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Hello,

Investors are laughing all the way to the bank!

Benchmark equity indices hit their all-time highs on Thursday after the RBI approved the highest-ever dividend of Rs 2.11 lakh crore to the government. While the BSE Sensex regained the 75,000 level, Nifty went up by 1.36% to hit 22,906 points.

The NSE also had a field day, with the market capitalisation of its listed companies surpassing $5 trillion.

Speaking of the stock market, insurtech company Go Digit made a fine debut, opening at Rs 286 per share on the NSE against the issue price of Rs 272 apiece. It ended the trading session 12.5% higher than the issue price at Rs 306 per share.

Meanwhile, crypto platform Coinswitch has offered its proof of reserves, showing a total holding of Rs 3,497 crore—nearly 80% higher from July 2023 and higher than user holdings of Rs 2,774 crore. The holdings were in both cryptocurrencies and INR.

The proof of reserves demonstrates a crypto platform’s solvency and liquidity, fuelling customer confidence in its ability to manage assets.

Elsewhere, B2B fintech platform Zaggle’s revenue from operations rose 40% year-on-year to Rs 775 crore, resulting in profits nearly doubling to Rs 44 crore, as the company expanded its corporate customer base to over 620.

And lastly, here’s how a painter adds water droplets to a painting of a car windshield. 

Looks too real, doesn’t it?

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Honasa Consumer’s Q4 FY24 results
• Enterprises to invest more in Gen AI
• Cornerstone Ventures’ investment strategy

Here’s your trivia for today: Which educator and author popularised the concept of multiple intelligences?

D2C

Honasa Consumer Q4 FY24 results

Honasa Consumer, the parent company of Mamaearth, reported an annual consolidated profit of Rs 111 crore in FY24, driven by strong demand for beauty and skincare products, particularly from its DermaCo range, facilitated by its multi-brand strategy. 

The D2C company, which counts brands like Aqualogica, DermaCo, Dr Sheth’s, and BBlunt in its portfolio, recorded nearly 22% growth in revenue from operation in FY24. 

Highlights:

• Mamaearth, which went public in November last year, reported an EBITDA margin of 7.1% in FY24, higher than the 1.5% reported a year ago helped by operational efficiencies. 
• For Q4 FY24, Honasa logged a sequentially higher consolidated profit of Rs 30.4 crore and a revenue of Rs 471 crore. 
• To ramp up its R&D efforts, Honasa announced the purchase of Cosmogensis Cosmetics Labs for its scientific expertise, R&D lab, and manufacturing capability for Rs 4 crore.

Funding Alert

Startup: Portl

Amount: $3M

Round: Equity

Startup: ProsParity

Amount: $2M

Round: Pre-seed

Startup: Good Monk

Amount: Rs 7 Cr

Round: Pre-Series A

Technology

Enterprises to invest more in Gen AI

Generative AI (Gen AI) is a major focus for businesses, with more than 80% of companies planning to invest in Gen AI solutions within the next 1-2 years, as per a joint report by Bain & Company and Meta. 

The report highlighted that large enterprises recognise various benefits from using conversational platforms, such as high engagement rates and personalised interactions at scale. About 60% of enterprises plan to boost their spending on conversational journeys over the next 3–4 years. 

New solutions:

• Findings revealed around 70% of large enterprises are already engaging with half of their customer base through conversational platforms.
• The report highlighted that India, with most future online shoppers and sellers already within the digital funnel, poses a huge untapped opportunity for conversational commerce. 
• Around 90% of non-savvy digital users prefer to interact with SMBs for their day-to-day needs via conversational platforms, said the report.

Investor

Cornerstone Ventures’ investment strategy

Last month, Cornerstone Ventures launched its second fund with a size of $200 million. The first fund from the firm, launched in 2019, was $50 million. 

Cornerstone Ventures’ optimism in the startup ecosystem is largely due to its focus on the country’s SaaS startups. The firm believes homegrown B2B SaaS startups have much more to offer to large enterprises, which is why it is doubling down on this segment with a larger quantum of investments.

Key takeaways:

• The company, founded by Abhishek Prasad and Rajiv Vaishnav in 2018, has invested in 21 SaaS startups from the first fund, with the average value of investments being in the range of $2-3 million.
• Cornerstone Ventures expects to mark the first close of its fund in June this year and the final closure by March 2025.
• On the performance of the first fund, Prasad said the portfolio of startups has witnessed a 4.5X in revenue growth.

News & updates

• Pixel: Google is planning to make its Pixel smartphone in Tamil Nadu and has tied up with Taiwan’s Foxconn. “It will be making the latest models of its smartphones in the state… at the existing Foxconn facility (in Tamil Nadu),” one of the sources said.
• Ticket prices: The US Justice Department and a group of states plan to sue Live Nation Entertainment, the concert giant that owns Ticketmaster, as soon as Thursday, accusing it of illegally maintaining a monopoly in the live entertainment industry.
• Chips: Chinese technology giant Alibaba has expanded the availability zone of its cloud computing products to Mexico for the first time, and will build new data centres in key markets, including Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea, over the next three years.

Which educator and author popularised the concept of multiple intelligences?

Answer: Howard Gardner. He proposed eight sets of intelligences: musical, visual-spatial, linguistic, mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic.

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