“Our future is predominantly American”, says CEO of Nvidia-backed London startup PolyAI - Related to against, london, admits, is, “our

NCLT Admits Plea To Initiate Insolvency Proceedings Against AVIOM

In a statement, the RBI presented that it undertook the step "owing to governance concerns and defaults in meeting various payment obligations"

The central bank, on January 27, superseded the board of AVIOM under Section 45-IE(1) of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

About three weeks after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) filed a plea to initiate corporate insolvency resolution proceedings (CIRP) against Delhi NCR-based NBFC AVIOM India Housing Finance, the National Corporate Law Tribunal (NCLT) has admitted the plea.

A bench comprising judicial member Mahendra Khandelwal and technical member Dr Sanjeev Ranjan passed the order admitting the bankruptcy proceedings today.

“The Hon’ble NCLT vide order dated 20 February 2025, has admitted the application for commencement of corporate insolvency resolution process of AVIOM India Housing Finance Private Limited and has appointed Mr. Ram Kumar as the Administrator as per Rule 5 (a) (iii) of FSP Insolvency Rules,” AVIOM introduced on its website.

The central bank, on January 27, superseded the board of AVIOM under Section 45-IE(1) of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, which gives the RBI the power to supersede the board of directors of an NBFC for a period of five years.

In a statement, the RBI expressed that it undertook the step “owing to governance concerns and defaults in meeting various payment obligations”.

Superseding the board of AVIOM, the RBI appointed ex-chief general manager, Punjab National Bank as its administrator on January 27. Subsequently, it moved an insolvency plea at the New Delhi Bench of the NCLT on January 30 under the financial service providers (FSP) Insolvency Rules, 2019, which led to an interim moratorium that restricts legal proceedings, asset transfers, and recovery actions against the enterprise.

The issue stems from a fraud within the firm, about which it informed the BSE on November 22, 2024.

In a letter to its lenders back in November, the NBFC expressed that the National Housing Bank (NHB) had appointed an independent third-party forensic auditor to audit its affairs following a “regular on-site supervisory inspection that resulted in observations, including that the statement of accounts of mutual fund(s) appear to be managed”.

On December 6, the NBFC noted that it was in the process of determining the exact extent of the fraud and its impact on its financial statements.

The exact fraud amount is yet to be publicly showcased. Due to the fraud, the organization began facing liquidity issues and was expecting a delay in the payment of interest. The fraud disclosure led to rating agencies ICRA, CRISIL and India Ratings and Research downgrading the NBFC from BBB+ to D.

Founded in 2016, AVIOM provides housing loans to women from predominantly semi-urban and rural regions who do not have any formal income documentation. Its lenders and partners include HDFC Bank, IDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Northern Arc. Its international lenders include US International Development Finance Corporation, BlueOrchid, Triple Jump, among others.

Prior to this funding round, the startup raised INR 4 Cr in its pre-Series A round.

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“Our future is predominantly American”, says CEO of Nvidia-backed London startup PolyAI

The CEO and co-founder of Nvidia-backed AI-powered voice assistant startup PolyAI says the London startup’s future is “predominantly American” but it will retain its UK office.

Nikola Mrkšić, the co-founder of PolyAI, was speaking on the [website] podcast, where he discussed the history of the startup, the rise of generative AI, and its impact on the workforce, DeepSeek, among other topics. The CEO expressed questions about the location of a startup's HQ, in a post-Covid world, were superfluous.

PolyAI was founded in 2017 by Mrkšić, (formerly of Apple’s Siri), Tsung-Hslen Wen (formerly of Google) , and Pei-Hao Su (formerly of Meta) who met at the University of Cambridge. The startup develops AI-powered automated voices for enterprise clients.

Last year, it closed a $50m (£[website] funding round led by Hedosophia and NVentures, the VC arm of Nvidia, valuing it close to $500m. The startup, which employs over 200 people, has offices in London (its biggest office), New York, San Francisco, and also an office in Belgrade, Serbia, where Mrkšić hails from.

Over recent years, there has been much chatter about the merits and downsides of London as an HQ for startups. Mrkšić expressed the reason the startup’s future was largely in the US was because over 70 per cent of its revenues now came from the US market.

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SEBI To Tighten Disclosures For New-Age Tech IPOs

The current IPO framework includes KPIs like revenue from operations, profit or loss after tax, return on equity, earnings per share, among others.

Companies will have to provide financial metrics and ratios along with operational parameters such as long-term sustainability of the business and drivers of financial performance, among others.

The markets regulator is mulling increasing the disclosure timeline for all past transactions and fund raise for startups to 3 years from 18 months currently.

Amid the increasing number of new-age tech IPOs in the country, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is reportedly inching closer to tightening the disclosure requirements for IPO-bound companies.

, the markets regulator is mulling increasing the disclosure timeline for all past transactions and fund raise for startups to 3 years from 18 months currently.

Citing insights, the research noted that the companies will have to provide financial metrics and ratios along with operational parameters such as long-term sustainability of the business and drivers of financial performance, among others.

Other inclusions will include disclosures of all key financial or operational information related to any private placement or rights issue and comparisons of key performance indicators (KPIs) of the entity filing for the IPO with at least three of its competitors for a period of three years.

“It has been nearly three years since the KPI disclosure regime was first introduced to address concerns related to IPOs of new-age companies and startups. Now, there is enough data to analyse the industry response and strengthen the regulatory framework for KPI disclosures,” a source was quoted as saying.

It must be noted that this isn’t the first findings to state that SEBI is looking to tighten KPI disclosures for IPO-bound companies. In November, CNBC-TV18 reported that SEBI is looking to strengthen KPI disclosures for startups, specifically those who do not have a proven track record in terms of profitability.

The current IPO framework includes KPIs like revenue from operations, profit or loss after tax, return on equity, earnings per share, among others.

In August last year, SEBI had directed Industry Standards Forum (ISF), which includes representatives from industry bodies such as ASSOCHAM, FICCI, and CII, to determine the relevant KPIs for such new-age tech IPOs.

It is pertinent to note that amid the surge in IPOs, the markets regulator tightened the regulatory framework governing IPOs for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in December last year.

Back then, it introduced profitability requirements as well as put a cap on shares to be sold through the offer for sale (OFS) route, among other key parameters.

The study comes at a time when multiple new-age tech companies are en route to an IPO. While startups like Fractal, Zepto, Lenskart, OfBusiness, Zetwerk, among others, are inching closer to filing their IPO papers, others like WeWork, IndiQube, Ather Energy, BlueStone are either awaiting or have received the regulatory approval for their IPOs.

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Kynda, a Hamburg-based biotech producing sustainable proteins, has raised €3M in Seed funding.

The round was led by Enjoy Ventures (through their Inv......