New day ☀️
India's vaccine, venture deals, and delivery takeouts.
Hi 👋, Tanvi here.
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Stock market summary: 💥
US - S&P 500 up 1.54%
India - Sensex down 0.13%
India’s COVID-19 vaccine to start clinical trials 👏
Most major countries with heavy cases are mobilizing all resources to get toward a vaccine and India is one of them. Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech has made some headway and is now being granted permission to Start Phase I and II clinical trials of its drug COVAXIN.
The company developed that prototype in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research’s National Institute of Virology.
Pre clinical trials for the same have shown good immune response in the body and have been termed “safe” for use. Further details are awaited.
So far India has been able to treat extreme cases of the virus with Remdesivir, generic versions of which have been developed for domestic use by local pharma companies.
Social platforms get aggressive 👊
Not a good day for Trump’s social presence as Amazon’s game streaming platform Twitch has banned his account for hateful comments on the platform. Soon after, Reddit banned a sub where Trump supporters would spread misinformation and hatred.
Twitch said the account they banned was mostly used for campaigning and has been suspended for 2 broadcasts going forward. The President has clearly run up against the bounds of what social media companies allow on their sites with 5 of his tweets receiving warning labels in the past couple weeks alone.
So far Facebook has left his comments untouched but the company plans on removing posts by politicians that attempt to incite violence. Few weeks ago Snapchat also stopped promoting Trump’s account for hateful content.
In the last elections, social platforms decided not to intervene and take sides but this time, led by employee backlash and regulator frowning demanding accountability, it seems like most are caving and taking action.
E-learning surge attracts best of breed investors 💰
Just last week after Byju’s raised capital at a $10B+ valuation from Mary Meeker’s Bond Capital, live learning platform Vendantu is reportedly attracting the eyeballs of investors looking to get a piece of India’s ed-tech pie.
Coatue management, a New York based investor, with an outstanding track record is looking to potentially infuse a $100M at a $600M valuation into Vendantu. The deal could double Vendantu’s valuation. Just last week Vendantu invested in and acquired rights to buy a doubt clearing platform Instasolv.
With most traditional educational institutions under lockdown, the pandemic is driving a sea change in demand for digital learning services, with leaders virtually doubling user bases in the matter of a couple months and even experiencing 100%+ MoM growths in sales. Read more.
Delivery consolidation gaining pace 🤝
UberEats has reportedly made an offer to buy food delivery company, Postmates for $2.6B in a bid to gain incremental share in the delivery services market.
The deal follows the ride-hailer’s attempts earlier this year to acquire Grubhub, which did not pan out as expected. Europe based Just Eat Takeaway eloped with Grubhub at the last minute by coughing up $7.3 Billion. Now Uber has turned to its second preferred partner.
Uber’s bread and butter ride hailing business has hit a rough patch as the pandemic eliminated commute and personal travel considerably. On the other hand, locked down consumers are flocking to platforms for takeout orders and essentials shopping. Naturally, Uber is looking to spend cash in buying adjacent companies where it can continue earning some dough.
The deal is still under talks and not much has been finalized but Uber shareholders seem pretty enthusiastic about it given the stock was up considerably on the news.
Tweet of the day -
India’s blanket ban on Chinese technology platforms is offering a unique opportunity for home grown platforms to shine and capture the expelled user base. Founders and investors unanimously believe this could be a pivotal moment that further catalyzes domestic building.
Its a new day. ☀️
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
💰 AMZN shells out bonus for frontline workers - the company will pay $500 million of one time bonuses to all its frontline workers who have been working through the pandemic after it faced backlash regarding safety issues.
👎 Rural unemployment has shot up - rural unemployment in India is up to 7.62 %, a 40 basis point expansion over the previous week as lockdowns stay extended and industrial belts are not running to full capacity yet.
👀 The NYT has ended its partnership with AppleNews - Journalism is struggling to keep pace with the digital world and NYT has decided cut its distribution through Apple news as it did not align with the strategy of building relationships with direct paying customers.
⛔ OYO is breaking agreements with hoteliers - backtracking on its minimum payment guarantee agreements, the company is moving property owners to a revenue share agreement per reports. Property listers are considering legal options.
💋 Kim K gets $200M from Coty - the beauty brand is paying the influencer/celebrity a huge sum to buy 20% in her beauty line that is valued at over $1B. This comes in a series of other deals that highlight the power of individual brands in the digital era.
Hope you took a thing or two away from today’s edition. 😀
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