 Morning Dispatch |
Ecommerce's festive push; Vertex's AI bets
Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox?
I agree to receive newsletters and marketing communications via e-mail
Thank you for subscribing to Morning Dispatch
We'll soon meet in your inbox.
Happy Wednesday! Ahead of the festive sales, ecommerce giants are bolstering their supply chains. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.
Also in the letter:
■ ETtech Done Deals
■ AI, chips firms enter new territory
■ ChatGPT’s ad challenge
As the festive sales draw closer, ecommerce giants Amazon and Flipkart are significantly expanding their supply-chain networks.
Driving the news: The companies are doing this through additional warehousing, more delivery hubs, faster delivery options and deeper penetration into tier‑II and tier‑III cities.
Now hiring:
Also Read: Premium takes priority in ecommerce carts this festive season
Rahul Pangam and Uttam Phalnikar, founders, RapidCanvas
Vertex Ventures is in talks to back RapidCanvas and Supernova, sharpening its AI focus after consumer investments in India, people aware of the matter said.
Deal details:
Track record: Vertex, typically a consumer internet-focused investor, recently led rounds in creator-commerce platform Wishlink and food brand Anveshan. The proposed deals signal a sharper AI focus for Vertex, in line with a broader shift among venture capital firms globally.
Sonu Kumar Prashant, Ritesh Singh Chandel and Rushabh Kothari, founders, Arivihan
Edtech startup Arivihan has raised $10 million in a round led by existing investors Prosus and Accel. The round values the startup at Rs 570 crore, as per filings.
Details: The Indore-based startup aims to expand its artificial intelligence (AI) tutoring services across state boards and competitive examinations.
Cofounder and chief executive Ritesh Singh Chandel told ET that Arivihan would use the funds to cover almost all state boards by year-end, expand its Central Board of Secondary Education offering and deepen its presence in medical entrance preparation.
Mumbai-based kitchen appliance brand EDT has raised $2.4 million in a round led by existing investor Sauce, as the company builds inventory ahead of the festive season and expands into beauty gadgets.
New trend: This comes as investors increasingly look to back modern kitchen and cookware brands. Rising incomes and changing consumer preferences are driving demand for products that promise not just functionality, but also safer materials and sharper design.
Frontier AI companies are moving nearer to the chips that power their models, while chipmakers are moving up into the model layer.
Why the trend: Chipmakers are making this move to understand how AI models are evolving because those models determine what future computing systems need to do.
AMD’s $8.2 billion acquisition of World Labs is an example of this. AMD said the deal will help shape its hardware, software and systems roadmaps by aligning them more closely with real-world model demands.
Why chips: For AI companies, soaring compute needs are driving up costs and creating incentives to customise silicon. Additionally, owning more layers of the stack allows tighter optimisation across hardware, models and software.
ChatGPT is coming for a bite of Google-Meta’s ad pie: ChatGPT’s entry into advertising is prompting brands and agencies to test whether intent-based discovery on AI platforms can take away a meaningful share of advertising dollars from Google and Meta, which have long dominated customer acquisition playbooks.
Groww begins phased rollout of US stock investing: Online investment platform Groww has begun rolling out US stock investing to a limited set of customers, marking its return to overseas equities more than two years after it discontinued an earlier offering due to friction around remittances, withdrawal costs, and settlement processes.
Flipkart preps for festive sales: Ahead of Flipkart’s annual Big Billion Days festive season sale, Ekart, the ecommerce platform’s logistics arm, has added 14 million cubic feet of warehousing space nationwide, increasing its storage capacity by 50%, the company said on Tuesday.
■ OpenAI delays release of latest model over safety concerns (Wired)
■ The open-source AI platforms vying to become China’s Hugging Face (Rest of World)
■ Singapore places bigger bet on chips (FT)
Also in the letter:
■ ETtech Done Deals
■ AI, chips firms enter new territory
■ ChatGPT’s ad challenge
Ecommerce firms scale logistics, hiring ahead of festive sales
As the festive sales draw closer, ecommerce giants Amazon and Flipkart are significantly expanding their supply-chain networks.
Driving the news: The companies are doing this through additional warehousing, more delivery hubs, faster delivery options and deeper penetration into tier‑II and tier‑III cities.
