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Hello,

Another startup is shifting domicile back to India.

After PhonePe, Razorpay, and Groww, now fintech player Pine Labs is now hopping on the trend of ‘reverse flipping’. It has received approval from a Singapore court to merge its Singapore-based entity with its Indian company. 

The approval allows Pine Labs to transfer all its assets and properties to its Indian unit, enabling the firm to consolidate its operations in India.

Meanwhile, India’s private equity (PE) market is booming.

PE equity investments in Q4 FY24 surged to 310 transactions totalling around $5.2 billion, as per a report by Mazars in India. The quarter also saw a sharp increase in PE exits, with 50 exits, a 354.5% rise from Q1 FY23’s 11 exits.

In more good news, India’s banking sector has achieved a milestone of surpassing Rs 3 lakh crore profit for the first time in FY24. Also, public sector banks reported a net profit of Rs 1.47 lakh crore led by treasury gains and reduced NPAs. 

ICYMI: Meet Gopi Thotakura from Vijayawada who became the first Indian space tourist by riding on Blue Origins spacecraft.

And what’s a better way to start your day than with an overload of puppy love? Here are a few videos.

Thank us later!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• IVY Growth launches Rs 250 Cr VC fund
• Top executive reshuffle at Flipkart
• Healing trauma through psychodrama 

Here’s your trivia for today: In which year did the popular sharbat Rooh Afza start selling?

Funding

IVY Growth launches Rs 250 Cr VC fund

Micro venture capital fund IVY Growth Associates has launched Arigato Capital, a SEBI-registered Category I AIF VC fund, with a total target corpus of Rs 250 crore. 

Arigato will be a sector-agnostic fund, and will invest in startups working in emerging sectors like agritech, cleantech, and generative AI, as well as fintech, consumer brands, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies.

Key takeaways:

• Arigato will start raising capital in June 2024 and expects to close all commitments over the next 15-18 months, targeting Rs 100 crore for the first close.
• It will target startups beyond seed or in pre-Series A stages, with an average ticket size of $500,000.
• Through Arigato Capital, IVY Growth plans to build and expand a global corridor that can connect angel investors and startups.

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Ecommerce 

Executive reshuffle at Flipkart Group

Anuj Rathi, Chief of Product at Jupiter Money, is set to join Flipkart’s travel platform, Cleartrip, marking his second stint at the ecommerce giant, sources told Yourstory. 

Rathi previously worked at Flipkart as a product manager, and before his role at Jupiter Money, he was the Senior Vice President of Revenue and Growth at Swiggy.

Churn:

• Rathi will succeed Cleartrip’s former CEO, Ayyappan Rajagopal, who announced his departure on LinkedIn on February 22.
• The appointment comes amid a broader reshuffle at the ecommerce giant ahead of its proposed IPO, with several top-level executives being hired and others being replaced.
• In a separate press release, Flipkart announced the promotion of Sandeep Karwa, the newly appointed Vice President of Flipkart Ads, who has been with the company for 12 years.

Inspiration

Healing trauma through psychodrama 

Magdalene Jeyarathnam has been working with the LGBTQIA+ community for more than two decades, counselling transpersons and those living with HIV/AIDS. 

At the Indian Institute of Psychodrama in Chennai, and the East West Centre for Counselling, Jeyarathnam uses psychodrama–a modality that helps her clients gain insight into their lives through dramatisation and role-playing–to counsel those living with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, as well as addiction. 

Hope:

• Psychodrama was developed by Romanian-American psychiatrist, psycho-sociologist, and educator Jacob Moreno in 1921 to leverage the healing potential of group settings as an alternative to one-on-one therapy.
• Jeyarathnam found psychodrama to be a powerful means to address the shame, guilt, and sexual trauma that most queer people commonly endure during their childhood and teen years. She used the method to effectively address LGBTQIA+ people’s resistance to coming out.
• She emphasises the element of ‘play’ in psychodrama, which, she says, is a powerful tool for healing.

News & updates

• High hopes: The tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed to a record high on Monday, boosted by chipmakers, with highly awaited quarterly results from Nvidia and the Federal Reserve’s upcoming policy meeting this week which is likely to test Wall Street’s record-breaking run.
• Data strategy: Google is planning to spend €1 billion to build out its main data centre in Finland because of its easy access to green energy. The facility is located in Hamina, on the nation’s south coast. The region offers a good supply of renewable power.
• Making medicines: AstraZeneca Plc plans to build a $1.5 billion manufacturing facility in Singapore to make antibody-drug conjugates as the U.K. drugmaker pushes to beef up its ability to produce the next-generation cancer treatments. The plant will be Astra’s first drug-conjugate facility to produce medicines from start to finish.

In which year did the popular sharbat Rooh Afza start selling?

Answer: 1907.

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