Ola Electric’s QIP boost; AMFI benches Stable Money

Happy Friday! Ola Electric has raised fresh capital through a QIP. This and more in today's ETtech Morning Dispatch.

Also in the letter:
■ IT grows without hiring
■ Kuku FM’s IPO move
■ SoftBank’s Lenskart jackpot

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Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO, Ola Electric

Ola Electric has raised about Rs 780 crore through a qualified institutional placement (QIP), giving the EV maker fresh firepower as it tries to revive volumes and claw back market share in India’s electric two-wheeler market.

The QIP snapshot:

• Ola Electric has allotted 21.76 crore shares to qualified institutional buyers at Rs 35.86 apiece.
• The issue price was at a 4.98% discount to the QIP floor price of Rs 37.74.
• The company plans to use the proceeds to repay borrowings, fund organic growth, and meet general corporate needs.
  

Why it matters:

• The fundraise comes less than two years after Ola Electric’s Rs 5,500 crore IPO.
• The QIP price is less than half its IPO price of Rs 76.
• Ola is trying to bounce back after a weak FY26, even as TVS, Bajaj, Ather and Hero stayed ahead in May sales.
  

Also Read: Ola Electric Q4 loss narrows 42.5% to Rs 500 crore, CEO Aggarwal bets on volume recovery

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Stable Finserv, the fintech behind Stable Money, has been barred from distributing mutual fund products until November 2026, according to people familiar with the matter.

More on this:

• Some Stable Money users recently received emails saying their SIP transactions had failed.
• The messages said the distributor code linked to their investments had been restricted.
• The SIP failures were attributed to a suspension order on the broker.
  

Founder speak: "We have temporarily paused fresh investments in gold and silver mutual funds, including SIPs and lump-sum investments, while certain aspects of our mutual fund distribution operations are under review," Stable Money cofounder Saurabh Jain said. "We are engaging with the relevant industry and regulatory stakeholders in relation to this review.”

Zoom out: The action comes shortly after Stable Money raised $45 million across two funding rounds in 2025 and 2026. In March, ET reported that the startup was also looking to raise an additional $15 million from Peak XV Partners and existing investors.

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India’s IT industry is squeezing out more revenue while keeping headcount largely flat, as firms lean more heavily on AI and automation.

What’s happening:

• The six largest Indian IT services companies increased combined revenue from $95.9 billion in FY23 to $103.1 billion in FY26.
• Over the same period, their workforce stayed broadly flat at around 1.9 million employees.
• Active technology job openings fell to about 93,000 in June 2026 from 112,000 a year earlier.
• Openings at IT services firms dropped 31% to 36,000, while entry-level roles fell to 10,000 from 18,000.
  

Expert take: Industry experts say these numbers signal a shift towards automation, productivity improvements and more targeted hiring rather than large-scale recruitment.

Pareekh Jain, chief executive of EIIRTrend, said the slowdown in hiring appears far sharper than the enthusiasm around AI spending. Companies are increasingly adopting a ‘just-in-time’ hiring approach, he said, bringing in talent only when demand is visible rather than hiring ahead of growth.

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(L-R) Vinod Kumar, Lal Chand Bisu and Vikas Goyal, cofounders, Kuku FM

Kuku FM's parent heads to Dalal Street: Kuku Technologies, the parent company of audio and video content platform Kuku FM, has confidentially filed draft papers with market regulator Sebi for a Rs 3,500 crore initial public offering, people familiar with the development told us.

SoftBank snags Rs 2,873 crore from Lenskart stake sale: SoftBank has clocked about 7x returns from a partial stake sale in Lenskart, making the eyewear retailer one of the Japanese investor’s strongest shows in India at a time when its listed portfolio in the country has otherwise been a mixed bag.

Together Fund’s Manav Garg joins Emergent: Manav Garg, cofounder and managing partner of early-stage venture firm Together Fund, has joined artificial intelligence startup Emergent as executive chairman, marking a return to an operating role after years in venture investing, he announced in a social media post on Thursday.

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■ Meta silently added face-recognition code for its smart glasses to millions of phones (Meta)

■ Scarcity is driving AI innovation outside Silicon Valley (Rest of World)

■ Cash App launches a wand for tap-and-pay (TechCrunch)