For INR 16.9 Cr (about $2 Mn), the skilling startup FinX, which focuses on financial services, has purchased a 100% share in the Bombay Stock Exchange’s training division, BSE Institute.
According to a statement from FinX, the acquisition would allow the company to increase the number of training programmes it offers in cutting-edge technological fields like IT, data science, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence. FinX will be able to significantly grow its clientele, training facilities, and product line thanks to the agreement.
Himanshu Vyapak, cofounder and CEO of FinX, commented on the acquisition, saying that with this expanded product line, FinX will offer a full range of programmes to meet the changing demands of the technology and financial services industries, providing state-of-the-art training options for the workforce of the future.
To increase its scale, FinX intends to use the physical training facilities of the BSE Institute in Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata, he told a media outlet.
FinX Carving Future of India’s Financial Sector
FinX, which Vyapak founded in 2019, offers workshops and certification programmes to prepare students for careers in the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector. Additionally, the startup asserts that it places the trained pupils.
So far, the Mumbai-based business has collaborated with over 400 Indian institutions and universities to deliver its courses. Interestingly, this is not the first acquisition of the upskilling platform. The Centre for Investment Education and Learning (CIEL), which has been providing corporate training in the BFSI industry for more than 17 years, was purchased by FinX in 2019.
The most recent acquisition was made just months after FinX raised $6 million from impact investment firm Elevar Equity in December 2024 as part of its seed funding round. The business stated at the time that it will use the recently obtained capital to pursue strategic acquisitions in the technology training and BFSI sectors.
Young Indian Honing Tech Skills to be the Prime Workforce of Country’s Tech Sector
More and more Indian programmers are looking to the cutting-edge technology as AI takes the world by storm in an effort to further their careers, get well-paying positions, and differentiate themselves from their colleagues.
Aware of this, the Centre has started a number of programmes to close the knowledge gap between school and work and equip the nation’s young people for the jobs of the future.
In her Budget 2024–25 speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled a new plan to renovate 1,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and teach 20 lakh youth over five years. With an investment of INR 8,800 Cr, the Union Cabinet earlier this year approved the continuation and reorganisation of the “Skill India Programme” through 2026.
As part of this, the Centre said that the Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) Scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0 (PMKVY 4.0), and the Pradhan Mantri National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (PM-NAPS) will all be incorporated into the Skill India Programme.
According to government data, PMKVY 4.0 has so far trained 19,774 people in a variety of artificial intelligence (AI) courses. In addition, there are a number of businesses that are attracting a lot of interest from investors and aiming to upskill working people and students.
For example, Emversity, an edtech business founded by former Unacademy COO Vivek Sinha, recently secured $5 million in its pre-Series A investment to provide healthcare students with skill-based certificate and degree programmes.
In a bold departure from the valuation-driven unicorn narrative, Titan Capital, one of India’s leading seed-stage venture capital firms founded by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, unveiled the ‘Indicorns 2025 List’ at India Internet Day. The Indicorns index honours startups that have not only surpassed ₹100 crore in annual revenue but have also achieved profitability, signalling true long-term business sustainability.
In a startup ecosystem largely focused on headline valuations, Indicorns offers a refreshing perspective by recognising companies that prioritise profitability, durability, and value creation. These businesses represent a new wave of founders focused on building scalable, resilient enterprises designed to thrive for decades.
Each of the 202 companies featured in the Indicorns 2025 list was founded within the last 15 years. Some have scaled profitably without any external funding, while others have gone on to be acquired or listed publicly. Together, as of FY24, these companies generated a cumulative revenue of INR 1,51,137 crore and profits of INR 7,393 crore, a testament to their financial strength and operational excellence.
Key Highlights from Indicorns 2025:
Regional Leaders: Delhi NCR tops the list with 51 Indicorns, followed closely by Bengaluru with 42, andMumbai with 35.
Growth Trajectories: 8 startups hit Indicorn status in under 5 years, 92 within 10 years, and 102 within 15 years.
Sector Powerhouses: Key industries driving the Indicorn wave include Fintech (50 startups), E-commerce (16 startups), and Logistics (13 startups).
Company Stages: 69 bootstrapped Indicorns, 12 acquired companies, and 13 are publicly listed
The data for Indicorns 2025 has been sourced in collaboration with Tracxn, a global private market intelligence platform tracking over 3 million startups across 2,700+ sectors. TiE Delhi-NCR, a premier global entrepreneurship network, joins as the Ecosystem Partner for this initiative, amplifying its mission of celebrating sustainable entrepreneurship.
Speaking on the launch of the 2025 Indicorns List, Kunal Bahl, Co-founder, Titan Capital, said, “ For too long, success in the startup world has been equated solely with sky-high valuations. With Indicorns, we’re celebrating a different kind of success—one rooted in fundamentals like profitability, sustainable growth, and real impact. These companies are proving that building enduring businesses in India is not just possible, but already happening at scale. We hope this list inspires a new generation of founders to chase not just scale, but strength.”
