Daybreak

In this special episode, hosts Snigdha Sharma and Rahel Philipose are joined by Soumya Rajan, founder and CEO of Waterfield Advisors, India’s largest multi-family office and wealth advisory firm. The conversation begins with a simple but important question: what does financial empowerment actually mean for women with wealth? Over her decades in the world of wealth management, Soumya began noticing...

Electric two-wheeler maker, Ather Energy, listed on the bourses on earlier in May, but its IPO was subscribed just 1.4X—a modest showing for a company once seen as a premium EV pioneer. The lukewarm response reflected investor fatigue, sparked by Ola Electric’s volatile stock performance, the Blusmart funding controversy, and global supply chain headwinds. Despite a strong product portfolio and a...

Pyng, launched on 15 April, is quite a departure from Swiggy’s core food-focused business. The service marketplace, uncharted territory for Swiggy, is offering services of “verified professionals” (think therapists, chartered accountants, and even energy healers).  No, it’s not a modified version of Urban Company. At least, not yet. For one, the latter offers standardised services comprising blue...

The landscape is pretty bleak. In the race to produce more Ivy League-worthy students, Indian schools are selectively opting to teach IB. Teachers, in turn, find themselves shifting between the Cambridge and IB syllabi, often trying out things they aren’t trained for. Students and parents, meanwhile, are running in circles trying to find an able tutor after spending Rs 5–20 lakh on their child’s e...

When Rohan, a 35-year-old software engineer, signed up for a Rs 1 trial on a learning app called Seekho, he thought he had nothing to lose. He cancelled the subscription within weeks but money was still being deducted from his account months later.  UPI Autopay, the rising star of India’s subscription economy is quietly letting apps to keep charging users long after they think they've cancelled. F...

Nearly a decade ago, Hotstar, Netflix, and Amazon Prime entered the scene and positioned themselves as the anti-TV. No fixed showtimes. No endless ad breaks. No re-runs you had to sit through just because nothing else was on. For the first time, we were in control. TV became personal. It became on-demand. And best of all—it was ad-free. It felt like there was no going back. But now something has s...

Back in 2016, the Internet and Mobile Association of India set up an all new club for what was then a very small cohort of digital leaders in corporate India. It was called the all-India Chief Digital Officer club.  Back then, there were only about five-six CDOs that were members. The point of the initiative was to give legitimacy to this new, emerging role. But soon enough, the initiative fizzled...

For decades, the whole process of getting a loan approved was infamously painful and long winded. But now things have changed. Getting a loan is a whole lot faster than before. And that’s because of the disruptor to end all disruptors — artificial intelligence. A bunch of companies have entered the scene with specalised AI tools to speed up different aspects of the loan-approval process.  In fact,...

Family offices—the ultra-rich who used to hand over their money to VCs and wish them well—are now wondering why they ever bothered. Why did they pay someone to do what they could do themselves, on their terms? Their primary gripe? The funds are not returning money.  Of course, the so-called middlemen in this scenario aren't too pleased. After all, they are losing a substantial amount of business i...

At first glance, things seem to be really looking up for India’s very own budget-friendly hotel chain Oyo. It’s had some pretty big wins in the last few months.  So why then is its eventual IPO still the subject of such widespread speculation?  The Ken's Deputy Editor Seetharaman G put it quite well in the latest edition of his newsletter on the Indian stock market, ‘Long and Short’. He said – ‘fe...

Just two days after the Pahalgam terror attack, alarm bells went off inside India’s financial system. A stern message from an HDFC Bank executive summed up the mood: “They may come for us now.” The national security tragedy triggered a sudden and sweeping crackdown on India’s digital payments ecosystem. Behind closed doors in Delhi, top officials from the Finance Ministry, Home Affairs, and the Re...

Zara and Tata’s retail arm, Trent, have been partners for 15 years. But that relationship might be coming to an end because Zara’s not pulling its weight anymore. Its share of Trent’s overall sales has dropped from 28% to just 10% in six years. Its rivals like H&M and Uniqlo have moved faster, reached more cities in a much shorter time span. Meanwhile, Trent’s been busy. It used what it learne...

