Bridging the SME credit gap; Meet India’s finest tech leaders

Hello,

Reliance Industries just got bigger.

Last week, the market valuation of the Mukesh Ambani-led oil-to-telecom conglomerate jumped Rs 36,399.36 crore to Rs 15,68,995.24 crore.

Further, the combined market valuation of nine of the top 10 most-valued firms surged Rs 97,463.46 crore. Barring Bajaj Finance, the other nine firms, including Reliance, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and State Bank of India, emerged as gainers.

Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors pulled out over Rs 3,400 crore from the Indian equity markets in the first three trading sessions of November on rising interest rates and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. This came after such investors withdrew Rs 24,548 crore in October and Rs 14,767 crore in September.

In other news, Elon Musk’s answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT is here, and it’s called Grok—an AI chatbot with a “rebellious streak” inspired by The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. 

The Tesla CEO, who warned last week that AI was “one of the biggest threats to humanity”, said Grok would be made available to premium subscribers on the X platform after testing.

ICYMI: Turns out, the viewing habits we developed during the pandemic are here to stay!

Have you checked your screen time patterns yet?

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Soptle bridging SME credit gap 
• Meet India’s finest tech leaders

Here’s your trivia for today: What is the oldest flower in the world?

Startup

Soptle bridging SME credit gap 

Despite the vital contribution of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to the Indian economy, many of these businesses struggle to secure timely and cost-effective credit due to the limitations of traditional banking mechanisms.

Gurugram-based B2B credit lender Soptle aims to address this significant credit accessibility challenge by offering financing solutions to small businesses. 

Financial solutions:

• Founded in 2021 by Pravas Chandragiri, Soptle was conceptualised to elevate the financial well-being of SMBs, enhance operational efficiency, and optimise cash flow.
• In just two years, Soptle has achieved an annualised Gross Loan Value (GLV) of $30 million, highlighting the effectiveness of its approach.
• Soptle has a user base consisting of 17 enterprises, with over 350 distributors, and partnerships with five modern trade merchants.

TechSparks

Meet India’s finest tech leaders

The first-ever Delhi edition of India’s most influential tech event, TechSparks, is all set to welcome the finest of India’s technocrats and serve up yet another stunning line-up of speakers this year, including Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the passionate parliamentarian behind the recently passed Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

Here are some of the newest additions to the star-studded speaker line-up you should watch out for.

Stellar:

• Deepinder Goyal, Founder and CEO,Zomato , brought out the IPO of the leading food delivery company in 2021, which made a stellar stock market debut at nearly 66% premium. 
• Mukesh Bansal, Co-founder and CEO, Cult.fit, is now flexing his entrepreneurial muscle again and evaluating a new venture. 
• Setting sail in 2016, boAt Lifestyle has changed India’s accessories market by combining function with fashion. Behind this effortless success is Co-founder and  CMO Aman Gupta, also a judge on Shark Tank India. 

News & updates

• 100 years: A jury of 12 found FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of all seven criminal charges brought against him. How long he’ll remain in prison, however, is one that Judge Lewis Kaplan will spend the next few months deliberating by himself. He could face more than 100 years in prison after being convicted. 
• Short selling: South Korea from Monday will re-impose a ban on short-selling shares at least until June to promote a "level playing field" for retail and institutional investors. The ban was lifted in May 2021 for trades involving the shares of companies with large market capitalisation included in the KOSPI200 and KOSDAQ150 share price indices. 
• New boss: William Lewis, the former Dow Jones CEO and publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has been named CEO and publisher of The Washington Post. The publisher added that executives are offering buyouts across the company to reduce its headcount by about 10%, and the newsroom is expected to shrink to about 940 journalists.

What you should watch out for

• Q2 earnings: FSN E-Commerce (Nykaa), Adani Ports and SEZ, and Adani Energy, among others to post their quarterly earnings this week.  
• IPO listings: Honasa Consumer, the parent company of Mamaearth, is expected to list on Indian bourses on November 10. 
• Dhanteras: Jewellers have become pessimistic about demand during the upcoming Diwali festival due to the price rise and are hesitant to make purchases. Local gold prices jumped last week to Rs 61,539 ($739.01) per 10 grams.

What is the oldest flower in the world?

Answer: The Montsechia vidalii. Considered the oldest flower in the world, it lived 130 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period.

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