The impacted employees were from tech, sales, customer success, and HR teams, among others, sources told Inc42 The layoffs were part of a cost-cutting exercise as Increff, which provides inventory management and supply chain solutions through its SaaS platform, is looking to turn profitable Increff cofounder Rajul Jain confirmed the layoffs with Inc42 and said the startup is focusing on turning profitable again Binny Bansal-backed SaaS startup Increff laid off around 60 employees, or 20% of its workforce, last week in a cost-cutting exercise, sources told Inc42. The laid off employees were from tech, sales, customer success, and HR teams, among others. The impacted employees were informed about the layoffs in one-on-one meetings with the higher management and asked to resign on the spot, the sources said. Responding to Inc42’s queries on the development, Increff CEO and cofounder Rajul Jain confirmed the layoffs. As per the sources, adverse macroeconomic conditions and failure to meet the targets for onboarding new clients was behind the decision to layoff employees.  “Increff was not meeting the expectations in terms of onboarding new clients that it had projected earlier. Besides this, the startup even saw some existing clients dropping out,” said a person aware of the development.  Another person aware of the developments at the startup said Increff’s expansion plans for the US and Europe didn’t pan out the way it expected despite spending big on marketing in these regions.  Increff’s sales team in the US was among the biggest casualties in the layoff round.  However, Rajul said that the startup is not halting its expansion plans in the US and Europe. “… our sales will be more partner-led rather than direct,” he said.  It must be noted that Increff, when it raised its Series A round led by TVS Capital last year, said it would utilise the capital to strengthen sales and marketing in international geographies, specifically in the US and Europe.  The layoffs come at a time when the startup is in talks to raise a new funding round. However it hasn’t been able to close the round as it is not getting the desired valuation. “The layoffs were a part of the cost-cutting exercise that Increff is doing to achieve profitability at the earliest. Without attaining profitability, the startup won’t get the valuation that it is seeking,” one of the sources said.  However, Rajul said the startup has not yet “gone to the market” for the next round of funding. On profitability, he said, “We touched profitability a couple of years back. We are now focusing on becoming profitable again.” Increff has also cut down its marketing expenses in its quest to turn profitable, as per the sources Founded in 2016 by Rajul, Anshuman Agarwal and Romil Jain, Increff helps fashion brands and retailers optimise inventory and improve sales velocity through its inventory management and supply chain solutions offered via its SaaS platform. Last year, it raised $12 Mn in a Series A round, which saw participation from Premji Invest, Binny Bansal’s 021 Capital, among others. Earlier, in 2017, it raised around $2 Mn from Sequoia Capital (now Peak XV Partners).  Until last year, Increff boasted  of having clients such as Puma, Adidas, Bata, Levi’s, Pepe, Celio, Gap, Benetton, among others. Its revenue from operations rose over 27% year-on-year to INR 44.4 Cr in FY22, while loss dropped over 37.5% to INR 2.8 Cr.  As per Rajul, the startup clocked a revenue of INR 85 Cr in FY23.  With the job cuts, Increff has become the latest Indian startup to join the long list of startups which have laid off employees over the last one year or so amidst the funding winter. According to Inc42’s layoff tracker, Indian startups have laid off over 28,000 employees since last year. 

