Hurun India Launches ASK Private Wealth Hurun India Future Unicorn Index 2024
India is currently home to 67 unicorns, 46 gazelles, and 106 cheetahs, compared to 68 unicorns, 51 gazelles, and 96 cheetahs in the 2023 index. There have been record dropouts with 25 future unicorns, including 5 gazelles and 20 cheetahs, falling off the list.
This year, 38 new entrants joined the list, comprising 7 gazelles and 31 cheetahs. Additionally, there have been 14 promotions, with 3 companies from the 2023 ASK Private Wealth Hurun India Future Unicorn Index (2 gazelles and 1 cheetah) promoted to unicorn status, and 10 cheetahs elevated to gazelles, indicating their potential to achieve unicorn status within the next three years.
The online travel aggregator Ixigo exited the list due to its IPO, which was subscribed 98 times. Peak XV Partners remains the most active investor in the ASK Private Wealth Hurun India Future Unicorn Index 2024, having invested in 47 potential unicorns, followed by Accel with stakes in 25 future unicorns.
Anand Chandrasekaran leads as the top angel investor, backing 20 future unicorns, followed by Kunal Bahl, co-founder of Snapdeal, who has invested in 11 future unicorns. Notably, 80% of the future unicorns had more than one founder, emphasizing the importance of co-founders in the success of these ventures.
Vadhavan Port: India's first mega port set to boost sea-based trade
The Indian shoreline, thanks to a geographical quirk, has a long continental shelf. This allows for sprawling and safe beaches, where the water recedes for miles and advances picturesquely.
But there is another side to beauty.
The sprawling beaches make it impossible for vessels like large oil tankers and container ships to come near India’s coasts, compelling most of them to offload their cargo at Colombo. In rare cases, they do a mid-sea transfer of goods nearer an Indian port
Coca Cola proposes $1 billion deal to top four Indian business families
Coca-Cola India is planning to sell a part of its wholly-owned bottling business, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB), for which it has approached the promoters of at least four top Indian business families, The Economic Times reported on Tuesday.
The names include Bhartia family of the Jubilant Group, Burman family of Dabur, Parekh family of Pidilite Industries, and the promoter family of Asian Paints, the report said. The soft drink manufacturing company is eyeing an investment of about $800 million to $1 billion in a bid to grow its business.
Coca-Cola India is planning to sell a part of its wholly-owned bottling business, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB), for which it has approached the promoters of at least four top Indian business families, The Economic Times reported on Tuesday.
The names include Bhartia family of the Jubilant Group, Burman family of Dabur, Parekh family of Pidilite Industries, and the promoter family of Asian Paints, the report said. The soft drink manufacturing company is eyeing an investment of about $800 million to $1 billion in a bid to grow its business.
AI frenzy makes Nvidia the world's most valuable company
By Mitchell Labiak, Business reporter
Chip-maker Nvidia became the world’s most valuable company after its share price climbed to an all-time high on Tuesday.
It is now worth $3.34tn (£2.63tn), with the price having nearly doubled since the start of this year.
The stock ended the trading day at nearly $136, up 3.5%, making it more valuable than fellow tech giant Microsoft. It overtook Apple earlier this month.
The Californian company's meteoric rise has been fuelled by its dominance of what analysts call the "new gold or oil in the tech sector" - the chips needed for artificial intelligence (AI).
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Speaking at an event in Copenhagen, Chris Penrose, global head of business development for telco at Nvidia, predicted further growth in the sector.
“The generative AI journey is really transforming businesses and telcos around the world," he said.
“We’re just at the beginning.”
Analysts Wedbush Securities agreed.
"We believe over the next year the race to $4 trillion market cap in tech will be front and centre between Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft," it said in a note earlier this week.
Other commentators though have questioned whether there will be big future gains, given the increasing competition Nvidia faces.
Japan’s third largest financial services group establishes its global business centre in Chennai
Mizuho Financial Group, Japan’s third largest financial services group, has established its Global Business Centre in Chennai.
The Chennai centre will play a pivotal role in conducting high-end IT/ITeS, encompassing Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), systems development, cybersecurity, and general banking operations. Mizuho Global Services (MGS), with a current workforce of over 250, plans to increase the number to 1,000 by 2025.
“The Government has been actively pursuing investments in the GCC space, and it is definitely yielding good results thanks to key enablers such as quality talent and necessary infrastructure,” said V. Vishnu, MD & CEO of Guidance, the nodal agency instrumental in bringing investments into Tamil Nadu.
Dharma Raja, Managing Director, Mizuho Global Services, India, said: “Our current focus is on rapidly expanding our business and enhancing our capabilities to cater to the entire global network of Mizuho group. Establishing our office in a conducive business environment such as Chennai significantly bolsters our pursuit of these objectives.”
Chennai hosts major Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) Global Capability Centres (GCCs) for prominent institutions like Standard Chartered, Bank of America, NatWest, Wells Fargo, Barclays, The World Bank, and Citi. Notably, Standard Chartered boasts its largest office campus globally in Chennai, and in 2023, Bank of America secured the largest office space transaction by leasing 1.1 million sq. ft in the city. Over 50% of this workforce focuses on product engineering and technology capabilities, showcasing Chennai’s thriving talent pool for BFSI GCCs.
The city has already become a strategic choice for many large global IT corporations and capability operations of major banks. Safety, good infrastructure, and expansion of Chennai Metro to facilitate seamless operations are among other factors for the city to emerge as the leading, and preferred destination for global conglomerates.
Soon, Elon Musk's AI startup xAI to make Grok chatbot
The move would give the public free access to experiment with the code behind the technology powering xAI's Grok chatbot, and aligns xAI with firms such as Meta and Mistral
Elon Musk said on Monday his artificial intelligence startup xAI would open-source its ChatGPT challenger "Grok" this week, days after he sued OpenAI for abandoning its original mission in favor of a for-profit model.
The billionaire has warned on several occasions against the use of technology for profit by big technology companies such as Google. He filed the lawsuit against Microsoft-backed OpenAI, which he co-founded in 2015 but left three years later, last week.
The move could give the public free access to experiment with the code behind the technology and aligns xAI with firms such as Meta and France's Mistral, both of which have open-source AI models.
Google has also released an AI model called Gemma that outside developers can potentially fashion according to their needs.
Tech investors including OpenAI backer Vinod Khosla and Marc Andreessen, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, have been debating about open-sourcing in AI since Musk filed the lawsuit against the ChatGPT maker.
Zepto raises $665 million at $3.6 billion valuation in biggest funding round this year
Sources said that DST Global, an early investor in Swiggy also participated in the round. Zepto founder Aadit Palicha told Moneycontrol that the funds will be used to enter new markets like Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and double its dark stores to 700 from the current 350.
Instant grocery delivery app Zepto has raised $665 million at a valuation of $3.6 billion valuation, as investors look to double down on the booming quick commerce sector in India.
The fundraise comes even as investors have become selective in the kind of startups they back as capital becomes difficult to access.
Moneycontrol was first to report on June 13 that Zepto was stitching together a round as large as $650 million at a valuation of $3.5 billion.
The fresh $665 million fundraise, a complete primary round, was co-led by existing backers like Glade Brook, Nexus, and StepStone who put in a majority of the amount of the capital. New investors like Avenir Growth, Lightspeed, Avra and others put in the remaining amount to join the company’s cap table.