Also in the letter:
■ Fireside Ventures’ Vinay Singh exits
■ Pixxel defends Indian ownership
■ Govt mulls more powers for Cert-In
Deep use cases vault India to ChatGPT’s top global market: OpenAI’s India MD
Prabhjeet Singh, managing director, OpenAI India
India has become ChatGPT’s largest market globally in terms of weekly active users, with the local user base doubling since January this year, said OpenAI India managing director Prabhjeet Singh.
User growth: “In less than a year, it’s doubling. It just gives you a sense of (how) people are beginning to find relevance and deep use cases,” Singh told ET in his first media interview since joining OpenAI in August.
Payments push: OpenAI is expected to make announcements concerning UPI and payments over the coming weeks.
Enterprise adoption: Singh said the company was “seeing a real shift from early days of pilots and demos — common early this year and late last year — to now scaled adoption and production-scale deployment”.
AI regulation: As concerns mount over the potential misuse of increasingly autonomous AI agents, Singh said the company was actively engaging with government agencies and enterprises to protect critical infrastructure.
Outlook: “I also anticipate much more deeper, from our vantage point, deeper localisation and investments in the ecosystem, whether it be product experience, partnerships, working with the government, or working with the community.”
From bikes to billions: Rapido’s gross order value quadruples in two years to $4 billion
Aravind Sanka, founder, Rapido
Ride-hailing startup Rapido has crossed $4 billion in annualised gross order value (GOV), quadrupling its scale in two years, as it steps up expansion across mobility and food delivery following a $240 million fundraise in May this year, according to people in the know.
By the numbers:
- Daily orders: Around 8.3 million across its services, with ride-hailing accounting for more than 95%.
- Monthly active users: Grew 27% between January and October this year.
- Market presence: Expanded to nearly 500 cities from around 100 a few years ago.
- Market share: Estimated 60% across bikes, auto rickshaws and four-wheeler cabs, according to industry executives.
- Valuation: Raised $240 million in May at a $3 billion valuation.
Food delivery push: Rapido has modelled its food delivery platform Ownly on the zero-commission approach it follows in ride-hailing. Launched in Bengaluru earlier this year, Ownly has since expanded to Hyderabad, Kolkata and New Delhi.
Fireside Ventures cofounder and partner Vinay Singh to exit firm
From L to R: V S Kannan Sitaram (Partner), Vinay Singh (Partner), Kanwaljit Singh (Managing Partner) and Dipanjan Basu (Partner) at Fireside Ventures
Fireside Ventures cofounder and partner Vinay Singh is exiting the Bengaluru-based venture capital firm after nearly a decade, the company announced on Monday.
Why he’s leaving: “As AI reshapes commerce faster than most of us expected, I want to spend more time exploring the frontiers of agentic commerce and its implications for the future of consumption,” Singh said.
Fund details: Fireside has four senior partners and a team of 12 principals and vice-presidents with expertise across investing, brand building, distribution channels, finance, HR, fundraising and ESG.
Portfolio: Since 2017, it has backed more than 65 consumer brands across four funds including Mamaearth, Boat, Yoga Bar, Slurpp Farm, Pilgrim, Underneat and more.
Pixxel’s Indian ownership comes under scrutiny
Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal, cofounders, Pixxel Space
Bengaluru-based spacetech startup Pixxel Space which develops hyperspectral satellites has defended its Indian ownership and control after its decision to establish a US subsidiary has triggered questions about its corporate structure.
What triggered the debate: Last week Pixxel announced the establishment of Pixxel Federal, a US subsidiary set up to serve US civilian, defence, and intelligence agencies. The new entity will be headed by Allyson Jenkins, who previously led Pixxel’s public-sector business in the US.
GalaxEye’s position: GalaxEye, another Bengaluru-based spacetech startup, said it had consciously chosen to build its business from India despite considering other locations. Without naming Pixxel, the company said all its contracts and bids had been pursued through a single Indian entity.
Pixxel’s clarification: Pixxel founder and chief executive Awais Ahmed pushed back against the suggestion that having multiple entities across countries should raise questions about a company’s Indian credentials. He said separate entities were often necessary in regulated sectors such as space and defence to meet local requirements.
Other Top Stories By Our Reporters
Govt mulls giving Cert-In enforceable powers: The government is considering granting enforcement powers to India’s nodal cybersecurity agency — similar to the approach taken by the US and the European Union — in the wake of an unprecedented increase in cyberattacks perpetrated by artificial intelligence, officials familiar with the matter said.
MobiKwik eyes Rs 100 crore UPI MDR revenue: MobiKwik expects the proposed introduction of merchant discount rate (MDR) on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions to add at least Rs 100 crore to its payment revenue in FY28, as the fintech company looks to improve monetisation across consumer and merchant payments.
Global Picks We Are Reading
■ Startups recalibrate Chinese AI for the West (Rest of World)
■ The agentic web is here (MIT Technology Review)
■ When you should—and shouldn’t—use AI to search the web (Wired)
