Crickpe’s cash rewards raise concerns

Hello,

Do you believe in second chances?

On Friday, Oyo and Digit Insurance re-filed their DRHPs with SEBI.

While Oravel Stays, which operates the budget hospitality chain OYO, has reportedly submitted a reduced issue size to between $400 million and $600 million, Go Digit Insurance has re-filed for a $440 million IPO after addressing SEBI’s concerns.

Meanwhile, after laying off 12% of its workforce, Unacademy is back in the news. The edtech major’s leadership, including founders, are taking salary cuts in FY24 as it tries to increase the profitability of its primary business.

"The salary cuts can go up to 25%. These cuts are permanent and salaries will only be revised in April 2024," Co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal said in an internal memo.

In other news, hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo is reportedly in talks to raise $50 million from Reliance Retail, Google, and others. The company also recently shut some of its dark stores across India to optimise costs.

Lastly, it turns out plants too get stressed and even make ‘clicking noises’ but thankfully, humans can’t hear them. Recently, scientists found dry tomato and tobacco plants made ultrasonic clicking noises—which they described as ‘like a kid stomping’—if they are too thirsty.

Now, go water your plants.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Crickpe’s cash rewards raise concerns
• Swiggy Instamart has a new head
• Love bombing: Not the real thing

Here’s your trivia for today: Who designed the currently used rupee symbol (₹), adopted in 2010?

Sports

Crickpe’s cash rewards raise concerns

When Grover's Third Unicorn launched the fantasy cricket app Crickpe, its proposition of giving cash rewards to real-life cricketers generated a lot of buzz. While this may not breach any legal provision, legal experts tell YourStory it falls under a grey area.  

Legal loopholes:

• Sports law expert Aditya Shivkumar says cash if a cricketer gets extra money, it will provide a ‘breeding ground for betting’.
• BCCI's former anti-corruption unit chief Neeraj Kumar calls the scheme "undesirable", adding “If the board examines this proposed scheme, I am sure it will try to discourage players from getting involved with it.”
• Some legal experts believe only entities within the system should be allowed to incentivise cricketers—such as the BCCI, sponsors or advertisers.

Top Deals of the Week

Startup: upGrad

Amount: Rs 300 Cr

Round: Internal rights issue

Startup: Fashinza

Amount: $30M

Round: Undisclosed

Startup: The Souled Store

Amount: $16.4M

Round: Series C

Foodtech

Swiggy Instamart has a new head

Swiggy's grocery delivery business Instamart will now be headed by Supr Daily CEO Phani Kishan Addepalli. This comes after Karthik Gurumurthy said he would be taking a sabbatical from the role.

The background:

• Swiggy started grocery delivery with Instamart in 2020. It is now the food delivery company's second-largest business.
• Instamart clocked a gross merchandise value of $257 million from January to June 2022, as per Prosus.
• Addepalli was elevated to the post of Co-founder of Swiggy in 2021.

Dating

Love bombing: Not the real thing

In the age of dating apps, all it takes is a right swipe to find a potential match. Before you know it, you're falling head-over-heels for that person. But they may also manipulate you into helping them financially or gaining control over your life. This is the world of love bombing.

Red flags:

• Counselling psychologist Ruchi Ruuh says love bombing is giving excessive attention and affection to an individual with the purpose of charming them faster.
• The pattern is exhibited largely by those with narcissistic traits such as a sense of entitlement, grandiosity, lying, cheating and deception.
• Love bombing leaves the person at the receiving end with low self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-worth. They find it hard to trust themselves and connect with someone again. 

News & updates

• Profit plunge: Huawei reported net profit for 2022 totalled 35.6 billion yuan ($5.18 billion), a 69% year-on-year decline, its biggest since 2011. It blamed rising commodity prices, China’s strict pandemic controls last year, and a one-off gain related to the sale of Honor.
• Bot banned: Italy’s privacy regulator ordered a temporary ban on OpenAI’s ChatGPT, saying the artificial intelligence chatbot has improperly collected and stored information. This could effectively mean OpenAI must block access to its chatbot from Italy. 
• Drop in deals: Global deal making suffered its weakest start to the year in a decade, as a darkening economic outlook depressed activity and a transatlantic banking crisis put the brakes on risk-taking. The first quarter of 2023 was the slowest start to the year since 2013.

Who designed the currently used rupee symbol (₹), adopted in 2010?

Answer: Udaya Kumar Dharmalingam, Head of the Department of Design at IIT Guwahati, Assam.

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