Inside LeadSquared’s plans for IPO; Vehicle servicing with Jackit

Hello,

Reverse flipping is one costly affair.

Meesho will reportedly have to pay $288 million in taxes to move its headquarters from Delaware in the US to India. The ecommerce unicorn received the nod from NCLT to complete its redomiciling process. 

Meanwhile, some ride-hailing apps are also in a fix as the Karnataka High Court has enforced the state government’s ban on bike taxis. Although Rapido and Uber now display ‘bike courier’ options on their platforms, some wonder if those parcels can be humans too.

The move can potentially displace the jobs of some gig workers, but skilled workers are finding it hard, too.

An Indian tech company posted on Reddit that it couldn’t hire anyone for the role of a junior developer—offering up to Rs 20 lakh a year—despite receiving 12,000 applications. It reasoned that applicants relied heavily on AI tools for coding without grasping the logic behind their work. However, some pointed out that there is a “serious expectation mismatch.”

In other news, India has taken a decisive leap into the quantum era! 

DRDO and IIT Delhi successfully demonstrated quantum entanglement-based free-space secure communication over a distance exceeding 1 km, opening the door for developing quantum networks and quantum internet.

As a great scientist once said, “Spooky action at a distance!”

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• LeadSquared’s plans for IPO
• Vehicle servicing with Jackit
• Future of financial infrastructure

Here’s your trivia for today: What is the oldest known swimming stroke?

Interview

LeadSquared’s plans for IPO

While some industry veterans warn of an “AI winter” threatening traditional SaaS models, Indian SaaS unicorn LeadSquared is charting a different course. Rather than seeing AI as a threat, the company views it as a means to build sharper products and deliver more measurable outcomes.

“We are cognizant of the fact that we don’t have to use AI for the sake of AI. It’s not FOMO. It’s ultimately about what value you pass to the customers,” Prashant Singh, Co-founder and COO, LeadSquared, tells YourStory. 

Priorities:

• As several companies scramble to safeguard their businesses from AI disruption, LeadSquared is busy AI-powering theirs, betting that its purpose-built intelligence will separate winners from those merely surviving in the next wave of enterprise software.
• With IPO plans on the horizon and a clear path to profitability mapped out for the next 12-18 months, Singh’s contrarian bet on AI integration over AI anxiety may perhaps redefine how SaaS firms are perceiving the ongoing intelligence revolution.
• “R&D is one area where companies like ours have to keep investing, because we’re a tech company, and you simply can’t take your eye off the technology. R&D spending remains a priority, with a near-term focus on integrating AI to add customer value and executing our product roadmap,” Singh says.

Funding Alert

Startup: Aspora

Amount: $53M

Round: Series B

Startup: Nuvie

Amount: $450,000

Round: Pre-Seed

Startup

Vehicle servicing with Jackit

Jitendra Sharma and his co-founder, Devendra Didwanai, found that over 80% of vehicle owners avoid authorised service centres due to high costs, distances, and long wait times. But local garages, though cheaper, often lack quality control processes and transparency. 

It was to bridge this gap that the duo launched Jackit in October 2018; the startup officially started operations in late 2019.

Key takeaways:

• Jackit operates as a one-stop service centre offering maintenance, driving lessons, licensing help, vehicle buying and selling advice, and even vehicle deregistration.
• The startup plans to expand via a franchise-owned, company-operated model, with new centres scheduled to open in Thane and either Dahisar or Borivali by July 2025.
• Jackit is bootstrapped with Rs 20 lakh from the founders’ investment. It has reported a revenue of Rs 35 lakh in FY25 from its single service station, valuing the company at Rs 1.2 crore.

Interview

Future of financial infrastructure

From humble beginnings in 2014 to becoming a global leader in fintech infrastructure, M2P Fintech is revolutionising digital banking with AI-driven solutions, empowering businesses worldwide to offer seamless financial experiences.

News & updates

• Ads biz: Meta will now show ads from businesses through WhatsApp’s Stories-like status feature. The feature lives within WhatsApp’s “Updates” tab and allows users to share disappearing text, photos, voice notes, or video messages. But now, you might see sponsored content too.
• Data breach: Zoomcar revealed that a hacker accessed the personal data of at least 8.4 million customers, including their names, phone numbers, and car registration numbers. Zoomcar became aware of the incident after some of its employees received external communications from a threat actor.
• Overreach: A Dutch court on Monday confirmed a 2021 consumer watchdog‘s ruling saying that Apple had abused its dominant position by imposing unfair conditions on providers of dating apps in the App Store. Apple said it was planning to repeal it.

What is the oldest known swimming stroke?

Answer: Breaststroke. Cave paintings dating back over 7,000 years depict figures swimming using a stroke similar to the modern breaststroke.

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