Report card: Startup funding in October

Hello Reader,

Domestic indices began the month in the green, with the Nifty50 closing at around 18,150 and the BSE Sensex crossing 61,000 on Tuesday.

In other news, Elon Musk wants to bring back Vine (probably?). The Chief Twit, Axios reported, has instructed Twitter engineers to look at Vine's old code base and work on a Vine reboot that could be ready by year-end.

Here’s some food for thought: Can Vine, which has been dead for a while now (Twitter disabled uploads in 2016), compete with the likes of TikTok and Instagram Reels?

ICYMI: A guide on how to be an ethical traveller.

Wanderlusting with care—what’s not to love?

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Report card: Startup funding in October
• Nykaa reports marginal profit in Q2
• Games 24x7 launches Rs 400 Cr fund

Here’s your trivia for today: Which was the first game that allowed players to save their score?

Funding 

Report card: Startup funding in October

October saw funding of $1.18 billion raised across 91 deals, a 30.8% monthly increase—and the third highest after increases of 66.1% and 41.7% in August and June. But this offers no promising reasons to cheer about.

The month saw a year-on-year (YoY) increase of close to 24X in debt financing at $358.3 million across seven deals compared to $15.0 million across two deals in October last year. 

The leverage:

• In comparison to just 0.4% in October last year, the share of debt financing stood at 30.3% of the monthly funding raised in October this year.
• On a month-on-month basis, debt financing jumped 87.4X in comparison to $4.1 million raised across 5 five deals in September.
• In terms of the top sectors, edtech and educational services accounted for 24.9% of the October total, with eight deals raising $295.1 million, followed by a 15.6% share of software-as-a-service (SaaS) startups, which raised $184.8 million across 12 deals. 

D2C 

Nykaa reports marginal profit in Q2

FSN E-Commerce Ventures Private Limited, the parent company of beauty retailer Nykaa, reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 5.2 crore for the second quarter of FY23—a marginal increase over the previous quarter's Rs 5 crore. 

During the earnings call on Tuesday, Falguni Nayar, Executive Chairperson, MD, and CEO, confirmed that Nykaa continued to face inflationary pressure. 

Key takeaways:

• Nykaa is looking at structural changes to reduce the inflationary pressure, including a slowdown in hiring, to counter rising employee costs. 
• According to the exchange filings, Gross Merchandise Value (GMV, or the measure of the total value of goods sold by an ecommerce platform) grew 45% year-on-year in the second quarter of FY23 to Rs 2,345.7 crore. 
• The platform also recorded a 39% year-on-year increase in revenue from operations to Rs 1,230.8 crore. 

Gaming

Games24x7 launches Rs 400 Cr fund

Multi-gaming platform Games 24x7 has launched Games24x7 Ventures—the corporate investment arm of the company—to support early-stage startups at the intersection of technology and interactive entertainment space in India. 

Long-term play:

• Games24x7 has set aside a corpus of Rs 400 crore for the next five years.
• The fund will focus on partnering with entrepreneurs building disruptive ventures in categories, including online gaming, digital marketing, digital content, sports tech, eSports, blockchain technology and analytics, and more. 
• In 2021, Games24x7 financially supported CricHeroes, a digital player-focused platform targeted at grassroots cricket.

News & updates

• High energy: Saudi Aramco reported its second-highest quarterly profit since listing in 2019, as the world’s biggest oil exporter reaps a windfall from high energy prices. Net income was $42.4 billion in the three months to end-September, up 39% from the same quarter a year ago.
• Early access: US subscribers to Disney+ will be able to purchase new Star Wars lightsabers, Black Panther masks, and other merchandise a week ahead of the general public. The company described the offering as a limited test of an additional benefit.
• Riding strong: Uber rose after reporting revenue that beat analysts’ expectations as gains in ridership assuaged investor concerns that rising inflation would dampen consumer spending. The shares jumped about 12% in early trading.
• Deal blocked: A federal judge has blocked Penguin Random House from acquiring rival book publisher Simon & Schuster for about $2.18 billion, agreeing with the Justice Department that the planned merger would unlawfully lessen competition.

Which was the first game that allowed players to save their score?

Answer: Space Invaders, a shoot 'em up arcade game, which was released in 1978.

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