Hello,
A marginal rise in funding.
Thanks to two deals of $35 million each—raised by Third Wave Coffee and Doceree—funding in the last week of September managed to cross the $100-million mark. In total, Indian startups raised $114 million across 25 deals, higher than the $88 million raised in the previous week.
Moving on, Licious’ FY23 report card is out, and it isn’t great. The meat delivery startup reported a loss of Rs 528.6 crore while its operating revenue barely saw any increase—9.6% higher than last fiscal.
Last November, co-founder Vivek Gupta had projected that the company would surpass the Rs 1,000-crore revenue milestone in FY23, about six months after it secured funding of $150 million in its Series F2 round, led by Amansa Capital.
Elsewhere, magicpin has partnered with government-backed NCCF to sell groceries through ONDC at a lower price. This is after magicpin collaborated with the National Cooperative Consumers Federation of India to sell tomatoes at Rs 70 per kg when its prices were above Rs 100 a kg in the market.
ICYMI: Check out some ‘leaf art’ by land artist Nikola Faller.
Lastly, academic ghostwriters are increasingly finding themselves replaced—thanks to ChatGPT.
If marriage vows could be written by AI, essays really stood no chance.
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- Are you ready for all the festive sales?
- CEO values Zerodha at Rs 30,000 Cr
- The emergence of climate unicorns
Here’s your trivia for today: When and where was the first telephone booth opened?
Ecommerce
Are you ready for all the festive sales?
Amazon, Snapdeal, and Meesho are gearing up for the festive season—the golden period for any Indian retailer, online or offline.
On Friday, the three ecommerce majors unveiled their sales of the year—Great Indian Festival 2023, Toofani Sale – Festive Dhamaka, and Meesho Mega Blockbuster Sale, respectively.
Sales, ahoy!
- Amazon’s Great Indian Festival (GIF) is set to commence on October 8 with 24-hour early access for Prime members. The company has introduced a slew of measures to boost its logistics, delivery, and order fulfilment capabilities.
- Meesho’s Mega Blockbuster Sale will begin on October 6, featuring collections from across 14 lakh sellers and 12 crore product listings across 30 categories. The startup also introduced a loyalty programme to give users a more seamless shopping experience and access to a diverse product portfolio.
- Snapdeal’s first sale of the festive season—Toofani Sale – Festive Dhamaka—starts on October 8. Recently, its app undertook a makeover to present a visually enhanced interface to showcase merchandise more effectively.
Stockbroking
CEO values Zerodha at Rs 30,000 Cr
Discount brokerage firm Zerodha is valued at Rs 30,000 crore, said Co-founder and CEO Nithin Kamath.
Taking to social media platform X, formerly Twitter, he said: “Every time our financials are out, there is a lot of speculation about Zerodha’s valuation. It might sound counterintuitive for me to say it, but most assumptions, I think, are way higher than reality.”
Financial gains:
- The Bengaluru-headquartered company’s profit after tax (PAT) grew nearly 39% to Rs 2,907 crore in FY23 from Rs 2,094 crore in the previous fiscal year.
- Revenue grew over 38% to Rs 6,875 crore in FY23 from Rs 4,964 crore during the 2022 fiscal year.
- The quantum of profits is the luck of the draw and is based on market conditions, remarked Kamath, adding that stockbroking and capital market businesses are cyclical and high-risk.
Sustainability
The emergence of climate unicorns
With carbon taxes and carbon markets coming into India and financing going from $20 billion to $100 billion, the next 10 years could be the window of opportunity for climate unicorns to come in, said Anirban Mukherjee, Managing Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group.
“Globally, green financing has gone up from $200 billion to $600 billion in the last 10 years. The next 10 years will possibly be the era of the climate tech unicorns,” Mukherjee said at TechSparks 2023.
Go green:
- Starting from Europe, carbon taxes have spanned to the United States, Latin America, and now China and Australia, Mukherjee said, adding EVs have become a great example towards the green transition in the last 10 years.
- Although EV sales have risen from 10 million in 2010 to 65 million currently, these are still not cost-effective without the carbon tax and subsidies.
- Carbon markets are basically systems used by companies to offset their greenhouse gas emissions by buying carbon credits.
News & updates
- Soaring: MKR, the governance coin of the MakerDAO protocol, has soared 77% this quarter to reach its highest level since April 2022, propelling its token to an 18-month high, trouncing all other major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
- Training: Meta Platforms used public Facebook and Instagram posts to train parts of its new Meta AI virtual assistant, but excluded private posts shared only with family and friends in an effort to respect consumers’ privacy.
- Blocked: Apple staff met with Chinese officials to discuss concerns over new rules that will restrict it from offering many foreign apps currently available on its iPhone app store in China. Officials told Apple that it must strictly implement rules banning unregistered foreign apps.
When and where was the first telephone booth opened?
Answer: On January 12, 1881, at Berlin. It was called the “Fernsprechkiosk”.
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