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.
A narrative war is unfolding in India’s fintech ecosystem. On one side is Juspay, a payments orchestrator. On the other are four of the largest payment aggregators (PAs): PhonePe, Razorpay, Cashfree, and Paytm. The PAs have told merchants that their payment gateways will no longer work with Juspay’s orchestrator. Juspay is now accusing the PAs of engaging in anti-competitive tactics. The PAs are demanding neutrality and fair play. This is a big matter involving four of the largest PAs. The fight is being waged on economics that will decide the winner.
Competition heated up between India’s two richest men as the Adani Group announced its foray into telecommunications, a sector dominated by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Group. Until recently, the two did not encroach on each other’s turf. But that’s no longer the case. The claws of the oligarchs are out.