The Indicorns platform offers rare insight into these high-performing startups, from their financial metrics to growth playbooks, serving as an essential resource for founders, investors, corporates, and policymakers alike. These 200 Indicorns have also collectively created over 1,46,705+ jobs, reinforcing their contribution to India’s economy and innovation ecosystem.
By shifting focus to profit-first growth, Indicorns exemplify what it means to build for the long term—businesses that are stable, scalable, and enduring. The list will be updated annually, welcoming new entries based on performance and market dynamics.
About Indicorns
Indicorns are India’s most financially successful startups, each surpassing INR 100 crore in revenue while maintaining profitability. Founded in the last 15 years, these companies span multiple sectors and growth journeys, from bootstrapped operations to IPOs, showcasing what sustainable entrepreneurship truly looks like.
About Titan Capital
Titan Capital backs world-class entrepreneurs building transformative companies from the ground up. As one of India’s most active seed-stage investors, Titan has backed over 250 startups, including Ola, Razorpay, OfBusiness, Unicommerce, Urban Company, Shadowfax, Credgenics, Giva, and many more, supporting founders from idea to IPO.
According to reports, Tata Electronics is in talks to add NXP Semiconductors, a leading semiconductor design company, as a major client. Through their agreement, Tata will manufacture NXP’s products at its outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) facility in Assam and its future semiconductor fab factory in Gujarat.
According to one of the sources, the agreement is anticipated to replicate Tata Electronics’ previous collaboration with Analogue Devices, a US-based semiconductor manufacturing company, where the company hopes to begin chip production by 2026.
In September of last year, Analogue Devices and Tata Electronics, Tata Motors, and Tejas Networks signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to investigate potential collaboration in semiconductor production in India.
At that time, the Tata Group-owned company committed to producing Analogue Devices’ goods at both its OSAT facility in Assam and its future semiconductor fabrication site in Gujarat.
Shifting Away from Taiwan
Even though businesses like NXP have their own factories, they frequently outsource some of their production, which is where OSAT and the Tata fab can be useful. A media article claims that businesses desire to have an alternative to depending entirely on companies like TSMC, a well-known Taiwanese semiconductor contract manufacturing and design firm.
The research went on to say that while there aren’t many options at the advanced node, businesses like NXP would profit from bringing in players like Tata Electronics in the mature nodes.
Neil Shah, vice president-research at Counterpoint Research, emphasised the Tata Group’s long-standing partnership with NXP as the primary motivation for this action. NXP is a natural fit because of their existing business, particularly in automotive chips, and it only makes sense for Tata Electronics to talk to a number of potential customers and construct an India Rolodex for their forthcoming fab.
Tata’s Fab to be Operational Later this Year
Later this year, Tata’s Dholera factory, which can produce 50,000 wafer starts each month, is anticipated to be operational.
In addition to power management chips for electric cars, telecom, defence, automotive, consumer electronics, display, and power electronics, the facility will manufacture high-performance computation chips using 28 nm technology.
Applications for power management chips involve high voltage and high current. With a daily capacity of 48 million, Tata Semiconductor Assembly and Test (TSAT) at Morigaon, Assam, is creating domestic advanced semiconductor packaging technologies, such as flip chip and integrated system in package technologies.
Mobile phones, consumer electronics, telecom, electric vehicles, and automobiles are among the markets it will serve. In September of last year, Tata Electronics and ADI inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to investigate contract manufacture of the latter’s products in India.
As part of the ongoing restructuring, Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal wants to move ANI Technologies’ intellectual property (IP) rights to the Ola name to a holding firm run by his family office.
As the larger markets and sectors change, Ola’s spokesman informed a media outlet that the group’s structure is being proactively reconfigured to generate greater value and operational agility. This change will be implemented carefully and announced at the appropriate moment.
Investors in ANI are concerned about the decision because they fear they may lose out on future brand value. In exchange for royalties, ANI Technologies currently licenses the Ola brand to Ola Electric. ANI shareholders might not receive these future profits if the brand intellectual property is transferred out of the company.
ANI Investors Holds no Stake in Ola Electric and Krutrim
The matter is delicate because neither Aggarwal’s artificial intelligence (AI) startup Krutrim nor his electric mobility business Ola Electric are owned by ANI’s backers. The move’s structure and whether board or investor approval would be necessary are still unknown.
If the transfer is successful, Aggarwal will have more freedom to use the brand in all of his endeavours while maintaining control from his family office. In order to promote and grow his AI business, Krutrim Aggarwal promised in December to use 1.1% of the company’s equity share capital, or around INR 452 crore, to facilitate funding through debentures.
As it considers the launch of an initial public offering (IPO) of the ride-hailing company, ANI Technologies, the parent company of Ola Cabs, has started preliminary talks with investment banks.
