Inside SaaS sector’s Budget wishlist; Leveraging tech to solve for logistics

Hello,

A new billionaire is in town.

Zomato Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal marked his entry into the billionaire’s club after shares of the company climbed 3.01% at the end of trading on the BSE yesterday and hit an all-time high of Rs 232 apiece as bullish investors responded positively towards the platform fee hike. 

Rival platform Swiggy, which also increased its platform fee ahead of its IPO, unveiled a liquidity event of stocks worth up to $65 million granted under its Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).

The IPO season is getting hotter!

While private equity major TPG Capital-backed Sai Life Sciences has filed preliminary papers with capital markets regulator SEBI to raise funds through IPO, non-banking financial institution Northern Arc received the regulator’s nod to raise funds through an initial share sale.

Next up: An Indian company is at the forefront of the fight against malaria. 

The global rollout of a new malaria vaccine has begun, starting from Ivory Coast. Developed by the Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, and the University of Oxford, the R21 jab is considered “a game-changer” in curbing the deadly disease. 

Speaking of vaccines, here are some interactive charts on the eradication of diseases. 

Lastly, a startup says it can make butter out of thin air—well carbon dioxide, to be precise. 

That’s a tasty way to beat climate change. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• SaaS sector’s Budget wishlist
• Leveraging tech to solve for logistics
• Meet Kashmir’s first water sports athlete

Here’s your trivia for today: Who discovered the mathematical system of logarithms?

Budget

SaaS sector’s Budget wishlist

In a big push to embrace AI for technology startups in India, the government approved the IndiaAI Mission with a budget allocation of over Rs 10,000 crore in March this year. However, industry experts suggest that while this initiative is promising, more needs to be done to leverage the new technology across the sector.

Demands:

• Several SaaS startups expect the upcoming Budget to focus on IP enforcement, streamlined patent processes, and incentives for R&D investments, says Vishal Puri, Co-founder, Spalba.
• “Recognising that small businesses are the backbone of our nation, the Budget should focus on accelerating the growth of startups and the MSME sector. Currently, publicly listed shares are taxed at 10%, while unlisted shares face a 20% tax,” says CleverTap's Anand Jain.
• Sandeep Agarwal, Global MD and CTO, Visionet believes the Budget should incentivise the establishment of Global Captive Centres (GCCs), which can boost local employment and technological advancement.

Funding Alert

Startup: BluSmart

Amount: $24M

Round: Pre-Series B

Startup: Uptime AI

Amount: $14M

Round: Series A

Startup: Nurture Well

Amount: Rs 50 Cr

Round: Equity

Startup

Leveraging tech to solve for logistics

The logistics sector is plagued with challenges such as increasing transportation costs, inadequate infrastructure, inefficient supply chains, lack of skilled labour, technological gaps, and others.

BookMyCargo addresses these pain points by leveraging cutting-edge technology with a customer-centric approach to provide innovative, efficient, and reliable supply chain solutions.

Last-mile delivery:

• BookMyCargo provides a mobile application for drivers and customers. Customers can place booking requests by entering the mode of transport, pickup time, and pickup and drop location.
• The company offers a gamut of services like on-demand delivery, warehousing, express parcel transportation, freight forwarding, cross-border transportation, part truck load, full truck load, and supply chain solutions.
• The startup has delivered 500,000 last-mile and 130,000 on-demand parcels in India, clocking a revenue of $1.3 million in FY23 and $1.9 million in FY24, respectively.

Sports

Meet Kashmir’s first water sports athlete

Bilquis Mir—a water sports athlete from Kashmir—would be the first Indian woman to serve as a jury member at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris.

“I couldn't fulfil my dream of going to the Olympics as an athlete, but I made it as a judge,” she says.

The journey:

• Mir has represented Jammu and Kashmir in 12 national canoeing competitions. She competed in the ICF Sprint Racing World Cup in Kayaking and Canoeing in Szeged, Hungary and represented India in the Asian Championships.
• In 2007, Mir began her coaching career in the Indian Camp—a year-long canoeing and kayaking training camp set in different parts of the country.
• “Women can do anything if they set their minds to it. They should not give up but fight back and step out of their comfort zones to create a bright future,” she says.

News & updates

• Trillion high: Assets managed by BlackRock hit a record $10.65 trillion in the second quarter thanks to rising client asset values as investors pumped money into the company's exchange-traded funds, the world's largest asset manager said on Monday.
• Crypto boost: Bitcoin hit a two-week high Monday as betting markets suggested an increased chance of victory for crypto-friendly candidate Donald Trump in the US presidential election.
• Discount travel: In Barcelona, visitors have been sprayed with water pistols in an expression of local people’s anger about over-tourism. By contrast in Copenhagen, tourists are to be given financial and other incentives to come–as long as they act responsibly.

Who discovered the mathematical system of logarithms?

Answer: John Napier

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