One quick thing: Zepto said to plan filing for $500 million IPO next week 

In today’s newsletter: 

• Meesho's Vidit Aatrey turns billionaire a week after IPO
• Marico eyes Cosmix to power protein play 
• Why angel investors fear to tread in India 

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Meesho may sell affordability, but the market has priced its founder’s stake at anything but cheap.

The value-commerce bet just crossed the nine-zero mark.

• Meesho’s post-IPO rally has pushed co-founder and CEO Vidit Aatrey into the billionaire club, with his 11.1% stake now valued at over Rs 9,100 crore

The stock surged as much as 74% over the IPO price of Rs 111, briefly touching Rs 193 within five trading sessions.

• Fellow co-founder Sanjeev Barnwal’s holding is now worth over Rs 6,100 crore, underlining how sharply the listing has re-rated founder wealth

Scale came first — profits and patience followed.

• Meesho carved out a niche in Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets, building a pure marketplace model where Amazon and Flipkart have struggled to go deep

The company turned free cash flow positive in FY25, even as reported profits remained distorted by one-off items.

• Analysts point to Meesho’s “scarcity premium” as India’s only listed value-first horizontal e-commerce platform

Investors aren’t chasing hype — they’re backing a model that scales cheap and wide.

• Meesho shares closed 5.59% up at Rs 180.30 on December 16

• The rally has lifted Meesho’s market capitalisation to over Rs 87,000 crore, adding roughly Rs 14,000 crore since listing

Brokerages see room ahead, citing pricing discipline, logistics leverage via Valmo, and sustained growth in value-led e-commerce.

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Protein is having a moment, and Marico doesn’t want to miss the scoop. 

Marico is in talks to acquire Cosmix, a plant-based protein brand, for Rs 300 crore, sources told us. 

• The six-year-old brand was bootstrapped until last year
  
  
• It then appeared on Shark Tank and raised its first and only round of external capital of Rs 1 crore from Emcure Pharma’s Namita Thapar at a valuation of Rs 100 crore 

A 3X jump in valuation is because Marico, among other large FMCG giants and other companies, agreed that protein is too big a movement to miss out on. 

“Now, coming to protein, you have to participate in the category…," Saugata Gupta, Marico CEO and Managing Director, had told analysts in August.

Protein is slowly but surely becoming a staple in Indian households, at least among the urban cohort, which is driving increased interest. 

• Amul, Milky Mist, Akshayakalpa, iD Fresh Food, Nandini and others have all begun adding protein to their products 

Also read: D2C consolidation: Value creation for FMCG majors, wealth creation for founders

Once a definitive deal is signed, Cosmix will become a part of Marico’s growing portfolio of digital brands. 

Marico’s D2C and digital portfolio largely includes Plix, True Elements, Beardo, and Just Herbs. 

• These brands cumulatively had revenues of around Rs 900 crore as of Q1FY26 

Marico, however, wants that share to increase to Rs 2,000-2,500 crore in three years. 

Marico “ ...will be happy to acquire some and ensure that this number is definitely achieved or crossed," CEO Gupta told analysts, highlighting how keen he is on having an expansive digital portfolio 

Dig deeper

India’s factories are going greener - not by social imperative, but by competitive need. With Siemens Xcelerator, manufacturing enterprises of all sizes are digitizing operations to cut energy use, extend asset life, and create human-centered workflows. It’s a new approach to industrial efficiency - one where data drives sustainability and performance goes global. Explore how

Once the first believers in startup dreams, angels are now counting compliance clauses before counting term sheets.

India’s earliest risk-takers hit turbulence as rulebooks got thicker and cheque-writing got thinner.

• Angel deal volumes fell 44% in 2025 to 834 rounds, even as total capital dipped a milder 28%, signalling fewer participants but bigger cheques

• The steepest slowdown came in H2, when deals dropped nearly 60% year-on-year as new rules kicked in

The result: early-stage funding didn’t vanish — it concentrated.

Higher thresholds and heavier paperwork have quietly redrawn the entry gate to angel investing.

New SEBI norms restrict angel funds to accredited investors, lifting minimum net-worth thresholds and adding compliance layers.

“The rule treats startup investing purely as a function of personal wealth rather than experience,” says TDV Partners’ Ujwal Sutaria.

Procedural friction — from accreditation costs to reporting risk — has cooled enthusiasm for an already risky asset class.

With angels thinning out, early rounds are harder to stitch — and harder to start.

Founders now struggle to close rounds without a clear lead, as syndicates and bridge funding fade.

“Closing a round without a leading investor is increasingly difficult,” said All In Capital’s Kushal Bhagia.

Some, however, see a clean-up, not a crisis: smaller cheques are gone, but serious angels remain — making the funnel narrower, not empty.

Dig deeper

The new Aadhaar rules give legal backing to face authentication while tightening consent and purpose limitation, laying the legal groundwork for offline identity checks through the upcoming Aadhaar app.

• The framework enables private entities to rely on offline methods such as face authentication, reducing dependence on UIDAI’s central database 

Want to know how these changes affect your privacy? Check out our explainer!

• Abu Dhabi-based G42 unveiled an upgraded Hindi-English Nanda-87B model with 87 billion parameters, making it the largest open-source AI model focused on the Hindi language.
  
  
•  Nvidia launched a new family of open-source AI models that it says will be faster, cheaper and smarter than its previous offerings, as open-source offerings from Chinese AI labs proliferate.

A leaked early version of iOS has offered a rare look at what Apple may be working on next. 

• Hidden references point to a foldable iPhone, AirTag 2, new Home devices, cheaper Macs and AI smart glasses

The software dates back to when iOS 26 was still called iOS 19 internally. Many of these products may never launch, but the list shows how wide Apple’s plans are. Find out more

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