Ola Already in Lot of Trouble
Ola Electric is under more pressure than ever after the Transport Ministry requested trade certificates from the Bengaluru-based EV manufacturer. According to a media outlet, the company received a show-cause notification .
The notice stated that Ola Electric must respond to the aforementioned questions within seven days of receiving this letter in order to prevent any negative consequences.
On 24 April, Ola received a new show-cause notice that requested information on the number of sales and service centres the business now operates. The notice further asked about the number of trade certificates it has obtained in the last three years and the date of issuance of each certificate.
Additionally, Ola Electric must clarify if its facilities are used to store unregistered automobiles. In addition to the aforementioned, the EV manufacturer must disclose the model and variant-by-variant information for the 7,820 EV scooters it sold in February.
Ola Electric stores operating without a trade certificate have been asked to close by the Maharashtra transport department, according to a media source. In a show-cause email to RTOs, Maharashtra’s joint transport commissioner stated that action should be taken to close the centre and rescind the original trade certificate.
KFC, the popular brand of the parent firm YUM! The brand is among the biggest fast-food chains in the world. After being around for more than 75 years, KFC’s original fried chicken recipe continues to gratify consumers’ taste buds because it is so delectably delicious.
KFC employs more than 800,000 people and has approximately 27,000 outlets serving fresh, delectable fried chicken to customers in more than 145 countries and territories around the world. The core goals of KFC are tenacity, friendliness, and kindness. KFC focuses on utilizing premium ingredients and preparing the chicken by hand each day to make it perfect. They humbly invite everyone to have a seat and savor the fried chicken’s distinctive flavor.
Apart from its delicious recipe, another thing that contributes to the success of KFC is its creative marketing. So, to understand how KFC used the power of marketing, let us look at the marketing strategy of KFC.
Colonel Harland Sanders, a 40-year-old who operated a service station in Corbin, Kentucky, began cooking for clients and was the man behind the founding of KFC. People started flocking to the station for his food rather than his automobile services as he became well-known and news spread about his delectable meals. To build a restaurant that could accommodate more than a hundred people, Sanders closed his service station. The secret ingredients that produce Kentucky Fried Chicken, which are still used in KFC today, were also developed by Sanders during this period. Then, in 1952, in South Salt Lake, Utah, the first “Kentucky Fried Chicken” franchise launched with phenomenal success. Since then, KFC has grown to become a global fast-food icon with over 27,000 restaurants in over 145 countries.
Since its establishment, KFC has been known for its secret recipe of fried chicken with a blend of eleven herbs and spices. KFC has a wide range of alternatives on its menu, and it also includes vegetarian food products as well. This has helped KFC grow both its clientele and sales volume.
The company’s presence in developed and emerging countries aids in the planning of its future expansion goals by providing exposure and expertise, two factors crucial to the success of the fast food sector.
KFC Target Market
To cater to the target market’s vegetarian and non-vegetarian client categories, KFC employs customer demographic segmentation. Its products are suitable for people of all ages, including children and young adults. Four groups may be used to categorize KFC’s target audience as children, teenagers and young adults, families, and budget customers.
Teenagers and families make up the majority of its clientele since most teens are impulsive and enjoy eating out with friends or ordering food online for the whole family. Adults are part of the secondary consumer profile, while people on a tighter budget make up the tertiary customer profile.
KFC’s customer demographics primarily include young adults and families, typically aged between 18 and 35 years. It appeals strongly to urban consumers, students, and working professionals who seek quick, tasty, and affordable meals. KFC also targets middle-income groups and adapts its menu to local tastes, making it popular across various regions and cultures.
KFC initially used a non-differentiated targeting technique because its menu was the same all over the world. Yet recently, it has begun localizing its menu in order to get more market acceptance. The KFC marketing plan makes use of both personal and non-personal marketing channels.
Personal channels entail speaking with the audience face-to-face or over the phone, like when a KFC salesman introduces a consumer to a product. The use of physical and online media, such as publications, billboards, television, posters, emails, websites, events, and social media, is an example of non-personal marketing channels.
The company’s powerful marketing mix has yet to be matched by those of its rivals. The four Ps of the marketing mix are used in KFC’s marketing strategy to analyze the brand (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). The methods and techniques a business uses to connect with and market to its target market are referred to as its marketing mix. The KFC marketing plan helps the brand develop a strong market position and accomplish its objectives.
KFC Marketing Mix
Product
A product strategy is a list of the goods that a business must offer to its customers. The staple of the American fast-food restaurant chain KFC is fried chicken. According to Sanders’ recipe, KFC’s original offering is pressure-fried chicken pieces that have been spiced with eleven distinct combinations. With over 300 menu options, KFC adapts its menus to suit local tastes all around the world. The fact that KFC keeps expanding its menu helps with the creation of a strong product strategy, which supports marketing.
Place
This strategy focuses on figuring out where the business may find potential customers for its goods. The marketing team at KFC adheres to a rigid set of rules when setting out the grounds of its restaurants around the nation. KFC’s audience-winning tactics are what have made it the global powerhouse it is today. More than 27,000 KFC outlets can be found in more than 145 countries and territories.
