Opensea's windfall 💸
Good Glamm's plans, Sony's EV ambitions, and more unicorns.
Market summary: 📊
India continued its upward run for a 3rd straight session in 2022. US markets however took a sharp turn south, with tech openly flogged, as rising cases and looming rate change make investors nervous.
US:
S&P 500 - down 1.94%
Nasdaq - down 3.12%
India:
Nifty 50 - up 0.67%
Sensex - up 0.61%
What’s brewing hot? ☕
💪 Good Glamm’s good plan — Good Glamm, the D2C unicorn, continues to double down on its unique content-to-commerce approach. GG is kicking off a new business called Good Creator Co., which will focus on clubbing it’s influencer marketing products with top-shelf data analytics solutions — to help other brands leverage India’s expanding influencaaa-talent network. New venture will be seeded with a ₹200 crore check, and has been strengthened by the buyout of 2 startups in the space already, Winkl and Vidooly.
😎 Japan now rules American auto — chip shortages continue to drive major share shifts in the global auto-market. Toyota managed to dethrone General Motors (the owners of Chevrolet and Cadillacs), as the No.1 car maker in the US — ending GM’s run at the top since 1931! Toyota sold 2.3 million vehicles, up 10% YoY, while GM’s sales dropped 13% YoY to 2.2 million last year — all because of 1 reason, GM did a bad job managing its component supply chain.
OpenSea flush in green 💸
What’s poppin’ — OpenSea, the eBay of digital art and the platform at the center of the global NFT boom, raised a mammoth $300 million round from Coatue and crypto-investor Paradigm Research — at a $13.3 billion valuation.
Quite something for a venture that didn’t exist just 4 years ago!
How ‘em stats looking — growth has been on steroids over the past year. For 2021, the platform did ~$15 billion in total volumes — a massive 600x jump from a ~$25 million it processed in 2020, with some 2 million monthly active users!
Now whether NFT hype sticks through 2022 or not is another debate. For now, Coinbase and other well funded giants have expressed interest in entering OpenSea’s turf, and fresh funds will be used to defend position.
While we’re here, ☝️
Checks are already being signed away — OpenSea will buy Dharma Labs, another early crypto venture that’s building an ETH wallet and an ETH-based system for transferring money between two bank accounts, for about ~$130 million.
Both OpenSea and Dharma were part of a late-2017 YC batch.
Sony wants to build electric vehicles 🔌
Consoles, movies, smartphones, and now cars… how hard can it be?
Sony’s management can’t stop thinking about EVs, so the company is kicking off a new autos unit called Sony Mobility — looking to research the potential of entering the EV business!
It’s barely a surprise… we’ve seen a familiar trend lately where electronics giants with sizable manufacturing operations (even like Foxconn, Pegatron) have been throwing their hats into the EV game from various angles.
The bet? Rising belief in the industry that you can make cars like you make smartphones, in a few years. An evolving dynamic where mechanical systems become commodity, while majority of innovation is led by electronics + software is making this shift in thinking happen.
Anyway, Sony clearly mentions that its betting on its comfort with sensors, audio systems, and vehicle operating systems to help kick things off.
Verdict — our bet, instead of making cars under its own brand, Sony will possibly become a contract manufacturer for others.
What’s popping in India’s startup town 💰
Zupee, a real money gaming platform, closed a $102 million Series B round from Nepean Capital, Orios Venture and a few others, at a $600 million valuation!
Zupee hosts variety of interactive skill based online tournaments like mundance quizzes as well as casual games like ludo, for the vella-crowd, with rewards paid out in cash. 70 million+ users have downloaded the app till now.
Real deal — the round saw the company partnering with Jio to bring its apps to Jio’s low priced handsets. That’s invaluable.
Then onto a late stage bet, ☝️
Fractal, the data analytics consultant, reportedly became 2022’s second unicorn after raising $360 million from TPG Capital.
Fractal is slowly supplementing its services and consulting heavy operation with software products (for image and text analytics, consumer engagement measurement, forecasting and various other tasks) — sold mostly to enterprises in CPG, healthcare, and insurance verticals. Majority of the company’s clients are global, with $100 million+ in annual revenues.
Outside of this folks, it’s been a woefully quiet news day.
Kinda expected with people reluctant to lose their holiday mood and get back into the swing of things. Hopefully tomorrow’s busier ✌️
What else are we Snackin’ 🍿
⚠️ Fire alert — Mercedes says 800K of its luxury car have problems that could spark a fire. But won’t recall the cars yet became *drumroll* no parts baby. Don’t fry yourself until then pls.
🛰️ New venture — Airtel is joining hands with Hughes Communications to bring satellite internet services to India.
💉Jab ‘em all — 1 crore teens between the age of 15-18 have been vaccinated in India. Bravo!
Hit that 💚 if you liked today’s issue.
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