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Hello Reader,

If you’re a Zerodha employee, chances are you’d be reading this at the gym. 

CEO Nithin Kamath announced a new fitness challenge for staff members for a prize money of…well…Rs 10 lakh! This isn’t the first time the company has announced a fitness initiative for its employees. In April, it offered half a month’s pay as a bonus for maintaining a BMI under 25.

Meanwhile, swimming against the current in the jobs market, Salesforce India will be increasing its headcount by 33% as it plans to add 2,500 more employees to its BFSI, manufacturing, and social services.

ICYMI: Apple’s top boss Tim Cook complimented Indian girl Hana Muhammad Rafeeq who developed an iOS app at the age of just eight! She hand-wrote more than 10,000 lines of code. 

You go, girl!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Co-working’s rise in Tier II/III India
• Fractionalising fine art
• Helping flyers travel light

Here’s your trivia for today: What is the most commonly-used letter of the English alphabet?

Hospitality

Co-working rising in Tier II/III cities

It’s back to work in the post-pandemic world—not just for employees but also for flexi space operators as several companies are realising the need to provide hybrid work options to employees.

Workspace providers are now looking beyond metros ramping up their services in Tier II cities such as Ahmedabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kochi, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, and Lucknow.

Moving out of metros:

• After introducing a flexible workspace policy, Wingify partnered with GoFloaters to obtain access to over 800 co-working spaces across India.
• Healthtech company Nference established a satellite office at a co-working centre in Coimbatore to shift to a hybrid work model.
• Awfis’ current portfolio is in the ratio of 85:15 split between metro and non-metro cities. It aims to increase its non-metro footprint by 2023. 

NFT

Fractionalising fine art

Noticing that there was no transparency or proof of history in the traditional art world, Asif Kamal founded Artfi, a Web3 company looking to democratise art through Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). 

Artfi plans to tokenise physical artwork and then break it down into pieces (fractionalising)—all of which can be owned by anyone, anywhere in the world in the form of NFTs. 

Authenticity in art:

• Artfi tokenises physical artwork and then fractionalises it into anywhere between 5,000 pieces to 10,000 pieces. 
• These NFTs can be bought and sold by retail investors across Artfi’s as well as secondary NFT marketplaces.
• The startup is building a large portfolio of consigned art, including works of MF Husain, VS Gaitonde, as well as Sacha Jafri.

Startup

Helping flyers travel light

Travelling with luggage is not just cumbersome for flyers, but is also a major reason behind flight delays.

CarterX is a tech-enabled baggage assistance startup that offers an array of services for passengers such as assistance at the airport and pick-and-drop baggage services from the doorstep to the airport or vice versa. 

Say goodbye to baggage:

• CarterX offers a 24×7 slot-based service for pick-up and delivery of luggage.
• The startup has collaborated with Indigo, Spicejet, AirAsia, and Vistara for baggage and airport assistance for the flyers.
• It employs both B2C and B2B2C revenue models and is looking to offer one-access subscriptions across multiple airports.

News & updates

• Winter looms: Grocery delivery app Instacart Inc has been letting go staff, slowing hiring and curbing other expenses as it heads toward a public listing. Over the last two months, it has fired more than 3,000 workers, citing performance reviews.
• Back to office: General Motors became the latest company to ask corporate employees to return to the office at least part of the time. It expects employees to work three days on GM’s campus in a “pivot to a more regular in-person work cycle.”
• David vs Goliath: A small Bengaluru-based, Happy Belly Bakes, won a lawsuit against Amazon for selling bakery items, snacks and dairy, using the same brand name. The court ordered Amazon to remove items sold under the trademark from its online marketplace.

What you should watch out for

• Harsha Engineers will list shares after its IPO was oversubscribed 74.70 times.
• Apple will reveal its festival offers for the Indian market.

What is the most commonly-used letter of the English alphabet?

Answer: ‘E’, which is used in over 11% of all words, followed by ‘A’, ‘R’, ‘I’ and ‘O’.

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