Many KFC stores are purposefully situated next to a school, university, office, or other educational facilities. This is because younger generations consume a lot more fast food than older generations do.
Price
KFC has a greater track record of profitability globally. It offers its products with different pricing and ratings. The products offered are affordable to the people because they can select an option that fits their budget. It also offers combos, which are more affordable than purchasing each item separately. In regions where prices are sensitive, like Asia and Africa, it is especially advantageous.
Promotion
A company’s promotion plan describes how its products can be advertised in the marketplace. KFC promotes itself vigorously because it is one of the biggest food businesses. The majority of advertising is done in newspapers, magazines, billboards, and television ads. In addition to other cricket games, KFC has sponsored the Australian Big Bash League (BBL).
KFC advertises using the slogan “Its Finger-Lickin’ Delicious” to persuade customers of the quality of its delectable food offerings. KFC can connect with its customers and communicate with them while educating them about its products and services, thanks to its strong social media presence. KFC uses its restaurants extensively to promote new products.
In the world of food enthusiasts, KFC started a revolution. They are continually looking for new methods to provide their consumer with high-quality food at reasonable prices. It is the main focus of KFC’s worldwide marketing approach. KFC is concentrating on maintaining its brand and its consumers’ loyalty in the modern day. KFC, the second-largest restaurant chain in the world that specializes in chicken meals, has had great success controlling the market. The popularity, acclaim, and accolades it has won make this quite clear. Let’s have a look at some of its remarkable marketing strategies that have contributed to its current success:
Online and Offline presence
There is no doubt that KFC has established itself both online and offline. Discussing their offline presence, KFC has more than 27,000 outlets in more than 145 countries and territories. They have traveled to almost every country and territory. That is seen from the fact that KFC has expanded outside of urban areas as well.
In terms of its internet presence, KFC offers a website where customers may buy products. Their revenues have significantly improved since the launch of the website. Furthermore, it provides incredibly quick delivery on its own. In addition, it may be found on food delivery apps as well.
Email Marketing
To send emails in bulk, KFC employs AMP technology. As they differ somewhat from conventional emails, these emails are difficult for customers to overlook in their inboxes. Ok, but how? They include complementary features like order buttons, product carousels, sliders, animations, subscription forms, interactive meal previews, etc. Using this technique, they split the audience. They adjust the email campaigns to meet their needs after learning who the target audience is. By generating conversions through increased awareness, they raise the brand’s profit margin.
Content Marketing
KFC uses two methods for content marketing. The first is to create unique chicken dishes and attract media attention. Second, create authentic and interesting material for free websites like YouTube. They target them both. To capture the audience’s attention on their different social media channels, they provide concise, enlightening material. It is commendable that they dubbed the same video in several languages for viewership. They publish tales, videos, and even images as their material.
Social Media Marketing
KFC’s Product Promotion via Instagram Posts
To spread brand awareness and provide the most recent updates, they are active on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
They consistently upload interesting information to their Facebook page to keep it current. If you read the blogs, you will see how they organize contests and provide prizes to the winners to engage the audience. To keep up with trends, they even share memes about their products. Also, they continuously upload images and videos with concise, crisp, and attention-grabbing captions that work as a hook to tempt people to place an order, as well as the most recent information regarding specials.
Similar to Facebook, they continue to offer entertaining content on Instagram. The images of fried chicken effectively entice clients. Even availability details for particular dishes are shared. Their Instagram demonstrates how much they lean towards using memes to appeal to young folks. They host several competitions and give free meals to the winners.
They publish engaging tweets and make an effort to maintain the dialogue on their Twitter account. They continue to address Genz. Well, who enjoys chicken? Their witty and snarky tweets prompt their followers to repost them or respond in the comments section. How they respond to some of the remarks is noteworthy.
Celebrity Endorsement
The greatest approach to selling the brand is definitely through celebrity endorsement. When the performer has just attained enormous popularity among the public, it works miracles. More fame equals greater impact!
KFC collaborated with rapper Jack Harlow to showcase his personal favorites from the menu. This attracted the young fans of Jack Harlow to purchase the same.
Partnerships and Sponsorships
KFC uses partnerships and events to make its promotions more exciting. It works with companies to create special campaigns, hosts pop-up events and food trucks, and introduces new menu items with fun events. KFC also sponsors sports teams and events for more brand visibility. Recently, KFC sponsored the Mumbai City FC team in the Indian Super League (ISL).
Incentives
Customers may be acquired and retained by offering incentives. For instance, when a specific amount has been spent on KFC items, they provide complimentary meals to their devoted consumers. The consumer receives a voucher that may be used to receive free meals. Also, they offer coupons for free meals, which you may collect up to a specific point before visiting their location to receive a meal. They do, however, occasionally provide discounts in conjunction with holidays or other noteworthy occasions.
