DAO that wasn't 🤞
Health insurance IPO, rising inflation, and back-to-office drives PC demand.
Market summary: 📊
Down again! After a positive day on Tuesday, India resumed downward journey, ending half a percent lower on Wed. US investors took the markets a notch higher before going into a long Thanksgiving weekend.
US:
S&P 500 - up 0.23%
Nasdaq - up 0.37%
India:
Nifty 50 - down 0.50%
Sensex - down 0.55%
What’s brewing hot?☕
1️⃣ DAO that wasn’t — ConstitutionDAO is finally dissolving, after hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin pulled the rug from under them at the Sotheby’s auction. But not before seeing some chaos and souring moods over refunds — some folks lost a HUGE chunk of their commitments to ETH gas fees. Also, for it to technically be a DAO, the organization never even ended up having to vote with its token, so that’s that. Anyway, all pooled funds will be liquidated, and the DAO’s discord will be read-only here on out.
2️⃣ Thanksgiving of inflation — our friends in the west are feeling the wallet squeeze this Thanksgiving season — thanks to their government’s money printer running constantly through COVID. Staples items from Turkeys to Pies to Gravy are on average 8-10% more expensive than last year, says Bloomberg. Then there’s The Dollar Tree — the $1 store which decided just-before the family dinner was the right time to announce its uniform price raise to $1.25.
Health insurance IPO, adding some flavor to the chaos 📈
What’s shakin’ — Star Health & Allied Insurance Co., a major insurer operating from Chennai, is going public — raising $972 million, at a ~$7 billion valuation. Bids open Nov 30.
Star primarily sells health policies (owning 15% of the health insurance market in India) but has expanded into travel and accident insurance as well, selling to individuals and corporates — via its 780 branch-network across 25 states nationwide.
For the last year, the business made ~₹7,600 in revenues, growing a solid 37% on the back of COVID’s tailwinds — losing some ₹825 crores, but given extra claims-processed during COVID and tough operating conditions, that’s forgivable.
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is an early investor, owning a tick above 18% of the business.
Bottomline — COVID made hundreds of millions of Indians more aware about their healthcare coverage. Market’s reaction should indicate excitement for that change.
India’s unicorn printer goes frrrrrr 🦄
Used-cars in the house! Spinny closed a $285 million Series E, again from Tiger Global, with Abu Dhabi’s ADQ pitching in — doubling valuation to over $1.75 billion 👏
That brings 2021’s tally to 38.
Spinny, which competes on a crowded field against Cars24, CarDekho, Droom, has seen business multiply 4x this year — thanks to rising prices and long-wait times for new cars, and a consumer dislike of public transport post-COVID.
The platform now sells over 3,000 cars each month (3x more than January), on its way to make $300M in revenues this year.
Meanwhile, a fantasy sports raise ☝️
Dream Sports, the company that runs fantasy-sports platform Dream 11 and remains one of the most promising e-sports plays in India, raised a massive $840 million from Tiger Global, Falcon Edge and a bunch of big name investors, at a $8 billion valuation.
Following Dream11’s success, Dream Sports has been aggressively diversifying into events, gaming contests, content, merch, you name it… calling itself a sports-tech conglomerate in the making. 140M+ users engage with their products each month, making them one of the only few profitable unicorns! Here’s our friends from Simplanations with a solid primer. 👌
Fintech party squeezed — N26 is exiting the US 👋
What happened — N26, the $9 billion German neo-bank out to woo millennials users and supposedly attack the draconian hold of the old-banks, is quitting the US market — after a 2 year-long dud of a stint, and tens of millions worth hole in the pocket.
Writing on the wall for several similar neobanks couldn’t be clearer. Host of European firms flooded the US market, causing a frenzy of venture funding, M&A, and buyouts downstream.
However — those without a distinguishable focus, niche, or purpose were plagued with high acquisition costs, low retention, and no exclusive relationship with users.
What next — N26’s 500,000 customers won’t be able to access the app, and their banking information will be deleted. Money will be refunded through a specially set up process.
Closing Out — office re-openings help PC stocks make fortune 🔥
Office re-openings are here, and PC-vendors are making bank selling to enterprise customers once again.
Dell blasted a 21% YoY growth for the last quarter — with enterprise PC sales growing a sharp 35% to bring in $16.5 billion in revenues. HP followed with a 9% jump in total revenues, again led by 24% YoY growth in stuff sold to the offices.
Both stocks were seen flying yesterday, as software and other growth categories (or even Zoom for example) get flogged.
Why care — the pace at which we’re churning through COVID trends into a post-COVID set-up is remarkable. Adjust your sails.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
⌛ Time’s up - Dubsmash (the OG TikTok) will be shut early next year. Reddit actually owns them, so instead Reddit will push its own video tools going forward.
🤷♂️ Not again - Ola Electric pushed the delivery date for its existing orders from December to January next year. Chip shortage says hello?
🏭 Big plans - Samsung will build a $17 billion semiconductor factory in Texas, to address the ongoing chip shortages. Plenty semiconductor manufacturing is moving out of Asia, and back into Western markets.
Hit that 💚 if you liked today’s issue.
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It is GROWTH vs INFLATION!!!
DAO -Still in a beginning stage. Lot of regulatory frame work under process. Still risky.
Despite the unknowns, those in the space think that DAOs will be disruptive to traditional structures of business. Either way DAO has still to go long journey.