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Hello,

Startups are making a beeline to the bourses.

After Ola Electric and Mobikwik, Snapdeal-owned retail and ecommerce enablement SaaS platform Unicommerce has filed its draft red herring prospectus with SEBI for an initial public offering (IPO). The offering consists of an offer for sale totalling up to 2.98 crore equity shares.

Meanwhile, CureBay, a startup focused on solving primary healthcare issues in remote locations, has raised Rs 62 crore in a Series A funding round led by Elevar Equity. It will use the capital to build an intelligent health data platform and hire over 200 professionals, including data scientists and healthcare experts.

In other news, the competition in India’s electric vehicle (EV) space is heating up as Vietnamese EV maker VinFast signed an agreement to invest $2 billion to set up its first manufacturing facilities in Tamil Nadu. The company will make EV batteries in its manufacturing plant which is expected to generate 3,000-3,500 jobs locally.

ICYMI: Here’s how ISRO’s Aditya L-1 space probe, which has reached its final orbit, will study the Sun.

Oh, and a man who lost his AirPods in Kerala found them in Goa—all with the help of social media. He used the location tracking feature and asked netizens to help find the AirPods in a post that was viewed 1.2 million times. 

It’s a reunion like no other!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• The master of Japanese and Sri Lankan cuisine
• Food trends that will rule in 2024
• Jamming Goat 3.0 gives a spin on Goan food

Here’s your trivia for today: What Chinese tech company’s name actually comes from characters that mean “galloping fast information?”

Interview

The master of Japanese and Sri Lankan cuisine

Indian foodies who love crustaceans are no strangers to the name Ministry of Crab. Founded by celebrity chef Dharshan Munidasa, along with cricket legends Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, the restaurant attracts the who’s who of India. It has also ranked 23rd at the Food Food Top 30 Restaurant Awards, 2022.

“My hunger, passion, and love for great food is the reason that I never stopped looking to create dishes,” Chef Munidasa says.

Fusion:

• Munidasa has seven outposts of the Ministry of Crab across Colombo, Shanghai, Manila, Bangkok, Chengdu, Maldives and Mumbai
• At a pop-up in collaboration with W Goa, Munidasa presented a menu featuring avocado crab salad, show-stopper pepper crab, and French dessert creme brulee, with a tropical twist of coconut, among other delicacies. 
• Later that year, he also founded The Tuna & The Crab, a hybrid restaurant featuring Japanese speciality from Nihonbashi and seafood delicacies from Ministry of Crab.  

Wine and Food

Food trends that will rule in 2024

2023 was a year of many firsts. From cottage cheese ice cream and potato noodles to lemon popcorn, many dishes became viral last year. 

However, we are excited to know what’s in store in 2024. What will make India’s consumers tick? YS Life asks some culinary experts to break it down.

Crystal ball:

• India’s love for biryani and pizzas remained intact in 2023. A staggering 10.09 crore biryani orders were placed through Zomato; pizzas grabbed the second spot at over 7.45 crore orders.
• From plant-based meats to the use of indigenous ingredients that scream sustainability, 2024 will be a year that will continue to see this trend flourish. 
• Chef Sombir, culinary partner at Bengaluru’s Jamming Goat 3.0, believes there will be an increasing preference for locally produced millets like quinoa, finger millets, and barnyard millet.

Wine and food

Jamming Goat 3.0 gives a spin on Goan food

Jamming Goat 3.0 in Indiranagar, Bengaluru celebrates Goa’s food and contemporary vibes, but the menu is crafted to serve palettes across the country and the world. Its menu keeps changing according to the seasons, tastes, and creativity.

Creative menu:

• Crispy Broccoli Poppers—served with avocado and wasabi mousse—puts the bitterness of the broccoli stems in the spotlight and pairs it quite intelligently with a hint of wasabi—ready to attack—but is blunted by the avocado.
• The pièce de resistance is the Goan OG Fish Curry. It lets you marinate in its heat, which embers at the back of your mouth long after you’ve had the morsel.
• Jamming Goat 3.0 goes above and beyond to bring craft and finesse to its mix of alcoholic beverages. Whether it is 1986—a sweet, sour, pungent, and spicy flavoured vodka cocktail served in a teacup, or tequila-based Goat in Goa—the presentation is top-notch.

News & updates

• On a high: The nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a key player in the competitive pharmaceutical psychedelics industry, has raised over $100 million to fund a final push to get government approval to legally sell MDMA in the US to those struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.  
• Regulation: US spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) appear to be on the verge of launching after the exchanges that will list them filed amended documents, suggesting they expect US SEC approval in the coming days. More than a dozen applicants hope to launch the first spot bitcoin ETFs in the US.
• GenAI future: Apple is said to be looking for ways to implement generative AI prowess into its upcoming software and hardware products. Apple might announce an updated Siri with AI powers as early as WWDC 2024, as per leaks. The leaks suggest that Apple will use this AI to “add more personalisation and natural conversations to Siri.” 

What Chinese tech company’s name actually comes from characters that mean “galloping fast information?”

Answer: Tencent.

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