Additionally within the letter:
■ Creators making an attempt to be kingmakers in polls
■ Cognizant Q1 outcomes
■ Micron to roll out India-made chips in 2025
Freshworks CEO Girish Mathrubootham steps down; Dennis Woodside to take over
Freshworks founder and govt chairman Girish Mathrubootham
In a major growth, Nasdaq-listed software-as-a-service (SaaS) main Freshworks mentioned its founder Girish Mathrubootham had stepped down as the corporate’s chief govt efficient instantly.
Driving the information: Marthrubootham, who will probably be taking over the position of govt chairman, defined his choice in an emotional message to staff.
In the meantime, the Chennai and San Mateo, California-headquartered agency, which focuses on offering CRM (buyer relationship administration) software program instruments to enterprises, has named its president Dennis Woodside as the brand new CEO.
From the horse’s mouth: “A few years in the past, I began speaking with our board about my longer-term plans for Freshworks. I shared that when the time is correct, I want to shift my focus to our long-term product imaginative and prescient and spend money on our presence in India. These are areas the place I get probably the most vitality and the place I’m additionally enjoying to my strengths,” Mathrubootham’s observe mentioned. He additionally expressed confidence in Woodside as the subsequent chief govt of the corporate.
Inventory slide: The information sparked a large selloff within the firm inventory as shares of Freshworks dropped practically 25% throughout after-market hours buying and selling on the Nasdaq on Wednesday.
Concerning the new CEO: The 55-year-old Woodside joined Freshworks in September 2022 as president and serves on the board too. Proper earlier than becoming a member of Freshworks, he was president of Unimaginable Meals and in addition served on the board of Freshworks’ rival ServiceNow.
Woodside has served as CEO of Motorola Mobility underneath Google’s possession from 2012 to 2014, and was additionally the chief working officer at storage agency Dropbox.
Rakesh Singh replaces Varun Sridhar as Paytm Cash CEO
(L-R) Varun Sridhar and Rakesh Singh
Paytm Cash, the wealth administration platform of One 97 Communications, has appointed Rakesh Singh as its CEO, changing Varun Sridhar, who had been its chief govt since 2020, sources informed ET.
Particulars: Earlier than this appointment, Singh was the CEO of broking companies at PayU-backed Fisdom. Folks within the know mentioned he joined Paytm Cash final month. In the meantime, Sridhar has been moved to a special position throughout the group.
Inform me extra: Paytm Cash, which competes with the likes of Groww, Zerodha and Upstox, grew to become worthwhile underneath Sridhar, with the wealthtech platform closing FY23 with a web revenue of Rs 42.8 crore on income of Rs 132.8 crore. The inventory and mutual fund broking arm of Paytm additionally not too long ago appointed Vipul Mewada as its chief monetary officer.
Latest departures: For the reason that January 31 missive by the Reserve Financial institution of India asking Paytm Funds Financial institution to limit its banking companies, the corporate has seen a number of administration adjustments throughout the board.
In February, the corporate’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma resigned from Paytm Funds Financial institution board amid an overhaul of the corporate’s banking unit. Throughout the identical month, the corporate introduced that Paytm Funds Financial institution’s impartial director Manju Agarwal additionally resigned.
In March, Praveen Sharma, senior vice chairman of enterprise at Paytm, additionally left the corporate. On April 9, it mentioned that the funds financial institution’s MD and CEO Surinder Chawla may also be stepping down.
With content material king, creators making an attempt exhausting to be kingmakers this Lok Sabha elections
PM Narendra Modi with YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia at Nationwide Creators Awards
With elections underway, politics has turn out to be a profitable matter for digital content material creators as making politically-themed content material has fetched some creators tons of of hundreds of views in the previous few months, a pointy rise from enterprise as traditional.
Driving the information: A number of influencer advertising professionals informed ET that the highest 10-20 creators throughout verticals — starting from way of life to infotainment — travelled to New Delhi forward of the polls to conduct interviews with outstanding political figures.
Flooding contents: Over the previous few months, YouTube has been populated with movies of creators akin to Ranveer Allahbadia (extra popularly, BeerBiceps) chatting with politicians like S Jaishankar and Nitin Gadkari of the BJP, Atishi Marlena and Raghav Chadha of AAP, amongst others.
The place’s the cash? The financial rewards for this sort of collaboration aren’t a lot, mentioned company heads.
“Some creators have been provided money through third-party companies facilitating podcasts for less-prominent political leaders. However most creators are doing this for entry and recognition within the political corridors,” mentioned Talha Rashid, a Delhi-based political advisor and researcher.
Cognizant Q1 income falls 1.1%, revenue dips 6%
US-headquartered IT companies agency Cognizant noticed its web revenue fall by 5.9% on 12 months to $546 million within the quarter ending March 2024, on the again of a continued slowdown within the sector.
Key numbers: Cognizant, most of whose staff are primarily based in India, follows the calendar 12 months cycle from January to December.
- Income fell 1.1% year-on-year (YoY) to $4.76 billion from $4.81 billion
- Cognizant signed eight giant offers (3 renewals and 5 new) through the quarter
- Worker rely diminished by 7,100 from a 12 months in the past and three,300 from December quarter
Future outlook: For Q2FY24 ending June 2024, Cognizant has guided income development of 0-1.5%. It expects second-quarter income between $4.75 billion and $4.82 billion.
Slowdown: Cognizant’s efficiency displays the gloomy sentiment within the Indian IT sector, with home majors Tata Consultancy Providers, Infosys and Wipro additionally reporting low single-digit income development. All these corporations have a majority of their purchasers primarily based within the US and Europe.
Micron to roll out first India-made chips from Sanand unit in 2025
Micron India is aiming to roll out the primary batch of semiconductor chips packaged at its Sanand unit in Gujarat in early subsequent 12 months.
Inform me extra: Chips to be packaged on the unit will primarily be utilized in knowledge centres, smartphones, notebooks, internet-of-things gadgets, and the automotive segments, with nearly all of them meant for exports, the corporate’s India managing director Anand Ramamoorthy mentioned.
Home dilemma: Although the home demand for semiconductor chips is rising, the overall addressable marketplace for India remains to be small in comparison with the worldwide demand for semiconductors, he mentioned.
Zoom out: In 2023, Micron introduced it might arrange a semiconductor chip meeting and testing unit at Sanand. The cumulative funding within the plant, which until then was India’s first semiconductor chip packaging unit, is proposed at $2.75 billion, of which the corporate will make investments $825 million.
At this time’s ETtech Prime 5 publication was curated by Vaibhavi Khanwalkar in Bengaluru, Jessica Rajan in New Delhi and Ajay Rag in Mumbai.
