EV startup Ather Energy has begun work on new electric scooters that promise better range and more bang for your buck. The current Ather 450x scooter has a range of 85 km on a single charge, well below the 135 km of Ola S1 Pro, but the Hero MotoCorp-backed company plans to narrow that gap in as little as six months.

Also in this letter:

• Ashneer Grover, Aman Gupta fuel Shark Tank meme explosion
• New crypto tax could spell trouble for multinationals
• Zomato’s Goyal exits Blinkit, sells stake to Tiger Global

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Ather plans new scooters to take on Ola in EV war

Ather Energy has started working on new variants of its electric scooters with a longer range and better value for money. The company is building a bigger battery pack for this, several people aware of the matter told us.

Why it matters: Ather Energy’s move comes amid increasing competition in the EV space, especially from Ola Electric that recently launched its own electric two-wheelers, the S1 and S1 Pro.

Range – the distance an EV can travel before its battery needs to be recharged – is one of the most important factors customers look at when buying such a vehicle. On this, Ather’s two-wheelers lag Ola’s.

Details: Ather plans to launch a new variant with better battery life in six months, one of the sources said. It is expected to provide a real-life range of 110-115 km on a full charge, up from the 85 km the current Ather 450x offers.

Catching up with Ola: The battery pack is the most expensive component in an EV, which can be as much as 45-50% of the overall cost. Yet, Ather Energy’s flagship scooter 450x, with a battery capacity of 2.9 kWh, costs Rs 15,907 more in Delhi than rival Ola Electric’s Ola S1 pro that has a battery size of 3.9 kWh.

By not having a bigger battery, Ather is losing out on subsidies that it can pass on to customers, besides trailing rivals such as Ola in terms of range.

Ola had claimed its S1 Pro could run for up to 181 km on a full charge. However, following backlash from customers who complained they did not get the promised range, it clarified that the real range of the scooter is 135 km. That’s still much higher than Ather 450x’s range of 85 km.

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Ashneer Grover, Aman Gupta fuel Shark Tank meme explosion

Did you see Shark Tank India memes first or watch the show? Chances are it’s the former.

Meme-plosion: Memes based on the business reality television show – where aspiring entrepreneurs pitch business ideas to a panel of angel investors, or ‘sharks’ – have taken over social media platforms in the past month as the show has gained in popularity.

When the finale airs on Friday, the show will leave behind a legacy of memes that have turned its judges – founders of some of the country’s most successful startups – into celebrities, marketing and digital media experts said.

Sharks on the show include BharatPe cofounder Ashneer Grover, Boat cofounder Aman Gupta, Emcure executive director of Namita Thapar, People Group founder Anupam Mittal, Lenskart cofounder Peyush Bansal, Mamaearth cofounder Ghazal Alagh, and Sugar cosmetics cofounder Vineeta Singh.

The meme factory behind the show has inspired Gen Z creators to post re-enactments of the sharks and birthed at least a dozen fan pages on Instagram alone. Brands like Zomato, Housing.com, and even MyGov, a citizen engagement platform of the government, have used the memes from the show for promotions.

But the biggest push for the memes has come from the sharks themselves, experts said. They are resharing memes, following back meme pages, and even collaborating with meme artists and creators to leverage the momentum to their advantage and personal branding.

Multiple creators ET spoke with said that sharks playing along has encouraged the meme machinery as mostly celebrities are not so receptive to memes and jokes on them.

Tweet of the day

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New crypto tax could spell trouble for MNCs

India’s new tax rules for digital assets could create trouble for many multinationals and other companies. That’s because of the broad definition of ‘virtual digital assets’, which doesn’t include the word “cryptocurrency”, tax experts told us.

The definition of “virtual digital assets” to mean “any information, code, or otherwise” in the newly announced framework could cover a wide range of intellectual properties, including online assets created by multinationals, they said.

“The definition that the government has right now is too broad and could capture some digital assets created by multinationals and even Indian companies over the blockchain or other online infrastructure,” said Amit Singhania, a partner at law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas.

World lauds India’s crypto tax: Meanwhile, the global crypto community has lauded India’s decision to tax cryptocurrencies and develop a central bank digital currency.

“This means that India recognises the importance of crypto, digital assets and their underlying technology, blockchain, too,” said Anndy Lian, Chairman of the Singapore-based BigONE exchange. “The next crypto bull market could be led by India.”

Serdar Bisi, CEO of Tycoon, a Cyprus-based crypto startup, said, “This makes it now possible for institutions and corporations that have been sitting on the sidelines because of uncertainty to participate in this emerging market and industry.”

