Fresh Funding Fuels Spinny’s Growth in the Thriving Pre-Owned Car Sector

Used-car marketplace Spinny has raised 1 million in a funding round led by Accel Leaders Fund, according to news reports. This fundraising comes at a time when the used-car market, which recorded 4.6 million sales in 2023, is projected to reach 10.8 million by 2030, growing at a compound annual rate of 13 per cent, according to a CARS24 report.

The expansion is driven by rising demand across both urban centres and smaller townsThe fundraising comes amid increased activity in the used-car marketplace, following Droom’s recent million funding round, which, according to reports, was co-led by India Accelerator and Finvolve, as the company prepares for an IPO.

Founded in 2015, the online used-marketplace, the company previously raised 8 million in its Series D funding round in 2021 from new and existing investors, led by Tiger Global. Another new investor in the round is New York-based Avenir Growth.

Leading Indian banks are offering deposit rates which are higher than home loan rates, resulting in a negative spread and if deposit mobilisation challenges remain, the banking system business model will face a challenge, Kotak Mahindra Bank’s founder Uday Kotak said today. HDFC Bank, too, has been raising funds via CDs to lower its credit-deposit ratio which got elevated after the merger of erstwhile Housing Development Finance Corp with HDFC BankWhile customers are parking funds in higher-yielding fixed deposits or other equity market instruments, the efficiencies in corporate- and government-backed companies have led to a fall in banks’ CASA ratio.

Rush for higher cost deposits

Banks have been facing a deposit mobilisation challenge, especially in acquiring low-cost current account and savings account (CASA), over the last two-three years. News agency Reuters reported that India’s IndusInd Bank garnered billion in higher-cost bulk deposits in March, its biggest monthly haul in at least two years, as the lender shored up its funding base after disclosing accounting lapses. It paid 7.90 per cent on its one-year CDs this month, 20 basis points higher than what it had paid for similar deposits in February, the data showed. “Excluding opex.

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Low cost retail deposits (CASA non wholesale) show muted growth across the system. Yet, banks are issuing home loans at 8.5 per cent floating rate. Borrow at 9 per cent and lend at 8.5! -0.5 per cent spread. And repo rates likely to drop.

What about the opex/ credit costs? If the deposit tightness persists it is a challenge to the banking business model” he added.“Leading banks are taking 1 year wholesale deposits at ~8 per cent. Translates to loaded marginal deposit cost of 9 per cent+ after CRR (0 interest), SLR, deposit insurance, priority sector,” he said.
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Lenders are therefore turning to certificate of deposit (CDs) to raise funds. According to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) latest monthly bulletin, primary market issuances of CDs by banks rose 34 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to reach an all-time high of ₹10.58 lakh crore during FY2024-25 (up to March 7, 2025) as against ₹7.89 lakh crore recorded in the year-ago period amid persisting gap in credit and deposit growth.

Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S stressed the company’s human capital strength while addressing investors and analysts at Investor Day 2025 in New York on Tuesday. “So we hired 20,000 school graduates. We have huge usually invested into learning infrastructure.

We think when the next wave comes, we have more people inside even before we can start to hire,” he said. Nearly 14,000 associates have returned to the company, he told analysts. The next wave of enterprise transformation is in the areas of embedded engineering; “Physicality” product engineering; smart manufacturing; autonomous systems; AI; enabling hyper-productivity; Industrializing AI and ‘identifying’ the enterprise, he said.

Every time there was a new wave, everybody went and hired people. However, Cognizant first used a reskilling infrastructure to get ready at scale in economics, he noted.Kathy Diaz, Chief People Officer, Cognizant, said, there is an increasing returner rate with over 50 per cent increase in two years, and 20,000 more in pipeline.The company said that in 2023-2024, it had three imperatives. The first was to become an employer of choice.

The second was to optimize delivery and operations by improving margin execution on large deals, restructure and streamline the organization with NextGen program.

The third was to accelerate growth by reinvigorating financial services, extend growth beyond healthcare into products and resources and CMT. The strength of Cognizant’s culture comes from entrepreneurial spirit, he added, sharing that the company’s Bluebolt innovation initiative has given rise to 2,50,000 ideas from the company’s associates with 50 per cent of them in AI.

“We are a hiring magnet. Right now, I have the ability to hire 20,000 laterals per quarter. I am not only preparing for a slow velocity market, but preparing for a high velocity market if it happens at any point of time,” he added.

“We are a human capital company. The first thing I did when I came on board was to have employees on my side. And then I had clients on my side and now I’m hoping investors are on my side. There are 70,000 people who have 10 plus years in Cognizant. That was the essence of who we were,” he said.