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Market summary: 📊
Adani mess and the lack of clarity thereof is weighing on the investor mood back home. US had a crappy day as well, with old school giants hammered while tech was let off easy.
US:
S&P 500 - down 0.54%
Nasdaq - down 0.34%
India:
Nifty 50 - down 0.64%
Sensex - down 0.51%
Quick caffeine injection ☕
✅ Ambani’s Tata Nano moment — Mukesbhai thought he’d make the cheapest smartphone (powered by Google) and dominate the bottom of the market, but nature had other plans. The ongoing supply chain crunch, combined with rising prices of electronic components, is making it hard to get the bill of materials for the device within the margins as well as delivery time frame that Reliance had hoped for. Delays in launch could take out an early mover advantage, and now offer Airtel as well as Chinese knock-offs in the local market, a better chance at attacking RIL’s digital domination agenda. Oh how the lord works…
✅ Bravo kiddo — in 2014, a less known Satya Nadella was elevated to the CEO role of one of the most iconic corporations on this planet, Microsoft. In the next 6 years, Nadella turned hay into gold, making Microsoft a multi-trillion dollar corporation, taking stock up nearly 600%, generating unprecedented shareholder wealth. Last night, Nadella was offered another gig, Chairman of the Board, effectively putting him in control of the “new” company he created. Last time MSFT had the same guy as CEO and Chairman was Bill Gates 20 years ago. What a dude!
Play PUBG, but through your brokerage lol 🎮
Krafton, the company that made the sensational phenomenon PUBG, is all set to IPO, raising $5 billion at a $25 billion valuation, smashing the record of Samsung Life, to be the LARGEST IPO by a Korean company to date.
COVID-driven boom in gaming helped Krafton make more than a billion dollars in revenues last year, across its portfolio which has a bunch of games and other content services, with operating margins of nearly 70% — none of that “we proudly lose cash” BS comin’ from every other growth company...
And among other games, PUBG is a star by a mile and more — getting 1 billion+ downloads on mobile to date. With an India relaunch imminent, expect those numbers to jump even more. Going forward, the company has plans to expand into wider media opportunities at its disposal — including web-based cartoons, movies, and paradigm shifts like AR.
Hot day on Venture Avenue 💰
Fintech startup Fampay, which runs a neobank for teenagers closed on a $38 million Series A round led by Elevation Capital, with existing backers Y Combinator and Sequoia pitching in.
If you’re plugged into the startup ecosystem, you’re well aware of the brand — FamPay helps its GenZ heavy audience to get a debit card, without actually having a bank account just yet, with controls of the account handed over to parents. The company’s pitch is to breed financial literacy early on in this cohort of users via gamified lessons.
And stats are mind blowing — 2 million+ users have been onboarded till now, with 100%+ growth rates in recent months.
Going forward — India’s 250 million+ young population is incredibly underserved by traditional banks, who treat these users as “low ticket” leads, or worse, club them with their parents’ needs.
Big Picture — US giants like Greenlight, Current, Step have shown this category can be extremely monetizable even with a 5-10 million core user base. With 40% of Indian population below 18, the opportunity here is equally promising.
While we’re discussing big raises, 🖖
The LinkedIn for India’s blue collar workforce, Apna.co, raised a sizable $70 million for its Series B round, at a $570 million valuation, with Tiger Global and Insight Partners co-leading the bid.
Apna helps skilled workers like painters, sales agents, carpenters, find jobs as well as connect with communities, and upskilling opportunities, helping users develop their trade, and find jobs at large corporations. Over 10 million workers have joined the platform.
What matters — one of the worst impacts of COVID has been on the blue-collar worker segment in India, with estimated 1 million skilled traders losing their jobs. No better timing to fix that!
How’s it hanging in Big Tech land? 🧐
Quick look at two major happenings from the valley…
Google’s self-driving project Waymo, cash strapped to pursue its unending crusade of nailing the last-bit of autonomy, and almost abandoned for pocket-money by the financially strict CFO of Alphabet, has now landed sympathy from outside investors — raising $2.5 billion from a16z, AutoNation, Canada’s pension fund PPIB, Fidelity, and a bunch of old school investors who typically jump into late stage, pre-IPO companies, which is now fanning speculations that Waymo may actually be planning a SPAC-led IPO deal pretty soon.
In Washington, Biden hired a new cop to run his antitrust crusade against Big Tech companies — and it's none other than 32-year old Lina Khan, the legal scholar best known for damning and well-circulated analysis of the failure of the traditional antitrust laws to nail companies like Amazon. Lina is the worst chance tech companies could’ve have gotten and the markets are bracing for the breakup of AT LEAST 1 of the leaders.
got a favorite?
Closing out — Michael Burry says jump 📈
If you’ve watched The Big Short, you know who that is. Burry, who runs a multi-billion dollar hedge fund, Scion Management, and made bank by predicting the 2008 financial crisis, posted a tweet last night calling out the markets dislocation from reality.
As far as Burry’s portfolio goes, he’s highly short on Tesla, Bitcoin, and everything in between.
What matters — with the S&P 500 trading with bloated fundamentals, SPACs and fresh IPOs crashing because of failure to meet targets, inflation jumping to some of the highest levels since forever — chatter on when the party ends has become the favorite Zoom pre-call banter.
From a retail investor perspective, timing the market has never really worked well, but it certainly makes little sense to go riding hypes at the peak of their apparent maturity right now.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
💵 For giving - Mackenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Mr. Bezos donated $2.7 billion to 286 organizations, taking her total donations to $8.5 billion within a year.
🖖 Party bust - stocks of the Adani Group continued downward spirals after volatility and attention hating investors decided to move away until the stink clears from the room. India might’ve found its true meme stocks.
Hit that 💚 if you liked today’s issue.
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Hello Folks,
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Log on our websites (www.lubingames.com) buy the tickets of Tambola and play on 25 December.