Exporting AI-driven customer experience; NODWIN Gaming’s new acquisition

Hello,

Is edtech back in vogue?

That’s a question many would ask after unicorn upGrad raised more than Rs 287 crore in debt from EvolutionX Debt Capital to fuel its growth and fund operating expenses. 

The sector has been in turmoil for the last two years, with troubles brewing in BYJU’S’ poisoned chalice. The company will see its day in court next week as nearly 10 petitions, including smartphone maker Oppo’s unpaid Rs 13 crore claim for pre-installing the app on smartphones, will be heard in NCLT.

The reason for the downfall, according to Unacademy’s Gaurav Munjal, is that Byju Raveendran didn’t heed advice, especially from his investors. 

“You might not always like the feedback, but take the feedback and act on it,” he shared on X.

Moving on, AI is still perfecting itself. 

While ChatGPT’s ‘hallucinations’ may not be as legendary as Gemini’s, OpenAI wants to tie up any loose knots and has rolled out CriticGPT to spot errors in ChatGPT’s code output and assist human trainers in reviewing the programming code. 

Such bots offer a more intimate conversation than just giving coding answers or translation help, and some users are developing relationships. Companies like Character.ai are also taking this a step ahead by introducing voice calls with AI which acts like “a friend”. It reminds one of the movie Her.

But Gen Zs are bent on budging this trend, just like with everything else. More of them are now even abandoning dating apps like Hinge and Bumble and meeting their match in singles events.

So, is love out of the apps and back in the air again?

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Exporting customer experience from India
• NODWIN Gaming’s new acquisition 
• A call for restorative justice 

Here’s your trivia for today: What is the longest rain streak in history?

Innovation

Exporting AI-driven customer experience

BharatPe's newly-appointed chief product officer Rohan Khara said he's bullish on India leading the world in the development of generative AI, especially given the large and diverse amount of data present here. 

The next step in this journey, however, should be focusing on exporting more AI-driven consumer experiences, he opines, just like India did with UPI.

Tech leaders:

• Khara, who has led pivotal product development cycles at fintech companies like GoJek and FairMoney India, said that India has already been making a lot of progress on the gen AI front.
• Another useful application for AI in fintech is risk and fraud mitigation, where companies can, in real-time, create rules for transactions that should be blocked, reported, or need further action on, says Khara.
• Beyond fintech, he called out healthcare and education as two sectors in India where gen AI can make a world of a difference.

<Top Funding Deals of the Week>

Startup: Northern Arc Capital 

Amount: $75M

Round: Non-Convertible Debentures

Startup: upGrad

Amount: $287 Cr

Round: Debt

Startup: Rocketlane

Amount: $24M

Round: Series B

Mergers and Acquisitions

NODWIN Gaming to acquire Freaks 4U

Nazara Technologies’ Nodwin Gaming is expanding its presence in international markets. The company said it has increased its existing stake in Berlin-based esports company Freaks 4U Gaming to 100% in tranches through a share swap deal valued at Rs 271 crore. 

Global play:

• The transaction was carried out by NODWIN’s Singapore-based subsidiary, NODWIN Gaming International, which held a 13.51% stake in Freaks 4U Gaming. 
• NODWIN will initially raise its existing stake in the company to 57%, and the remaining 43%, which is held by Freaks 4U’s founders Michael Haenisch, Matthias Remmert, and Jens Enders, will be swapped at a later time. 
• Freaks 4U Gaming, which offers agency services and solutions to brands and publishers, generated a topline of Rs 223 crore in 2023, according to the company. 

Inspiration

A call for restorative justice

India’s justice system often focuses on punishing lawbreakers instead of looking at rectifying the root causes of crimes. 

In 2020, Cecilia Davies, teamed up with Andrea (who goes by her first name), a fellow Tata Institute of Social Sciences alum, to start The Justice Initiative Foundation (TJI). With a core team of seven people, the organisation operates on the principles of restorative justice, to help undertrials and convicts in Karnataka’s prisons rebuild their lives.

Towards justice:

• Restorative justice is a response to wrongdoing that prioritises repairing the harm, creating positive relationships for the incarcerated with society, and addressing the root causes of crime—even to the point of transforming unjust systems and structures.
• TJI equips women inmates with knowledge of how the law works, how to get bail, how to keep important documents ready, and so on. It also guides them on how to look after their properties and helps them with guardianship of their children if they are imprisoned for long periods.
• The foundation’s in-prison workshops focus on helping prisoners develop the understanding that they are not defined by a single act of crime and restoring their self-image.

News & updates

• Act of giving: Warren Buffett is donating another $5.3 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities, his biggest annual donation since he began making them in 2006. Buffett's donations boost his overall charitable contributions to about $57 billion.
• Pulling out: Facebook owner Meta is considering blocking news content from the platform in Australia if the government makes it pay licensing fees. Its regional policy director Mia Garlick said Meta was waiting for Canberra to decide if it would apply an untested 2021 law that gives the government the right to set the fees US tech giants pay media outlets for links.
• Bounce back: Apple's smartphone shipments in China rose nearly 40% in May from a year earlier, extending a rebound seen in April, data from a research firm affiliated with the Chinese government showed. The jump in Apple's sales follows a weak performance by the US tech giant in the world's biggest smartphone market earlier this year.

What is the longest rain streak in history?

Answer: 331 consecutive days of measurable rainfall were recorded at Manuawili Ranch in Hawaii, US in 1939-40. 

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