ETSA 2022 nominees; CCI fines Google again; and Policybazaar expects profitability by FY24

By Kevin Colleran On Oct 26, 2022

We have a packed edition of the ETtech Morning Dispatch today. A good beginning to the official start of the week after a long Diwali weekend.

After revealing the ten-member, high-powered jury for the The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA) 2022 and the nominees for Bootstrap Champ, Top Innovator, Comeback Kid, Social Enterprise and Best on Campus, we bring to you today the contenders for two more important categories – Woman Ahead and Midas Touch. That is not all, we have other big stories lined up for you.

Also in the letter:
■ CCI fines Google yet again for unfair practices
■ Policybazaar founders on profitability, stock performance and more
■ Adani group may enter vehicle fleet operating business

Nominees for the Woman Ahead and Midas Touch categories

Woman Ahead: As the name suggests, this award recognises women who have started their own ventures and are giving tough competition to the best in the business. Nominees in this category must be CEOs at their startups, unless there is no one with a CEO designation. The women up for this year’s award run a diverse set of startups. The nominees are:

Meghana Narayan and Shauravi Malik, Slurrp Farm
Supriya Paul, Josh Talks
Smita Deorah, Lead School
Saroja Yeramilli, Melorra
Suhasini Sampath and Anindita Sampath, Yoga Bar

More about the Woman Ahead nominees here

Midas Touch: This award will recognise the most lucrative exit during the past year. The jury decision will also be made based on the size of the exits and the overall performance of the investor as an early backer of what have now become large outcomes. Take a look at this year’s stellar nominees:

Vikram Vaidyanathan, Matrix Partners India
Mohit Bhatnagar, Sequoia Capital India
Shekhar Kirani, Accel India
Suvir Sujan, Nexus Venture Partners
Akshay Tanna, TPG Growth

Read more about them here

Value creation will matter more than valuation: ETSA jury

October 28, the day the 10-member jury led by Salil Parekh, chief executive and managing director of Infosys, will pick the next cohort of ETSA winners, is drawing closer. In the runup to their deliberations, we spoke to two more jury members about their expectations from the winners.

Lizzie Chapman, CEO & cofounder of ZestMoney, and Girish Mathrubootham, Founder & CEO of Freshworks Inc, said they will be evaluating each startup’s ability to adapt to macro changes, turn a crisis into an opportunity, and build a competitive, resilient and sustainable business that will differentiate it from the also-rans in a crowded field.

Read more about what they said about their expectations from the startups

Read | ET Startup Awards 2022: Jury looks for an upstart that can go the distance

Earlier, jury member Shailendra Singh, MD, Sequoia India & Southeast Asia, had said that the ideal winners will be startups that are not just successful today but have the potential to be category-defining, enduring companies that can shape the ecosystem over the next few decades.

Read | ET Startup Awards 2022: Jury looks for profit-focused contenders

CCI fines Google yet again for unfair practises

India’s anti-trust regulator, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), on October 25 imposed a penalty of Rs 936.44 crore on Google for abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies. This is the second time CCI has imposed a monetary penalty on Google in the past week, after the Rs 1,337.76-crore fine imposed on October 20.

Forced to use Google apps: CCI noted that Google Play store requires app developers to exclusively use Google Play’s Billing System (GPBS) for all customer billings. It directed Google to “not restrict app developers from using any third party billing/payment processing services”.

Regulator says: “Making access to the Play Store dependent on mandatory usage of GPBS for paid apps and in-app purchases is one-sided and arbitrary and devoid of any legitimate business interest,” the CCI said in a press release on Tuesday. “The app developers are left bereft of the inherent choice to use payment processor of their liking from the open market.”

Significance of the order: The CCI order signals a stronger clampdown on Google by the regulator, and lays down India’s first official stance on in-app payments by OS operators such as Google and Apple.

Read more on why the order holds importance

Will benefit Indian entrepreneurs: Reacting to the CCI order against Google, startups said that it will ‘benefit and protect’ Indian entrepreneurs from ‘digital colonialism’.

They said the commission charged by Google makes operating a digital startup unviable. “I welcome the CCI verdict because it has clearly indicated that Google abused their dominance,” Murugavel Janakiraman, founder-CEO of BharatMatrimony, told us.

No change in status quo: CCI’s order against Google gives smartphone manufacturers the freedom to choose alternatives to the US tech major’s app ecosystem, but a lack of popular substitutes means it is not going to disturb the status quo for at least some time, said industry insiders and experts.

There are no real alternatives at present for consumers for apps like YouTube and Google Maps, said Navkendar Singh, associate vice president at market research firm IDC India.

Exclusive | Policybazaar founders on profitability, stock performance and more

As Indian insurtech major PB Fintech inches closer to completing a year since listing on the Indian bourses in November, its executive chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Yashish Dahiya told ET in an exclusive interaction that the company is now looking to record a profit after tax in FY24. Alok Bansal, cofounder and executive vice-chairman, also joined us for the interaction.

Profitability mindset: Dahiya said PB Fintech expects a roughly five-fold growth in revenue to Rs 2,000 crore–Rs 2,400 crore by FY23. The cofounder added that towards the last quarter of FY23, PB Fintech will be in the green at an adjusted Ebitda level.

He added that the company’s core business has been profitable for the last three quarters now. Dahiya added the company is projecting profits of around Rs 1,000 crore by FY27, still growing the bottomline 60-70%.

Lock-in ending: The founder duo of Dahiya and Bansal also said they were not worried about the one-year lock-in on PB Fintech shares ending as they feel the stock is well regarded and early investors will hold on to their shares.

Dahiya said the retail holding in the company is 0.5%, while the bulk of the shareholding is with institutions, making him more comfortable about the stability of PB Fintech’s stock.

Quote unquote: “Any significant seller of PB Fintech stock will be most likely doing it for their own reasons rather than because of PolicyBazaar.”

Stock price fizzles: PB Fintech, which listed with a gain of over 20%, has since seen its stock price erode by more than half from the issue price of Rs 980 per share. On this, Bansal said there are a lot of uncontrollables when it comes to pricing, and that the leadership is focusing on building the company in the right way and will “communicate their story whenever given a chance.”

Adani group may enter vehicle fleet operating business

Looking to build an ancillary ecosystem around its airport business, Ahmedabad-based Adani Group is planning to invest in a fleet of passenger vehicles that it will list on ride-hailing platforms such as Uber in cities where it operates airports, sources told us.

The plan: The conglomerate, which operates seven airports across the country, has already held discussions with San Francisco-headquartered mobility major Uber to chalk out a plan.

Notably, the two companies recently announced a partnership under which Adani Airports now has dedicated pick-up zones for Uber at five of its seven airports.

The big picture: The Ahmedabad-based group has been investing in companies to complement its airport business. Earlier this month, it inked an agreement with India’s largest independent aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul company AirWorks at an enterprise value of Rs 400 crore.

Last year, the group picked up a 74% stake in Flemingo Travel Retail and its Mumbai Travel Retail unit, which operate duty-free outlets in major airports in India. Last October, Adani Group bought a 20% stake in the Flipkart-owned online travel agency Cleartrip.

What’s in it for ride-hailing platforms? In the wake of the pandemic, taxi-hailing apps such as Uber and Ola have faced a supply problem, with drivers not coming back in full numbers.

“For players such as Uber and Ola, the entry of a large participant in the fleet operator segment could come as a shot in the arm,” said a source. As per industry estimates, within the ride-hailing business, airport rides are the most profitable category.