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In today’s newsletter:

• Gukesh-Ding chess battle draws record viewers in India
• Stellaris Ventures closes $300 million fund
• MeitY eyes AI models for Govt schemes

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Chess fever has gripped India as 18-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju battles for the World Chess Championship title.

• Indians are glued to streaming platforms, tracking every move by Dommaraju and reigning champion Ding Liren, resulting in record viewership

For the first time, a chess tournament in India is being showcased in a hybrid format. While the broadcast on-ground is witnessing 80% occupancy, digital viewership is unprecedented. 

• As the three-week event progresses, daily viewership is expected to double down. 

On chess platform Chess.com, the Gukesh versus Ding matches have recorded 1.3 million daily views and 75,000 peak views.

India’s chess boom was propelled by the pandemic, which introduced millions to the game through online platforms. 

• Shows like The Queen’s Gambit and influencers such as Samay Raina also played a key role in making chess more mainstream

Today, digital chess viewership has soared to over 1.5 billion across platforms in India.

India is the fastest growing market for chess, competing with markets like the US. 

• Platforms like Chess.com have seen 8 times growth in terms of active users versus 2020. 

As India's professional chess player base expands, more companies are stepping up to sponsor fresh talent.

Your move

The Indian startup ecosystem is warming up as venture capital investors are closing large funds!

Stellaris Venture Partners announced that it has closed its $300 million Fund III to back 25-30 startups over the next 3-4 years. 

• Stellaris has more than $600 million in assets under management so far and will back startups within the AI, SaaS and fintech category

As part of the launch, Stellaris also announced some leadership appointments. 

• Naman Lahoty, who was previously a Principal with the firm, has been appointed as partner

2023 and 2024 have witnessed a flurry of Indian IPOs, including Stellaris-backed Mamaearth, Ola Electric, and Swiggy. 

• This surge in IPO activity has instilled a renewed sense of optimism among VCs

While the overall sentiment remains bullish, some VCs are adopting a more cautious approach. .

• In October, Peak XV Partners announced downsizing its fund

Dig deeper

The Indian government’s digital push is set to get an AI makeover.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is eyeing state-of-the-art AI models to power its UTTARA project, aimed at helping citizens track, check eligibility, and apply for government schemes

• The ministry may procure models like OpenAI's GPT-4o, Google's Gemini Pro, Meta's Llama, and Anthropic's Claude 3 Sonnet 

These models will support the myScheme platform (under UTTARA), which lists over 2,650 government schemes.

MeitY is also procuring embedding models such as Cohere Embed Multilingual and OpenAI Text Embedding.  

• These models transform data into machine-readable formats

• They are crucial for matching citizen queries with relevant government schemes

The National e-Governance Division (under MeitY) has floated a tender seeking a Managed Service Provider (MSP) to facilitate access to these models via APIs and scalable API keys.  

• The tender emphasises strict compliance with data security standards, both in India and globally

• Bidders have also been asked to detail how their models will handle citizen data securely

Find out more

• Amazon has developed new generative AI model that can process images, videos, and text.
  

• ByteDance is suing a former intern for $1.1 million, alleging he attacked its AI large language model training infrastructure.

Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of a booming startup? 

• Beyond the flashy success stories and million-dollar valuations, there's an emotional side that often goes unnoticed. 

Startup Therapy pulls down the curtain on the emotional rollercoaster of entrepreneurship.

Check it out on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

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