Hello,

In today's newsletter, we will talk about:

1. Exploring different cuisines
2. Samir Kumar’s mandate at Amazon India
3. Women need to embrace risks: Rohini Srivathsa
4. Quick commerce changes festive spending
5. Peak XV cuts largest fund by 16%

Here’s your trivia for today: What year did Jimmy Carter become President of the United States?

Startups

Exploring different cuisinesMany of us struggle to choose while ordering food online. The sheer variety of food and the number of restaurants overwhelm us so much that we end up ordering the same old dish from the same old restaurant. 

This is what HOGR wants to change. The Bengaluru-based food discovery platform wants people to approach food with curiosity and explore cuisines with confidence. 

Key takeaways:

1. The startup helps people discover restaurants their friends have been to and connect with people with similar culinary interests. It also helps restaurant owners understand customer preferences and target a captive audience on the app. 
2. HOGR has partnered with over 250 restaurants in Bengaluru, Kochi and Chennai and collated food and restaurant recommendations from users across the country. 
3. Users of HOGR can log in to the app and sync up contacts on their phones to find friends and family. They can also search for food bloggers, influencers and fellow foodies and follow them for their recommendations and reviews.

Know More

From the CapTable

New leadership, old challenges: Samir Kumar’s mandate at Amazon India

On September 30, Manish Tiwary served his last day as head of Amazon India. His departure, which was announced in early August, was like a bolt from the blue and comes at a delicate time for the e-commerce behemoth. Amazon, which has gone toe-to-toe with local rival Flipkart for e-commerce supremacy over the past decade, finds itself on the back foot in India.

For one, it has had to contend with an overall slowdown in the traditional e-commerce space since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. Agile and hungry quick-commerce players, including Zomato-owned Blinkit, Swiggy’s Instamart, and Zepto, are also chipping away at its e-commerce empire.

Amazon India isn’t just coming under pressure from plucky domestic rivals, either. Having poured billions of dollars into growing its Indian e-commerce business, Amazon’s global leadership wants to see its Indian operation move towards profitability, something it is still a long way from achieving.

With Tiwari’s exit, the onus of Amazon India’s fight back now falls on Samir Kumar, who takes on the role of India country manager starting today, October 1.

Key takeaways:

1. On October 1, Samir Kumar takes over as the head of Amazon India—one of the most challenging roles in Indian e-commerce
2. He takes charge at a time when Amazon has ceded ground to rivals of all shapes and sizes, including quick-commerce players
3. Kumar must oversee a fightback, which will include a quick-commerce-like offering, which the company is set to pilot imminently, The CapTable has learned
4. At the same time, Kumar must steer the company towards profitability, with the e-commerce major setting an internal target of 2025 for this

Continue Reading

TechSparks

Women need to embrace risks: Rohini SrivathsaRohini Srivathsa’s talk at TechSparks 2024 was more of a conversation with the audience and touched upon pertinent topics like women’s participation in the workforce, work from home for both genders and more.

The Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft India & South Asia, Srivathsa is a leader in the tech industry. At Microsoft, she is responsible for driving tech innovation and growth across industry and the government.

Equality:

1. India’s female participation in the workforce stands at an abysmal 37%. “This means out of 100 women who are eligible to be in the workforce, only 37 are. The number is among the lowest in the world, and you will be amazed at the countries that are above India on the list. It’s not something to be proud of,” she said.
2. Srivathsa believes change is imperative because studies (from the UN, World Economic Forum, McKinsey, Harvard and others) have shown that when women participate in the workforce, economies grow more equitably. 
3. “There is better education, better care and sustainability. If India wants to achieve its goal of a Viksit Bharat by 2047, we need to get our act together,” she said.

Read More

Quick commerce

Quick commerce changes festive spendingQuick commerce is projected to generate $1 billion in GMV during the festival season, as consumers increasingly shift from traditional offline shopping to faster, on-demand channels, according to a research note by BofA Global Research which cited a survey done by Datum Intelligence.

“With increased dark stores, wider assortment, and improving popularity we expect the festive season growth to be strong for these companies (quick commerce) leading to a stronger y-o-y growth (hardly any sales last year),” the report said. 