“If I want to launch a disinformation campaign, I can fail 99 percent of the time. You fail all the time, but it doesn’t matter,” Farid says. “Every once in a while, the QAnon gets through. Most of your campaigns can fail, but the ones that don’t can wreak havoc.” Farid says we saw during the 2016 election cycle how the recommendation algorithms on platforms like Facebook radicalized people and helped spread disinformation and conspiracy theories. In the lead-up to the 2024 US election, Facebook’s algorithm—itself a form of AI—will likely be recommending some AI-generated posts instead of only pushing content created entirely by human actors. We’ve reached the point where AI will be used to create disinformation that another AI then recommends to you. “We’ve been pretty well tricked by very low-quality content. We are entering a period where we’re going to get higher-quality disinformation and propaganda,” Starbird says. “It’s going to be much easier to produce content that’s tailored for specific audiences than it ever was before. I think we’re just going to have to be aware that that’s here now.” What can be done about this problem? Unfortunately, only so much. Diresta says people need to be made aware of these potential threats and be more careful about what content they engage with. She says you’ll want to check whether your source is a website or social media profile that was created very recently, for example. Farid says AI companies also need to be pressured to implement safeguards so there’s less disinformation being created overall. The Biden administration recently struck a deal with some of the largest AI companies—ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta—that encourages them to create specific guardrails for their AI tools, including external testing of AI tools and watermarking of content created by AI. These AI companies have also created a group focused on developing safety standards for AI tools, and Congress is debating how to regulate AI. Despite such efforts, AI is accelerating faster than it’s being reined in, and Silicon Valley often fails to keep promises to only release safe, tested products. And even if some companies behave responsibly, that doesn’t mean all of the players in this space will act accordingly. “This is the classic story of the last 20 years: Unleash technology, invade everybody’s privacy, wreak havoc, become trillion-dollar-valuation companies, and then say, ‘Well, yeah, some bad stuff happened,’” Farid says. “We’re sort of repeating the same mistakes, but now it’s supercharged because we’re releasing this stuff on the back of mobile devices, social media, and a mess that already exists.”

“Making models more resistant to prompt injection and other adversarial ‘jailbreaking’ measures is an area of active research,” says Michael Sellitto, interim head of policy and societal impacts at Anthropic. “We are experimenting with ways to strengthen base model guardrails to make them more ‘harmless,’ while also investigating additional layers of defense.” ChatGPT and its brethren are built atop large language models, enormously large neural network algorithms geared toward using language that has been fed vast amounts of human text, and which predict the characters that should follow a given input string. These algorithms are very good at making such predictions, which makes them adept at generating output that seems to tap into real intelligence and knowledge. But these language models are also prone to fabricating information, repeating social biases, and producing strange responses as answers prove more difficult to predict. Adversarial attacks exploit the way that machine learning picks up on patterns in data to produce aberrant behaviors. Imperceptible changes to images can, for instance, cause image classifiers to misidentify an object, or make speech recognition systems respond to inaudible messages. Developing such an attack typically involves looking at how a model responds to a given input and then tweaking it until a problematic prompt is discovered. In one well-known experiment, from 2018, researchers added stickers to stop signs to bamboozle a computer vision system similar to the ones used in many vehicle safety systems. There are ways to protect machine learning algorithms from such attacks, by giving the models additional training, but these methods do not eliminate the possibility of further attacks. Armando Solar-Lezama, a professor in MIT’s college of computing, says it makes sense that adversarial attacks exist in language models, given that they affect many other machine learning models. But he says it is “extremely surprising” that an attack developed on a generic open source model should work so well on several different proprietary systems. Solar-Lezama says the issue may be that all large language models are trained on similar corpora of text data, much of it downloaded from the same websites. “I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that there’s only so much data out there in the world,” he says. He adds that the main method used to fine-tune models to get them to behave, which involves having human testers provide feedback, may not, in fact, adjust their behavior that much. Solar-Lezama adds that the CMU study highlights the importance of open source models to open study of AI systems and their weaknesses. In May, a powerful language model developed by Meta was leaked, and the model has since been put to many uses by outside researchers. The outputs produced by the CMU researchers are fairly generic and do not seem harmful. But companies are rushing to use large models and chatbots in many ways. Matt Fredrikson, another associate professor at CMU involved with the study, says that a bot capable of taking actions on the web, like booking a flight or communicating with a contact, could perhaps be goaded into doing something harmful in the future with an adversarial attack. To some AI researchers, the attack primarily points to the importance of accepting that language models and chatbots will be misused. “Keeping AI capabilities out of the hands of bad actors is a horse that’s already fled the barn,” says Arvind Narayanan, a computer science professor at Princeton University. Narayanan says he hopes that the CMU work will nudge those who work on AI safety to focus less on trying to “align” models themselves and more on trying to protect systems that are likely to come under attack, such as social networks that are likely to experience a rise in AI-generative disinformation. Solar-Lezama of MIT says the work is also a reminder to those who are giddy with the potential of ChatGPT and similar AI programs. “Any decision that is important should not be made by a [language] model on its own,” he says. “In a way, it’s just common sense.”