One clear sign that Angel One—India’s third-largest discount broker—is serious about reversing its fortunes is that it bought itself a front-row seat at India’s most expensive distraction: the Indian Premier League. That’s ambitious. Especially for a company that just flunked its latest earnings test.  Between fiscal year 2020 and 2024, Angel One proudly nuked its full-service past—no more phone c...

In March this year, a software developer that goes by Pea Bee online published a blog rather ominously titled ‘Everyone knows all the apps on your phone’.  He found that several Indian app-based startups are flouting rules of Google Play—Android’s app store—to access people’s data.  In particular, some apps use a workaround to scrutinise the names and usage patterns of other apps on people’s phone...

Physics Wallah’s brand new initiative, the PW Institute of Innovation, was pitched as an alternative to the tough IIT route that didn’t compromise on quality or career prospects. It even came with a scholarship, a residential campus in Bengaluru, and a shot at a good job after graduation. On paper, it looked like the perfect deal. However, students who signed up had to juggle a confusing mix of co...

Eyestem, a 14-member biotech startup from Bengaluru is turning heads in global pharma circles. With just $10 million and a modest 1,200 sq ft office, it has developed a promising cell therapy for dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD)—a condition that leads to blindness and has no cure. Early trial results are not only encouraging, they’re outperforming billion-dollar competitors in the West....

Nagpur-based Counter Cyclical Investments doesn’t waste time with handholding. The six-year-old firm has a reputation for being quite cut and dry with its clients.   Consider some gems from the ‘who should invest with us’ long-list. “Those who won’t disturb us by calling us for reassurance everytime the market falls.” “We don’t have any provision for a relationship manager. Once you have taken an...

Four months ago, food delivery giant Zomato decided to run an experiment. If you are a regular patron of the app, you may have noticed a tab called ‘Quick’ appear, that promised 15-minute deliveries in a bunch of metropolitan cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi NCR.  Now, the company’s founder and CEO made an interesting statement last year that explains why it would choose to try out this exp...

Thanks to AI, economic disruptions, mass layoffs, and a bunch of other fun things, the 40-year career is no longer something you can take for granted. And that fundamentally changes the nature of our careers. No one embodies that change more than the Gen Z workforce.  Young employees are now seeking a job, not a career. They don't join organisations to retire from them. Instead they see them merel...

The world’s “most respected” test of school education—the Programme for International Student Assessment or PISA—began this March. 90 countries are on the list including China, Vietnam and some of the poorest nations in the world. But India? We’re sitting this one out. In fact, India hasn’t touched PISA in 16 years! The last time it did, in 2009, India ranked 72nd out of 73 countries. Only Kyrgyzs...

The Life insurance Corporation of India or LIC is now stepping into a sector where more than 860 million Indians or nearly 60% of the population still has no coverage. The insurer signalled its big move into health insurance in March this year with a major acquisition—49% of Manipal Cigna, a private health insurer, in a deal valued at over ₹3,500 crore. And here’s where things get really interesti...

Ather Electric once pioneered the electric two wheeler segment. But now it has fallen behind its competition like Ola Electric and TVS Motor in terms of market share. To make matters worse, its recent IPO saw a lukewarm response from investors. One thing is clear -- up until now, Ather’s focus has been on building superior products, loaded with features and a smooth user experience. But to take th...

Earlier this month, India’s largest third party logistics company, Delhivery, acquired its biggest rival Ecom Express in a $165 million distress sale. The acquisition could not have come at a better time for both parties.  Things have been tough for Ecom for some time now. The company, in fact, called off its IPO plans just this February, about six months after filing the papers and ended up layin...

Mahindra’s new EVs the XEV 9e and BE6 were marketed as software wrapped in metal. They promised the future. Things like augmented reality heads up display, auto park assist, a triple screen dashboard, an in car camera, and a digital key based on near field communication.  But now, that long list of cutting edge features is proving to be a real bottleneck for the company. The Ken spoke to at least...

In January this year, Netradyne, the logistics AI startup, became India’s first unicorn of 2025 after it raised $90 million in series D funding.  You see, it did not take it long to realise that its sweet spot is the long-distance trucking segment. It serves over 3,000 customers across eight countries, including the likes of Amazon, Shell, Indian Oil and Greenline Mobility. And it all began with o...