Eruditus’ five-year revenue plan; Making contract management smarter

Hello,

Months after inviting applications for the role of Chief of Staff, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal said that out of over 18,000 candidates, 30 have received offers, and 18 have already joined Zomato (and other group companies like Blinkit) in “high-impact roles”, with two of them in Chief of Staff roles.

Last November, Goyal’s job listing sparked debate for its unconventional requirement where it expected candidates to contribute Rs 20 lakh, which it said would be donated to Zomato’s non-profit, Feeding India.

The company later clarified that the condition was merely a filter.

Meanwhile, quick commerce and food delivery player Swiggy saw its losses widen to Rs 799 crore in Q3 FY25 from Rs 574 crore the previous year. The company was bogged down by rapid expansion in the hotly contested quick commerce segment.

The company’s quick commerce segment, which lags behind its listed peer Zomato’s Blinkit, more than doubled its operating revenue for the second consecutive quarter to Rs 576 crore.

India’s quick commerce segment is showing no signs of slowing. In a teaser published online, Zepto says it now has Skoda cars on its app.

Will Zepto deliver the car in 10 minutes? And how will it handle the documentation?

In a post late on Wednesday, Co-Founder & CEO - Zepto, Aadit Palicha, said that for now, Zepto users can get a test drive of the Škoda Kylaq. 

Speaking of mysteries, don’t miss our investigation into BYJU’S, and the $533 million that vanished from a $1.2 billion loan the beleaguered edtech defaulted on. Join us as we follow the money trail here. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Eruditus’ five-year revenue plan
• Making contract management smarter
• Weaving hope in Odisha’s villages

Here’s your trivia for today: Which software giant was founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1975?

Edtech

Eruditus’ five-year revenue plan 

Edtech unicorn Eruditus has set its sights on a bold trajectory, aiming to surpass $1 billion in revenue in the next five years, according to Co-founder and CEO Ashwin Damera. This would potentially position the higher education-focused company as the highest-grossing Indian edtech firm. 

How does the company plan to achieve this vision? By aiming for a growth of 15% to 20% year on year for the next five years, Damera states. In the ongoing financial year (FY25), the Softbank-backed company is targeting a topline of about $520-$530 million.

Scaling growth:

• The company currently doesn’t operate in the study abroad space, but it plans to. Its model will combine online elements with on-campus experiences. According to Damera, this approach could potentially reduce the cost of pursuing these programmes by about 50%.
• Higher education, in skilling and niche areas like AI or coding, has potential for smaller investments, while study abroad remains a fragmented market with room for consolidation, Damera said. He noted potential in niche areas like medical talent export, referring to upGrad Co-founder Mayank Kumar’s new venture.
• Damera said he would only want to go public when he is confident that the company can grow 25% year on year for the next five to ten years, with EBITDA around 10%, improving each year.

Funding Alert

Startup: Cashfree Payments

Amount: $53M

Round: Undisclosed

Startup: Apex Kidney Care

Amount: $9M

Round: Equity

Startup: HairOriginals

Amount: $5M

Round: Series A

Startup

Making contract management smarter

Contracts are a fundamental aspect of operations for various industries. Even so, contract management remains outdated, relying on manual paperwork, scattered approvals, and email-based negotiations, which can lead to delays, compliance risks, and financial penalties. 

Recognising these inefficiencies, Aditya Pandranki, Manjula Rao, and Vilaas BV founded DOQFY in 2019 to digitise contract management, enabling businesses to create, execute, and track contracts seamlessly while ensuring legal compliance. 

Accessible contracts:

• DOQFY integrates Aadhaar-based e-signatures, digital signature certificates, and electronic signatures, ensuring legally compliant execution. The platform also uses Natural Language Processing and AI to simplify legal language and automate data extraction, contract validation, and risk assessment.
• DOQFY serves more than 1,000 businesses, including DFC Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Swiggy, Meesho, Unacademy, Xiaomi, and Axis Bank. The startup generated $1.3 million last year and is targeting $2 million this year, growing at 110% YoY.
• Currently serving in India, the startup is now exploring international markets, particularly the UAE, Middle East, and Southeast Asia, conducting pilot projects to validate market fit in these regions.

Social Impact

Weaving hope in Odisha’s villages

An engineer with a Master’s degree from Oxford University, Bindu Vinodhan followed the conventional corporate path until a wake-up call in Florida compelled her to venture into the unknown.

This led her on a journey to the hinterlands of Odisha, to Chuliaposhi, a village in Mayurbhanj, where she would transform the lives of hundreds of marginalised women, revive a forgotten art form, and challenge societal norms with her NGO, Mauna Dhwani.

Reviving communities:

• Vinodhan spent two years in ethnographic research, visiting museums, and collecting records about Chuliaposhi’s forgotten traditional craft of the Mayurbhanj Santali weave. She worked with textile historians and the Crafts Council of India to piece together the lost craft.
• Mauna Dhwani started by creating items for corporate gifting—eco-friendly bags, diaries, and accessories. One of its biggest partners is a shipping company that replaced all its plastic packaging with handwoven jute and cotton bags.
• Now, for the first time, the Mayurbhanj Santali Sari Collection will be showcased at the Sarees of India 2025 exhibition in Delhi. Following this, the organisation will apply for a GI tag to officially recognise the weave as part of Odisha’s textile heritage.

News & updates

• Upbeat: Walt Disney sharply outperformed Wall Street's quarterly earnings estimates on Wednesday, with results buoyed by the strong holiday box office performance of the animated sequel Moana 2 and higher profits at the company’s streaming business.
• Gold rush: The world’s demand for gold hit another record high in 2024 amid robust central bank purchases and investment demand growth, the World Gold Council said in its annual report. Total gold transactions came in at 4,974 tons last year, compared with 4,899 tons in 2023.
• AI update: Google owner, Alphabet, has dropped its pledge not to use AI for purposes such as developing weapons and surveillance tools. The US technology company said it had updated its ethical guidelines around AI, and they no longer refer to not pursuing technologies that could “cause or are likely to cause overall harm”.

Which software giant was founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1975?

Answer: Microsoft.

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