Happy Monday! It’s the first day of Lockdown 4.0 and we’ve seen companies scramble to pick up the pieces in a few states, albeit with some caveats. E-commerce, as we know it, will soon be back. Ride-hailing services like Uber and Ola have resumed operations in Karnataka. And life seems to be limping back to […]

Food delivery app Swiggy will cut 1,100 jobs across the country over the next few days, as it reels under the Covid-19 induced nationwide shutdown. The development comes after rival Zomato said last week that it would lay off 13% of its workforce, or about 520 employees. “The core food delivery business has been severely […]

UK-based fintech company ClearScore has said it will shut its India business effective April 13, within a year of starting operations, due to the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. This could be the first instance of a fintech company shutting down due to the coronavirus. ClearScore India was launched in September 2019 and offered […]

Prosus—one of the biggest backers of India’s internet economy with investment of over $5 billion— said it is keeping cash reserves for potential M&A opportunities for portfolio. The firm said it’s focusing on the health of the businesses it has invested in so that they can come out stronger from current crisis as it deals […]

Illustration: Rahul Awasthi E-commerce firms in India, including leaders Amazon and Flipkart, will take a major hit if sales of non-essential items continue to be restricted and the lockdown is prolonged, industry executives and analysts said. Smartphones, electronics, furniture, large appliances, among others, have been categorised as non-essential items in the current situation, but contribute […]

Consumers are finding it difficult to buy food, groceries and other essential goods at retail stores and through e-commerce platforms after several states intensified efforts to lock down the so-called Red Zones with a higher density of Covid-19 positive cases. According to a survey by community platform LocalCircles, the percentage of consumers who were able […]

Illustration: Rahul Awasthi Hyperlocal model gets a new lease of lifeHyperlocal delivery of food and groceries is making a comeback. As India went into lockdown, e-commerce firms started forging partnerships with brick-and-mortar stores to cater to the spike in demand of essential goods. The modelHyperlocal delivery, which involved picking up goods from neighbourhood mom-and-pop stores […]

Financial services marketplace BankBazaar has raised Rs 29 crore as part of its ongoing Series D round from existing investors including Amazon, Sequoia and Walden SKT Venture Fund, according to its filings with the Registrar of Companies. This funding comes more than two and a half years after the global credit rating agency Experian had […]

Illustration: Rahul Awasthi Naspers-backed Prosus, the global consumer internet-focused investor, has committed Rs 100 crore to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund, the disaster relief trust set up to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. The commitment by Prosus is possibly the largest by a single risk capital investor in […]

After showing a steady improvement since the start of the 21-day nationwide lockdown, the availability of essential goods at brick-and-mortar retailers and e-commerce platforms dipped in the two days ending April 10, according to a survey by community platform LocalCircles. The percentage of consumers able to buy essential goods at physical stores dropped to 65% […]