Welcome to a new edition of ETtech Unwrapped – our weekend newsletter packed with the most important stories this week. Let’s take a look.

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Most listed new-age startups improve Q4 profitability; Swiggy, Ola lag behind: Out of the 17 new-age companies listed on Indian stock exchanges, 11 reported an improvement in profitability for the January-March quarter, either by expanded profits or narrower losses, in a sign of better operational performance. This group includes Nykaa, Delhivery, BlackBuck, Paytm, Policybazaar, Go Digit, Ather Energy and Ixigo.


Ecommerce’s in-house delivery turn flips third-party logistics biz script: The largest Indian ecommerce firms have moved deliveries in-house, hurting third-party logistics (3PL) players and leading to a consolidation in the sector. Amazon, Flipkart and Meesho now account for about 82% of India’s ecommerce parcel volumes, according to a report by ICICI Securities. This has forced pure-play logistics operators to draw up new ways to stay relevant.

Good Glamm delays paying salaries again amid cash crunch: Beauty products and content company Good Glamm Group, which is grappling with a cash crunch and seeking to raise capital at a significantly marked-down valuation, has delayed employee salaries for the second consecutive month, people familiar with the matter told us.

Also Read: Flipkart exits Blackbuck, Aditya Birla Fashion in block deals worth over Rs 1,250 crore

Pushing value meals and 10-min food delivery to revive growth: Swiggy’s Rohit Kapoor | Amid a slowdown in the food delivery market, aggregators are chasing the next phase of growth with Bengaluru-based Swiggy focusing on three areas to drive demand.

Regulators realising fintechs are here to stay: QED’s Nigel Morris | Fintechs are no longer scrappy outsiders in the financial world; they are scaling faster than traditional players, dominating high-growth segments and increasingly being recognised by regulators as a permanent feature in the financial services industry, according to QED Investors cofounder Nigel Morris.

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Startups leverage distribution chops to gain ground in general insurance: As insurance penetration in India remains a challenge, more startups are looking to leverage their distribution capabilities to grab a chunk of the general insurance market.

Rapid fashion delivery gathers pace, but long-term viability in question: New-age brands like Newme, Slikk and Blipp, as well as ecommerce platforms such as Myntra, Ajio and Nykaa are all exploring ultra-fast delivery for fashion and apparel. The latest to join the race is Bengaluru-based D2C brand Snitch.

Krutrim finds few takers for its LLMs and cloud products: Krutrim, the artificial intelligence (AI) arm of the Ola group, has received tepid response for its large language models (LLMs) and cloud products, according to some founders and developers who have evaluated these offerings.

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Digital payment firms in a no-win game as margins hit rock bottom: The digital payments ecosystem has become intensely competitive with the Reserve Bank of India issuing payment aggregator (PA) licences to more than 50 entities, pushing core transaction processing margins to what industry executives see as unsustainable levels.

New-age life insurers tap group business opportunity in their first year of ops: New-age life insurers Acko, Go Digit and CreditAccess, all of whom received life insurance licences in 2023, are betting on group products to drive premium collection and the business.

UPI transactions rise 4.4% in May after April decline: Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the real-time payment system operated by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), processed 18.68 billion transactions in May, recovering from a dip in April.

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Vaibhav Gupta, CEO, Udaan

Udaan closes latest funding round at $114 million: Business-to-business ecommerce platform Udaan has closed a $114 million funding round led by existing investors M&G Prudential (UK) and Lightspeed Venture Partners, the company said in a press statement.

Inflexor VC eyes Q2 first close of $150-million Fund-III: Early-stage venture capital firm Inflexor Ventures is eyeing the first close of its $150 million (Rs 1,250 crore) Fund III by the end of the second quarter, partner Murali Krishna Gunturu told us.

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Job losses: How AI has painfully disrupted dreams of young software engineering graduates | Programming languages like Java, C++, and Python have done more than just build software. They built lives. For years, they offered a ticket to stable jobs, upward mobility, and a way out of the lower-middle-class trap. Millions rode that wave, often becoming the first in their families to do so. Then came AI. And with it, the middle class's dreams, written in the promise of software, are under threat.

Finding Gen XX among GenAI leaders: There are nearly 7,000 active women-led startups in India. The number may seem huge, but it is only 7.5% of the total pool, according to data from Tracxn. In the tech space, these startups have so far collectively raised $26.4 billion, with 2021 attracting the most funds at $6.3 billion.

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Tata Electronics eyes Malaysia foray via chip fab acquisition: Tata Electronics is in talks with several global semiconductor companies including X-Fab, DNeX and Globetronics to acquire a fabrication or outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) plant in Malaysia, according to people in the know.

CG Power’s chip plans rocked by turmoil at wafer company Wolfspeed: Reports of a likely bankruptcy filing by US-based silicon carbide (SiC) wafer maker Wolfspeed are sending shockwaves through the global semiconductor industry and could impact Murugappa group-owned CG Power's upcoming OSAT facility in Sanand, experts told us.

IndiaAI empanelment drives down prices of GPUs in second round: An analysis of the lowest (L1) prices released by the IndiaAI Mission for the second round of the tender for graphics processing units (GPU) shows an up to 10% fall in prices compared with the first round.

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■ Elon Musk and Donald Trump: A bromance gone wrong

■ Amazon cuts more jobs, this time in books division

■ Microsoft cuts hundreds more jobs after firing 6,000 last month