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Hello,

Dark clouds are gathering over the world’s currency markets. 

The rupee breached the threshold of Rs 85 per dollar, hitting an all-time low. Other Asian currencies haven’t fared much better, with the Korean won trading at its lowest since 2009 and the Indonesian rupiah at a four-month low.

The cause of it all: a hawkish tilt by the US Federal Reserve, which signalled it may not cut rates by much next year. For dollar-driven Asian currencies, that spells choppy waters ahead. 

Speaking of the future of money, no, there’s not going to be a Bitcoin Fort Knox anytime soon, not if Jerome Powell has any say about it. 

The US Fed Chair has made it clear that the central bank will be steering clear of any government effort to stockpile large amounts of the cryptocurrency, stating that such issues would be under Congress’ purview. 

Powell effectively rained on the crypto bulls’ parade, sending Bitcoin briefly below $100,000 as his comments cooled investors’ risk appetites. 

ICYMI: How does one even go about building a Bitcoin strategic reserve? Let’s dive in.

In other news, move over watches and sunglasses, there’s a new wearable device in town: smart rings. 

Smart ring maker Oura bagged $200 million in Series D funding, bringing its valuation to $5.2 billion. This comes after Oura partnered with glucose device maker Dexcom in November to pave the way for the companies’ devices and apps to be used together.

Health is wealth, indeed.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Vedantu’s core revenue falls
• Cloud adoption by public sector
• Tackling real-world problems 

Here’s your trivia for today: Which world leader was awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize for Literature?

Edtech

Vedantu’s core revenue falls

Vedantu’s revenue from its core business in FY24 dropped below its FY21 levels, marking the second consecutive year of decline and indicating a continued slowing in its main operations. 

The pandemic-driven shift to remote learning in FY21 and FY22 spurred rapid top-line growth for many edtech businesses, leading to unprecedented expansion in the sector. Vedantu’s standalone operating revenue stood at Rs 93.6 crore in FY21 and Rs 165.8 crore in FY22, before declining to Rs 120.6 crore in FY23.

Declining trends:

• In FY24, it saw its standalone operating revenue drop 35.7% YoY to Rs 77.6 crore. However, its consolidated operating revenue, including earnings from subsidiaries, grew by 21% YoY to Rs 184.5 crore.
• Its revenue decline underscores the challenges of sustaining core business growth in the K-12 segment post-pandemic, driven by increased competition, a shift to offline learning, and broader edtech industry hurdles.
• Notably, the edtech company narrowed its loss by 57.7% YoY, bringing it down to Rs 157.5 crore in FY24, driven by reduced spending on employee benefits.

Funding Alert

Startup: Zetwerk

Amount: $70M

Round: Equity

Startup: Veefin

Amount: ~$16M

Round: Fresh

Startup: Confido Health

Amount: $3M

Round: Seed

Enterprise

Cloud adoption by public sector

Despite a slower pace in cloud adoption, the public sector sees cloud platforms as a gateway to deliver various services and solutions. And Dave Levy, Vice President of the Worldwide Public Sector at Amazon Web Services (AWS), believes it has much to gain from these technology platforms.

In an interview with Enterprise Story, Levy discusses the increasing tech modernisation of public sector entities, which, he believes, will set the foundation to engage with AI and Gen AI.

Key takeaways:

• Levy says that he sees a lot of public sector organisations thinking about their data strategy. “It’s kind of the launch pad for all the other projects,” he adds.
• On how AWS sees cloud adoption, he says, “The public sector’s mission is to support and serve all of us. They are very thoughtful about things like governance, AI, and responsibility, and they’re very thoughtful about how they deploy Gen AI.”
• “I think the definition of sovereignty varies depending on what country you go to. But we’re very aware and sensitive to the fact that data sovereignty is very important to countries and jurisdictions around the world,” Levy says on digital sovereignty.

Startup

Tackling real-world problems

Imagine a company that can predict what part of the highway is more prone to accidents today or which road is going to get blocked due to waterlogging. Gurugram startup Computational Imaging (CI Metrics) is turning this vision into reality using satellite data and AI to provide businesses with real-world, actionable insights.  

Founded in 2021 by Gagan Agrawal and Abhishek Patil, CI Metrics leverages cutting-edge technology to predict road accidents, identify traffic blockages due to waterlogging, and provide solutions once considered impossible with traditional data sources.

Forecasting:

• The B2B and B2G startup offers real-world insights for businesses across the mobility, logistics, agriculture, and insurance sectors. It taps into a vast repository of satellite data that spans 25 years and beyond, including thematic data, population and traffic, weather patterns, and terrestrial data. 
• CI Metrics uses machine learning and deep technology in its data models, which allows the company to predict events and forecast outcomes with high accuracy.
• Some of its prominent clients include Allianz Partners, an insurance firm; Google-backed Pixxel—a hyperspectral operator, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India.

News & updates

• Jobs: US aerospace and defence giant RTX Corp plans to hire 1,000 more people to its 7,000-strong workforce in India by 2027. RTX will add jobs across its units, including around 300 engineers for Pratt & Whitney over the next 12-18 months, and 700 at the aerospace supplier Collins Aerospace over the next 3 years.
• Punishment: The Indian government is seeking to clamp down on unregulated lending with a proposed law that would impose prison terms of up to seven years and fines for unauthorised loans, including those through digital platforms, according to a draft law seen by Reuters.
• Strike: Members of the Teamsters union went on strike at Amazon early Thursday in a labour action at seven facilities just ahead of the holiday gift-giving rush. Workers are joining the picket line after Amazon ignored a Sunday deadline the union set for contract negotiations. 

What world leader was awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize for Literature?

Answer: Winston Churchill.

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