Ola Electric’s Q2 loss shrinks; Shareholder buybacks or worker wellbeing

Hello,

The much-anticipated Swiggy IPO is now fully subscribed. 

On Friday, the third and last day of its book-building process, the foodtech giant saw its public offer oversubscribed 3.59 times driven by demand from qualified institutional buyers. 

By the end of the bidding process, Swiggy’s IPO received bids for 57.53 crore shares compared to the 16.01 crore shares on offer. 

While that happened in the markets, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) is reportedly looking into Swiggy’s and Zomato's business practices to check if they are violating competition laws.

According to Reuters, Zomato entered into "exclusivity contracts" with partners in return for lower commissions, while Swiggy promised business growth to certain players if they listed exclusively on its platform. 

In other news, meet Meta Ray-Bans’ new rival: Baidu. 

The Chinese company is set to unveil a pair of glasses with a built-in AI assistant at its annual Baidu World event in Shanghai next week. 

Bloomberg reported that the gadget will have built-in cameras to capture photos and videos and will support voice interactions built atop Baidu’s Ernie foundation model.

Lastly, check out this REALLY old piece of wedding cake that sold for £2,200 ($2,800) this week.

As inedible as it can be, this eight-decade-old royal cake comes neatly packed in an intricate box!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Ola Electric’s Q2 loss shrinks
• Shareholder buybacks or worker wellbeing
• Building a biotech company

Here’s your trivia for today: Bangui is the capital of which land-locked African country?

Electric Vehicles

Ola Electric’s Q2 loss shrinks



Ola Electric's net loss narrowed in the second quarter of FY25 as the Bhavish Aggarwal-led EV maker reported a 39% jump in sales. 

The company reported a net loss of Rs 495 crore for the July-September quarter, down from Rs 524 crore in the year-ago period. Its revenue from operations jumped to Rs 1,214 crore in Q2 from Rs 873 crore a year earlier.

Highs and lows:

• In a shareholder letter, Ola Electric said that it delivered 98,619 scooters in the quarter, up 74% from the previous year.
• The results come days after the EV maker’s share price fell below its listing price, two months after the company listed on Indian stock exchanges.
• Addressing recent reports of 80,000 monthly service interactions, the Ola Electric founder clarified in an earnings call that these figures arise from routine maintenance and minor inquiries, and are not solely complaints.

<Top Deals of the Week>

Startup: Easy Home Finance

Amount: $35M

Round: Series B

Startup: Boldfit 

Amount: Rs 110 Cr

Round: Series A

Startup: CynLr 

Amount: $10M

Round: Series A

SaaS

Shareholder buybacks or employee wellbeing

In what appears to be a criticism of the recent layoffs at Freshworks, Zoho Corp Founder Sridhar Vembu said that a cash-rich company prioritising shareholder buybacks over employee retention should not expect any loyalty from its employees. 

Although he did not name the company, Vembu’s comments come a day after Freshworks slashed around 13% of its global headcount, impacting 660 employees out of its 5,000-strong workforce.

Key takeaways:

• Freshworks CEO Dennis Woodside, in an internal memo, said the decision reflects the company’s focus on key growth areas, including AI, employee experience, and customer experience offerings.
• The company also announced that its board of directors has approved a stock repurchase programme, authorising the buyback of up to $400 million in outstanding Class A common stock.
• Vembu expressed concern over the increasing trend of US corporations prioritising shareholder value over employee well-being, warning that India is at risk of adopting the same approach. 

Women Entrepreneur

Building a biotech company

Growing up in a traditional Marwari family in Mumbai, where the emphasis was on following conventional paths like education and marriage, Rishita Changede chose to be an outlier with a passion for science and technology.

She founded Teora Lifesciences in 2020, a biotech startup focused on using synthetic biology for sustainable solutions in aquaculture and agriculture.

Innovative solutions:

• Teora offers a range of products designed to address disease management and improve growth in aquaculture.
• Based in Bengaluru, Teora works with a diverse team with backgrounds in synthetic biology, bioinformatics, and precision fermentation.
• Since its inception, the company has raised funding from a global network of investors spanning the US, Europe, Singapore, and India, and through international grants and awards.

News & updates

• Economy: China unveiled a 10 trillion yuan ($1.40 trillion) debt package to ease local government financing strains and stabilise flagging economic growth, as it faces fresh pressure from the re-election of Donald Trump as US president.
• Employment: AI could displace between 1 million and 3 million private sector jobs in the UK, though the ultimate rise in unemployment will be in the low hundreds of thousands. Between 60,000 and 275,000 jobs will be displaced every year over a couple of decades at the peak of the disruption, the Tony Blair Institute suggests.
• Exciting: Doctors are hailing a “groundbreaking” new treatment for lupus that genetically modifies a patient’s cells to fight the autoimmune disease and could end the need for lifelong medication. About 5 million people worldwide are thought to have the condition, which mostly affects women.

Bangui is the capital of which land-locked African country?

Answer: Central African Republic

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.