Breaking the glass ceiling in bartending; From engineer to marketing maverick

Hello,

Funding winter seems to be thawing, for now.

EV manufacturer Ather Energy raised Rs 286 crore ($34.5 million) through a combination of equity from the co-founders and debt from Stride Ventures. This comes nine months after the IPO-bound firm secured Rs 900 crore from existing stakeholders.

Also, venture capital firm 100X.VC has invested $2.7 million in 17 startups as part of its 11th cohort. Since its launch in July 2019, it has invested in 161 startups.

The renewed funding activity follows Indian startups raising $197 million across 30 deals in the last week of May—an uptick from $113 million raised in the week prior. However, most funding was secured through debt instruments, revealing the challenges persisting in the ecosystem. 

Meanwhile, edtech unicorn Vedantu released its FY23 financial earnings, reporting a 7.8% YoY decline in revenue from operations. Its losses also shrunk 46.3% YoY to Rs 373 crore, and so did employee benefit expenses by 35.8%, as the company laid off more than 1,000 employees in the financial year.

In other news, the number of UPI transactions rose 5.5% month-on-month to 14.04 billion, with transaction volume totalling Rs 20.45 lakh crore, as per data from NPCI. It is also working with the RBI to take UPI to 20 countries by FY29. 

And lastly, this video shows how Japanese wrapping skills are on a different level. 

The art of packaging emerges from a concept called omotenashi, which is a deep-rooted culture of looking after guests wholeheartedly.

Interesting, isn’t it? 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Breaking the glass ceiling in bartending
• From engineer to marketing maverick
• Between homestays and hotels

Here’s your trivia for today: Which was the first marine mammal to go extinct due to human activity?

Interview

Breaking the glass ceiling in bartending

India's first woman bartender, Shatbhi Basu has strived to improve the standards of bartending in India—whether as a bartender herself, teacher, author, consultant, content advisor, or host of a TV show—creating a pipeline of skilled bartenders in the country’s evolving bar industry.

“Passionate, determined, patient—these words reflect my journey and the essence of my career in bartending,” she tells YS Life.

On the rocks:

• Basu has been awarded two Lifetime Achievement awards, including one from the Ministry of Tourism. In 2018, she was recognised by the President of India and the Ministry of Women and Child Development for her contributions.
• At present, Basu is the head of Mumbai’s STIR Academy of Bartending—the first institution for professional bartending in the country.
• “I believe this trend towards crafted cocktail experiences is a wonderful development. Local ingredients and unique techniques not only add a distinct character to cocktails but also celebrate regional flavours and sustainability,” she says.

100 Emerging Women Leaders

From engineer to marketing maverick

Sarika Naik’s childhood centred around discussions about marketing strategies and industry trends, thanks to her father who worked as a marketing consultant.

Today, Naik has more than 20 years of experience in sales and marketing. She currently serves as the Group Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer and Member of the Group Executive Committee at Capgemini.

Role model:

• “I started with hardcore sales. I recall starting from pretty much the lowest rung. From there I moved on to account management and I started leading some of the largest accounts of the organisation once I moved to Bengaluru,” Naik recalls.
• Before joining Capgemini, she was also chosen to be a part of the Six Sigma initiatives under Mission Quality programme at Wipro to improve business processes by reducing errors and increasing efficiency.
• Under her leadership, the Captivate programme, which is Capgemini’s career comeback initiative, aims to support skilled female professionals who want to make a transition back into the workforce.

Travel and Leisure

Between homestays and hotels

Holiday homes and homestays have gained ‘hot property’ status, with their seamless blend of luxury and comfort, enhanced with an element of personalisation. 

“Imagine having an entire estate to yourself—that privacy is completely missing in cookie-cutter hotels and resorts,” says Tejas Parulekar, Founder of SaffronStays.

Curated experiences:

• While hotels have long been known to offer luxury, homestays attract guests for their warmth, besides local experiences. They are also more cost-effective with average prices ranging between Rs 5,000 to 15,000 per night.
• “When I was in Darjeeling, I stayed in a homestay that organised tea-tasting sessions within their space. When in Coorg, I went to spice plantations and also learnt the art of chocolate making," says Priti Unniyal, a content manager from Mumbai.
• “Many seek properties where special occasions like anniversaries, birthdays, and even small and intimate weddings can be celebrated with ease and personal touches,” adds Parulekar.

News & updates

• Game vs game: Wordle’s owner, The New York Times, has filed a lawsuit against Kory McDonald, the creator of Worldle—the challenge of guessing a location from Google Street views. The NYT claims this confuses subscribers because of the similarities in appearance and title between the two games.
• Crypto hack: In what is likely one of the largest hacks of a digital-asset platform, the Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin said it detected “an unauthorised leak” of around $301 million from its digital wallet. The exchange is still investigating the outflow, the equivalent of 4,503 Bitcoins.
• Resurgence: Meta said on Friday its flagship app Facebook has attracted the highest number of young adults in three years in the last quarter, as it tries to shake the platform's reputation as the bastion of an older generation. More than 40 million US and Canadian adults aged 18 to 29 now check Facebook daily, the social media company said.

Which was the first marine mammal to go extinct due to human activity?

Answer: Steller’s Sea Cow. It went extinct in 1768, 27 years after being discovered. 

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