Zetwerk is betting on renewable energy

Hello,

This is agritech’s time to shine. 

Despite the pandemic, economic slowdown, and impact of climate change, agri-foodtech startups have had an increasing number of VCs betting on the sector's tenacity and immense scope for growth. 

Per a report by AgFunder and Omnivore, India overtook China as APAC’s biggest funder of agri-foodtech innovation in FY22. Overall investment volume in the sector increased by 119% to a record $4.6 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022. 

In other news, Paytm chief Vijay Shekhar Sharma is willing to pay Twitter $80/month if Chief Twit Elon Musk can help the company block fake accounts that are impersonating Paytm’s handles. Ironic considering the first Twitter Blue rollout led to a spike in ‘verified’ fake accounts… which, in turn, led Musk to pause the service.

Lastly, here’s a look at every country’s favourite toy this year. Is anyone really surprised to see Ludo as the “most searched-for board game globally”? 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Zetwerk acquires Unimacts, bets on renewable energy
• Swiggy shuts The Bowl Company in Delhi-NCR
• DeHaat raises $60 million in Series E round

Here’s your trivia for today: Which movie was the first to reach the billion-dollar mark at the box office?

Acquisition

Zetwerk acquires Unimacts, bets on renewable energy

Zetwerk, which connects manufacturing partners and suppliers, has announced its fourth acquisition with Lexington, US-based Unimacts. The cash-and-equity deal values Unimacts at $39 million, said Amrit Acharya, Co-founder and CEO of Zetwerk. 

New horizons:

• Unimacts is a contract manufacturing and supply chain solutions company focusing on renewable energy, apart from construction equipment and industrial products. 
• Zetwerk expects the acquisition to help it gain access to marquee solar and wind-power customers in the US.
• Earlier this year, the unicorn announced the acquisition of three companies for a cumulative value of Rs 100 crore.

Funding Alert

Startup: Prismforce 

Amount: $13.6M

Round: Series A

Startup: Flash 

Amount: $5.8M

Round: Seed

Startup: Vetic 

Amount: $3.7M

Round: Seed

Foodtech

Swiggy shuts The Bowl Company in Delhi-NCR

Food-delivery platform Swiggy has shut its cloud kitchen brand The Bowl Company in Delhi-NCR as the service did not perform as expected in the region.

Empty bowl:

• The Goldman Sachs-backed foodtech platform launched The Bowl Company in Bengaluru in 2017, pitting it against FreshMenu.
• The development comes at a time when Swiggy's operating revenue continues to flounder. For the fiscal year ended March 2021, revenue from operations dropped 26.6% to Rs 2,547 crore. 
• The gross merchandise value (GMV) of Swiggy's food-delivery arm grew 40% in January-July this year, according to a report by Prosus, one of the company's biggest investors. 

Funding

DeHaat raises $60 million in Series E round

Agritech startup DeHaat has raised $60 million in a Series E funding round led by Sofina Ventures and Temasek. This is the startup's third fundraise. It aims to add over one million farmers to its platform and expand to new geographies across the globe. 

Connecting India:

• The agritech startup has a last-mile supply chain in over 110,000 villages across over 150 districts in India, and has a digitised network of over 10,000 micro-entrepreneurs. 
• It has over 1.5 million farmers across Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, and other states. 
• DeHaat has onboarded 2,000+ agribusiness institutions, including input manufacturers, FMCG players, banks, insurance partners and bulk output exporters, offering them direct access to farmers to drive efficiency and transparency.

News & updates

• Retail therapy: Amazon rang up record-breaking sales between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday, adding to what has been a strong showing for many retailers so far this holiday shopping season. The company said the holiday shopping weekend was its “biggest ever.”
• New investing era: One year ago, Jay Powell threw out the rulebook global investors had used for over a decade. Twelve months after he called an end to super-cheap money, fund managers are still adjusting to a very different environment.
• Mountain of debt: All around the globe, there are borrowers deeper in the red than ever before. The total owed by households, businesses, and governments stands at $290 trillion, up by more than one-third from a decade ago.

Which movie was the first to reach the billion-dollar mark at the box office?

Answer: Titanic, with an initial worldwide box office gross of over $1.84 billion.

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