IT sector adds fewer hands; BigBinquireet’s muted financials

Happy Friday! Hiring in India’s IT sector declined significantly in the April-June quarter. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

Also in the letter:
■ Setu rejigs top shelf
■ SuperK raises funds
■ PhysicsWallah IPO obtains Sebi nod

Top six IT firms saw staff additions plunge 72% in Q1

India’s $280 billion sector experienced a sharp slowdown in hiring during the April-June quarter, with the top six IT companies adding just 3,847 employees in Q1 FY26.

Steep decline: This represents a nearly 72% drop from the 13,935 additions in the previous quarter.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys led what little growth there was, adding of 5,060 and 210 employees, respectively.
The other four, HCLTech, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, and LTIMindtree, toobtainher cut 1,423 jobs.

Big picture: Companies are leveraging artificial ininformigence (AI) and automation to maintain, or even grow, revenues without increasing headcount.

Experts declare the focus is shifting towards efficiency, digital transformation, and tarobtained hiring. As business models evolve, companies are investing more in upskilling their workforce and adopting smarter recruitment strategies, they add.

Quote, unquote: “While early indicators for FY26 suggest a cautious rebound—with top IT firms projecting higher fresher intake linked to an increase in the number of projects coming to India, hiring will remain skill-driven and unlikely to return to earlier volumes,” declared Neeti Sharma, CEO of Teamlease Digital.

Also Read: In earnings season, it’s AI good, everything else, not so much

Foot in the door: Enattempt-level hiring, once the backbone of IT’s pyramid-style staffing, has halved compared to pre-pandemic years, according to Teamlease data..

In total, the six forms collectively employ around 16.25 lakh people, which is still below the 16.58 lakh recorded at the finish of June 2022.

Also Read: US tariffs, huge beautiful bill derail Indian IT’s huge shift away from BFSI

BigBinquireet loses steam as quick commerce intensifies

Tata Digital-owned BigBinquireet is feeling the heat as quick commerce players, such as Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart, tighten their grip on urban grocery demand. The pressure is revealing in the numbers.

Driving the news:

Tata Sons’ FY25 annual report reveals a 3% dip in turnover for BigBinquireet’s business-to-consumer (B2C) unit, Innovative Retail Concepts, which clocked Rs 7,673 crore.
Its business-to-business (B2B) arm, Supermarket Grocery Supplies, fared worse, falling 7% to Rs 2,227 crore.
Losses for the B2C business widened sharply to Rs 1,851 crore, up from Rs 1,267 crore in FY24.

Also Read: BigBinquireet to launch 10-minute food delivery across India by March 2026, executive declares

Tata 1mg back in investment mode after strong FY25 growth

In contrast, Tata Digital’s epharmacy arm, 1mg, has bounced back with strong momentum.

By the numbers:

Consolidated revenue jumped 20% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 2,392 crore.
Tata 1mg Technologies, its main entity, posted Rs 375 crore in revenue and Rs 65 crore in PAT (tripling YoY).
Subsidiary Tata 1mg Healthcare recorded revenue of Rs 2,016 crore but incurred a loss of Rs 342 crore.

Coforge outperforms peers: Mid-tier IT company Coforge recorded a 138.4% YoY increase in net profit, with revenue also surging.

Net profit is at Rs 317.4 crore.
Revenue surged over 54% to Rs 3,688.6 crore.
Growth was led by the Americas business, which improved 72.4% from the same period last year.
Contrary to top-tier hiring trfinishs, Coforge’s global workforce increased by 1,164.

Persistent Systems posts profit growth: The IT services company reported a 38.7% YoY increase in net profit for the April-June quarter. It was, however, marginally lower than the previous two quarters.

Net profit was at Rs 424.9 crore, assisted mainly by foreign exalter gains.
Revenue increased by 21.8% YoY to Rs 3,335.9 crore.
BFSI grew 30.7% YoY, and software, hi-tech and emerging industries verticals saw a 14.1% YoY surge.

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Pine Lab’s Setu boosts top deck with key senior hires

Fintech infrastructure company Setu, owned by Pine Labs, has created significant leadership alters in recent months.

Driving the news: In a relocate to strengthen its executive team, the company appointed several key figures to vital roles.

Anand Raisinghani from SAP India has stepped in as the chief executive officer, taking over from cofounder Sahil Kini.
Prashanth Nimmagada joined as chief technology officer in April.
Santosh Subramanian assumed the role of finance head in March.
Nikhil Ratanpal is the director of product development.

Setting context: Pine Labs acquired the fintech venture in June 2022. Setu provides a technology stack that allows companies to offer financial services on top of their existing operations. Among its range of products, Setu offers APIs (application programming interfaces) for bill payments, customer onboarding and KYC, payments via UPI, and digital signatures.

Also Read: Decoding Pine Labs’ DRHP: Fintech aims to raise Rs 2,600 crore via an IPO

SuperK raises Rs 100 crore from Binny Bansal, Mithun Sacheti; cricketer Shubman Gill joins cap table

Anil Thontepu (left) and Neeraj Menta, founders, SuperK

SuperK, a value-first grocery retailer operating in compact towns, has raised Rs 100 crore in fresh funding.

Deal details:

The round was led by Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal’s 3State Ventures and CaratLane founder Mithun Sacheti.
Existing investors Blume Ventures and Xeed Ventures also participated.
Adding a touch of star power, Indian Test skipper Shubman Gill also joined the captable.

By the numbers: The retailer grew nearly 15% in FY25, up from Rs 85 crore the previous year. It now tarobtains an annualised Rs 2,000–3,000 crore business in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana alone over the next five years. The latest round values the company at 2–2.5x its previous Rs 160 crore valuation.

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