Indian unicorns, or startups with a valuation of at least $1 billion, are defying the conventional logic of valuations being based on future earnings. As their losses widen, private investors are rewarding them with even higher valuations. In fiscal 2016, for instance, when Paytm parent One97 Communications Ltd posted a loss of ₹1,497 crore, it was valued at ₹30,747 crore or about $5 billion. Three years later, its losses have nearly tripled, with a consolidated loss of ₹4,217.20 crore for the year ended 31 March. In the same period, the Noida-based firm’s valuation tripled to $15 billion.

Publication : Livemint

Date : September 11, 2019

Homegrown e-commerce platform Flipkart sells most of the furniture bought from online platforms and dominates the market in India with a whopping 41% share. With this, Flipkart has left behind major players such as Amazon, Pepperfry, Urban Ladder and Godrej Interio, a recent report said. While the sale of furniture by the online medium is gaining momentum, Flipkart has performed better than the competition as it is the “first retailer to offer durability certification and warranty commitment for online customers,” consultancy firm RedSeer said in the latest report.

Publication : Financial Express

Date : September 12, 2019

Online furniture market place Pepperfry is betting big on the kids’ furniture segment and is eyeing gross merchandise value (GMV) of Rs 500 crore from this segment by 2021, according to Hussaine Kesury, Chief Category Officer. In a candid chat with Moneycontrol, Kesury said that overall the company is aiming to touch gross merchandise value of $1 billion (Rs 7,100 crore) by 2021, of which Rs 3500 crore will be contributed by house brands and Rs 500 crore by the kids furniture segment alone. Pepperfry kids’ furniture category currently contributes around Rs 65 crore.

Publication : Moneycontrol

Date : September 11, 2019

Walmart-backed Flipkart, one of the largest players in the Indian e-commerce market, is currently on a mission—to solve unique Indian problems through innovation. The company is investing heavily in technology with a focus on democratising e-commerce in India. The company has realised that though close to 500 million people in India have access to the internet, only a fraction of them do anything more than just browse or watch videos. The top management of the company realised that 90 per cent of the new internet users in the country are native language speakers coming from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and typing and searching in English is complex for them.

Publication : The Week

Date : September 12, 2019

While the young in India struggle to find jobs, the country’s middle-aged elite professionals are hitting dead ends in their careers. Automation and slow economic growth have led to fundamental changes in businesses worldwide, and that has had an unkind effect on senior executives. From unexpected job losses and fewer opportunities to scale the ladder, to redundancy and boredom, they are facing career threats their parents never had to grapple with. Unfortunately, most top colleges do not groom for leadership. “IIT-IIM types know how to crack the system and get a great start to their careers because, in the beginning, companies recruit for Six Sigma IQs”

Publication : Quartz

Date : September 12, 2019