed that around 56.4 percent were happy about the possibility of meeting their friends and teachers. The survey was conducted on middle and high school students to understand the generic sentiment of Indian students.

Furthermore, 27.1 percent of students choose mathematics as their most favorite subject while 39.3 percent attributed it to be the most challenging. English emerged as the second most loved subject garnering 26.7 percent votes followed by science that stood at 24.3 percent, the survey suggested.

Reflecting on the growing adoption of technology in learning, 73.6 percent of students polled confirmed that they use online platforms for homework and 30.5 percent said that they use gadgets regularly, the survey noted.

The European Commission is planning measures to attract 45 billion euros ($47 billion) in private funding for "deep-tech" startups, those based on significant scientific or engineering advances, an EU policy document seen by Reuters showed.

A new Listings Act planned for later this year will also cut the cost of stock market flotations for the firms, the document, A New European Innovation Agenda, added.

The proposals aim to help the 27-country bloc catch up with the United States, Japan and South Korea in cutting-edge technology, venture capital funding and innovative patents.

"Approximately 45 billion euros of funding for scale-ups could be mobilised by 2025 from untapped sources of private capital, and the cost of listing on public markets could also be reduced," the document said.

EU lawmakers gave the thumbs up to landmark rules to rein in the power of tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft, but enforcing them could be an issue due to regulators' limited resources.

As per a Reuters report, in addition to the rules known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), lawmakers also approved the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires online platforms to do more to police the internet for illegal content.

Companies face fines of up to 10 percent of annual global turnover for DMA violations and 6 percent for DSA breaches. Lawmakers and EU states had reached a political deal on both sets of rules earlier this year, leaving some details to be ironed out.

Uber is launching its ride-hailing and platform in Israel by connecting to a nationwide network of licensed taxis, as it continues to expand globally, Reuters reported.

Thousands of taxi drivers — both independent and working for companies —have already joined up, with the service that also includes ride sharing mainly available to passengers in Israel's two largest cities, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, it said.

Uber, which operates in more than 70 countries and 10,000 cities globally, will compete locally with services such as Gett and Yango.

Cryptocurrency lender Nexo plans to buy fellow lender Vauld, in the latest sign of consolidation in the digital currency industry as prices tumble, Reuters reported.

Nexo, which is based in London, said it would buy up to 100 percent of Vauld and "reorganize its future operations with the aim to accelerate its deeper presence in Asia." It did not say when the deal would close.

Singapore-based Vauld said that it had suspended withdrawals for its more than 800,000 customers.

The former head of short video giant TikTok's gaming unit, Jason Fung, is launching a blockchain gaming startup as one of two co-founders, he told Reuters in an interview, as the buzz around blockchain games grows while sector heavyweights remain wary.

The 34-year-old left TikTok last month after two years with the firm, and his exit comes as TikTok and its Chinese owner ByteDance have been aggressively expanding into the $300-billion-dollar global gaming market to take on rival Tencent, an effort that has yielded mixed results so far.

Fung, whose new venture is called Meta0, said he left TikTok after seeing an opportunity to offer a solution to the current segregated nature of infrastructure options available to developers looking to build blockchain games.

A French Member of the European Parliament (MEP) urged France's market regulator to review its decision to register the Binance cryptocurrency exchange, citing a recent Reuters investigation into money laundering on the platform.

In a June 13 letter, Aurore Lalucq, also a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, asked the AMF regulator to justify its "incomprehensible" decision to register a Binance unit as a digital assets service provider.

As a basis for her concerns, Lalucq cited a statement from Britain's financial regulator last year which said Binance was "not capable of being effectively supervised", and the Reuters report, published in June, which found Binance served as a conduit for the laundering of at least $2.35 billion in illicit funds.

Binance said at the time it did not consider Reuters' calculation to be accurate and it was building "the most sophisticated cyber forensics team on the planet".

Tesla will need to rethink its production plans to protect its profits, Wall Street analysts said, after the world's largest electric-car maker reported a fall in quarterly deliveries for the first time in two years.

The company, helmed by the world's richest person Elon Musk, said on Saturday it delivered 254,695 vehicles in the second quarter, down about 18 percent from the first quarter. Tesla produced 258,580 vehicles in the April-June period.

Beijing's zero-COVID policy hit production at Tesla's largest factory in Shanghai. That, coupled with supply chain snarls at its newer facilities in Texas and Germany, as well as a spike in costs for battery metals led the run-up to a gloomy quarter.