Daybreak

Over the course of a year or so, we’ve seen how one by one, the chances of Byju's survival have been narrowing down. However, there’s one thing that could possibly save it from falling apart: Aakash, the offline coaching chain that Byju’s had acquired in 2021 for a staggering $950 million.

Now, with its IPO upcoming in mid-2024, the struggling edtech giant has a lot riding on Aakash's success.

But Byju’s is turning out to become quite the troublesome partner for Aakash, no thanks to its aggressive sales tactics. These selling hacks are driving a wedge between the two teams on the ground and the plans to integrate have been put on hold.

Tune in.

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Aakash’s sales force has no love lost for Byju’s

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.

For the longest time, despite being a giant steel-to-software conglomerate, Tata’s consumer goods game was nowhere close to India's top FMCG companies.

Ever since 2019 though, when it decided to merge Tata Chemicals and Tata Beverages as Tata Consumer Products Ltd, the FMCG arm has been on a roll. In the recent financial year alone, it introduced more than 30 new products.

Meanwhile, Tata Consumer’s shares have more than tripled. The Nifty FMCG index also almost doubled. What changed?

Tune in to find out.

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How Tata Consumer’s Sunil D’Souza put product launches on steroids

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.

Last week, the edtech unicorn Unacademy fired Karan Sangwan, a law teacher for asking students to vote for educated candidates during elections in one of his video tutorials on YouTube. According to the edtech, Sangwan had breached the code of conduct by sharing his 'personal opinion.'

While this case is of a slightly different nature pertaining to one individual, Unacademy's relationship with its educators in general hasn't been great either.

With dwindling sales and a funding crunch, edtechs like Unacademy have made tutors their new sales force. Teachers are being forced to make viral content to meet targets but for many, it is too much to handle.

Tune in.

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The product-market-fit hole in Unacademy’s SaaS offering, Cohesive

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.

A March 2022 report from the World Health Organization said that over 17% of households in India incur catastrophic health expenditures every year. And it results in the impoverishment of around 55 million people. Anyway, it's just about 37% of the population that actually has any form of health insurance. 

In such circumstances, if the rate at which a health insurance company denies claims begins to rise, it is a matter of concern. Star Health, one of India's leading health insurers, had the highest number of claims outstanding among the standalone health insurance companies for the year ended March 2022. Aggrieved customers have been running from pillar to post for payouts, turning to social media and consumer courts for respite.

And yet, Star Health's new business is still growing and its retail policy renewal rate remained unaffected.

Tune in.

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IPO-bound Digit trusts its tech to sell health insurance, but consumers don’t yet 

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.

Reliance controls just 3% of India’s retail market. You might think it's a tiny share. But 80% of the retail industry is unorganised. And overall, the retail sector in our country is worth nearly 900 billion dollars. So to control even 3% of it is a big deal.

But it is refining and petrochemicals that is the Reliance's biggest business.

Why is it then that since the last three years, Reliance Retail is being made to headline the conglomerate's annual report?

Tune in.

Free Read:

Lenskart’s CEO and chief people officer Peyush Bansal has a people problem

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.

Beets are a superfood today. Tomorrow it'll be lemons. The internet is rife with misinformation especially about food and health related stuff. There are hundreds of influencers on your feed telling you what’s good for you.

But who’s telling you what’s bad and what doesn't work?  Maybe a keto diet worked for your friend but not for you. Take Dr Cyriac Abby Philips who goes by The Liver Doc on Twitter. Recently, he claimed there is no point in taking multivitamins.

He is a de-influencer and there are many like him who work towards breaking down myths. Often they're faced with legal action and threats, yet most of them continue their work.

But what is really fuelling de-influencers?

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The wild finfluencer party is finally coming to an end

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.

After a delay of almost a year Ola Electric finally released its financials this week. The company was valued at $5 billion last year and so far it has raised nearly $800 million from investors, including Softbank. With a 40% market share, it is the leader of the two-wheeler EV market in India. It has already sold over 250,000 vehicles.

Ola Electric has set up 600 experience centres around the country where people can go take test rides. But the company only has 200 service centres. Its lack of focus towards after-sales servicing is upsetting customers. Plus, the financials point towards a 4X loss in FY 2022.

Meanwhile, its competitors like Ather and Bajaj are strategically going for a service-first policy.

Tune in.

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Why $3 billion set aside for India’s EV makers is sitting idle

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.

Known for its high-end EV models, earlier this year, Tesla went on a cost-cutting spree. Six months ago, though, the EV maker was on the verge of shutting down its office in India. 

But last week, the company took up a sprawling office space in Pune on a five-year-long lease. And last month, it was reported that Tesla plans to set up a factory in India with a yearly capacity of 5 lakh EV units. 

Now, at a time when there is a general fall in EV prices, it is admittedly chasing growth—even if it comes at the cost of profitability.

In fact, the starting price range of Tesla models in India could be as low as US$24,000. 

It looks like the EV-making global giant is picking up cues from the reigning giant of India's passenger EV market—Tata Motors.

Tune in to find out how.

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Why Tesla is surely watching Tata, BYD

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.

The voice of the gig worker is getting louder, and it's coming to a point where neither delivery companies nor the government can afford to ignore it for much longer.

Last month, the Rajasthan government came up with a new law that aims to establish a welfare board and a dedicated social security fund for platform-based gig workers in the state. One could say the new law sets a precedent for gig workers across the country.

However, that is so only if you take it at face value.

Once you look beyond the headlines and go through the technicalities of the law, it doesn't paint as rosy a picture for the aggrieved gig workers.

Tune in to find out more.

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Gig-worker strikes are just the tip of the iceberg, unionisation lies beneath

India's first law to protect gig workers is surprisingly good news for their employers

Does the delivery-partner fee you pay 'fully go to them for their time and effort'? Nope

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.

UPI or the Unified Payments Interface has revolutionised the way we use money. So much so that we don't think twice about freely accept financial connections with strangers. Since its launch seven years ago, 300 million users in India are on the UPI platform freely carrying out financial transactions.

But did you know that your bank can block your account without a warning or any explanation? And what's worst, you could even come under the radar of law enforcement authorities like the cyber crime police. Anyone who unknowingly makes a transaction, directly or indirectly, with a fraudster can be considered suspicious by authorities.

Meanwhile, banks and law enforcement agencies are yet to figure out a standard operating procedure in dealing with such matters. This had led them to adopt a ‘block first, ask questions later’ approach that's been making the lives of innocent victims even harder.

Tune in to find out more.

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On the UPI social network, who do you ‘know’? And who do ‘they know’?

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.