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Indian IT pack falls; MeitY’s e-gaming rulebook
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Indian IT stocks suffered on Wednesday after HCLTech’s weak Q4 numbers. This and more in today’s ETtech Top 5.
Also in the letter:
■ Zerodha winds down Zero1
■ Dunzo cofounder’s startup raises funds
■ SpaceX-Cursor deal
Indian IT heavyweights tumbled after HCLTech reported a weak Q4 and issued a subdued FY27 outlook, prompting brokers to cut ratings across the sector.
About Rs 92,000 crore in market value was wiped off the Nifty IT index in a single session.
Source: Google Finance
What hurt: HCLTech guided for FY27 constant-currency revenue growth of just 1% to 4%, below street estimates and weaker than its FY26 performance. Investors also reacted to a softer services growth outlook, signs of budget cuts at US telecom clients, and the cancellations of some SAP projects.
In Q4, HCLTech beat its both TCS and Wipro on revenue and profit growth, but still missed Street estimates.
Also Read: Infosys set to discuss CEO transition for post Salil Parekh era
Mohit Joshi, MD & CEO, Tech Mahindra
IT services company Tech Mahindra on Wednesday reported healthy growth in net profit and revenue for the March quarter.
Financials:
S Krishnan, secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Wednesday notified the long-awaited rules that operationalise the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act.
The rules also pave the way for establishing an online gaming authority.
New rules: IT Secretary S Krishnan said most online games that are not played for real money, which are already and explicitly banned under the law, will not need mandatory registration or classification.
Tell me more: Regulatory oversight will be triggered only in specific cases. The first is when the authority takes up a game on its own (suo moto). The second is when the game involves esports.
"And third, the central government may notify any specific category of social games, which, as of now, we have not notified anything specifically," Krishnan said.
Also Read: ETtech In-depth: Banned in India, but it’s business as usual for offshore real money gaming firms
Setting context: In August 2025, India passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, which bans online games played for real money, crippling a sector valued at Rs 2 lakh crore.
Major affected firms included Dream11, Games24x7, MPL, Zupee, and Gameskraft — all backed by marquee investors such as Tiger Global, ChrysCapital, and Alpha Wave Global. After the ban, several companies scaled down sharply or exited India.
Also Read: From RMG ban to esports glory: India’s gaming rollercoaster in 2025
Zerodha has pulled the plug on Zero1 Network, its media initiative for creators, citing regulatory uncertainty around financial influencers, or finfluencers.
What happened: Launched in October 2023, Zero1 featured creators such as Varun Mayya and Achina Sirohi Mayya, who produced content on finance, health, and climate. A Zerodha spokesperson said the company chose to wind down the initiative because of growing uncertainty in the regulatory landscape.
“Our new strategy is simple: to run and own all the channels in-house. We will continue to expand these channels; the only difference is that we will have full control over the content that is put out.”
Regulatory backdrop: The move follows a crackdown by Sebi on financial influencers. The regulator has barred unlicensed finfluencers from offering financial advice and restricted regulated entities from working with them directly.
What stays: Zerodha said Learnapp will continue to work on Zero1 and other Zerodha-owned properties as part of its broader financial literacy play.
Dunzo cofounder Kabeer Biswas has raised Rs 102 crore for M, an AI-driven concierge startup focused on household maintenance.
Round snapshot:
ET first reported in November 2025 on Biswas’s plan to build a new venture in this space and raise fresh capital.
Sector context: The concierge services space is showing signs of heating up. Swiggy, for instance, launched its travel and lifestyle concierge app, Crew, last year and is steadily expanding it.
Biswas left Flipkart in October 2025, shortly after joining to run its quick commerce unit Flipkart Minutes.
He earlier cofounded Dunzo in 2015 as a WhatsApp-based hyperlocal concierge service in Bengaluru. Backed by close to $200 million from Reliance Industries in 2022, it scaled fast, but a pivot to quick commerce burned cash and the company shut down in 2024.
SpaceX has secured an option to buy AI coding startup Cursor for $60 billion later this year, or instead pay $10 billion for a long-term partnership.
Why it matters: The deal could sharply strengthen xAI, which merged with SpaceX in February, in AI coding tools, an area where it still trails competitors such as Claude and OpenAI. Cursor will also get access to much larger computing resources to train and deploy models.
Also Read: Anthropic's Mythos model accessed by unauthorised users: Bloomberg
OpenAI is lining up an investment of up to $1.5 billion in a new joint venture, DeployCo, with private equity firms to push deeper into the enterprise market for its workplace tools.
Deal details:
Also Read: OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT Images 2.0 with realistic visuals, improved text rendering, and more
Also in the letter:
■ Zerodha winds down Zero1
■ Dunzo cofounder’s startup raises funds
■ SpaceX-Cursor deal
HCLTech’s weak Q4 drags IT pack; Infosys, Tech Mahindra slump up to 6%
Indian IT heavyweights tumbled after HCLTech reported a weak Q4 and issued a subdued FY27 outlook, prompting brokers to cut ratings across the sector.
About Rs 92,000 crore in market value was wiped off the Nifty IT index in a single session.
What hurt: HCLTech guided for FY27 constant-currency revenue growth of just 1% to 4%, below street estimates and weaker than its FY26 performance. Investors also reacted to a softer services growth outlook, signs of budget cuts at US telecom clients, and the cancellations of some SAP projects.
In Q4, HCLTech beat its both TCS and Wipro on revenue and profit growth, but still missed Street estimates.
