Hello,
Indian roads are set to turn more silent.
Bhavish Aggarwal’s Ola Electric has introduced a new range of affordable e-scooters that offer reusable batteries. Its Gig and Gig+ e-scooters target companies that employ many gig workers.
On the other side of the EV spectrum, Mahindra & Mahindra has launched the much-anticipated ‘Electric Origin’ EVs, XEV 9e and BE 6e. The new electric SUVs offer up to 650 km range and 80% charging within 20 minutes.
Mahindra’s new electric SUVs will have something its ICE engine counterparts don’t—a new logo.
Some companies are adopting new logos to signify their electric push. Jaguar, owned by Tata Motors, recently unveiled a new logo and refreshed branding that features a redesigned Leper cat emblem to attract younger customers.
But those who’ve transitioned to an EV are in it for the long game. According to a survey of EV owners in India, 74% intend to stick with electric cars for life, signalling a robust shift.
From one emerging tech to another, crypto investors, high on euphoria, are now panicking after Bitcoin price crashed to $90,000 per Bitcoin from nearly $100,000 a day earlier. The crypto price correction has wiped around $200 billion from the combined $3.2 trillion market.
The panic was a result of crypto billionaire Michael Novogratz warning the price could drop to $80,000 before bouncing back.
But crypto euphoria continues to be up and up. A Bitcoin investor has even started a treasure hunt. He hid five treasure chests worth $2 million across the US. The chests contain various valuables including gold, jewellery, sports memorabilia, and historical artefacts.
If you want to go on a treasure hunt, start by purchasing his book, There’s Treasure Inside.
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- BitSave secures pre-Series A funding
- ShareChat’s improving financial health
- Civic impact via conscious entertainment
Here’s your trivia for today: Narwhal are toothed whales native to the Arctic. What is the meaning of their name?
Startup
BitSave secures pre-Series A funding
Indian crypto exchanges offer a wide range of options, which can leave beginners uncertain about how and where to invest.
Preempting this challenge in 2022, Zakhil Suresh, Sajal Sharma, Asif Kattakath, and Vishnu Karthik, recognised an opportunity to simplify crypto investing. BitSave’s product is tailored for passive, long-term investors through a systematic investment plan. The company has now raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-Series A funding round from Singapore-based venture capital firm, Leo Capital.
Key takeaways:
- BitSave will use the fresh capital for licensing, product improvement, and brand awareness initiatives.
- Launched officially in 2023, the company gives investors a simple and consistent way to invest in digital asset classes through monthly SIPs.
- While the company is currently focused on the Indian market, it is also planning expansion to other Asian countries in 2025, it said in a statement.
<Funding Alert>
Startup: All Things Baby
Amount: Rs 30 Cr
Round: Equity
Startup: Ikin Global
Amount: $1M
Round: Pre-Series A
Startup: devx
Amount: Undisclosed
Round: Pre Seed
Startup
ShareChat’s improving financial health
Homegrown social media company ShareChat reported improved financial performance for FY24, with significant reductions in operational losses. The company reported Rs 718 crore in annual revenue for FY24, a 33% increase compared to Rs 540 crore in FY23.
Growth:
- With its core ShareChat app achieving profitability and the Moj app moving towards financial sustainability, the social media company is now focusing on strategic growth and potential acquisitions in the creator economy.
- According to CFO Manohar Singh Charan, the ShareChat app contributes nearly two-thirds to ShareChat’s revenue, while the rest comes from the Moj app.
- While ShareChat remains sufficiently capitalised—following a $65 million raise earlier this year—the company is exploring another funding round ahead of a potential IPO.
Women entrepreneur
Civic impact via conscious entertainment
In 2019, Anushka Shah officially launched Civic Studios as a for-profit venture based in Mumbai, and in 2023, she opened in London, with a mission to entertain and inform. “We wanted to create self-sustaining narratives that moved beyond episodic reporting to thematic storytelling,” she says.
She was clear that Civic Studios would operate with a double-bottom-line approach, prioritising both financial viability and social impact.
Narrative:
- Civic Studios began with a YouTube channel named ‘Pocket Change’, which explored social themes through sketch comedy.
- Over the last five years, Civic Studios has curated a diverse slate of projects, including Vakeel Babu (on gender justice) on Amazon miniTV, Family Aaj Kal (on class bias) on SonyLIV, and the animated Indo-French-German feature Schirkoa, which examines political polarisation.
- Shah underscores the importance of addressing gender bias in the entertainment industry by emphasising inclusivity and safety in all project sets and strict adherence to POSH guidelines.
News & updates
- Regulation: Tech giants Google, Meta, and TikTok are pushing back against an Australian bill that would bar children under 16 from accessing social media. The legislation, which is among the strictest globally, aims to curb children’s use of platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X.
- Anti-competitive: Brazilian antitrust regulator Cade said that Apple must lift restrictions on payment methods for in-app purchases, among other things, as the watchdog moved to proceed with an investigation into a complaint filed by Latin America ecommerce giant MercadoLibre.
- Cadillac races: US car giant General Motors has reached an agreement in principle to enter Formula 1 in 2026 with its Cadillac brand. GM and its partner, the US group TWG Global, will build its own engine “at a later time”. F1 said the application process would “move forward”.
Narwhal are toothed whales native to the Arctic. What is the meaning of their name?
Answer: In Old Norse, Narwhal means “corpse whale” as their skin colour resembles that of a drowned sailor.
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