Chose war š¤·āāļø
Frothy markets, Zomato's plans, and Twitter plays smart.
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Market summary: š
Well the longer it takes, the more observed it feels. Indian markets retreated a bit yesterday, despite pretty solid earnings overall. US stocks had a decent session, with tech leading the day.
US:Ā
S&P 500 - up 0.36%
Nasdaq 100 - up 0.87%
India:Ā
Nifty 50 - down 0.93%
Sensex - down 1.09%
Hottest from the oven āØļø
ā Canāt get enoughāretail investors poured into the StoveKraft IPO, over subscribing the round by over 5.5 times by end first day of bidding. Institutional investors havenāt begun putting their bids in yet, but expect a similar show. Meanwhile, traditionalists are a bit worried that the market might be getting slightly frothy in the middle with all these high-flying raises.
ā Another data point to put you at easeāKotak bank crushed it last quarter too, somewhat on the lines of HDFC and countless other global banks we have seen so far. Profits jumped like 16% and overall bad loans actually showed a modest improvement compared to the same time last year. Investors generally look up to these stats to get a pulse on how the broad economic machine is breathingāso far so good.
Amazon woke up and chose war š
āKishore Biyani must be jailedā, says a petition filed by Amazon in Delhi High Court, with the company taking a stinky turn in their chase of Future Group. Amazon claims Futureās violation of the Singapore regulators was āwilfulā and deserves consequences. Ummā¦ a bit too much bruh.
So far, Reliance seems steadfastly committed to making the deal work, but if Future keeps spiraling down the hole, will that arrangement stay?
What surprises us is Amazonās willpower to drag this through the mudāthis could turn into a PR nightmare within no time, and Amazon is already battling an uphill fight, particularly appealing to consumers in heartland India, often appearing like a āforeign brandā. Could play right into that trapā¦ Come on Bozos!
Bottomline: nobody imagined this spat to get so ugly. Reliance so far has kept its direct weight out of this conflict, but unsure how long that will last. Also, the government's direct intervention canāt be ruled out either. In any case, the spat is becoming a HUGE distraction for the two companies chasing the $100B+ Indian digital commerce prize.
Zomato plans for another $500 million before IPO is rolled out š°
Strike while the iron is hotāZomato is taking that quite literally. With the delivery business just getting off one of the busiest holiday and year end seasons ever, the company is making room for $500 million in fresh capital at a $5.5 billion pre-IPO valuation.Ā
Just last month the company had closed on about $660 million round which had dragged through at least a couple quarters. With that, they'll soon be sitting on a cash pile of over $1 billionāa super enviable position to pitch big, bold ideas to public market investors.Ā
Existing investors Tiger Global, Steadview, Fidelity among others will pitch in more, while the China boys Ant Group and Sunlight Fund will be exiting. FDI rules are making it hard for the Chinese, but also Public markets bring public sentiment soā¦.better off erasing some history there. Ā
Dragoneer will be a new investor on the cap table.
Takeaway: food delivery is how this game has begun, but it won't be how it continues. Zomato has a wide range of options to build a robust last mile delivery network that becomes critical to Indiaās expanding digital commerce game. The avg. retail investor canāt wait for this IPO!
Of course the kids need a card š
Junio, a kids-focused fintech startup, raised a ā¹75 lakh seed round from CRED's Kunal Shah, Deepak Abbot, and a few other notable angels, while a follow-on round from First Cheque and others is in the making.
Leading charge are former Paytm and Softbank employees, who in a bid to inculcate financial awareness and discipline in children, plan to offer credit cards with parental controls, with purchase allowance linked to completion of specific tasks.
Bunch of such companies have emerged in the western markets, and have done quite well in fact, so I guess weāll see how the Indian consumer judges the tool.
While weāre talking about raises,Ā š
The short video app boom isnāt skipping a beatāBolo Indya, one of the homegrown players, is in early talks to raise $7 million more. Just last month or so they had closed on a $400K raise.Ā Ā
The company is basically differentiating by focusing on creators from the get goāvideo makers across genres are given the tools to build their own audience, sell merch, accept payments and tips etc. So far theyāve grown into nearly 7 million users, with about 3 million ācreatorsā, with top makers earning upwards of $1K a month on the platform. Super promising for sure.Ā š
Tweet of the day š¦
Yesterday we briefly mentioned how TSMC is leading charge with innovation around semiconductor manufacturing. Hereās an amazing thread outlining their game
What else are we snackinā šæ
š± Nobody asks - RealMe is doubling down in recovery, and preparing for a post-COVID retail spending windfall with 500 new "smart" stores to be launched across India this year. Also, the company is aggressively expecting smartphone shipments to grow by over 30% this year.Ā
š¦Twitta smartass- tired of paying for moderators to clean up all the language on the platform, Dorsey is now gonna ask users for their support. Twitterās Birdwatch feature will give users some control to comment on and report bad activity you notice on the platform. I mean, basically outsourcing all the ācostā of moderation to unassuming users!
Wishing y'all a Happy Republic Day! Watch the parade, sleep in, and go easy š
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