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Hello,

Ola is ‘Dash’-ing through the traffic in 10 minutes to deliver food. 

Ola Dash has made a comeback, marking the Bhavish Aggarwal-led company’s reentry into the quick food delivery category. 

In June 2022, Ola had shut down the quick commerce offering with the same name, citing it was “reorienting its Ola Cars business to focus more on strengthening the go-to-market strategy for Ola Electric.”

Now, the company also wants back in as the quick commerce game heats up.

Speaking of which, meet another new entrant—magicNOW—the 10-minute food offering by magicpin, already available in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.

In other news, Alibaba Group reshuffled its business portfolio to focus on its core ecommerce operation, even if it comes at a whopping loss.

Alibaba is selling its Chinese department store unit Intime for a $1.3 billion loss.

Meanwhile, Walmart has partnered with Chinese firm Meituan to provide delivery services for Walmart goods, helping the US retail giant accelerate its ecommerce business in the country. 

ICYMI: Agave, the “Find the Cat” game maker has found something more—$18 million in funding!

Lastly, your hot chocolates are about to get expensive this Christmas season. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• BigBasket bets on speedy food delivery
• The evolution of venture capital
• A decade of safeguarding mental health

Here’s your trivia for today: Walt Whitman’s poem, “Oh Captain, My Captain”, was written about which US President?

Quick Commerce

BigBasket bets on speedy food delivery

Tata-backed BigBasket wants to adopt the 10-minute food delivery service, which is emerging as a key differentiator between quick commerce and food delivery platforms. 

BigBasket is looking to offer a wide assortment of foods that can be delivered in 10 minutes, YourStory has learned. While the company is still in the process of finalising the service, it is likely going to be a mix of house of brands and private labels format.

Need for speed:

• BigBasket, acquired by Tata Digital in May 2021, aims to tap on the synergies and FnB chains operated under the Tata brands like Starbucks and Qmin to add these players to its platform.
• Tata Neu, Tata Digital’s ecommerce super app, already offers food delivery services through ONDC-enabled magicpin. However, the new proposition will focus more on food that can be delivered under 10 minutes.
• BigBasket, which had re-branded its quick commerce service as BBNow, will likely launch the service in the next three to four months. 

Funding Alert

Startup: Zingbus

Amount: $9M

Round: Series A

Startup: Mili

Amount: $2M

Round: Seed

Startup: Zalon

Amount: Rs 1.37 Cr

Round: Seed

Interview

The evolution of venture capital

The state of Indian VC is set to evolve, driven by India’s growing demographic dividend and expanding market opportunities. This is paving the way for the creation of specialised funds and growing pool of domestic capital for late-stage investments, according to the investment team at Stellaris Venture Partners.

Favourable conditions:

• The early-stage VC recently announced the final close of its third fund at $300 million. With this fresh capital, the firm is bullish on the opportunities for exit in the India market as timelines for successful exits continue to narrow down, creating favourable conditions for investments and returns.
• The opportunities for investors have also expanded in proportion with the depth of the Indian market. As the ecosystem matures, venture firms are increasingly focusing on niche investment strategies tailored to specific sectors, stages of growth, and quality entrepreneurs, says Ritesh Banglani, Partner at Stellaris.
• With the growth in opportunity, the share of domestic capital has grown in new asset classes beyond real estate and gold. Apart from domestic capital playing a key role in investments in private companies, the appetite for India as an investment destination for global capital has been on the rise.

Women Entrepreneurs

A decade of safeguarding mental health

In 2015, YourDOST was among the first platforms in India dedicated to mental health and well-being. 

Nearly a decade later, its consistent and 360-degree approach to emotional wellness has impacted over 30 lakh people and saved 12,000 lives, according to Co-founder and CEO, Richa Singh.

From starting with a model offering free counselling sessions by experts to present day, with a comprehensive range of mental health and emotional well-being programmes, Singh dives deep into YourDOST’s journey and what it takes to be a pioneer in the mental health startup space. 

Mental wellbeing support:

• YourDOST’s inception began in 2014, when Singh quit her job and began to look at building a startup that would work at the intersection of technology and psychology. Along with her friend, Puneet Manuja, she put together YourDOST in 2015 that initially offered free counselling by experts.
• The platform later pivoted to a B2B model, working with educational institutions like IITs and IIMs. YourDOST works with over 500 organisations, including corporates and colleges.
• It supports companies through retrenchment and reorganisation, offers sensitisation and training programmes for managers, and more. Besides these, it also offers regular mental health support and a specialised programme for startup founders to support them in their journeys.

News & updates

• Debris: Tokyo-based Orbital Lasers and Indian robotics company InspeCity will jointly study using laser-equipped satellites to remove debris from orbit, an experimental approach to the imminent problem of orbital congestion. They would also study for in-space services such as de-orbiting a defunct satellite and extending a spacecraft’s life.
• Comply: Shein must surrender all data of Indian customers and control of its local operations to its partner, Reliance Retail, and keep operations fully local to re-enter the Indian market, new government disclosures revealed how Shein secured a rare exception to India’s ban on Chinese-linked apps.
• Training: The UK is drawing up measures to regulate the use of copyrighted content by tech companies to train their AI models. It aims to increase clarity for the creative industries and AI developers when it comes to both how intellectual property is obtained and then used by AI firms for training purposes.

Walt Whitman’s poem, “Oh Captain, My Captain”, was written about which US President?

Answer: Abraham Lincoln. “O Captain! My Captain!” is a poem written in 1865, concerning the death of President Abraham Lincoln.

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