Nykaa IPO subscribed 82 times on the final day

The initial public offering (IPO) of Nykaa was subscribed 82 times by November 1 (at the time of writing), the final day of bidding of the issue that opened on October 28. The offer has received bids for 216.5 crore equity shares against an IPO size of 2.64 crore equity shares, as per the subscription data.

Qualified institutional investors (QII) put in bids 91.18 times the portion set aside for them and non-institutional investors bought 112.02 times the shares against their reserved portion. A part set aside for retail investors was subscribed 12.06 times and that of employees saw 1.87 times subscription.

Nykaa's IPO comprises fresh issuance worth Rs 630 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) worth Rs 4,721 crore. The company aims to mop up Rs 5,351.92 crore through IPO. A sum of Rs 2,396 crore was raised from anchor investors on October 27.

Policybazaar IPO opens for subscription; founders to reduce sale of own shares in IPO by 85-90%

The initial public offering of Policybazaar opened for subscription on Monday and will close on Wednesday. At the time of the writing, the IPO was subscribed 0.58 times and the retail category was fully subscribed. The IPO comprises a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 3,750 crore, along with an offer for sale (OFS) of shares worth Rs 1,959.72 crore by existing promoters and shareholders.

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Through the IPO, the company will raise an amount of around Rs 5,826 crore. The price band of the IPO is set at Rs 940-980 per share. Founders Yashish Dahiya and Alok Bansal will sell fewer shares through the OFS than they had decided earlier in the IPO, as per reports. Increased interest in tech IPOs and the headroom for further growth in its business as well as likely valuation after the share sale led to the founders reducing their OFS by 85-90 percent by value, the ET reported.

Dahiya was supposed to sell his shares worth Rs 250 crore in the Policybazaar IPO as per the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) filed in August. Policybazaar's Rs 5,700 crore IPO is looking at a listing valuation of $6.15 billion. PB Fintech has garnered a little over Rs 2,569 crore from anchor investors ahead of its IPO.

PharmEasy to file for IPO next week

API Holdings, the parent company of the online pharmacy retailer PharmEasy, is expected to file a draft red herring prospectus with the markets regulator Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) next week, sources told CNBC-TV18.

The issue size for the public offering has been pegged between Rs 6,000 crore and Rs 6,500 crore. The issuance is expected to be an offer for sale with API Holdings setting the price band for the IPO at a discount of 15-20 percent in order to get good demand for the issue.

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The final valuation will depend on the demand seen around the listing, sources said. API Holdings is looking to list by January-February 2022, depending on the relevant regulatory approval. The company is currently looking at a valuation of around $7 billion for the IPO.

Snapdeal appoints Ullas Kamath and Anisha Motwani as directors on board: Reports

E-commerce platform Snapdeal has added FMCG veteran Ullas Kamath and brand expert Anisha Motwani as directors on board as it plans to file IPO papers with the market regulator Sebi soon. Ullas Kamath is the joint managing director of Jyothy Labs, while Anisha Motwani has worked as a World Bank consultant on the Swachh Bharat Programme, Solar Rooftop Adoption, and the National Mission for Clean Ganga.

According to reports, Snapdeal hopes to gain from the new board members' experience in serving the value-conscious consumer in ‘Bharat’ or tier-2,3,4 markets ahead of its proposed IPO. Last week, it appointed Zomato chairman Kaushik Dutta and Richa Arora, managing partner and CEO for ESG Stewardship Services at ECube Investment Advisors, as directors on its board. The reports add that Snapdeal is considering filing a DRHP in the next few months.

Uber commits Rs 100 crore towards driver welfare initiatives

Ride-hailing giant Uber announced today that it has committed approximately Rs 100 crores towards supporting drivers partners and their families weather the impact of COVID-19. The company created the Uber Care Driver Fund, with an initial commitment of Rs 25 crore which benefitted approximately one lakh driver-partners. It also spent Rs 6 crore each towards safety kit and safety screen distribution among driver-partners.

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Earlier this year, Uber announced Rs 2 crore worth of COVID financial assistance program for driver-partners. An additional Rs 18.5 crore worth of cash incentives was pledged to encourage driver-partners to get vaccinated by compensating them for the time spent in getting the shots. More than 250,000 driver-partners on the platform have already received at least one vaccine shot, the company said in a statement.

