Amazon's Now pivot; Anthropic's revenue surge

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Amazon is shuttering its Fresh service in major cities to focus on its quick commerce platform. This and more in today's ETtech Top 5.

Also in the letter:

■ Boat founder's fresh fundraise

■ Cred widens mutual fund play

■ Visibility battle in AI space

Amazon India is planning to shut down its Fresh service in 10 to 15 major cities across the country as it shifts its focus to its quick commerce bet, Amazon Now, according to a report by UBS Global Research.

What is Fresh? Amazon Fresh delivers fresh fruit, vegetables, groceries, dairy, and meat products within 4-24 hours and is live in 120 cities. But as quick commerce takes off, Amazon has been pushing Now instead, expanding aggressively over the past few months.

The 'quick' push: Amazon Now is currently operational in six cities, including Delhi, Bengaluru, and Mumbai. ET reported on March 13 that Amazon has been rapidly scaling Now and is expected to have hit 500 dark stores, adding roughly two facilities a day since December.

Shopping shift: Amazon's quick-commerce bet comes as competition heats up and consumer behaviour shifts. A recent Grant Thornton report shows shoppers are relying less on local kirana stores than they did a year ago. But kiranas remain the preferred channel for planned purchases.

Dario Amodei, CEO, Anthropic

Anthropic says its revenue run rate has surged past $30 billion, according to a new blog post.

Jargon buster: Revenue run rate is a projection of a company's future annual revenue based on its current or quarterly numbers - a favourite metric for fast-growing tech firms.

Why this matters: This is a sharp jump. Anthropic's run rate was $9 billion at the end of 2025. Big-spending customers are rising fast too: clients paying over $1 million annually have doubled from 500 in February to more than 1,000 in under two months.

For context, rival OpenAI's revenue run rate was a little over $25 billion by the end of February.

Chip muscle: Anthropic also announced a deal with Google and Broadcom to secure large-scale access to Google's next-generation TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) chips. The tie-up is meant to secure the computing backbone it needs as demand climbs.

Investor frenzy: Secondary-market interest is intense. Data from SetterVC shows Anthropic is now the most sought-after startup in the Q1 secondary market, overtaking SpaceX. Its shares are in high demand and short supply.

Aman Gupta, founder, Boat

Aman Gupta, cofounder of consumer electronics brand Boat, has raised Rs 100 crore for his new venture, Offbeat Studios.

Round details:

Background: Gupta first teased Offbeat Studios in early March without revealing a business model. Media reports suggest it will operate as a venture studio, helping early-stage founders and incubating new ideas.

The move follows his shift to a non-executive director role at Boat last September. Around then, Sameer Mehta, cofounder and CEO of Imagine Marketing, became an executive director, while COO Gaurav Nayyar took over as CEO.

Clean energy startup Ecoil has raised about $2.5 million in a round led by early-growth fund Fundalogical Ventures.

Use of funds: Ecoil plans to use the capital to scale up operations, strengthen its tech platform, and deepen its presence across major Indian markets.

The round also saw participation from Caspian Impact Investment, Momentum Capital, and existing investor The Chennai Angels.

Kunal Shah, founder, Cred

Fintech company Cred is doubling down on wealth management through Kuvera, the mutual fund platform it acquired in 2024. The app has been upgraded for affluent users who prefer slick, tech-led investing over traditional human advisors.

New features:

Strategic play: Cred has already partnered with DSP, ICICI Prudential, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, and HDFC AMC for the service. Founder Kunal Shah said the goal is to build for a new set of wealthy users.

"Historically, wealth products were created by people who love managing wealth, tracking charts, and technicalities. But for most users, it is overwhelming."

Background: Cred had acquired Kuvera, backed by US investment firm Fidelity, for an undisclosed sum in 2024. The deal marked its entry into India's fast-growing mutual fund market, taking on leaders like Zerodha and Groww.

Indian businesses are preparing for a new front in the courts as AI platforms increasingly control what users see online.

What's happening: Lawyers and policy analysts expect a wave of lawsuits as businesses push back against AI platforms for diverting traffic away from their sites and quietly leaving them out of AI-generated answers.

Why companies are worried: The law hasn't kept pace with generative AI, lawyers say. Existing rules don't clearly address opaque summaries, lost visibility, or potential competitive harm when an AI system sidelines a company without notice or explanation.

Flashpoint: The issue has sharpened since IndiaMART dragged OpenAI to the Calcutta High Court late last December. The company has alleged that ChatGPT selectively excluded IndiaMART from responses, causing both reputational and commercial damage.

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Updated On Apr 07, 2026, 07:16 PM IST