Ride-Hailing In Stress, Startup Funding Explodes & More

Ride-Hailing Giants In Regulatory Quagmire

India’s ride-hailing giants seem to be fishing in roiling regulatory waters. Now, Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant has hinted that Ola and Uber’s entry into the coastal state may not be easy to steer. 

No Place For Aggregators: Sawant has taken a terse approach towards ride-hailing platforms, following pressure from coastal belt MLAs, who have asked the state government to keep the recently notified aggregator guidelines in abeyance. The new rules make it mandatory for platforms to seek a three-year licence and have a local office in Goa. 

Bike Taxis Face Red Light In Karnataka: Last week, a division bench of the Karnataka HC declined to stay the ban on bike taxis in the state until a policy is drafted to regulate these services. 

Dousing Fires On Many Fronts: Caught in the regulatory crossfire, the duopoly of Ola and Uber have also been hit by rising competition from the zero-commission model of Namma Yatri and Rapido. On top of this, Chennai drivers’ trade union, earlier this year, raised a boycott call over exorbitant commissions charged by the two ride-hailing platforms. 

Not just this, the cab aggregators have also been at odds with the Centre. Earlier this year, it came to fore that the consumer affairs ministry was probing Ola and Uber over differential pricing for Android and iPhone users and their “advance tip” feature for faster ride confirmations. 

Fighting fire on multiple fronts, here’s how Ola and Uber have now failed to find a home in Goa. 

From The Editor’s Desk

Startup Funding Explodes: Indian startups cumulatively raised $567.5 Mn across 19 deals last week, up 322% from the $134.4 Mn raised by 16 startups in the preceding week. Groww and Spinny topped the charts with $202 Mn and $170 Mn rounds, respectively.

New-Age Tech Stocks Tumble: Twenty-four of the 33 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s watch ended the week in the red, declining in the range of 0.19% to 9%. FirstCry and Mapmyindia were the biggest losers and slid 8.88% and 7.27%, respectively. 

Zepto’s Warehouse Ban Revoked: Maharashtra authorities have reinstated the food licence of the quick commerce major’s Dharavi warehouse after re-inspection. The licence was suspended last week after officials found food safety violations at the premises. 

Tax Evasion Via Cryptos? Tax officials are investigating alleged tax evasion and laundering of funds by high-risk persons via crypto investments. The Centre believes that certain investors violated the income tax norms by paying taxes at a lower rate.

Startup IPO Spring: With half a dozen startups filing their DRHPs in 2025 so far, the homegrown new-age tech ecosystem is gearing up for an IPO spring. But, with adverse factors looming heavily, will startups chart a record-breaking 2025 or put up a dud show? 

Jhunjhunwala Estate Exits Nazara: The estate of late investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has exited the gaming major by divesting its remaining 5.07% stake, or 27.23 Lakh shares. In June so far, the estate sold more than 61 Lakh shares in Nazara for a reported INR 770 Cr.

Centre To Drop EV Localisation Mandates? The government may drop 50% localisation mandates for EV makers under the PLI scheme amid China’s curbs on rare earth materials. The Centre has directed automakers to import fully built motors to circumvent these restrictions.

Winning India’s OTT War: Bootstrapped Reelies made an early move into microdramas, witnessing the success of the concept in China. In less than a year of inception, the startup has onboarded around 18,000 paying subscribers and hopes to reach 2 Mn paid users by year-end.

Inc42 Startup Spotlight

Can altM Bring A Cleantech Revolution With Its Engineering Innovation? 

India produces 74.6 Lakh tonnes of hazardous waste annually, which poses a big risk to health and the environment. Realising that it was a major challenge to India’s ambition to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070, Yugal Raj Jain, Apoorv Garg, and Harshad Velankar founded altM in 2022. 

The cleantech startup develops and manufactures bio-chemicals by transforming agricultural residues and industrial bio-waste into bio-based materials.

Turning Waste Into Bio-Chemicals: At the heart of altM’s innovation lies its proprietary biorefinery platform, altMORPH, which operates in two stages. The first stage involves deconstruction, whereby industrial and agricultural waste is broken down into its fundamental components. In the second phase, these components are turned into high-value bio-chemicals and bio-based materials. 

Ready For Market: Focussing on a customer-first approach since the very outset, the startup began its operations by developing ingredients used in products like face washes, toothpastes, shampoos, and conditioners. Moving forward, the deeptech startup plans to tap into the manufacturing, textile and timber industry.  

With a manufacturing unit on the cards, altM has set its eyes on producing 10,000 tonnes of biomass annually. Can altM bring a cleantech revolution with its engineering innovation?