There was a time when every company, no matter what its business model, wanted to become a super app. Now every company, irrespective of its business model, wants to set up cloud kitchens. Amazon is looking to launch its private food brands in Bangalore and set up its own cloud kitchens, ET has reported. Amazon’s cloud kitchen is being set up in Bellandur in South Bangalore, and the company will likely launch its services from…

Until two months ago, WeWork was on top of the world. The coworking spaces provider, which at $47 billion (Rs. 3.3 lakh crore) was among the highest valued startups in the world, had announced that it was going public. Its  IPO was going to be among the biggest tech IPOs this year, and was meant to make WeWork CEO Adam Neumann, its biggest investor Softbank, and thousands of WeWork employees a lot of money. But it…

To make money, you don’t always need to be working for high-flying startups with superstar founders and multi-million dollar advertising budgets — you can do just as well working at a firm that quietly goes about its business and creates value. Discount brokerage Zerodha has created a Employee Stock Ownership (ESOP) Plan that’s worth more than Rs. 200 crore. The plan has been put in place for 850 of its employees. Zerodha only has 1,100…

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Myntra, which had sought to disrupt offline retail by selling clothes online, is now relying on the most visible symbol of the offline fashion industry to run its business — the humble neighbourhood tailor. Myntra is roping in local tailors to deliver clothes so that they can alter products right at the customers’ doorsteps, which the company hopes will reduce returns on sales. Nearly 15-20…

Even the world’s largest startup investor is beginning to realize the importance of startups actually making some money. Softbank founder Masayoshi Son has urged his portfolio companies to “become profitable.” Son was speaking at a five-star resort to company leaders, and told them they need to soon become profitable, and stressed the importance of good governance. Public investors weren’t going to tolerate gimmicks like super-voting rights or complicated share structures that privilege founders over other stakeholders, he…

After exiting Flipkart with a billion dollars in the bank, it was expected that Sachin Bansal would sit back and invest in other firms. But just a year after his mega exit, he’s back in the entrepreneurship game. Sachin Bansal has invested Rs. 740 crore in Non Banking Finance Company Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services Private Limited (CRIDS), and has also become the firm’s CEO. CRIDS’s founders Samit Shetty and Anand Rao will continue in their…

While he’d led Uber, Travis Kalanick had maintained that India was one of his company’s most important markets. And even after his exit, he appears to be keen on the tech ecosystem in the country. Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has picked up a small stake in Rebel Foods, which runs food brands like Faasos and Behrouz Biryani, Bloomberg reported. The stake purchase was through Kalanick’s new startup, City Storage systems, and is a part…

Most Indian companies seem to agree that becoming a super-app is the way to survive in India’s cutthroat internet ecosystem, but they are taking different approaches to getting there. Paytm, for instance, has started services of its own in areas such as movie tickets, mutual funds, and hotel bookings. Its arch-rival, PhonePe, seems to be collaborating with other companies instead. PhonePe has enabled its users to access 50 different apps from within its own app….