One quick thing: After chess, our eyes are now on Javelin! Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra has entered the World Championships final today, thereby also gaining entry to the 2024 Olympics.
- Two more Indians - DP Manu and Kishore Jena - are in the fray to enter the finals. Our fingers are crossed!
In today’s newsletter:
- Zepto breaks India's unicorn jinx
- Global tech leaders on AI's big opportunity
- The unending Rahul Yadav saga
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Top 3 Stories
Zepto breaks India's unicorn jinx
Just when we thought unicorns were about to become rare again, a new quick-commerce startup has come to end India's nearly year-long unicorn dry spell.
Driving the news
Zepto has bagged $200 million funding at a valuation of $1.4 billion, a jump from $900 million when it last raised capital in May 2022.
- StepStone led the financing round, with participation from Goodwater Capital and others.
IPO prep
Zepto co-founder Aadit Palicha is now aiming bigger as the company sets its sights on a public market debut in the first half of 2025, he told us in an interview.
- This comes at a time when rivals like Dunzo are reeling under severe cash crunch. Globally, the quick-commerce sector has also seen several prominent startups, such as Gopuff, Getir, and Jokr, cut back on their operations.
What’s working for Zepto?
Earlier this month, we wrote a detailed analysis on Zepto’s business after accessing its pitch deck
- Zepto admitted that its deliveries were now taking 13 minutes, a departure from initial promise of 10 minutes
- Cash burn lowered to around Rs 55 crore in April this year from about Rs 90 crore in September last year
Read more
Global tech leaders on AI's big opportunity
It's rare to see the top leaders of some of the world's most influential tech companies in a single session at an event, and even more rare that such an event occurs in India.
- But today was one of those days when prominent leaders from Microsoft, IBM, and Adobe gathered at the B20 India Summit in the national capital to discuss the hot topic of the moment - Artificial intelligence.
Supercharging productivity
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said that coding productivity can be increased by 60 percent with AI.
"The higher level cognitive tasks still need humans. But the more mundane tasks can be done by AI" he said in a session moderated by Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen.
But will it lead to people losing their jobs? Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran doesn't believe so. Instead, it will create jobs in India, especially for people with few or no skills, he said during the session.
- AI will empower individuals to perform higher-level tasks, he said.
AI's multilingual might
Microsoft president Brad Smith mentioned that the potential of AI technology is even greater in countries that speak multiple languages, as it offers new avenues for innovation and communication.
That said, he also emphasised on the need to create a regulatory blueprint by governments and private sectors around the world.
"It is important to not only see who is developing AI but also who is deploying it. People are saying we shouldn't make the same mistake with AI as in social media. People had become too euphoric without taking into account the risks" he said.
Go deeper
P.S. You can also catch all key developments from the B20 Summit in our liveblog.
The unending Rahul Yadav saga
The ‘bad boy of Indian startups’ is in even more trouble, thanks to his startup 4B Networks.
Quick refresher: The startup’s major backer Info Edge wrote down its investment of Rs 288 crore in the company, initiated a forensic audit since they got no info from Yadav, and went to court after still being met with radio silence. They are now in arbitration.
But that’s just the beginning...
What's new?
Innov8, a co-working company owned by Oyo, has also approached the court earlier this year, locking horns with the company at least since April, sources tell us.
- 4B Networks rented out an Innov8 office space in Mumbai, and has rental dues of Rs 1.08 crore. The company packed up the office and left one day without notice.
Innov8 went into arbitration because Yadav did not respond to calls and emails. Sound familiar?
Tell me more
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