Yulu, Bounce chase fresh funds; MPs target social media

Happy Tuesday! Yulu and Bounce Infinity are back in the funding market. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

Also in the letter:
■ Ola Electric's PLI woes
■ Indian firms & quantum tech
■ GalaxEye acquires StarOps

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Yulu, Bounce seek funds as gig-EV rentals zoom

Electric mobility startups Yulu and Bounce Infinity are back in the funding market, seeking $50 million and $20-25 million, respectively.

Funding details: Yulu is in talks with GEF Capital and One Planet Partners at about $250 million; Bounce’s potential investors could not be ascertained. The rounds come as energy transition draws more deeptech capital.

Different routes:

• Yulu retained rentals but shifted from office commuters to gig workers after Covid-19 hit shared mobility.
• Bounce sold much of its fleet, moved into manufacturing and vehicle sales, and now focuses on Gig worker rentals.
• Their losses narrowed in FY25: Bounce to Rs 28.6 crore and Yulu by 12% to Rs 126 crore.

The big picture: Rising quick-commerce and food-delivery demand is giving both companies’ post-Covid pivots fresh momentum, turning gig-worker fleets into their core growth engine. What began as consumer-facing micromobility bets have reoriented around delivery riders, where steady, high-utilisation demand offers a clearer path to unit economics than retail rentals ever did.

Also Read: VCs pivot to EV infra & energy storage in new $65 million funding wave

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MPs across party lines push bills to limit social media access for minors

Three private members' Bills seeking age-based restrictions on social media use have been listed in the current Parliament session, signalling an urgency to create safeguards to protect children in the digital space.

Driving the news:

• BJP’s Baijayant Panda and Congress’ Manish Tewari listed two separate Bills on the Lok Sabha agenda about protection of children from online harm and holding digital platforms accountable.
• Independent MP Kartikeya Sharma listed a Bill in the upper house to mandate child safety settings and a night-time curfew on social media.

None are likely to be introduced before the monsoon session ends on August 13.

Double click:

• Panda's SHIELD Bill bars under-13s from creating social media or gaming accounts without verified parental consent and mandates parental control dashboards.
• Tewari's Online Child Safety Bill imposes duty-of-care and "safety-by-design" obligations, focusing on enforcement and victim support.

Expert take: Kazim Rizvi, founding director at Delhi-based policy think tank The Dialogue, said India's approach to child online safety should not be organised around a blanket ban.

"The intensity of age assurance should correspond to the risk of the service or function. Viewing general informational material should not necessarily require the same level of assurance as interacting with unknown adults, livestreaming publicly, using a dating function, or purchasing age-restricted goods," he said.

Also Read: Growing list of countries move to ban social media for children

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Ola Electric auditor flags Rs 57 crore PLI penalty reversal in Q1 results

Ola Electric's auditor has flagged the reversal of a Rs 57 crore provision linked to a penalty for missing investment targets under the government's battery production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.

What's the issue? Ola Electric reversed the provision without receiving formal approval from the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) for a penalty waiver.

The reversal reduced the company's June-quarter expenses and helped narrow its loss to Rs 336 crore from Rs 428 crore a year earlier.

Also Read:Big shift: Ola Electric moves to dealership model amid market share wipeout

Tell me more:

• Ola Cell Technologies, Ola Electric's battery unit, had provisioned Rs 57 crore for liquidated damages after missing an investment milestone under the Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) PLI scheme.
• In 2022, Ola was awarded 20 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of domestic ACC manufacturing capacity under the scheme.
• Beneficiaries were required to invest Rs 225 crore per GWh within two years.
• After missing the deadline, Ola sought more time and a waiver of the penalty. MHI had not approved the request by the end of the June quarter.

Ola nevertheless reversed the provision, prompting its auditor to qualify its review of the results.

Also Read: Ola Electric loss narrows to Rs 336 crore, revenue down 45%

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Info Edge Q1 profit rises 43% to Rs 490 crore as Naukri, 99acres gather pace

Info Edge posted a strong June-quarter performance, driven by recovery in enterprise hiring and improved momentum at 99acres.

Financials:

• Revenue: Up 11% at Rs 881 crore vs Rs 791 crore a year ago.
• Net profit: Up 43% to Rs 490 crore, compared with the year-ago period.

Business-wise:

• Recruitment, which includes Naukri, recorded a 17.5% rise in billings to Rs 553 crore; revenues increased 13% to Rs 612 crore.
• At 99acres, billings increased 16.5% to Rs 110 crore and revenues rose 17% to Rs 130 crore. Its operating loss narrowed to Rs 2 crore from Rs 19 crore a year ago.

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Other Top Stories By Our Reporters

Suyash Singh, CEO, GalaxyEye

GalaxEye acquires StarOps:StarOpstraces its origins to TeamIndus, India's first spacetech startup, set up in 2010, and secured a spot in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition to land a spacecraft on the moon. Several members of the team previously worked at TeamIndus on its lunar lander and rover programmes.

Indian firms prepare for quantum tech: Only 10-15% of large Indian enterprises have begun structured post-quantum readiness assessments, according to Deloitte India, despite India laying out a roadmap for critical sectors to transition to quantum-safe security.

Aum Ventures marks first close of deeptech fund: Early-stage venture capital firm Aum Ventures, which has backed startups such as Skyroot Aerospace, marked the first close of its second India Innovation Fund at Rs 225 crore. The fund has a target corpus of Rs 750 crore (about $80 million) and will invest in early-stage deeptech companies.

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Global Picks We Are Reading

■ Could AI create a ‘permanent underclass’? (FT)

■ Microsoft’s homegrown AI chip effort shows signs of life after slow start (The Information)

■ Beijing is forcing a mass breakup with AI lovers (Rest of World)