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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ONDC mulls subsidy comeback amid slowdown in food delivery: The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is considering offering incentives of Rs 100-150 crore to food delivery firms on the network, an about-turn on the part of the central government’s ecommerce platform which had stopped doling out subsidies in the recent past, said people with knowledge of the matter.


Flipkart to buy back $50 million in employee stock; 7,500 staff may benefit: Flipkart on Friday announced a $50 million employee stock buyback programme, which will provide liquidity to around 7,000–7,500 staff members as the Walmart-owned ecommerce giant gears up for a potential initial public offering (IPO).


Apple’s Moradabad-born COO & new strategist Sabih Khan faces tariff test: Sabih Khan, newly appointed chief operating officer of Apple, will have to perfect a “balancing act” as the phone maker lagging in the artificial intelligence race looks to reorder its global supply chain, multiple researchers and analysts told ET.

From 66 to 4: Why Y Combinator backed fewer Indian startups in 2024: The number of Indian startups selected by Silicon Valley’s famed accelerator Y Combinator (YC) has plummeted to just four in 2024 from 66 in 2021, marking a sharp decline in participation from one of its most active international markets in recent years, according to information sourced from YC’s website.


Also Read: US bankruptcy court holds Byju Raveendran in contempt for failure to comply with its orders

Blinkit, Instamart gain in quick commerce as Zepto stalls in Q1: Quick commerce platforms Eternal-owned Blinkit and Swiggy’s Instamart are estimated to have gained market share in the April–June quarter, according to brokerages and industry analysts. This comes as Zepto has been witnessing a slowdown in user numbers and growth while working to tighten its cash spending.


Rebel Foods explores stake sale in premium chocolate brand Smoor: Cloud kitchen operator Rebel Foods, which owns brands such as Faasos and Behrouz Biryani, has held discussions to sell its stake in premium chocolate and dessert maker Smoor, said people briefed on the matter.

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IPOs lead India's 2024 startup exit wave, but M&As likely to catch up: IPOs accounted for more than two-thirds of private equity and venture capital exits from Indian startups in 2024, as heightened public market valuations sidelined secondary deals and large mergers and acquisitions (M&As), a new report said.


Lenskart's Bansal set to join list of founders with pre-IPO stake boosts: Omnichannel eyewear retailer Lenskart is likely to issue additional shares to its founder and CEO Peyush Bansal through a structured payout arrangement, which could increase his stake in the public markets-bound company by 1.5-2%, said people briefed on the development.

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Startups chase finserv companies seeking GenAI customer support use cases: The highly regulated financial services industry is finding application of generative artificial intelligence models in customer-facing operations, from onboarding to servicing and basic query resolutions, as adoption of the technology goes up and its cost comes down.

NPCI ups RuPay credit card play against rivals: National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has started offering financial incentives to banks to push RuPay credit cards to their customers in a bid to promote homegrown payment methods, said people directly aware of the matter.

Startups weigh government nod to use Aadhaar KYC for gig workers: Food delivery, ecommerce, ride-hailers and other consumer-facing startups are evaluating applying to the union government for an explicit approval for Aadhaar authentication as they struggle to verify their gig workers via simple Aadhaar eKYC processes, industry insiders said.

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India methodically building own electronics capabilities: Ashwini Vaishnav | India is developing “its own capabilities” in electronics manufacturing in a “very methodical and sustained way” and is poised to achieve its value-addition target of 38% within the next five years, said Ashwini Vaishnaw, union minister for electronics and IT, railways and information and broadcasting.

Foxconn feels the China squeeze in India: Foxconn recalling over 300 Chinese engineers, reportedly at the behest of Beijing, from its Indian iPhone manufacturing plants could impact operations in the short term and have a ripple effect on the ecosystem at large, several executives from Indian electronics manufacturing services (EMS) companies told ET.

India blocks (then unblocks) Reuters on X: The Centre said Tuesday it did not issue any fresh blocking order to microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) on July 3, and that it had no intention of blocking any prominent international news channels, including Reuters and Reuters World. This followed a post by the Elon Musk-owned microblogging platform on its Global Government Affairs handle, claiming that on July 3, New Delhi had ordered X to block 2,355 accounts in India.

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Global headwinds take a toll on TCS revenue in June quarter: Tata Consultancy Services announced an expansion in net profit by 5.9% on year to Rs 12,760 crore in the first quarter of the current financial year even as India’s largest software exporter recorded a decline of 3.1 % in revenue which dropped to Rs 63, 437 crore.

Also Read: Dollar's slide may help IT add 70–300 basis points to Q1 revenues

Capgemini's $3.3 billion WNS buy may revive IT-plus-BPO model: French IT giant Capgemini’s agreement to buy business process outsourcing (BPO) major WNS for $3.3 billion may signal the revival of the IT-plus-BPO model, as analysts expect a wave of deals and consolidation to hit the industry which is seeing reorganisation due to artificial intelligence (AI).

Also Read: BPM companies tap growing demand from GCCs to expand

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VCs back AI startups to shake up Indian IT services industry: A new wave of AI-first startups is catching the attention of top-tier venture capital firms, as they look to back companies reinventing traditional IT services. Peak XV Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners, Accel, and Elevation Capital are among the country’s top venture capital firms which are scouting for AI-first startups to place early bets, several investors told ET.

Nvidia hits $4 trillion market value on AI optimism: Nvidia became the first public company in the world to achieve a market capitalisation of $4 trillion in early trade on Wednesday. The counter rose to its intraday high of $164.42 within the first hour of the session, driven by the strong demand for artificial intelligence technologies to reach this milestone.

Zuckerberg's Meta Superintelligence Labs poaches top AI talent in Silicon Valley: Meta Platforms is racing to secure top AI talent for its newly created Superintelligence Labs to better compete with rivals including OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.