Bubbles go poof đ¨
Sharks on leave, Indian NFTs, and a hungry Reliance.
Market summary: đ
India continued to lose ground on Wednesday, as the shakiness in the US markets slowly reached east. US had another down day again, with the Nasdaq now down 14% from all time highs in December.
US:
S&P 500 -Â down 0.97%
Nasdaq - down 1.07%
India:
Nifty 50 - down 0.96%
Sensex - down 1.08%
Quick mid-week shot of Espresso â
đ No sharking please â the Kotak incident finally forced BharatPeâs board to act, who asked founder Ashneer Grover to keep his shark-moves at home for a few months until the air cleared. In corporate speak, itâs called a âleave of absenceâ, essentially a âGTFO for a few daysâ message delivered kindly. Press releases made sure it was clear that Mr. Shark wonât be meddling in day-to-day activities of BP and that CEO Suhail Sameer will be leading the ship as usual. Points to the board!
âď¸ Airline pain â DGCA says Indiaâs air traffic recovered about 33% for 2021 compared to 2020 â a HUGE relief for the brutally competitive industry that operates on razor thin margins. In total, 88.3 million passengers traveled by air for the year. However, these numbers are farrrrr from 2019 levels â with almost 145 million passengers taking off that year. Likely never returning there, with business travel dead and all that.
Pelotonâs bubble is bursting in a big way đ¤ˇââď¸
Whatâs poppinâ â workout equipment-maker Peloton is hiring consultants, specifically McKinsey, to evaluate downsizing, shut down retail stores, and bring costs down for its $10 billion operation!
Pelotonâs $2,200+ stationary workout-bikes and the âexperienceâ ensured by its well trained coaches, made people almost believe they were probably looking at the next Apple. And frankly, just pedaling those things saved millions from COVID depression.
For 2020, the business grew 140%+ in revenues, had 6 million+ members, and saw stock 8x for the year!
But since the pandemic receded, gyms reopened, and all those engagement and growth stats stalled. Peloton missed a couple targets last quarter, and stock has been down like 85% since!
What now â investors are calling for Nike, Apple, Meta, or even Disney to step in and acquire $PTON at $10 billion.
Big picture â the fiasco is probably indicative of more pain coming down the line for other pandemic-favorite businesses â including Zoom.
Hottest from Venture Street đ°
Indiaâs own Shopify for small businesses, Bikayi, is getting close to wrapping up a $50 million Series B from Sequoia and Tiger Global.
Bikayiâs platform makes it super simple to spin up an online store for merchants â ready with services like shipping, cataloging, payments, and even design support making things super simple. Over 4 million merchants have joined the platform till now, with total volumes processed topping $200 million to date.Â
Long way to go, but the field is rapidly heating up with startups from Dukaan, to DotPe, as well as large marketplaces eyeing the arena.
Then onto crypto for a little bit đ¸
Meanwhile, homegrown NFT-marketplace Diginoor raised $1 million in a seed round from Kunal Shah, Polygon and a few other angels. Diginoor is working with large production houses like Reliance Entertainment and AVM to sell digital arts featuring memorable moments from Indian movies and songs.
Quick look at a growing IPO roster đ
What happened â Landmark Cars, a nationwide car-dealership chain with an outstanding growth story, filed its IPO papers with SEBI â looking to raise âš762 crores from the markets.
Founded 23-years ago, Landmark began first selling Honda cars in Gujarat India, and since has expanded to become the biggest seller of premium rides from Mercedes, to Volkswagen and Renault.Â
It manages a white collar corporate operation â a rarity in Indiaâs auto dealership business, running 110 outlets across 8 states, selling both new and pre-owned vehicles. Landmark also runs its own insurance operation, called Policy Boss, selling 6-7 lakh policies in a year!
Last year, they even signed up the Tesla of China, BYD, to sell its cars in Mumbai and Delhi. Financially, despite COVIDâs rampage on the entire auto industry, Landmark pulled in about âš2,000 crores last year, closing books with âš11.5 crores in profits.
Worth calling out â US-based TPG is an investor in the company, making it the first automotive dealership to receive private equity funding in India. Hereâs a great profile from ET..
Closing out â Relianceâs acquisition spree no stop đ¸Â
Whatâs poppinâ â Reliance acquired a 54% stake in homegrown robotics startup, Addverb, for $132 million.
Addverb designs warehouse automation bots and sorting systems for several large retail operations â including Amazon, Coca-Cola, Flipkart and Reliance itself. They deploy thousands of machines a year, pulling in $60M+ in revenues a year!
Reliance is obviously betting here to ensure it has solid tech as it aggressively invests in buildout of digital fulfillment centers. Also, locking tight relationships with key suppliers helps make competition anxious.Â
What else are we Snackin'đż
đŤ No flights - India extends ban on international passenger flights till Feb 28 .
đ˝ Gotta monetize - Revolut, the challenger bank from UK, launched its stock trading app in the US, as it continues to expand business globally.Â
đ There were more suitors - Bloomberg says Activision met with several companies, including Facebook, before signing the company away to Microsoft.
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