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Info Edge vs 4B Networks goes into arbitration. 

Following a petition filed by Info Edge’s subsidiary Allcheckdeals India Private Limited (AIPL) after the Rahul Yadav-led proptech startup failed to provide crucial financial information, the Delhi High Court has directed both parties to an arbitration procedure.

In February, Info Edge, which had invested Rs 288 crore in 4B Networks, wrote off its entire investment in the company. Last month, AIPL launched a forensic audit into the startup. 

The two parties are set to appear before the arbitrator on August 14.

Elsewhere, Meta reported double-digit revenue growth for the second quarter and issued optimistic guidance for the ongoing quarter. The Facebook parent’s revenue rose by 11% to $32 billion with a 16% increase in profits compared with the year-ago period. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he is “quite optimistic” about the company’s Twitter rival Threads, which launched earlier this month.

Speaking of Meta, the tech giant signed a pact with India AI—an Independent Business Unit under Digital India Corporation—to collaborate in AI and emerging technologies, making its open-source AI models available for use by the Indian ecosystem. 

ICYMI: Microsoft has created a ‘pizze-scented’ Xbox controller as part of the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem movie marketing campaign.

Lastly, dive into the first version of everything here.

The more you know…

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Gen AI watershed moment for SaaS
• Workshops that save lives
• Vegan leather to the rescue

Here’s your trivia for today: Which was the only painting sold by Vincent Van Gogh during his life?

SaaS

Gen AI watershed moment for SaaS

The Indian software-as-a-service (SaaS) ecosystem is on track to achieve $50-70 billion revenue and $0.5 trillion+ of enterprise value aspirations by 2030, as per a report by SaaSBoomi and McKinsey. Investments in Indian SaaS companies increased by 24% to $7.4 billion in 2022 from $5.9 billion the previous year.

“We had forecast a growth of about 40% between 2020 and 2025 when we did our first report for SaaSBoomi two years back. When we looked at the numbers for 2022, we actually grew between 60-70%,” Noshir Kaka, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Co, told YourStory.

Strong foundation:

• The Indian SaaS ecosystem has grown from $2.6 billion in 2020 to $7 billion in 2022, fueled by a three-fold increase in the number of new SaaS companies founded.
• The number of startups operating in the GenAI space has more than doubled since 2021 and raised a total of $590 million till May this year.
• There are around 3,500 pure-play SaaS firms based in India with a combined revenue of around $7 billion, with 45% of their revenues from the North American regions. 

Funding Alert

Startup: Wiom

Amount: Rs 140 Cr

Round: Series A

Startup: Kapture CX

Amount: $4M

Round: Series A

Startup: Beyond Snack

Amount: $3.5M

Round: Pre-Series A

Social Work

Workshops that save lives

Dr Sivaranjani Santosh, a consultant paediatrician at Magna Centres in Hyderabad, provides workshops based on life-saving techniques helpful in conditions such as seizures, choking, heart attack and more. She has so far trained more than 12,000 parents in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Bengaluru.

Being prepared:

• Dr Santosh provides hands-on training in first aid and CPR. She uses a mannequin to showcase the technique and then lets the audience practice as well.
• She also holds workshops on anticipatory guidance for new mothers wherein she talks about the challenges they might face.
• The paediatrician has also been addressing other important topics such as fever management, diarrhoea, dehydration and more. She also advocates the importance of using authentic ORS drinks.

Inspiration

Vegan leather to the rescue

Haritima Mishra wanted to uplift small-scale leather artisans struggling due to unfair trade practices while also embracing the age-old concept of vegan leather. Along with Shivam Mishra and Sneh Verma, she started Attitudist, an online vegan D2C footwear brand.

Key metrics:

• Attitudist has a customer base of over three lakh and dispatches around 30,000 orders every month.
• The company generated sales of Rs 12 crore for fellow artisans last year and allocates 50% of the revenue to the artisans.
• The brand works with 100 artisans and plans to generate sales of Rs 50 crore for its artisans by 2025. 

News & updates

• Lack of choice: Microsoft faces an EU probe over concerns it’s driving out competition by unfairly bundling its Teams app with its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 packages as it may have given Teams an advantage over rivals by not giving customers choice over viable alternatives.
• Front runner: China’s video game player population has grown to a record of 668 million as the world’s biggest gaming market returns to growth after a bruising crackdown. The number of gamers, as of end-June, represents about half of the population.
• Combined forces: BlackRock has struck a joint venture with Jio Financial Services to launch a digital-first asset manager aimed at serving India’s growing investor population. Each plans to invest up to $150 million in the 50-50 venture. 

What you should watch out for

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate Semicon India 2023 in Gandhinagar.
• Q1 results to be announced by 3i Infotech, Route Mobile, and others.
• World Hepatitis Day.

Which was the only painting sold by Vincent Van Gogh during his life?

Answer: The Red Vineyard, for 400 francs (then £16) at a Brussels exhibition in 1890, four months before his suicide.

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