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Hello,

More legal trouble for BYJU’S.

Some of the edtech startup’s $1.2-billion Term Loan B lenders now allege that it hid $533 million in a hedge fund. However, BYJU’S has denied being party to any proceedings. 

Also, the company clarified that while an offshore subsidiary remains the beneficiary of investments in high security fixed income instruments invested with a multi-hundred billion dollar fund in the US, “there is no requirement to maintain cash as collateral”.

Back home, Dunzo will finally be paying the August salaries of its employees by the end of this week and has partnered with a payroll service for the same. This is despite the company remaining cash-strapped and awaiting fresh funding.

In other news, WhatsApp has launched its Channels feature in 150 countries, including India. The feature enables private broadcasts where users can receive updates from people and organisations. However, followers are not visible to others and the personal information of admins is protected.

Meanwhile, a KPMG report noted that Indian firms could unlock $200 billion in value by implementing effective customer experience (CX) strategies. These include personalisation to drive customer loyalty and effective fulfilment of expectations by leveraging well-defined tools and approaches. 

Lastly, just a week to go for the 15th edition of TechSparks, scheduled for September 21-23, in Bengaluru. Here are 10 reasons why this is the destination to deliberate India’s digital transformation. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Leo Capital looks at the exit route
• MSMEs behind G20 summit’s success
• Lenovo on making digital IT mainstream

Here’s your trivia for today: In May 2006, an Australian citizen listed New Zealand (yes, the country) for sale on eBay. What was the starting price of the auction?

Investment

Leo Capital looks at the exit route

Leo Capital India is poised to record three exits during the ongoing quarter. The early-stage VC firm has been finding it challenging to close its $125 million Fund III so has dialled up its exit pipeline and is actively exploring acquisition by strategics for some of its portfolio companies from its $75 million Fund II. 

“We look at companies where they have to raise capital in the next six to nine months to survive. That is a tenuous situation given the market, so we are actively looking at potential strategics for sale of these companies,” Rajul Garg, Founder and Managing Partner at Leo Capital, tells YourStory. 

Key takeaways:

• From Fund II, Leo Capital has already exited from healthtech startup wayForward, SaaS company Logiq, and fintech startup Indyfin through acquisitions.
• The VC firm broadly invests in the digitisation of sectors in India and SaaS platforms being built out of India and South East Asia. 
• It announced the first close of Fund III in September 2022 and is sourcing nearly two-thirds of the capital from institutional LPs. It has already invested in three starts from the fund.

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Funding

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Funding Alert

Startup: Leads Connect

Amount: Rs 500 Cr

Round: Equity

Startup: SALT

Amount: Rs 18 Cr

Round: Pre-seed

Startup: ThinkMetal

Amount: $300,000

Round: Pre-seed

Small business

MSMEs behind G20 summit’s success

At the recently concluded G20 summit in New Delhi, exhibitors and participating enterprises said the event’s success has created new avenues to facilitate global trade and given a fillip to MSMEs. Nearly 200 artists and traditional homegrown businesses showcased their products to world leaders and foreign delegates at the summit.

Small biz, big work:

• The summit also featured a 28-foot Nataraja statue, installed at the Bharat Mandapam. It was built by Srikanda Sthapathy from Swamimalai, a panchayat town in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu.
• The Craft Bazaar within the Bharat Mandapam featured artisans from every Indian state and union territory.
• DIVINITI, Aakriti Art Creations, Boond Fragrances, Araku Coffee, Sundarbans JFMC, Pashmina.com, and Pekoe Tips Tea were among the gifting partners.

Interview

Lenovo on making digital IT mainstream

Global technology major Lenovo has been making its foray into the Indian enterprise market through its Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) with its array of solutions and services to help enterprises be at the top of their digital journey.

“Our biggest USP is helping organisations with better digital IT. In this process, we bring infrastructure, tools, software, and associated services around it. Our core objective is to make digital IT real,” says Amit Luthra, Managing Director, ISG India, Lenovo.

Focus on India:

• Sectors driving the demand at Lenovo are banking and financial services, manufacturing, and ITeS.
• “We have a true scale offering where we provide infrastructure as a service and we have tie-ups with the largest cloud service providers,” Luthra says.
• The tech major says it works closely with new-age companies which are digital natives. It also enables traditional companies to leverage new tech.

News & updates

• EV push: The Indian government is planning to introduce a policy to attract global electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers, according to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. The policy would reportedly cut import taxes for automakers like Tesla that have committed to some local manufacturing.
• Bad mouth: Australian millionaire property developer Tim Gurner, CEO of the Gurner Group, is drawing backlash for calling for more unemployment to give companies more leverage over employees. “We need to remind people that they work for the employer, not the other way around,” he said.
• Paying up: Global debt declined by 10 percentage points of the world’s GDP for the second year running in 2022 to $235 trillion, according to the IMF. However, despite the decline, the world’s debt remains 9 percentage points above what it was in 2019 and $200 billion higher than in 2021. 

In May 2006, an Australian citizen listed New Zealand (yes, the country) for sale on eBay. What was the starting price of the auction?

Answer: $0.01 AUD. Bidding reached $3,000 AUD before it was taken down by the company.

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