Reddit can make or break a startup. Many such startups in the US have faced the wrath of Redditors. But the last time this happened to an Indian startup, it was in 2019, when BYJU’S and WhiteHat Jr got flak for misleading ads. That started a period of intense scrutiny for the edtech giant and in some ways, it dented the BYJU’S brand badly.

Six years later, the focus is on Zepto. And another huge Indian brand is facing a bunch of outrage.

The subreddit r/F***Zepto is ground zero when it comes to the anti-Zepto sentiment. Users here outrage about and dunk on the company’s confusing and opaque fee structure. Tired of the so-called dark patterns, close to 30K active users have joined up. And it is not a polite crowd.

Does this subreddit have anything to do with a supposed slowdown in Zepto’s growth and adoption — as per recent reports — or is this just a temporary slow phase in preparation for profitability as the company has claimed?

Let’s try to answer this, but first a look at the key stories from our newsroom this week.

• The Wakefit IPO Question: Experts believe that Wakefit stands out on the back of its mattress business and not the wooden furniture business, which is prone to major headwinds, but it’s the latter that has set the benchmark for revenue growth. So which way will the IPO pendulum swing?
• ClassPlus Caught In Conundrum: Once a pureplay SaaS enabler of teachers, schools, colleges, edtech soonicorn Classplus finds itself at a crossroads as core business growth plateaus. Here’s how the edtech startup flipped its script
• VerSe Hits Reset: After raising more than a billion dollars, digital content aggregator VerSe Innovation fights for relevance as its core businesses face AI disruption at a time when the ad revenue model is shaken. But can AI also save this unicorn?

Blinkit, Instamart Gain As Zepto Slips?

Brokerage and analyst reports in the past two weeks have pointed to Blinkit and Instamart grabbing market share even as investments in dark store expansion and other operational capacity have........

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