Zoom wants more 💻
SPAC king, make in India wins, and some more unicorns.
Hi 👋, Tanvi here.
Filter Coffee hits your inbox every morning with notable tech and business news scoops to jump start your day.
Sign up below for free. 👇
Let’s go ahead and get started:
Market summary: 📊
Indian markets recovered some, but the rebound isn’t looking too strong. Meanwhile, the US market had a bloodbath, with tech stocks getting slaughtered for another straight day.
US:
S&P 500 - down 2.45%
Nasdaq 100 - down 3.56%
India:
Nifty 50 - up 0.77%
Sensex - up 0.51%
What’s hot bruh? ☕
✅ India, where my SPACs at?—Chamath, the undisputed king of SPACs, will be investing in ReNew Energy, one of the largest clean energy companies in India. ReNew is actually going public in the US via a SPAC merger, and Chamath will be buying into the publicly traded company that ReNew plans on merging with, via something called a PIPE (private investment in public equity). Stuff’s getting too financey, but the bottom line is that SPACs are HOT, and the influencer-billionaires front-lining the revolution are running out of companies in the US, and global ventures especially in emerging markets are the next roster of targets.
✅ Arthur Road Jail awaits its premium guest—Nirav Modi accused in the ₹14,000 crore PNB bank debacle will be deported to India after a judge of the Westminster Magistrates' Court okayed India’s request for extradition, accepting pretty much all the accusations India was making. Funnily, UK had actually been holding out on the extradition over concerns of poor conditions of lock-up facilities in India, and India had to furnish proof of where the man would be held while he faces trial for his glorious deeds. The review was satisfactory, and hence the signal to proceed. Meanwhile, we’re sure Mallya did not sleep last night!
Dobrik empire leaves clues about the future 📸
David Dobrik’s camera app Dispo has reportedly closed a round of $20 million at a $200 million valuation.
When news of a looming raise broke earlier in the week, the valuation was rumored to be $100 million with Benchmark, a16z, Sequoia, all in play to invest. But we’re guessing a bidding war probably broke out and Spark Capital’s offer ultimately pleased David the most. Its not known if the others got a piece of the pie as well.
Quick look at the Dobrik influencer empire:
Followers across TikTok, YouTube and elsewhere: 50 million
Annual income: $15 million ($3 mills from ads, rest from sponsorships)
Views to date: 8.2 billion!
Latest gig: Founder of one of the hottest consumer social platforms
This is a perfect case study on how influencers are leveraging deep distribution to build solo media corporations, which can then be leveraged to sell anything from sneakers to the latest fad—consumer software.
And considering how thick the margins tend in the latter game, and not to forget the “oomph” of calling yourself a tech founder—we’re guessing a lot more of such launches are coming in the near future!
Bottomline: well if Dobrik can do it, so can Kanye, and probably so will Kangana. It's just a matter of time until more influencers, celebrities, and digital personas of all shapes and sizes start realizing the goldmine they can tap into by backing technology products, leading a media and creative-led goldrush in techland.
Unicorn list stretching 📋
Innovaccer, a healthcare SaaS company, became the latest to join India’s unicorn club after a Series D round set the company’s valuation to $1.3 billion. Round size wasn’t disclosed but Tiger Global led the bid, with Steadview Capital, Dragoneer, M12 and a few others pitching in.
Innovaccer sells an end-to-end SaaS platform that helps hospitals, insurance companies, and other enterprises in the healthcare value chain bring distributed datasets together and generate insights on improving care delivery. Nearly 37,000 users mostly in the US leverage the company’s services, and growth rates are expected to hit over 100%+ by end of year.
Fresh funds will go towards building additional products, and for pushing a comprehensive Health Cloud service, which interlinks all of the company’s SaaS products to simplify data sharing.
While we’re on big ticket raises, 💰
Virtual event management platform Hubilo, which barely months ago raised a seed round, got another $23.5 million for its Series A round. Lightspeed doubled down, with a few others including Microsoft Board Chair John W. Thompson pitching in.
Hubilo’s backstory is truly fascinating. The company started building an offline event management software platform but lost it all when COVID froze the event industry. Recognizing the shifting game, founders pulled off a pivot to an online virtual event firm within 20 days. The hustle brought in $4.5 million from Lightspeed in seed, and since then they’ve managed to scale revenues up to over $10 million, with headcount swelling to 150+.
Global expansion is on the cards now, with fresh funds going towards beefing up sales operations and pushing out a new update to the product.
Xiaomi’s make in India bet 💪
Following the footsteps of Apple, and probably holding out for some Atmanirbhar love, Xiaomi will be setting up two smartphone manufacturing plants in Haryana and Tamil Nadu. Another TV making unit is being put up in Telangana as well.
Post buildout, the company would be running nearly 4 smartphone making facilities and 2 TV making units in total in India, which signals their confidence in the continued explosion of consumer electronics here—especially as hordes of people from heartland India become voracious consumers over the next few years.
Xiaomi already owns close to 26% market share in the Indian market, and competition has never been this hot. Once the plants are operational, all of the company’s products consumed in India will be made locally, and any excess product will be exported to foreign markets.
Bottomline: China losing favorability will continue to surface India as a promising manufacturing alternative, and the incremental capital spending should have positive ripples for small suppliers and other value chain participants for a long long time.
Zoom’s got a new game 💻
The video communications game is done, and Zoom is declared the ultimate winner there. But capitalism dictates that one can never be satisfied with comfortable profits -- the next move? Contact center software.
Basically Zoom wants to supply voice, video calling software, and support software to millions of call centers that provide remote support to billions of customers on the planet. The contact center software game is a $25-$30 billion annual gambit, and mostly dominated by old clunky systems, and the opportunity for cloud native tools like Zoom to enter and dominate, is BIG.
The rumours are just getting started, and Zoom is possibly considering acquiring a startup that’s already playing in this field to kick start the game—with $2 billion in cash on hand, shouldn’t be a problem to do that.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
🛵 Making up the difference- due to the rising fuel prices nationwide, Zomato has hiked the salaries of its delivery partners. Their riders who travel 100-200 kms a day on average apparently end up spending a modest ₹800 extra per month, which will be borne by Zomato. Delivery partners will also get an additional return travel fee if they have gone too far away from their base area. Well, ₹800 may not be too much, but points to Zomato for trying to step up.
🙌 Tapping Indian talent - Nothing, the consumer hardware company floated by ex One Plus founder Carl Pei has roped in former Samsung executive Manu Sharma, as Vice President and General Manager of Nothing India. Sharma will be incharge of growth, business development and operations for Nothing in the country. The India focus right off the bat is surprising and intriguing.
Hit that 💚 if you liked today’s issue.
You can forward this email or share FC on social media by clicking the button below. Thanks and Ciao! 😀