TVS Motor is acquiring ION Mobility at a discount, while early investors in Oyo are in talks with family offices to sell part of their stakes in the hospitality startup. Meanwhile, Google-backed ShareChat is laying off 30-40 employees.
TVS Motor to buy ION Mobility at a discount: Report
Indian two-wheeler manufacturer TVS Motor is acquiring ION Mobility, an electric vehicle startup with operations in Singapore and Indonesia, at a discount, Tech in Asia reported.
According to data from DealStreetAsia’s DATA VANTAGE, TVS Motor is the largest shareholder in Ion Mobility.
Last year, the firm raised $5.5 million from TVS Motor and has raised $25.8 million in funding so far. It was last valued at $43.4 million, according to the data.
In FY2023, Ion Mobility reported a loss of $3.9 million, which had widened 83%.
Oyo investors looking to sell stake at $3.9b valuation: Report
Early investors in Oyo, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, are in talks with a group of family offices to sell part of their stakes in the hospitality startup at a valuation of around $3.9 billion, The Economic Times reported.
Peak XV Partners, another early investor, recently sold some of its remaining 3% stake, clocking about $80-90 million in returns, the report added, citing sources.
This adds to the over $1.4 billion that Lightspeed and Peak XV cumulatively made in 2019 by selling most of their holdings to founder Ritesh Agarwal.
The latest stake sale will be at a premium of more than 60% to the Rs 1,457-crore funding round in August 2024 when top family offices invested in the now profitable hospitality startup backed by the SoftBank Group, the report said.
Peak XV had made $500 million in exits from Oyo before the latest sale, the report added, citing a source.
ShareChat to lay off another 5% of staff: Report
ShareChat is laying off around 30-40 employees, or 5% of its workforce, as the Google-backed vernacular social media platform continues to cut operating costs, The Economic Times reported.
The startup plans to reduce its employee count to 500 by March 2025, the report said.
The company had cut its headcount to 650-700 as of November 2024 from around 2,700 a few years ago.
“The company is not undertaking any layoffs. We are in the middle of our annual appraisal cycle and as a part of our bar-raising process, we replace bottom performers every cycle. Less than 5% of our headcount is impacted by this. Most of these positions will be subsequently filled with replacements. The company is not undertaking a cost-cutting exercise at this point,” chief financial officer Manohar Singh Charan told ET in an emailed response.
