Ola Electric stocks pop; Honasa Consumer financial results for Q1

Ola Electric shares had a weak debut on the market but later rose sharply to reach the upper circuit. All this and more in today’s ETtech Top 5.

Also in this list:
■ ETtech Completed transactions
■ Namma Yatri now in Delhi
■ E-commerce employment boom

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Ola Electric shares hit high after flat market debut

(L-R) Ashish Chauhan, CEO, NSE and Bhavish Aggarwal, Founder, Ola Electric

After a weak debut on the stock exchange, Ola Electric’s share price rose by 20% to a peak level.

Investor optimism: Shares of the electric two-wheeler company opened at Rs 75.99 crore, slightly below the issue price by 0.01% on the BSE. However, the stock quickly recovered, jumping 19.97% to touch a high of Rs 91.18 crore. The company’s market valuation after the debut was Rs 40,217.95 crore.

The issue, which closed on August 6, was subscribed 4.26 times, attracting bids for 1.9 billion shares out of 460 million offered.

Read also |Lower IPO price to attract wider investor base: Ola Electric CEO Bhavish Aggarwal

Billionaire in the City: Ola Electric founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal added $1.4 billion to his wealth following the stock rally, boosting the entrepreneur’s net worth to $2.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Ola Electric did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Aggarwal’s net worth.

CEO Jargon: “The importance of today, of this moment, is finally starting to sink in. Until yesterday, it seemed like a process – we did our job, we took our time and made India one of the largest 2W EV markets. Our hard work has paid off and the world is seeing it,” Aggarwal said in a post on X.

What’s next: As per the prospectus, Ola Electric plans to use Rs 1,227.6 crore of the proceeds from the Rs 5,500 crore public issue to expand the production capacity of its cell manufacturing plant. While Rs 1,600 crore will be spent on product research and development, another Rs 800 crore will be used to repay debt and Rs 350 crore for organic growth initiatives.

Read also | Ola draws a route map to join a quick shopping event

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Honasa Consumer’s Q1 net profit jumps 63% year-on-year to Rs 40 crore

Varun and Ghazal Alagh, founders of Honasa Consumer

Mamaearth’s parent company, Honasa Consumer, on Friday reported a 63 percent increase in consolidated net profit for the quarter ending June 2024.

In numbers:

• Net profit rose to Rs 40 crore from Rs 24 crore a year ago
• Revenue from operations stood at Rs 554 crore, up 19% year-on-year
• New products accounted for approximately 9% of operating revenues
• Product activity increased by 20.3%, with the base volume (UVG) increasing by 25.2%.

What worked: Improved gross profit margins and scale-driven efficiencies drove solid results.

Mamaearth became one of the fastest-growing brands, according to Nielson, in key categories such as face wash and shampoo in the offline channel in Q1FY25. It is also the fourth-largest face wash brand in modern trade, the company said in a filing.

Ayuga comes out: Honasa Consumer said it is discontinuing its Ayurvedic beauty brand Ayuga, which it launched in December 2021, because it could not establish product-market fit. Honasa will then have six brands in its portfolio — Mamaearth, The Derma Co, Aqualogica, Dr Sheth’s, BBlunt and Staze.

Info Edge posts 8% year-over-year revenue growth in Q1

Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder of Info Edge

Naukri’s parent company Info Edge reported an 8 per cent year-on-year growth in operating revenue at Rs 677 crore for the quarter ended June 2024.

Key figures:

• Net profit for the quarter stood at Rs 259 crore, compared to Rs 147 crore a year earlier
• Total expenditure stood at Rs 484 crore, up from Rs 451 crore a year earlier
• The recruitment solutions business, which includes Naukri.com, grew 5% to Rs 487 crore
• Real estate portal 99acres’ revenues grew 19% to Rs 99 crore

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ETtech Deals Digest: Startup Funding Down 49% YoY to $108M This Week

Startups raised about $108.4 million between Aug. 3 and 9, down 48.9% from the same period last year. It also marks a nearly 50% drop from the previous week, when total funding was $214.1 million.

Startups, mostly early-stage and seed-stage, raised 17 rounds of funding this week, up from 26 in the same week last year, according to Tracxn data. They raised a total of $212 million.

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Namma Yatri Launches Taxi Service in Delhi NCR

Ride-hailing platform Namma Yatri has launched a commission-free taxi service in Delhi NCR under the brand name ‘Yatri’, a move that is set to intensify competition with Uber and Ola.

Driving the News: According to co-founder Shan MS, the platform will not charge any subscription fees or commission for electric cars and taxis in Delhi NCR till March 2026.

Namma Yatri along with its family of mobile apps including Yatri, Mana Yatri and Yatri Sathi operate as open mobile platforms under the Open Network of Digital Commerce (ONDC), operating on a zero commission model.

Read also: Namma Yatri raises $11 million in funding round led by Blume Ventures, Antler, and others

Incentive: According to the platform, drivers using the Yatri app typically earn 15-20% more. Under this zero-commission model, driver-partners pay a subscription fee to access the platform’s passenger discovery service, rather than paying a 25-30% commission per ride. This model is also used by Ola and Uber for their auto-rickshaw services.

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E-commerce sector to hire 10 lakh temporary workers this festive season

The e-commerce sector is likely to hire 10 lakh temporary workers and 2.5 lakh contract workers during the upcoming festive season to meet the surge in demand, according to human resources consultancy TeamLease Services.

Tell me more: As per Balasubramanian A, Senior Vice President and Business Unit Head, TeamLease, the e-commerce industry is poised to witness a 35 percent increase in sales during the upcoming festive season, which will be a significant jump compared to last year.

“This job boom not only highlights the sector’s critical role in job creation but also its significant contribution to India’s vision of a $5 trillion economy by 2025,” he said.

Read also: D2C Trend: New Age Brands Are Thriving Through Their Own Sites

Future Ready: According to Balasubramanian, projections indicate that by 2026, the sector will be inclusive, with tier II, III, IV cities and rural areas of India generating over 60% of e-commerce demand.

Read also: Exclusive | Fast-paced retail is eating up market share in kiranas, not e-commerce: Delhivery CEO Sahil Barua

Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter is brought to you by Megha Mishra from Mumbai and Riya Roy Chowdhury from Bengaluru.