Payments
Vulcan is being sold as India's first foundation model for payments. The real story is routing, fraud, and an 8–10% lift in success rates at merchants that cannot afford a failed UPI ping.
Kabir Menon · 19 August 2026 · 8 min read
Opinion · Ecommerce
The 10-minute war is over as a novelty. What remains is retail: rent, shrinkage, labour, and who owns the evening slot in a hundred Indian cities.
The Desk · 20 Aug · 6 min read
Retail
Five years of "empower the unorganised retailer" left a sticker on the glass and the order going to a dark store. Here is what actually changed.
Meera Iyer · 19 Aug · 7 min read
SaaS
OMS, WMS, GST invoices, and a Shopify theme: the mid-market D2C company is a software company whether it likes it or not.
Rhea Kapoor · 18 Aug · 6 min read
Supply Chain
Sahil Barua told the Street what 3PLs have been whispering: point-to-point q-commerce last mile has no network effect worth owning. The money is still in the long haul.
Farhan Qureshi · 18 Aug · 7 min read
Opinion · Ecommerce
The 10-minute war is over as a novelty. What remains is retail: rent, shrinkage, labour, and who owns the evening slot in a hundred Indian cities.
The Desk · 20 Aug · 6 min read
Opinion · Retail
The most successful retailer in the country is watching q-commerce steal the top-up shop. Its counter is still price, not minutes.
Meera Iyer · 13 Aug · 7 min read
Opinion · SaaS
While coastal startups sold seats in dollars, a quietly bundled OS ate GST, inventory, and the inbox of the company that actually ships.
Rhea Kapoor · 11 Aug · 6 min read
Retail
Five years of "empower the unorganised retailer" left a sticker on the glass and the order going to a dark store. Here is what actually changed.
Meera Iyer · 19 Aug · 7 min read
Retail
A conglomerate that can discount data, delivery, and dal in one bill is not playing the same game as Zepto. That is the point, and the risk.
Meera Iyer · 15 Aug · 6 min read
Opinion · Retail
The most successful retailer in the country is watching q-commerce steal the top-up shop. Its counter is still price, not minutes.
Meera Iyer · 13 Aug · 7 min read
Opinion · Ecommerce
The 10-minute war is over as a novelty. What remains is retail: rent, shrinkage, labour, and who owns the evening slot in a hundred Indian cities.
The Desk · 20 Aug · 6 min read
Ecommerce
Zomato's parent is discovering what every marketplace learns too late: the 10-minute grocery habit pays the bills the 30-minute meal no longer does.
Ananya Rao · 17 Aug · 7 min read
Ecommerce
1,500 dark stores by year-end is a number designed to sound like Blinkit. The harder trick is making Minutes a habit without torching the marketplace that still pays the rent.
Ananya Rao · 16 Aug · 6 min read
Supply Chain
Sahil Barua told the Street what 3PLs have been whispering: point-to-point q-commerce last mile has no network effect worth owning. The money is still in the long haul.
Farhan Qureshi · 18 Aug · 7 min read
Supply Chain
Someone still has to take a packet to a town that is not on a 10-minute map. That someone is having a better decade than the pitch decks admit.
Farhan Qureshi · 12 Aug · 5 min read
Supply Chain
An AI-native commercial map sounds like a side product. For anyone who has ever lost a rider in a housing society, it is the product.
Farhan Qureshi · 9 Aug · 5 min read
Payments
Vulcan is being sold as India's first foundation model for payments. The real story is routing, fraud, and an 8–10% lift in success rates at merchants that cannot afford a failed UPI ping.
Kabir Menon · 19 Aug · 8 min read
Payments
UPI made a giant. The next decade is whether that giant is a surface, a lender, or the rails themselves.
Kabir Menon · 12 Aug · 7 min read
Opinion · Payments
The ping will feel the same. The balance sheet will not. Every app with a QR is auditioning to be a lender.
Kabir Menon · 8 Aug · 6 min read
Platforms
40% year-on-year growth in WhatsApp-led commerce is not a Meta slide. It is how a brand sells when the customer will not download a fourth shopping app.
Rhea Kapoor · 16 Aug · 5 min read
Platforms
The protocol did not kill Amazon. It also did not die. India's public digital commerce layer is settling into the unglamorous job: being a pipe some apps use.
Rhea Kapoor · 11 Aug · 6 min read
SaaS
OMS, WMS, GST invoices, and a Shopify theme: the mid-market D2C company is a software company whether it likes it or not.
Rhea Kapoor · 18 Aug · 6 min read
Opinion · SaaS
While coastal startups sold seats in dollars, a quietly bundled OS ate GST, inventory, and the inbox of the company that actually ships.
Rhea Kapoor · 11 Aug · 6 min read
SaaS
Every store, warehouse, and marketplace payout eventually becomes an invoice. The companies that own that moment own a tax on the economy.
Rhea Kapoor · 7 Aug · 5 min read
Ecommerce
Ananya Rao · 17 Aug · 7 min read
Platforms
Rhea Kapoor · 16 Aug · 5 min read
Ecommerce
Ananya Rao · 16 Aug · 6 min read
Ecommerce
Meera Iyer · 15 Aug · 6 min read
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