Also in this letter:
■ Jack and Petty: Dorsey Stuck for Web3 Trolling
■ IIFL Fintech Fund will invest Rs 300 crore in fintech startups
■ Elon Musk says he’s “almost done” selling Tesla shares
Neobank Open set to become a unicorn with $ 100-150 million in funding
Open founders
Open, one of India’s fledgling neobanks, is in advanced talks to close a $ 100-150 million round that would value it between $ 1.1 billion and $ 1.3 billion.
The unicorn flies away: If the deal goes through, Open’s valuation will more than double in two months. The company had raised $ 100 million from Temasek, Google, Visa and others in October for a valuation of $ 500 million.
Investors: Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the country’s sovereign wealth fund, is among the investors who have held talks with Open, sources said. The company has also received a term sheet from existing investors such as Tiger Global and Temasek to co-lead the new round, the sources said. A condition sheet is a non-binding agreement detailing the terms and conditions of a potential investment agreement.
More in store? One of the sources said that although the QIA wrote a condition sheet, it usually writes larger checks when conducting a round. This means that Open can also do a secondary stock sale, which would increase the size of the round to $ 150 million.
Acquisition: Earlier this month, Open acquired consumer neobanking platform Finin in a $ 10 million cash and stock deal. He said he would use the company to strengthen his business activities and significantly export it overseas.
What is a neobank? Neobanks are financial institutions that offer customers a cheaper alternative to traditional banks. You could think of them as digital banks with no physical branches, offering services that traditional banks don’t and doing so efficiently. They leverage technology and artificial intelligence to deliver personalized services while minimizing operating costs.
In India, these companies do not have a banking license, but rely on banking partners to offer licensed services. This is because the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) does not yet allow banks to be 100% digital (although some foreign banks offer digital-only products through their local units). talked about the need for digital banking providers to have a physical presence as well.
Read our full explanation on neobanks here.
Jack and Villain: A16z boss blocks Dorsey on Web3 trolling
Jack Dorsey and Marc Andreessen
Billionaires are arguing over Twitter over the future of the internet. Again. Just days after taking to “Web3” with a little help from Elon Musk, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey got into a fight with Marc Andreessen, the prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist whose the company is a strong supporter of crypto and Web3 technologies. The feud only escalated when Andreessen, seemingly enraged by Dorsey’s tweets, ended up blocking him on Twitter, prompting @jack to come back: “I’m officially banned from Web3.”
The story so far: Dorsey had criticized Andreessen’s venture capital firm earlier this week when he tweeted that so-called Web3 technologies – a collection of tools and ideas that some believe could form the basis of a new Decentralized Web – have been corrupted by investments and corporate influence. capital companies, in particular Andreessen Horowitz.
“You don’t own ‘Web3’,” Dorsey tweeted Tuesday. “VCs and their LPs do it. It will never escape their incentives. And when Musk posted “Where’s Web3?” I can’t seem to find it, ”Dorsey replied,“ somewhere between a and z, ”a reference to Andreessen Horowitz, who goes through A16z.
The Twitter co-founder also trolled Chris Dixon, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, on Tuesday. When Dixon tweeted, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win,” Doesey replied, “You are a fund determined to be a media empire that cannot be ignored… not Gandhi. . ”
What is Web3? Web3 refers to a decentralized online ecosystem based on blockchain technology. To some, this represents the next evolution of the centralized money internet, in which a handful of companies act as gatekeepers. Applications and platforms built on Web3 will not belong to a single company, rather they will belong to the users themselves. In its current form, Web3 encompasses categories such as cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFT), decentralized finance (DeFi), and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO).
IIFL fund to invest Rs300 crore in early stage fintech startups
The IIFL fund plans to invest Rs300 crore in early stage Indian fintech startups over the next two years to facilitate the creation of affordable products and technologies that promote financial inclusion.
About the fund: The fund was established in August 2021 with 140 crore rupee sponsorship from two IIFL group companies, IIFL Finance and IIFL Securities. It has invested in four fintech startups – Leegality, FinBox, Trendlyne and DataSutram – in the first three months of its existence and is at an advanced stage of discussions to invest in 10 more by the end of the current fiscal year.
There is always a need for seed funding to nurture the fintech startup ecosystem, said R Venkataraman, co-promoter of IIFL Group and President of IIFL Securities Ltd.
Quote: “Fintechs play an important role in creating cost-effective delivery of various financial products to underserved and unbanked customers and help accelerate the process of financial inclusion,” he said.
Other offers concluded
■ The distribution and logistics start-up Ripplr raised $ 12 million (around Rs 90 crore) in a funding round with a mix of equity and debt from Japanese firm Sojitz Corporation and Stride Ventures. The pre-Series B funding round also saw participation from existing investors 3one4 Capital, Zephyr Peacock India Growth Fund and Chand Family Office.
■ Consumer brand Eggoz said it had raised $ 3.5 million (over Rs 25 crore) in Series A funding, led by Nabventures, a venture capital fund anchored by the National Bank for agriculture and rural development. The latest round also saw the participation of Avaana Capital, Rebright Partners, Bellerive Capital and angel investors Sanjiv Rangrass and Indresh Saluja, the company said in a statement.
Tweet of the day
Elon Musk says he’s ‘almost done’ selling Tesla shares
Tesla Inc chief executive Elon Musk said on Wednesday he had “almost completed” his share sales after selling shares worth more than $ 15 billion in about a month. The billionaire had previously made confused statements about whether or not he could do away with his stated goal of selling 10% of his Tesla shares.
Quote: “I sold enough stocks to get around 10% plus option exercises and tried to be extremely literal here,” he said.
Frenzy of sales: Musk sold an additional 934,091 shares on Wednesday, bringing the total he unloaded to 14.77 million, or nearly 90% of the roughly 17 million shares he was scheduled to sell.
When asked if he sold due to the Twitter poll, he said on Tuesday he had to exercise stock options that expire next year “whatever.” He added that he had sold additional “extra shares” to reach almost 10%.
Of the 14.77 million shares sold, 9.34 million were sold to pay taxes related to the exercise of its options, according to Tesla Securities filings.
Last week, Musk said in a tweet that he would pay more than $ 11 billion in taxes this year. He said his personal tax rate, including federal and state income taxes, is over 50%.
Lick it: Japanese teacher creates TV screen you can taste
Have you ever thought about the real taste of that dish from the cooking show you love? While you probably shouldn’t go lick your TV screen during a pandemic, Homei Miyashita’s latest innovation relies on you to do just that.
Miyashita, a Japanese professor, has developed a prototype lickable TV screen that can mimic the flavors of food, another step towards creating a multisensory viewing experience.
Tell me more: The device, called Taste the TV (TTTV), uses a carousel of 10 flavor cartridges that vaporize together to create the taste of a particular food. The flavor sample then rolls onto hygienic film on a flat screen TV for the viewer to try out.
Miyashita works with a team of around 30 students who have produced a variety of flavor-related devices, including a fork that makes food taste richer. He said he had built the TTTV prototype himself over the past year and that a commercial version would cost around 100,000 yen ($ 875).
Quote: “The goal is to allow people to experience something like eating in a restaurant halfway around the world, even while staying at home,” he said. Potential applications include distance learning for sommeliers and cooks, as well as tasting games and quizzes, he said.
That’s all well and good, but there is a definite “ick factor” to consider. And can we remind the right teacher that we are in the midst of a respiratory pandemic?
Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Arun Padmanabhan in New Delhi and Zaheer Merchant in Mumbai. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.
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