The letter also states:
■ Paytm shares improve
■ ETtech Completed Deals
■ Amazon's AI shopping assistant
Apple plant in India could create 600,000 jobs by March
As Apple continues to expand its operations in India, its ecosystem is expected to create 600,000 jobs by the end of this financial year.
By number: According to estimates and data submitted to the government, Apple will create 2,00,000 direct jobs in its Indian workforce by the end of March, with women accounting for 70% of the total.
Apple's three contract manufacturers in India – Foxconn, Wistron (now Tata Electronics) and Pegatron – have created 80,872 direct jobs so far. Broader suppliers, including Tata Group, Salcomp, Motherson, Foxlink, Sunwoda, ATL and Jabil, have collectively created about 84,000 direct jobs.
Read this also | How the Tata Group's growing presence is transforming Tamil Nadu's industrial hub Hosur
India's plans: “Overall, Apple vendors and suppliers have created about 165,000 direct jobs since the launch of the smartphone PLI (production-linked incentive) scheme (in 2020),” said an official aware of the details. In addition, the Tata Group’s twin facility in Hosur, Tamil Nadu is expected to hire about 50,000 employees over time.
New CFO appointed: On Monday, Apple appointed Kevan Parekh as its chief financial officer, replacing veteran Luca Maestri. Parekh, who has been with Apple for more than a decade, will join the company's executive committee and take over as CFO on January 1, 2025.
Read this also | Apple appoints Indian-origin Kevan Parekh as CFO: 10 things to know
Catch up quickly: The announcement comes ahead of Apple's fall event, which will be held in Cupertino, California on September 9. The tech giant is expected to launch its new iPhone series with much-awaited AI features.
Read this also | Apple is doubling down on its India manufacturing plans
Zomato to allow resale of event tickets purchased from its app
Food delivery major Zomato on Tuesday announced the launch of a secondary marketplace for event ticketing on its platform.
tell me more: Called 'Book Now, Sell Anytime', the feature allows users who have purchased event tickets from Zomato to sell tickets on the app. It will go live on September 30, opening bookings for Zomato's Feeding India concert, which will feature pop singer Dua Lipa as the headliner.
Checking arrangement: To ensure that the feature does not encourage unfair practices such as unfair pricing, Zomato said it has put in place certain checks and balances.
Zeina Vilkasim, CEO of Zomato Live Entertainment, wrote in a blog post that Zomato will limit the number of tickets that can be purchased and sold by customers in each category to 10.
He wrote that the highest price at which they can list their tickets will be capped at 2 times the current stage price on the Zomato app.
Read this also | Zomato shuts down intercity food delivery service Legends due to lack of product-market fit
Bulking up: The announcement comes at a time when Zomato is looking to double down on its going-out business, for which it will launch a new app called District. The company on August 21 announced that it was buying Paytm's events and movie ticketing business in a cash deal valued at Rs 2,048 crore.
We later reported that BookMyShow, the leader in India's entertainment ticketing market, could face tough competition from Zomato.
In a letter to shareholders, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal said the company expects the gross order value of its take-out vertical to more than triple to over Rs 10,000 crore by FY26.
Paytm shares jump after fintech issues clarification on SEBI notice
Shares of Paytm's parent company One97 Communications surged after the company issued clarifications regarding the show-cause notices issued to founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and other former board members.
Description: Paytm shares rose 3.5% to hit an intraday high of Rs 548.70 on BSE, closing at Rs 544.75.
Source: Google
The company's stock had closed over 4% lower at Rs 530.05 on the BSE on Monday, amid reports that Sebi had issued a show-cause notice to Sharma and board members who served on it during its IPO in November 2021 for allegedly misrepresenting facts.
Read this also | Paytm may turn profitable by 2027: Bernstein report
Paytm's response: Paytm said Sebi had issued a notice on employee stock options granted to Sharma in the March 2024 quarter. In response to a query from the stock exchanges, Paytm said the notice is not a new development, and the company is in regulatory contact with the market regulator to make necessary representations.
Additionally, Sharma has also sought to settle the securities law violation case with SEBI.
Read this also | Paytm Money appoints former AMFI CEO NV Srinivasan to its board
ETtech Completed Deals
Ritesh Arora, Co-founder, BrowserStack
SaaS unicorn BrowserStack acquires Berlin-based startup Bird Eats Bug: BrowserStack, an Excel-backed mobile and web software testing platform, has acquired Berlin-based bug reporting startup Bird Eats Bug in a deal worth $20 million. Valued at $4 billion when it last raised capital in 2021, BrowserStack is one of the most valuable Indian software product startups.
GVK Group heir Keshav Reddy invests in One Money: Keshav Reddy, founder of identity verification startup Equal, has invested an undisclosed amount for a strategic stake in Hyderabad-based account aggregator platform One Money. The company did not disclose the details of the deal.
Finarkine Analytics raises $4.75 million: Data analytics firm Finarken Analytics has raised $4.75 million in a funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners. Existing investors IIFL's Fintech Fund and Eximius Ventures also participated in the round, along with angel investors like Nitin Gupta of Uni and Chirag Jain of Ashika Group.
Conwin receives $6.5 million in funding for expansion plans: AI-powered conversation intelligence platform Convin has raised $6.5 million in a funding round led by India Quotient. Chief Executive Ashish Santhalia said the money will be used to expand the Bengaluru-based company's core team and distribution channels.
Deeptech startup DeepMatrix raises $1.6m: Deeptech startup DeepMatrix has raised $1.6 million in a funding round led by YourNest and Arali Ventures. The round also saw participation from angel investors including Abhishek Goyal, founder of data intelligence platform Tracxn.
Amazon unveils AI-powered shopping assistant in India
Amazon India has launched its artificial intelligence-powered shopping assistant 'Rufus' in the domestic market amid preparations for the festive season.
Helping Hand: Rufus can help shoppers get product recommendations, get shopping list advice, compare product categories, and see what other customers have said in response to their specific questions, among other things.
It is trained on Amazon’s own data on product listings, community discussions, and customer reviews, and runs on an internal large language model (LLM) specialized for shopping.
tell me more: Rufus is currently available in beta mode for only a few customers in India, and will be made available to more users “in the coming weeks.” It was first announced in the US in February this year, then made widely available to all customers in July.
Read this also | Amazon India chief Manish Tiwary resigns due to increased competition
Today's ETtech Top 5 newsletter is curated by Megha Mishra in Mumbai.