Zomato lays off 540 employees; Drivezy to deploy 1,200 bikes at OYO properties

Restaurant aggregator Zomato has laid off over 500 employees. Gurugram-based hospitality chain OYO has entered into a commercial agreement with Bengaluru-based Drivezy India.

 Zomato lays off 540 employees 

Restaurant aggregator Zomato has laid off 540 employees in Gurugram across its customer, merchant, and delivery partner support teams, Mint reported.

The startup is looking forward to reducing redundancies in backend support roles, the report said.

The company’s employee strength is an estimated 5,000 people across the organisation after laying off over 500 employees. Zomato has offered 2-4 months of severance pay to the sacked employees, the report added.

Zomato, founded in 2008 by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, is a restaurant discovery and review platform. It has expanded to 24 countries and services 10,000 cities globally.  In India, Zomato has services in 500 cities.

Last month, it fired 60 employees from its customer support team in Grurgram as part of cost rationalisation that involves deploying chatbots, The Economic Times reported. 

OYO to deploy 1,200 bikes across properties

Gurugram-based hospitality chain OYO Hotels & Homes has entered into a strategic business partnership with Bengaluru-based Drivezy India, which operates a peer-to-peer car and bike rental platform Drivezy.

The ride-hailing platform has deployed 1,200 bikes at multiple OYO properties across Bengaluru and Hyderabad, the company said in a statement.

“Establishing on-site hubs with OYO will allow us to further increase our penetration in the growing tourism sector which is mostly dependent on cabs and chauffeur-driven car rentals. We believe that our partnership will offer a cost-effective and convenient alternative to guests staying at OYO,” said Amit Sahu, co-founder of Drivezy.

It plans to deploy both cars and bikes for OYO customers and plans to park about 100,000 vehicles over the next three years, it added in a statement.

“With this partnership, we look to address the commuting requirements of our guests. Our association with Drivezy will help us add a new dimension to our service offerings, ensuring that our guests have a perfect stay with their own independent hired vehicle without having to worry about booking cabs or drivers,” said Gaurav Ajmera, chief operating officer, India, and South Asia, OYO Hotels and Homes.

OYO currently has about 10,000 properties across more than 300 towns and cities in India, managing about 200,000 rooms. 

Ola unveils self-drive car rental in Bengaluru

Bengaluru-based ANI Technologies, which operates ride-hailing platform Ola, has rolled out its self-drive rental service in Bengaluru, Entrackr reported.

The new feature will provide various models and brands from auto companies including Maruti, Hyundai and Tata. The startup is also in talks with Audi, Mercedes and BMW to include luxury cars in its fleet, the report said.

The startup aims to have a fleet of 10,000 select car models for self-drive, corporate leasing and subscription, the report added.

Amazon, Flipkart may cut commissions

Online retail majors Amazon India and Flipkart are planning to lower commission across categories to bring down product prices. The move comes ahead of the festive sales, The Times of India reported.

A New Delhi-based merchant reportedly said for select apparels, the commission will be reduced to 10% from 15%, which is a cut of over 30%.

The e-tailers are offering these waivers in some of the largest categories by gross sales like fashion & accessories and consumer electronics, the report said. 

The Walmart-owned Flipkart and US-based retail giant Amazon earn commissions in the 15-30% range based on product categories and tier of sellers in India, the report added.

Stanza Living increases headcount by 3x over the last quarter

New Delhi-based student housing startup Stanza Living has scaled its workforce by three times over the last quarter.

It has reached a headcount of 750 employees pan-India and aims to have a team of over 1,000 employees across 20 cities in the country, it said in a statement. 

The company revealed its employee count was 75 last year.

“Our hiring strategy aims to build an agile, fast-actioning team of multi-sector experts who can keep pace with our growth story. The senior leadership team at Stanza Living brings a ‘Balance of Experiences’ – young and experienced professionals from some of the leading new-age businesses and large traditional brands like Flipkart, Zomato, PayU, Airtel, Grofers, Future Retail, Snapdeal and more – who are shaping India’s largest student accommodation company,” said Anindya Dutta, managing director and co-dunder, Stanza Living.

Flipkart onboards 27,000 Kiranas to strengthen last-mile delivery 

Homegrown e-commerce giant Flipkart has onboarded approximately 27,000 kiranas across 700 cities across India ahead of its Big Billion Day sale.

The move is aimed at helping kiranas ahead of the festive season, the company said in a statement. The company aims to expand its reach, especially in Tier 2 and 3 towns. 

“Festive season and the Big Billion Days provide us a great opportunity to further our principles of inclusion and accessibility. Kiranas are the oldest and most widely spread retail format in India which exhibit the modernness of the supply chain and deliver a successful customer experience management model,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, chief executive officer of Flipkart Group.

It has also deployed industry-first ‘allocation engine’ to efficiently allocate shipments across various delivery channels, it added.

“Our approach to inclusivity for last-mile partners is guided by the synergies we share. After digital payments, the next big revolution in Kirana is going to be ushered in conjunction with e-commerce. It will re-position and re-invent kirana stores as convenience stores from an e-commerce perspective, while offering them a new source of revenue, making it a win-win situation for all,” Krishnamurthy added.