🥡 Swiggy gears up for IPO; Is startup funding back again?

The most interesting news selected specially for you! 14 April 2024 [View in Browser]( POWERED BY Hello, YourStory will host its first-ever developer conference, [DevSparks 2024]( in Bengaluru on May 4. The tech summit will host 1,000+ developers, engineers and technologists, and showcase the latest developer innovations in the emerging tech ecosystem. In today's newsletter, we will talk about: - Swiggy gears up for IPO - Funding for Indian startups is back* - Why Vertex Ventures is bullish on India - Inside Kolkata-based Shubhamastu - Dilip Asbe on NPCI, UPI going global Here’s your trivia for today: Also known as "lean manufacturing," just-in-time manufacturing is a hyperefficient process pioneered by what Japanese automaker in the 1960s? --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- Foodtech Swiggy gears up for IPO has converted to a public company under Swiggy Limited from Swiggy Private Limited, as it prepares for a public-market listing later this year, filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs showed. In February, the Sriharsha Majety-led company changed its name to Swiggy Private Limited from Bundl Technologies, aiming to “establish greater proximity and identification of the company’s corporate name with the company’s core brand, ‘Swiggy’”. New pastures: - The food and grocery delivery firm is looking to raise as much as $1 billion from an initial public offering set to take place later this year. It would file its DRHP over the next few months. - [Invesco]( top investor in Swiggy—has marked up the valuation of its holding in the firm to $12.7 billion, up 18% from its last fundraise in January 2022. - This comes weeks after New York-based Baron Capital raised Swiggy’s valuation to $12.1 billion, up 13% from its $700 million fundraise. [Read More]( --------------------------------------------------------------- From the CapTable Funding for Indian startups is back* Last month’s news that Tiger Global and SoftBank were considering investing in e-commerce platform Meesho was something of a watershed moment. The two investors, renowned for backing many of the country’s biggest startup successes, had refrained from investing in India for over 18 months. For beleaguered startups that had endured two years of a gruelling funding winter, it signalled that, perhaps, the worst was now behind them. Indeed, following these reports, the subsequent week saw a flurry of funding announcements, particularly for late-stage companies. From Purplle and HealthKart to Zepto and even Sachin Bansal's bootstrapped fintech Navi, the late-stage market suddenly appeared to be bustling with activity. "We are so back," exclaimed a venture capital investor who spoke to The CapTable around this time. \While signs of recovery in funding are evident, initial discussions suggest that investment metrics such as revenue multiples are likely to differ significantly from the boom town witnessed in the pandemic era. Key Takeaways: - In March, India’s startup ecosystem saw 11 deals in the range of $20-50 million, two between $50-100 million, and three exceeding $100 million. - While big-ticket deals seem to have made a comeback, the exuberance of the pandemic era remains miles away. - Moreover, a significant portion of the funding is going towards secondaries, and investors seem to be backing only financially robust companies. - Importantly, investors remain cautious about the actual monetisable internet market in the country and are offering significantly lower revenue multiples than in 2021. [Continue Reading]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Investor Why Vertex Ventures is bullish on India Over the last decade, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India has been steadily investing in the Indian startup ecosystem. The Singapore-headquartered early-stage venture capital firm has made around 30 startup investments along with a few exits. It counts unicorn startups including FirstCry, Licious, and Xpressbees in its portfolio. It is now looking to expand the scope of its investments in India. Investment thesis: - Till now, Vertex Ventures in India has been focused on four segments for investments—consumer tech, fintech, SaaS, and healthtech. Now, it also wants to invest in mobility, sustainability, and clean energy. - Even as the VC firm looks to expand its reach, it wants to stick to pre-Series A and Series A investment stages, with ticket sizes in the range of $4-6 million in each company. - Vertex Ventures has also earmarked $50 million from its fifth fund totaling $541 million to back women-led startups. [Read More]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Women stories Inside Kolkata-based Shubhamastu Chatterjee is among the 18 priestesses part of Shubhamastu, the Kolkata-based charitable trust, who conduct Hindu ceremonies of weddings, memorial services, and housewarming rituals, among others. Since its inception a decade ago, Shubhamastu has conducted innumerable ceremonies. The collective is led by priestesses Nandini Bhowmik, Ruma Roy, Semanti Banerjee, and Paulomi Chakraborty. Refining roles: - Shubhamastu’s guiding principle is that anyone with “profound knowledge, purity of soul, and the capability to educate the masses” can venture into the priesthood. It does not believe one must belong to a specific caste to be a priest. - It conducts wedding rituals in Sanskrit, Bengali, and English for everyone to understand, and performs Vedic hymns, accompanied by songs from various poets like Kazi Nazrul Islam, Atul Prasad Sen, and Rabindranath Tagore. - The collective abstains from performing the Kanyadan ceremony, as it strongly believes the bride should not be objectified as an element to be donated. [Read More]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Interview Dilip Asbe on NPCI, UPI going global Payments Interface (UPI) will conquer the world. Or so believes Dilip Asbe, the MD and CEO of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which runs and operates UPI. He insists India can build cross-border "digital payment pipes" using UPI. “We have solid digital payment highways in India. The government and the Reserve Bank of India are looking to build similar highways cross-border…,” shared Dilip Asbe in a recent fireside chat at TechSparks Mumbai. Expanding reach: - In March 2024, UPI’s total transaction value stood at Rs 19.78 lakh and the number of transactions (payments) at 13.4 billion. However, Asbe believes there is ample opportunity to grow. - NPCI and its global arm, NPCI International, are assisting the government and the RBI in taking UPI global. International entities have also signed a few partnerships. - Asbe wants the NPCI, banks, and fintechs to invest consistently to create a scalable, robust, safe, and secure payment. That’s what will lead to the 10X growth of UPI. [Read More]( --------------------------------------------------------------- News & Updates - [Weather:]( India is expected to see a normal monsoon in 2024, Skymet said, promising some respite after predicting more-than-normal heat wave days in the summer preceding the June-September rainy season. Monsoon rains are expected to be 102% of the long-period average of 868.6 mm. - [Internet regulation:]( X, formerly Twitter, has been "forced by court decisions" to block certain popular accounts in Brazil and is prohibited from giving details of the order, the company said. Elon Musk said in a post that this order could lead to a total loss of revenue and shut down of the offices in Brazil, promising that he would legally challenge it where possible. - [AI music:]( Spotify is bringing AI to playlist creation. The streaming music service on Monday introduced a new option called AI playlists in beta stage, which allows users to generate a playlist based on written prompts. It will initially become available on Android and iOS devices in the UK and Australia. Did you know? Also known as "lean manufacturing," just-in-time manufacturing is a hyperefficient process pioneered by what Japanese automaker in the 1960s? Answer: Toyota. We would love to hear from you! To let us know what you liked and disliked about our newsletter, please mail nslfeedback@yourstory.com. If you don’t already get this newsletter in your inbox, [sign up here](. For past editions of the YourStory Buzz, you can check our [Daily Capsule page here](. [Feedback]( [Unsubscribe]( [Newsletters](