Tata Cliq Shifts Focus to Value Shoppers as Fractal Analytics Considers IPO

Tata Cliqs on value shoppers; Fractal Analytics eyes IPO

GIFT Nifty signals a positive start for D-Street. Here's the trading setup for today's session Tata Cliqs on value shoppers; Fractal Analytics eyes IPO 10 Best Immersion Rods Under 1500: Top Picks From Brands Like Havells, Bajaj, Crompton, and More 'Don't wish to live for long in this environment': Mallikarjun Kharge after 'parivarvaad' remarks by BJP MP Stocks in news: ITC, Tata Motors, Zomato, Adani Enterprises, Infosys Three 9/11 suspects agree to plead guilty at Guantanamo 'Is she Indian or Black?' Donald Trump questions Kamala Harris' identity at Black journalists' convention Trifecta looks to raise $240 million for fourth venture debt fund AI firm Fractal eyes $400-500 million IPO at $3-billion valuation Space tech startup GalaxEye raises $6.5 million in first round led by Mela Ventures, Speciale Invest Beckn to power Nepal's tourism, agriculture network Tata Digital stitching 'value fashion' plan under its Cliq brand Has the last date to file ITR been extended beyond July 31? These midcap stocks with 'strong buy' & 'buy' recos can rally over 30%, according to analysts

Tata Cliqs on value shoppers; Fractal Analytics eyes IPO

Happy Thursday! Tata Digital is developing a new 'value fashion' offering under its Cliq brand. Details on this and more in today's ETtech Morning Dispatch. Also in the letter: ■ FirstCry, Unicommerce IPOs ■ Byju's-BCCI settlement ■ Trifecta Capital's fourth fund Tata Digital is in talks with multiple brands to build a value fashion proposition under its Cliq business, sources told us. Here are the details: Driving the news: Tata Cliq, which has a mass-affluent positioning, is in discussions with several brands to enhance its value-for-money offerings. This is unlikely to be a separate brand, but Cliq will partner with cost-efficient global as well as Indian brands to match the breadth of offerings from rivals Flipkart, Amazon, and Reliance. Tata group runs its popular brand Zudio in this category but sources said that will continue to remain offline. There are no plans to take it digital with Neu yet, these people in the know added. Zudio, led by Noel Tata, is a fast-growing brand for the conglomerate, surpassing revenues of Rs 7,000 crore in FY24. Tell me more: "They (Tatas) have made several proposals-including the old team under former Tata Digital's CEO Pratik Pal-to build a value fashion offering. Global brands from Canada and France have also been tapped that fit the bill. To compete with Flipkart and Reliance, they need to widen the offering and that's why there is work underway," a person aware of the matter told ET. What else: Besides the value play, Cliq is among the key businesses which need to be stabilised on the superapp Neu. The consumer uptick for Neu has been slow. Grocer BigBasket and epharamcy 1mg are the other two large businesses on the superapp. Also Read | Old guard is out as Tata Digital's new CEO revamps deck AI and analytics unicorn Fractal Analytics is eyeing an initial public offering (IPO) worth $400-500 million, valuing the firm at close to $3 billion, as per executives in the know. What's the news: The New York-based SaaS company may submit the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) to markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) by late September. Tell me more: Fractal was last valued at $1.55 billion when it raised funds from TPG Capital in 2023. The company will use the fresh funds for expanding its Generative AI services portfolio and pre-payment of some loans. About Fractal: Founded by Srikanth Velamakanni and Pranay Agrawal in 2000, Fractal most recently developed India's first text-to-image diffusion model, Kalaido.ai, which can generate high-quality images from text prompts in English and Indian languages. It has operations in the US, its biggest market, Europe, the Middle East and India. Also Read | Ola Electric IPO: All you need to know before subscribing FirstCry: The IPO of Brainbees Solutions, which operates baby and mother care products retailer FirstCry, is scheduled to open on August 6, while bidding for the anchor portion will open for a day on August 5, as per its red herring prospectus (RHP). Unicommerce: Gurugram-based Unicommerce Esolutions, which provides technology products to manage the online operations of retailers, has filed its RHP for an IPO. The IPO, which does not have a fresh issue component, will see an OFS of up to 25.6 million shares. Byju Raveendran, the founder of edtech firm Byju's, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have reached a settlement in their Rs 158-crore sponsorship dues dispute. Driving the news: The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has not passed an order on the matter as a group of US lenders has opposed the settlement, claiming that the money belongs to them and not Raveendran. The edtech firm had raised a $1.2-billion term loan B from these lenders. Company's stance: Arun Kathpalia, counsel for the founder, informed the NCLAT on Wednesday that part of the settlement amount was already paid on Tuesday. The settlement money is being paid by the edtech founder's brother and company board member, Riju Ravindran, who is also the largest shareholder. Recap: The BCCI had moved NCLT under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) over a default of Rs 158 crore by Byju's parent, Think & Learn. The company had signed a jersey sponsorship agreement with BCCI in March 2019 for three years, which was extended by a year. The company made the payments until September 2022, and the dispute is over the nonpayment during the period from October 2022 to March 2023. Also Read | ET Explainer: Byju's steps on the insolvency tripwire. What happens next? Rahul Khanna, founder, Trifecta Capital Venture debt firm Trifecta Capital is gearing up to raise Rs 2,000 crore, or $240 million, with its fourth fund, including a greenshoe of Rs 500 crore, founder and managing partner Rahul Khanna told ET. Fund details: Khanna said the fund will deploy the capital across sectors, consciously avoiding risky sectors such as cryptocurrencies, gaming, and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending. For this fund, Trifecta Capital, which has backed the likes of BigBasket and Zepto, expects participation from global financial institutions, domestic conglomerates, banks, insurance firms and development financial institutions. "We're coming up to our 10th year, and we have a formula that works...so the idea is to do more or less the same. Of course, with every fund, the underlying sectors are different, and so from a pipeline perspective, it'll be a different cohort of companies," he told ET. Background: Founded by Khanna and Nilesh Kothari in 2015, Trifecta Capital has seen its total write-offs arrested at 0.6% of its investments amid a slowdown in venture investment. Khanna attributed this to limited exposure to any single sector or sponsor. Also Read | Trifecta Capital announces final close of third venture debt fund at Rs 1,777 crore Beckn Protocol to power open network in Nepal: India's Beckn Protocol, which powers decentralised networks like the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), may soon be adopted in neighbouring Nepal for tourism and agriculture use cases. 'Opportunistic': Ola Electric CEO Bhavish Aggarwal slams MapMyIndia over lawsuit | Days after MapMyIndia sued Ola Electric for allegedly stealing its data, the EV startup's founder and chief executive, Bhavish Aggarwal, has defended his firm. The lawsuit was filed just days before Ola Electric is set to float its IPO on Friday. Freshworks reports 20% revenue growth in Q2 at $174 million: Nasdaq-listed software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm Freshworks on Wednesday said it had pared losses in the second quarter to $20.1 million as opposed to $35.6 million during the same period a year ago. ■ Google cracks down on explicit deepfakes (Wired) ■ Can a church exist exclusively on the internet? (Rest of World) ■ OpenAI endorses Senate bills that could shape America's AI policy (TechCrunch)