Key takeaways:

• Depending on inventory access and model availability, smartphones could become a growing category in the quick commerce space, the note said.
• Grocery and beauty and personal care are expected to witness much faster growth compared to other categories, driven by quick commerce players.
• While bigger players like Flipkart, Amazon, Reliance and BigBasket are looking to enter the quick commerce space, experts are unsure how they will gain traction as a wider assortment may not be a competitive advantage.

Know More

Investor

Peak XV cuts largest fund by 16%Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India) has cut the size of its largest fund by 16% as growth-stage funding to the startup ecosystem slowed down significantly over the past two years. Peak XV had earmarked nearly $2 billion for Indian companies from the fund—the largest fund dedicated by a VC for Indian startups.

Key takeaways:

1. The VC firm, which raised $2.85 billion for its eighth fund in May 2022, will return about $465 million to its LPs, people aware of the matter told YourStory. 
2. Peak XV will also cut the management fee it charges its LPs to 2% from 2.5% for the fund. Most VCs charge about 2% fees of the total size of the fund.
3. The firm's decision to reduce the fund size reflects the challenges in capital deployment over the past 24 months, especially for growth and late-stage ventures, and the increasing compliance and governance issues faced by startups in India.

Know More

News & Updates

1. Video search: Google has started rolling out a new video search feature, allowing users to find video content based on clips they capture. Users can now fire up Google Lens and record a short video of something that you want to know more about. 
2. Fall: X, which no longer trades publicly, is worth almost 80% less than two years ago when Elon Musk bought it, according to estimates from investment giant Fidelity. Analysts say Fidelity’s plunging price tag for X likely reflects shrinking ad revenue at the company.
3. Collab: Meta said it was expanding its Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE) to enable UK banks to directly share information with the social media giant to help it detect and take down scamming accounts and coordinated fraud schemes.

Did you know?

What year did Jimmy Carter become President of the United States?

Answer: 1977. He was the 39th President of the United States.

We would love to hear from you! To let us know what you liked and disliked about our newsletter, please mail nslfeedback@yourstory.com. 

If you don’t already get this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here. For past editions of the YourStory Buzz, you can check our Daily Capsule page here.

Hello,

In today's newsletter, we will talk about:

1. Exploring different cuisines
2. Samir Kumar’s mandate at Amazon India
3. Women need to embrace risks: Rohini Srivathsa
4. Quick commerce changes festive spending
5. Peak XV cuts largest fund by 16%

Here’s your trivia for today: What year did Jimmy Carter become President of the United States?

Startups

Exploring different cuisinesMany of us struggle to choose while ordering food online. The sheer variety of food and the number of restaurants overwhelm us so much that we end up ordering the same old dish from the same old restaurant. 

This is what HOGR wants to change. The Bengaluru-based food discovery platform wants people to approach food with curiosity and explore cuisines with confidence. 

Key takeaways:

1. The startup helps people discover restaurants their friends have been to and connect with people with similar culinary interests. It also helps restaurant owners understand customer preferences and target a captive audience on the app. 
2. HOGR has partnered with over 250 restaurants in Bengaluru, Kochi and Chennai and collated food and restaurant recommendations from users across the country. 
3. Users of HOGR can log in to the app and sync up contacts on their phones to find friends and family. They can also search for food bloggers, influencers and fellow foodies and follow them for their recommendations and reviews.

Know More

From the CapTable

New leadership, old challenges: Samir Kumar’s mandate at Amazon India

On September 30, Manish Tiwary served his last day as head of Amazon India. His departure, which was announced in early August, was like a bolt from the blue and comes at a delicate time for the e-commerce behemoth. Amazon, which has gone toe-to-toe with local rival Flipkart for e-commerce supremacy over the past decade, finds itself on the back foot in India.

For one, it has had to contend with an overall slowdown in the traditional e-commerce space since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. Agile and hungry quick-commerce players, including Zomato-owned Blinkit, Swiggy’s Instamart, and Zepto, are also chipping away at its e-commerce empire.

Amazon India isn’t just coming under pressure from plucky domestic rivals, either. Having poured billions of dollars into growing its Indian e-commerce business, Amazon’s global leadership wants to see its Indian operation move towards profitability, something it is still a long way from achieving.

