No trust 🧐
Agri infra fund, TikTok woes, and Ambani clmbing up
Hi 👋, Tanvi here.
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Google eyeing Policybazaar 👀
Google is in talks to acquire a minority 10% stake in online insurance marketplace Policybazaar for $150 million.
This deal is part of Google's earlier announced plans to invest upto $10 billion in India’s digital markets, a sizable portion of which has already gone to Reliance Jio. If the deal goes through, Softbank which holds a 15% stake in the insurance company may make a partial exit. God knows they could use that cash.
Policybazaar has been leveraging the pandemic to streamline its operations with the goal of eventually going public in 2021. The company is currently valued at around $3.5 billion and plans on securing about $250 million in a private market raise to get there.
A successful listing of the company on the US or Indian markets will make them one of the firsts from India’s digital era to go public. We hope many more follow.
Weekend happenings in tech land 🗞️
First we have TikTok -
Adding another twist to the TikTok story, reports suggest that following Microsoft, now Twitter has shown interest in buying out TikTok’s US operations. Wait...What!?
The value of TikTok US is likely to be around $30 billion, which is roughly the size of Twitter's market capitalization, so investors are a bit skeptical about Dorsey’s ability to cobble up the cash for this deal. But Twitter management believes its bid will attract less regulatory wrath compared to that of Microsoft.
Regardless, Twitter which has been struggling to make advertising effective on its platform and most recently told investors that it's eyeing a subscription product to monetize going ahead, sure could use some help from TikTok’s phenomenal recommendation and ad engine.
But outbidding Microsoft, Apple and the others? Seems like wishful thinking.
Moving on...
Tiktok has been preparing advertisers on its platform who had made spending commitments through 2020 of the possibility of a shutdown. The company is also offering refunds for all ads it did not run this year.
Before the show turned sour, TikTok was estimated to do nearly $1 billion in revenue this year. But now Trump has banned US companies from doing business with them post September 15. Read more.
Now onto FANG…
Apple is locking horns with Facebook and Microsoft over policies of its App Store.
So, Facebook launched an app on Apple’s App store on Friday - basically a standalone gaming app that lets you play as many games as you want inside the app. You know the Farmville, Shoot the ball type of casual games we’d play on Facebook.
But despite months of negotiations, Apple took the app down after launch, basically because the two companies couldn’t agree on how much control Apple has on developers who build these games. Remember, Apple is very particular about users’ data and privacy and Facebook has a questionable reputation when it comes to third party data sharing.
Then again Apple locked horns with Microsoft when it said Microsoft’s soon to be launched cloud gaming app will be blocked by Apple because it sells games within the app built by third party developers.
Summary: Apple’s strict control over its App Store is fomenting a lot of mistrust and anger among other companies who believe that these practices are anti-competitive.
So what’s next: if the antitrust regulators get a whiff of this news, Apple is going to have to answer for its actions. There are already several lawsuits and investigations pending regarding Apple’s control of his App Store and this will offer investigators more firepower.
Stimulating farming 🙌
The Prime Minister’s Office has launched a Rs. 1 lakh crore infrastructure lending program to stimulate extensive development of post-crop management infrastructure across the nation.
Basically, organizations, groups of farmers and entrepreneurs that are building facilities and setups to store, process, and move grain as well as mechanize the post-farming process throughout the nation will be supported with government cash.
Some Rs 1,000 crore has already been sanctioned to over 2,280 farmer societies through the program. Called the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, the initiative will carry on over the next 10 years and aims to provide medium-to-long term lending for viable projects for post-harvest management infrastructure.
The PM also released the sixth installment of Rs 17,000 crore funds to 8.5 crore farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme, which supports farmers with Rs. 6K a year, delivered directly into their bank accounts.
Takeaway: modernizing farming is key to ensuring food security, an issue our nation still grapples with. This investment initiative will go a long way in setting up agro-based industries, efficient transportation and a robust supply chain. Read more.
Tweet of the day -
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
📈 Ambani climbing fast - Mukeshbhai is now the world's fourth-richest man per Bloomberg, thanks to external investments in Jio, clearing of Reliance’s debt, and stellar business performance even in the middle of the pandemic which helped Reliance stock climb 43% this year alone. Only three people are ahead of Ambani now -- Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg.
😷 COVID trials begin in Singapore - early-stage clinical trial for a COVID-19 vaccine has started in Singapore for a vaccine called Lunar-Cov19 which is developed by a joint venture of Duke-NUS Medical School and US pharma company Arcturus Therapeutics. Around 100 people will take part in the trial, all aged between 20 to 50.
👏 Netflix’s regional makeover - streaming giant Netflix has just launched its Hindi language interface in India, in a move to expand its footprint and reach a bigger audience. The company has been aggressively investing in regional content as well to appeal to the average Indian consumer.
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