Also Read: Clear opens crypto portfolio management

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Zomato’s Goyal exits Blinkit, sells stake to Tiger Global

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal

Zomato’s co-founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal has transferred all his shares in Blinkit’s parent firm Grofers International Pte. Ltd. to New York-based investment firm Tiger Global, according to regulatory documents accessed by ET.

The share transfer comes as the online food delivery firm is ramping up its investment in Blinkit (formerly Grofers), after abandoning its plans to enter the e-grocery segment for a second time since the pandemic hit.

The development was first reported by DealStreetAsia.

Personal investment controversy: On December 10, former Infosys director TV Mohandas Pai raised concerns on Twitter around Goyal’s “conflict of interest” in having a personal investment in Shiprocket, which Zomato later invested in.

To this, Goyal replied, “There was no conflict of interest to begin with… This personal investment was one of the key reasons we got closer to Shiprocket (and its founders). That’s how we discovered there was potential long-term strategic fit between the two companies.”

In December, Goyal exited his $100,000 personal investment in Shiprocket, in which Zomato had co-led a $185 million round.

In other deals news,

• Jar, a startup for daily savings, has raised $32 million in a Series A funding round led by New York-based investment firm Tiger Global.
• South Korea’s Krafton Inc. has invested $5.4 million in JetSynthesys’ Nautilus Mobile, marking its first investment in a game development studio in India.

Infographic Insight

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Meta says Facebook growth slowing in largest market India

Meta Platforms Inc., which reported the first ever sequential drop in Facebook’s daily active users in the December quarter, is seeing the platform’s growth slow in India too.

The Mark Zuckerberg-led social media company, the world’s largest, cited data costs and increased competition due to the slowdown.

Quote: “User growth in India was limited by an increase in data package pricing. We believe competitive services are [also] negatively impacting growth, particularly with younger audiences,” Meta Platforms CFO Dave Wehner said.

But Neil Shah, vice president (research) at Counterpoint Research, said in India, Facebook faced stiffer competition from streaming apps than short-video platforms, as many Indians binge watch shows on their smartphones.

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Cognizant sees digital emerging as dominant revenue stream

Cognizant India Chairman Rajesh Nambiar

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. expects its digital business to account for 55-60% of its overall revenue from 44% at present, even as the New Jersey-based IT services firm bets big on working with Big Tech companies.

Financial performance: In constant currency terms, Cognizant’s revenue rose 10% to $18.5 billion in 2021. In the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, its revenue stood at $4.8 billion–up 14.2% on a year-on-year basis. This is the first time since 2015 that Cognizant has reported a double-digit revenue growth in a quarter.

• Digital accounted for 44% of total revenue in FY21, up from 42% in the previous year.

“When you look at the future, it (digital revenue) has the potential to go up to 55-60% of our revenue,” Cognizant India Chairman Rajesh Nambiar said. “We’re going to be a $20-20.5 billion company with growth of 8.5%-11.5% year-on-year.”

Inorganic growth: The company, which has a significant base in India, is planning to double down on acquisitions in the coming year. The company spent around $1 billion on seven acquisitions in 2021.

Attrition and hiring: Cognizant, which has seen its attrition shoot up to one in three employees, will also look to hire over 50,000 freshers this year, significantly higher than the 33,000 freshers it took on board last year.

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Other Top Stories By Our Reporters

Startups and the ‘Delhi vs Bengaluru’ debate: A comment in the Economic Survey that Delhi has displaced Bengaluru as India’s startup capital has left sections of the southern city’s tech veterans displeased, and they have sought to counter it with data and their own insight. (read more)

Tech Mahindra to focus on platforms, acquisitions in select areas: India’s fifth largest IT services firm will sharpen its focus on building platforms and developing its own intellectual property to gain an edge over its competitors. This would be through a mix of creating new platforms internally and acquisitions. (read more)

TCS to expand New Jersey operations with 1,000 jobs: To grow its local talent pool, India’s largest software services firm, will also grow the reach of its STEM and computer science programmes in the New Jersey area by 25%. (read more)

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Global Picks We Are Reading

• Rotterdam to dismantle bridge for Jeff Bezos’ superyacht (NYT)
• What makes Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer tick (Axios)
• Joe Biden is snubbing Tesla, and Elon Musk isn’t happy (Bloomberg)

Today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch was curated by Zaheer Merchant in Mumbai. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.