Wishing all our readers a very happy and prosperous Diwali! We're taking a break tomorrow (14 November), but we didn't want to leave you hanging. So, here are some of our recent stories, in case you missed them. 

But first...

After a few dull quarters, e-commerce players are cheering. 

The festive season has injected a fresh lease of life into e-commerce, driven by two underlying engines of growth: consumers transitioning to more premium products and Tier 2 audiences opening their wallets wider.

• Credit was more readily available this year, making it easier for people to jump on the premiumisation trend

For example, Samsung users shifted to iPhones because of the abundance of EMI options. This impacted sales of phones in the Rs 12,000-15,000 range, while iPhone purchases touched an all-time high.

Amazon witnessed the highest-ever demand for categories like jewellery and premium smartwatches, where new launches grew almost fivefold. The luxury beauty category witnessed up to an eightfold spike, with increased demand for international brands in fragrances and beauty.

Go deeper

• Byju's ended last week on a good note, bringing the company some much-needed Diwali cheer. The long-standing troubles between Byju's and Davidson Kempner came to an end after its white knight, Ranjan Pai, bought out the debt investment of the US hedge fund, linked with covenants on Byju’s’ subsidiary Aakash, in a Rs 1,400-crore deal. Pai, with the right to nominate two members, will also gain a seat on the board of Aakash, leading to the exit of two Kempner representatives from the six-member board.

• Early signs of the funding winter receding may be here, as SoftBank marked up the valuations of three key unicorns in its portfolio in the September quarter—Swiggy, FirstCry, and Ola Electric. Meanwhile, SoftBank has lost a cumulative amount of $14.3 billion through its equity and debt investments in WeWork, which was once valued at $47 billion but now has filed for bankruptcy. The Japanese investing giant said, “what went wrong is homework for us'.
  
  
• Indian IT companies are finding success in the Nordic countries, despite the challenging demand environment in their core markets. This is due to their investments in cutting-edge technologies like generative AI, their price competitiveness, and their ability to become long-term partners with customers.

• Swiggy's mega IPO plans are taking shape, with a likely lineup of seven investment banks. Kotak Mahindra Capital, Citi, and JPMorgan have been picked for senior roles, sources told us. Others, including BofA Securities, Jefferies, ICICI Securities, and Avendus Capital, are also likely to join the group that will help the food tech major potentially raise $1 billion.

• Despite a tough startup funding environment, early-stage deals performed relatively well in October. The most active VCs in October were Peak XV Partners, Rainmatter Capital, India Quotient, IFC, and Blume Ventures. Most of these VCs invested in early-stage startups. Data shows that in 2023, there have been around 295 early-stage deals, raising $1 billion in equity. However, overall deal momentum has decreased by nearly 40% year-on-year in October 2023, with the total equity raised amounting to $625 million.
  
  
• ShareChat co-founders Farid Ahsan and Bhanu Singh have raised $3 million in seed funding for their robotics startup General Autonomy. The round saw participation from venture capital firms India Quotient and Elevation Capital, along with contributions from several high-profile angel investors. The funding round comes almost a year after Ahsan and Singh stepped down from their executive roles at the social media unicorn.

• Have you ever wondered what exams would be like without an invigilator in the room? This scenario might play out in university examinations in India in the near future. With technologies such as facial recognition, cameras that can focus on particular students and their answer sheets, and devices that can detect audio inputs, government universities in India are trying to drastically reduce human intervention in the invigilation process. Read our detailed story on this trend.

• The second quarter ended September 30 was a series of contradictions for top Indian IT companies, including Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra. Many of these companies reported historically high quarterly deal wins, yet their management teams cut their revenue growth guidance for FY24. What is causing this conundrum of high deal wins but significantly slower estimated growth? We find out in this deep dive!

• Recently, the Indian government backtracked on a proposal that would have hit the laptop industry in India, a sector that heavily relies on imports. The government initially decided to put restrictions on such imports, citing reasons of security and boosting indigenous production of such items. However, after receiving heavy pushback from the industry, the government revised its decision to allow free import of such items till September 2024, albeit with some conditions. Read our explainer to learn what happened in this months-long saga.

• Disney wants to stay in India and is considering its options, said CEO Bob Iger, amid deal talks over its Disney Star (previously Star India) business. Disney+ Hotstar, however, is struggling to retain subscribers and has lost about 23.7 million paid subscribers in the past year. The streaming service had 37.6 million subscribers for the quarter ended in September, down from a peak of 61.3 million subscribers in October last year.