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This and more in today’s edition of ETtech Top 5.
Also in this letter:
■ Google India fires 453 employees
■ Elon Musk shuts two Twitter India offices
■ Neal Mohan newest name in list of Indian-origin execs leading tech firms
Market share of Nykaa, Zomato may grow amid funding winter: Bernstein
A challenging funding environment for Indian Internet companies, which may continue for the rest of the year at least, may lead to market share gains for segment leaders, including Nykaa and Zomato, according to private wealth management firm Bernstein.
Advantage Zomato: After the funding crunch hit India’s new economy ecosystem, companies, including Swiggy, have undertaken cost-cutting measures. It is now weighing on their business growth. In a research note, Bernstein said Swiggy has been losing market share to Zomato over time in the food delivery market. The funding slowdown, it said, could further strengthen Zomato’s position.
Numbers say it all: For the six months through June 2022, Zomato had a market share of 55.7%, an increase from 53% in a year, even as Swiggy’s market share reduced to 44.3% from 47% in the same period.
Funding winter: In 2022, funding in Indian startups dropped by almost 75% over 2021. The trend continued into 2023 with a 70% fall in funding for Indian startups in January, at $1.38 billion, as per Tracxn data.
Google India fires 453 employees, Pichai writes to laid-off staff
Google has sacked 453 employees from various departments in India on Thursday. Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google, in an email to the affected employees said that he takes “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.”
According to a report by The Hindu BusinessLine, the mail was sent to the affected employees by Sanjay Gupta, country head and vice president of Google India.
Rigorous Review: Pichai in his mail said the company had undertaken a “rigorous review across product areas and functions” to ensure that people and roles are aligned with the company’s highest priorities. “The roles we’re eliminating reflect the outcome of that review. They cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions,” he added.
Tech layoffs: Last month, Microsoft announced it was slashing 10,000 jobs or nearly 5% of its workforce. Amazon is also planning to cut 18,000 jobs. Meanwhile, Facebook parent Meta has said it would fire 11,000 employees globally.
Also read: Layoffs in 2023: LinkedIn, Twilio among latest firms to cut jobs amid economic downturn
Elon Musk shuts Twitter offices in Delhi, Mumbai, asks staff to work from home
Twitter has shut two of its three India offices and told staff to work from home, underscoring Elon Musk’s mission to slash costs and get the struggling micro-blogging site in the black.
Delhi, Mumbai offices shut: Twitter, which fired more than 90% of its roughly 200-plus staff in India late last year, closed its offices in New Delhi and Mumbai, people aware of the matter said. The company continues to operate an office in Bengaluru that mostly houses engineers, they added.
Reason: Musk has fired staff and shut offices around the world as part of an effort to get Twitter financially stable by late 2023.
Is India less important? India is regarded as a key growth market for US tech giants, from Meta Platforms to Alphabet’s Google, which are making long-term bets on the world’s fastest-growing internet arena. Musk’s latest move suggests he’s attaching less importance to this market for now.
Tweet of the day
Neal Mohan joins Pichai, Nadella on long list of Indian-origin executives leading tech firms
Online video-sharing platform YouTube has joined the growing list of technology companies that have appointed an Indian-origin Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to lead the business successfully.
Susan Wojcicki resigns: One of the first Google employees, Susan Wojcicki, stepped down as the CEO of YouTube, making way for the company’s chief product officer Neal Mohan to take over. Mohan, an Indian-American executive at YouTube and a close aide of Wojcicki for 15 years was chosen as her successor.
Who is Neal Mohan? Neal Mohan has been serving as the chief product officer for YouTube since 2015. Prior to this, Mohan had worked at the online search giant Google, which he had joined in 2008.
Other Indian-origin execs at the helm: Sundar Pichai, Alphabet; Thomas Kurian, Google Cloud; Satya Nadella, Microsoft; Ravi Kumar S, Cognizant; Amrapali Gan, OnlyFans.
ETtech Deals Digest: A tepid week for startups as funding nosedives 72% YoY
Total funding in Indian startups continues to remain tepid amid the ongoing funding winter. During the week of February 11-17, venture funding in local startups saw a slight decline even as PhonePe and InsuranceDekho emerged as exceptions to the broader trend.
Indian startups raised $304 million, including venture debt, during the week under review, spread across 21 rounds. This is an over 10% decline compared to the previous week but a significant 72% drop against the same week last year. Indian startups raised $1.09 billion across 66 deals, in the same period last year, according to data provided by market intelligence platform Tracxn.
InsuranceDekho’s $150-million funding was the biggest during the week under review. The second major funding was of PhonePe which raised another $100 million as part of its ongoing round from fintech-backer Ribbit Capital, TVS Capital Funds (TCF) and New York-based investment firm Tiger Global at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion.
Here is a list of startups that received funds this week:
Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Megha Mishra in Mumbai and Erick Massey in New Delhi. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.
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