Microloans worth Rs 18 crore were facilitated for driver-partners in the last 2 years. Another Rs 22.6 crore went into various other driver benefits, and forging meaningful partnerships with the driver community, the firm added. Prabhjeet Singh, President, Uber India SA, said, “By investing upwards of Rs 100 crore in these initiatives, we have been successful in supporting and empowering driver-partners with improved access to health insurance, financial support, vaccination, and medical consultations."

Zerodha creates new ESOP plan worth Rs 100 crore: Report

Stockbroking app Zerodha has created a new employee stock options (ESOP) plan. The company has allocated 7,00,000 options under its fresh ESOPs Plan 2021. As per Entrackr, the new pool is worth a little over Rs 100 crore. The plan comes on the back of its Rs 65 crore worth ESOPs buyback.

While the size of the potential buyback will be Rs 200 crore, according to Zerodha, this year it will buy options at Rs 1,400 each, the report added. The price of each option will jump 2X as compared to last year. The company had bought options at Rs 700 in June last year. When the buyback takes place, it will value Zerodha at $2 billion.

Adani Group to pick up a minority stake in Flipkart-owned Cleartrip

Business conglomerate Adani Group will acquire a significant minority stake in Cleartrip, an online travel aggregator and part of the Flipkart Group. Through this investment, the Adani Group and the Flipkart Group will benefit from synergies that will deliver superior travel experiences to consumers as the travel industry in India sees a resurgence.

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Since the acquisition by the Flipkart Group, Cleartrip has seen 10x growth in flight bookings, Adani said. The deal is expected to close in November 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. This partnership will further enable Cleartrip to transcend digital boundaries and bring end-to-end travel services online, the firm said.

The investment will further enhance the strategic partnership between the Adani Group and the Flipkart Group, as both parties work towards serving Indian consumers with a wide gamut of digital offerings. As a part of the investment, Cleartrip will also serve as the Adani Group’s OTA partner, it added.

UPI transactions cross record $100 billion in October

Digital transfers breached $100 billion (Rs 7.7 lakh crore) by value in a month for the first time. Payments through the unified payments interface reached Rs 7.7 lakh crore in October through 421 crore transactions, according to data released by the National Payments Corporation of India.

The value of transactions rose 18% from Rs 6.54 lakh crore in September. For YoY, it nearly doubled. UPI transactions had crossed Rs 6 lakh crore in July. So far, Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm lead the pack for total transactions on the UPI.

In September, PhonePe reported Rs 3.06 lakh crore worth of transactions and Google Pay registered Rs 2.5 lakh crore. Paytm Payments Bank was a distant third with Rs 53,793 crore. Data for October is yet to be released.

We Founder Circle invests in 10 startups in Q3 this year

Founders-led startup investment platform We Founder Circle (WFC) announced that it has invested in 10 startups in Q3 of 2021. In the current quarter, the platform invested in the tech-industries that are booming in the Indian market such as agritech, edtech, fintech, healthtech EV.

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The platform has invested around $1 million worth of funds for the 10 startups during Q3 of 2021, it said in a statement. WFC has also funded other startups as well that are moving forward with determination and strategic methods.

"Considering the current scenario, WFC is enabling many startups like - Avni, Humus, Cusmat, Flatheads, ESports, YPay & others with both investment & creating business opportunities," said Neeraj Tyagi, co-founder, and chief executive officer, We Found Circle. The company is aiming to achieve 40 numbers of startups to fundraise transactions by the end of the 2021-22 financial year. WFC has recently launched a global accelerator program to promote the sector.

Hanchens announces business expansion in 10 new cities

Hyper-local express and logistics startup Hanchens has announced its extensive expansion plans. Starting from Gurugram, the company has built a strong presence in 8 more cities including Faridabad, Delhi, Sahibabad, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Lucknow, Jaipur, Rewari in 8 months.

The company claims to have dispatched more than one lakh orders with a current MRR of 55K+ monthly orders, with a target to dispatch 0.25 million monthly orders and build a presence in 25 cities in the next 6 months.

The startup is also looking to extend add-on and other related services to its clients to enable omnipresence and acquire new markets and users such as opening micro-hubs and dark stores while at the same time aiming to create an E2E platform for all kinds of logistic needs, it said.

MEITY releases FAQs for social media cos under new IT Rules

In response to concerns and issues raised over social media, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has released FAQs aimed at creating a better internet ecosystem, encouraging significant social media intermediaries to put up mechanisms for grievance redressal within time frames.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, "Our views on traceability is clear when criminality happens, and there is need to investigate, there are ways to trace the first originator." "Cyberspace can't be a space where laws don't reach, criminality can't be allowed to find refuge here," Chandrasekhar added. He also said if big tech companies' algorithms come in the way of privacy, user rights, it will invite govt action.

