Also in this letter:
■ Zomato is winding up its 10-minute food delivery business
■ Sequoia considers auditing South Asia bets as lapses rise
■ Google freezes key green card process for workers amid layoffs
Amazon Air will enable faster deliveries in top metros: logistics VP
Amazon is starting its cargo service, Amazon Air, in India. This will allow the US ecommerce major to deliver goods more quickly to consumers, especially those in the top metro cities, said Akhil Saxena, vice president, customer fulfilment (APAC, MENA & LATAM) and worldwide customer service, Amazon.
Saxena and Sarah Rhoads, vice president, Amazon Global Air, said the launch of Amazon Air is another critical investment by the company to strengthen its delivery infrastructure in the country.
Dedicated fleet: While Amazon will continue to move goods by air using its third-party aircraft firms such as Indigo, Spicejet and Vistara, Amazon Air will be dedicated to markets like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Mumbai.
For now, Amazon has leased two aircraft in India in partnership with Quikjet. It has 90 aircraft for Amazon Air in the US and around 150 in other countries, including India. “Essentially, this gives us more control on delivery and gives us full visibility end–to-end,” Saxena said.
“If earlier, I could take goods for air shipments, say by 7 pm, now I can extend it to 10 pm with a dedicated aircraft which will help in delivering goods from other fulfilment centres to you faster,” Saxena said. Rhoades added that faster delivery promises translate to a higher sales conversion rate.
Recent investments: Last week, we reported that Amazon infused an additional Rs 400 crore in its local shipping arm Amazon Transportation Services. Prior to that, in June 2022, Amazon Transportation received around Rs 375 crore from the parent entities of Amazon as well, we reported.
Zomato is winding up its 10-minute food delivery business
Zomato is shutting down its 10-minute food delivery service Zomato Instant less than a year after it was launched as it chases profitability amid tough market conditions.
Driving the news: The company recently told its restaurant partners it would look to close down the service, said two sources privy to the development.
“It didn’t look like it would turn profitable. The company was not getting the daily volume required to even pay the fixed costs. It wasn’t scaling up to that level,” a person aware of the development told us.
Statement: Zomato said it was not shutting down Instant but rebranding the service. “Instant is not shutting down. We are working on a new menu with our partners and rebranding the business. All finishing stations remain intact, and no people are impacted by this decision,” the company said.
What’s next? “The plan is to now pivot to a new product,” he said, adding that Zomato is experimenting with low-value packed meals – thalis or combo meals. It has not been decided if Zomato will retain the 10-minute proposition for this but the new offering will be launched in 7-10 days, one of the sources said.
Exits: The development comes soon after the exits of chief executive Mohit Gupta and new initiatives head Rahul Ganjoo. Siddharth Jhawar, who was serving as vice-president and head of Zomato’s Intercity Legends service, has also quit the firm.
Sequoia considers auditing South Asia investments as lapses rise
Sequoia Capital’s regional arm in South and Southeast Asia is weighing special audits of several investments in the region following allegations of financial irregularities at firms such as Zilingo and GoMechanic.
Guardrails: The venture capital firm will work with Ernst & Young on some of these audits and will increase budget allocations to help investee companies put governance guardrails in place, according to people familiar with the decision.
Staying cautious: Sequoia Capital India will also be more selective when taking board seats at companies and, in some cases, might replace junior members from their team on boards with more senior partners.
GoMechanic debacle: In the latest headache for Sequoia Capital India, due diligence run by EY on its portfolio company GoMechanic for other prospective investors unearthed bookkeeping improprieties, missteps the startup’s cofounder accepted in a public statement last week.
Google freezes key green card process for workers amid layoffs
As if the news of mass layoffs at top tech firms wasn’t causing Indian techies in the US enough anxiety, the latest reports suggest Google has paused its Program Electronic Review Management (PERM), a key step in acquiring an employer-sponsored green card.
Google has told its foreign employees of the decision to stop the programme, leaving them in limbo.
Catch up quick: Google’s parent Alphabet on January 20 announced that it plans to cut about 12,000 jobs or 6% of its global workforce. The layoffs will affect jobs globally and across the entire company, chief executive officer Sundar Pichai told employees in an email.
What is PERM? A PERM application is a critical first step in the green card (permanent residence) process and requires employers to demonstrate that there are no qualified US workers available for the particular role. Google said this has been “an increasingly difficult position for us to support given the current labour market”.
Spotify layoffs: Meanwhile, Spotify is planning to cut jobs as soon as this week, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing sources. The company laid off 38 staff from its Gimlet Media and Parcast podcast studios in October and currently has about 9,800 employees, according to its third-quarter earnings report.
Apple exports iPhones worth $1 billion from India in December
Apple has become the first company to export smartphones worth $1 billion (Rs 8,100 crore) from India in a month, hitting the milestone in December 2022, according to data available with ET. December was also a record month for the industry with mobile phone exports of over Rs 10,000 crore, the data showed.
Surpasses Samsung: Apple and Samsung have been the leading players for exporting mobile phones from India. As per government officials, Apple overtook Samsung to become the leading mobile phone exporter in November and achieved $1 billion worth of mobile phone exports in December.
Apple, through its three contract manufacturers, is producing and exporting iPhone 12, 13, 14 and 14+ models from India. Apart from the three manufacturers, some small Indian exporters are also said to be exporting iPhones from India, the officials said.
Ramping up: Apple is planning to up its iPhone production coming from India to 25% from about 5-7% right now, Union Minister for Industry and Commerce Piyush Goyal said on Monday.
Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Zaheer Merchant in Mumbai and Siddharth Sharma. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.
