Dara’s bets
Big money moves, Agro IPO, and TWTR creator ready.
Hi 👋, Tanvi here.
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Market summary: 📊
Indian markets made a tiny move upwards, trying hard to keep vaccination-driven optimism in check. US had another record day, as $$ rotates from crypto into growth stonks!
US:
S&P 500 - up 0.51%
Nasdaq - up 0.94%
India:
Nifty 50 - up 0.17%
Sensex - up 0.03%
Quick shots of espresso ☕
✅ Price increases comin’ — rise in raw material prices and clogged supply chains are forcing auto makers to bump up prices. Hero Motocorp told the markets yesterday that it plans on raising prices across all models by at-least ₹3,000. Maruti, Mahindra, Tata, BMW, have already made their moves. That, coupled with hopes of post-wave 2 revenge purchases could drive some real revenue growth, and auto stocks were seen leading the market yesterday on those hopes.
✅ Calls for self regulation — Top crypto exchanges in India are joining forces under the purview of IndiaTech, an industry association representing top startups in the country, nudging GOI to allow the exchanges to self regulate themselves under a supervised framework, as GOI uncertainty continues to limit operations. CoinDCX, Wazir, CS Kuber, are already in, while Zebpay joined yesterday. Seems like a stretch in the current environment.
Uber is ready for more 🛒
What happened — Uber made a rare acquisition yesterday, buying out grocery delivery player Cornershop, throwing its hat in the $110 billion online grocery delivery market.
For the last 2 years, a cash-bleeding Uber was pulling out of a million of its initiatives, cleaning up its balance sheet under immense shareholder pressure. However, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was all the time quietly planting seeds into potential opportunities where he had interest, but didn’t have the $$ to go aggressively, yet.
Cornershop was one such seed (planted in 2019), and yesterday, as the ride-hailing business finally regains its footing, management fully acquired the rest of the business.
Deal value is unknown, but we’re guessing somewhere around $300M-$400M (given Walmart had tried buying the company for $225 million a while back). Cornershop operates across 8 nations in the American continent.
Bottomline — Cornershop joins the boys from Postmates who were brought in last year at Uber HQ, who together will lead all non-ride hailing franchises — now bringing in about $3 billion in revenues a year.
Big picture — markets are starting to like the prospects of the “post pandemic” Uber, and stock has already 2x’ed from the bottoms.
Money moves on Venture Street 💰
While the startup raises took a pause on Tuesday, two major capital allocators made splashy news. Quick look:
Early and seed stage investor India Quotient closed on its 4th fund worth $64 million. Over the last 8 years, the platform has amassed an impressive portfolio of over 80 companies across SaaS, D2C, edtech, and fintech, with Sharechat and Sugar Cosmetics among some of its big wins.
Meanwhile, at the top of the table, Tata, with some evidence in its pocket of exceptional deal making in the digital space, and an outlay of its ambitions going forward, is now courting private equity investors to gather a $2.5 billion pot to further double down on its digital ambitions. Rumors are, CureFit founder (recently acquired) is the “digital guy” on the fundraising team, and dinner dates are being set with investors in the US, EU, and Singapore.
What matters — the top is heating up with old Indian conglomerates opening up coffers for category leading startups. The bottom is heating up with successful venture platforms now looking to throw heavier punches. In all, the Indian venture market has never looked so flush with $$.
Quick look at an upcoming IPO 🎵
India Pesticides, an agro-chem player, will be open for a public listing this morning — looking to raise ₹800 crores from public markets.
The company basically makes a broad portfolio of compounds and formulations — including herbicide, fungicide, and other chemicals used in the agricultural world for crop protection, in addition to an emerging portfolio of active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Quick look at financials:
Made ₹649 crores last year, growing better than 35% for the last 2 years
Profits growing at 90%, showing operating leverage with scale
Total assets growing, debt is negligent and going down
Management is stellar
Analysts claim the company’s R&D expertise is invaluable, and with ever growing end market demand to boost crop yields, the street is expecting a blockbuster listing — if you can get in, that is.
Tweet of the day 🐦
Intrigued by KKR’s $$$ deal for Vini, we looked into Darshan Patel. Man’s got quite the reputation! 👏👏
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
🎬 Creator boost - Twitter is now taking applications for “super follow” features, where users can charge $$ for exclusive content. Verified users could make some serious money on commissions.
😌 Time to Relax - Bumble *closed* all offices for the week to let burnt-out employees recover from the pandemic blues. Make this common pls?
Hit that 💚 if you liked today’s issue.
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read for the first time , it was good !
Hi. Always a pleasure & informative to read Filter Coffee newsletter in the morning. Thank you.