Hello,
What would a 90-hour workweek look like?
That’s on the minds of many after L&T Chairman SN Subrahmanyan said in a recently surfaced employee interaction he regretted not being able to make his employees work on Sundays.
While L&T defended his remarks, saying “extraordinary outcomes require extraordinary efforts,” he was criticised online for tossing out any possibility of work-life balance.
But what do long working hours do to your body?
According to a meta-analysis of 48 research papers, working more than 50 hours a week increased the risk of stroke and coronary heart disease. Also, a 61-hour workweek increased the risk of hypertension. Health behaviours, for instance, smoking, alcohol consumption and physical inactivity, are also associated with long working hours.
Moving on, there’s a growing enthusiasm for the stock markets.
Indian startup ecosystem saw a record number of companies listing on Dalal Street in 2024, Orios Venture Partners noted in its latest report. India also led the global IPO market with 327 IPOs, with 13 from the technology sector, including Swiggy’s $1.34 billion listing the largest global tech IPO of the year.
As many as 20 startups are expected to list on the bourses this year, according to reports. These include Zepto, boAt, Ather Energy, BlueStone, and Ecom Express.
It’s definitely going to be a memorable year.
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In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- Inside Freshworks’ recent lay-offs
- Swiggy expands its offerings
- Expanding agri market reach with AI
Here’s your trivia for today: What was the largest forest fire in recorded history?
SaaS
Inside Freshworks’ recent lay-offs
Last year, Freshworks slashed 660 jobs as a changing competitive landscape demanded a relook in its strategy. SaaS companies globally are grappling with the rapid advancement of AI. Many firms, including Salesforce and Atlassian, had to let go of employees as they restructured their teams to build AI capabilities.
“We did make some changes in the fall where we had to let a meaningful number of people go. Part of this is growing as a company. Some priorities you had a couple of years ago are no longer priorities, and the skills that some of your employees had are not necessarily the skills you need going forward,” Woodside said in an exclusive interaction with YourStory.
Restrategising:
- He pointed out, “We’re not alone. Many tech companies have gone through the same thing. A lot of firms hired pretty rapidly during COVID-19, and have since scaled back.”
- Responding to the remarks which were earlier made by Zoho boss Sridhar Vembu—criticising companies prioritising shareholder buybacks over employee retention—Woodside argued that his firm is much more focused on building a motivated workforce.
- He stressed that Freshworks needs top talent, pointing to other major SaaS players such as ServiceNow, Salesforce, Atlassian, and HubSpot—collectively worth over $500 billion in market cap.
Funding Alert
Startup: Infinity Fincorp Solutions
Amount: $35M
Round: Fresh
Startup: Harsoria Healthcare
Amount: $20M
Round: Equity
Startup: Beyond Snack
Amount: $8.3M
Round: Series A
Foodtech
Swiggy expands its offerings
Food delivery and quick commerce giant Swiggy is launching a standalone app for Instamart as it doubles down on an app ecosystem strategy. This move is another addition to Swiggy’s growing fleet of standalone apps, which witnessed recent additions with Snacc, a food delivery app.
On Thursday, Swiggy also launched Pyng, a professional services marketplace, and Swiggy Serves, an initiative to address hunger and minimise food waste across its value chain.
Major expansion:
- Swiggy had earlier doubled down on its strategy of a super app with major services like food delivery, Instamart, and Genies inside the same app, but there seems to be a shift in focus with the launch of two apps outside of its single-app ecosystem.
- In its pilot phase, Pyng will enable professionals such as fitness coaches, yoga instructors, dance instructors, language learning, and education coaches to list their services on the platform.
- For Swiggy Serves, the foodtech giant has partnered with the volunteer-driven organisation Robin Hood Army to redistribute surplus food from Swiggy’s restaurant partners to underserved communities.
Startup
Expanding agri market reach with AI
Pune-based agritech startup Mulyam—co-founded by Mahesh and Yogesh Kedari, alongside Preetesh Dutt and Santosh Shitole—bridges the market accessibility gap for farmers and farmer-producer organisations.
According to Yogesh, Mulyam’s strategy eliminates at least three middlemen in the traditional agri value chain. The startup has introduced AI-powered quality and produce-handling systems to ensure farmers receive the best possible prices for their produce.
Key takeaways:
- Mulyam, with a team of 44 members, is currently working with over 3,000 farmers across India and is targeting 10,000 farmers across eight states.
- So far, it has managed to sell 600 metric tonnes of citrus fruits, 4,000 metric tonnes of potatoes, and 18,000 metric tonnes of onions.
- Mulyam is developing a B2B marketplace for select commodities, enabling the sale of fresh produce in bulk to smaller markets, primarily in Tier II and Tier III cities.
News & updates
- Job cuts: Global banks will cut as many as 200,000 jobs in the next three to five years as AI encroaches on tasks currently carried out by human workers, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Chief information and technology officers surveyed for BI indicated that on average they expect a net 3% of their workforce to be cut.
- Raging fire: Insurers are bracing for losses of as much as $10 billion from wildfires in Los Angeles after blazes ravaged some of the most exclusive neighbourhoods in California, US, according to early estimates from analysts.
- Exhausted: AI companies have run out of data for training their models and have “exhausted” the sum of human knowledge, Elon Musk said, suggesting that technology firms would have to turn to “synthetic” data or material created by AI models to build and fine-tune new systems.
What was the largest forest fire in recorded history?
Answer: The Chinchaga Fire started in British Columbia, Canada in 1950 and burned 3 million acres of boreal forest over five months.
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