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Hello,

It’s not just social media rants: house rents are becoming higher.

The average monthly rents for standard 2-bedroom flats of 1,000 square feet area have risen by up to 23% between 2019 and 2022 across seven major cities, a report by real estate consultant Anarock revealed.

Noida’s Sector-150 saw the highest 23% increase, followed by Pune’s Hinjewadi and Wagholi—up by 20% and 21%—and Bengaluru’s Whitefield at 18%.

In other news, MeitY is reportedly planning to integrate ChatGPT on WhatsApp to help farmers become aware of available government schemes. At present, a chatbot powered by ChatGPT is under testing, which allegedly supports 12 languages. 

Oh, women’s cricket tournament WPL’s inaugural auctions saw biddings go up to Rs 3.4 crore for Indian women’s team’s vice-captain Smriti Mandhana. Even though it isn’t comparable to the 2023 IPL auctions, which saw England’s Sam Curran go for as high as Rs 18.5 crore, the first IPL tournament too had humble beginnings.

ICYMI: You don’t need to be a Disney princess to talk to animals after all.

Turns out, AI will do just fine.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Nykaa’s Q3 profit plunges by 71%
• GPT-3-powered recruitment platform
• Investment theory with Renuka Ramnath

Here’s your trivia for today: Who invented correction fluid, more commonly known as “whitener” in India?

Ecommerce

Nykaa’s Q3 profit plunges by 71%

Falguni Nayar-led beauty retailer Nykaa ‘s net profit for the October-December quarter fell 71% to Rs 8.5 crore, from Rs 29 crore in the year-ago period.  In line with analysts’ estimates, its revenue for the period was at Rs 1,463 crore, up 33% year-on-year. 

In red:

• Nykaa’s total expenses in the third quarter rose 36% year-on-year to Rs 1,456 crore.
• An increase in employee benefits, depreciation, and other expenses led to a fall in the EBITDA margin, which is a measure of the company’s operating profit as a percentage of its revenue. 
• The beauty and personal care (BPC) segment, Nykaa’s largest revenue generator, saw a 26% rise in GMV to Rs 1,901 crore, while the fashion segment grew 50% to Rs 724.4 crore.

<Funding Alert>

Startup: Garuda Aerospace

Amount: $22M

Round: Series A

Startup: ONWO 

Amount: $1.6 M

Round: Seed 

Startup: Newgen Gaming

Amount: $1M

Round: Undisclosed

Startup 

GPT-3-powered recruitment platform

Forget losing your job to AI. You’ve to first convince AI recruiters to shortlist you for a job interview. 

Founded in 2022 by Roli Gupta, Babblebots.ai is a recruitment and talent acquisition platform that uses voice technology, conversational intelligence, and AI algorithms to interview and assess candidates for both technical and non-technical roles through ‘AI-Recruiters’. It is powered by neural network GPT-3 (the technology behind ChatGPT chatbot) and Speech AI.

Hiring expert:

• AI-Recruiters is a fully conversational voice bot designed to have a near real-life conversation with job candidates, answer their questions, and assess them for communication, technical and analytical skills.
• Babblebots counts 15 companies, including large enterprises, SMEs and startups across the sectors among its clients. It says it is onboarding 3-4 clients every month.
• Its software-as-a-service (SaaS) product offers a monthly, quarterly, or yearly subscription. Its trial subscription starts at Rs 24,000 for two months, processing up to 300 candidates. 

Interview

Investment theory with Renuka Ramnath

Homegrown private equity firm Multiples has invested Rs 15,000 crore in 30 companies. Its framework challenges the prevalent norms of investment and sets a new benchmark in growth funding rooted in the values of nurturing and supporting entrepreneurs. 

Renuka Ramnath, Founder, MD & CEO of Multiples, elaborates on the firm’s investment philosophy.

Guide to success:

• Multiples recently raised a round of investment making it a $3 billion fund, and Renuka is clear that the firm will not repeat what it did in the previous round, even if it has been successful in the past.
• Renuka says the word unicorn is a jargon the market came up with unnecessarily and actively advocates the idea that there are many valuable companies which are not unicorns.
• Her advice to women is that they should share their aspirations openly and be aware that supporting children doesn’t mean being at home all day long, but just being there when children need them.

News & updates

• Going halfsies: Grappling with slowing sales growth and rising costs, Amazon is squeezing more money from the nearly 2 million small businesses that sell products on its sprawling online marketplace. For the first time, Amazon’s average cut of each sale surpassed 50% in 2022.
• Electrification: Slashed prices have given Tesla’s China sales a pop, but analysts, and even fans, warn the US automaker needs to up its long-term game to avoid choking on the dust of fast-moving rivals in the world’s biggest electric vehicle market.
• Irreplaceable: Chevron’s board of directors is considering waiving the company’s mandatory retirement age for Chief Executive Mike Wirth, a move that would allow him to remain CEO for a longer period. Some board members have said the company doesn’t have an internal candidate ready to succeed Wirth. 

Who invented correction fluid, more commonly known as “whitener” in India?

Answer: Bette Graham, an American secretary, who founded Liquid Paper.

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