Why Prosus is optimistic about edtech; Mamaearth’s profit shrinks

Hello,

Amid the grey clouds of global uncertainty, India’s central bank is looking at a cautiously optimistic silver lining.

Despite shifting policy landscapes and lingering vulnerabilities, India remains “well-positioned to navigate the ongoing global headwinds with confidence”, according to a bulletin by the Reserve Bank of India. 

The numbers back the claims of strong economic performance: India’s private sector activity rose at its fastest pace in over a year this month, driven by a boom in the services sector.

Meanwhile, Indian deeptech companies still have a number of obstacles to growth. While there has been a recent wave of investor support and spotlight, they still struggle to access markets and capital. 

At Prosus’ first event in its global flagship series, CRED Founder Kunal Shah and Meraki Labs co-founder Mukesh Bansal sat down with YourStory CEO and Founder Shradha Sharma to etch out a roadmap for the country’s deeptech landscape. 

Also, use cases for deeptech and AI are getting funkier by the day. Fintech company Klarna did something unique with the AI avatar of its CEO—making him present the company’s quarterly results. 

What’s more, the tech is even helping executives tackle the dreaded post-vacation pile-up in their inboxes. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Prosus still sees future in edtech
• Mamaearth’s profit shrinks
• Overhauling India’s car care industry

Here’s your trivia for today: Who was the director of the first-ever Indian feature film, Raja Harishchandra?

Investor

Prosus still sees future in edtech

Despite having run into expensive troubles in the Indian edtech segment, Prosus is not shying away from the potential the segment has to offer, especially amidst the rising use cases of artificial intelligence, according to Prosus CEO, Fabricio Bloisi. 

He noted that the firm’s thesis of investing millions of dollars in Indian edtech highlighted its push for supporting a segment that can use technology to make the country run better and to create a competitive advantage. 

Second coming:

• Prosus’ bet on the once edtech behemoth, BYJU'S, has far from paid off. The Dutch company had invested around $578 million in BYJU'S across multiple rounds since 2018, building up a stake of over 10% until mid-2022. 
• Despite observing a loss of $493 million due to their investment in BYJU'S, Bloisi pointed out that the firm made more money than it had lost during foodtech major Swiggy’s public listing. 
• The firm currently estimates five of its Indian portfolio companies are ready for an initial public offering, including Meesho and PayU.

Funding Alert

Startup: Alt Carbon

Amount: $12M

Round: Seed

Startup: Data Sutram

Amount: $9M

Round: Series A

Startup: Promethean Energy

Amount: $2M

Round: Pre-Series A

D2C

Mamaearth’s profit shrinks

Honasa Consumer, the parent company of Mamaearth, saw its bottomline squeeze in the March quarter, even as its revenue grew by 13% over last year, according to the filings made with the exchange. I

It earned Rs 533.5 crore in revenue from operations during the quarter. Compared to the December quarter, its sales grew by only Rs 16 crore.

Key takeaways:

• The Varun Alagh- and Ghazal Alagh-led company also saw its profit narrow by 18% to Rs 24.9 crore from Rs 30.4 crore reported in the corresponding quarter in the previous year. Even on a quarter-over-quarter basis, it clocked a marginal de-growth.
• During the same period, its expenses rose by 15.8% YoY to Rs 522 crore, mainly hurt by a spike inventory correction plan undertaken in the second quarter of the year. The BBlunt parent says it has already started seeing upsides from its inventory correction project.
• “We also changed our investment allocation mix towards these and deployed a better media mix, which is more effective. I'm happy to share that we're already seeing early green shoots from this change in strategy. These focus categories contribute to about 70% of the brand,” shared Varun Alagh, Chairman, CEO and Co-founder, Honasa Consumer in a post-earnings call.

Startup

Overhauling India’s car care industry

Mr White Gloves is not just a car wash service. It is a tech-driven, franchise-enabled platform that is redefining vehicle maintenance in India, bringing convenience, entrepreneurship, and quality to people.

From doorstep car care to proprietary products and a trained gig workforce, the startup delivers a full-stack solution for its customers.

Professional care:

• The company operates two models at present—company-operated and franchise-operated. The startup delivers its services at scale, without owning any manufacturing units or repair shops by tapping into a network of trained micro-entrepreneurs.
• At the backend, the startup uses a combination of web and mobile apps (the latter launching soon), WhatsApp API, and GPS-enabled coordination tools to manage bookings and service logistics. It also has roadside assistance services across India.
• With 20+ franchisees and 40+ employees, the startup has already served over 10,000 customers across 20 Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Kolkata, and Patna. Mr White Gloves plans to start operations in Hyderabad by the end of this month.

News & updates

• Deliberations: OPEC+ members are discussing making a third consecutive oil production surge in July, to be decided at the group’s meeting in just over a week, delegates said. An output hike of 411,000 barrels a day for July—triple the amount initially planned—is among the options under discussion. 
• Return to space: The US Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday said it approved SpaceX's Starship to return to flight after its explosive testing mishap in March, allowing Elon Musk’s space company to launch the Mars rocket's ninth test flight from Texas as soon as next week.
• Probe: The US Justice Department is probing whether Alphabet Inc’s Google violated antitrust law with an agreement to use the artificial intelligence technology of popular chatbot maker Character.AI. 

Who was the director of the first-ever Indian feature film, Raja Harishchandra?

Answer: Dadasaheb Phalke.

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