| August 02, 2022 |  | | TOGETHER WITH |  | | Hello Reader,
After 7 days of bidding, India’s 5G auction—the largest ever auction of airwaves in the country—ended yesterday with spectrum worth Rs 1,50,173 crore being sold.
As expected, it was led by Reliance Jio, which acquired close to half of all the airwaves for Rs 88,078 crore. Airtel spent Rs 43,084 crore while Vodafone Idea Ltd bought spectrum for Rs 18,784 crore. All three players acquired multiple bands.
On the other hand, wild card entry Adani Group bought 400 MHz, or less than 1% of all spectrum sold, for Rs 212 crore, only in the 26 GHz band, which is not for public networks.
Meanwhile, domestic indices continue to ride the bull, extending gains to the fourth day. BSE Sensex surged ~550 points, reaching over 58,000 in months while Nifty50 rose by 182 points to close at 17,340. Even the rupee held its own, strengthening its gains to close at 79.02 per dollar.
In other news, lots of things are happening outside the Earth’s orbit as the James Webb Space Telescope continues its exploration of the unknown. After spotting what may be its first supernova, the JWST has now found a galaxy with no heavy elements.
Here’s to solving the universe.
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about -
Zomato in “cash conservation” mode -
July heralds funding winter -
Asset managers for crypto Here’s your trivia for today: What company was initially named Blue Ribbon Sports? | | |
| Foodtech | | Zomato in “cash conservation” mode |  | | Zomato Limited reported net losses of Rs 186 crore for the first quarter of FY2023—a 48% reduction from the comparable quarter last year when the foodtech unicorn reported Rs 360 crore in losses.
The total revenue from operations grew to Rs 141.4 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2022, compared to Rs 844.4 crore reported for the year-ago quarter.
“...there is no plan to make any more minority investments as we are in cash conservation mode, and are busy executing what we already have on our plates right now,” said Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal in filings made with the BSE.
Cash conservation: -
In EBITDA terms, Zomato’s food delivery business registered breakeven during Q1 FY2023. -
According to the filings, the average number of monthly transacting customers for the app stood at 1.7 crore during Q1 FY 2023, compared to 1.23 crore in the year-ago quarter. -
After the go-ahead from the regulator, Zomato plans on cross-leveraging Zomato’s customer base for Blinkit and vice-versa. | | Read More | | | | | | |
| $4.5M | | Tartan
Pre-Series A | | | | | | | |
| Venture Capital | | July heralds funding winter |  | | After a relatively strong June, which saw $2.7 billion in funds raised across 128 deals, startup funding was tepid in July.
The latest month’s funding of $652.7 million takes the total fundraise in the first seven months of 2022 to a little over $17.7 billion. In terms of funding value, this is a little below 3.7% of the total funds raised.
A gloomy July: -
On an annual basis, this is a decline of 89.8%, compared with $6.4 billion raised in July 2021. -
The fall in funding affected startups across stages. -
Growth-stage deals and late-stage deals were down 50.4% and 85% each. | | Read More | | | | |
| Cryptocurrency | | Asset managers for crypto |  | | For many, cryptocurrency remains a mystery. Virginia-based Kunji has decided to make investing in this new asset class simpler.
Launched in June 2022, Kunji is a centralised crypto asset management platform that enables users to make passive crypto investments with the help of digital asset managers (DAMs).
Key takeaways: -
Kunji is currently live in the Beta phase with 200 users. -
DAMs take 30% of the total return from the user as a part of the commission. -
In the future, it expects to generate revenue through platform fees from DAMs, transaction fees, and fiat conversion or reconversion fees. | | Read More | | | | |
| Together with Startup Association Of India | | Journey to Becoming a Unicorn |  | | Considering the ongoing funding winter, there is a lot of chaos in the startup ecosystem.
On August 5, Sai Startup Association India is hosting a live session with three unicorn founders to discuss the following: • Best practices for a startup • Finding the right core team • Organic vs. inorganic growth • How much burn is enough? • How much dilution is enough? • Governance
Speakers:
a. Yashish Dahiya (Co-founder of Policybazaar) b. Amit Agarwal (Co-founder of NoBroker) c. Prashant Singh (Co-founder of Leadsquared)
Join us for the live session by clicking the register button. | | Register Now | | |
| News & Updates | | | -
New fund: Bain Capital LP has begun raising a $5 billion fund for Asia-Pacific, smaller than the amount sought by global buyout peers in the recent past, reported Bloomberg. The targeted pool is 25% bigger than its previous $4 billion fund, but about half the size of funds in the region by rivals KKR & Co. and Blackstone Inc. -
All hands: Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced to employees Wednesday a new effort called “Simplicity Sprint,” which will solicit ideas from its more than 174,000 employees on where to focus and improve efficiency. -
Plunging data: German retail sales fell at the largest annual rate since records began in 1994, highlighting the scale of the economic challenges facing the eurozone’s largest economy. Retail sales volumes dropped 8.8 per cent in June compared with the same month last year.
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Mandatory time off: Some companies are experimenting with mandatory vacation policies, under which workers are required to take a minimum amount of time off every quarter, half-year or year. Does it work? | | |
| What you should watch out for | | | | | | |
| Upcoming YourStory Events | | |  | | D2C Carwaan, an initiative of Brands of New India is all set to come to Indore to bring together stakeholders, founders & investors in the D2C ecosystem!
Brace yourself for insightful conversations on August 5, 2022! | | Register Now | | |  | | Join us for a virtual event on Aug 26, 2022 for the launch of YourStory’s Health360 Summit, a series of events that aims to delve deep into the roots of India’s healthcare ecosystem- investigating its vulnerabilities to safeguard its future. | | Register Now | | |
