Also in the letter:
■ TCS Q3 profits up 5.5%
■ Dunzo CEO joins Flipkart
■ Meta shifts fact-checking
SaaS firm Innovaccer closes $275 million funding to build more on AI, cloud
L-R Sandeep Gupta, Abhinav Shashank, Kanav Hasija, cofounders, Innovaccer
Healthcare-focused software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm Innovaccer Inc said it has raised $275 million in a mix of primary funding and secondary sale by existing shareholders.
Deal details: Key investors include B Capital Group, Kaiser Permanente, and M12, alongside Banner Health, Danaher Ventures LLC, and Generation Investment Management. The funding talks which started last year mark the closure of one of the biggest SaaS deals amid a global recalibration of valuations in the sector.
We first reported about Kaiser Permanente investing in Innovaccer on May 2 last year.
Tell me more: Kaiser Permanente, which provides health insurance, medical care and related services, has been a customer of Innovaccer. It has a partnership with Innovaccer’s AI platform to enhance patient data aggregation and improve value-added services. Prior to this, Mubadala Capital led Innovaccer’s $150 million funding in December 2021.
Creaegis may fund Giva, doubling valuation to $470-500 million
Team Giva
Giva, which specialises in silver jewellery and recently entered the lab-grown diamonds segment, is in talks with private equity fund Creaegis to raise $80-100 million at a valuation of $470-500 million, people in the know said.
Driving the news:
- The proposed post-money valuation is more than two times the valuation post the last funding round just two months ago, underlining the high investor interest in new-age jewellery businesses.
- Giva currently has an annual revenue run rate of Rs 700 crore. It posted nearly Rs 280 crore in revenue with close to Rs 59 crore loss in fiscal 2024.
Other competitors:
- Accel-backed jewellery retailer Bluestone is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) and has filed its draft application papers for the issue with the market regulator.
- The company is seeking a valuation of over Rs 12,000 crore for the IPO, a 50% premium compared to its valuation at the last private market fundraising, as first reported by ET on December 13.
Also Read: Bluestone sees 64% revenue growth in FY24, narrows losses amid rising expenses
Restaurants up in arms against Swiggy, Zomato’s 10-minute apps
The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) is planning to approach the antitrust watchdog against Zomato and Swiggy again to raise its concerns over their recently launched standalone apps facilitating 10-minute food delivery.
Driving the news: Zomato-owned Blinkit recently launched Bistro, followed by Swiggy unveiling its app Snacc, both enabling quick delivery of food. The NRAI claims that this amounts to the companies operating private labels, which impacts their restaurant partners.
The restaurant body already has a case against the two companies at the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for alleged anti-competitive behaviour.
Also Read: What’s cooking at Swiggy, Zomato? New business recipes
How this works: Bistro and Snacc procure food and beverages from third-party vendors and deliver them via their quick commerce dark stores. But the companies also have a 15-minute food delivery service via aggregating restaurants.
NRAI president Sagar Daryani told us quick commerce in food has the body’s full support as long as restaurants are part of it, but it becomes contentious when food delivery companies start selling these products themselves.
Also Read: Decoding Swiggy’s standalone app Snacc and the 15 minute food delivery frenzy
The big picture:
Expansion underway: On Thursday, Swiggy told the exchanges that it will launch a standalone app for its quick commerce vertical Instamart.
Also Read: Swiggy unboxes professional services app Pyng under house of apps strategy
TCS Q3 profit up 3.9% QoQ, lags estimates
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Tata Consultancy Services said its net profit grew to Rs 12,380 crore in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, clocking a lower-than-expected expansion of 3.9% sequentially and 5.5% year-on-year (YoY) as demand slowed in its primary markets across the US and the UK amid the holiday season.
Financials report:
- On a YoY basis, revenue grew 5.59%
- Operating margins dropped 40 basis points (bps) from a year ago
- Headcount was down by 5,370 from the previous quarter.
CEO speak: Chief executive officer K Krithivasan sounded an optimistic note saying there is “improvement in sentiments on discretionary spend”, especially in the key verticals of banking, financial services, consumer business, and a few other verticals.
Dunzo’s Kabeer Biswas to head Flipkart’s Minutes
Kabeer Biswas, cofounder and chief executive of cash-strapped Dunzo, is joining Flipkart to lead its quick commerce business, Minutes, sources told us.
- Biswas is set to join the ecommerce giant on January 13 and will work closely with senior vice president Hemant Badri.
- The Dunzo cofounder was in talks with Flipkart throughout 2024 regarding this appointment.
- The Walmart-backed firm was exploring buying out crisis-laden Dunzo, but the deal never materialised.
- Dunzo investors told us that Biswas had briefed them on his departure.
Also Read: Dunzo’s demise: How the Reliance-backed hyperlocal delivery startup unravelled
Between the lines: Dunzo, one of the early movers in quick commerce, now stands irrelevant in the red-hot sector with the exit of its last standing cofounder.
“Nothing much is left there ( Dunzo), so it will survive as is. The cases in NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) will progress on their own schedule,” a person in the know said. Former Dunzo executives, including cofounder Ankur Agarwal, are setting up new ventures in the quick commerce space.
Read ETtech’s in-depth coverage of Dunzo:
Other Top Stories By Our Reporters
Meta’s fact-checking decision sets off alarm bells in India: Social media conglomerate Meta has decided to do away with the third-party fact-checking programme in the US and will instead rely on user-generated community notes to cross-check and establish the veracity of content on its platforms.
Treebo’s FY24 revenue climbs 23% to Rs 109 crore: Treebo Hospitality Ventures (THV), the parent company of hotel chain Treebo Hotels has reported a 23% increase in operating revenue to Rs 109 crore for the fiscal year ended March 2024. However, its losses widened by approximately 15% to Rs 28 crore during the same period.
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