Direct Marketing
KFC enhances its marketing strategy with a flavorful mix of direct marketing tactics, including email offers, subscription forms, targeted mail, SMS deals, loyalty programs, and in-store promotions to attract chicken lovers. It also uses print media to distribute pamphlets offering free meal vouchers or discounts.
SEO and Online Advertising
KFC knows the value of search engine optimization (SEO) and online ads to attract customers. By improving its website and running targeted online campaigns, KFC makes sure its message reaches the right people at the right time.
For SEO, KFC focuses on using the right keywords on its website so it shows up in the top search results. This helps people looking for fast food easily find KFC and choose it as their go-to option.
KFC also uses online ads to make its brand more visible. By working with popular websites and platforms, KFC places its ads where its target customers are most likely to see them, increasing the chances of attracting new customers.
KFC participated in a number of initiatives to promote its products and to do so, it used social media and other forms of communication. KFC is a well-known international business that needs to spend money on advertising campaigns to get its products in front of customers.
Some remarkable campaigns are:
KFC’s Advertisement
“KFC Chizza, Won’t Share, Don’t Care”: Some things are meant to be kept to yourself, and according to KFC, KFC Chizza is one of them.
“KFC delivery” campaign promotes delivery service by pointing out all of the things you can’t do at the restaurant, like eating without pants, eating with feet on the table, eating in the bathtub, and such socially inappropriate acts.
“We will take it from here”: A humorous advertisement from KFC celebrating the reopening of its UK locations features customers’ attempts at fried chicken.
“It makes sense”: Walker’s frontman Gary Lineker appears as Colonel Sanders in a commercial for the food company’s KFC-flavored products.
“Finger Lickin Good”: The most famous one and also now their tagline.
KFC uses an advertisement featuring individuals from all walks of life to remind customers of the culinary joys of finger-lickin’.
KFC has run other successful ads like this all over the world. They have taken the initiative to analyze the market and develop campaigns that are appropriate for the circumstance.
These are the marketing strategies that have contributed to KFC’s success. It is important to note that KFC makes changes to its marketing plans as needed, which ultimately helps the brand maintain its position at the top of its game.
FAQs
What is KFC marketing strategy?
The marketing strategy of KFC includes a strong online and offline presence, email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, incentives, and celebrity endorsements.
What is KFC target market?
KFC’s products are suitable for people of all ages, including children and young adults. Four groups may be used to categorize KFC target audience as children, teenagers and young adults, families, and budget customers.
Who started KFC?
Colonel Harland Sanders, a 40-year-old who operated a service station in Corbin, Kentucky, began cooking for clients and was the man behind the founding of KFC.
What are various ways of KFC advertising and how does KFC advertise?
KFC advertises through TV, social media, online ads, billboards, and in-store deals, using catchy visuals and slogans to attract customers.
What is KFC market value?
The KFC brand value was valued at $6.7 billion as of 2024.
What is KFC market segmentation?
KFC uses demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral segmentation. It targets customers based on age, location, lifestyle, and food preferences to cater to diverse groups effectively.
Weeks after the EV ride-hailing company abruptly suspended operations, hundreds of BluSmart driver partners have started protesting throughout Delhi-NCR, calling for compensation and alternative employment.
The drivers, many of whom call BluSmart the best platform they’ve ever used, claimed they were left in the dark about unpaid invoices and received no official word from the company. It is predicted that more than 10,000 drivers in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi-NCR will be impacted.
The protests follow the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) decision to bar Anmol Singh Jaggi and Puneet Singh Jaggi, cofounders of BluSmart, from holding board positions and accessing the securities markets due to accusations of document forgery and fund syphoning in their solar EPC company, Gensol Engineering, which is closely associated with BluSmart.
Struggle Continues for Driver Partners
According to driver partners, they were previously paid on a weekly basis under a scheme that offered them extra incentives based on customer reviews in addition to INR 8,000 if their weekly profits were above INR 20,000.
Incentives have apparently decreased recently, though, as numerous drivers claim the founders embezzled the funds for their own personal use. A number of drivers informed a media company that they had either not gotten their most recent payments or they had received them late.
Delhi driver Tarisha Kumar, 21, informed a news outlet that the drivers received a notification stating that the vehicles were being detained at hubs for an audit. Nothing since. She also shared her experience of how difficult it is for other platforms to onboard female drivers.
In the capital, BluSmart employed more than 300 female drivers, many of whom are currently having difficulty finding new employment. Male drivers find it simpler, but women, particularly single mothers, are left behind, Kumar continued.
Abandoned Drivers Without Compensation
Nitesh Kumar Das, the organising secretary of the Gig Workers Association, said that the company had left drivers unpaid.
“This is unfair. With their labour, these individuals established the business. A law is necessary to stop this kind of exploitation. There is a lot of financial strain on many driver partners right now, particularly on the ones who were the only earners,” Kumar opined.
