Nurturing differently-abled athletes; Helping farmers own agri equipment
BluFin Foundation is bringing sports to the underprivileged and the differently-abled. Balwaan Krishi helps farmers access farming equipment. Torque offers fully customisable furniture to customers.
Hello,
All that glitters is gold, after all.
Spot gold remained steady at $2,520.36 per ounce—near its record high—bolstered by US rate cut bets and eager anticipation of US inflation data.
For a country that loves its gold, is this good news? Well, yes and no.
Gold discounts in India are at their highest in six weeks, but buyers are holding onto jewellery wishlists while prices stabilise. Guess the Midas touch has its limitations.
Gold buyers may be staying firm but the prospect of profits is certainly working to sway Nvidia into investing in OpenAI.
The world’s biggest chipmaker has discussed joining a funding round that would value OpenAI at more than $100 billion.
Fun fact: OpenAI is on track to become a hectocorn, valued higher than the GDPs of 110 countries.
Profits are today’s buzzword for India’s newest public companies as well—Unicommerce posted a 31.1% YoY surge in net profit for the quarter, while FirstCry narrowed its losses by nearly the same margin.
Lastly, Intuitive Machines is dispatching a long haul delivery: to the Moon’s south pole, no less. The company bagged a $116.9-million contract to deliver six science and technology payloads to the lunar south pole—its fourth such contract award.
In space, all that glitters is silver.
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- Nurturing differently-abled athletes
- Helping farmers own agri equipment
- A custom furniture startup
Here’s your trivia for today: Who is credited with creating McDonald’s’ Big Mac?
Sports
Nurturing differently-abled athletes
In 2017, Vyshak Iyengar and Paralympic swimmer Sharath Gayakwad teamed up to start the BluFin Foundation. They aim to bring sports to the underprivileged and the differently-abled through several programmes.
Level up:
- Gayakwad’s journey as a swimmer has been one of persistence and courage, with over 30 international and 40 national medals to his credit.
- BluFin’s programme trains 100 children at Shishu Mandir, a school for low-income students in Whitefield, Bengaluru, in partnership with the Zee Swim Academy.
- Another initiative from BluFin, called For The Win, supports and nurtures professional athletes. Currently, it supports four para swimmers, one swimmer, and two badminton players.
Top Deals of the Week
Startup:
Amount: $340M
Round: Follow-on
Startup: Lal Sweets
Amount: Rs 330 Cr
Round: Undisclosed
Startup: AGRIM
Amount: $17.3M
Round: Series B
Startup
Helping farmers own agri equipment
As the demand for machines like harvesters, weeders, and sprayers is seasonal, small and marginal farmers often resort to renting equipment and sharing resources to save on expenses.
Brothers Rohit Bajaj and Shubham Bajaj Modish TractorAurKisan Pvt Ltd, which operates the brand Balwaan Krishi in 2016 to help farmers access farming equipment.
Key takeaways:
- Balwaan Krishi sells pre-harvest tools and machines used in tilling, sowing, weeding, spraying, irrigation, and harvesting.
- It currently offers over 70 SKUs, including water pumps and fences, through its website and general trade channels, and it plans to launch more than 40 soon.
- Balwaan is banking on pre- and after-sales services to differentiate itself from peers including Agriplus, Kisan Kraft, Honda, Stealth, and Husqvarna.
D2C
A custom furniture startup
India’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) furniture space is home to some stand-out players such as Wakefit and Sleepyhead. But Mumbai-based Torque has maintained a low profile in the five years of its existence.
The company offers fully customisable furniture such as sofas, beds, mattresses, dining tables, etc to customers through its website as well as ecommerce platforms like Flipkart Perfect Homes and Amazon.
Key takeaways:
- Founded by Sagar Shah in 2019, Torque has factories in Bengaluru and Lucknow as well.
- Shah says Torque is seeing maximum traction from Bengaluru, Pune, Noida, Hyderabad, and Gurugram—areas which have the presence of IT companies.
- The startup’s customer base has increased from approximately 750 in 2021 to over 20,000 in 2024, he adds.
News & updates
- Earth return: NASA will proceed with the undocking of the uncrewed Boeing Starliner capsule not before September 6, the space agency said on Thursday after concluding a review.
- Host: The Swiss city of Basel will host next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, a show that regularly attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors and TV viewership far above that of the Super Bowl in the US.
- Exploring options: Intel Corp is working with investment bankers to discuss various scenarios, including a split of its product design and manufacturing businesses, as well as which factory projects might potentially be scrapped.
Who is credited with creating McDonald’s’ Big Mac?
Answer: Jim Delligatti. He was an early franchisee of McDonald's, and created the Big Mac in 1967.
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