No Swigato for small restaurants; Communication without spam

Hello,

Look up at all the stars in the sky. Some of them aren’t real.

IN-SPACe, under the Department of Space, has granted Elon Musk’s Starlink the final nod to kick off commercial satellite broadband operations in India. It has now become the third player—after Eutelsat OneWeb and Reliance Jio—to gain full regulatory approval for satellite internet services in the country.

Here’s how much low Earth orbit Starlink satellites cover.

There’s more than one reason to look up.

Nvidia’s shares shot through the roof, making it the first company ever to reach a $4 trillion market valuation. Shares of the chipmaker surged 2.8% to $164.42 on Wednesday amid an overwhelming demand for AI chips and a burgeoning stream of AI investments.

AI chips have also led to a new form of financial instrument: chip-backed borrowings. AI computing startups have used their stash of high-powered chips to borrow more than $20 billion, according to The Information.

But it comes with a lot of risks, too. Chips are unlikely to hold valuation for the long term. And then there’s the fear of circular financing, as neoclouds—or GPU-as-a-service providers—can use the capital backed by Nvidia chips to buy more chips from Nvidia.

Well, 2008 wasn’t that long ago.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• A stress test for food delivery
• Communication without spam
• The women behind India’s bullet train 

Here’s your trivia for today: Maize, or corn, traces its origins from the word ‘mahis’ from the extinct Taino language of the Carribbean. What does it mean?

In depth

A stress test for food delivery

The food delivery market is changing, and so is the relationship between aggregators and restaurants. A slowdown amid lower consumer demand and rising quick commerce competition is eroding operational efficiency. 

Both Zomato and Swiggy saw a de-growth in gross order values for the segment in Q4 FY25, declining by 1.36% and 1.2%, respectively. YourStory takes a closer look. 

Souring ties:

• The cards are stacked against middle-tier restaurants that neither operate on a scale to enable quick deliveries nor qualify for renegotiating commissions, which they complain are so high they’ve been squeezing their bottom line.
• High commission structures and the overall cost of food delivery are the major pain points for restaurants. 
• Some eateries YourStory spoke to revealed that commission, advertisements and discovery fees together account for 45-50% of the total payouts.

Funding Alert

Startup: Varthana Finance

Amount: Rs 159 Cr

Round: Debt

Startup: Chai Bisket

Amount: $5M

Round: Seed

Startup: Belong

Amount: $5M

Round: Seed

Startup

Communication without spam

Azmarq provides communication services across multiple channels, such as SMS, Rich Communication Services (RCS) and through third-party applications like WhatsApp. It also provides voice services across both inbound calling (where a customer calls a toll-free number) and outbound calling. 

Its USP, however, lies in omnichannel services that do not spam. 

Key takeaways:

• The startup is not developing its own AI but instead functions on a wrapper model and uses ChatGPT 4 and DeepSeek R1.
• Azmarq boasts having over 400 clients—a majority of them in the fintech sector—with an 80% retention rate.
• The B2B startup has partnered with Meta and Google and offers monthly subscriptions ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000. 

Inspiration

The women behind India’s bullet train 

At L&T’s Vadodara factory, an all-women-led team of engineers are overseeing a high-tech, precision-driven process—from mold prep to final dispatch—for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail project, India’s flagship bullet train initiative.   

The team is manufacturing over 9,000 precast noise barriers every month and also breaking stereotypes in a sector where women make up less than 20% of the workforce. 

News & updates

• Crypto on flights: Emirates has signed a preliminary deal with Crypto.com that will allow its customers to make payments through the crypto trading platform's payment service, the Gulf carrier’s parent company said in a statement on Wednesday.
• AI browser: Perplexity on Wednesday launched its first AI-powered web browser, called Comet, marking the startup’s latest effort to challenge Google Search as the primary avenue people use to find information online.
• Climate crisis: The melting of glaciers and ice caps due to the climate crisis could unleash a barrage of explosive volcanic eruptions, a study suggests. The loss of ice releases the pressure on underground magma chambers and makes eruptions more likely.

Maize, or corn, traces its origins from the word ‘mahis’ from the extinct Taino language of the Carribbean. What does it mean?

Answer: “Sacred mother” or “giver of life”.

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