Building Gen AI solutions for enterprises; Decoding Good Glamm’s $30M fundraise

The most interesting news selected specially for you! 07 April 2024 [View in Browser]( POWERED BY Hello, Now, startups and enterprises can enhance their brand engagement by partnering with YourStory and advertising on our YS Buzz and Weekly Wrap newsletters. [Click here]( to know more. In today's newsletter, we will talk about: - Building Gen AI solutions for enterprises - Good Glamm’s $30mn fundraise won’t solve its problems - VC funding in Q1 2024 declines by 22% - Decoding Tata Steel’s deeptech focus - The Odisha sarpanch who walks the talk Here’s your trivia for today: Before becoming a video streaming site, what was YouTube's original purpose? --------------------------------------------------------------- Startup Building Gen AI solutions for enterprises solutions provider Ema AI has garnered investments from Accel, Section 32, and Prosus Ventures. At a time when every other startup claims to be the “next big thing” in the AI space, what sets Ema apart from the competition? Tech stack: - From building chatbots, code generation and design processes, enterprises are increasingly exploring Gen AI for various use cases. - San Francisco- and Bengaluru-based Ema, short for Enterprise Machine Assistant, says it offers solutions to streamline these tasks, reduce costs, and accelerate development processes. - As per a report by Bloomberg Intelligence, the projected market size for generative AI in enterprises globally is set to reach $1.3 trillion by 2032. [Read More]( --------------------------------------------------------------- From the CapTable Good Glamm’s $30mn fundraise is a bandaid for a bullet wound Having wandered the funding wilderness since November 2021, The Good Glamm Group’s recent $30-million fundraise came as a surprise to many. What was even more surprising, though, was that the content-to-commerce beauty startup managed to keep its earlier valuation of $1.25 billion. This funding did not come easy. Good Glamm has made multiple unsuccessful attempts over the past two years to raise a big-ticket funding round to extend its ever-shortening runway. In January, multiple sources told The CapTable that the company only had a few months of runway left, and was resorting to significant cost-cutting, including layoffs and reducing discounts, to survive.At the time, founder Darpan Sanghvi insisted Good Glamm had the funds necessary to make it through 2024. The new fundraise—a bridge round from existing investors such as Warburg Pincus, Prosus Ventures, Accel Partners, and Bessemer Venture Partners—all but guarantees that. “Many did not expect him (Sanghvi) to close this round,” a former executive associated with Good Glamm tells The CapTable. Indeed, multiple former and current company executives said that this funding round, especially since it preserves the company’s unicorn valuation, is impressive. However, they added, GoodGlamm is still not out of the woods. Key Takeaways: - The Good Glamm Group has managed to raise $30 million from existing investors while maintaining its unicorn valuation - This comes as a welcome relief for the company, which owes as much as Rs 100 crore to vendors and creditors - But the new funding round does not mean the company is out of the woods, sources say - Good Glamm continues to see multiple CXO-level exits and must still complete the buyouts of brands it acquired in 2021-22 [Continue Reading]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Funding VC funding in Q1 2024 declines by 22% Venture capital (VC) funding into Indian startups for the first quarter (Q1) of the 2024 calendar year dropped by 22% compared to the same period last year, as the ecosystem continues to see a slow inflow of capital. Indian startups raised a total of $2.5 billion in VC funding in the first quarter of 2024, i.e., in January, February and March. In Q1 2023, they raised $3.2 billion, according to YourStory Research. Key takeaways: - The first quarter of 2024 saw 310 deals, fractionally higher than the 305 deals recorded in the same period last year. - In terms of the sectors, fintech saw the largest capital inflow in the first quarter, followed by Software-as-a-Saas (SaaS) and Direct-to-Consumer (D2C). - In terms of cities, Bengaluru led with $1 billion, followed by Delhi-NCR ($681 million) and Mumbai ($419 million). Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune were the other metro cities, which raised in the $100 million range. [Read More]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Interview Decoding Tata Steel’s deeptech strategy the last five years, Tata Steel has built bonds with the startup community through its engagement programme, Innoventure. One of these challenges is decarbonisation as the energy-intensive steel industry has a large carbon footprint. Now, Tata Steel is looking towards deeptech startups to iron out processes in the core areas of energy management, integration of AI and ML, robotics, sustainability etc. Learning from startups: - As per Dr Debashish Bhattacharjee, Vice President, Technology and R&D, Tata Steel, the company's intent is to take advantage of the creativity, passion and agility of startups to move fast in technologies. - "We are engaged with startups working in advanced mobility like Hyperloop technology, AI, ML for large-scale modelling, etc. We also work with deeptech startups that have robots which can go underwater," he adds. - By engaging with startups, it adapted its procurement system to suit the needs of startups and introduced nimbleness in its processes, as per Bhattacharjee. [Read More]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Inspiration The Odisha sarpanch who walks the talk Devi Agrawal, the sarpanch of Bhaleshwar gram panchayat in Nuapada district in Odisha, has introduced a slew of initiatives, including disbursing pension and medicines via drones, a bartan bank, and taking governance to the doorstep. “My door is always open for people to approach me for help. I am on my feet all day as there is so much to do,” she says. Timely help: - After multiple tenures as deputy sarpanch and councillor, Agrawal was elected as sarpanch of Bhaleshwar gram panchayat in 2022. - After taking charge, Agrawal came to know that senior citizens and disabled people in Bhuktapada, a tribal village, were not receiving their pension on time. Agrawal and other members disbursed disability pensions and distributed medicines in Bhutkapada village via a drone. - Other areas of intervention include regular health and medical camps and nutritional support for pregnant women and young children. Agrawal also presides over the monthly meetings with anganwadi staff to ensure timely support to women and children. [Read More]( --------------------------------------------------------------- News & Updates - [Downgrade:]( Thailand's economic growth is expected at 2.8% this year before accelerating to 3.0% in 2025, the World Bank said. The growth outlook for 2024 and 2025 was reduced from 3.2% and 3.1%, respectively, as forecast in December. Southeast Asia's second-largest economy expanded 1.9% in 2023. - [Leak:]( Telecom company AT&T said it is investigating a data set released on the "dark web" about two weeks ago, and its preliminary analysis shows it has impacted about 7.6 million current account holders and 65.4 million former account holders. The company said the data set appears to be from 2019 or earlier. - [Total loss:]( Intel’s chip-making division accumulated $7 billion in operating losses in 2023. That’s a big increase from the $5.2 billion it lost in 2022, and while it made $18.9 billion in revenue in 2023, that number is down 31% from the $27.49 billion it made the year prior. Did you know? Before becoming a video streaming site, what was YouTube's original purpose? Answer: It was originally designed to be a video dating website with the slogan, 'Tune in, Hookup'. We would love to hear from you! To let us know what you liked and disliked about our newsletter, please mail nslfeedback@yourstory.com. 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