It was September 2012 and a rather rare thing happened. Companies are known to issue apologies for mistakes they make, products/features that don’t land as well as they expected. CEOs rarely apologise — unless you go by the name of Mark Zuckerberg and run Facebook — unless calamity strikes. In 2012, that calamity was called Apple Maps, which forced Tim Cook to write an open letter apologising to customers. “We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better,” wrote Cook in the letter. Almost 11 years have passed since that moment and that is equivalent to two or three human lifetimes in the tech world. You know what? Cook was right as Apple has done a lot to make Maps better. Granted, it has taken 11 years but painstakingly and gradually Apple Maps is an app that can actually be mentioned in the same breath as the undisputed king of the navigation jungle — Google Maps. A polished experience Apple Maps looks very different and it is a good thing. Such had been the excess baggage that Apple Maps was burdened with that even hardcore iPhone fans don’t open the Maps app. It’s as if the icon had an “abandon hope, all ye’ enter here” signboard hung outside. But over the years the interface of the Apple Maps has become so much better. It is cleaner, and looks neat and polished compared to Google Maps. The dark mode of Apple Maps also looks much better than Google Maps. And it’s not about the look and feel. There are not too many labels on Apple Maps and the streets look much cleaner. There are fewer visual distractions on Apple Maps and that is a big plus as it shows and does what it’s meant to do. Walks the walkOne of the things that Apple Maps does way better than Google Maps is pedestrian directions. On Google Maps, it just is very random and you get a feeling of Looking London, Walking Tokyo. It is a struggle at times to use Google Maps while walking. On Apple Maps, it is much more intuitive and using it for walking in a foreign city, it’s much easier and not too complicated. There was a time when driving navigation was quite bad on Apple Maps. Not anymore. More and more I find that Apple Maps is more accurate in terms of the time it will take to reach a destination. Plus, it doesn’t have that robotic annoying voice that Google Maps has. The Apple Watch experienceIf you use an Apple Watch, then Apple Maps is a true delight. More so with iOS 17. Google Maps does have an app for the Watch but it’s just not that seamless. Apple will, of course, give its own app a better experience. Once you start using Apple Maps on the Watch, there’s zero need to look at your phone even for a second. The haptic feedback is really good anytime a turn is coming up. Earlier Apple Maps just gave directions on the Watch but with iOS 17, you actually can see the streets and buildings. Room for improvementApple Maps needs to do a few things more for it to become a viable alternative to Google Maps. For instance, the traffic or congestion shown on Apple Maps is not as accurate as Google Maps. It also doesn’t tell you how long the congestion is expected to last. There have been times when Apple Maps showed a smooth, clean drive when I encountered heavy traffic on the route. Also, Apple Maps still remains an iPhone-only app. For Apple Maps to actually work in a country like India, it needs to be made available on Android as well. Google Maps works seamlessly both on Android and iOS. Apple needs to open it up and give an almost same experience on Android for it to catch up. Apple has made Maps much better and it is definitely worth a try if you are an iPhone user. Perceptions are hard to break but the one about Apple Maps being bad is just pure, simple ignorance and nothing else.

