Daybreak

In this episode, we turn the spotlight on one of the most powerful yet elusive figures in Indian e-commerce: Kalyan Krishnamurthy, the everywhere-all-the-time CEO of Flipkart. Flipkart, backed by Walmart, was once India’s great e-commerce hope. But lately, the tides have been turning.

Walmart is flying high, outperforming Amazon globally, dominating grocery delivery, and raking in ad dollars with a valuation that’s outshining even Apple. But six years after buying Flipkart, Walmart’s patience is wearing thin. Profits still remain elusive. And Krishnamurthy who has been recognised as a wartime CEO is starting to look more like a general losing his command. Flipkart’s getting squeezed from every side. Meesho, the social commerce platform, has captured the small cities. Amazon still owns the metros. And in the quick-commerce madness, it's all about Zepto, Blinkit, Instamart. Flipkart’s barely in the game. Now some of this chaos is kind of self-inflicted. For example, Flipkart’s foray into travel with the Cleartrip acquisition.

Senior leaders are leaving, morale is shaken, and few inside the company believe the endgame is anywhere in sight. The Ken reporter Nuha Bubere went behind the scenes and the pressure was palpable. 

Tune in.

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

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For the longest time, getting accepted to Y Combinator, the Silicon Valley startup accelerator was like getting a golden ticket for your startup. It was suddenly on the map not just in India but in Silicon Valley, too. 

For Indian founders who made it, the story of success began with a journey west. Set up in Delaware, impress YC, and get some of that Silicon Valley shine. But what happens when that dream starts looking more like a detour than a destination?Earlier this week, the online market place Meesho, once a poster child from the YC pipeline, announced it will pay nearly 300 million $ million in taxes just to bring its business back to India. 

Why? Because that’s where the real opportunity is now. With an IPO in the works, Meesho is doing what many Indian startups are now considering: the reverse flip. And Meesho isnt the only one. Fintech unicorn Razorpay, another Y combinator baby, wants an Indian IPO in the next two years. Its expected to pay as much as $150 million to redomicile its business to India. 

But if the endgame is an Indian IPO, why take the expensive U.S. route in the first place? Is the YC badge still worth it? 

Tune in. 

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In a recent, 10-page note recapping its investing journey, Info Edge (India) founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani proudly, and justifiably, called Zomato and Policybazaar “breakout successes”, “winners”, and “outliers”.

A few days earlier, Zomato, now renamed Eternal, had released its sobering financials for the three months ended March. 

So what’s Infoedge doing about it? Apart from its own businesses – spanning recruitment, real estate, matrimony and education – it owns roughly 12.5% each of Eternal and PB Fintech, the parent of insurance marketplace Policybazaar, and has not sold a single share in either since they started trading.

The reason is simple and it was stated in its shareholders letter. It wants to be strategic and not opportunistic about existing businesses because it sees itself as a long term investor and not some trader. 

The thing is, not everyone is on the same page. 

Tune in.

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Indians are hungry for luxury watches. Just in 2024, even as exports of Swiss watches declined globally, they surged 25 per cent in India. 

Interestingly, the player winning in this fast-growing market is not a legacy business house like Tata or Reliance, rather it is little-know Chandigarh-based retailer, Ethos. 

What sets it apart is the strong relationships it has built with ultra-luxury watch makers over the decades. How does it do it? 

Tune in. 

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Dream Sports, the company behind Dream11, just bought a piece of Cricbuzz from Times Internet for $50 million. It also bought a stake in Willow TV, a cricket broadcaster in the U.S.

As you probably know, Dream11’s core business is fantasy sports. But no thanks to new taxes and regulatory friction, their business isn’t looking so good lately. Revenue projections are down, growth is slowing, and they haven’t raised fresh money since 2021.

Cricbuzz, meanwhile,  has hundreds of millions of monthly visits. That too mostly young users which is exactly the kind of crowd Dream11 wants to tap in to. And Willow TV brings in the U.S. diaspora just when cricket is having its moment in the US, driven largely by South Asian immigrants. The country even hosted the T20 World Cup last year. Together, the two open the doors for Dream Sports  to expand, engage, and maybe also survive.

But here’s the real kicker. Dream Sports only bought a minority stake. Why play small in a high-stakes game? And who’s actually the real winner in all of this?

Tune in to find out.

For nearly a decade, Swiggy and Zomato have fed our hunger and dominated prime real estate on our phone screens, leaving very little room for any serious challengers.

Most who tried to break in got their fingers burnt before they even got started. But now, a new player has decided to throw its hat into the ring. 

 This is a player that has some experience taking on titans, though the last time around it was in a completely different space. Rapido – the Bangalore-based startup that quietly muscled its way into India’s ride-hailing market  – is all set to launch its own a food delivery platform called 'Ownly'.

Sure, Rapido’s mission of zero commission, equal pricing in offline and online, and meals as low as ₹150 looks compelling,
but the real question is: how will Rapido make money?

Tune in.

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The luggage industry seems to have undergone quite a makeover in the last few years. Back in the day, VIP and Safari were synonymous with the plain black and grey suitcases. But now, luggage is as important as the clothes you wear–it’s part of the whole airport look.
Startups like Mokobara, Nasher Miles, Assembly, and Uppercase have turned luggage into an aspirational lifestyle product with smart social-media marketing and a vibrant aesthetic.

Also, important to note is that travel changed after Covid pandemic. The duration of trips has shortened, but the frequency of general travel has increased from once every three months to once every 45 days.The suitcase now has to fit in with the instagram aesthetic so it has gone from being functional to a style statement. As of now, VC-backed, new-age luggage brands only have a tiny slice of the market.
But that slice has been growing quickly, and that’s enough to get the old guard nervous.

Tune in.

**This episode was first published on Feb 3, 2025

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

We are on WhatsApp at +918971108379. Text us and tell us what you thought of the episode!

Last month, The Ken set out on a quest to understand how deep AI’s roots have grown in Indian companies. We asked India’s employees across industries and experience levels the extent to which they were using AI tools on a day to day and how it had changed workplace dynamics for them. 

Nearly 500 people took our survey. Nine out of 10 of them said they had begun using AI tools, even if it meant paying for them out of their own pocket. 

Once we got a sense of how employees were feeling about AI, we turned the lens on some of India’s biggest companies. What were they doing to help their employees keep up? 

Turns out that’s something the likes of Razorpay, Phonepe, Cars24, Homelane and Zerodha are actively working towards. 

Tune in. 

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The Indian wealth-management industry is booming and everyone wants a piece of the action. But here’s the twist: as the industry explodes, the people managing all that wealth have become the real prize.

In a business that caters not just to the top 1%, but the top 0.01% of India’s elite, having the best wealth managers on your roster isn’t just important—it’s everything.

And one four-year-old upstart got that memo early. Neo Group has been on an aggressive hiring spree, planning to add at least 70 new wealth managers this financial year.

But why are we talking about a relatively small, young firm and its recruitment plans?

Because the strategy is working. Big time.

Tune in. 

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Elon Musk’s Starlink is just months away from launching in India. Amazon’s Kuiper will follow in 2026. The satcom green light is finally here — the regulator’s long-awaited guidelines are out, and the Department of Telecom has drawn up its strict new rulebook. Surprisingly, the satellite players aren’t blinking. Even more surprising? After years of resistance, Jio and Airtel have suddenly struck deals with Starlink.

But here’s the twist: behind the scenes, neither telco seems eager to actually sell Starlink terminals. So why the sudden handshake? And what’s really going on under all this satellite sparkle?

Tune in to find out how India’s broadband future is being reshaped.

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Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.