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‘Bet on AI’: That’s Masayoshi Son’s directive to Indian startups.

On a visit to India, the SoftBank CEO met with portfolio companies and reportedly had “very high-level thinking and discussion on AI”. The investor wants to ramp up SoftBank’s investments in India.

In attendance were founders including Naveen Tewari from InMobi, Ritesh Agarwal of OYO, Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Flipkart chief Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Albinder Dhindsa of Blinkit, and Unacademy’s Gaurav Munjal, among others.

SoftBank is staying true to its AI commitment and is planning to buy up to $1.5 billion worth of stock in OpenAI. It will reportedly buy shares through a tender offer, a mechanism which allows current and former OpenAI employees, who have held their stock for more than two years, to sell.

Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal, too, met the Japanese investor, pumped up by Ola Electric’s share price jumping 20% after the company released new affordable EVs. The positive sentiment was further boosted by a note from Citi, which deemed Ola’s long-term prospects “attractive”.

Lots of companies had reasons to celebrate on the bourses, but none more than the Adani Group which added Rs 1.2 lakh crore to its market cap. Its shares jumped up to 20% after the conglomerate denied that Chairman Gautam Adani and other executives were charged with bribery in a US indictment.

Meanwhile, NTPC Green Energy’s market cap crossed Rs 1 lakh crore market cap after its shares hit the 10% upper circuit on the stock market debut. Its Rs 10,000-crore IPO was India’s third-largest in 2024.

Christmas came early for Swiggy as well, as its shares rose 20% in three straight sessions, hitting an all-time high of Rs 501.70 on Wednesday, boosted by a ‘buy’ rating from UBS and positive coverage by JPMorgan on its quick commerce rise.

ICYMI: How ‘demure’ became Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year. Hint: TikTok.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• How AI can help lower electricity bills
• Pocket FM revenue soars in FY24
• Preventing gender-based violence

Here’s your trivia for today: Which disease is considered the human form of “Mad Cow’s Disease”?

Startup

How AI can help lower electricity bills

As urbanisation and industrial growth drive up global energy demands, pressure on resources is intensifying. However, a significant portion of the energy supplied is lost due to inefficiencies in residential, commercial, and industrial settings. 

“People don’t realise how much electricity is wasted when appliances are left running unnecessarily or when equipment is outdated. This is especially true in sectors like hospitality and corporate offices,” Bharath Rankawat, Founder, Enlog tells YourStory.

Counting joules:

• In 2019, Rankawat founded Enlog to offer AI-powered energy management and IoT solutions. He bootstrapped the startup with Rs 40-45 lakh from a personal investment 
• Enlog’s Smi-Fi is an AI-powered energy management system designed to enhance home and business electricity consumption. The Smi-Fi device costs about Rs 1,000 to Rs 1 lakh, depending on the size and requirements of the client.
• It generated a revenue of about Rs 17 lakh in FY23 and Rs 2.5 crore in FY24. It is projecting revenue of Rs 12-13 crore in FY25.

Earnings

Pocket FM revenue soars in FY24

Audio series platform Pocket FM posted a global revenue of Rs 1,051.97 crore in FY24, a 6X jump from FY23, driven by its microtransaction-led subscription model and expansion in international markets. Simultaneously, the Tencent-backed startup narrowed its losses by 21% to Rs 165 crore in FY24 from Rs 208 crore in FY23. 

“We’ve been able to scale our microtransaction-driven subscription model with tremendous success,” Anurag Sharma, CFO of Pocket FM, told YourStory. Pocket FM now sees about 85% of revenue from microtransactions.

Key takeaways:

• Its subscription revenue grew nearly 6X to Rs 934.73 crore from Rs 160.05 crore in FY23. Its advertising revenue witnessed a 7X increase, climbing to Rs 89.34 crore from Rs 12.5 crore in FY23.
• Sharma said that global markets, especially North America, played a critical role in the company’s revenue growth, which clocked nearly 70% of its overall revenue. 
• ​Pocket FM attributes much of its success to its AI-powered blockbuster engine, enabling the platform to identify and scale stories that resonate with global audiences. 

Social Impact

Preventing gender-based violence

Rasika Sundaram is the Founder of Imaara Survivor Support Foundation, a Chennai-based NGO that supports survivors of gender-based violence through survivor-centric resources. Its mission is to prevent gender-based violence in society.

“Our prevention strategies involve going out into communities and teaching various populations what gender-based violence is, that it exists, raising awareness and teaching people why and how survivors can be supported. We also teach bystander intervention to help someone going through a volatile, hostile, abusive situation,” she explains.

Interventions:

• One of the first and hardest steps for survivors to break out of the cycle of abuse is finding reliable resources to support themselves in their journey.
• Imaara is also curating a resource hub of one-stop centres for legal, medical support and police help, initially called the Neeti Project. One of its main objectives is to destigmatise communities through education, training, and workshops. 
• Sundaram runs Imaara with small amounts contributed by her family and friends. The plan is to collaborate with established NGOs to achieve more and continue working towards the goal of ending gender-based violence.

News & updates

• AI impact: Dell’s latest earnings report painted a mixed picture, leaving investors grappling with optimism about its booming AI business and disappointment over a weaker outlook. The tech giant posted a solid 10% revenue growth year-over-year, hitting $24.4 billion, just shy of Wall Street’s expectations.
• Pen and paper: Many of Starbucks’ stores have been forced to manually track employees’ schedules and payroll after a third-party supply chain vendor was hit by a ransomware attack. The list of affected stores is growing, with UK retail giants Sainsbury’s and Morrisons also both reporting disruption.
• Unfair pay: OpenAI has reportedly suspended access to Sora after a group of artists leaked access to the tool. According to reports, the group of artists was unhappy with OpenAI’s treatment of creative professionals who are testing the tool with minimal pay. 

Which disease is considered the human form of “Mad Cow’s Disease”?

Answer: Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). It is also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

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