The Union Minister of Commerce, Piyush Goyal, is expected to meet top executives of Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho, Shiprocket and Swiggy, among others The government is looking to understand the business models of these companies and figure out whether they are in compliance with FDI norms The government earlier sought specific information on seller patterns, private label sales, dark store ownership and discounting and platform algorithms The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has reportedly invited major ecommerce companies operating in India, including online marketplaces, food delivery companies, logistics and quick commerce platforms for consultations on the National Ecommerce Policy. According to people cited in an ET report, the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, is expected to meet top executives of Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho, Shiprocket and Swiggy, among others. According to the officials, the government is looking to understand the business models of these companies and figure out whether they are in compliance with FDI norms. Earlier this year, the Department of Consumer Affairs also sought data from online grocery and quick commerce platforms to understand their business models as well. The government sought specific information on seller patterns, private label sales, dark store ownership in the case of quick commerce startups and details about discounting and platform algorithms from ecommerce startups. Quick Commerce Startups On Commerce Ministry Radar Incidentally, the commerce ministry is also working on concerns over whether quick commerce startups comply with local ecommerce norms. Quick commerce startups typically operate out of dark stores – micro-warehouses operated by third-party entities. Under draft rules, ecommerce platforms can’t own entities selling products on their platforms, and the government is exploring the ownership of these dark stores.  Further, the Centre is also seeking data on private-label products sold on online grocery platforms to see if companies were pushing in-house brands over other products. It is also looking to ensure that consumers are being offered choices transparently. Quick commerce, which rose to prominence in early 2022, includes players such as Zomato-owned Blinkit, Swiggy’s Instamart, Zepto and BigBasket’s BBnow. Business Practices Under Govt Lens The ecommerce rules, being framed under the Consumer Protection Act, will also look at the business practices of ecommerce players.  Earlier this year, media reports suggested that the government is likely to issue rules which excluded ‘related parties’ of marketplaces such as online retailers and food delivery platforms that would not be allowed to sell products or services to a registered merchant on their platform. To exemplify, this would mean that Flipkart and Amazon India would not be able to offer their in-house logistics services, Ekart and Amazon Transportation Services, to registered sellers. Ecommerce players have further attracted attention from the consumer affairs department, as it wrote to major players warning them against the use of ‘dark patterns’ in their user interface. Some of these dark patterns include False Urgency, Subscription Traps, Confirm Shaming, Forced Action, Bait and Switch and Hidden Costs. Multiple industry bodies, including the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), along with a few other national associations, have also been calling for an immediate rollout of the ecommerce policy and the formation of an empowered regulatory authority. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) started inter-ministerial consultations for the National Ecommerce Policy this June. The government had even floated a draft for the policy in 2019, with the work having started back in 2018, during the first tenure of the Modi government.

Samsung has just concluded its Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event in Seoul, South Korea with several new announcements including the new foldables — Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5. This is the company’s 5th-generation foldable smartphone and the company has clocked decent sales numbers with its previous-generation Flips and Folds. With the new Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5, the company aims to expand the reach of its foldable devices. The question is how it’s going to do that. It appears that Samsung has a well-thought-out plan to push its foldable phone market and make them more common among users. T M Roh, president and head of mobile eXperience business at Samsung Electronics told TOI-Gadgets Now in an interaction that foldable smartphone users instantly feel its advantages once they start using them. Things like a bigger display or the fact that it can fold into a much more compact form factor along with various additional features can make them stick to the idea of a foldable device, he said. How Samsung is planning to drive people into buying foldable smartphonesThe biggest advantage of foldable as Roh mentioned during the interaction is its distinctiveness. Some may like the bigger display while some will love the idea of having a phone that can become more compact. Plus the services and features. Getting people to experience these things is the company’s first step towards making them go for Z Fold or Z Flip. “The big question for ourselves is how we are going to get the Indian consumers to experience the phone first, either by going to the retail stores or from users that they know. So, from the existing users, maybe they can get more information and get to experience the phone as well”, said Roh. He further mentioned, “We hope that many more of them can actually get their hands on and experience the foldable phones”.Better awareness around foldablesThere’s no doubt that in-hand experience matters. However, Roh mentioned that to make people come to the stores and experience these devices, they first need to be aware of this.The next step towards making foldable go mass market is creating awareness around foldable smartphones. Roh mentioned that this is where the mass media events and promotional activities come in. Making it easier to access these devicesRoh mentioned that they want to make it easier for users to buy these foldable smartphones and to make that happen, they are running several sales programs in India with our sales partners. “One example is the program that we have in India – Samsung Finance+. This is one such program to make it more accessible to Indian consumers”. “We’ll continue to work on that front as well, not only by ourselves but along with our partners”, Roh added. Samsung appears to have a clear picture of the direction where the foldable smartphones are heading and what it needs to do to make them become mass-market products.

