Scaling the B2B fish and meat market

Hello Reader,

After a sharp fall on Monday, domestic benchmark indices ended in the green on Tuesday. The BSE Sensex gained 1,564 points, closing well above the 59,000 mark, while the Nifty50 closed at 17,759, rising by over 450 points.

Meanwhile, Indian business tycoon Gautam Adani has broken into the top three of the Bloomberg Billionaire's Index—the first Asian to do so. Adani is now the third-richest man in the world with a net worth of over $137 billion, trailing behind Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

Oh, you may have heard of emotional support animals—usually a dog, cat, or guinea pig. But meet Wally, an emotional support alligator to 69-year-old Joseph Henney. 

Turns out, Wally is a hugger and the two even sleep in the same bed.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Scaling the B2B fish and meat market
• Fintech startup EarlySalary raises $110 M 
• Using NFTs to own real estate

Here’s your trivia for today: When and where did the Beatles play their last concert?

Startup

Scaling the B2B fish and meat market

Like the retail space, the business-to-business (B2B) segment for meat and seafood is gaining traction, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic-led lockdowns.

And, tapping into this market opportunity is Delhi-headquartered FreshR, a B2B marketplace for fish and meat in India. The startup was founded by former Zomato employee Ambika Satapathy and her husband, Sadanand, a former Ministry of Defence employee who was part of the team that inspected supplies to the defence forces. 

A fleshy opportunity:

• FreshR’s target areas are Orissa, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal. 
• This June, it raised $1.2 million in a seed round led by Axilor Ventures and 1crowd. 
• According to The Economic Survey 2021-22, meat production in India has increased from 6.69 million tonnes in 2014-15 to 8.80 million tonnes in 2020-21 (provisional). 

Funding

Fintech startup EarlySalary raises $110M

Consumer lending platform EarlySalary, which offers instant cash loans and salary advances, has raised $110 million in a Series D round led by TPG’s The Rise Fund and Norwest Venture Partners. Existing investors Piramal Capital and Housing Finance Limited also participated in the round.

This is EarlySalary’s largest fund raise to date, and the company confirmed its valuation to $300 million.

Money matters:

• Pune-based EarlySalary provides financial lending solutions of up to Rs 5 lakh to working professionals.
• It had raised $34 million in previous rounds from Eight Roads, Chiratae Ventures, Piramal Capital and Housing Finance Limited, and angel investors.
• The fresh capital will go towards strengthening the startup’s business over the next 24 months.

Blockchain

Using NFTs to own real estate

For most of us, owning a home requires meticulous planning and saving for years. Buying property in India is not only expensive but also comes with a lot of paperwork and dealing with middlemen.

Parv Prabhakar, Ryan Smith, and Cody Coex Foo, the founders of Estate Protocol, are trying to solve this problem using Web3.

Prime property:

• Parv was only 19 when he thought of the idea as a writer at the Indian crypto exchange WazirX.
• Ryan looks after the real estate investment in the firm, while Cody handles the business development.
• In 2021, the startup raised $50,000 in the pre-seed round. It is in the process of closing $1 million in funding by September.

News & updates

• Cold closure: China's southern city of Shenzhen on Monday shut down the world's largest electronics market and suspended public transport nearby as authorities enforced neighbourhood-wide lockdowns in response to a small number of Covid cases.
• Show them off: Meta has “started giving people the ability to post digital collectibles that they own across both Facebook and Instagram,” after they connect their digital wallets to either platform. The posts will look like normal posts but will have a badge marking them as a “digital collectible.”
• Musk-scalation: Lawyers for Elon Musk and Twitter Inc. are sparring over how a whistle-blower’s accusations could affect the outcome of Musk’s proposed $44 billion takeover of the social media platform.
• Online therapy: TikTok videos with #mentalhealth in the caption have earned more than 43.9 billion views, according to the analytics company Sprout Social, and mentions of mental health on social media are increasing year by year.

What you should watch out for

• Limits imposed on domestic airfares will be removed from today.
• A plane-sized asteroid with a width of 110 feet is expected to fly past Earth.
• Delhi High Court to hear the case concerning the government's guidelines barring the levy of service charge by restaurants.

When and where did the Beatles play their last concert?

Answer: The Beatles came together for their final live performance on August 29, 1966, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

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