Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S saw his annual compensation increase 28% to $21.5 million in 2025, according to the company’s proxy filing with US regulators. Meanwhile, CFO Jatin Dalal witnessed a 30% decline in compensation to $7.08 million. Kumar’s pay package included $1.3 million in salary, $15.8 million in stock awards, and $4.4 million in non-equity incentive compensation. Unlike the previous year, he did not receive a bonus. However, his realised compensation stood at $10.7 million, lower than his target compensation of $19 million, mainly due to performance linked stock units that are yet to vest. Dalal, who previously worked…
Author: Adarsh Kumar
Co-living and managed accommodation platform ZoloStays continued its growth momentum in FY25, reporting a 67% year-on-year rise in operating revenue while reducing losses by 38%. According to financial statements sourced from the Registrar of Companies (RoC), the company’s revenue from operations increased to ₹342.3 crore in FY25, compared to ₹204.4 crore in FY24. ZoloStays derives the majority of its income from accommodation and allied services for students, professionals, and organizations. This segment contributed nearly 80% of total operating revenue and surged 73.6% to ₹273 crore in FY25. The company also provides residential facility management services to colleges and universities, along…
Jewellery retailer BlueStone has rolled out fresh employee stock options (ESOPs) worth nearly ₹11 crore, covering 2.09 lakh equity shares under its ESOP 2014 scheme, according to stock exchange filings. The company’s Nomination and Remuneration Committee has approved the grant of 2,09,319 stock options under the ESOP 2014 scheme. Each option can be converted into one equity share with a face value of ₹1. Based on the company’s previous closing share price of ₹522 per share, the newly granted ESOPs are valued at around ₹11 crore. The vesting will take place over four years. Around 25% of the options will…
Tata owned online food and grocery company BigBasket has appointed Arpit Jaiswal as its Chief Growth Officer (CGO), strengthening its leadership team as the company sharpens focus on profitable growth and category leadership. In his new role, Jaiswal will lead growth across product, user acquisition, retention, and market expansion. He will work closely with cross functional teams to deepen customer engagement, improve monetization efficiency, and scale BigBasket’s presence across urban and emerging markets. Jaiswal joins from Google Pay, where he served as Head of Growth and Group Product Manager. During his tenure, he led large scale user acquisition through partnerships…
New age fragrance brand FIFTH SENSE has secured ₹6.3 crore in a pre-seed funding round led by OTP Ventures, with participation from Sadev Ventures, ISV Capital, and angel investors including Rohit Kapoor and Amit Damani. The fresh capital will be used to expand its product portfolio, build the brand through storytelling-led content, and strengthen its supply chain and distribution network. Founded by Bharat Gupta and Prateek Gupta, both alumni of IIM Kozhikode, FIFTH SENSE aims to create India’s first emotion-led fragrance ecosystem. The brand is positioning fragrance as an extension of identity and self-expression, moving beyond conventional ingredient-led marketing. Its…
Ola’s AI arm Krutrim has taken its consumer facing assistant Kruti AI offline, with the service currently inaccessible across both web and mobile platforms, according to multiple reports. The Kruti app has been removed from app stores, while its web interface is also non-functional. Users visiting the website are shown a message stating: “We’ll be back soon. Kruti AI is currently under maintenance,” indicating a service disruption. The assistant also appears to be non-operational within Ola’s ecosystem. Launched in 2025, Kruti was built on Krutrim’s in-house model Krutrim V2, a 12-billion parameter AI model, and was designed to handle tasks…
Quick-service home platform Snabbit has appointed Abhinav Ankur as its Chief Business Officer (CBO) to lead business expansion as the company scales its presence in India’s fast growing home services market. Ankur brings experience across consumer internet and logistics platforms, having held leadership roles at OYO and WheelsEye, where he drove business growth, operational scale, and category expansion. He joins Snabbit at a crucial stage as the company transitions from early traction to structured market leadership in a largely underpenetrated segment. Founded in 2024, Snabbit connects households with trained professionals for services like cleaning, dishwashing, and laundry, with providers available…
Polaris Smart Metering Private Limited has raised ₹710 crore (around $80 million) from British International Investment (BII) for its subsidiary Hooghly Smart Metering Private Limited. The funding will be used to deploy over 2.2 million smart meters in West Bengal and expand Polaris’ advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) footprint. Polaris, a portfolio company of I Squared Capital, provides end-to-end smart metering solutions, including manufacturing, deployment, communications infrastructure, and software platforms. The company currently has an order book of around $1.1 billion, covering projects across Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Manipur, with a total of 7.5 million electric meters. It also operates…
Backpacker hostel chain The Hosteller has raised ₹150 crore (around $16 million) in a Series B funding round co-led by PROMAFT Partners and V3 Ventures, with participation from ITI Growth Opportunities Fund and Merisis Wealth Trust, along with several family offices. The Mumbai-based startup had earlier raised $5.7 million in Series A (November 2024) led by V3 Ventures, and $1 million in pre-Series A (November 2021) from FAO Ventures. The fresh capital will be used to accelerate expansion across key travel destinations, while also strengthening operational efficiencies and brand building. Founded in 2014 by Pranav Dangi, The Hosteller focuses on…
Aliste Technologies, an energy management and IoT solutions startup, has raised ₹30 crore ($3.2 million) in a pre-Series A round led by Big Global JSC, with participation from YourNest Venture Capital and HBeon Labs. The round includes a mix of equity and debt, marking an early growth push for the startup. Aliste will use the fresh funds to strengthen research in energy focused solutions and expand distribution of its enterprise offerings. Founded in 2021 by Anant Ohri, Aakarsh Nayyar, Bhavya Kansal, Konark Gautam, and Shreyansh Jain, the company provides energy monitoring and optimisation solutions for commercial spaces. The startup currently…