With Tiwari’s exit, the onus of Amazon India’s fight back now falls on Samir Kumar, who takes on the role of India country manager starting today, October 1.

Key takeaways:

1. On October 1, Samir Kumar takes over as the head of Amazon India—one of the most challenging roles in Indian e-commerce
2. He takes charge at a time when Amazon has ceded ground to rivals of all shapes and sizes, including quick-commerce players
3. Kumar must oversee a fightback, which will include a quick-commerce-like offering, which the company is set to pilot imminently, The CapTable has learned
4. At the same time, Kumar must steer the company towards profitability, with the e-commerce major setting an internal target of 2025 for this

Continue Reading

TechSparks

Women need to embrace risks: Rohini SrivathsaRohini Srivathsa’s talk at TechSparks 2024 was more of a conversation with the audience and touched upon pertinent topics like women’s participation in the workforce, work from home for both genders and more.

The Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft India & South Asia, Srivathsa is a leader in the tech industry. At Microsoft, she is responsible for driving tech innovation and growth across industry and the government.

Equality:

1. India’s female participation in the workforce stands at an abysmal 37%. “This means out of 100 women who are eligible to be in the workforce, only 37 are. The number is among the lowest in the world, and you will be amazed at the countries that are above India on the list. It’s not something to be proud of,” she said.
2. Srivathsa believes change is imperative because studies (from the UN, World Economic Forum, McKinsey, Harvard and others) have shown that when women participate in the workforce, economies grow more equitably. 
3. “There is better education, better care and sustainability. If India wants to achieve its goal of a Viksit Bharat by 2047, we need to get our act together,” she said.

Read More

Quick commerce

Quick commerce changes festive spendingQuick commerce is projected to generate $1 billion in GMV during the festival season, as consumers increasingly shift from traditional offline shopping to faster, on-demand channels, according to a research note by BofA Global Research which cited a survey done by Datum Intelligence.

“With increased dark stores, wider assortment, and improving popularity we expect the festive season growth to be strong for these companies (quick commerce) leading to a stronger y-o-y growth (hardly any sales last year),” the report said. 

Key takeaways:

• Depending on inventory access and model availability, smartphones could become a growing category in the quick commerce space, the note said.
• Grocery and beauty and personal care are expected to witness much faster growth compared to other categories, driven by quick commerce players.
• While bigger players like Flipkart, Amazon, Reliance and BigBasket are looking to enter the quick commerce space, experts are unsure how they will gain traction as a wider assortment may not be a competitive advantage.

Know More

Investor

Peak XV cuts largest fund by 16%Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India) has cut the size of its largest fund by 16% as growth-stage funding to the startup ecosystem slowed down significantly over the past two years. Peak XV had earmarked nearly $2 billion for Indian companies from the fund—the largest fund dedicated by a VC for Indian startups.

Key takeaways:

1. The VC firm, which raised $2.85 billion for its eighth fund in May 2022, will return about $465 million to its LPs, people aware of the matter told YourStory. 
2. Peak XV will also cut the management fee it charges its LPs to 2% from 2.5% for the fund. Most VCs charge about 2% fees of the total size of the fund.
3. The firm's decision to reduce the fund size reflects the challenges in capital deployment over the past 24 months, especially for growth and late-stage ventures, and the increasing compliance and governance issues faced by startups in India.

Know More

News & Updates

1. Video search: Google has started rolling out a new video search feature, allowing users to find video content based on clips they capture. Users can now fire up Google Lens and record a short video of something that you want to know more about. 
2. Fall: X, which no longer trades publicly, is worth almost 80% less than two years ago when Elon Musk bought it, according to estimates from investment giant Fidelity. Analysts say Fidelity’s plunging price tag for X likely reflects shrinking ad revenue at the company.
3. Collab: Meta said it was expanding its Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE) to enable UK banks to directly share information with the social media giant to help it detect and take down scamming accounts and coordinated fraud schemes.

Did you know?

What year did Jimmy Carter become President of the United States?

Answer: 1977. He was the 39th President of the United States.

We would love to hear from you! To let us know what you liked and disliked about our newsletter, please mail nslfeedback@yourstory.com. 

If you don’t already get this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here. For past editions of the YourStory Buzz, you can check our Daily Capsule page here.