Also in the letter:
■ CXO pay gap narrows
■ Private space race
■ Pure Storage CEO interview
Sebi curbs on speculation put new broking startups in a spot
At a time when the likes of Groww and Zerodha are staring at an erosion of 30 to 50% of their toplines, some founders are still starting up in this regulated sector. What is driving this enthusiasm?
Driving the news: Sahi, founded by former Swiggy CTO Dale Vaz along with Manish Jain, a former senior executive at Kotak Securities, was launched earlier this month. Punch began operations earlier this year by Market Pulse Securities, a registered stockbroker. Both these raised around $7 million from prominent early-stage investors.
Zoom out: There are enough opportunities in the Indian stock market which is severely under penetrated, say these founders. Their investors believe that with the right product and the right educational material, they can not only train new-age traders but also help them become long-term investors.
Finding focus: A venture investor who has backed companies in this sector said that most of these deals have been in the making for a while. Also, with retail investors losing money in options trading, the sector is likely to remain niche, and competitors will keep taking away each other’s client base with better pricing and sometimes a superior product.
Also Read: Discount brokers board margin funding biz with revenue channels under lens
Not just for merchant pay, UPI One World to soon go personal
UPI One World was launched with much fanfare during the G20 summit last year and in June 2024 it was extended to travellers coming in from almost every country. But why is the payment mode not gaining popularity among foreigners?
Next steps: Industry sources say that UPI One World, which is only available for transactions at merchant locations now, could be opened up for peer-to-peer (P2P) payments sometime early next year. This move is being seriously considered by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), they said.
Tell me more: There are five companies allowed to issue these UPI One World wallets. Executives at these firms said they are looking to drive direct integrations with the Ministry of External Affairs to bypass a physical know your customer (KYC) process. They feel this will go a long way to get foreigners entering India to open One World wallets and make UPI payments during their stay here.
Also Read: UPI reigns supreme in digital payments kingdom
Pay packets of Indian CXOs get fatter faster
The gap between the pay of Indian CXOs and those from the US may be narrowing as multinationals and global capability centres (GCCs) reward leadership with handsome salaries.
What’s happening: While US CXO pay grew 15% between 2020 and 2024, Indian counterparts saw a 40% increase, according to hiring firms like EMA Partners, Insist Consulting, Michael Page, Randstad, Teamlease and Avsar.
Key insights:
- Adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), Indian CXOs are approaching parity with their US peers.
- CEO compensation in India has surged, with an average of Rs 13.8 crore in 2024, up 40% from the pre-Covid period.
- Some GCC roles in India now rival US salaries, with total pay packages (including stocks) nearing $1 million.
Other Top Stories By Our Reporters
Pawan Goenka, chairman, IN-SPACe
Space startups team up to bid for government’s satellite constellation: Several Indian private space sector companies, including Pixxel, Dhruva Space, and SatSure, are bidding together as a consortium to build and operate a Rs 1,500-crore mega constellation of earth observation (EO) satellites, sources told us.
‘For enterprises, preparing data for AI will be a big challenge’: Data localisation is becoming a very large issue for multinationals as well as Indian companies, Charles Giancarlo, chief executive of US flash data storage company Pure Storage, told us.
Global Picks We Are Reading
■ OpenAI brings ChatGPT to your landline (TechCrunch)
■ Amazon delays RTO mandate for thousands of workers due to space (Bloomberg)
■ Microsoft acquires twice as many Nvidia AI chips as tech rivals (FT)
