Also in the letter:
■ FMCG’s big Ayurveda bet
■ Legacy EVs outpace Ola Electric
■ Lat Aerospace’s second demo
Founder exits loom at BigBasket, 1mg amid Tata Digital reset
BigBasket founders Hari Menon and Vipul Parekh are preparing to step back from day-to-day roles as the Tata group considers bringing in a professional CEO, according to people familiar with the matter. At Tata 1mg, founders Prashant Tandon and Gaurav Agarwal are also weighing their next moves as they complete about five years within the Tata fold.
State of play: Tata Digital CEO Sajith Sivanandan has been reshaping the portfolio, including job cuts at Tata Neu and a tighter lens on capital allocation across group companies.
BigBasket, a late mover in quick commerce, has been ploughing money into rapid delivery to take on Blinkit, Instamart and Zepto. That push has widened losses to about Rs 2,000 crore even as FY25 revenue climbed to roughly Rs 9,900 crore.
At 1mg: The company had crossed a Rs 3,000 crore revenue run rate across epharmacy, diagnostics and speciality pharma. Core operations turned Ebitda positive in December and stayed in the black through the March quarter. Diagnostics alone crossed a Rs 600-crore run rate, growing over 40% year-on-year.
Between the lines: Uncertainty on IPO timelines and liquidity for existing shareholders has slowed fresh funding talks, even as Tata Digital weighs the next phase of growth for its consumer platforms.
Myntra CEO Nandita Sinha to step down, Sharon Pais likely replacement: sources
Myntra CEO Nandita Sinha is set to step down from her role at the Flipkart-owned fashion platform, sources told us.
Tell me more:
- Sharon Pais, who currently leads Flipkart Fashion, is likely to step into the top job at Myntra.
- Pais has been with Flipkart since 2013 and previously served as Myntra’s chief business officer.
- Sinha has spent over a decade with the Flipkart group and became Myntra CEO in 2022.
Zoom out: Her exit adds to a string of senior-level churn at Myntra and parent Flipkart, which is gearing up for a public listing.
AI, inflation risks may tighten lending cycle: QED’s Nigel Morris
Nigel Morris, cofounder and managing partner at QED Investors, said lenders are already tightening underwriting standards as macro risks build. Inflationary pressures tied to geopolitical tensions could delay rate cuts, while AI-led job disruption may push up defaults.
“If unemployment goes up, charge-offs will rise,” Morris said in an interview with ET.
Big picture: Fintech still accounts for only about 4% of global financial services revenue but is growing at over 20%, far outpacing incumbents. Morris said this growth gap could drive fintech penetration into double digits over the next decade, shoring up long-term investor confidence even if the near term stays volatile.
Also Read: AI spend in India’s financial services sector to double in 2026: QED Investors
India portfolio:
- QED, which entered India around 2020, has deployed over $220 million locally and plans to invest another $250–300 million over the next two fund cycles.
- Its India portfolio includes Jupiter, OneCard (FPL Technologies), Upswing, Efficient Capital Labs, Refyne and Leo1.
- Several portfolio firms have navigated tighter regulatory oversight in recent years, including constraints on co-branded credit cards and onboarding partnerships with banks.
Also Read: Regulators realising fintechs are here to stay: QED’s Nigel Morris
FMCG majors turn to ayurveda startups to drive growth
FMCG majors in India are increasingly backing ayurveda-led startups to revive growth as demand cools.
Why the pivot: Consumers, especially younger, urban buyers, are gravitating towards herbal and chemical-free products. For legacy companies, acquiring such brands offers faster access to these segments than building them from scratch.
Recent deals:
Growth pressures: Volume growth across FMCG remains muted in both rural and urban markets, forcing companies to rethink portfolios and chase emerging pockets of demand.
What’s next: Analysts expect more consolidation in premium beauty and personal care, where Ayurveda is gaining ground. The broader wellness market is still underpenetrated, but the direction of travel is clear: more deals, more premiumisation, and sharper bets on brands that command loyalty, and not just shelf space.
Other Top Stories By Our Reporters
Legacy players gain ground in EV two-wheelers as Ola Electric slips: India’s electric two-wheeler (e2W) market, strongly contested by both incumbents and startups, saw a surge in sales in FY26 with most players expanding their market share even as Ola Electric bucked the trend.
Deepinder Goyal’s Lat Aerospace completes second demo of ultra-short take-off flight: Lat Aerospace completed a test flight of its latest technology demonstrator, Lat One v0.2, cofounder Deepinder Goyal shared in a social media post on Thursday. This comes two months after the startup tested its first iteration of the aircraft, v0.1, which achieved ultra-short takeoff but crashed immediately after.
Washington sees a trade barrier in India’s IT rules: The US has yet again flagged India’s Information Technology rules as trade barriers with “impractical compliance deadlines and take-down protocols”. According to the 2026 Foreign Trade Barriers report by the US Trade Representative (USTR), an increasing number of content takedown requests are related to issues that “appear to be politically motivated”.
Global Picks We Are Reading
■ Anthropic says that Claude contains its own kind of emotions (Wired)
■ Nations priced out of Big AI are building with frugal models (Rest of World)
■ The gig workers who are training humanoid robots at home (MIT Technology Review)
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