The untapped potential of MSME insurance

Hello,

Nykaa now has a new orchestra to play its symphony.

The omnichannel beauty and personal care retailer has appointed 14 key executives in a major top-level shuffle. The rejig took place across technology, finance, business, product, and marketing verticals, with P Ganesh as the new CFO.

The recent appointments come after five executives resigned from the company in March due to a steep fall in its stock price

Speaking of the markets, Sensex scaled back to the 60,000-mark led by banks indices. ICICI Bank's shares jumped 2.37% after it reported a 27.64% jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 9,852.70 crore for the March quarter. IndusInd Bank also posted a 50% YoY rise in net profits.

Also, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone started a debt buyback programme of as much as $130 million. The company looks to regain investor confidence after the damaging report by Hindenburg Research released in January.

Meanwhile, ecommerce firm Meesho is nearing zero cash burn and is on track to achieve EBITDA breakeven this year. This is courtesy of its asset-light business model, which has helped reduce its costs. The company also witnessed a sharp rise in its advertising revenue in the last eight quarters.

In other news, Air India too has boarded the ChatGPT flight.

The airline has made an initial investment of $200 million to use ChatGPT-driven chatbot and various other initiatives as part of modernising its digital systems to compete with global carriers.

But does the AI algorithm feel superior?

A Redditor recently asked ChatGPT to narrate a two-sentence horror story. The result was a tale of a post-apocalyptic world where humans have vanished and only a solitary AI is left.

*Goosebumps*

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• The untapped potential of MSME insurance
• Lokal raises fresh capital of Rs 120 crore 
• SaaSing the global supply chain

Here’s your trivia for today: What was Princess Jasmine's original name in Aladdin before Disney changed it?

MSME

The untapped potential of MSME insurance

Nearly 85% of India's micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) often perceive insurance as an unwanted expense despite being particularly vulnerable to business risks. Insurance companies have recognised the immense potential in this untapped market and are now taking steps to address it.

Reaching SMEs:

• In the last five years, PolicyBazaar has catered to roughly 5,000 SMEs per year on average.
• Ankit Agrawal, CEO and Co-founder of InsuranceDekho, tells YourStory that MSMEs want insurance products tailored to their needs, allowing them to compare policies, get quotes, and purchase insurance online
• Sajja Praveen Chowdary of PolicyBazaar believes tech-enabled buying and policy management processes and dedicated assistance will increase access to the smallest of businesses.

Funding Alert

Startup: Lokal

Amount: Rs 120 Cr

Round: Series B

Startup: Adventum Student Living

Amount: $5M

Round: Series B

Startup: DEVX Coworking

Amount: $3M

Round: Pre-Series A

Funding

Lokal gets fresh capital

Hyperlocal content platform Lokal has raised Rs 120 crore in Series B funding from new investors Global Brain and Sony Innovation Fund, with participation from India Quotient and other existing investors. The company plans to expand in existing markets, launch new categories and product capabilities, and strengthen its product and technology teams.

The playbook:

• Founded in 2018, Bengaluru-based Lokal provides hyperlocal information like daily updates, commodity prices, local jobs, real estate, matrimonial, local business advertorials, and classifieds.
• The app is currently available in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, and Gujarati on the Google Play Store, and has more than 40 million downloads.
• Lokal has so far raised Rs 225 crore in funding, including the current funding round, and has 110 employees.

Startup 

SaaSing the global supply chain

Chennai-based Pando strives to connect various stakeholders in the supply chain—manufacturers, warehouses, distributors, retailers, retail stores, consumers, factories, and their suppliers. Founded by Nitin Jayakrishnan and Abhijeet Manohar in 2018, the startup has been focused on selling to enterprises from the very beginning.

Interconnected systems: 

• Pando’s initial growing pains included developing solutions for customers who wanted multiple specific features, which led it to build a no-code solution that helped customise offerings based on business needs.
• The startup targets large enterprises that may not be happy with their enterprise resource planning (ERP) providers in fulfilling supply chain demands. 
• In the last 18 months, the company has expanded to other Asia Pacific regions and in the last year or so, it set foot in North America.

News & updates

• Bank run: More than $68 billion had been withdrawn from Credit Suisse in the first three months of 2023, the bank reported in its last-ever financial results. "These outflows have moderated but have not yet reversed as of April 24, 2023," it added.
• Dismissal: Disney began its second wave of layoffs, bringing total job cuts in recent weeks to 4,000 when the latest round is completed. Earlier this year, Disney said it would slash 7,000 jobs from its workforce as part of a larger reorganisation to cut costs by $5.5 billion.
• Lunar estate: China is planning to explore 3D printing technology for constructing buildings on the moon, its state media reported. Its upcoming Chang’e 8 lunar mission aims to use soil from the moon to build a lunar base for long-term lunar habitation.

What was Princess Jasmine's original name in Aladdin before Disney changed it?

Answer: Badr al-Badur, which means “full moon of full moons” in Arabic.

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