One driver from Gurgaon claimed that he is having trouble paying his daughter’s tuition because he does not have a job and is unsure of his future. Since stopping operations, BluSmart has not released an official comment.
BluSmart had more than 10,000 driver partners using the platform prior to its shutdown. Drivers now claim that they are unable to get back in after being logged out of the app. Since April 3rd, drivers have been unable to log in.
The OTP fails to arrive. “They seem to have completely abandoned us,” another driver-partner remarked.
Swiggy Genie, its citywide delivery service, has been suspended. In the majority of places, the Swiggy app does not display the service, which was operational in about 70 Indian towns. A notice stating that the Swiggy Genie service is “temporarily unavailable” appears at a few spots where it is accessible through the app.
At the moment, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi NCR do not have access to the service. However, media reports were unable to determine whether it had been suspended in every city where it operated. Swiggy stated that Genie is taking a little hiatus from fulfilling wishes in response to a post on X regarding the withdrawal of Swiggy Genie from the app.
Although there isn’t a specific timeframe for Genie’s return yet, Swiggy stated that their staff is diligently working behind the scenes to get it back as soon as possible. We’ll be sure to update you as soon as it resumes operations!
Not the 1st Time for Genie
In April 2020, Swiggy Genie, a hyperlocal delivery service, was introduced in 30 cities. Since then, the business has extended its immediate pickup and drop-off service to nearly 70 cities nationwide. It’s noteworthy that Swiggy has stopped Swiggy Genie before.
The foodtech giant suspended operations in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Mumbai in 2022. It stated at the time that the company had to give priority to its food marketplace and rapid commerce vertical, Instamart, due to the spike in demand for these services. The most recent development occurs one day after Swiggy declared that more than 500 cities nationwide now offer its 10-minute delivery service, Bolt.
Intriguingly, Zomato’s fiercest rival Eternal declared earlier this week that it is discontinuing Quick, a 15-minute meal delivery service, at its Q4 results announcement because it failed to generate any more demand during its pilot period.
Additionally, Zomato said that it will discontinue Zomato Everyday, its home-meal service. On Friday, May 9, Swiggy is scheduled to release its Q4 financial results. Brokers predict that the company’s net loss will soar to INR 927 Cr and that its EBITDA margin will report a 16% sequential fall during the quarter.
According to JM Financial, Swiggy Instamart’s “aggressive dark store expansion and impact of a high competitive landscape” are to blame for the increase in losses.
Recent Financial Dynamics of Swiggy
In Q3 FY25, Swiggy saw a consolidated net loss of INR 799 Cr, up 39% from INR 574 Cr in the same quarter last year. During the quarter, operating revenue soared 31% year over year to INR 3,993 Cr. Strong demand in its primary meal delivery operation and an increase in quick commerce income were the main drivers of this rise.
PhonePe is the online payment platform that creates, hosts and manages your online transaction and also, provides various services through the Internet. Today, there are plenty of companies that provide you with the facility of online transactions. PhonePe is included among such companies. National Payments Corporation of India has evolved its technology and provided UPI to make the transactions absolutely convenient.
Well, our minds always come across the question of how these apps (including PhonePe) earn money? Or why do they spend so much money to gather customers? These questions are obvious. To understand this, you need to get your foot stable on the Broker. PhonePe and other similar applications work as a broker app. They work through the possession by leveraging the customers and traders.
In the era of capitalism of data, Online Payments transaction industries are the leading wave. They tend to evaluate their worth extremely high in the data-driven market. Therefore, in this article, we provided you with a basic guide on how PhonePe earns money? Stay tuned!
PhonePe is an successful application that has 11 different Indian languages. It provides plenty of features such as mobile recharge, receiving and sending money, DTH, utility payments, tax savings funds, data cards, and more. As of March 2025, PhonePe has crossed 600 million registered users on its platform.
The Reserve Bank of India has licensed PhonePe for the service of money transactions and payment system with an authorized name.
PhonePe launched a special insurance plan for travellers who attended the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, held from January 13 to February 26, 2025.
The plan, developed in collaboration with ICICI Lombard General Insurance, was offered in two variants: INR 59 for train or bus travellers and INR 99 for domestic flight passengers.
Besides the transactions of money from one bank to another, PhonePe has many more tremendous features such as it provides the facility of purchasing grocery, insurance, food and many more.
PhonePe facilitates the supply of the products that are sold on this app. PhonePe is a multiple purpose application. It also provides the service of mobile recharge, electricity bills and other household bill payments.
PhonePe charges the commission on the payments made by the customers from any online or offline merchants. However, the UPI transactions are based on IMPS that’s why it doesn’t charge any additional money from the banks.
PhonePe POS machine
Recently, PhonePe has launched its POS machine that is available in almost every shop that allows PhonePe payment. The POS machine makes the payment extremely convenient and handy. PhonePe POS machine is powered by Bluetooth technology and is worlds lowest cost POS device in the world.
