The earnings season is here!; Amwoodo pioneering bamboo practices

Hello,

The cash registers are ringing loud for some fintech startups.

Razorpay, which now claims a majority market share in India’s digital payments processing category, said its payment gateway business grew 24% YoY in FY24. This led to a nearly 5X jump in its net profit to Rs 34 crore in FY24 from Rs 7 crore earned a year earlier.

Amazon Pay India, too, grew its revenue to Rs 2,287 crore in FY24—an over 9% YoY jump. The payments arm carried out targeted cost reductions during the fiscal year, resulting in losses narrowing by over 39%.

However, not all fintechs could balance the book.

Lendingkart’s soaring expenses weighed heavily on its profit, despite the surge in revenue in FY24. Its profit plummeted 97% YoY to Rs 3.25 crore from Rs 118.81 crore in FY23.

Conversely, lending platform KreditBee reported a 17% YoY decline in revenue from operations bogged down by a decline in service and processing fees. However, it managed to boost its profits by 26.5% on the back of layoffs, as the company saw its employee count plummet by two-thirds in the fiscal year. 

With this mixed bag of financial earnings, investors too are treading carefully.

According to the Q3 2024 edition of KPMG Private Enterprise’s Venture Pulse, VC investors in the fintech space have become more cautious in recent quarters. Traditional banks have increasingly introduced their own fintech products, leading to several smaller fintech lending platforms in the country fizzling out.

The sector though is still in its growth phase. 

The RBI approved Jio Payment Solutions to operate as an online payment aggregator, while the enterprise API payments app Cashfree Payments secured a Prepaid Payment Instrument license from the central bank, enabling it to set up a mobile wallet. 

Competition is always a good thing.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Skyroot sees 2X revenue growth in FY24
• Amwoodo pioneering bamboo practices
• Supporting women, non-binary community in tech

Here’s your trivia for today: In 2012, MIT students hacked the lighting system of an entire building to play which game?

Space tech

Skyroot sees 2X revenue growth in FY24

Temasek-backed space tech firm Skyroot Aerospace witnessed about a two-fold increase in revenue in FY24, although its losses widened due to a rise in expenses. 

Skyroot Aerospace is still in the pre-revenue phase as it continues to invest heavily in technology and infrastructure, with substantial research and development costs contributing to ongoing financial losses.

Key takeaways:

• According to its consolidated financial statements, the Hyderabad company reported Rs 29 crore in revenue in FY24—all coming from interest income—a 99.4% increase from the Rs 14.6 crore earned in FY23. 
• Its loss widened by 15% to Rs 55.5 crore in FY24. This surge in losses was driven by a 34.5% rise in expenses, totalling Rs 84.5 crore in FY24, as opposed to Rs 62.8 crore reported in FY23.
• Skyroot is developing Vikram-1, an orbital launch vehicle designed to deploy satellites into Earth’s orbit. It aims to launch Vikram-1 by the end of this year. Once operational, it will meet satellite operators’ launch needs.

Funding Alert

Startup: Finova Capital

Amount: $135M

Round: Series E

Startup: Vridhi Home Finance

Amount: Rs 310 Cr

Round: Series B

Startup: GPS Renewables

Amount: Rs 100 Cr 

Round: Mezzanine

Startup

Amwoodo pioneering bamboo practices

Bamboo is a sustainable superstar. The plant, known for its versatile qualities, offers a variety of use cases such as in construction, making paper with its fibres, and creating a wide range of textiles. With its environmental and ecological benefits, it stands as a perfect alternative to plastics.

Agni Mitra recognised bamboo’s sustainable potential and founded Amwoodo in 2018, teaming up with colleagues Sourav Dey and Avijit Rajak. The startup offers eco-friendly products ranging from personal care items to construction materials.

Alternatives:

• The Kolkata startup specialises in manufacturing bamboo products, including personal care items like toothbrushes, combs, razors, and slippers; compostable sanitary bags; towels; pens; notebooks; home and kitchen utensils; and hospitality and aviation kits.
• Bootstrapped with about Rs 10,000 from founders’ personal savings, Amwoodo sources material from northeastern states, including Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, and Mizoram.
• According to Mitra, what sets Amwoodo apart is its end-to-end integration focussed on community empowerment and working directly with local farmers and artisans.

Women Entrepreneurs

Supporting women, non-binary community in tech

Chicago-based AnitaB.org is a global not-for-profit social impact enterprise dedicated to advancing women and the non-binary community in technology and strives for equality and inclusion in the tech industry. 

It offers initiatives, programmes and events to empower women and non-binary technologists to build supportive networks and excel in their careers.

Finding opportunities:

• AnitaB.org has a global community of 1,06,000 women and 6,000 in India. For the community, it has in-person meets every quarter for women and non-binary people in tech or tech-adjacent fields.
• The platform has tech and non-tech content available along with learning modules. The community is also preparing a curriculum for STEM education for young girls in Tier III and IV towns in the country. 
• It is conducting its Grace Hopper Celebration India from November 20-22 after a gap of five years. The event at the Bangalore International Convention Centre is expected to see 15,000 women and 240 speakers in attendance.

News & updates

• Dhanteras: Indian gold buyers brushed off record-high prices and made purchases for the Dhanteras and Diwali festivals, hoping bullion would continue to rally. Local gold prices jumped to a record high of Rs 78,919 per 10 grams last week, an increase of over 31% since last year's Diwali.
• Shipments: Apple exported nearly $6 billion of India-made iPhones, an increase of a third in value terms in the six months through September, underscoring its push to expand manufacturing in the country and reduce dependence on China. That puts annual exports on track to surpass about $10 billion in FY24.
• Awaiting: Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji remains snowless, marking the latest date without a snowcap since records began 130 years ago. The peaks of Japan’s highest mountain are usually dusted in snow by early October, but the summit has remained bare—raising the alarm about the impacts of the climate crisis.

In 2012, MIT students hacked the lighting system of an entire building to play which game?

Answer: Tetris.

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