Will AI take or create more jobs; Bridging the employment gap

Hello,

You win some, you lose some. It’s about how you bounce back.

The stock market rebounded yesterday after the election-day rout. Equity investors became richer by Rs 13.22 lakh crore, with the BSE Sensex rallying 3.2% to 74,382. Nifty 50 also showed a resurgence, up 3.36% at the end of trading day.

The National Stock Exchange also created a world record, handling 1,971 crore orders during the day—the highest ever—and facilitated 28.55 crore trades per day. 

The bourses have another reason to cheer as travel aggregator ixigo is the latest startup to soon go public.

Its parent Le Travenues Technology’s IPO will open for bids on June 10 and close on June 12. The company has priced its shares in the range of Rs 88 - Rs 93, and is planning to raise Rs 740 crore through a combination of fresh issue of shares and an offer-for-sale component.

In other news, some of BYJU’S’ lenders have filed petitions in a US court to initiate involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings against its subsidiaries Epic, Tynker, and Osmo. They seek to protect and maximise the value of the troubled edtech’s US-based operating entities.

Meanwhile, UPI is taking over the world.

After Nepal, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, and others, NPCI announced a partnership with Central Reserve Bank of Peru to introduce UPI-like real-time payments in the South American country.

Lastly, cats love to throw things off the table. The solution? An anti-cat table!

Now, that’s a smart decision.

Smarter decisions start with this smart decision. The CapTable subscriptions are available at Rs 999 Rs 1,999 for a limited period. Hurry up and get the deal now!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• AI to create more jobs: SHRM Head
• Bridging the employment gap
• Fibe raises $90M in Series E round

Here’s your trivia for today: In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which constituency had the lowest number of polling stations?

Interview

AI to create more jobs: SHRM Head

Every time the topic of AI comes up, it inevitably raises questions and concerns about the future of work and whether the adoption of AI will replace human minds and lead to massive job losses. 

Allaying these concerns and fears, industry veteran and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) India, Asia-Pacific, and MENA, Achal Khanna, says human intellect will always be valued, and the world must not look at AI as a threat. 

Highlights:

• Khanna believes the human mind is an unparalleled creation and should never be underestimated.
• AI will create more jobs in the future, assures Khanna, who has over 30 years of work experience in diverse leadership roles across multiple organisations. The key is to ensure human intelligence is on top of AI. 
• SHRM, a 75-year-old organisation headquartered in the US, is the world’s largest professional association devoted to human resource management, with 340,000 members across 193 countries.

Funding Alert

Startup: Fibe

Amount: $90M

Round: Series E

Startup: Testsigma

Amount: $8.2M

Round: Undisclosed

Startup: Botsync

Amount: $5.2M

Round: Series A

Startup

Bridging the employment gap

Savita Srivastava observed a gap in the recruitment process during her 10 years of experience in business management, team management, and pan-India hiring across sectors. She realised resumes alone were insufficient for recruiters to make informed decisions. 

She and Satish Dadi founded KonnectNXT in 2023 to replace traditional resumes and address recruitment process shortcomings. 

Hiring needs:

• KonnectNXT is a B2B AI-powered SaaS platform that optimises talent databases for recruiters and offers data points of job seekers extracted from open web platforms such as LinkedIn and GitHub.
• The platform streamlines the initial screening process, providing resumes for the best-fit candidates with detailed insights. The company claims it enables profile creation in under 30 seconds.
• It also offers AI-powered skill matching based on job descriptions to filter relevant job applications, with a 90% resume read accuracy.

Fintech

Fibe raises $90M in Series E round

Consumer lending platform Fibe has raised $90 million in its Series E round led by TR Capital, Trifecta Capital, and Amara Partners in the backdrop of increased regulatory scrutiny on fintech players. 

The funding comes just days after the RBI formally launched a fintech repository to aid policymakers in understanding the ecosystem and formulating regulations, further underscoring the trend of increasing regulatory scrutiny in the sector. 

Key takeaways:

• Existing investors TPG Rise Fund, Norwest Venture Partners, Eight Roads Venture, and Chiratae Ventures also participated in the round, which included both primary and secondary transactions.
• Fibe plans to deploy the funding to enhance its impact lending portfolio by focusing on market outreach and curating tailor-made lending products. 
• The company offers personal and impact loans in multiple categories including healthcare, edtech, insurance financing, and school fees financing.

News & updates

• Changing priorities: Elon Musk admitted diverting Nvidia’s latest AI chips originally destined for Tesla to his latest startup xAI and social media company X. Musk explained the move by saying the chips, used for training neural networks, were better used elsewhere at the time. 
• David vs Goliath: The small Irish takeaway chain Supermac’s has won a court battle with McDonald’s over the use of the Big Mac trademark, paving the way for it to open outlets across Europe. The ruling also means the US fast food multinational has lost the right to use the name “Big Mac” in the EU in relation to chicken burgers.
• New deliveries: Akasa Air expects deliveries of Boeing's 737 MAX 10 planes by the summer of 2027 and also expects the aircraft to be certified by then. The carrier had ordered 150 737 MAX narrowbody planes in January, including the MAX 10 and MAX 8-200 versions. 

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which constituency had the lowest number of polling stations?

Answer: Lakshadweep, at 51 polling stations.

We would love to hear from you! To let us know what you liked and disliked about our newsletter, please mail [email protected]. 

If you don’t already get this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here. For past editions of the YourStory Buzz, you can check our Daily Capsule page here.