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In today’s newsletter:

• UPI tops 10B transactions in a month for the first time
• Why SoftBank wants to check out of Zomato
• Amazon banks on India Post & Indian Railways

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Hold onto your seats, because history has been made. The heart of digital transactions in India, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), has crossed a historic milestone of 10 billion transactions in a month for the first time.

And guess what? 

• With one more day to go in August, it is likely to touch 10.5 billion

Rewind to last month when the excitement was palpable. UPI came this close to hitting the 10 billion mark in July, recording 9.96 billion transactions. 

China has been a role model for the world in digital payments, but UPI is quickly catching up. 

• In August, UPI processed more than 330 million transactions per day, while Alipay processed less than 200 million

This has led to a growing interest in UPI from other countries, both emerging and developed.

Read: UPI to enter North America, other Middle-Eastern countries soon: NIPL CEO Ritesh Shukla

Within the next three to four months, UPI is expected to surpass Mastercard's daily transaction volume of 440 million. 

• Visa, the world's largest card network, processes an average of 750 million transactions per day 

These companies operate in over 200 countries, many of which are much wealthier than India, and they have been around for over 60 years. On the other hand, UPI has achieved this scale in less than eight years.

Looking ahead, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has set its sights on a much bigger target. 

• It plans to process 30 billion UPI transactions per month or 1 billion transactions daily in the next 2-3 years

Find out more

In June, we reported that Zomato had become a profitable bet for SoftBank, thanks to a sharp rally in the food tech company's shares.

• Since then, the Japanese investor has been looking for opportunities to sell and book profits

Yesterday, SoftBank finally did so, selling 10 crore shares in a block deal and booking gains of more than Rs 100 crore. SoftBank now seeks to exit Zomato completely.

SoftBank is looking to sell its remaining 2.18% stake in Zomato through open market transactions or block deals in the coming months.

• On August 30, it sold a 1.17% stake, or 10 million shares, of Zomato via a block deal, making a profit of Rs 10-12 per share

SoftBank also has a large stake in Swiggy, Zomato's biggest rival. The Japanese investor would want to exit Zomato as soon as possible to avoid any conflict of interest.

To be fair, SoftBank did not directly invest in Zomato. It got the stake in the company after Zomato acquired Blinkit (formerly Grofers), which was a portfolio company of SoftBank.

However, SoftBank is less enthusiastic about exiting its investments in other ventures like Delhivery and PB Fintech, where it has directly injected substantial funds.

SoftBank, one of India's largest startup investors, has not cut a cheque in India for more than 15 months. 

• However, the Japanese investor has been actively monetising some of its bets in both the public and private markets

So far this year, SoftBank has sold part of its stake in Paytm through open market operations, generating over $300 million. It also sold some shares in Lenskart to Chrys Capital in June.

E-commerce companies have constantly been on the lookout for newer ways to deliver orders quickly and over long distances. 

• Online retail giant Amazon is now partnering with two of India's oldest institutions to make its deliveries

At a company event in New Delhi, Amazon signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian postal services and partnered with the Indian railways for a dedicated freight corridor. These measures are expected to benefit its 1.2 million sellers.

• Amazon also launched multi-channel fulfillment, which will allow small businesses and D2C startups to use its infrastructure

• It also launched Sahay (सह-AI), which will help small businesses with cataloguing, inventory management, and other tasks

Of its announcements, the company's multi-channel fulfillment puts it in competition with logistics players such as Delhivery, Shadowfax, and Xpressbees.

• It is also following in the footsteps of its biggest Indian competitor, Flipkart

Ekart is Flipkart's standalone logistics arm, offering services to businesses.

So far, Amazon has invested $11 billion in India since it started operations a decade ago. By 2030, it plans to invest an additional $15 billion in India, its key market, taking its total investment to $26 billion. By 2025, Amazon plans to:

• Create 2 million jobs
• Achieve $20 billion worth of exports
• Digitise 10 million small businesses

That's not all. It's the season for generative AI, and Amazon isn't going to be left behind.

“We think in the next 10 years, there won't be any aspect of our business that won't be transformed in some meaningful way by this (generative AI). There won't be any way that we do our business today that AI won’t transform,” said Russell Grandinetti, SVP - International Consumer at Amazon.

Go deeper

• Google is bringing its generative AI-powered search experience to India as an opt-in experiment through its new Search Labs initiative.
  
  
• Nvidia partner Quanta Cloud Technology aims to double AI server sales in 2024. Long-term demand is expected to remain strong as businesses integrate AI into their operations.

In a world where plastic pollution is a growing problem, artificial intelligence (AI) is stepping in to help.

In Meghalaya, the government is planning to use an AI-powered robotic boat to clean up the Umiam lake, which is being ravaged by plastic waste.

• ClearBot's AI-powered boat is equipped with sensors that can detect plastic waste in the water. It can then suck up the waste and deposit it in a container

The use of AI to clean up the Umiam lake is a promising example of how this technology can be used to address environmental challenges. Find out how it works

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