- Net profit: Rose 4.2% to Rs 4,488 crore versus Rs 4,307 crore in the year-ago period.
- Revenue from operations: Up 12% to Rs 33,981 crore against Rs 30,246 crore posted a year earlier.
- Total Contract Value (TCV): FY26: $9.3 billion, Q4FY26: $1.94 billion
Also Read: Infosys set to discuss CEO transition for post Salil Parekh era
Tech Mahindra Q4 consolidated profit rises 16% YoY, revenue up 13%; co declares Rs 36/share dividend
IT services company Tech Mahindra on Wednesday reported healthy growth in net profit and revenue for the March quarter.
Financials:
- Net profit: Up 16% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 1,354 crore.
- Revenue from operations: Rose 13% YoY to Rs 15,076 crore.
- Dividend: Rs 36 per share
- Headcount: 147,623, down by 1,108 employees
MeitY says no mandatory registration for online games without real money
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Wednesday notified the long-awaited rules that operationalise the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act.
The rules also pave the way for establishing an online gaming authority.
New rules: IT Secretary S Krishnan said most online games that are not played for real money, which are already and explicitly banned under the law, will not need mandatory registration or classification.
Tell me more: Regulatory oversight will be triggered only in specific cases. The first is when the authority takes up a game on its own (suo moto). The second is when the game involves esports.
"And third, the central government may notify any specific category of social games, which, as of now, we have not notified anything specifically," Krishnan said.
Also Read: ETtech In-depth: Banned in India, but it’s business as usual for offshore real money gaming firms
Setting context: In August 2025, India passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, which bans online games played for real money, crippling a sector valued at Rs 2 lakh crore.
Major affected firms included Dream11, Games24x7, MPL, Zupee, and Gameskraft — all backed by marquee investors such as Tiger Global, ChrysCapital, and Alpha Wave Global. After the ban, several companies scaled down sharply or exited India.
Also Read: From RMG ban to esports glory: India’s gaming rollercoaster in 2025
End of story: Zerodha shuts Zero1 initiative for creators amid regulatory uncertainty
Zerodha has pulled the plug on Zero1 Network, its media initiative for creators, citing regulatory uncertainty around financial influencers, or finfluencers.
What happened: Launched in October 2023, Zero1 featured creators such as Varun Mayya and Achina Sirohi Mayya, who produced content on finance, health, and climate. A Zerodha spokesperson said the company chose to wind down the initiative because of growing uncertainty in the regulatory landscape.
“Our new strategy is simple: to run and own all the channels in-house. We will continue to expand these channels; the only difference is that we will have full control over the content that is put out.”
Regulatory backdrop: The move follows a crackdown by Sebi on financial influencers. The regulator has barred unlicensed finfluencers from offering financial advice and restricted regulated entities from working with them directly.
- Platforms have been pushed to take down violative content and fraudulent trading apps.
- Sebi also asked Google to deploy AI tools to spot finfluencers trying to dodge existing norms.
- More than 1.3 lakh such posts have already been flagged for takedown.
What stays: Zerodha said Learnapp will continue to work on Zero1 and other Zerodha-owned properties as part of its broader financial literacy play.
Kabeer Biswas’s concierge startup 'M' raises Rs 102 crore from Peak XV, Blume, Cred
Dunzo cofounder Kabeer Biswas has raised Rs 102 crore for M, an AI-driven concierge startup focused on household maintenance.
Round snapshot:
- Peak XV Partners led the seed round with about Rs 46.4 crore.
- Blume Ventures invested Rs 37.1 crore.
- Cred chipped in Rs 18.5 crore.
- The round values M at roughly Rs 300 crore post money.
ET first reported in November 2025 on Biswas’s plan to build a new venture in this space and raise fresh capital.
Sector context: The concierge services space is showing signs of heating up. Swiggy, for instance, launched its travel and lifestyle concierge app, Crew, last year and is steadily expanding it.
Biswas left Flipkart in October 2025, shortly after joining to run its quick commerce unit Flipkart Minutes.
He earlier cofounded Dunzo in 2015 as a WhatsApp-based hyperlocal concierge service in Bengaluru. Backed by close to $200 million from Reliance Industries in 2022, it scaled fast, but a pivot to quick commerce burned cash and the company shut down in 2024.
SpaceX says it has option to acquire startup Cursor for $60 billion
SpaceX has secured an option to buy AI coding startup Cursor for $60 billion later this year, or instead pay $10 billion for a long-term partnership.
Why it matters: The deal could sharply strengthen xAI, which merged with SpaceX in February, in AI coding tools, an area where it still trails competitors such as Claude and OpenAI. Cursor will also get access to much larger computing resources to train and deploy models.
Also Read: Anthropic's Mythos model accessed by unauthorised users: Bloomberg
OpenAI in talks to commit up to $1.5 billion to private equity joint venture: FT
OpenAI is lining up an investment of up to $1.5 billion in a new joint venture, DeployCo, with private equity firms to push deeper into the enterprise market for its workplace tools.
Deal details:
- Initial investment: $500 million equity from OpenAI
- DeployCo valuation: about $10 billion
- Target close: early May
- OpenAI has the option to add another $1 billion later.
- Private equity investors include TPG, Bain Capital, Advent International, Brookfield and Goanna Capital, contributing around $4 billion
- Investors have been promised an annual return of 17.5% over five years.
Also Read: OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT Images 2.0 with realistic visuals, improved text rendering, and more
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