Underwater 🏊♀️
Flying ambulances, An FMCG acquisition, and Air travel on the rise.
🗓 Morning, folks!
Markets caught a break on Monday, snapping an 8-day losing streak. Sensex managed to rise nearly 1% while Nifty remained flat but in the green.
The volatility index, which in simpler terms is a measure of uncertainty, ended nearly 5% higher.
💡 Spotlight: India’s natural gas demand is set to jump 60% by 2030, putting it in line with the world’s largest consumers, according to the International Energy Agency.
At the same time, India’s renewable energy contribution is projected to rise to 27% by 2027, up from 21% in 2024, with solar PV leading the charge.
Easy news day today, let’s hit it. 🚀
1 Big Thing: Bajaj goes big on Ayurveda 🛍️
Bajaj Consumer just added another name to its growing FMCG playbook.
In a small but mighty deal, the company is acquiring Vishal Personal Care, the maker of Banjara, for ₹108 crore.
Context: Banjara is a well-known ayurvedic personal care brand with a strong retail presence across 70,000 outlets, including cosmetics stores, supermarkets, and pharmacies.
The strategy: Bajaj is doubling down on Ayurveda, positioning itself to compete more aggressively in South India, where Banjara has a solid foothold.
FYI, Bajaj has quite a notable presence in the personal care space, with products like Bajaj Almond Drops.
The deal: the acquisition will happen in two phases—Bajaj takes an initial 49% stake, with the remaining 51% to follow.
Stock check: markets didn’t pay much attention to the move. Bajaj Consumer shares dropped 3.5%, with the stock struggling for momentum this year.
2. Ambulances, but make them fly 🚁
Electric mobility startup, The ePlane Company is taking medical transport to new heights, quite literally.
The company has signed a $1 billion+ deal with ICATT to supply 788 air ambulances, marking the largest eVTOL (Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) order in India.
ICATT is a specialized air ambulance service for critically ill patients, accident victims, and organ retrieval, operating both domestically and internationally.
The deets: ePlane’s e200x air ambulances are compact, AI-powered, and don’t need runways—they can take off from rooftops or small fields, cutting transport time significantly.
With a range of up to 200 km, these aircraft are built to navigate India’s congested cities and remote areas alike.
Why it matters: ICATT aims to build India’s largest air ambulance network, placing one aircraft in every district ensuring Faster patient transfers, organ transport, and emergency medical deliveries.
Zoom out: ePlane plans to start production in 2026 with a target of 100 aircrafts per year.
Bottomline: considering EVTOLs are still super early, this appears more like a “we’ll buy it if you can deliver it” type of a deal. ePlane has mountains to climb, from safety to ensuring regulatory compliance.
3. Who got the bag? 💸
Udaan, the B2B e-commerce unicorn, raised $75 million in a Series G round led by M&G Prudential, with participation from existing investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners.
The round comes as Udaan prepares for its IPO which is expected by late 2025 or early 2026.
Founded in 2016 by former Flipkart executives, Udaan operates a B2B procurement platform across multiple categories such as lifestyle, electronics, FMCG, and more.
They currently hold a 70% market share in India’s B2B e-commerce space.
The fresh capital will be used to expand market reach, strengthen vendor partnerships, and improve long-term supply chain and credit capabilities.
While we’re on fundraises…
Rare Rabbit secured $6 million from existing investor A91 Partners at a $280 million valuation.
The premium fashion brand, known for its designer apparel, has grown rapidly, with revenue surging 69% YoY to ₹636 crore in FY24.
Profits more than doubled to ₹74.6 crore from ₹32.2 crore last year.
4. Zuck goes underwater 🏊♀️
Meta is laying down the world’s longest subsea cable, a 50,000 km project connecting India, the US, Brazil, South Africa, and more.
The deets: called Project Waterworth, it aims to expand internet capacity and reliability. The AI-powered network will monitor and prevent outages, making global connectivity more resilient.
Why it matters: Meta’s apps, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, already generate a massive chunk of global internet traffic. As AI, cloud computing, and video streaming ramp up data demands, Meta is looking to secure its own infrastructure rather than relying entirely on telecom providers.
Big picture: 95% of global data moves through undersea cables. Tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have also been investing in private subsea networks to future-proof their digital ecosystems.
Zuck’s playbook? Build the pipes, own the data highways, and keep Meta at the center of the internet’s future.
5. Stocks that kept us interested 📈
Welspun Corp bagged ₹3,000 crore order supply of coated pipes for natural gas pipeline projects.
FYI, Welspun is a leading manufacturer of pipes and infrastructure solutions, supplying to oil and gas transmission projects globally.
Why it matters: the orders include large contracts for HSAW and HFIW pipes. With these wins, the company’s consolidated order book now stands at approximately ₹18,000 crore.
This latest order follows a similar win in December for Natural Gas Pipeline Projects in the US.
Following the announcement, Welspun Corp’s stock traded 2% higher at ₹751.6 on NSE, yet is severely underwater year to date.
6. Chart of the day — Air travel on the rise 📈
India’s passenger air traffic has more than doubled, with nearly 220 million passenger trips booked in 2024.
This growth is fueled by rising disposable incomes, improved air connectivity, and increasing demand for both domestic and international travel, making India one of the fastest-growing aviation markets globally.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
🚗 Electric buzz: Mahindra's newly launched Electric Origin SUVs made a powerful debut, securing ₹8,472 crores in orders with 30,179 bookings on day 1.
✈️ Go First, fly next: Low cost carrier Fly Dubai with Busy Bee is interested in buying Go Air. Busy Bee already approached Go Air to secure domestic flying rights & trademarks.
📉 Shortfall: India’s trade deficit climbed to $22.9 billion from $16.6 billion.
⛔ Data roadblock: South Korea has halted new downloads of Deepseek, citing data protection concerns.
🌊 Connectivity boost: India is planning its first offshore airport on an artificial island near Mumbai, aiming to boost connectivity in the region.
That’s a wrap! Don’t let the weekday blues get to you.
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The chart posted on the Welspun story is of Welspun Living, their home furnishing and textile company while the story is about pipes, which is a different Welspun group company, I think Welspun Corp.