Instamart weighs heavy on Swiggy’s bottomline; Unicommerce doubles down on profitability

Hello,

It’s a whirlwind of an earnings season.

Swiggy’s quick commerce drive is impacting its bottomline, widening its Q2 losses by nearly 75% YoY to Rs 1,092 crore. While Instamart’s gross order value and average order value both increased, its core operational loss widened significantly to Rs 739 crore. 

Meanwhile, there’s a party at Shiprocket as the logistics-tech unicorn reported a full-year positive cash EBITDA for the first time in FY25, marking a significant milestone in its profitability journey. Shiprocket’s core business grew over 20% YoY to Rs 1,306 crore, maintaining a margin profile of around 12%.

IPO-bound Captain Fresh also has a reason to celebrate, as the B2B seafood supplier unlocked profitability in FY25, registering a net profit of Rs 42.43 crore. The company also recorded a 2.5x rise in revenue, putting it on track for a $350–400 million public issue planned for later this year.

ICYMI: Here’s how Big Tech performed in Q2.

Lastly, TechSparks 2025, India’s largest startup-tech summit, is only a week away! This year, the spotlight is squarely on AI and deeptech, and how startups are using new tech to redefine business, public systems, and daily life. 

Check out the agenda and book your tickets here.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Unicommerce doubles down on profitability
• Groww targets Rs 61,700 Cr IPO valuation
• India’s electric tractor market

Here’s your trivia for today: On which products did Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru impose an import ban in 1952 to conserve foreign exchange?

In-depth

Unicommerce doubles down on profitability

Unicommerce’s public foray last year was a bold move for a SaaS company of its scale. Many questioned the timing since most startups typically choose to list only after achieving larger revenue milestones. However, Unicommerce defied the trend. 

With around Rs 100 crore in revenue (FY23) at the time of listing, the company leaned on its strong profitability metrics, solid fundamentals, and parentage under AceVector (which also owns Snapdeal) to pull off one of the most successful startup IPOs in recent memory.

Key takeaways:

• The public listing at an issue price of Rs 108 saw the IPO oversubscribed 168X. The stock is trading at around Rs 135, giving Unicommerce a market capitalisation of roughly Rs 1,500 crore—a signal that the market continues to back its business model.
• Unicommerce’s software helps over 7,000 brands manage orders, inventory, and warehousing across multiple sales channels—from online marketplaces and D2C websites to offline stores and quick-commerce platforms. 
• While many newly listed tech firms grapple with rising costs and market pressure, Unicommerce says it has managed to maintain financial discipline. MD and CEO Kapil Makhija attributes this to a subscription-led model that ensures predictable revenue and scalable margins.

Funding Alert

Startup: SalarySe

Amount: $11.3M

Round: Series A

Startup: Jupiter Money

Amount: Rs 115 Cr

Round: Fresh

Startup: PointAI

Amount: Rs 47 Cr

Round: Pre-Series A

Fintech

Groww targets Rs 61,700 Cr IPO valuation

Billionbrains Garage Ventures, the parent company of Groww, has set a price band of Rs 95 to Rs 100 a share for its IPO, seeking a valuation of about Rs 61,736 crore. The Bengaluru-based company will open its books for subscription on November 4 and close on November 7, according to its red herring prospectus.

Heading to markets:

• The share sale comprises a Rs 1,060 crore fresh issue and an offer for sale (OFS) of Rs 5,572.3 crore, giving existing investors a sizeable liquidity event. 
• That makes the primary issuance just 16% of the total issue size, with the remainder enabling venture backers such as Peak XV Partners, Ribbit Capital, YC Holdings, and Alkeon Capital to pare stakes.
• If fully subscribed, Groww’s IPO would rank among India’s largest fintech listings since Paytm’s debut in 2021, though with a leaner balance of new capital infusion and secondary share sales.

Insights

India’s electric tractor market

The EV revolution in India might have been driven by metro cities, but today, many OEMs are seeing rising sales from Tier II and III cities, towns, and villages. This rising demand for EVs, coupled with regulatory support, has helped widen their use cases—from ambulances to trucks and now to even tractors. 

According to data from the Vahan registry, India registered 25 electric tractors in 2025. While this number remains minuscule compared to two-wheeler, three-wheeler, and four-wheeler sales, it indicates a growing demand, with the market expanding by 66% YoY. However, this growth is not without challenges. 

News & updates

• AI users: Jio users will get major AI access after Reliance and Google announced an 18-month free offer of Google AI Pro, valued at Rs 35,100 per user. The plan gives subscribers access to Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro model, advanced image and video generation tools, research features in Notebook LM, and 2 TB of cloud storage.
• Spending: Meta aims to sell at least $25 billion of investment-grade bonds after CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned the company would spend even more aggressively on AI in the coming year. Meta’s stock dropped over 10% as investor scepticism mounted after Zuckerberg’s announcement.
• Rare Earth: Indian companies received licences for importing rare earth magnets from China. Further, China also agreed to delay the latest round of rare earth export controls as part of a deal agreed between US and Chinese leaders, but previous restrictions remain in place.

On which products did Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru impose an import ban in 1952 to conserve foreign exchange?

Answer: Lipsticks and other cosmetics. This led to the founding of Lakmé Cosmetics as a homegrown premium cosmetics brand.

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