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IntrCity SmartBus achieves profitability and poised to achieve $100M in next 12 months

IntrCity SmartBus, the tech-enabled fleet of inter-city buses, grew 1.8x in the first half of 2022, with revenues nearing $45 million annualised run rate and business achieving operational profitability. 

The company recorded over two lakh monthly seat capacity and an 80 percent increase in revenue. Within the next 12 months, the brand’s goal is to reach $100 million in annualised revenue and maintain EBITDA level profitability.

Studeasy launched for 50M govt school students across 10 state boards    

ConnectEd Technologies, a Mumbai-based edtech social enterprise, on Tuesday launched a learning platform for regional-language state boards, called Studeasy. The platform, which is available as a free website and Android mobile app, has a collection of educational videos and assessments for 10 regional-language state boards in the country. 

At the outset, videos on the Studeasy platform can be viewed free of cost by the 50 million government school students associated with these state boards. Subsequently, the company aims to add regional-language educational videos for other state boards in the country, in line with its mission of providing students with free access to quality education in their regional languages.

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The Studeasy platform boasts of fully animated regional-language educational videos that have been tailor-made to improve understanding levels and academic performance among government school students.

Additionally, every video is accompanied by a quiz which enables students to assess their understanding of a chapter, and re-watch specific portions of the video to ensure they learn in the best way possible.

KalaGato appoints Sushmita Balasubramaniam as CEO of KalaGato Consumer Intelligence

KalaGato, a data-driven mobile app aggregator (app buy-out) company built on the Thrasio model, recently announced the expansion of its leadership team with the appointment of Sushmita Balasubramaniam as the Chief Executive Officer of KalaGato Consumer Intellige6nce. Sushmita, will be responsible for the insights business and building customer intelligence at Kalagato. 

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Sushmita is a market research and consumer consulting professional with more than 25 years of experience who has thrived on unearthing consumer insights for decision making covering the full range of marketing issues–strategy development, brand opportunity identification, brand communication and promotion, and brand positioning.

She started her career with TNS India and went on to work with other large research and consulting companies like Technopak Advisors and GfK. In her previous role at Kantar Insights, a global consumer consulting company, where she worked for more than 10 years, she was the South Asia Domain Lead for Commerce & CX. 

KalaGato is a data-driven app aggregator that identifies high-performing mobile apps using its proprietary data platform and buys them out with a goal of reaching a billion users over the next five years. The company was established in 2018; it raised $4 million in December 2021, from investors in India,  and the US, including Anicut, iSeed, Village Global, SOSV, and 9Unicorns, amongst others.

TeamLease Digital invests Rs 50 lakhs to build a focused ‘Low Code No Code’ delivery centre for the Indian IT industry

Tech staffing firm TeamLease Digital announced that it will be investing Rs 50 lakh to build delivery capacity for the adoption of ‘Low Code No Code (LCNC)’ tools for the IT industry. The investment is aligned with the firm’s goal to capitalize on the growing LCNC market and create delivery solutions for IT firms. In the first phase, TeamLease Digital will be investing Rs 5 million and will also infuse further capital in the coming fiscal.

LCNC industry is also adding more jobs to the IT industry, especially for budding and amateur developers. Currently, there are approximately 16,500+ open jobs in this domain for about 9,000+ job seekers. In fact, by 2025, close to 40,000+ profiles will emerge for LCNC roles with exciting salary packages.

A low code no code developer can earn between Rs 15 – 18 lakh PA (with 3-5 years of experience) and Rs 18-25 lakh PA (with 7-10 years of experience). Minimal programming skills along with basic knowledge of web/cloud-based applications with a bachelor’s or masters’ degree in computer science or similar field is an added advantage to becoming an LCNC developer, according to a statement.

SPJIMR faculty Ananth Narayan appointed whole-time member at SEBI

The Government of India has appointed Ananth Narayan, Associate Professor at SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), as a whole-time member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). SEBI is responsible for the development and regulation of India’s financial markets.

Ananth Narayan has over two decades of experience in finance and banking, having worked at Citibank, Deutsche Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank. He served as the RBI-nominated additional director on the board of YES Bank and is an independent director on the boards of SBI Capital Markets, NSE Clearing Ltd, NSE IFSC Gift City, Care Ratings Ltd, Clearcorp Dealing Systems, Dvara Research, and BFIH (a Foxconn group company).

Hudson RPO acquires Chennai-based tech recruitment firm Hunt & Badge

Hudson RPO, a global total talent solutions company, announced the acquisition of Hunt & Badge Consulting Private Limited (HnB) founded by Pichumani Durairaj. Hunt & Badge is headquartered in Chennai and is a provider of recruitment services to customers operating in India. 

Hunt & Badge partners with companies of all sizes, including well-known multinationals, across a variety of industries to meet their talent procurement needs. HnB also specialises in product startup hiring, leadership hiring, lateral hiring and RPO services. The financial transaction of this deal is an undisclosed cash deal.

The addition of H&B expands Hudson RPO’s footprint further into the Indian recruitment market with an impressive array of deep client relationships with notable multinational companies. 

(This article will be updated with latest news throughout the day)