Panasonic’s game plan for startup; Norwest Venture Partners close fund

Every journey has hiccups, even the one to take a company public.

Ecommerce platform FirstCry will reportedly withdraw its papers for an up to $500 million IPO after the SEBI raised questions over key metrics it disclosed to investors. However, the company is looking to refile the IPO papers as early as next week.

Speaking of IPOs, food delivery platform Swiggy has received shareholder approval for its proposed $1.2 billion public issue, a filing with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs showed.

Elsewhere, Tech Mahindra reported a 40.9% year-on-year decline in net profit for the fourth quarter of FY24 as the leading IT services company navigates a business slowdown.

Also, all is not well at Kotak Mahindra Bank as its shares fell by nearly 11% on Thursday, a day after the RBI barred the lender from taking on new digital clients and issuing credit cards.

ICYMI: Human brains might be getting bigger.

Lastly, a life hack. New research suggests that memorable images appear to dilate time.

So, if every day appears like a blur, try seeking out new and interesting experiences. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Panasonic’s game plan for startups
• Norwest Venture Partners closes fund
• A fisherman’s study of the seas

Here’s your trivia for today: Which is the only mammal with four knees?

Enterprise

Panasonic’s game plan for startups

Panasonic’s philosophy of co-creating and co-prospering has led the Japan-headquartered global tech firm to embark on a journey to build strong linkages with the startup ecosystem in India. 

Its corporate VC arm, established in 2022 with a total fund size of 8 billion yen ($55 million), has already invested around 40% of the corpus in startups across Japan, the US, and Europe. The remaining 60% is an opportunity for Indian startups.

Long term:

• Globally, Panasonic is focused on food infrastructure, commercial infrastructure, lifestyle, wellness, and sustainability.
• The company’s first startup accelerator programme in India is centred around energy management, and it has partnered with Mumbai-based early-stage venture capital firm 100X.VC for this programme.
• The India Innovation Centre of Panasonic in Bengaluru works on various technologies such as IoT, mobility, and artificial intelligence to create products and business lines for both the consumer and industrial sectors.

<Funding Alert>

Startup: FlashAid

Amount: $2.5M

Round: Pre-Series A

Startup: MatchLog Solutions

Amount: $1.5M

Round: Pre-Series A

Startup: Clueso

Amount: $1.4M

Round: Seed

Investors

Norwest Venture Partners closes fund

Norwest Venture Partners, the California-headquartered global venture capital and growth equity investment firm, announced the close of its $3 billion Norwest XVII, LP fund (NVP 17). 

The new fund—which will be deployed across India, the US, and Israel—follows the VC’s $3 billion NVP 16 fund it raised in December 2021, taking the total capital under management to $15.5 billion.

Investment:

• The VC will back early- to mid-stage companies with a proven business model and initial revenue traction with a ticket size of $10 million to $30 million. 
• Its NVP 17 fund will also back growth companies in sectors including financial services and technology, consumer technology, products and services, B2B tech, industrial and manufacturing companies, SaaS and enterprise software, etc.
• In India, Niren Shah will continue to lead the firm’s investments as Managing Director and Head of Norwest India.

Environment

A fisherman’s study of the seas

S Palayam of Chennai has studied the ocean—its winds and currents—for seven years. His first-hand experience and observations culminated in a study titled ‘Sea Changed; Seasons Changed: A Fisher Science View of Climate Change’. 

“For us, the ocean is our mother, and the wind, our father,” says Palayam. At 60, he is a treasure trove of stories about the sea. 

Knowledge transfer:

• Researcher and environmentalist Nityanand Jayaraman and Palayam spent early hours observing the winds and currents, noting their shifts with the changing climate, and its impact on fish movement and migration patterns over the years.
• Jayaraman says it is equally vital to understand that the traditional knowledge of the fisherfolk isn’t fossilised or ‘mystic’. It is rather a methodical language gained by ‘doing’. 
• Having retired from fishing to study the sea full time, Palayam says the fisherfolk’s knowledge of the marine ecosystem must be preserved, along with their local language used to describe it.

News & updates

• Compromised: ICICI Bank said its digital channels “erroneously mapped” about 17,000 credit cards issued in the past few days to “wrong” users. Some customers raised concerns on social media about the bank’s iMobile Pay app exposing unknown customers’ credit card details, including their number and CVV.
• Long bets: IndiGo placed its first-ever order for 30 Airbus A350-900 wide-body aircraft as the low-cost carrier intensifies its efforts to take a bigger slice of the international travel business from dominant Gulf airlines. It expects deliveries to begin in 2027.
• Chip wars: A group of Chinese chip companies led by Huawei Technologies and backed by the country's government aims to produce high-bandwidth memory (HBM) semiconductors, a key component in AI chips by 2026, The Information reported. 

Which is the only mammal with four knees?

Answer: Elephant.

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