Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Thursday, January 30, 2025. This is Nelson John, let's get started.

Last week, Wingify, a SaaS company, was acquired by Everstone Capital for $200 million, and Minimalist, a skincare brand, was bought by Hindustan Unilever Ltd for nearly ₹3,000 crore. These significant acquisitions highlight that Indian startups can indeed generate substantial wealth, not just through IPOs but also as targets for major acquisitions. Soumya Gupta writes. Notably, Wingify's founder retained a major stake of 84%, allowing him to benefit greatly from the sale, similar to Minimalist’s founders, who owned over 61%. The common narrative in the Indian startup ecosystem often involves founders diluting their equity to raise capital from venture capitalists and private equity firms to fuel growth, leading to reduced ownership. However, these two cases illustrate that substantial ownership can lead to lucrative exits. Companies like Zoho and Zerodha showcase that bootstrapping, or growing without external capital, allows founders to maintain control and potentially lead to high profitability without the pressures from external investors.

Indian companies are increasingly implementing strategies to retain junior employees for at least a year to ensure their investment in training isn't lost to high turnover rates. Instead of using the term 'bond', which has legal limitations, firms are incorporating 'commitment periods' into employment contracts. These stipulate that employees must reimburse the company for training and development costs if they leave within a year. Law firms Devina Sengupta spoke to, note that these contracts don't prevent employees from joining other companies but do require them to pay back training costs if they leave prematurely. This method is seen as a more legally tenable and employee-friendly approach than traditional bonds. Training costs, which can range from ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakh depending on the industry, are now more frequently detailed in contracts to avoid disputes. Sectors like IT, pharmaceuticals, financial services, aviation, and telecom are observing shorter commitment periods, now typically one year instead of two, to adapt to the high churn rates among junior staff.

Netweb Technologies, an AI cloud services firm based in Delhi, has been in the news lately after its stock price took a sharp 48% hit. The company quickly reached out to investors, explaining that this drop was just a temporary setback and emphasized their readiness to capitalize on the latest AI developments, especially with China’s DeepSeek shaking up the market. Their investor note, though lacking specific growth details, seemed to do the trick, reports Shouvik Das. The stock price rebounded, hitting a 10% upper circuit early in the trading session following the note’s release. The reaction from the industry has been a bit of a mixed bag. Some experts are optimistic, pointing out that while current global policy changes and market disruptions present challenges, they also open doors for Indian AI firms to innovate and grow. However, others are more cautious, noting that Indian companies are heavily dependent on technologies like Nvidia's processors. This makes them vulnerable if access to these critical technologies is restricted.

2024 turned out to be a strong year for soybean yields in India, with significant improvements in production due to favourable weather conditions. Despite this, India continues to face challenges with cooking oil shortages. The government has attempted to boost local oilseed production by increasing import duties by 22% to encourage more domestic farming and reduce dependency on imported oils, particularly palm oil, which has seen prices surge due to international market dynamics. India imports about 65% of its cooking oil needs, with palm oil making up over half of this due to its lower costs historically. However, international issues like Indonesia diverting palm oil to biodiesel production have driven up prices, impacting both consumers and industries reliant on these oils. Sayantan Bera examines India’s cooking oil woes, in today’s Long Story.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has dealt a major blow to Byju's by reinstating Glas Trust Co. Llc and Aditya Birla Finance Ltd as financial creditors, giving them significant influence over the company's insolvency proceedings. This move came after the tribunal found Byju’s interim resolution professional, Pankaj Srivastava, unfit for his role and directed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) to initiate disciplinary action against him. The NCLT also dismissed the newly formed Committee of Creditors (CoC) and reinstated the previous one from August 21, 2024, which will now appoint a new resolution professional. This decision stemmed from allegations of fraudulent creditor classification by Byju's lenders, US-based Glas Trust Company and Aditya Birla Finance Ltd. They argued that they were wrongly classified, impacting their rights and the integrity of the insolvency process.

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