Also in this letter:
■ Govt hopeful of work starting on at least one semicon unit by year-end
■ Tata-Uber deal biggest for any ride-hailing platform: Uber India president
■ Here’s what Microsoft Bing looks like
Exclusive: Razorpay, PayU, others lose market share to rivals after an RBI diktat
Payment aggregators such as CCAvenue and Pine Labs’ Plural have seen an increase in the onboarding of new users and gained more online merchants after top payment gateways, including Razorpay, Cashfree Payments, PayU and Paytm paused new sign-ups following the Reserve Bank of India order and rejection of payment aggregator (PA) licence applications by the regulator.
Beneficiaries: Sources told us that CCAvenue has seen an 18% jump in new online merchant sign-ups on its platform in the October-December quarter.
Pine Labs, which entered the payment gateway space in October 2020 with Plural, has been a strong beneficiary from the pause by rivals, chief executive Amrish Rau told us.
Also read | RBI grants in-principle approval to 32 entities for payment aggregator licence
Impact: According to sources, existing merchants are also migrating to newer payment gateways from Paytm, which in its recent earnings call said that it “purged hundreds of various kinds of merchants if they were not profitable”, as rates offered to them (merchants) over time did not change in line with rate changes of issuer banks.
“In the short term, there is little material impact, as new merchants don’t add immediate value. However in the mid to long term, some of these startups signing up PG partners also tend to hyper-grow which will lead to opportunity cost loss for these gateways,” an industry executive told us.
RBI diktat: According to another industry executive, RBI’s move has made it clear to new-age brands that they cannot just rely on the top five payment gateways in the country.
“RBI ban on new onboarding will cost perception, trust, and valuation for some of these companies,” an executive working with D2C brands said.
Exclusive: RoC seeks MCA nod to examine books of GoMechanic
Following allegations of financial irregularities and corporate governance lapses at Targetone Innovations Private Limited, the parent of troubled car-serving startup GoMechanic, the Registrar of Companies (RoC) has proposed examining its books.
Last week, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) issued a notice to the startup over an insolvency plea filed against the company.
Catch-up quick: Last month, GoMechanic’s cofounder Amit Bhasin admitted to grave errors in the company’s financial reporting and confirmed that the company will fire roughly 70% of its employees. In a LinkedIn post, Bhasin said the founders got “carried away”.
“Our passion to survive the intrinsic challenges of this sector, and manage capital, took the better of us and we made errors in judgment as we followed growth at all costs, including regarding financial reporting, which we deeply regret,” he wrote.
Also read | How GoMechanic founders floated new business as trouble mounted at car servicing startup
Quote unquote: “After last month’s disclosure, the RoC started studying their filings. There are certain financial irregularities and corporate governance issues that require thorough investigation… hence a proposal has been sent to the ministry (MCA- Ministry of Corporate Affairs) to conduct an investigation,” a person privy to the development told us.
“Once the order comes through, the RoC can summon the company’s board and even inspect the premises while conducting the inquiry into the affairs of the company.”
SoftBank pullout: We had earlier reported that the startup was in talks to raise $75-80 million in a funding round led by SoftBank and Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional, but the deal was called off due to accounting irregularities.
Due diligence conducted by EY for prospective GoMechanic investors alleged that the firm had inflated its revenue.
Govt hopeful of work starting on at least one semicon unit by year-end
The Centre is hopeful that at least one among the “few” semiconductor manufacturing projects that it expects to approve by year-end will commence “ground-breaking” at its manufacturing unit, a top official told us.
Ratifying proposals: “We kept asking the group of experts about how the proposals can be improved. We had set ourselves a timeline of 14 to 16 months. There will be announcements on the final names soon,” said the official.
“They had a look at all the proposals and are satisfied with the details being provided by the applicants,” the official added.
List of applicants: So far, the government has received three proposals for chip manufacturing, including from the International Semiconductor Consortium (ISMC), led by Abu-Dhabi-based Next Orbit Ventures.
The other two applicants are Singapore-based IGSS Ventures and the Vedanta-Foxconn combine. Rajesh Exports and Vedanta-Foxconn are proposing to set up display fabs.
Also read | India likely to invite more companies to set up semiconductor units
EV deal with Tata Motors biggest for any ride-hailing platform: Uber India president
Ride-hailing company Uber has signed an agreement with Tata Motors to induct 25,000 electric vehicles (EVs) into its fleet. Uber will deploy Tata Motors’ Xpres-T EVs by partnering with fleet operators in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad.
Deliveries soon: Tata Motors will begin the EV deliveries to Uber fleet partners in a phased manner, starting this month.
Quote unquote: “This is the largest four-wheeler EV memorandum of understanding and this will likely catalyse further acceleration of the EV ecosystem,” Prabhjeet Singh, president of Uber India and South Asia, told ET.
Delhi government warns Ola, Uber, Rapido against bike taxi service: Bike taxi operators such as Ola, Uber, and Rapido have been warned not to ply on Delhi roads as it violates motor vehicle laws. These companies will be fined up to Rs 1 lakh, as the use of bikes for commercial purposes violated the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, the transport department said in a public notice.
Infographic Insight: cyber attacks on the insurance industry
The insurance industry is especially vulnerable to cyberattacks mainly because of the sensitive information it stores, suggested a recent report by Indusface, an application security SaaS company.
On average, the insurance sector faced 4,30,000 attacks per application in January 2023 alone.
Expert take: “The rise of bot attacks on the insurance industry is concerning as these tend to be more sophisticated and surgical. The potential risks that Indian insurers face range from unauthorised access to financial data and other sensitive information, or even the internal systems of the insurance company itself,” said Ashish Tandon, founder, and CEO, Indusface.
Tweet of the day
When Bing met ChatGPT
We tested the “new” Bing, which comes integrated with ChatGPT. After using it for a few days, this is what we found the AI turbocharged search engine can do.
Not replacing Google: We asked ChatGPT if it can end up replacing Google, and the answer was “no”.
Accuracy is an issue: On being asked to write a 300-word review of a newly launched phone, there were quite a few glaring errors. If you ask it to write a movie script about, say, two friends moving into a new city, the result is rather mediocre.
This is what it said when we asked if Elon Musk was a genius.
Elon Musk’s IQ is reported to be 155, which is very high compared to the average of 100. He has also achieved remarkable success in various fields such as engineering, entrepreneurship, and invention. Some people consider him to be a genius, while others question his decisions or ethics.
Other Top Stories By Our Reporters
Meta starts selling ‘verified’ badges on Instagram, and Facebook: Meta Inc-owned Facebook and Instagram will soon require users to pay to become ‘verified users on the social media platforms, as it follows in the footsteps of popular microblogging site Twitter.
Mintoak raises $20 million led by PayPal Ventures: Mintoak, a Software-as-a-Service platform focused on merchant services, has raised $20 million led by PayPal Ventures with participation from British International Investment, and existing investors HDFC Bank and Pravega Ventures.
Global Picks We Are Reading
■ Disappearance of dealmaker Bao Fan casts chill across China’s tech sector (FT)
■ AI is starting to pick who gets laid off (The Washington Post)
■ How to Make Data Privacy Real (NYT)
