M2P Fintech’s road to rediscovery has hit a bump. The partnership with Unity was one such setback. Unity has formally exited the company. Unity was by far the bigger customer. The setback hits M2P hard as one of the top fintech players in India, after raising capital from venture capital firms at improved valuations last year.
Paytm has turned an operational profit for the first time. On a revenue of Rs 1,470 crore, the company reported a profit of Rs 122.5 crore. This first ever truly profitable quarter will hearten public investors. Paytm was hit hard by the Reserve Bank of India shutting down Paytm Payments Bank and forcing the company to discontinue Paytm wallets in early 2024. The company has been on a steady mend since that wipeout.
Former Bizongo employee arrested in Mumbai. The B2B e-commerce startup has accused Nainish Shah, a former associate director, of allegedly misappropriating about ₹20 crore through fake invoices. Nainish Shah has been arrested by the Mumbai Police. The arrest follows an FIR filed by Bizongo in April alleging breaches related to conspiracy, breach of trust, cheating and forgery.
Out to list. Pine Labs is a hardware business pretending to be a fintech. Pine Labs was injected with vast amounts of VC money. The hope was that the hardware would trade for higher multiples. The core of the company is its POS machines. Pine Labs has a strong core of large retail chains. The company is trying to grow with new products and in new regions.
JSW, Tata, Birla’s entry into B2B e-commerce augurs poorly for Infra.Market, OfBusiness. For almost a decade, B2B e-commerce has been the domain of startups like Infra.Market and OfBusiness. Now, conglomerates like Tata, JSW, and Aditya Birla Group have launched their own marketplaces. The big manufacturers launching their own shop fronts are turning rivals for Infra.Market and OfBusiness.
Over the past week, restaurateurs have been talking about being subjected to advertising campaigns and unauthorized promotions by the food delivery platforms, often without prior consent or even knowledge. Restaurant owners confirm the practices, noting that often only major incidents get caught. The systemic squeeze on restaurants is a byproduct of the food delivery market’s state. Growth for the platforms has nearly stopped, and in this saturated market, the only way to grow is to take a bigger share from existing stakeholders: restaurants and customers.
It is the first e-commerce company that the RBI has given permission to directly give loans. E-commerce giant Flipkart has secured an NBFC (non-banking financial company) licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Its group entity, Flipkart Finance Private Limited, was granted the approval and registered as an NBFC on March 13. This allows Flipkart to directly disburse loans, a higher margin play than just distributing loans for other lenders. Flipkart is also in the process of shifting its holding company from Singapore to India as a precursor to an IPO.
The Zerodha cofounder attributes reduced market activity for the stockbroking business witnessing a 10-20% decline this year. Nithin Kamath expects the stockbroking business to see a 10-20% decline this year following lower market activity in the first quarter. Despite the slowdown, he expects Zerodha to cross Rs 10,000 crore in revenue in FY26. Zerodha reported a revenue of Rs 8,320 crore and a profit of Rs 4,700 crore in FY24, a 21% increase on the previous year. Kamath also reiterated that Zerodha is not considering listing on stock exchanges.
Digio, founded by Nithin Kamath and Abhimanyu Pandian, has “slowly and silently become the back-end infrastructure provider to several industries”. The software-as-a-service (SaaS) company offers a suite of tools built around reducing paperwork, including Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, document management, compliance monitoring, and financial information aggregation. It was an early player in the space and quickly onboarded most of the stockbrokers and e-signing players. What sets Digio apart is its all-round product, focusing on the “forefront of India’s paperless digital transformation”.
