Full circle 🔄
IPL sponsor, Local accelerator, and Chingari raise.
Hi 👋, Tanvi here.
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Stock summary:
US:
S&P 500 - up 0.27%
Nasdaq - down 0.49%
India:
Nifty 50 - up 0.50%
Sensex - up 0.37%
Chinese problems, Ayurvedic solutions 🌿
Baba Ramdev's Patanjali is considering bidding for the title sponsorship of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) after Chinese smartphone maker Vivo orchestrated a walkout leaving the BCCI without a prom date.
Gotta give it to Babaji for bijnes sense. Anyway, the move if gone through could offer the firm its first legit access to a global marketing platform, helping extensively its brand, image and prospects of scaling exports for its Ayurveda-based FMCG products.
Far as BCCI goes, they’re not short of potential suitors. Especially considering how armed up some of India’s top digital services platforms are right now, they sure could promptly start a global bidding war for sponsorships if they want to.
The title sponsorship is a significant part of the IPL’s commercial revenue, half of which is shared equally by the franchises. Vivo had won the IPL title sponsorship rights for five years from 2018 for a reported sum of ₹2,190 crore, approximately ₹440 crore per annum. Read more.
Accelerating local dreams ☁️
Flipkart has launched a startup accelerator programme called ‘Flipkart Leap’ to help upcoming startups navigate early stage challenges and in turn contribute to the country's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The programme will shortlist companies based on five themes: design and make for India, innovation in digital commerce, technologies to empower the retail ecosystem, supply chain management and logistics, and relevant deep-tech applications and then will offer 16-weeks of virtual mentorship along with an equity-free grant of $25,000 to participants. B2C as well as B2B startups are welcome to apply.
Startups applying for the programme should be based out of India and should have a working prototype with some traction. Participants will get to pitch their models to investors as well as corporates and other ecosystem players on the demo-day. Flipkart may also consider further investments. Read more.
Turning Chingari into fire 🔥
Domestic short video app Chingari, currently thriving in TikTok’s wake, has raised $1.3 million in a seed round led by AngelList India and other notable investors.
The social app which recently emerged as the top winner in the "Social" category of Atma Nirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge has about 25 million total installs and records more than 3 million active daily users.
Interestingly, the company has taken a unique approach paying almost 30% of its advertiser revenues out to creators right off the bat. We think that is brilliant and will help stimulate local content creation and talent discovery. Also, the platform’s regional languages focus particularly in Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu is smart and laudable.
The funds acquired will be used to hire more people, ramp up platform and accelerate product development with a focus on making it more engaging. So far these platforms appear considerably lacking in matching TikTok’s feel and content quality.
Takeaway: creators and artists were thrown off when the government banned TikTok in India. While the government’s motivation can be understood, local talent needs an outlet and it's applauding that these platforms recognize and prioritize that.
Life goes around in circles 🔄
Guess who’s buying malls now? Amazon, the very company that rammed a dagger through the heart of the mall and retail industry.
However, the renewed interest comes for an entirely different reason. As ecommerce booms, and Amazon sells everything from diapers to vegetables, the company believes it can repurpose defunct malls and convert them into warehousing and fulfillment facilities close to suburbs, significantly reducing fulfilment times.
The largest mall owner in the US, Simon Property Group, is working with Amazon to take over empty spaces left behind by prominent retailers in the past who have now filed for bankruptcy. Think Sears, JC Penny and other American giants. Stripping these spaces of all their fancy decor and packing them with merchandise, Amazon can operate these areas for a much lower cost while servicing a much wider consumer base.
For an average US suburban region that is well planned out for 10-15,000 residents, Malls often turn out to be the epicenters of social gatherings. As a result, malls own some of the primest real estate in American suburbs. Now, as Amazon looks to cut delivery times, these locations are coming very handy. Read more.
Takeaway: two trends are converging here - decline of the malls, often labeled as an extravagant waste of resources, and the rise of ecommerce. Both trends are accelerated by the pandemic.
Tweet of the day -
Kevin Lee produces some great content. Here’s a read on the work of a notable Chef and his differentiating work.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
😷 Former Pres tested positive - Former President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, tweeted that he had tested positive for Coronavirus when he visited the hospital for a separate procedure. He also urged those who came in contact with him in recent times to get themselves tested.
🤯 Hitting where it hurts - the government of Gujarat increased the fine for not wearing a mask in public places to Rs 1,000 from the present Rs 500 following a directive from the state High Court.
🚗 VW bids adieu to Diesel - Volkswagen will no longer offer diesel engine options in its cars that are sold in the Indian market as the company chalks out an India 2.0 plan aimed at giving the Indian market a reformed shot. Interest in diesel engines is consistently falling in the Indian passenger vehicle segment as the middle class, annoyed by costs avoids these variants.
😎 21 din mein paisa double - Amazon India said that over 91,000 SMBs participated in its two-day Prime Day sales. More than 200 SMB sellers made sales of over 1 crores within 48 hours across the nation. Around 31,000 sellers witnessed their highest sales ever with over 4,000 sellers each registering sales of Rs.10 lakhs or more. Great in these times!
📣 BMC piloting voice tech - The BMC will next week onwards start using a voice sampling method to diagnose Covid-19 on lines of similar tech used by European nations. A pilot will be run on 1000 patients at the BMC’s Nesco facility.
🛒 Instant grocery runs - Swiggy joined the quick grocery delivery bandwagon by launching Instamart in Gurugram to deliver groceries within 45 minutes. The service directly pits the delivery company against Amazon Fresh, BigBasket, Flipkart Quick and Reliance Jiomart.
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