SVB collapse shakes global markets

Hello,

The SVB crisis has caused mayhem in global markets, wiping out $465 billion in just two days.

Rupee hit a five-week low amid fears of the spread of the SVB contagion. Asian stocks fell broadly led by banking shares, despite the US government’s efforts to stabilise the financial system. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 2.19%, while HSBC Holdings plunged more than 5% in Hong Kong after taking over the bank's UK unit.

On the other hand, even though Moody's revised its outlook on the US banking system to "negative" from "stable", US and European stocks rebounded on Tuesday with inflation easing.

Also, Y Combinator—which had estimated that one lakh jobs will be at risk due to the crisis—laid off 20% of its staff as it announced that it's scaling back late-stage funding. The company, however, added that these layoffs were planned before the SVB collapse.

Speaking of layoffs, Facebook-parent Meta will downsize the workforce by another 10,000—or roughly 13% of its workforce—in a second wave of layoffs. This is after it conducted 11,000 job cuts in November. 

Meanwhile, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said India will have its first semiconductor fabrication factory in a major boost to homegrown mobile manufacturing.

ICYMI: The Naatu Naatu fever is spreading everywhere! A video of US cops dancing to the Oscar-winning song has gone viral.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• BharatPe misses $100M banking chance
• Open to work: SVB staff
• An 100-year-old Rishta

Here’s your trivia for today: Where is the largest secondhand book market in the world located?

Fintech

BharatPe misses $100M banking chance

Digital payments startup BhartPe had grand plans to evolve from its core fintech product identity and enter the lucrative banking-as-a-service sector with a new subsidiary. It even had a ready client in Unity Small Finance Bank, its joint venture entity with Centrum Financial Services. Then the plot unravelled.

Inside scoop:

• As BharatPe teamed up with Centrum Financial Services to bid for troubled Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank, a crucial sub-plot was to create a subsidiary focused on the lucrative banking technology infrastructure market.
• The idea was to upgrade the core digital banking infrastructure for Unity SFB and eventually other clients as well, kick-starting a potential $100-million opportunity in annual revenues.
• Eventually, in February this year, it emerged that Unity SFB had signed up M2P Fintech to upgrade its core banking system, leaving BharatPe in the lurch.

Funding Alert

Startup: Vitraya Technologies

Amount: $4.1M

Round: Undisclosed

Startup: Jumbotail

Amount: Rs 75 crore

Round: Debt

Startup: Optimized Electrotech

Amount: Rs 20 crore

Round: Pre-Series B

Finance

Open to work: SVB staff

The recent collapse of US-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has left several employees, including those working in India, in the lurch. In the past 24 hours, hundreds of India-based employees have taken to social networking platforms like LinkedIn, putting out posts as they actively seek new roles. 

Job lookout:

• Sarbojit Mallick, CBO and Co-founder at HRtech platform Instahyre, told YourStory that it received about 150-200 applications from SVB employees seeking new roles in the last 12 hours.  
• As per estimates, SVB has over 800 employees working in hybrid mode in Bengaluru. 
• While it is yet to be ascertained which departments and teams have been affected, the majority of the job seekers are from the product and tech areas. 

MSME

An 100-year-old Rishta

Third-generation entrepreneur Harsh Gupta, along with his father Subhash Chandra, founded Rishta in 2000. Pushing the business to new heights by integrating new ideas with the existing infrastructure, Gupta added a new vertical and entered the fresh food category called Rishta Foods in 2015. 

Legacy business:

• Rishta has an annual turnover of Rs 100 crore. Of this, Rs 25 crore comes from the fresh food side of the business and Rs 75 crore comes from the staple food side.
• The company serves about two lakh people across India. With other products combined, it serves around five lakh households.
• In the staple food vertical, Rishta ventured into products like multigrain atta, wholewheat atta, rice bran oil, multigrain sooji, and roasted sooji. It is available at around 10,000 retail outlets across India.

News & updates

• Rollback: Meta is “winding down” its work with NFTs on Facebook and Instagram. Meta will end its tests of minting and selling NFTs on Instagram as well as the ability to share NFTs on Instagram and Facebook in the coming weeks.
• AI in emails: Google will bring its generative AI models to its productivity suite, Workspace, which includes Gmail and Google’s productivity tools. Later this year, it plans to bring out additional AI features, including formula generation in Sheets, automatically generated images in Slides, and note-taking in Meet.
• Crypto rallies: The bitcoin price rose to a nine-month high of $25,484 after February inflation in the US dropped to 0.4% from 0.5% in January. The fourth consecutive day of gains comes despite last week's collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

Where is the largest secondhand book market in the world located?

Answer: College Street, Kolkata.

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