Netflix made an acquisition 🤝

Fintech raises, Legal conflicts, and Oyo’s raise.

Sep 24, 2021

Hi 👋, Tanvi here.

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Let’s go ahead and get started:

Market summary: 📊

India bounced back strongly, coming back to all-time high territory. US had a similarly enthusiastic day, despite the looming Chinese financial crisis.

US:

S&P 500 - up 1.21%
Nasdaq - up 0.92%

India:

Nifty 50 - up 1.57%
Sensex - up 1.63%

What’s brewing hot? ☕

✅ IT heating up — Accenture managed to blast an excellent quarter, growing revenues by 24% YoY, unusual for IT giants this size — underlining how strongly global IT spending is rebounding after a slump in 2020. Management offered excellent commentary on a strong demand pipeline forming, and stocks in IT services, cloud software, and communications should see some tailwinds.

✅ Breaking silos — two of India’s largest mutual fund registrars CAMS India and KFin technologies, joined hands to launch a portal called MFCentral — a one step location where people can check on their mutual fund portfolios, access statements, service requests etc. The platform hopes to make mundane operational issues easy — like changing nominees, and will be operational end of year.

Willy Wonka goes to Netflix 🤝

Netflix is acquiring British children’s books author, Roald Dahl’s company (the writer of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), for about ~$650 million+ to expand its IP catalog.

Roald Dahl’s novels have sold over 300 million copies worldwide, including famous hits like Matilda The Musical. Netflix actually had a deal with them to develop some 19 TV shows, animated films, almost worth ~$1B, and this acquisition just extends that.

Long game — this would be one of the biggest IP-related buys Netflix has ever made, and one that sows the seeds to allow the company to build a Disney-like IP heavy operation.

Also, Netflix’s core base are now early nesters… and if you’re a parent, a subscription that keeps the kids busy for a couple hours is a straight winner and a must have. One way to stop losing those subs to Disney+!

Who raised the dough? 💸

Fintech continues to draw $$. HappyCredit, a startup offering instant cashback and rewards, raised a ₹5 crore in pre-seed round from Goodwater Capital.

HappyCredit basically allows offline brands and merchants to offer direct cash back to customers on their purchases, irrespective of what card or payment channels users use, helping with customer retention. About 50K+ users are on the app apparently. Fresh funds will be put to doubling down on more credit products. BNPL anyone?

While we’re here on fintech,

Corporate credit card startup KarbonCard raised a $12 million pre-Series A round from US-based Ramp and Y Combinator. Karbon has about 1,500 users with revenues growing 30% month-over-month.

The corporate-credit card market has been on fire lately, globally led by Brex, Ramp, and multiple other geographic clones, vying to steal the market from leader American Express.

Google is suing Indian regulators for allegedly “leaking” confidential documents from an antitrust case. Basically, CCI was investigating Google for abusing its market power, and one of the documents in the case showed how Google had put electronic device makers (OEMs) on exclusive contracts if they wanted to be supplied with Android software. When those docs were leaked, it brought tremendous shame to Google, fomenting an already steaming anti-Google stand in India. Anyway, both parties will fight it out in the Delhi High Court.

Meanwhile, Facebook lost its long-time CTO Mike Schroepfer, who’s been with the company since 2008. Zuck’s confidant and friend Andrew Bozworth who was leading FB’s hardware team, will take over. The leadership shuffle indicates new priorities for Facebook, as the social network company moves beyond an “ecosystem of apps”, to bet on the metaverse, where the glasses-as-a-platform (VR + those freaking RayBans) take center stage.

Closing out — Oyo joins the roster 💪

Reuters broke that Oyo is going to file for a $1.2 billion IPO as early as next week.

At its peak, the business was valued at ~$9.6 billion, churning $900 million+ in revenues (2019). Then came the shitstorm, with near-death stints — with sales dropping 60%+ YoY at one point.

There couldn't be a better time to chase the IPO though — mega investors like Softbank are getting a bit nervous, and convincing investors when travel demand is just set to bounce back is best. Also, the successful win pulled by Airbnb shows what’s possible.

But questions over unit economics, and no profitability to date, will be harsh.

What else are we snackin’ 🍿

💪 Get ready to HODL - Robinhood will begin testing crypto wallets for its users, where users will be able to send each other crypto.

🐦Twitter pushes BTC - Twitter is bringing Bitcoin based tipping to its platform, built on the lightning network.

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