MakeMyTrip's record raise, Zuck's AI talent grab
MakeMyTrip has raised $3.1 billion in the largest fundraise by a listed Indian internet company. This and more in today's ETtech Top 5.
Also in the letter: ■ Swiggy's latest pilot■ Krutrim's latest acquisition■ YouTube Shorts' monster growth
MakeMyTrip raises $3.1 billion to cut Chinese firm Trip's holding
Deep Kalra, chairperson, MakeMyTrip
Online travel platform MakeMyTrip has raised $3.1 billion through a mix of equity and debt, its banker, Morgan Stanley, confirmed on Friday.
What's the news: The fundraise marks the largest ever by a listed Indian internet company.
On Tuesday, MakeMyTrip disclosed in a regulatory filing that it is raising $3 billion to buy back shares from Trip.com Group.
MakeMyTrip cofounders Deep Kalra and Rajesh Magow currently hold 4.6% of the company's voting rights.
Domestic control: MakeMyTrip faced criticism last month over its sizable Chinese shareholding, after EaseMyTrip founder Nishant Pitti accused the platform of risking the travel data of Indian Army personnel. Following this buyback, Trip.com's stake will fall from 45% to around 20%. Its board representation will also shrink from five directors to two.
Other major raises:
Also Read: MakeMyTrip is buying out its Chinese stakeholders; these startups have also reduced Chinese holdings
Elevation Capital sells Ixigo shares worth Rs 97.4 crore; Schroder buys stake
Aloke Bajpai (R), MD and group CEO, Ixigo, and Rajnish Kumar (L), co-CEO, Ixigo
Venture fund Elevation Capital has offloaded shares of Le Travenues Technology, the parent company of travel platform Ixigo, for a second time in a month, pocketing a 25x return on its investment.
Numbers game: Elevation Capital has sold 53.9 lakh shares for Rs 97.4 crore, pricing them at Rs 180 apiece.
In parallel, global investor Schroder International Selection Fund picked up shares worth Rs 96.9 crore in the company.
This comes after Elevation sold 21.5 lakh shares in Ixigo for Rs 38.27 crore in May.
As of March 31, Elevation held a 14% stake in Ixigo. That has now come down to 12%. The early-stage investor had originally put in Rs 63.1 crore across multiple tranches.
Mark Zuckerberg made abortive attempt to buy ex-OpenAI executive Ilya Sutskever's AI startup: Report
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta
Meta's $14.2 billion recent investment in Scale AI, and roping in its CEO Alexandr Wang, appears to be just the beginning. Mark Zuckerberg seems to be on a man on a mission: to recruit top AI talent, and reports suggest he made a move for one of the sector's most-talked-about startups.
Driving the news: According to CNBC , Zuckerberg tried to acquire Safe Superintelligence, the $32 billion startup founded by former OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever. The talks didn't go far, with Sutskever reportedly turning him down. Meta then shifted focus to poaching CEO Daniel Gross for its AI team.
High-stakes game: Zuckerberg is spearheading an ambitious effort to build a 'superintelligence' team focused on developing artificial general intelligence (AGI), the elusive frontier where AI not only matches but surpasses human capabilities.
Inside Meta, there is growing frustration with the sluggish progress of its current efforts, particularly the limitations of the Llama 4 models.
Eager not to be left behind, Zuckerberg is setting his sights on outpacing OpenAI and Google in the AGI race.
Tell me more: The Meta CEO is assembling a handpicked team of 50 researchers, including a new head of AI, and has held private meetings with potential hires at his homes. Alongside Gross, Meta is also bringing in former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman to under Wang.
Sam Altman recently stated on a podcast that Zuckerberg has offered $100 million bonuses to attract talent, but so far, with little success.
Also Read: How Mark Zuckerberg unleashed his inner brawler
Swiggy pilots travel and lifestyle concierge app Crew
Swiggy has ventured into a new category with the pilot launch of its travel and lifestyle concierge app, Crew .
Details: The app blends human concierges with generative AI to help users plan trips, offering more than just itinerary suggestions. Last year, ahead of its IPO, Swiggy tested a similar service, Rare Life, a personalised concierge service for exclusive experiences. That experiment was short-lived, as the company decided to focus on broader lifestyle offerings instead.
What's the significance: Crew is part of Swiggy's latest push beyond food delivery, dining out, and quick commerce. In January, it launched Pyng, a professional services marketplace. This signals a departure from Swiggy's earlier 'superapp' strategy. Instead of integrating all services under one platform, Swiggy has started offering standalone apps. Instamart, its quick commerce unit, got a dedicated app earlier this year.
Background: In May, the company shut down its parcel delivery service, Genie, opting instead to focus on Bolt, its rapid food delivery feature now available in 500 cities. As food delivery growth tapers off, Swiggy and rival Zomato are betting on 10-minute orders to regain momentum.
Krutrim eyes AI growth with BharatSah'AI'yak acquisition
Bhavish Aggarwal, founder, Krutrim
Ola's AI division, Krutrim, has acquired BharatSah'AI'yak, an AI platform developed by governance consultancy Samagra.
Tell me more: The move comes as Krutrim seeks to expand its presence in government-led digital initiatives through its proprietary AI stack. As part of the agreement, Krutrim has also onboarded Samagra's core AI team.
Why it matters? BharatSah'AI'yak has been employed in projects spanning education, agriculture, and citizen services. It will now be integrated with Krutrim's in-house large language models (LLMs), cloud infrastructure, and agentic AI assistant platform, Kruti.
Also Read: What is Kumbh Sah'AI'yak? The digital companion for Maha Kumbh 2025 pilgrims
Zoom out: In February, Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal announced an investment of Rs 2,000 crore in Krutrim, with plans to increase it to Rs 10,000 crore by next year.
Internal challenges: Krutrim has recently faced internal turbulence, including several senior-level departures and criticism following the alleged suicide of an employee, with claims of a toxic work environment.
YouTube Shorts has hit 200 billion daily views: CEO Neal Mohan
Neal Mohan, CEO, YouTube
YouTube Shorts now commands around 200 billion daily views, according to CEO Neal Mohan.
Numberwise: This marks a dramatic leap from March 2024, when YouTube said Shorts was attracting around 70 billion daily views. In just one year, daily viewership has surged by nearly 186%.
More details: At the 2025 Cannes Lions Festival, Mohan added that people now watch over 1 billion hours of YouTube on their TVs every day.
In May, YouTube was the most-watched streaming platform in the US for the fourth consecutive month, topping Nielsen's The Gauge report.
Future outlook: As Shorts continues to gain traction, YouTube plans to strengthen support for creators by rolling out more tools. Mohan announced that Veo 3, the latest version of Google DeepMind's video generation model, will launch on the platform later this summer.
Also Read: AI age is here, but human content will remain king: YouTube CEO Neal Mohan
Updated On Jun 20, 2025, 07:27 PM IST
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