Dunzo’s plans to scale B2B vertical

Hello Reader,

“I eat my feelings, and unfortunately, they aren’t fat-free.”

In the UK, marmalade sales spiked last month after Queen Elizabeth II passed away. People are paying their respects by leaving pots of her beloved fruit preserve and marmalade sandwiches as tributes.

The longest-ruling female monarch in history had publicly professed her love for marmalade in a skit with Paddington Bear just months before her death.

Meanwhile, a small-ish victory for Elon Musk as he convinced a judge to throw out most of a Twitter shareholder’s lawsuit around his effort to cancel the $44-billion acquisition of the social media giant.

ICYMI: Check out the best wildlife photos of 2022. The winner is 16-year-old Katanyou Wuttichaitanakorn from Thailand.

Last but not least, Tata Tiago, the company’s first hatchback electric car, received a record 10,000 bookings on its first day—the highest for any domestic electric car. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Dunzo’s plans to scale B2B vertical 
• Making crude oil out of seaweed
• Vedantu strengthens offline play

Here’s your trivia for today: Which is the oldest stock exchange in Asia?

Logistics

Dunzo’s plans to scale B2B vertical 

In 2018, Dunzo’s internal investigation of repeated orders from merchants led the hyperlocal logistics company to explore the business-to-business (B2B) segment.

In its current form, Dunzo for Business or D4B offers logistics-as-a-service to nearly 20,000 small and medium businesses (SMBs), restaurants, and national and direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands. 

Shifting gears:

• Dunzo’s business can now be divided into business-to-consumer (B2C), which includes its quick commerce service Dunzo Daily, Any Store, Courier, Marketplace, and B2B service. 
• D4B helps businesses with solving for first-mile and last-mile logistics across eight cities, including Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Pune. 
• The B2B vertical, which was close to 20% in terms of revenue contribution, is now down to 5% though the business has expanded by nearly 5X overall. 

Startups

Making crude oil out of seaweed

India is the world's third-largest importer of crude oil.

Shrikumar Suryanarayan, Co-founder of Bengaluru-based Sea6 Energy, says that if you can crack seaweed farming automation, there is more than enough space in the oceans to plant enough seaweed to replace India's crude oil needs. 

Harvesting liquid gold:

• Sea6 Energy was founded by ex-Biocon President of R&D Shrikumar, alongside IIT Madras alumni Sailaja Nori, Nelson Vadasseri, and Sowmya Balendiran in 2010.
• The company has been running an automated seaweed farm off the coast of Indonesia since 2019, backed by a couple of patents and a published study validating its work.
• Earlier this year, it raised $18.5 million in a Series B round from European investors BASF Venture Capital and Aqua-Spark. 

Edtech

Vedantu’s offline bet

Tiger Global-backed edtech unicorn Vedantu has acquired a majority stake in Deeksha (Ace Creative Learning) at a deal size of $40 million.

Through this partnership, Vedantu, which opened its first hybrid learning centre in Muzaffarpur earlier this year, will strengthen its offline presence, especially in Tier III and Tier IV towns. 

Study time: 

• Founded in 1998, Deeksha is a test preparation platform in Karnataka for board and competitive exam coaching for students between grades 9th and 12th.
• Deeksha has a presence across three states–Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana–with 39 centres. 
• In February 2021, Vedantu acquired doubt solving app Instasolv for an undisclosed amount with an aim to expand its footprint into Tier III and Tier V cities. 

News & updates

• Strategy of work: Late-stage US startups are scooping up talent unlocked by layoffs and hiring freezes at Big Tech, adding experienced engineers and project managers to their roster despite signs of an economic slowdown.
• Grand theft crypto: Cryptocurrencies may have crashed this year but they remain a digital cash-machine for one potent constituency: hackers. At least $718 million has been stolen so far in October alone, taking the gross tally for the year past $3 billion.
• Battle-weary: On the walls of Twitter’s offices around the world—in San Francisco, London, and New York—neon signs lit up, encouraging employees to #lovewhereyouwork. But over the past six months, the mantra has become difficult for many to live by.

Which is the oldest stock exchange in Asia?

Answer: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), established in 1875. It is also the 10th oldest stock exchange in the world.

We would love to hear from you! To let us know what you liked and disliked about our newsletter, please mail [email protected]. 

If you don’t already get this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here. For past editions of the YourStory Buzz, you can check our Daily Capsule page here.