Broadband
ACT to invest Rs 7 bn in wireline infra, Rs 1 bn for Delhi
MUMBAI: Atria Convergence Technologies, India’s third largest wired broadband services firm after BSNL (9.80 million subscribers) and Bharti Airtel (2.09 million), plans to invest up to Rs 7 billion this year to expand its presence and infrastructure across India, which will be funded through internal accruals and debt.
The Bengaluru-based company, which has a presence in 11 cities, has been seeking to enter 3-4 cities and also expand presence in regions such as Delhi-NCR, PTI reported.
ACT CEO Bala Malladi said that it was not about just setting up base in a city…the investment would include establishing infrastructure and also maintenance. Malladi said they were looking at strengthening their presence in the Delhi market and would also be expanding to Gurugram as there were good opportunities in these geographies, adding that the average data consumption on its network in Delhi was already higher compared to other cities. He added that ACT will invest Rs 1 billion over the next 24 months to expand its presence in the Delhi region.
ACT, which started operations in Delhi some few months ago, has a crucial scale in cities such as Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai. It had a turnover of Rs 13 billion at the end of March 2017. Of the 18 million wired broadband subscribers in India, ACT had 1.2 million subscribers in May 2017.
The company had started its operations in the year 2000 as a cable TV service provider supported by investments from private equity firms TA Associates and True North.
Malladi ruled out any impact on its business after the entry of players such as Reliance Jio, which offered affordable data plans. He said that wired broadband users typically had high consumption. The lowest speed ACT offered was 20 Mbps.
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Broadband
Zoff Foods extends Shilpa Shetty partnership into ninth year
Spice brand reinforces trust-led positioning amid growth and funding push.
MUMBAI: Nine years, one flavour and the recipe clearly still works. Zoff Foods has extended its long-running association with Shilpa Shetty, marking nine consecutive years of her as brand ambassador as the company scales its presence across Indian households. What began as a digital-first collaboration has gradually evolved into a defining element of the brand’s identity. Over nearly a decade, the partnership has mirrored Zoff’s own journey from an emerging challenger to a fast-growing FMCG player with a widening footprint across e-commerce, quick commerce and offline retail channels.
The logic behind the continuity is straightforward. In a category where trust and familiarity drive purchase decisions, particularly in spices and ready-to-cook segments, long-term associations tend to carry more weight than short bursts of visibility. Shetty’s positioning as a fitness-conscious, health-aware public figure aligns with the brand’s emphasis on purity and quality factors that are increasingly shaping consumer choices in modern Indian kitchens.
The extension also comes at a time when Zoff Foods is entering a more aggressive growth phase. The company recently raised $2 million in a Pre-Series B funding round led by JM Financial Private Equity, with participation from Aman Gupta, signalling a push towards expanding distribution, product innovation and market reach.
Company executives have positioned the continued partnership as a strategic anchor amid this expansion, reinforcing brand recall while entering new markets. For Shetty, the association remains rooted in shared values around authenticity and ingredient integrity attributes that resonate strongly with increasingly mindful consumers.
In a market crowded with new-age brands and shifting loyalties, Zoff’s approach suggests a different playbook: build slowly, stay consistent, and let familiarity do the heavy lifting. Because sometimes, in both branding and cooking, it’s not about reinventing the dish, it’s about perfecting it over time.