The social media SOPs are yet to be issued and it will be subject to revision. Chandrasekhar further stated that the government is not trying to make things difficult for the industry but a basic understanding is that the internet needs to be kept accountable. "Not looking at a litigation-based strategy to implement rules," he added.

GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY & STARTUP NEWS

Metaverse pioneers unimpressed by the Facebook rebrand

Early adopters of the virtual worlds known as the metaverse criticised Facebook's rebranding as an attempt to capitalise on growing buzz over a concept that it did not create. The term metaverse has become a tech buzzword this year, with companies and investors keen to be a part of the next big thing. But users have for years been spending time in these fast-growing but obscure virtual worlds.

"They are essentially trying to build what many of us have been building for years but rebrand it as their own," said Ryan Kappel, an American who for more than two years has hosted meet-ups in different metaverses told Reuters. Facebook's name change to Meta Platforms and details on its plan to build its own immersive digital world, announced on Thursday, comes as the company battles criticism from lawmakers and regulators over its market power, algorithmic decisions and policing of abuses on its services.

Artur Sychov, who founded metaverse Somnium Space in 2017, said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's announcement of the rebrand felt "rushed... kind of like trying to insert themselves into the metaverse narrative which is happening right now."

SoftBank Vision Fund sells $2 billion of DoorDash shares: Report

Masayoshi Son has tapped his shareholdings in DoorDash for the third time in just six months, selling $2 billion worth of SoftBank Group Corp.’s stake in the food-delivery giant.

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As per Bloomberg News, SoftBank Vision Fund has unloaded 10 million shares at $202.815 apiece. Son sold $1 billion worth of DoorDash stock in May and raised $2.2 billion from a sale in August. SoftBank sold roughly $14 billion worth of listed stocks in the June quarter, nearly triple the amount in the previous period.

Over the past six months, the selloff included significant portions of its stakes in some of Son’s biggest IPO hits like DoorDash, South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang and Chinese online property platform KE Holdings. The latest sale of DoorDash stock leaves SoftBank with 33.6 million shares or about 11 percent of the food-delivery company — just over half of the stake it held at the time of the listing in December.

Sega, Microsoft explore cloud gaming alliance

Sega Sammy Holdings is exploring a strategic alliance with Microsoft to develop big-budget titles using the Xbox maker's cloud gaming tech, Reuters reported. Tokyo-based Sega is exploring making titles with global reach on Microsoft's Azure cloud platform, it said in a stock exchange statement without providing further details, including whether a deal would involve exclusivity for the titles or capital investment.

Microsoft's own major cloud gaming initiative is available via the Xbox Game Pass, a cross-platform subscription service that features Sega titles such as the hit "Yakuza" series. Sega, which abandoned its own console business after a string of flops, is a prolific maker of "pachinko" machines for gambling and has flagged its ambitions to widen the appeal of its video games.

German union calls for strikes at seven Amazon sites

The German labour union Verdi has called on employees to strike at seven different Amazon locations in a protracted pay dispute. The strikes are planned to start at some of the distribution centres and will initially last through Tuesday, a spokesperson told Reuters.

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Amazon said in a statement that it offers excellent pay, benefits and career opportunities. "No-one here earns less than 12 euros ($13.87) gross per hour plus extras," the company added. Without giving exact figures, Verdi has demanded that Amazon raise pay in line with agreements the union has struck with the broader retail and mail-order industries in Germany.

Netflix’s 'Squid Game' success sparks debate in South Korea over IP rights

Since the survival drama 'Squid Game' gained larger-than-expected popularity throughout the world on Netflix, the world's big-name platform operators such as Disney+ and Apple TV+ have been competing to spend big money to secure content made in South Korea.

But critics have raised questions on whether it is right for local productions to allow such platform operators to monopolise content rights to their shows at a time when the Korean entertainment market has emerged as a content hub for its globally popular cultural content such as K-pop, TV series and films, reports Yonhap news agency.

These critics say local productions should seek ways to reduce their financial dependence on global content titans. Netflix has spent some $700 million on South Korean projects since its market debut in 2015 and increased its investment to $500 million for 2021 alone.

(Edited by : Jomy Jos Pullokaran)