- Flipkart has added 14 million cubic feet of warehousing space, lifting storage capacity by 50%, and added over 900 last‑mile delivery hubs.
- Ekart and Flipkart Minutes now operate more than 8,200 facilities, extending reach to locations such as Leh and Kargil for the first time during Big Billion Days.
- Amazon has launched 20 new fulfilment centres and other logistics units in cities including Raipur, Ranchi, Hassan, Meerut and Varanasi, plus six new sort centres and 150 new last‑mile delivery stations.
Now hiring:
- Amazon and Flipkart are expected to hire over 410,000 temporary workers across direct and indirect roles, about 30,000 more than last year.
- Meesho plans to create over one million seasonal opportunities, including around 6.5 lakh across its seller network and 3.75 lakh in logistics.
Also Read: Premium takes priority in ecommerce carts this festive season
Vertex in funding talks with RapidCanvas, Supernova to sharpen AI focus: Sources
Vertex Ventures is in talks to back RapidCanvas and Supernova, sharpening its AI focus after consumer investments in India, people aware of the matter said.
Deal details:
- Vertex is likely to invest about $20 million in Hyderabad- and Austin-based RapidCanvas’ $20-30 million round at a $120 million post-money valuation.
- Existing investors are expected to participate, while a new investor may also come on board, the people added.
- It is also discussing a $15-20 million investment alongside Verlinvest in Bengaluru-based Supernova at a $100 million post-money valuation.
Track record: Vertex, typically a consumer internet-focused investor, recently led rounds in creator-commerce platform Wishlink and food brand Anveshan. The proposed deals signal a sharper AI focus for Vertex, in line with a broader shift among venture capital firms globally.
Arivihan raises $10 million from Prosus, Accel to expand AI tutoring
Edtech startup Arivihan has raised $10 million in a round led by existing investors Prosus and Accel. The round values the startup at Rs 570 crore, as per filings.
Details: The Indore-based startup aims to expand its artificial intelligence (AI) tutoring services across state boards and competitive examinations.
Cofounder and chief executive Ritesh Singh Chandel told ET that Arivihan would use the funds to cover almost all state boards by year-end, expand its Central Board of Secondary Education offering and deepen its presence in medical entrance preparation.
Kitchen appliance startup EDT raises $2.4 million in funding led by Sauce VC
Mumbai-based kitchen appliance brand EDT has raised $2.4 million in a round led by existing investor Sauce, as the company builds inventory ahead of the festive season and expands into beauty gadgets.
New trend: This comes as investors increasingly look to back modern kitchen and cookware brands. Rising incomes and changing consumer preferences are driving demand for products that promise not just functionality, but also safer materials and sharper design.
ETtech Explainer: Multi-billion dollar global battle for AI control
Why the trend: Chipmakers are making this move to understand how AI models are evolving because those models determine what future computing systems need to do.
AMD’s $8.2 billion acquisition of World Labs is an example of this. AMD said the deal will help shape its hardware, software and systems roadmaps by aligning them more closely with real-world model demands.
Why chips: For AI companies, soaring compute needs are driving up costs and creating incentives to customise silicon. Additionally, owning more layers of the stack allows tighter optimisation across hardware, models and software.
Other Top Stories By Our Reporters
ChatGPT is coming for a bite of Google-Meta’s ad pie: ChatGPT’s entry into advertising is prompting brands and agencies to test whether intent-based discovery on AI platforms can take away a meaningful share of advertising dollars from Google and Meta, which have long dominated customer acquisition playbooks.
Groww begins phased rollout of US stock investing: Online investment platform Groww has begun rolling out US stock investing to a limited set of customers, marking its return to overseas equities more than two years after it discontinued an earlier offering due to friction around remittances, withdrawal costs, and settlement processes.
Flipkart preps for festive sales: Ahead of Flipkart’s annual Big Billion Days festive season sale, Ekart, the ecommerce platform’s logistics arm, has added 14 million cubic feet of warehousing space nationwide, increasing its storage capacity by 50%, the company said on Tuesday.
Global Picks We Are Reading
■ OpenAI delays release of latest model over safety concerns (Wired)
■ The open-source AI platforms vying to become China’s Hugging Face (Rest of World)
■ Singapore places bigger bet on chips (FT)
Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox?
I agree to receive newsletters and marketing communications via e-mail