Simple Energy’s future plans; Yulu riding quick commerce wave

Hello,

Big Tech and bureaucracy are butting heads again. 

India’s technology ministry is pushing Apple and Google to make the state-backed GOV.in app store available in their marketplaces, as well as have the app suite pre-installed on devices before sale.

Google, whose Android operating system powers a majority of the country’s smartphones, is against the move, and it is unlikely that Apple will agree, either. The ministry isn’t shying away from a potential clash, with discussions of a legal mandate or policy to make the tech giants comply already underway. 

Meanwhile, OpenAI is also pushing back in a high-profile copyright breach case brought on by news agency ANI. The agency is seeking an order for the deletion of ANI’s data stored by ChatGPT; a move which OpenAI says will go against its legal obligations in the US. 

It’s not the ChatGPT maker’s first rodeo, after all. New York Times filed a similar copyright infringement lawsuit in the US; allegations that OpenAI has repeatedly denied. 

In a change of pace, Meta (and Whatsapp) got to breathe a sigh of relief, as the Competition Commission of India temporarily suspended a five-year data sharing ban between the two entities. 

What this means is Meta may no longer need to roll back advertising features used by several Indian businesses that used data sharing between Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram to personalise ads. 

At what point does one company know too much about its own users? The CCI is still working on an answer to that question, as it prepares to hear Meta’s appeal against an ongoing antitrust order related to Whatsapp’s privacy policies in March. 

Lastly, the wait for Oscar nominations is finally over! In a first, Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez is leading the charge with 13 nominations, a record for a non-English language film in Academy history. 

Brady Corbet’s postwar epic The Brutalist and smash-hit Broadway adaptation Wicked are close on its heels, with 10 nominations each. Here’s the entire lineup of Oscar hopefuls.

The competition’s going to be fierce!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Simple Energy’s future plans
• Yulu riding quick commerce wave
• Healthy desserts, yes please

Here’s your trivia for today: What is the coldest permanently inhabited place on Earth?

Startup

Simple Energy’s future plans

Until two years ago two-wheeler EV manufacturer Simple Energy was testing out pilots. Today, with two models—Simple One and Simple Dot One—the company, founded in 2019, has completed over 1,900 deliveries in under a year. It has also recorded Rs 19 crore in revenue in the recent October-December quarter. 

YourStory spoke to Suhas Rajkumar, Co-founder and CEO of Simple Energy, to find out the company’s future plans.

Step up:

• After raising $20 million in a Series A funding round in July 2024, Simple Energy is aggressively expanding its store footprint.
• The Bengaluru-based company plans to open 150 stores and 200 service centres by the end of 2025. 
• According to the co-founder, Simple Energy is not limiting itself to just Tier I cities. “We’re focusing on Tier II and III markets—places like Hassan and Mandya—where stores will open next month,” he said. 

<Funding Alert>

Startup: Infra.Market

Amount: Rs 1,050 Cr

Round: Pre-IPO

Startup: Arya.ag

Amount: $30M

Round: Debt

Startup: VuNet 

Amount: Rs 60 Cr

Round: Series B

Interview

Yulu riding quick commerce wave

Yulu, a pioneer in the Low-Speed Electric Vehicles (LSEVs) segment in India, has gained attention in recent years for its electric bikes, which serve primarily for short-distance and intra-city use. 

In an interaction with YourStory, Amit Gupta, Co-founder and CEO, Yulu, talks about the company’s new product offerings, focus areas, and how Yulu is planning to take advantage of the growing demands of the delivery sector. 

Key takeaways:

• Small blue bikes parked on Bengaluru’s roads, one of Yulu’s primary markets, are usually driven around to deliver groceries and food orders.
• Yulu sees 85-90% of its revenue coming from Yulu DeX—which is tailored for gig workers and does not require a driving licence; and Yulu Miracle, which are used for personal commute. 
• The company plans to double down on the growth in the last-mile delivery segment with a new product crafted for ecommerce deliveries.

Women entrepreneurs

Healthy desserts, yes please

In 2018, Dhara Panchal launched Nitzana, a bakery brand focused on clean, wholesome ingredients. The brand name, which means “blooming flower,” encapsulated her vision for nurturing health and wellbeing through food.  

Nitzana’s cakes, cookies, and granola stand out for their commitment to avoiding refined sugar, refined flour, eggs, and artificial colours.

Yummy treats:

• Nitzana’s popular offerings include the Mawa Pistachio Cake, made with fresh mawa (dried milk solids), cardamom, and pistachios, and the Ragi Choco Nut Cake, which combines the nutritional benefits of ragi flour with the indulgence of chocolate.
• Panchal also introduced gluten-free cookies made with almond and bajra flours, and amaranth-based granola that balances nutrition with taste.
• The brand has expanded its reach beyond Vadodara, delivering fresh cakes and other products to cities like Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Delhi.

News & updates

• Launch: Samsung Electronics on Wednesday unveiled its newest Galaxy S25 smartphones, powered by Qualcomm's chips and Google's artificial intelligence model, hoping its upgraded AI features can reinvigorate sales and fend off Apple and Chinese rivals.
• Competition: The European Union will propose establishing an advanced research project agency modeled on US government entities to invest in strategic technologies as part of a broader drive to boost the bloc’s competitiveness.
• Flying high: GE Aerospace posted a surge in quarterly revenue that blew past Wall Street’s estimates as the jet-engine maker received an influx of orders to end the year. The Cincinnati company also said it plans to buy back $7 billion worth of stock this year and to boost its dividend by 30%. 

What is the coldest permanently inhabited place on Earth?

Answer: Oymyakon, Russia. Located in Siberia, Oymyakon is considered the "Pole of Cold" and experiences average winter temperatures around -50°C. 

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