5108: What led to Oracle India layoffs; Sarvam’s mega funding round gets a new investor; and India’s Crypto policy paper on the backburner | MC Tech3

Oracle India layoffs the inside story.

Sarvam's mega funding round now has a new investor.

Crypto policy paper on the back burner.

Simbinding deadline for WhatsApp Telegram signal extended to your end.

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Hello listeners, welcome to Money Controls Tech 3 Podcast.

Your go-to show for the sharper startup and tech updates Monday through Friday.

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We're starting with a big story from the tech world and it's a bloodbath at Oracle.

Layoff estimates suggest that around 12,000 job cuts are underway in India and this comes at a time

when the company is juggling massive AI linked commitments of $360 billion,

alongside $50 billion in annual KPX and roughly $100 billion in debt.

Yes, and India is a key market for Oracle.

It has over 30,000 employees making it the company's second largest workforce globally

and a major R&D hub outside the US.

And now reports suggest nearly half of this workforce has been impacted as part of a broader global restructuring.

Now here's what stands out, this doesn't look like a typical headcount driven layoff.

Employees told Money Control the teams were instead given budget card targets

and we hear the teams were asked to reduce costs by 20 to 30%

and how that was achieved was left to managers which widen the impact across roles.

And that means the cuts were not limited to junior staff,

senior roles including M4, M5 levels have been affected as well, especially in verticals like health care.

There's also uncertainty on the ground,

employees are still waiting for clarity on severance,

how unvested esops will be handled,

and that uncertainty is adding to the disruption with many employees saying

they're still awaiting detailed communication from HR on compensation and benefits.

Right, moving on to AI, foundational AI start-up servom is getting a lot of investor attention.

Last week we heard that servom's raising funds,

but today we hear there is some investor shuffle here.

So as we said before, servom, the Bangalore-based AI start-up is in talks to raise a mega round of $250 million

and what we understand now is bestseller venture partners has shown interest in joining the round

alongside Nvidia, Hitzel Tech and other investors.

However, Axel, which was earlier in discussions, is no longer part of the deal.

Yes, if this goes through, servom could be valued at around $1.5 billion,

marking a sharp jump in a very short span of time.

And what also stands out here is the presence of strategic investors.

NVIDIA brings infra, Hitzel brings enterprise reach,

and now Vesemar adds institutional capital here.

So foundational AI models in India finally seem to be attracting capital

with players like Nyani.ai also raising fresh funding as demand for enterprise AI agents grow.

Moving on to the world of cryptocurrencies, where policy clarity seems to be taking a back seat,

the government's long awaited discussion paper on crypto has likely been put on hold indefinitely.

Is this paper was expected to outline India's stance on crypto, especially stable coins,

but officials now say existing measures are sufficient for monitoring the sector.

Now, a big factor here is the RBI's continued resistance.

The Reserve Bank of India has repeatedly raised concerns around financial stability,

capital flows and monetary control.

In the meantime, the government has already imposed taxes on virtual digital assets

and also brought crypto players under the anti-money laundering rules.

Now, instead of moving towards private crypto regulations,

the focus is shifting towards the digital rupee,

which is India's central bank digital currency or CBDC.

Now for most creators, the hardest part isn't just making content these days,

it's keeping track of the money that comes with it,

and that's exactly where AI is starting to step in Bavya.

Yes, for example, a content creator and financial advisor has built a custom AI workflow

using tools like ChargeGPD to automate his entire invoicing and GST filing process.

So essentially, these systems can emails, extracts invoice data, logs it into a spreadsheet,

and even matches it with bank transactions.

And what used to take hours of manual work along with the risk of missing entries

is now completely automated.

And this reflects a broader trend.

Many creators to re-operate like small businesses,

but without structured financial systems.

So earlier, they relied on spreadsheets or accounting tools,

often reacting close to deadlines,

but now AI is helping them shift that to a more continuous and automated process.

Interesting times indeed.

Finally, a regulatory update that affects how messaging apps function in India,

the Department of Telecommunications has extended the deadline for sim binding rules

for platforms like WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram.

As the rules would require messaging accounts to be linked strictly to the sim used during registration,

which limits usage across devices.

The idea basically is to curb fraud, especially cases involving OTP interception

or misuse of duplicated numbers.

But platforms and device makers have raised technical challenges.

Companies like Apple and Google have asked for more time to work through system constraints.

Metas also testing solutions with early versions being dried out on Android so far.

So far, the rollout is delayed, but the direction is clear,

messaging platforms based soon become more tightly linked to verified sim ID entities.

All right, that's a wrap for today's episode of Tech 3 from Money Control.

A big shout out to our reporters from the tech and startup team for the story is being covered today.

Thank you for listening. We air every money to Friday between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.

So tune in for more news minus the boring bits. This is Chandra and Bavya signing off.

You are listening to Money Control's Tech 3 podcast.