Also in this letter:
■ Swiggy delivery agent dies in freak accident
■ Indian consumers in no hurry for quicker grocery deliveries
■ ETtech State of Startups Survey: Conserve cash and turn profitable
Amazon to cut 18,000 jobs amid ‘uncertain economy’
Amazon announced on Wednesday that it will sack over 18,000 employees, starting January 18. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, in an email to staff, cited the “uncertain economy” and “rapid hiring” as reasons behind the job cuts.
Quote unquote: “We are working to support those who are affected and are providing packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support,” Jassy said in the statement to his staff.
Round two: The decision follows the company’s announcement in November that it was cutting about 10,000 staff. We had reported in November that Amazon is likely to undertake a layoff exercise in India that could potentially impact at least a few hundred jobs across divisions, as part of the global plan to deal with slowing sales.
The US-based e-tailer had shut some of its verticals, such as edtech, distribution and food delivery, in 2022. Amazon’s consumer business country manager for India Manish Tiwary had said the firm was only relooking at experiments here and not shutting businesses. India remains an exciting market for Amazon, he said.
Big tech layoffs: Amazon’s layoff exercise is in line with the approach followed by big technology firms amid a grim macroeconomic environment.
Earlier Facebook-parent Meta had announced that it was cutting 11,000 jobs, while Twitter slashed its team by half after tech billionaire Elon Musk took over the firm.
Vimeo has now announced a fresh round of layoffs, which is set to affect 11% of its employees.
Here are some of the biggest tech layoffs in 2022.
Indian consumers in no rush for faster grocery deliveries: survey
A majority of Indian consumers ordering groceries online are in no rush and don’t want to pay delivery charges even if they have to wait a few hours or even a day or two, reveals a survey by LocalCircles.
Survey findings: Only 3% of household consumers are willing to pay a delivery fee and get groceries delivered within half an hour.
The LocalCircles survey revealed that a third of people surveyed preferred their groceries to be delivered within 3-24 hours without any delivery fee above a certain order value. Only 11% were willing to pay a small delivery charge, but that too for orders to be delivered within 3 hours.
Quick commerce environment: Over the past two years, India has seen the emergence of several quick-grocery platforms, such as Swiggy Instamart, Blinkit, Dunzo, Big Basket Now and Zepto, which grew rapidly by delivering groceries to customers within a 30-minute timeframe. But the quick delivery model remains a work-in-progress.
We reported on January 4 that for the quick commerce sector, the coming year could be all about getting by with their existing customer base as a tough funding environment amid rising inflation and interest rate hikes around the globe is keeping investors away from the sector.
Focus areas: Companies in the quick commerce space focused on improving unit economics last year, and 2023 is expected to see them follow the same trend.
We reported on December 20 that quick commerce companies Swiggy Instamart, Zomato’s Blinkit and Reliance Retail-backed Dunzo are nudging customers to place larger orders as they look to cut cash burn.
Also read: ETtech Long Read: Quick commerce may find it tough to bag new users, investors in 2023
Swiggy delivery staff dies in freak accident
Swiggy delivery agent Kaushal Yadav died in the wee hours of January 2 after his scooter collided with a car.
A Swiggy spokesperson confirmed the development, saying, “We are in constant touch with his family members and doing everything in our capacity to expedite this case, including processing insurance and offering legal support to his family.”
Growing concerns: The poor working conditions of gig workers has been widely discussed and concerns are being raised about little social security being offered to them by delivery platforms.
According to a recent Fairwork India report, ride-hailing companies Uber and Ola, quick-commerce platform Dunzo, online pharmacy PharmEasy, and delivery platform Amazon Flex provided the poorest conditions for gig workers in India.
Among food-delivery companies, Swiggy scored five points on a scale of 10 for the second year in a row. Swiggy’s publicly listed rival Zomato scored four points.
Benefits: Companies employing gig workers have now started giving additional, long-term benefits to them.
Zomato is piloting a health cover worth Rs 3 lakh for delivery workers in New Delhi, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad. Urban Company, on the other hand, awarded stock options worth Rs 5.2 crore to about 500 gig workers under its partner stock option plan (PSOP).
ETtech Done Deals
SirionLabs raises $25 million: Contract lifecycle management (CLM) startup SirionLabs on Tuesday said it has topped up its Series D round of funding with a $25 million investment from California-based private equity firm Brookfield Growth. The homegrown SirionLabs, which is now based in Seattle, raised $85 million from Partners Group last May with participation from existing investors Sequoia India and Tiger Global.
ElectricPe picks $5 million in funding: EV charging aggregation startup ElectricPe has raised $5 million in a Pre-Series A funding round led by investors such as Green Frontier Capital, Blume Ventures and Micelio Fund, with participation by Dubai-based NB Ventures, Anchorage Capital Partners, Supermorpheus, and Climate Angels. ElectricPe will use the combined capital [seed funding and Pre-Series A] of $8 million to deepen technology investments and scale up operations.
Gamified savings startup Fello raises $4 million: Bengaluru-based gamified savings platform Fello has raised $4 million in its latest funding round. The round was led by US-based Courtside Ventures, with participation from Entrepreneur First, Ycombinator, Kube Venture and Upsparks. The startup said it would use the funding to develop unique gamified financial products, hire top talent across functions, and expand its user base.
ETtech State of Startups Survey: conserve cash, cut burn, turn profitable
Conserve cash, cut burn and turn profitable. This was the common refrain among the top founders, investors and internet executives in ETtech’s annual State of Startups survey.
The poll, which sought responses from over 60 key people, comes amid one of the worst downturns for the technology industry globally.
By the numbers: The funding crunch may ease in the second half of 2023, said 64% of the respondents, while 21% felt it could worsen; 11% said the environment will remain the same.
Top takeaways: The biggest takeaway from 2022 is “do fewer things, conserve cash and focus on profitable growth”, said one founder. “De-couple your business and strategy in anticipation of the next funding round,” said another.
Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Megha Mishra in Mumbai and Gaurab Dasgupta in Delhi. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.
