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Hello,

Urban Company is doubling down on wealth creation.

The home services platform said the income of its service partners increased 17% in the second half of 2023 as compared with the same period in 2022. While its partners earned an average of Rs 24,845 per month in H2 CY2023, the average net earnings of the top 20% were Rs 42,792. 

Moreover, the net hourly earnings for female partners were 23% higher than their male counterparts.

The company has also partnered with the Invisible Scars Foundation to address gender-based violence for its fleet of service professionals by raising awareness of domestic abuse and offering financial aid.

Meanwhile, Shopsy by Flipkart saw a 2X surge in daily demand and new customers during the fourth edition of its Grand Shopsy Mela held in March. The Walmart-backed ecommerce firm saw over 60% of customers originating from Tier III cities and beyond.

Elsewhere, fintechs continue to face regulatory heat as CCI chief Ravneet Kaur said the watchdog is conducting enquiries against some entities to check whether their ways of leveraging technology are impacting competition. 

Also, food delivery orders at ONDC crossed the 5 lakh mark this month—an over 100X rise from March 2023. The network sees 2 lakh transactions per day across its products and services.

ICYMI: Singapore is the world’s latest ‘blue zone’, where residents live longer than most of the rest of the world.

And there’s no denying it—grandmas are cute! Here’s one tricked by a Snapchat filter. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Hyper-personalised marketing with ZEPIC
• Inside Alteria Capital’s third fund
• Lenovo’s AI playbook

Here’s your trivia for today: How is macroalgae commonly referred to?

Startup

Hyper personalised marketing with ZEPIC

Marketers can effectively delight and retain their customers by understanding their needs and intent through a combination of data. However, to do so, they need a consolidated picture of what customers like and how they interact and behave in real time. 

This is what ZEPIC, a SaaS-based customer experience startup, provides—a consolidated framework of data that helps brands personalise their communication with every individual customer.

Here’s how:

• The Delaware-headquartered startup, whose product and engineering team is based in Chennai, helps businesses deliver hyper-personalised experiences across the entire customer journey—from discovery to post-purchase. 
• Multiple data types, such as inventory, product catalogue and reviews, can be modelled on ZEPIC’s platform. Modelling refers to structuring and organising different types of data. 
• Going forward, ZEPIC plans to target customers in the B2C sector, such as retail and ecommerce, travel and hospitality, non-profit bodies, and sports organisations.

Funding Alert

Startup: Aye Finance

Amount: $16M

Round: Debt

Startup: SuperK

Amount: $6M

Round: Series A

Investor

Inside Alteria Capital’s third fund

Mumbai-headquartered venture debt firm Alteria Capital announced the final close of its third fund at Rs 1,550 crore. The Alteria Capital Fund III Venture Debt Scheme, with a target size of Rs 1,000 crore and a green shoe option, was significantly oversubscribed. 

Twin strategy:

• For its third fund, Alteria Capital has a twin scheme strategy, including a venture debt scheme and a shorter duration scheme, to meet the working capital needs of startups.
• While it closed the venture debt scheme at $195 million, the shorter duration scheme, currently under subscription, is expected to raise around $105 million.
• The shorter duration scheme—likely to see its final close by the end of 2024—will be available to all portfolio companies with the average cheque size ranging between Rs 3 crore and Rs 100 crore.

<figure class="image embed" contenteditable="false" data-id="541351" data-url="https://images.yourstory.com/cs/2/bc14afb0357911eca2270b39b804102d/AteriaCapitalProfileFeatureImage-1711548603664.jpg" data-alt="Alteria Capital" data-caption="

Team Alteria Capital

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Enterprise

Lenovo’s AI playbook

AI is a priority for CIOs in India today, but it will not rip what organisations already have. Traditional workloads will continue to exist, but they will become more intelligent, says Amit Luthra, Managing Director – India, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Lenovo, in an interaction with EnterpriseStory.

Key takeaways:

• One of the early movers in the AI space, Lenovo invested around $2.2 billion in this disruptive technology since 2017.
• In India, too, the company has been working with various sectors to deploy its AI solutions. For instance, it is engaged with a bank to maintain its level of service even as it rapidly expands its operations.
• AI can be used as part of the core business and also to create business differentiation. The real impact of AI can be felt when business goals and IT priorities align, points out Luthra.

News & updates

• Markets: Bajaj Auto, Bharat Petroleum, and State Bank of India are among 25 stocks eligible for optional same-day settlement starting from March 28. Indian markets operate on a T+1 settlement cycle for all stocks.
• Snoop: In 2016, Facebook launched a secret project, “Project Ghostbusters,” to intercept and decrypt the network traffic between people using Snapchat’s app and its servers to understand users’ behaviour and help Facebook compete with Snapchat, according to newly unsealed court documents. 
• Memes: Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority announced guidelines for financial services companies and social media influencers making memes about cryptocurrencies and other investments to tackle a rise in scams. It said that any marketing for financial products, including those expressed in memes, should be fair, clear, and not misleading.

How is macroalgae commonly referred to?

Answer: Seaweed.

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