The newly demerged company has underlined plans to offer full-fledged insurance services from 2024 onwards Jio Financial Services has set aside a capital of INR 1,000 Cr each to enter both general as well as life insurance segments Last week, Jio Financial Services signed a 50:50 joint venture with investment giant BlackRock to enter the homegrown asset management space Pulling all stops for its insurtech foray, Jio Financial Services (JFS) is reportedly all set to apply for an insurance licence soon. Sources told ET Now that Jio Financial is readying plans to approach the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) to apply for a licence. As per the report, the newly demerged company has underlined plans to offer full-fledged insurance services from 2024 onwards.  Once the initial application is submitted, the insurance regulator will then take a call on the matter over the course of the next six to eight months.  People familiar with the development further noted that JFS is looking to venture into both the general as well as life insurance categories. The conglomerate has reportedly set aside a capital of INR 1,000 Cr for each of these segments.  The fresh development comes weeks after it was reported that JFS was hiring for its upcoming insurtech arm and has already recruited a former PSU personnel.  With this, Jio could be looking to make a big dent in the country’s underpenetrated insurance sector. However, its entry could also intensify competition in the space, which is led by legacy players and new-age tech startups. Apart from players like Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), HDFC, ICICI Group, Jio’s insurtech arm will also lock arms with digital-heavy startups such as IPO-bound Go Digit, Acko, and Navi. At the heart of Jio’s strategy is the country’s burgeoning insurance sector. As per a report, the life insurance penetration in the country stood at a mere nearly 3% while non-life insurance penetration was much lower at 1% in financial year 2021-22 (FY22). It is this vast expanse, which offers an attractive proposition for Reliance Jio, which could leverage its digital infrastructure and resource base to create ripples in the insurtech ecosystem. Meanwhile, the newly-demerged arm is gearing up its plans to foray into other financial segments as well. Just last week, Jio Financial announced that it has signed a joint venture with investment giant BlackRock to enter the homegrown asset management space. The two companies have earmarked $150 Mn each for the AMC entity, which has been named Jio BlackRock.  With much at stake, the entry of Reliance into the insurance space could complicate matters for incumbents who have already been battered by adverse market conditions and customers cutting down on discretionary spending.  Despite big investments and the deployment of tech, insurance penetration in India continues to be dismal. While other players have not been able to spur the metric, it remains to be seen if Reliance’s new insurtech arm is able to create the same storm that its telecom vertical created back in 2016. 

By Market Capitalisation.Net Sales.Net Profit.Total Assets.Excise.Other Income.Raw Materials.Power & Fuel.Employee Cost.PBDIT.Interest.Tax.EPS.Investments.Sundry Debtors.Cash/Bank.Inventory.Debt.Contingent Liabilities. Screen Crit AbrasivesAerospace & DefenceAgricultureAir ConditionersAirlinesAluminium & Aluminium ProductsAmusement Parks/Recreation/ClubAquacultureAuto AncillariesAuto Ancillaries – Air Conditioning PartsAuto Ancillaries – Auto, Truck & Motorcycle PartsAuto Ancillaries – Axle shaftsAuto Ancillaries – BearingsAuto Ancillaries – BrakesAuto Ancillaries – Bus BodyAuto Ancillaries – Castings/ForgingsAuto Ancillaries – ClutchesAuto Ancillaries – Diesel EnginesAuto Ancillaries – Engine PartsAuto Ancillaries – GearsAuto Ancillaries – Head lamps & lightsAuto Ancillaries – OthersAuto Ancillaries – PistonsAuto Ancillaries – Seating covers & partsAuto Ancillaries – Sheet MetalsAuto Ancillaries – Shock absorbersAuto Ancillaries – Spare Parts & AccessoriesAuto Ancillaries – SpringsAuto Ancillaries – Tyres & Rubber ProductsAuto Ancillaries – WheelsAuto AncillaryAutomobile – 2 & 3 WheelersAutomobile – Auto & Truck ManufacturersAutomobile – Dealers & DistributorsAutomobile – LCVS/ HVCSAutomobile – Passenger CarsAutomobile – TractorsAutomobile – Trucks/LCVsBank – PrivateBank – PublicBatteriesBeveragesBiotechnology & Medical ResearchBPO/ITeSBreweries & DistilleriesCable & D2HCablesCarbon BlackCementCement & Construction MaterialsCeramics/Marble/Granite/SanitarywareChemicalsCigarettes/TobaccoCoalCommodity ChemicalsCompressors / PumpsComputer PeripheralsConstruction – InfrastructureConstruction – Real EstateConstruction – Residential & Commercial ComplexesConsumer FoodContainers & PackagingCourier ServicesCyclesDefenceDetergents & SoapsDiamond & JewelleryDiversifiedDiversified ChemicalsDomestic AppliancesDyes & PigmentsEducational InstitutionsElectric EquipmentElectric Equipment – Boilers / TurbinesElectric Equipment – SwitchgearsElectric Equipment – TransformersElectrodes & Electrical EquipmentsElectrodes & Welding EquipmentElectronic GoodsElectronics – ComponentsEngineeringEngineering – ConstructionEngineering – Industrial EquipmentsETFFastenersFerro ManganeseFertilizersFilm Production, Distribution & EntertainmentFinance – HousingFinance – InvestmentFinance – NBFCFinance – OthersFinance – Stock BrokingFinance Term LendingFish/Poultry & Meat ProductsFood & Drug RetailingFood ProcessingFootwearGas DistributionGlass & Glass ProductsGoldGold ETFGround Freight & Logistics ServicesHospital & Healthcare ServicesHotel, Resort & RestaurantsHousehold & Personal ProductsInfrastructureIron & SteelIT – EducationIT – NetworkingIT Services & ConsultingLabs & Life Sciences ServicesLaminates/DecorativesLeatherLeisure ServicesLife & Health InsuranceLogisticsLPGLubricantsMediaMedical Equipment/Supplies/AccessoriesMetals & MiningMetals – Castings/ForgingsMetals – Non FerrousMisc. Commercial ServicesMiscellaneousMultiline Insurance & BrokersOil Exploration and ProductionOnline Servicesother agriculture productsOther Construction MaterialsOthers-Industrial Gases & FuelsOthers-ManufacturingPackaging – FilmsPackaging – Packaging MaterialsPackaging – PolyfilmsPackaging – Sacks and BagsPackaging Materials-Containers & PackagingPackaging Materials-Plastic ProductsPaintsPaper & Forest ProductsPaper & Paper ProductsPesticides & AgrochemicalsPharmaceuticals & DrugsPhotographic ProductsPlastic ProductsPlastic Products – OthersPlastics – Moulded Articles and FurnituresPlastics – Pet Bottels, Jars & ContainersPlastics – Self Adhesive TapesPlastics – ThermoplasticsPlastics – Tubes/Pipes/Hoses & FittingsPortsPower Generation/DistributionPrinting & PublishingPrinting & StationeryPrinting And PublishingRailways WagonsRatingsReal Estate OperationsReal Estate Rental, Development & OperationsRefineriesRefractoriesReinsuranceRenewablesRetailingRubber ProductsShip BuildingShippingSoftwareSolvent ExtractionSpeciality ChemicalsSpeciality RetailersSpecialty Mining & MetalsSugarTea/CoffeeTelecommunication – EquipmentTelecommunication – Service ProviderTelecommunications ServicesTextile – MachineryTextile – SpinningTextilesTextiles & ApparelTradingTransmission Towers / EquipmentsTransport InfrastructureTravel ServicesTV Broadcasting & Software ProductionVegetable Oils & ProductsWatches & AccessoriesWood & Wood Products Screen Code

Sunil Mittal-led telecom giant Bharti Airtel has announced its pre-payment of Rs 8,024 crores to the Department of Telecom (DoT). The payment was made towards deferred liabilities related to the spectrum acquired in the auction of 2015. To leverage the lower-cost financing that was available to the company, Airtel has prepaid the entire amount as the said instalments had an interest rate of 10%. Airtel claims that it continues to enjoy access to well-diversified sources of capital/financing. This allowed the company to have enhanced financial flexibility in its capital structure. Such capabilities include optimised cost of financing as well as using all