Biometric theft 🧐
Space wins, IFC boost, and biotech victory.
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Stock summary: 📊
US:
S&P 500 - up 1.40%
Nasdaq - up 2.13%
India:
Nifty 50 - down 0.12%
Sensex - down 0.097%
Stimulating innovation 👍
An early stage venture firm, Endiya Partners, has received about $10 million from the International Financial Corporation (IFC) for infusion into India’s startup ecosystem.
IFC is an independent arm of the World Bank that offers advisory services, capital, and guidance to private investors looking to deploy funds in emerging countries. Through the bet on Endiya, IFC is specifically looking to deploy capital to fund intellectual property led Indian product startups that could be relevant on the global stage.
Founded in 2016 Endiya’s current portfolio includes Darwinbox, Steradian Semiconductors, Kissht, SigTuple and Myelin Foundry—startups with distinct deep tech leadership. This new raise now aims to deploy capital in 16-20 fresh startups, with an all-in investment of up to $5 million per company. Read more.
Space chalein hum 🚀
Skyroot Aerospace, a startup based in Hyderabad, has successfully test-fired an upper-stage rocket engine, making it one of the firsts among Indian private companies to achieve the feat.
Skyroot’s 3D printed rocket engine, Raman, is designed to weigh less than half of a conventional rocket engine despite offering similar capacity. The engine is apparently capable of multiple restarts, enabling the launch vehicle to insert various satellites into multiple orbits in a single mission.
Aggressive tests will be underway over the next 6 months and the first rocket which can hurl satellites of 250-700 kgs into a lower earth orbit, is expected to be launched by end-2021.
Founded by former scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, Skyroot aims to build a family of follow-on rockets and is planning to raise around Rs 90 crore on the back of their achievement.
So far the startup seems to have gained sufficient mojo and has attracted backing from notable figures including CureFit founders Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, and Solar Industries.
Bottomline: aggressive estimates put global space industry revenues at over a trillion dollars by 2040, and India will need to have a robust private enterprise for us to be able to compete worldwide. Tons of startups have already mushroomed, many displaying the same genes as ISRO - world class innovation at much lower costs. Truly exciting times.
Airbnb gots a surprise for ya 🥳
Global travel is down 70-80%, and reservation and online booking platforms are struggling to survive. But that isn’t stopping Airbnb from considering a public offering of its stock, as soon as this year, putting rounds of speculation to an end.
Wall Street Journal claims that the company plans on filing documents for an IPO as soon as this month, with a targeted launch for somewhere around the end of the year. Most details are still elusive given the volatility of the stock markets right now and the company is believed to pull the trigger when it thinks investor sentiment looks good.
Anyway, the IPO is one of the most awaited and will for the first time offer a deep glimpse into the company’s financials. Business wise, the company has had a rollercoaster year. Demand in March was absolutely decimated, forcing them to consider raising capital on harsh terms and fire a lot of people. But then a surprise rebound came in June and July as bored consumers started opting AirBnb over hotels for their local escapades. Read more.
Insta sued for illegally harvesting biometrics 🏛️
Yep. No amount of bad press is apparently a deterrent for Facebook’s practices. In a fresh lawsuit filed in courts of California, the company is now accused of capturing, storing and illegally using and profiteering from the biometric information on about 100 million users worldwide.
Just last month Facebook tackled another similar accusation which claimed that a photo tagging tool on FB’s original platform had been illegally collecting and using biometric data. Facebook ended up paying $650 million for a settlement.
Well, that's a drop in the bucket for the $650 billion company that holds almost $60 billion cash on hand. But these repeated accusations are terrible for the company’s public reputation but they seem to care little.
Instagram apparently officially told users that it's been collecting biometric data just this year. Read on.
India’s biotech victory 💉
As the world runs towards the final lap of COVID vaccine research, stakeholders are racing to make lightning speed production systems ready to go, so that vaccines can be made, shipped and administered to 7 billion people in no time. And India’s Serum Institute is likely to play a critical role in this endeavour.
The Serum Institute of India is a company manufacturing immunobiological drugs in India. Based in Pune, and owned by Billionaire Adar Poonawalla, the company produces 1.3 billion doses of vaccines each year such as Tubervac (for TB), Poliovac (for Polio) etc.
Serum has already won a deal to make a billion doses of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca. Approvals from U.S. and European regulators will follow as soon as the end of this year. Also, Serum’s CEO Adar Poonawalla has pledged over 100 million doses of the virus to those who won’t be able to afford it.
Currently, the company’s production facilities can fill as many as 500 glass vials per minute, with capacities to make more than 10 million shots a month. The company could be key to bringing vaccination to the subcontinent that houses 2 billion plus people.
Takeaway: if they do get the opportunity to make the vacc in India, this event is sure to mark a monumental shift in India’s standing as a global pharma manufacturer, likely hurting China and giving us a very good shot to emerge as a dominant medicine exporter. Read about the SII.
Tweet of the day -
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
👛 Axis seeded - Axis Bank has raised ₹10,000 crore through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) of shares after it was forced to do so by the top regulator. The bank claimed that despite a challenging macroeconomic environment, the placement has witnessed strong reception from global and domestic investor communities, including several large foreign portfolio investors, domestic mutual funds and insurance companies.
🙄 Fake news purge - Facebook Inc. removed over 7 million posts in the second quarter for sharing false information about the novel coronavirus, including content that promoted fake preventative measures and exaggerated cures. The company is working to tighten its policies but so far the effort has been deemed weak.
🛒 Retail apocalypse - British department store chain Debenhams is to cut a further 2,500 jobs, thanks to the pandemic. As demand moved online, the company believes there are tons of redundancies in its ranks focused on offline retail that need to be eliminated.
👎 Pinterest accused of gender discrimination - Former COO of the company has filed a lawsuit accusing the company of gender discrimination. The COO says she was abruptly fired from the company in April and that there have been prior cases of discrimination that went ignored.
🙁 Layoffs, more layoffs - Mozilla announced a major restructuring of its commercial arm, and will cut some 250 employees lose, shuttering of the organization’s operations in Taipei, Taiwan. The company had already laid off 70 employees earlier this year.
💉 Trumping Russia - US has announced a $1.5 billion contract with biotech company Moderna for 100 million doses of an eventual coronavirus vaccine. The vaccine, called mRNA-1273, is being co-developed by Moderna and the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Dr Anthony Fauci has said researchers are unlikely to know the efficacy of the vaccine before the end of the year at the earliest.
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