Groww FY25 profit triples; Qcomm growth beyond metros
Groww FY25 profit triples; Qcomm growth beyond metros
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Groww triples FY25 profit, raises fresh funds at $7 billion valuation ahead of IPO
By the numbers:
Net profit rose 3X to Rs 1,819 crore in FY25.
Revenue grew 31% to Rs 4,056 crore.
Closed $200 million funding at a $7 billion valuation, led by Singapore's GIC with Iconiq Capital joining. ET first reported about the funding round on March 26.
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S
Quick commerce fuels niche D2C boom in smaller cities
Uptick in revenue contribution:
Shift from ecommerce:
Qcomm expansion:
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Centre's no MDR stance derails fintech's UPI monetisation plans
Driving the news:
Despite operating without MDR for several years, the payments industry hadn't given up hope that it would be reinstated, at least for large transactions, the chief executive of a major payment processor told us.
A senior banker noted that reintroducing MDR was always going to be challenging after the government accustomed the merchant ecosystem to free digital payments.
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Indian digital businesses are innovating faster with Data + AI: Databricks founder
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Other Top Stories By Our Reporters
India needs infra to train larger AI models: Krutrim exec |
Paytm, Mobikwik shares tumble after finance ministry rules out MDR on UPI transactions:
HCLTech bags engineering deal from Volvo Group:
Global Picks We Are Reading
Happy Friday! IPO-bound fintech major Groww has reported a three-fold jump in its net profit for FY25. This and more in today's ETtech Morning Dispatch.■ No MDR: Fintechs face revenue loss■ Databricks founder on India■ Krutrim launches AI agent(L-R) Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh, Lalit Keshre and Ishan Bansal, founders, GrowwBengaluru-based wealth platform Groww posted a sharp jump in profitability ahead of its public listing.Groww confidentially filed IPO papers with Sebi in May, aiming to raise $700 million– $1 billion. Its valuation has more than doubled from $3 billion in 2021, when it last raised a major round. In FY24, Groww had posted a net loss of Rs 805 crore due to a one-time Rs 1,340 crore tax payout linked to shifting its domicile from the US back to India.Groww has pulled ahead as India's largest stockbroker by active NSE clients (13 million), outpacing rivals Zerodha and Angel One. Its financial performance makes it one of the most profitable IPO-bound fintechs in India.Rapid expansion of quick commerce into smaller cities and towns is fuelling demand for niche direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands in categories ranging from intimacy products and sexual wellness to curly hair care and fitness accessories, where convenience and discreet delivery are key drivers.MyMuse, which sells intimacy products, gets almost a third of its revenue from non-metro regions, while men's sexual health and wellness brand Bold Care derives over 40% of its total revenue from tier II and III cities, company executives said.According to Satish Meena, adviser at Datum Intelligence, a set of customers who previously shopped on ecommerce platforms are shifting to quick commerce for certain categories of products for instant gratification. Many consumers who haven't used ecommerce before are also trying rapid delivery because of its ease and accessibility.As brands focus on smaller cities, quick commerce platforms are also ramping up their presence in these regions. BigBasket said it is recording about 50,000 orders per day from tier-II cities, with tier-III cities contributing around 7,000 daily orders.After the finance ministry clarified that there was no plan to reintroduce the merchant discount rate (MDR) on payments via Unified Payments Interface (UPI), fintechs' monetisation plans went for a toss Stocks of listed payment firms dived a day after the ministry said such speculations were 'completely false, baseless and misleading'.This comes months after industry chatter grew about the government considering bringing back MDR, but only for large purchases. Industry insiders also pointed out that fintech firms have been encouraging customers to move to instruments like mobile wallets or prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) and credit cards, i.e. MDR-generating instruments.Ali Ghodsi, founder, DatabricksDigital businesses in India are AI-hungry and ahead of global peers in terms of innovation with data and artificial intelligence (AI), Ali Ghodsi, founder and chief executive of Databricks, told ET.On the sidelines of the company's summit in San Francisco, Ghodsi said Databricks is bullish on Asian markets India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, which are moving faster than the rest of the world on AI because of the relaxed regulatory environment.To close the AI talent gap, Databricks also announced the free edition of its platform, along with a $100 million global investment in data and AI education. This initiative gives students, professionals, and institutions free access to Databricks tools and training.Bhavish Aggarwal, founder, KrutrimOla's AI arm Krutrim is looking at getting the base infrastructure , from semiconductor to hardware, to be the fast and cost-effective model as the company scales up its AI services, said A Navendu, senior vice president and head of business.Investors sold Paytm and Mobikwik shares on Thursday, a day after the Finance Ministry denied reports of charges on UPI transactions. Paytm shares dropped 10% in trade today, before recovering later. Mobikwik's market value dropped to Rs 2,121 crore, before recovering slightly to Rs 2,128 crore.Incumbent IT player HCLTech bagged an engineering services deal from Swedish truck maker Volvo Group, the third largest software services exporter announced on Thursday.■ The problem of AI chatbots telling people what they want to hear ( FT ■ Vibe coding is coming for engineering jobs ( Wired ■ Are we ready to hand AI agents the keys? ( MIT Technology Review
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