Here are the sources through which PhonePe makes money:
Mobile Recharge
As you know, PhonePe provides the facility of online recharge of your mobile very conveniently. It earns from the commission that is made from the operator you recharged on.
Bill Payment
When a bill payment is made through PhonePe on any company, PhonePe gets the commission from the respective company.
Apps
There is a separate column for different apps like OYO Rooms, Dominos, Myntra, Grofers and many more, on the PhonePe app. So, when you do any payment on these mentioned apps, PhonePe gets the commission respectively.
Gift Vouchers
You get plenty of gift Vouchers of different apps like Oxygen wallet, Airtel Money, Freecharge and more on PhonePe. It earns the commission on every sold gift voucher.
Digital Gold
PhonePe also allows you to buy gold, so when you do, it charges a little extra from you than the actual pricing.
Mutual Fund
Recently, PhonePe added the mutual fund’s investment features to its app. So, when you invest in any mutual funds, PhonePe charges a distinct amount of commission on the respective company.
PhonePe’s revenue has seen significant growth over the years, but expenses have also increased, resulting in continued losses. Below is a detailed breakdown.
Particulars
FY24
FY23
FY22
FY21
FY20
Revenue
INR 5,725 crore
INR 3,085 crore
INR 1,692.8 crore
INR 725.3 crore
INR 427.2 crore
Expenses
INR 7,756 crore
INR 5,907 crore
INR 3,705.7 crore
INR 2,456.9 crore
INR 2,202.9 crore
Profit/(Loss)
INR -1,996 crore
INR -2,795 crore
INR -2,013.8 crore
INR -1,728.8 crore
INR -1,771.7 crore
PhonePe Financials
In 2024, PhonePe’s operating revenue grew by 74% to INR 5,064 crore, up from INR 2,914 crore in 2023. However, total expenses also increased by 31% from INR 5,907 crore in 2023 to INR 7,756 crore in 2024. Despite this, PhonePe reduced its losses by 29%, with a loss of INR 1,996 crore in 2024 compared to INR 2,795 crore in 2023.
PhonePe does not have its own payment bank and also, it doesn’t charge any money when you regress any of your money back to your account. In fact, it provides you with different offers and cashback of the money you paid through any transactions.
Therefore, PhonePe works by promoting several brands on its app with different offers and vouchers. It earns the major fraction from the bill payments and recharges.
Moreover, PhonePe earns from Yes Bank by providing the analytic database and targeting its products to the users. Flipkart also utilises the service of monitoring purchasing and catching better advertisers, deals and notification through PhonePe to the customers. It collects and saves an ample amount of money from Flipkart from preventing channeling other payments apps.
Conclusion
PhonePe facilitates the services and payments along with the online transactions for several products available on the PhonePe application or website or any other external merchant stores (online or offline).
PhonePe is not an established bank or online payment bank. It is an application with a service not based on any banking services but itself. PhonePe works through a monopoly to earn its money and provides a safe and secure online transaction.
It is very prominent and widely famous across India with its great offers and services. PhonePe earns money in an absolute conventional manner and provides the best features and offers for payment.
FAQs
What is PhonePe and how does it work?
PhonePe is a mobile payment app that lets users send money, pay bills, recharge, and shop using the UPI system. It works by linking your bank account to the app, allowing secure and instant transactions directly from your phone.
Who is CEO of PhonePe?
Sameer Nigam is the CEO of PhonePe.
Does Flipkart owns PhonePe?
Yes, Flipkart acquired PhonePe in 2016.
Does PhonePe charge for money transfer?
PhonePe does not charge for money transfers.
Who has founded PhonePe?
Sameer Nigam is the founder of PhonePe company. He has founded PhonePe in 2015.
Who are the top competitors of PhonePe?
PhonePe’s top competitors include:
Mobikwik
Paytm
Google Pay
BharatPe
Juspay
Razorpay
What is the difference between PhonePe and PhonePe business?
PhonePe is for individual users to send money, pay bills, and recharge, whereas PhonePe Business is for merchants to accept payments, track sales, and manage transactions.
What is the business model of PhonePe?
PhonePe operates on a service-based business model. It earns revenue by charging merchants transaction fees, offering value-added services like recharges and bill payments, and selling financial products such as insurance, mutual funds, and digital gold. The company also provides POS devices to merchants and uses user data to cross-sell personalized financial products. While UPI transactions are free, PhonePe’s income comes mainly from these additional services.
BluSmart wasn’t just a job to many women; it was a pathway to financial freedom. For Amardeep Kaur, a 35-year-old homemaker, driving for the electric taxi-hailing platform was a way to achieve a household’s first kind of meaningful financial freedom. Lasting only six months, it was the kind of job where short, flexible hours allowed her to juggle the kind of domestic responsibilities one might associate with a stay-at-home mom and a hard-earned source of income, with a kind of dignity you might not associate with driving a taxi.
