6 startup moves this week: Q-comm poaching, Table Space IPO

Quick commerce executives are changing jerseys, Table Space plans a $350 million IPO, Pine Labs turned its first meaningful quarterly profit, and Krutrim cut half its workforce. Here's everything that shaped India's startup ecosystem this week.

Quick commerce's talent war heats up

Swiggy Instamart appointed Nandita Sinha, formerly CEO of Myntra, as its new chief executive. She replaces Amitesh Jha and inherits a mandate to sharpen assortment strategy while pushing Instamart toward an inventory-led model. The timing matters: Swiggy needs operational tightening before festive season volumes spike.

Nykaa fired back immediately. The beauty retailer hired Ankit Jain, Instamart's former COO, to run Nykaa Now, its quick commerce arm. Jain spent years at both Flipkart and Swiggy, making him one of the few executives in India with hands-on experience scaling dark store networks.

What's driving the musical chairs? Quick commerce demands a rare skill set: inventory management, last-mile logistics, and supply chain coordination, all compressed into 10-minute windows. Legacy retailers entering the space lack institutional knowledge. Poaching from Instamart, Blinkit, or Zepto is faster than building that expertise from scratch.

The trend extends beyond pure-play apps. Vishal Mega Mart now runs 30-minute delivery from 767 stores, with ultrafast orders contributing 2-9% of a store's revenue in Q1 FY27. Traditional retail is being reshaped by the expectation that everything should arrive in minutes.

Table Space files for a $350M IPO

The managed workspace provider plans to submit its DRHP to SEBI next month. The IPO will include a $104 million fresh issue alongside an undisclosed offer-for-sale component.

Founded in 2017, Table Space serves over 425 enterprises. The numbers tell a mixed story: FY25 revenue hit ₹1,360 crore, but losses ballooned to ₹1,561 crore. That's a company spending more than it earns. Whether public markets accept those economics depends on how much investors believe in the flexible workspace thesis.

Table Space joins a crowded IPO class. Awfis, Smartworks, WeWork India, and IndiQube have all listed in the past two years, buoyed by post-pandemic demand for flexible office solutions. The coworking sector's public market track record so far has been uneven.

Pine Labs posts 4X profit jump

The fintech company's net profit surged to ₹19.6 crore in Q1 FY27, up over four times from the same quarter last year. Operating revenue rose 20% year-on-year to ₹736.9 crore.

The growth came from multiple sources: improved margins, higher payment volumes, a larger merchant base, and international expansion. Pine Labs processed ₹4.22 lakh crore in gross transaction value across 201 crore transactions. New merchants onboarded in Q1 include ixigo, OLA, IRCTC, and BSES.

Expenses remain a pressure point. They climbed 11% year-on-year to ₹728.1 crore, leaving margins thin. For a company that has been loss-making for years, sustained profitability will require expense growth to stay below revenue growth, a discipline that becomes harder as expansion accelerates.

Krutrim cuts half its workforce

The AI unicorn founded by Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal laid off 20-25 employees in its second round of retrenchments this year. The cuts hit product and engineering teams hardest, eliminating nearly half the remaining workforce.

Executives internally attributed the layoffs to AI-led automation. Multiple employees told Inc42 a different story: travel, food, and accommodation reimbursements have gone unpaid for over five months.

Krutrim's trajectory has been chaotic. The company pivoted from building large language models to cloud services, discontinued its AI assistant, and watched multiple senior executives leave. Revenue concentration and a funding crunch compound the operational challenges. What began as India's fastest unicorn now looks like a cautionary tale about announcing ambitions before building the infrastructure to support them.

Anicut Capital takes control of Bira91

In a significant ownership shift, Anicut Capital has acquired founder Ankur Jain and his family's 17% stake in the craft beer brand. The firm will nominate three directors to Bira91's board and lead restructuring efforts.

The move signals deep trouble at Bira91. Founders rarely surrender board control unless alternatives have run out. What restructuring looks like for a consumer alcohol brand, whether cost cuts, market exits, or a sale, remains unclear.

Cursor launches India pricing at ₹649/month

The AI coding platform introduced a localized subscription plan for Indian users. At ₹649 per month, it's priced to convert the large free user base into paying customers. India has become Cursor's third-largest market globally, with users tripling to 3 million over the past year.

The pricing move follows SpaceX's announcement of plans to acquire Cursor for $60 billion in an all-stock deal. Localized pricing makes strategic sense: India's developer population is enormous, but willingness to pay at US rates is limited.

Cursor isn't alone. OpenAI launched ChatGPT Go, a lower-priced tier, last year. Anthropic rolled out rupee-denominated pricing for Claude earlier this month. Global AI companies are racing to convert India's usage into revenue before competitors lock in the market.

Source: Inc42 Media / Team Inc42