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 In today’s newsletter:

• Tesla’s India drive kicks off in Mumbai
• Sparrow Capital eyes Rs 400 cr raise for third fund
• This IIM-A startup can get you an equity slice

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Tesla has finally plugged into India. 

Elon Musk’s electric vehicle firm opened its first showroom in the country, a 4,000 sq. ft. space in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), officially marking its long-awaited entry into the world’s third-largest auto market.

Tesla’s India rollout begins with the Model Y, priced at Rs 59.89 lakh (ex-showroom) for the Rear-Wheel Drive (RWD) version. 

• The Long Range RWD variant comes in at Rs 67.89 lakh 
  
  
• The same Model Y costs less than Rs 34 lakh in China and the US
  
  
• Deliveries are expected to begin in Q3 of 2025, initially in Mumbai, Delhi, and Gurugram

The next showroom will open in New Delhi by the end of July, and Tesla is actively ramping logistics infrastructure, including warehousing space and experience centres.

Also read: Tesla Model Y: How to book it in Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai?

The company plans to launch 4 charging stations in Mumbai (Lower Parel, BKC, Navi Mumbai and Thane), each with 16 superchargers and 16 destination chargers.

“Our goal is to create a sustainable ecosystem,” the company said.

Delhi will also get 4 charging stations with 16 superchargers and 15 destination chargers.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was present at the launch, pitched hard for deeper Tesla integration.

“We expect Tesla to establish its complete electric vehicle ecosystem here, from manufacturing to supply chains,” the chief minister said.

Tesla says it will rely entirely on Indian talent to lead its local operations. 

• The company, however, has no immediate plans for a factory in India

Sparrow Capital is spreading its wings. 

Sparrow Capital is preparing to raise as much as Rs 400 crore in its third fund, a little birdie told us. 

• This will mark a significant increase in fund size for the early-stage VC fund
  
  
• It had raised Rs 4 crore in its first fund, then went on to raise Rs 150 crore in its second fund and is now raising close to 3X of that amount – all in under five years 

This will give the VC more firepower and allow it to do deals more aggressively and have an edge over its rivals. 

• A larger fund also means Sparrow Capital can write slightly larger cheques, over its current Rs 2-5 crore range 

Sparrow was founded in 2020 by former Kalaari Capital employees Darshit Vora and Yash Jain along with Aakash Goyal, who was at Fundamentum Partnership. 

Sparrow is raising fresh monies at a time when a slew of other VC funds are in the market raising new funds, adding to the existing dry powder. 

• Dry powder is the estimated capital raised by VC funds but not yet deployed
  
  
• Various estimates predict it to have crossed $12 billion in recent years 

Mid-sized funds, like Sparrow, have all raised capital recently. 

• IndiGo Ventures announced the first close of its maiden fund at Rs 450 crore (around $54 million)
  
  
• Similarly, All In Capital announced the first close of its second fund, with a target corpus of Rs 200 crore (around $24 million) 

That was after larger funds like Accel, A91 and several others raised record amounts to double down on the Indian startup ecosystem. 

Dig deeper

Who says you need a fat wallet to invest in blue-chip stocks? An IIM-Ahmedabad-incubated fintech wants to let you own just a slice of one.

SEBI has cleared Bengaluru-based Xaults’ proposal to test fractional stock ownership via blockchain under its regulatory sandbox.  

• High-value shares can be broken into digital tokens, each carrying full legal ownership
  
  
• These tokens can be traded individually or combined to form a full share in your Demat account
  
  
• Xaults is working with depositories, brokers, and clearing infrastructure to enable full-cycle automation

If the model passes regulatory muster, investors could someday own and trade bite-sized pieces of India’s priciest stocks without paying for an entire share.

Fractional stock ownership isn’t new globally, but this is India’s first SEBI-approved pilot.

• Last year, SEBI’s then-chief Madhabi Puri Buch had pushed for enabling fractional ownership by amending the Companies Act
  
  
• If formalised, it could unlock a new asset class of tokenised securities for Indian retail investors

Think custom portfolios, hyper-personalised investing, and blue chip access without the money barrier.

Xaults is also working on CBDC loyalty rewards, MSME invoice tokenisation, and token-based treasury investing.

• It ran a successful RBI sandbox pilot for MSME invoice tokenisation with banks like ICICI and HDFC
  
  
• It has partnered with SBI Payments and Bank of Baroda on a CBDC-powered loyalty platform for kiranas

Find out more 

• Nvidia said it has received assurances from the Trump administration that it can sell its H20 AI chip in China, days after Chief Executive Jensen Huang met President Donald Trump.
  
  
• Fractal Analytics has raised $172 million via a secondary share sale, valuing the AI firm at $2.44 billion as it prepares for a public listing.

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla left Earth as a test pilot and came back as a space icon. 

The IAF officer returned to Earth today with the Ax-4 crew aboard SpaceX’s Dragon Grace, making a splash—literally—off San Diego after nearly 20 days aboard the ISS. 

• The capsule’s sonic boom was a fitting finale for the mission 

Watch the re-entry video 

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