Playing dirty 👀

Venture raise from last night, and the week ahead.

Dec 19, 2020

Hi 👋, Tanvi here.

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Let’s go ahead and get started:

Market summary: 📊

India wrapped up back to back great weeks, and Sensex seems quite comfortable holding 45K levels. Global stocks gave away some gains on Friday for no apparent reason.

US:

S&P 500 - down 0.35%
Nasdaq 100 - down 0.11%

India:

Nifty 50 - up 0.14%
Sensex - up 0.15%

Quick look at a big raise from last night ☝️

Arya, a Noida based startup that’s helping farmers discover good prices for their harvest has raised a $21 million Series B round. Emerging market fintech specialist Quona Capital led the bid, with LGT Lightstone, Aspada, and Omnivore capital pitching in.

Data suggests that of all the produce Indian farmers make, barely 67% of it ever reaches urban markets—failing which, farmers struggle to store and move their grain, get good prices for their produce, establish credit, and get capital support when needed. Arya offers a managed service that simplifies this entire process of warehousing, payments, lending—pretty much everything once the grain is harvested until farmers get payout and then sow grain for the next harvest.

Currently, they’re operating 1,000+ warehouses across 20 states, storing grain worth over a $1 billion say founders. Combined with banks it works with, the company has dispersed $120M+ in farm loans. Fresh capital will go to power that, and further expand reach.

Takeaway: countless such startups are emerging to serve one of the worst problems that has plagued India for decades—farm yield, efficiency, and productivity. Most basic applications of a tech-driven marketplace, fintech services, digital payments, storage and logistics could drive substantial gains for this ecosystem and its truly heartwarming to see Indian tech ventures step up to the challenge.

Dorsey plays dirty 👀

Leading social platforms seem to be operating with a common playbook—leverage market dominating positions to shamelessly copy hot new features that come up on the horizon to shore up engagement for themselves. In the latest, Twitter is launching a Clubhouse clone that literally looks like the original app pixel to pixel. To those unaware, Clubhouse is basically this audio-only social app where like-minded people gather in virtual groups and talk about important “stuff”. Sounds super-nerdy, but the invite-only service has skyrocketed in buzz and engagement within no time.

Twitter will call its feature “Spaces”, and is currently testing it out with a select group of users. Considering TWTR’s 175M+ daily active users, it won’t be long before the platform goes viral (just look what happened with stories). So far the feature will be restricted to few people but how Dorsey and the boys plan on policing for bad actors over time remains an unanswered question.

Then, refreshers from the week before ☕

🐦 Twitter buying Squad—earlier in the week, Twitter acquired screen-sharing platform Squad, popular among teenagers for viewing videos together, as the company looks to foster community and topic-focused engagement within tight circles. The tool became quite popular during lockdowns, with engagement spiking up 10x since COVID. Price tag on the deal is unannounced but Squad’s team will join Twitter adding to their product, engineering, and design capabilities. Squad had raised $7.1 million from big name VCs since its founding barely 2 years ago.

📈 Datapoints supporting recovery, and inflation—fresh data emerging on the macro environment in India continue to highlight economic improvements. Industrial production output grew 3.6% for the month of Oct, up from a paltry 0.5% growth in Sep 2020— for the 6 months before that, industrial production growth had been negative. On the other hand, consumer inflation dropped from 7.61% in Oct to 6.93% in Nov 2020, still high but improving. Wholesale inflation on the other hand rose 1.55% for the month of Nov compared to 1.48% in Oct, as production had to ramp up amidst choppy supply chains and transportation, to serve the bump in holiday demand. Overall, economic recovery is looking much much easier than earlier believed, but inflation will likely continue to stay high as pent up demand will keep prices high, while problems in supply chains take some time to get ironed out.

🌈 Unicorn shower not stopping—Zenoti, a supplier of software to spas and wellness centers scooped up $160 million for its Series D round, at a whopping $1 billion valuation. PE giant Advent International led the round with Tiger Global and Steadview Partners pitching in. The company basically simplifies bookings appointments, employee shifts, customer support, payments etc. for the wellness industry via an end-to-end software terminal. So far 12,000 businesses in around 50 countries use their products, and ARR is expanding at 100%+ rates. Management is eyeing $100 million of run-rate over the next 18 months. Indian SaaS, at its best!

🙌 Bector puts on a great show—much awaited Mrs. Bector's IPO bookings have blown the doors off with the raise oversubscribed by nearly 150+ times. Retail investors, drawn to the history of the brand and its extensive market clout particularly in the north-Indian region piled into the company. Also, the Burger King IPO being a huge success recently boosted sentiment. The company basically makes self-branded cookies, biscuits, sauces etc. in addition to supplying some of the biggest chain restaurants in India with bread, buns and other premade essentials. High quality products for sure. Business fundamentals look equally promising.

🚗 FCA wants Indian tech genius—Fiat Chrysler, the famed US brand that makes Jeeps, seems quite serious about its game in India, committing $150 million of fresh investment for a global digital center buildout in Hyderabad. FCA says it's one of their largest hubs for the company outside of North America, focusing exclusively on software, innovation and technology. For decades, foreign car vendors have struggled to crack the Indian auto consumer—a market that is driven by an odd combination of low prices, reliability and prestige. But so far Jeep somewhat seems to be successful in breaking in. The new check should boost hopes of vendors + ecosystem partners. New facility will add nearly 1,000 jobs right off the bat and will add more over the next two to three years, and work done here will directly add value to the core R&D divisions leading software engineering efforts at FCA.

🎵 Dubsmash exists, and Reddit wants its tech—TikTok’s meteoric rise left Dubsmash tasting dust, but finally Reddit emerged as a savior, acquiring the startup for an undisclosed amount. In a blog post Reddit says its primarily buying the platform for its nimble editing and short-video creation tools—overlaying text on video, adding sounds, patching multiple videos together and making funny memes is kinda Reddit’s bread and butter for engagement, so yes it fits in well. All of Dubsmash’s 12 employees will join the Reddit team. Founded in 2015 and quickly rising to fame, the company over time was overshadowed by mightier rivals like TikTok.

🤝 Some deal activity in edtek—the Coursera for India, upGrad, acquired recruitment and staffing solutions player Rekrut India, again without a known price tag. upGrad basically ties up with notable global universities and launches an online program with them, leveraging their brand and teaching skills, giving students locally a low-cost, remote experience of upskilling. With strong initial footing in the market, they’re expanding horizontally to add more services. Recently they’d purchased Gate Academy, ensuring students get the training to “crack” exams after they’ve learnt on the platform. Now Rekrut India will further stretch their value-add, bringing placement competencies in-house, working with corporates in India and helping students find a job.

💉 Lastly, vaccinations pick pace this week—the UK had approved Pfizer’s vaccine last week. This week the US green-lit the same drug, starting widespread vaccination across the country for frontline and essential workers. Then last night came another good news with Moderna’s vaccine approved for usage too. Mankind 1, Rona 0. India is eyeing a bunch of options right now including the one from AstraZeneca, the Russian vacc, and a few others. BBC is claiming by mid-Jan efforts should be a go and by mid-August 2021, we should be done vaccinating over 300 million people. Lots of “ifs” right now, but if we hit the target that would be a phenomenal feat.

Hit that 💚 if you liked today’s issue.

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