Retail Industry Snapshot

90% of start-ups are nonsense, have no meaning: Kishore Biyani

Continuing his skepticism about new-age companies, Future Group Chief Executive

Officer Kishore Biyani said on Wednesday that start-ups are too small to create

jobs. He was speaking at The Economist India Summit in the capital. He said that

most start-ups miss the bigger picture and work with a ‘smaller canvas’. ‘I think 90

per cent of the start-ups have no meaning at all; they are nonsense. I think the

canvas of start-up needs to be bigger.’ There are so many people who are doing

aggregation, he added. ‘Let’s take the business of taxi aggregation. The revenues of

these companies in four-five years would not be more than Rs 3,500 crore. They

are not creating a new economy any which way.’ He said most of the start-ups are

coming up with a goal to sell themselves. That is what is happening to many as big

businesses are taking over major e-commerce companies, Biyani added. ‘They are

just building start-ups to sell them; there is no long-term goal. This is what needs

to change.’

Amazon India considers investment in online food delivery startup Swiggy

Amazon India is considering an investment in online food delivery startup Swiggy

and has held several rounds of discussions with the Bengaluru-based startup over

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the past three months, according to four people directly aware of the ongoing

negotiations. Swiggy has also attracted the attention of other strategic investors,

including Alibaba-backed Chinese food delivery venture Ele.me, said the sources.

"Everyone is talking since they are doing really well but it is not certain that a deal

will be closed," said one of the people quoted above, who also confirmed that other

Chinese investors have approached Swiggy seeking to invest in it. Founded by

BITS-Pilani alumnus Sriharsha Majety, the CEO, along with Rahul Jaimini and

Nandan Reddy, Swiggy is regarded as one of the stronger players in a market

which has seen several casualties. It competes with Zomato and Rocket Internet's

Foodpanda. At its last round of funding in August, the company was valued at an

estimated $190-200 million (Rs 1,300-1,350 crore).

IKEA appoints Patrik Antoni as Deputy Country Manager, India

Ikea India today appointed Patrik Antoni as its deputy country manager, the

company's CEO Juvencio Maeztu said in a statement. Antoni has been a part of Ikea

team for almost 15 years and has played an instrumental role across verticals in

many countries like Sweden, Portugal, Russia and India. He has a wide experience

within IKEA ranging from store operations, marketing, expansion, customer

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