Sep 3, 2024

Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox? SUBSCRIBE Thank you for subscribing to Daily Top 5 We'll soon meet in your inbox. Hero MotoCorp is looking to enter the electric three-wheeler market with a stake in Altigreen Propulsion Labs. This and more in today’s ETtech Top 5. Also in the letter: ■ Inside Reliance’s AI strategy ■ Aye to sovereign AI Hero MotoCorp looks to debut in electric 3-wheeler space Two-wheeler market leader Hero MotoCorp (HMC) is in advanced talks for a large strategic investment in Altigreen Propulsion Labs , a Bengaluru-based startup that makes electric three-wheelers (E3Ws). Investment details: Hero is likely to invest up to Rs 900 crore for a stake in the 11-year-old company, said people aware of the development. The due diligence has been completed, they said. If the deal goes through, Altigreen will get a heavyweight investor that can help it scale up fast and make deeper inroads in key markets. Diversification: Hero MotoCorp gets to diversify into the new mobility segment of e-three wheelers, where Bajaj Auto has a head start, and which is led by M&M. This will be Hero’s second largest investment in the EV sector. It currently holds a 38.2% stake in electric two-wheeler maker Ather Energy, having invested Rs 124 crore in June for an additional 2.2% stake. Performance: Altigreen had a turnover of Rs 115 crore and sold 2,800 units in FY24. So far, between seed and Series A investments, the company has raised $56 million (Rs 470 crore) at an undisclosed valuation. Future plans: "The companies are moving very fast towards a closure of the deal," said a person aware of the plans. The Bengaluru-based company is expected to use the funds to launch new models, expand its reach, and achieve profitability goals, the person added. SoftBank-backed OfBusiness plans up to $1 billion India IPO, executives says IPO timeline: The company is in active talks with Bank of America, Citi, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley to manage the offer, and plans to list on the Indian bourses in the second half of 2025, chief financial officer Bhavesh Keswani said. Offering details: The initial public offering (IPO) is likely to be in the range of $750 million to $1 billion, with approximately $200 million in new shares and the remainder offered by existing shareholders to new investors, Keswani added. OfBusiness aims for a valuation between $6 billion and $9 billion, according to a senior industry source with direct knowledge of the plans. Market condition: The company has raised over $800 million from investors to date. Its most recent 2021 funding round valued it at approximately $5 billion. OfBusiness is forging plans at a time when India's stock market is in a hot streak, with the benchmark index up 16% so far this year, outdoing its Asian peers. Ola Electric, also backed by SoftBank, recently listed in India, while Hyundai Motor is planning a $3-billion IPO later this year. Hindustan Composites invest 5.2 crore in Swiggy: Automobile materials manufacturer Hindustan Composites Ltd said it has invested Rs 5.17 crore in public markets-bound Swiggy . The company purchased 1.5 lakh shares of Swiggy, it said in an exchange filing. Infosys mails joining dates to April 2022 freshers after 2 years Salil Parekh, CEO, Infosys More than 1,000 engineering graduates received onboarding emails from IT major Infosys on Monday, after a long wait of over two years. Driving the news: In emails, some of which were seen by ET, Infosys’ talent acquisition team informed the graduates of their joining date being October 7. This comes days after ET reported about the plight of about 1,500 students from the April 2022 batch, who sought clarity on their job prospects after appearing for two rounds of pre-training in July and August. What happened: Since 2022, around 2,000 engineers of that year’s batch were imparted two rounds of pre-training by Infosys. They received offer letters to join the company for system engineering (SE) and digital SE roles at packages of Rs 3.2-3.7 lakh per annum. However, only 115 students of the cohort received joining dates later that year. The rest have since been in a flux about their job prospects. Tell me more: The Nascent IT Employees Senate (NITES) had lodged a formal complaint with the labour ministry against the IT major for the uncertainty and delay caused to the students. “If Infosys fails to honour this commitment and breaches the joining date, we will not hesitate to organise a protest right in front of the Infosys office,” Harpreet Singh Saluja, president of the union, said. Clarity welcome: Some of these students have moved on to other jobs in the meanwhile, but many waited. Some failed to get other jobs as well. Last week, chief executive Salil Parekh had reassured that some dates were changed but, “everyone will join Infosys”. How Reliance Jio’s latest AI strategy could disrupt the dominance of Big Tech Reliance Industries (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani announced several AI offerings by Reliance Jio, which industry watchers say will disrupt the field so far dominated by Silicon Valley giants. Change underway: RIL is transforming itself into a deeptech company, Ambani said at the annual general meeting, terming AI a transformative event in the evolution of the human race. Reliance Jio’s 100 GB free cloud storage takes on Google One and Apple’s iCloud dominance. Not only could this force the market leaders to cut their prices, it also gives the company access to massive user data What Google and other AI startups spent big money in doing, Jio might achieve for free. With its call recording and transcription feature, the company can collect speech data in all Indian languages, dialects Jio also plans to build an AI data centre in Jamnagar Expert take: Reliance’s playbook has so far changed the telecom market and the over-the-top (OTT) space with its compelling prices. But experts said cutting rates may not be enough to win over AI. The ‘when’ and ‘how’ of implementing Jio’s AI vision needs to be watched, they added. Infographic Insight | Governments say ‘aye’ to sovereign AI Generative AI (GenAI) is reshaping global economies and countries are looking to leverage this technology for economic and productivity gains. This has led to the rise of ‘sovereign AI’. This is a concept highlighting a nation’s ability to develop AI using its own infrastructure, training and research. Here’s how it is being done across the globe. Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Vaibhavi Khanwalkar and Riya Roy Chowdhury in Bengaluru.