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Twitter chief Elon Musk said employees will receive stock-based awards at a valuation of close to $20 billion. This valuation is less than half of the $44 billion that Musk had paid to acquire the social media platform.

Meanwhile, Valley National Bancorp has reportedly submitted a bid for the bankrupt Silicon Valley Bank, joining First Citizens BancShares in the sale process.

Closer home, five of the top 10 most-valued firms together lost Rs 86,447.12 crore in market valuation last week, with Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and State Bank of India taking the biggest hits.

Also, the world said goodbye to Gordon Moore, Intel Corporation’s Co-founder and the creator of Moore’s Law. His prediction that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double every year helped shape the semiconductor industry.

ICYMI: Google’s office in Gurugram has become the envy of many on social media. The office has an all-day cafeteria—with a separate section offering a range of desserts, an entertainment room with musical instruments, a spa room with massage chairs, and a nap room.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Global policymaking with Startup20 India
• Build Silently: Tarun Davda of Matrix Partners India
• Making women financially “Aatmanirbhar”

Here’s your trivia for today: Which metropolis is known as the City of Cats with a sizeable feral cat population?

Interview

Global policymaking with Startup20 India

India established the Startup20 engagement group under its G20 presidency as a platform for global startup policymaking. Dr Chintan Vaishnav, Chairperson of Startup20 India, and the Mission Director for Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), says the group aims to create a global narrative for supporting startups.

Assisting startups:

• Startup20 aspires to represent the startup ecosystem to G20 leaders in order to address macroeconomic issues and challenges experienced by entrepreneurs.
• It also intends to enable synergies between startups, investors, corporations, innovation agencies, and other key ecosystem stakeholders.
• The engagement group operates through task forces–foundations, alliances, finance, inclusion, and sustainability.

TechSparks

Build silently: Tarun Davda of Matrix Partners India

Tarun Davda, Partner and MD at Matrix Partners, is gung-ho about the growth of early-stage startups despite the funding winter restricting the inflow of capital. At YourStory’s TechSparks Mumbai edition, he said the best time to build a startup is now.

New investment:

• “Every single early-stage fund has raised new money in the last 12 months, and is looking for new investment,” Davda said.
• He advised early-stage startups to “keep their heads down” and silently build better products as the market remains cool.
• Matrix Ventures raised a $450 million India fund last year and is looking to double down its investment in early-stage startups. 

Women empowerment

Making women financially “Aatmanirbhar”

Most women don’t participate in financial decisions, with a Winvestor survey concluding that only 33% of women made their investment decisions. Maitry Shah decided to do something about it and started LakshMe to impart financial knowledge to urban women.

Financial education:

• A CSR initiative by the Prudent Group, LakshMe initially focused on seminars, workshops, and creating content through newsletters.
• In March 2021, Shah started the Buddy for Finance programme to assist women in taxation, debt management, daily finances, investments, etc.
• She is in talks with a few villages as well to understand the financial needs of rural women.

News & updates

• Uncertainty: International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva said that risks to financial stability have increased, and called for continued vigilance although actions by advanced economies have calmed market stress.
• Too big: A Hong Kong investor group has forced HSBC into a shareholder vote on its structure and strategy, including a potential spin-off of its Asian arm. Minority shareholder Ken Lui said the bank’s Asian activities were “effectively subsidising the western businesses”.
• Internet access: London-based OneWeb has launched the final set of satellites it needs to deliver a broadband internet connection anywhere on Earth. The 36 spacecraft went up on ISRO’s LVM3 rocket from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh.

Which metropolis is known as the City of Cats with a sizeable feral cat population?

Answer: Istanbul, Turkey. The city is home to an estimated 125,000 cats.

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