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Adani Group companies continued getting hammered on the bourses, with Adani Enterprises down 2% on Monday while Adani Power, Adani Total Gas and Adani Green Energy fell by about 5% each. Adani Transmission took a 10% hit despite reporting a nearly 78% rise in net profit for the December quarter. Adani Ports recouped some of its losses after two successive days of decline, ending the day about 8% higher.

The group’s promoters have repaid $1.114 billion to release some pledged shares “in light of recent market volatility,” the conglomerate said.

Meanwhile, the jobs market isn’t sending any positive signals either. Dell is laying off 5% of its global workforce—6,600 employees. Back home, digital entertainment company Pocket Aces has laid off 25% of its full-time employees to save costs and be able to turn profitable.

On a positive note, shares of Paytm parent spiked up over 7% on BSE after the company reported an operating profit for the financial third quarter, nine months ahead of its target. 

Also, while Google may soon deliver a ChatGPT rival, a clone has been developed in India. Powered by ChatSonic, Bhagavadgita.ai bot uses natural language processing to give answers from the Hindu scripture.

In today’s newsletter, we talk about 

• BetterPlace entering Southeast Asia 
• Infibeam Avenues’s 43% jump in net profit 
• Streamlining of cross-border logistics

Here’s your trivia for today: Who coined the popular term ‘unicorn’ in 2013 to describe a startup with a market valuation of at least $1 billion?

Acquisition

BetterPlace enters Southeast Asia 

In its maiden overseas acquisition, frontline workforce management platform BetterPlace has picked up a majority stake in Indonesia-based blue-collar workforce fulfilment platform MyRobin in a cash-and-stock deal.

The firm is also looking at a couple of more acquisitions in certain product areas in India and overseas as well, and is doubling down on its investment in R&D for future growth, Co-founder and Group CEO Pravin Agarwala told YourStory.

The next steps:

• Pravin said BetterPlace’s acquisition of MyRobin was its largest deal yet, and one of the largest in Indonesia from a startup point of view.
• Launched in 2020, MyRobin is a workforce-as-a-services platform that provides enterprises with on-demand, pre-screened, blue-collar workers.
• BetterPlace aims to enter Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, and Singapore–where it has created a Global Center for Southeast Asia, Pravin said. 

Funding Alert

Startup: Bike Bazaar

Amount: $10M

Round: Series D

Startup: FireCompass

Amount: $7M

Round: Undisclosed 

Fintech 

Infibeam Avenues reports 43% rise in net profit

Payment infrastructure company Infibeam Avenues reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 35.81 crore for the financial third quarter—43.13% higher than its Rs 25.02 crore profit a year earlier.

The ledger

• Infibeam Avenue says it added 1.1 million merchants in the third quarter, with total merchants reaching 8.4 million, up 72% YoY.
• Total revenue rose 4.5% to Rs 414.7 crore, with the payment business contributing Rs 372.96 crore.
• EBITDA rose 26% to Rs 47.6 crore, with EBITDA margin at 11.5%, up from 9.5% in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Startup

Streamlining cross-border logistics

For small businesses with tight budgets, any increase in logistics costs eats into margins. Bootstrapped with Rs 13.5 crore from the co-founders’ savings, Shypmax provides cross-border deliveries and shipping solutions to over 220 countries, including the UK, the US, Europe, and the Middle East.

Key takeaways:

• Shypmax enables business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), and customer-to-customer (C2C) businesses to manage cross-border shipments, supported with premium services at competitive pricing.
• It says it is 20–30% more cost-efficient in terms of pricing when compared with its competitors, including FedEx, DHL-BlueDart, UPS, and ARAMEX.
• Shypmax works with 50 partner companies and organisations, including Amazon, Shopify, eBay, Magento, and WooCommerce. 

News & updates

• Equal footing: Renault and Nissan announced a major shake-up to their 24-year alliance, with each automaker equalising the stake they hold in the other. Under the deal, Renault will cut its stake in Nissan from 43% to 15%, while the latter will take a stake in Renault’s flagship electric car unit Ampere.
• Uncertain future: US stock index futures fell on Monday as investors awaited more corporate results and the country’s central bank looked at future interest hikes. Futures for the S&P 500 were down 0.4% while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.3%.
• City of BTC: London won first place in terms of the world’s most crypto-ready cities for businesses and startups, according to a report by crypto portfolio tracker Recap. The study took into consideration key metrics such as jobs in the crypto space, tax status, and the overall number of crypto companies.

Who coined the popular term ‘unicorn’ in 2013 to describe a startup with a market valuation of at least $1 billion?

Answer: Venture capitalist Ailen Lee.

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