Latest news with #ElevationCapital
Economic Times
2 hours ago
- Business
- Economic Times
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 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, 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
Deccan Herald
3 hours ago
- Automotive
- Deccan Herald
Mahaveer Finance secures Rs 200 Cr funding to accelerate vehicle financing solutions
Chennai, Non-banking finance company Mahaveer Finance India Ltd has secured Rs 200 crore funding to strengthen the vehicle financing access to underserved entrepreneurs, a top official said on fundraising of Rs 200 crore was led by Elevation Capital with participation from existing investors, including BanyanTree Finance and First Bridge strategic infusion of capital would empower the Chennai-headquartered company to deepen its presence in Southern India, one of its strong markets, expand infrastructure, and serve underserved on the occasion, Mahaveer Finance CEO and Managing Director Deepak Dugar, in a company statement, here, said, "This funding milestone validates our four-decade journey of serving the underbanked segments of India's economy. With Elevation Capital's partnership and our existing investors' continued confidence, we are well-positioned to scale our proven business model across new geographies while maintaining the current credit approach that has delivered consistent profitability." The fundraise underscores the growing confidence in Mahaveer Finance's robust business model built on the back of multi-decade and business cycle experience, technology adoption, and employee base, the company said.
Skift
5 hours ago
- Business
- Skift
Ixigo Lands $11 Million From Schroder Fund, Elevation Capital Trims Stake
Ixigo's focus on the next billion users in India, along with diversification and bet on profitable acquisitions has driven it to profitability in an already lucrative Indian market. Asset management company Schroder International Selection Fund has made an investment in online travel agency Ixigo. Through the block deal investment, the financial institution acquired a 1.38% stake in Ixigo, the online travel agency said in a statement. On Thursday, Ixigo shareholder Elevation capital sold 7.5 million shares in a block deal for about INR 1.35 billion ($15.7 million). Schroder acquired nearly 5.37 million shares for INR 969 million ($11.2 million). Last month, Elevation offloaded over 21.5 lakh shares for INR 382 million ($4.4 million). Even with the block deal, Elevation Capital still holds 12.08% in Ixigo. According to Ixigo, Elevation got a 2500% return on its latest partial
Economic Times
10 hours ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Elevation Capital sells Ixigo shares worth Rs 97.4 crore; Schroder buys stake
Elevation Capital (formerly Saif Partners India) has sold 53.9 lakh shares in Le Travenues Technology, the parent company of online travel aggregator Ixigo, for Rs 97.4 crore. The fund has made a 25x return in this sale. According to disclosures filed with the BSE, Elevation sold the shares at Rs 180 each on Thursday. At the same time, global investor Schroder International Selection Fund has acquired 53.6 lakh shares in the company worth Rs 96.9 crore. This comes right after Elevation Capital sold 21.5 lakh shares in Ixigo last month for Rs 38.27 crore. As of the quarter ended March 31, Elevation held a stake of around 14% in the company, holding 5.46 crore shares. It continues to hold a 12% stake in the company. Elevation Capital had invested Rs 63.1 crore in Ixigo through various tranches. Prior to this, the early-stage venture capital firm had sold shares worth Rs 100 crore through a pre-IPO secondary sale and sold shares worth around Rs 181 crore from the offer for sale (OFS) component of the company's IPO. Ixigo saw its net profit surge 128% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 16.7 crore for the quarter ended March. The company had reported operating revenue of Rs 284 crore for the quarter, up 72% from Rs 165 crore a year ago, on account of growth across all lines of business. Founded in 2007 by Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar, Ixigo allows users to book train, flight, and bus tickets while offering various utility tools and services such as train PNR status and confirmation predictions and updates for train seat availability. It also provides personalised recommendations and automated customer support. According to the company, it has 544 million annual active users with 83 million monthly active listed on the exchanges on June 18 last year at Rs 138, a premium of 48.5% over its issue price of Rs 93. It closed on Thursday at Rs 176.05 on the BSE.
Time of India
10 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Elevation Capital sells Ixigo shares worth Rs 97.4 crore; Schroder buys stake
Elevation Capital (formerly Saif Partners India) has sold 53.9 lakh shares in Le Travenues Technology , the parent company of online travel aggregator Ixigo , for Rs 97.4 crore. The fund has made a 25x return in this sale. According to disclosures filed with the BSE , Elevation sold the shares at Rs 180 each on Thursday. At the same time, global investor Schroder International Selection Fund has acquired 53.6 lakh shares in the company worth Rs 96.9 crore. This comes right after Elevation Capital sold 21.5 lakh shares in Ixigo last month for Rs 38.27 crore. As of the quarter ended March 31, Elevation held a stake of around 14% in the company, holding 5.46 crore shares. It continues to hold a 12% stake in the company. Elevation Capital had invested Rs 63.1 crore in Ixigo through various tranches. Prior to this, the early-stage venture capital firm had sold shares worth Rs 100 crore through a pre-IPO secondary sale and sold shares worth around Rs 181 crore from the offer for sale (OFS) component of the company's IPO . Ixigo saw its net profit surge 128% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 16.7 crore for the quarter ended March. The company had reported operating revenue of Rs 284 crore for the quarter, up 72% from Rs 165 crore a year ago, on account of growth across all lines of business. Founded in 2007 by Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar, Ixigo allows users to book train, flight, and bus tickets while offering various utility tools and services such as train PNR status and confirmation predictions and updates for train seat availability. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories It also provides personalised recommendations and automated customer support. According to the company, it has 544 million annual active users with 83 million monthly active users. Ixigo listed on the exchanges on June 18 last year at Rs 138, a premium of 48.5% over its issue price of Rs 93. It closed on Thursday at Rs 176.05 on the BSE.
