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Vijay Shekhar Sharma has an ambitious plan—to make Paytm profitable by next year.

Speaking at its 22nd annual general meeting (AGM) on Friday, the MD and CEO of One97 Communications (Paytm’s parent) said the company was in expansion mode until 2018-19, entering the monetisation mode from 2019-20. He added that as the company committed earlier, Paytm will post operational profit in the quarter ending September 2023.

Earlier this month, the fintech giant reported a wider first-quarter loss at Rs 645 crore, compared with a loss of Rs 382 crore a year earlier. However, revenue from operations saw an annual increase of 89% to Rs 1,680 crore. 

Most shareholders who got to speak at the AGM expressed faith in the company’s business model, while some expressed displeasure at the losses and drop in share price.

All in all, it’s an arduous but interesting road ahead for Paytm.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old Antim became the first Indian female wrestler to win world junior wrestling gold after dominating the women’s 53kg field in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Also, a ‘teenage’ fur seal broke into the house of marine biologist Phil Ross through two cat flaps, traumatising the family cat. Unfortunately, Phil wasn’t home during what is “probably the one family emergency where it would be useful to have a marine biologist,” he told BBC.

While it is common to spot fur seals on paths and roads in the area, it isn’t usual for them to enter homes. “It was a good guest,” concluded Jenn, Phil’s wife, who discovered the seal in the hall.

Perhaps, Oscar the fur seal (yes, they named him) came for a con-seal-tation with Phil?

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• No winter at Inflection Point Ventures
• Making India a global satellite hub
• Monetising for micro & nano creators 

Here’s your trivia for today: Which painting holds the Guinness World Record for the highest-ever insurance value?

Investor

No winter at Inflection Point Ventures

Since its inception in 2018, Gurugram-based Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) has been driving the narrative that startup investments are not a huge risk while providing an opportunity to investors who come with relatively low amount of capital.

Founded by professionals who had decades of experience in the financial services world, IPV was quite clear on why and in whom it would like to invest.

Creating a level-playing field:

• IPV is a stage and sector-agnostic platform for startup investment. It typically comes in at a seed and pre-Series A stage of funding.
• The average cheque size was around Rs 2.5 crore in 2021, and this increased to Rs 4 crore in 2022.
• The platform also launched a new VC fund called Physis Capital early this year with a size of $50 million to invest in pre-Series A to Series B startups.

Spacetech

Making India a global satellite hub

Founded in 2012 by Sanjay Nekkanti, Chaitanya Dora Surapureddy, Abhay Egoor, and Krishna Teja Penamakuru, Dhruva Space is engaged in the development of small satellites in the commercial, governmental, and academic markets. 

It provides full-stack space-engineering solutions across launch, space, and ground segments.

To infinity and beyond:

• This June, Dhruva Space successfully tested and space-qualified its Satellite Orbital Deployer (DSOD 1U), which was on the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO’s) PSLV C53.
• Based out of Hyderabad and Graz, Austria, the startup has raised Rs 26.5 crore to date from IAN Fund and Blue Ashva Capital.
• Dhruva Space has been partnering with reputed institutes such as IIT Hyderabad and SNIST to empower faculty and academia in teaching Space Engineering.

Startup

Monetising for micro & nano creators

Founded in September 2021 by Vivek Yadav and Vishnu Pathak, Cosmofeed helps content creators from smaller cities and towns with discovery and to monetise their content.

It claims to be the first platform that allows creators to earn directly from their users by providing them with multiple tools and features to monetise, grow, and retain users.

Building a creator ecosystem:

• The startup has a user base of more than 3.5 lakh people and 1,000+ creators on its platform, serviced by a 20-member team. 
• Cosmofeed has raised a total of $1.5 million through a seed round from three venture capitalists, Growx, 9 Unicorns, and Waveform Ventures.
• It earns by charging a 10 percent platform fee on all the transactions that take place on the platform. 

News & updates

• Under the heat: Extreme weather is wreaking havoc upon virtually all of the world’s largest cotton suppliers. In India, the top-producing country, heavy rains and pests have cut into cotton crops so much that the nation is importing supplies.
• Dump and drop: Bitcoin on Friday fell to its lowest level in more than three weeks, dipping below $22,000 amid a sudden crypto sell-off in early European trading. Bitcoin plunged from $22,738 to below $21,12.34 at 4:00 p.m. ET, according to CoinDesk data.
• End of the road: DoorDash is ending its years-long partnership with Walmart of delivering groceries and other products from stores to customers. DoorDash decided to stop working with the retail giant “as it was no longer mutually beneficial”.
• Not cool enough: Tinder is struggling to attract younger users who are starting to abandon the world’s dominant dating app, as Generation Z singles prefer hotter new services in the search for love after lockdowns.

Which painting holds the Guinness World Record for the highest-ever insurance value?

Answer: Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa at $100 million in 1962 (equivalent to $900 million in 2021). 

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