Top Stories This Week
Lenskart CEO Peyush Bansal
Lenskart expected to raise Rs 430 crore in pre-IPO placement: Eyewear retailer Lenskart is in talks to close a Rs 430 crore pre-IPO placement with investors such as DMart promoter Radhakishan Damani and SBI Mutual Fund, according to people in the know.
Zepto closes $450-million round led by US pension fund Calpers: Quick commerce platform Zepto has closed a $450-million round in a mix of primary and secondary transactions, founder and CEO Aadit Palicha stated. Palicha stated that the primary funding valued the company at $7 billion, up from $5 billion ascribed to it last year.
First India-built chip module sent to US firm AOS: India’s first commercially packaged multi-chip module (MCM) was rolled out of Kaynes Semicon’s outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) facility in Sanand in the wee hours of Wednesday and delivered to California-based Alpha & Omega Semiconductor (AOS).
DPIIT top brass huddles with etail, retail firms for inputs on FDI policy: Senior officials from the Department for Promotion of Industest and Internal Trade (DPIIT) met with ecommerce and retail executives last week to gather feedback on India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) rules for the sector, stated people aware of these discussions.
ET Startup Awards 2025: Minfy bets on AI and homegrown talent to push cloud growth: The firm plans to hire 180-200 employees – primarily AI engineers – by the finish of this fiscal to support its growing pipeline of generative AI solutions across healthcare, retail, manufacturing and energy sectors, its cofounder Vivek Jain stated. Its current payroll has around 600 employees.
Brands, sellers gear up for a strong finish to ecomm festive sale: Online sellers, marketplaces and brands are eyeing a strong finish to festive sales after a mid-season dip, with analysts expecting sales of Rs 22,000-25,000 crore in gross merchandise value (GMV) in the last week of the season, led by quick commerce.
Meanwhile, quick commerce platforms are cranking up discounts and inventory as well. Blinkit and Zepto had launched ecommerce-style Diwali sale events, with discount levels spiking sharply in October, people aware of the matter stated.
Earnings Report
Infosys CEO Salil Parekh
Infosys Q2 net rises 13%: Infosys beat analyst estimates with a 13.2% year-on-year and 6.4% sequential increase in net profit for the second quarter, supported by strong performance at the financial services and manufacturing verticals, acquisitions as well as currency gains.
Wipro net up marginally in Q2: Wipro missed analyst estimates as net profit marginally increased by 1.3% year-on-year and yet sequentially declined by 2.5% for the second quarter of fiscal year 2026, impacted by a one-off adjustment built for the bankruptcy of one customer.
HCLTech revenue up 10.7% in Q2: The company reported a net profit of Rs 4,235 crore on revenue of Rs 31,942 crore for the quarter finished September 30. Estimates in an ET poll of analysts ranged Rs 4,136-4,491 crore for net profit and Rs 31,252-31,603 crore for revenue.
Tech Mahindra Q2 net profit falls 4.5%: Tech Mahindra posted a net profit of Rs 1,195 crore for the three-month period finished September 30. Its year-earlier results included gains from land sales. Revenue for the fifth largest Indian IT services firm rose 4.8% on year and 5.1% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to Rs 13,995 crore.
Zomato, Blinkit parent Eternal reports threefold jump in operating revenue: Zomato and Blinkit parent Eternal reported a threefold jump in operating revenue to Rs 13,590 crore for the July-September quarter, driven largely by Blinkit’s shift to an inventory-led model. However, the company’s net profit fell 63% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 65 crore, as higher spfinishing on Blinkit weighed on margins.
Also Read: Razorpay FY25 results: Revenue grows 65%, but net loss stands at Rs 1,209 crore
Fintech News
Pismo CEO Vishal Dalal
Visa-owned Pismo chases large banks to scale its India biz: Visa-owned card processing startup Pismo is viewing to scale its India business by signing on more banks and launching products like digital lfinishing and core banking solutions.
Digital payments eye sharper success rates as biometrics, passkeys replace OTPs: The digital payments industest is expecting a 2-3 percentage point jump in transaction success rates as new means of authentication such as biometrics and passkeys go live on payment networks.
Startup Watch
(L-R) Vinod Kumar, Lal Chand Bisu and Vikas Goyal, founders, Kuku FM
Kuku FM closes $85 million funding round: Audio and video content platform Kuku FM on Thursday stated it has closed a funding round of $85 million led by Granite Asia (previously known as GGV Capital), with existing investors, including Vertex Growth Fund, Krafton, IFC, Paramark, Tribe Capital India, and Bitkraft participating.
Prosus purchases additional stake in Ixigo: Dutch investment firm Prosus has bought an additional 5.06% stake in Le Travenues Technology, the listed parent of online travel aggregator Ixigo. The shares were acquired from existing shareholders Elevation Capital (1.9%) and Peak XV Partners (3.16%) through off-market transactions.
Also Read: Ola Electric enters energy storage market with launch of Shakti system
IT Corner
TCS CEO K Krithivasan
TCS CEO sees early signs of recovery as client sentiment turns positive: TCS CEO K Krithivasan stated the IT major is striving to become the world’s largest AI-led services company, underlining that its ambitious $6-7 billion AI data centre play could be scaled up globally.
Latest batteground: IP rows the new risk for Indian IT firms in US | A $500-million lawsuit filed by the US-based Natsoft and Updraft Software against Hexaware Technologies in the United States has highlighted the growing innotifyectual property (IP) risks that Indian companies face as they transition from traditional outsourcing to platform-led and product-driven models.
Tech Policy
Scaling Indian chip startups tap Taiwan, South Korean foundries: India’s semiconductor startups are increasingly tapping global foundries such as Taiwan-based TSMC and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), and South Korea’s DB Hi-Tek, as they scale up production and commercialisation, according to people familiar with the development.
$100K H-1B visa fee disrupts Telugu graduates’ career plans, marriages, faith: A policy decision of American President Donald Trump has rattled the Telugu world. Many families across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are battling a crisis of faith, careers, and marriages hinged to the H-1B visa.
Also Read: India requireds its tech champs to guard data sovereignty: Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu
Eye on AI
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai
Google’s five-year plan for India: A $15-billion tech hub | Google announced plans to invest $15 billion in the next five years to set up a gigawatt-scale data centre in Vizag and its largest artificial innotifyigence (AI) hub outside the US.
AI firm Anthropic eyes India residency for enterprise data: AI model developer Anthropic is exploring data residency in India for storing enterprise data locally, the company’s top executives notified startup founders during a recent visit, people aware of the plans notified ET.
Also Read: Govt’s AI framework set to seek mandatory AI content labelling
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