Satellite victory 📡
RIL earnings, China EVs, and local SaaS growth.
Hi 👋, Tanvi here.
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Stock summary: 🤔
US - S&P 500 - up 0.77%
India - Sensex - down 0.34%
What do we know from Reliance earnings? 🧐
Reliance yesterday reported its second quarter business performance. Total revenue was down 42% to Rs. 96K Crore but profits grew 31% to Rs. 13.2K Crores.
Revenue decline was driven by weak demand in petrochem, refining, and retail businesses while strong performance in digital services was the highlight. Despite the pandemic driven slump, RIL managed to considerably improve its cost structure, becoming much more efficient in this quarter.
Other notable highlights:
Realized one-time gain of Rs 4,966 Crore on an investment by British oil major BP in its fuel marketing business
Jio’s net profit jumped 183% to Rs 2,520 Crore
Re-highlighted home grown 5G solution
Dropped overall expenses by 42%
Summary: when a company enters a generational slump and comes out asset light and debt free at the end of it, you know it's out of order and worthy of praise. Reliance is setting itself for absolute dominance in the India growth story over the next decade. Read more.
European investing landscape recovery👍
Large investment deals in booming segments show growing optimism among European investors as the region is gearing up for a strong post pandemic recovery.
In an auto marketplace deal, a used car trading platform called AUTO1 that helps car dealerships trade used vehicles has raised a staggering $300 Million to beef up its online marketplace Autohero, as millennials increasingly look to buying cars online.
Just like the rest of the world, the European used car market was brought to a standstill by the pandemic. But as reopenings start and with people having anxiety to use public transportation as freely as they used to before, analysts believe a strong uptick in car sales is coming.
Pre-pandemic, AUTO1 sold about 2 million cars with revenue up almost by 21% last year to 3.5 Billion euros. Read more.
Turning our heads to the EU software markets: 👀
Cloud communications player Infobip has raised over $200 Million from a private equity firm. The company plans on using the cash to expand its operations outside of the EU and into the US where it competes head-to-head with prominent rivals such as Twilio. Acquisitions in the US are on the table.
The company counts global firms Uber, Costco and Unilever as customers, with the full-blown ability to reach billions of mobile devices in more than 190 countries through its network. And is growing nearly 40% each year. Read more.
India’s SaaS looks promising 👍
A homegrown nocode SaaS platform, Hevo, that makes it easy to build data pipelines has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Singapore-based VC firm Qualgro, other marquee investors including a former executive at Stripe, and existing investors Hiratae Ventures and Sequoia Capital.
The platform allows enterprise customers to comb, clean, and integrate data from more than 150 sources. The product specifically targets SMEs that juggle between multiple tools to manage simple functions such as sales, marketing, operations, finance etc. and as a result leave dense data silos in the background.
Their momentum looks great, with global customers including fintech giants like Marqeta among its most prized customers. So far the company has pulled $12 Million from big name investors and plans on using the most recent raise to accelerate global expansion.
Bottomline: the low code software development is barely getting started. By 2025, total spending is estimated to top $45 Billion, growing at a 29% CAGR over the next 5 years. Read more.
Amazon’s infrastructure move 📡
The FCC has okayed Amazon to invest more than $10 Billion to build a network of 3000+ satellites, aimed at providing high-speed broadband internet services to people around the world.
The project, named Kuiper, will oversee the launch of 3,236 satellites into LEO orbit, in a 5-phased launch. The first load will deploy 578 satellites into orbit. The entire project will compete with the Starlink network being built out by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
While extremely costly to deploy, satellite technology can provide high-speed internet for people who live in rural or hard-to-serve places where fiber optic cables and cell towers do not reach. The project will also benefit wireless carriers deploying 5G and other wireless service to new regions and areas where tower coverage is spotty.
In addition, the government believes the technology could also be a critical backstop for emergency infrastructure buildout to support communications during hurricanes or other natural disasters.
The FCC authorisation, adopted with a 5-0 vote, requires Amazon to launch half of its satellites no later than mid-2026 and build out the rest of the constellation by mid-2029. Read more.
The Chinese are killing it in the EV game 🔌
After the successful listing of LiAuto on Nasdaq this week, another Tesla rival coming out of China, Xpeng motors is in talks to raise over $300 Million after it confidentially filed for a US IPO.
The raise includes big league players including the Qatar Sovereign Wealth Fund and the round is expected to be oversubscribed. Just recently the company had raised from the likes of Coature, Aspex, Hillhouse capital and Sequoia Capital China.
Xpeng’s flagship vehicle is a P7 sedan which is a low budget luxury EV, and will compete against Tesla’s Model 3 sedan. Deliveries started just this month.
Takeaway: earlier this year the Chinese government unveiled new policies to help boost the demand for electric cars including subsidies, tax breaks and a $387 Million investment for nationwide charging infrastructure. These boosts have made companies and investors very bullish on the EV market in China. Read more.
Tweet of the day -
Honestly, the best thread we came across this week. Pure hustle and creativity can take you very far!
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
☕ Dunkin to shut 8% of US restaurants - Dunkin is expecting to permanently shutter almost 800 US locations by the end of 2020. This also includes 450 speedway gas locations which were previously announced as a game changer.
🗞️ Aussie’s take on Silicon Valley - Australia will force Facebook and Google to pay Australian media outlets for news content in a landmark move to protect independent journalism. The platforms will have to share revenue with media companies under a royalty-style system.
😒 FB steals YouTube’s lunch - FB has completed a series of deals for the rights to show music videos on its platform announcing partnerships with three of music world's biggest labels, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group.
😷 India’s COVID battle - With 55,079 people testing positive for coronavirus in a day, India's COVID-19 tally over 16 lakh mark today, while the recoveries jumped to 10,57,805. The country's death toll rose to 35,747 with 779 fatalities being recorded in a day. The fatality from covid currently stands at 2.18% in India as compared to the global average of about 4%.
🤥 China refutes hacking allegations - China rejected charges that hackers linked to its government targeted biotech firm Moderna Inc, the company leading US’ coronavirus vaccine research, to steal data. The foreign ministry spokesman called these accusations baseless and without evidence.
👎 IT’s layoffs have been BAD - Cognizant let go of more than 9,000 people during the April-June quarter, as part of its strategy to reduce costs and prepare for a post covid comeback.
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Really great content Tanvi..Done my part by sharing it with my network