👀 The Week At A Glance
This week we talked about mind-reading tech, India's organic obsession and a lot more.
This week started out with us pondering over the investor and founder conflict and ended with mind-reading technology and the privacy nightmare it could bring. And there was a lot more in between. Plus, we also have a new segment: book summary. Catch up with all this news in just 4 minutes!
📖 The Art of Thinking Clearly: Week 2
In case you missed the news, we started a Readathon last week to help you get into the habit of reading. This week we discussed Chapters 16-40 of the ‘Art of Thinking Clearly’. If you missed the discussion you can read the summary here. And if you want to be a part of future discussions, you can join our ReadOn Pro community here:
⚡ The Funder Founder Feud
We’ve all heard stories about bootstrapped startups that made it big. Look at Zoho, look at Zerodha. But often companies go the bootstrap way not because investors aren’t interested but because investors bring in a new set of challenges and problems, leading to feuds. We recently noticed an uptick in such funder founder feuds and decided to look into the matter. Here’s our take on this topic.
🚙 Is Battery Swapping The Answer to Our EV Problems?
Most of us worry about our devices running out of charge on long trips. But what if you also had to worry about your car running out of battery? This is the problem that electric vehicles pose and why we haven’t embraced these green vehicles. But what if you could change out your car battery instead of waiting for hours to charge it? ReadOn to find out.
🤔 Why Are FMCGs Copying D2C Brands?
We’ve noticed a new beauty trend: onion oils. Every oil company is making them now. But why is this onion oil boom coming just now? We have known about the benefits of onions for a long time now. The trend was started by D2C brands like Mamaearth and FMCGs began copying them soon. And this is not the only space where FMCGs have followed D2C brands’ lead. Here’s why FMCGs have become copycats.
🥊 India’s Next Top Businessman: Adani or Ambani?
After years of running in their own circles, it seems that India’s top two businessmen are now stepping on each other’s toes. After Ambani entered the green energy business last year, which was Adani’s domain, Adani also entered the petrochemicals space. And now Adani could be striking a deal with Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil exporter and the company that Reliance was going to strike a deal with. Here’s why Reliance broke up with Saudi Aramco and what Adani’s deal with it could hold for the future.
🌿 India’s Organic Obsession
India is growing increasingly health-conscious and so more and more people are now buying organic food items. Because of this India's organic food market is set to grow at a 20.5% CAGR to be worth $2.6 billion by 2026. But consumers still can’t find truly organic products. Retailers mostly only sell organic produce and even then customers don’t know if it is truly organic. However, there is one startup that is leveraging that to create a truly organic omnichannel brand: The Farmers’ Store. Read all about it here.
🧠 Tech Can Now Read Your Mind!
So far you may have only suspected that Amazon and Instagram were reading your mind but now there is tech that can actually do so. On the one hand, that means scrolling Instagram and browsing Netflix without moving a muscle. But on the other hand, it is a privacy nightmare. ReadOn to make your mind about whether this tech will bring a productivity utopia or a surveillance dystopia.
🗞 Here's What Else Made the News and Moved Markets:
👉 After the Blinkit merger, most of us were expecting Zomato to launch grocery deliveries. But instead, it shocked all of us by announcing 10-minute food delivery. Many have criticised the move, just like they criticised Blinkit's 10-minute delivery plan. So, Zomato CEO has clarified that this new plan will only be applicable in certain areas, and for food items that can be dispatched in 2 minutes. Also, no delivery personnel will be fined for late deliveries. In fact, they won’t even be told that the food needs to be delivered in 10 minutes. But will this plan work out and do we really need anything in 10-minutes?
👉 The government raised the prices of petrol and diesel five times this week. The cost of LPG cylinders was also raised by Rs. 50. Despite crude oil being at a historic high, petrol and diesel prices had not been hiked in India due to elections. Now thanks to our deal with Russia for cheap crude, the rise isn't as extreme as it could have been. The hike will help private retailers like Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, who were selling increasingly expensive petrol for cheap for the last 137 days. These companies have witnessed a total loss of over Rs.19, 000 crores due to the price freeze.
👉 Everyone seems to be getting into the lending space these days. India’s latest unicorn Oxyzo Financial Services also belongs to this arena. It is one of the first profitable fintech unicorns to be led by a woman, Ruchi Kalra. Kalra and her husband Asish Mohapatra (co-founder of OfBusiness) have also become the first Indian couple to build their own startups into unicorns. Oxyzo offers cash-flow based loans to credit-starved MSMEs. Such lending startups have been cropping up lately as out of the 63mn MSMEs in India only 27mn have access to formal credit. Flipkart and Ola are also trying to make their way into this space. Flipkart Wholesale (B2B marketplace) has partnered with CreditVidya to launch an Embedded Buy Now, Pay Later service for its 1.5 lakh merchants. Meanwhile, Ola has tied up with Avail Finance (founded by the brother of Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal) to offer better loans to its drivers. But are too many players now lending money?
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