Satoshi, that you? 🤨

Pharma IPO, more Unicorns, and Putin wants a fight.

Market summary: 📊

Adding up to be a good week in India, with back-to-back solid days. US had an up session as well, with both tech and old-school names rewarded.

US:

• S&P 500 - up 0.31%

• Nasdaq - up 0.42%

India:

• Nifty 50 - up 1.71%

• Sensex - up 1.76%

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Kicking things off ☕

👎 India stands shocked — you probably heard, an Air Force chopper carrying Chief of Defense Services (CDS) Bipin Rawat went down near Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, taking the lives of 13 of the 14 passengers onboard, including that of the CDS and his wife. RIP. 🙏 Defense is investigating the incident, but most likely explanation is that of poor visibility in the Nilgiri mountains. The Mi-17V5 chopper is primarily a Russian made military transport Helo, used by 60+ nations worldwide. India had purchased about 151 of these on a 2008 contract, with the fleet delivered in phases by 2018. Tragic!

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Bitcoin’s mystery boss, and $50 billion lawsuit 💸

What happened — a man who claims to be founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto himself, won a trial in a US court 2 days ago, that allows him to keep all ~$50 billion in Bitcoin that originally belonged to Satoshi.

Some crazy backstory — about 2015, Craig White, an Australian computer-scientist, starts claiming he’s the leader of the founding team that invented the Bitcoin project, going by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

Obviously the claim is viewed with unflinching suspicion. But then Craig is soon sued for a massive 1.1 million Bitcoin pot by the family of his deceased business partner, David Kleiman — who claim the duo worked on the project together, and hence David should also get some of the $BTC Satoshi had stowed away.

They’re specifically referring to a pot mined in the earliest days of the currency — a huge chunk that which has never been liquidated or moved, and nobody other than the creator himself could’ve mined in the earliest days. Craig continues to claim ownership (disputed by several media outlets, repeatedly).

Anyway, now without proving ownership, both defendants have been fighting a court battle in the US for 5+ years. This week, a jury sided with OG Craig, saying he doesn’t have to split his booty. Here’s CNBC.

Shred of truth? — the crypto community has been asking Craig for proof for a long time, calling him to “make a tiny transaction”. Craig said he would offer unquestionable evidence after the legal battle is over. Still awaiting closure. 

Worth mentioning — Craig is asked to pay $70 million to a research company he owned with David. He’s probably gonna have to liquidate some tokens for that cash. Also, Craig plans on selling all his Bitcoin to fund charity. 🤷‍♀️ 

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Pharmacy IPO coming down the pipes 💉

Medplus Health Services, India’s 2nd-largest pharmacy network after Apollo, is going public — raising ₹1,400 crores from the markets. Bids open December 13. 

HQ’d in Hyderabad, Medplus runs a network of 2,000+ franchisee-owned medical stores in 7 major states, mostly concentrated in Southern and South-Eastern India. There’s also an online medicine order facility, with last-mile delivery ops in 5-6 major cities. 

Last year, the business made ₹3,069 crores in revenues, up ~7% YoY, with profits of ₹60 crores. Most of the $$ raised will be used to fund more stores and cover a wider footprint.

What matters — a sizable aging population, rising demand for private healthcare, rising healthcare costs, all support a decent outlook.

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No stoppin’ these unicorn showers 🦄

Healthcare venture Pristyn Care raised $100 million for its Series E from Sequoia, Tiger and a couple others, at a $1B+ valuation — becoming India’s 42nd unicorn of the year! 🥳

Pristyn runs a network of surgery-centers nationwide, where patients can get their elective procedures done (removal of kidney stones, cataracts, ENT procedures and all other adult shit). Service is delivered with a digital touch — a core differentiator for the business in a widely fragmented space.

Pristyn has 200+ super specialty surgeons in-house, runs 50 clinics, and has partnerships with 700+ hospitals, serving some 1.7 million patients to date. FY21 stats aren’t public yet, but for the year before COVID, the business made ₹25 crores, a 7x jump.

Meanwhile, Byju’s bought out a European player, ☝️

The serial edtekkk acquirer bought out Austria-based GeoGebra, in a ~$100 million deal. GeoGebra sells an interactive digital tool — kinda like Figma, that helps with graphing, geometry, and general collaborative whiteboarding.

Mostly purchased by schools, it reaches 100M students across 195 countries. Sly entry for Byju's to plug itself deeper into the learning-software market!

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Closing out — Putin’s shenanigans 👀

What’s poppin’ — Russia has lined up ~100,000 troops on its western border, facing Ukraine. While its most likely just a show of force, western countries are worried that Putin may move to invade his neighbor, with whom he’s had decades of conflict. 

So the western-leader bros are upping economic sanctions on Russia — crippling their banks, halting trade, not buying Russian fuel. Biden had a 2 hour+ call with Putin just yesterday to get the man to stand down.

A conflict could derail everything from oil prices to European travel, trade, further straining a COVID-crippled global economic system. Worse? US or EU nations step in to protect Ukraine, entering direct conflict with Russia.

Big picture — calming Putin could be the ultimate test for grandpa Biden, setting the mood for the rest of his presidency.

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What else are we snackin’ 🍿💻 

🪑 Format change — IKEA will open a micro-store in Mumbai on Dec 9. It’s checking if the format works in India, as an alternative to its full-blown experience that’s typically located in the outskirts of cities. 

🤷‍♀️ What? — Twitter bringing a TikTok style video-format to its explore tab.

💪 Support ‘em — Sequoia India launched a fellowship offering $100k grant to female founders. Only 12% of founders in India are women.

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