opportunities for significant interest savings, like this prepayment.Airtel’s global telecom presence The home-grown company is a global communications solutions provider that has a customer base of 500 million in 17 countries across South Asia and Africa. The company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and its networks cover over two billion people. Airtel’s telecom products and servicesAirtel’s retail portfolio includes high-speed 4G/5G mobile broadband, Airtel Xstream Fiber that promises speeds up to 1 Gbps with convergence across linear and on-demand entertainment, streaming services spanning music and video, digital payments and financial services. For enterprise customers, Airtel offers a wide range of solutions that includes secure connectivity, cloud and data centre services, cyber security, IoT, Ad Tech and CPaaS (Airtel IQ). Airtel’s 5G spectrum auctionIn August 2022, Airtel paid Rs 8312.4 crores to the DoT towards dues for the spectrum acquired in the 5G auctions. The company paid 4 years of 2022 spectrum dues upfront. At that point, Airtel claimed that this payment coupled with the moratorium on spectrum dues and AGR-related payments for four years will free up future cash flows and allow the company to dedicate resources to single-mindedly concentrate on the 5G rollout.

Fidelity has now valued its holding in Gupshup at $8.08 Mn, at the end of June, trimming it from $10.15 Mn at the end of May this year The updated valuation of Fidelity’s holding in Gupshup has lowered its total valuation to $697 Mn, snatching its unicorn tag In May, Fidelity slashed the fair value of Meesho by 9.7% and marked down Pine Labs by about 9.2% to $4.5 Bn US-based asset management company Fidelity Investments has once again slashed the valuation of SaaS unicorn Gupshup. The company’s valuation has been cut by more than 20% between May and June.  Fidelity has now valued its holding in Gupshup at $8.08 Mn, at the end of June, trimming it from $10.15 Mn at the end of May this year, according to Fidelity’s monthly disclosure with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In May, Fidelity slashed the fair value of its holding in the Indian startup by 8.4% from $11 Mn as of April 28, 2023. Meanwhile, the latest investment valuation of Fidelity has seen an over 50% cut from $16.2 Mn — the amount that the former had originally invested in Gupshup in mid-2021. The funding round valued Gupshup at $1.4 Bn. As per the Economic Times, the updated valuation of Fidelity’s holding in Gupshup also lowers the entity’s total valuation to $697 Mn, snatching its unicorn tag. Founded in 2004 by Beerud Sheth, Gupshup is a conversational messaging platform that enables companies to enhance customer experience. The startup is said to send over 7 Bn messages per month to enable conversations with customers. It also counts major Indian banks and unicorns, including IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, Zomato, Ola, and Flipkart, as its clients. Gupshup last raised $340 Mn in 2021 with participation from Fidelity Management and Research, along with marquee investors like Tiger Global, Malabar Investments, Think Investments, and Harbor Spring Capital, among others. Gupshup reported a consolidated net profit of INR 39.9 Cr in FY22, down from INR 52.5 Cr in FY21 while its total revenue increased 53% year-on-year to INR 1,140.7 Cr. Amid a severe funding winter and weakening investor sentiment towards tech startups globally, several companies have witnessed back-to-back valuation cuts by their top investors. In May this year, Invesco cut the valuation of its holding in Swiggy, valuing it at $5.5 Bn, which stood at $10.7 Bn in January last year. BlackRock cut the valuation of BYJU’S by nearly half to $11.5 Bn. Now, Peak XV Partners is also reportedly looking to significantly mark down the fair value of its investment in the edtech giant. In May, Fidelity also slashed the fair value of ecommerce unicorn Meesho by 9.7%. It also marked down the valuation of fintech major Pine Labs by about 9.2% to $4.5 Bn.