Robots without cause 🤖
Dell’s generosity, Apple dazzles and agritech raise.
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Market summary: 📊
Another amazing day in India, as investors look determined to go into the Diwali break on a high note. US markets gave away some more ground as vaccine news put a market reset into motion.
US:
S&P 500 - down 0.14%
Nasdaq 100 - down 1.74%
India:
Nifty 50 - up 1.36%
Sensex - up 1.60%
Couple things to begin with ☕
1️⃣ Exit polls, LOL—irrespective of the side you’re rooting for, it's kinda funny how exit polls almost always fail to read the mood of the mandate. With literally every early count calling for a regime change in Bihar, it appears that the incumbent government will be able to salvage its bid anyway. Also, mildly interesting that the Bihar polls have a decisive outcome even before the US can say for sure who’s going to be president for the next 4 years. Indian Democracy FTW!
2️⃣Mumbai wins—you probably already know this, but the IPL is over and Mumbai served Delhi a loss. Props to BCCI, who managed to pull this off despite the pandemic, giving people across the country something to look forward to during these gloomy times.
3️⃣ Apple dazzled—Apple today announced its first lineup of Macbooks with its self designed chip, abandoning Intel’s CPU’s. Analysts and media are lauding the company and the new lineup of devices is creating some crazy waves.
Robots without cause 🤖
Remember Boston Dynamics—the robot maker known to make freakishly stylish bots mimicking canines or walking around like men with purpose? Well, the company which was earlier owned by Google and then by Softbank is now again being reportedly sold to Hyundai, as robotics-tech struggles to find a killer consumer or commercial application.
Founded in 1992 as a spin-off from MIT, for years the company has tried to sell the tech to military and research organizations only, and in a few instances with credible use cases like a robotic dog being sent to sniff out radiation at Chernobyl, but sales have mostly hit a wall.
Last year, they launched their four legged canine like self-balancing robot for public purchase, but a damning $75K price tag meant only a select few buyers could afford it.
Anyway, hard to say what Hyundai has in mind for the company, but the company’s software as well as hardware IP could find valuable use in industrial machinery, vehicles and other complex systems that Hyundai deals in.
Also, can’t help but wonder what Amazon could’ve done with these bots inside their gigantic distribution and logistics centers. Ideal match?
Capitalizing on a growing nation’s dreams 💪
Godrej has officially declared its foray into financial services with the launch of the Godrej Housing Finance Group, looking to fund home loans and setting stage for the creation of a broader consumer financial services arm.
Although LinkedIn suggests the company has been in existence since 2018, we suspect it was under the wraps, focused on financing assets purchased from Godrej’s own real estate arm only.
Anyway, the launch is now official and the timing couldn’t have been better. Minus any exposure to risk coming from COVID-related defaults, Godrej gets a sweet opportunity to ride the wave of expanding aspirations of middle class India, as the country crawls back from the pandemic and starts a new chapter.
The company plans on building a loan book of around ₹10,000 crores in 3 years, with about 40,000 customer accounts. Godrej Group will invest about ₹1,500 crores to seed the company and help it get to sustenance.
Bottomline: the business is a sweet extension of Godrej’s existing businesses. They sell apartments and homes, they might as well sell you the loans to finance the purchase, and fatten margins in the process. Having a healthy balance sheet with solid cash flow makes it easier to fund these adjacent moves.
Lastly, if you’ve noticed the operations of HDFC or Bajaj Financial Services, you know such add-on businesses can be extremely lucrative for the parent companies.
Teach for India gets a Dell boost 📚
Dell-founder Michael Dell will write a generous check of ₹22 crores through his foundation to “Teach for India”, so that the NGO can buy devices to support kids whose schooling has been affected due to the pandemic.
With a focus on 6th -10th grade students, the funds will be used to distribute 3,000 tablets to students. In a survey including some 32,000 children, the NGO noted that nearly 50% of the respondents did not have a reliable device to attend classes. Moreover, thousands have been dislocated with this school because of the mass migration we witnessed (damned lockdowns) and many more require financial and nourishment relief. Little help has come from GOI.
Anyways, Teach for India’s agenda has enough backers, and this is the second time the initiative is being funded by the Dells. I guess the most crucial takeaway for all of us is to step in within our communities to address these issues wherever we witness them. Also, thanks Dell.
Looking at a quick agri-tech venture 🌿
Mooo Farm, a Gurugram based agri-tech startup running an one-step platform for marginalized dairy farmers has raised €500K in series pre-Seed round funding from Navus Ventures and Rockstart Amsterdam.
Through its mobile app, the company manages a community for dairy farmers, as well as makes it easy for farmers to access services such as high-quality veterinarians, artificial insemination experts, etc. The focus is on increasing milk yields and reducing costs—a value proposition bundle we’ve noticed to be increasingly common in agri-tech and associated startups lately.
Anyway, fresh funds will help growth and hiring efforts, as the company prepares to launch in wider markets.
Takeaway: India’s agri-tech ventures are emerging to fix a critical problem that has plagued our nation for decades, using tech to support farmers. We’re optimistic.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
😷 Democratizing access to testing - IIT Delhi has started offering COVID-19 RT-PCR tests for a discounted price of ₹1,200 on its campus. The test is being conducted at a new Indian Council of Medical Research-approved laboratory opened on the campus.
🏏 Amazon ventures into Cricket- Prime Video has acquired territory rights for New Zealand cricket through 2025-26. Per the deal Amazon Prime and New Zealand Cricket Board will become the one-stop streaming destination for all international cricket matches to be played in New Zealand for both men’s and women’s cricket, across ODI, T20 and Tests starting late 2021.
🎮 MSFT doubles down on Xbox - to further capture the pandemic driven boom, Microsoft has launched 2 new models of its Xbox gaming consoles. The new-gen gaming console will be released along with its cheaper counterpart Xbox Series S. Xbox will be competing against Sony’s PS5 which is set to launch on 12 November.
🖥️ Celebs keep coming for tech- Kajal Agarwal has invested an undisclosed amount in gaming platform OKIE Gaming to pick up 15% stake and join the Mumbai-based gaming company as a strategic partner. Checkout Filter Coffee, anyone?
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