PW to raise $150M round; Building food products from scratch

Hello,

The future is green, or bust.

The world is in a race against time to make this future a reality, amid rising temperatures, carbon dioxide emissions and fluctuating climates.

The newest area of focus? Buildings.

A research team at Columbia University has found a way to reduce energy consumption for cooling, with a zigzag structural wall design that can reduce a building’s surface temperature by up to 3℃.

Companies from Microsoft to Walmart are also embracing timber buildings as a way to cut down their carbon footprints. 

But, as Singapore’s $94 million wooden Gaia building is now discovering, even engineered wood is no match for an unexpected foe: mold.

The real proof of the pudding, however, is in the money flowing into clean tech. The combined global market cap of pure play EV makers boomed to $1 trillion at the end of 2023, and Ola Electric is vying for a piece of this pie. 

The e-scooter maker reached a valuation of nearly $7 billion on bets it will lower costs by using its own batteries and its launch of a new line of motorcycles.

Will it sustain this growth? Only time will tell.

ICYMI: The asteroid that doomed the dinosaurs may have originated from beyond Jupiter, scientists say.

Lastly, Epic Games just gave gamers around the world a new reason to clear their weekend schedules.

Fortnite, in all its battle royale glory, is back on Android globally after a four-year-long legal fight with Apple and Google. iPhone users might have to wait a while though, with the game only being accessible within the European Union for now. 

So, where are we dropping today?

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• PW to raise $150M round
• Building food products from scratch

Here’s your trivia for today: What mineral is also referred to as "Fool's gold"?

Edtech

PW to raise $150M round

Lightspeed Venture Partners is set to lead a $150-million funding round for Alakh Pandey's PhysicsWallah—a rare deal in India's edtech sector amid declining investor interest due to decreased demand for online learning. 

“PhysicsWallah had kickstarted exploring a fundraise last year and was looking at a slightly larger round of $250 million or so at a valuation of over $3 billion,” said one of the four people familiar with the matter.

Capital infusion:

• Lightspeed, which has invested in edtech companies such as Bhanzu, Teachmint, and once India’s biggest unicorn BYJU’S, has issued a term sheet giving PhysicsWallah a pre-money valuation of $2.6 billion.
• If the deal goes through, PhysicsWallah will more than double its valuation from approximately $1.1 billion in 2022 to over $2.7 billion to $2.8 billion (post-money).
• PW’s revenue more than doubled to around Rs 1,800 crore in FY24. For FY25, the company is targeting a revenue of over Rs 2,900 crore, the source said.

Top Funding Deals of the Week

Startup: OYO

Amount: Rs 1,457 Cr

Round: Series G

Startup: Neo Group

Amount: Rs 400 Cr

Round: Undisclosed

Startup: Pakka Limited

Amount: Rs 244.7 Cr

Round: Undisclosed

Startup

Building food products from scratch

There is never a single reason behind failure. Many D2C food brands often face the challenge of inadequate understanding of customers, inconsistent brand identity, failure to differentiate, and the inability to attract repeat purchases.

Rinka Banerjee realised there was a gap for R&D consultancy and teamed up with former colleagues Gourinandan Tonpe and Aditya Sapru to build Thinking Forks in 2014. The Bengaluru-based full-stack foodtech R&D consultancy firm helps startups build products from the ground up and brings their ideas to market.

Key takeaways:

• Thinking Forks is equipped with in-house food labs and kitchens, along with a consumer interaction centre, where experts benchmark products against competitors through blind sensory tests.
• It has partnered with an AI firm to leverage the data generated in-house to accelerate product development, generate recipes based on specific requirements such as protein content and ingredient preferences, and digitise the R&D process.
• In the last two years, the company has experienced 2.5X growth in revenue and generates 50% of its turnover from international markets. Outside India, it operates in the UAE, the UK, the Netherlands, the US, the Philippines, and Thailand.

News & updates

• New features: Meta’s X rival Threads announced a number of new features, including the ability to store multiple drafts, a way to rearrange columns on the desktop, and insights into the user’s audience. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also mentioned that the company plans to add a post-scheduling feature soon.
• AI search: After bringing AI overviews to the US, Google is expanding the AI-powered search summaries, with local language support, to six more countries—India, Brazil, Japan, the UK, Indonesia, and Mexico.
• Methane hunt: A coalition using NASA-developed technology and backed by philanthropists including former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg will launch the first in a series of satellites on Friday to pinpoint leaks of the planet-warming gas methane from space.

What mineral is also referred to as "Fool's gold"?

Answer: Pyrite.

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