PhonePe raises $100 million in fresh funding; Deepinder Goyal dismisses talks of attrition at Zomato

Digital payments firm PhonePe has raised another $100 million in primary funding, after a $350-million fundraise from General Atlantic in January this year. This and more in today’s edition of ETtech Top 5. ■ Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal plays down attrition problem ■ Google not complying with CCI ruling, alleges Epic Games ■ Microsoft’s LinkedIn joins layoffs drive Digital payments major in primary funding after raising $350 million last month.

Ribbit Capital, TVS Capital Funds and Flipkart’s early backer Tiger Global are three investors which have put in funds at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. With this second tranche, the fintech startup has raised $450 million in the first two months of this year. “We are privileged to have a great set of leading global investors, both existing and new, who believe in our mission of building massive technology platforms to bring at-scale financial and digital inclusion in India,” said Sameer Nigam, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of PhonePe.

at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion, making it the most valuable privately held Indian fintech firm. PhonePe, owned by Walmart, was previously valued at $5. 5 billion after The fundraise follows .

Flipkart doesn’t own any stake in PhonePe now and its valuation will be readjusted to about $33 billion as part of the separation. CEO Sameer Nigam in January said that to the India government to shift domicile to India. US firm in New Delhi alleging that Google has not complied with a part of the CCI directive, as per a Reuters report.

Epic Games has alleged that the tech giant is not hosting the gaming company’s app store on Google’s Play Store app. According to Epic’s submissions, Google has not complied with a part of the CCI directive that directed the tech giant to host third-party app stores on Play Store and allow apps to be downloaded freely, without using Play Store, a practice called “sideloading”. The company claims in the filing it is “exploring launching” the Games Store app on Google Play Store and has been “adversely affected” by Google not complying with the CCI order.

“We are seeking to join Indian developers in court to support the CCI’s order that requires Google to allow competing third-party app stores,” Bakari Middleton, director of global public policy at Epic Games, told Reuters. and flagship Android operating system in India just ahead of the deadline given by Supreme Court. On October 20, the Competition Commission of India fined and a week later in a different order, the CCI again fined .

Reacting to discussions about the recent top-level exits at Zomato, its chief executive to say that more than 50% of the top 50 people have been with the firm for over seven years and that “many of these folks are on their second (and third) stint”. “There’s been a lot of chatter about the culture at Zomato after a series of exits over the last few months. Well, here’s a fact — there are more than 200 people at Zomato who have spent more than seven years at the company,” Goyal tweeted in a post headlined, ‘attrition problem at Zomato!!!’ The senior-level exits at Zomato include that of cofounders and , who was also the chief technology officer.

Head of new initiatives , who was heading intercity delivery, had quit the firm late last year. Goyal, during the analysts call recently, had said that , with the remaining assignments being handed over to other team members. “I’m doing a bunch of things, Akshant ( Goyal) has taken up a couple of things…we also have a strong bench.

So, with a combination of these three, we’re good for now,” he said. Microsoft’s LinkedIn is the , with employees in the recruiting department impacted, according to a report by news website The Information. The company laid off workers in its recruiting department Monday, the report said.

It’s unclear so far how many employees were handed pink slips by the company. Besides LinkedIn, Microsoft reportedly announced job cuts in its hardware divisions, including HoloLens, Surface and Xbox teams. The tech firm sacked 617 of its employees working in the Seattle office, according to a Bloomberg report.

Last week, GitHub, a software collaboration platform owned by Microsoft, and closing all of its offices, including its headquarters in San Francisco. In January, Microsoft said it would lay off to “align cost structure” with declining revenue. CEO Satya Nadella had said the decision was difficult but necessary.

| Several companies including Amazon, Google parent Alphabet, among others, have announced layoffs in the past few months. So far, 344 tech companies have laid off around 103,767 employees in 2023, according to tracking site The government in recent years has stepped up efforts to convince international companies that India is a credible and robust alternative to China for fulfilling their manufacturing requirements. Meanwhile, iPhone maker Apple has shown interest in shifting some of its production from China to India to reduce its reliance on Beijing.

However, this seems a tough task for Apple in view of , including weak infrastructure, logistics, and poor yield, according to a Financial Times report. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook at a recent earnings call said that the , with the company building out production in the country to reduce its reliance on China, where US trade restrictions and Covid-related disruptions have made manufacturing riskier. Apple’s India output has thus far been largely limited to the iPhone, now partially manufactured in the country.

Moreover, Apple’s process of expanding in India has been slow owing to issues with logistics, tariffs and infrastructure. A says that Tata, one of Apple’s suppliers, has seen only a 50% yield in their production line at a casings factory in Hosur. Apple has a long way to go to , which makes nearly 98% of iPhones.

The iPhone maker wants India to account for up to 25% of its production, from about 5%-7% now. .