Building green careers; Gokul Rajaram on AI opportunities

Hello,

Another IPO is around the corner.

Swiggy has reportedly set the price band for its upcoming public issuer at Rs 371 - Rs 390. This would peg the foodtech company’s valuation at $11.3 billion at the upper price band, according to ET.

However, the company has slashed its targeted valuation by 25% from the earlier $15 billion, reports noted. The reason? The current market volatility and the lacklustre debut of Hyundai India.

Meanwhile, the stock market lost its 5-day losing streak and investors gained Rs 4.5 lakh crore on Monday. This was largely due to strong second-quarter results by leading banks and anticipation of a further fall in crude oil prices.

ICYMI: Meet Yusuff Ali, the Indian billionaire behind UAE’s biggest IPO this year.

While the stock markets are yet to fully recover, the jobs market is picking up pace.

Professional networking platform apna.co reported a 20% YoY increase in job postings to 2.16 lakh this festive season. This was in part thanks to the rapid expansion of the quick commerce industry, with logistics jobs growing 70% YoY.

Speaking of quick commerce, Tata Digital too has entered the fray with Neu Flash—based on the hyperlocal delivery operation of Tata-owned BigBasket.

However, to hit the ambitious target of $30 trillion in GDP by 2047, India needs to create even more jobs, and that can’t be done without the participation of women.

According to a Bain & Company report, the Indian workforce needs 145 million more women who would need to contribute nearly 45% of the projected growth.

Time to get to work!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about

Building green careers

Gokul Rajaram on AI opportunities

Udaan raises Rs 300 Cr debt funding

Here’s your trivia for today: What is the fear of flutes called?

Climate

Building green careers

Founded by Aastha Bharadwaj in 2023, Climate Hires helps job seekers wanting to transition into the climate space and companies who want to recruit talent in these roles.

Jobseekers can visit the website and explore various climate sectors, such as carbon, energy, and e-mobility. The careers page lists open full-time and part-time roles from the startups’ clients as of now, but Bharadwaj aims to expand it to include more job opportunities.

Climate jobs:

• Climate Hires also conducts market mapping to identify talent, followed by handling interviews. Market mapping helps the startup locate the right candidates, particularly in the niche climate sector, where talent pools can be small.
• During the interview process, Climate Hires conducts the initial rounds, involving non-technical assessments, such as behavioural checks and basic skills relevant to the role.
• The roles are mixed with climate-specific skills and generic functions like engineering, sales, marketing, or finance.

<Funding Alert>

Startup: Udaan

Amount: Rs 300 Cr

Round: Debt

Startup: Arya.ag

Amount: $19.8M

Round: Debt facility guarantee

Startup: COOX

Amount: $125,000

Round: Seed

Technology

Gokul Rajaram on AI opportunities

Gokul Rajaram is fondly known as the 'Godfather of Google Adsense'—he grew it from zero to over $1 billion in revenue. Later, he founded an NLP company, which was acquired by Facebook, where he led the Ads Product team as Product Director, helping grow revenue from $0.75 billion to $6.5 billion.

In the latest podcast of Prime Venture Partners, Rajaram shares tips on how to scale a startup as well as the opportunities in the AI sector.

Key takeaways:

• Rajaram, a prolific angel investor, has invested in over 300 startups, including Airtable, CRED, Curefit, Figma, Learneo, Pigment, Postman, Whatfix, and more.
• He is particularly optimistic about the potential of India-based startups in the AI space. He pointed out that some of his Indian portfolio companies, like Dozee and Spyne, are already making significant strides in AI-driven solutions for both domestic and international markets.
• One exciting concept Rajaram highlighted is “Service as a Software”—transforming traditional service businesses (like consulting or IT services) into AI-driven platforms.

Funding

Udaan raises Rs 300 Cr debt funding

B2B platform Udaan on Monday closed a Rs 300 crore debt financing round from Lighthouse Canton, Stride Ventures. InnoVen Capital, and Trifecta Capital.

The company plans to use the funds to expand its geographical footprint through the company's ‘Micro-Market strategy’ as it gears its focus on profitability by driving buyer adoption and expanding wallet share.

Capital:

• It will also use the funds to enhance its go-to-market plans, streamline the supply chain, invest in opening new Micro-fulfilment Centres, and elevate the service delivery experience.
• During the calendar year 2024, year-to-date Udaan clocked 60% revenue growth and a 50% increase in daily transacting buyers. During the same period, its gross margins improved by 200 bps and contribution margins by 300 bps.
• Udaan also achieved a 30% reduction in absolute EBITDA burn and witnessed a 20% increase in buyer wallet share.

News & updates

Capital raise: Boeing on Monday launched a stock offering that could raise up to $19 billion as the planemaker looks to strengthen its finances squeezed by an over a month-long strike by its workers and preserve its investment-grade credit rating.

Vocal for local: Tech giant Apple Inc will not be allowed to sell its iPhone 16 smartphones in Indonesia because they have not met the country's rules on the use of locally made components, the industry ministry said. Indonesia requires certain smartphones sold domestically to contain at least 40% of parts manufactured locally.

Potential danger: Over a dozen developers, software engineers and academic researchers have found evidence that Whisper, OpenAI's transcription tool used in medical centres, creates hallucinations—invented text—that includes made-up medications, racial commentary and violent remarks.

What is the fear of flutes called?

Answer: Aulophobia.

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