In contrast to the conventional platforms that insist on extended shifts of 12 hours or more, BluSmart presented something quite rare: well-structured training, reasonable hours, and punctual weekly payments. Not only was it a job, but it was a job that allowed women like Kaur and 22-year-old Priya Thakur, who holds it together after her father passed, to find some semblance of independence and the freedom to navigate life, not just briskly in her electric vehicle, but with the luxury of time, the kind of time that is essentially a moment on life’s stage. For Thakur, that stage is an electric vehicle.
Abrupt Closure Sparks Protest
BluSmart’s independence was abruptly curtailed on April 16 when, without warning, it ceased operations, leaving in its wake hundreds of newly minted unemployed who had worked for the all-electric cab company. Just a day prior, Gensol Engineering Limited, a related-party company, had been pulled up by the SEBI for diverting funds and for falsifying documents. The complaint against Gensol alleges that the company’s promoters, who also are the promoters of BluSmart, misappropriated a whopping ₹262 crore that was meant for procuring the electric vehicles that were to be used by the all-electric cab company.
The reactions were quick and strong. On Sunday, close to 50 former drivers from BluSmart assembled at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, crying out for compensation and government intervention. Most of these people had never done this kind of work before, driving for an app, and most of them, now, were out of work, having had their gigs terminate suddenly.
Women Drivers Left Without Options
Women drivers have taken a particularly bad hit from the closure. Many had learned to drive through BluSmart’s free training programs and were dependent on the company’s vehicles. Competing rideshare platforms like Ola and Uber expect their drivers to own the vehicles they drive, to work long hours, and to do so in a largely unregulated environment, conditions that are not safe for many women.
BluSmart is where Shruti Rajput worked for over a year. In detailing her experience, she explained how fast and effective the company’s responses to harassment and vehicle breakdowns were. She praised it for having a level of accountability that, in her view, other vehicle operators didn’t have. She said that without access to anything near as effective, the vulnerability many drivers now feel is real.
One of the protest organizers, Kamil Hussain, who represents Parivahan Morcha, laid out the drivers’ key demands. They seek severance pay equal to three months’ earnings, approximately INR 30,000 per month, and laws that would protect gig workers from being abruptly terminated. The protesters also urged the government to take the electric taxis that haven’t been used and place them into a state-run cooperative model.
Samsung Electronics has started a legal process against a tax demand of INR 4,300 crore (approximately $520 million) from Indian tax authorities. The dispute centers on a particular piece of telecommunication equipment, the Remote Radio Head, a key component for 4G networks, that Samsung imported from South Korea and Vietnam between 2018 and 2021. According to the tax authorities, this component was not classified properly and was therefore brought into the country without paying the requisite import duties, which should have been at least 10% and might have been as much as 20%.
One of India’s biggest consumer electronics spaces is still manned by a South Korean firm that has long seemed to be on the right side of the customs authorities. For the longest time, in fact, Samsung seemed to be doing everything its competitors weren’t, in terms, at least, of avoiding a confrontation with the customs authorities. For the past several years, since 2017, Samsung’s customs practices have been under a microscope. Starting in January 2021, the customs authorities have been taking a very critical view of those practices, with Samsung ordered to pay a total penalty of $1.5 billion (Rs 11,000 crore) since then.
Reliance’s Role in the Argument
Strengthening its case, Samsung has invoked the import history of Reliance Jio itself. Filings with the Customs, Excise, and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) in Mumbai show that Reliance had used a nearly identical method of classification for the very same type of equipment before 2017. Yet, according to reports, customs officials took no action against Reliance.
During its investigations, Samsung found out that Reliance had been warned as far back as 2017 by the authorities about the classification issue. But this red flag was never communicated to Samsung. The company now contends that the years of inaction by regulators effectively endorsed its classification method. So, Samsung believes, the current penalty lacks legal and procedural fairness.
Global Firms Push Back
Samsung’s case follows closely behind another high-profile tax dispute. The German car manufacturer Volkswagen recently contested a record-setting INR 11,600 crore ($1.4 billion) claim made by Indian tax authorities. At issue in both disputes are similar allegations of misclassified imports. These two prominent challenges by multinational corporations may signal bad publicity. They could be seen as indications of rising discontent among foreign investors over the certainty and consistency of India’s tax and regulatory regime.
Samsung’s 281-page appeal defends the legality of its classification and criticizes the process followed by the authorities. The company contends that the January 2025 tax order was issued hastily and without adequate opportunity to respond, despite the financial and operational stakes involved.
Apart from the INR 4,300 crore tax demand, Indian authorities have also slapped an INR 670 crore ($81 million) penalty on seven Samsung employees. This means the total liability is now at INR 5,000 crore ($601 million). As of now, there is no public indication that the individuals penalized intend to mount a challenge to the ruling on their own. The India arm of Samsung clocked a net profit of around INR 7,800 crore ($955 million) in the last fiscal. Therefore, the demand for current taxes represents a big financial risk, one that could color the company’s investment plans and its operational strategies in one of its most crucial markets.
