Edtechs eye credibility with PhysicsWallah IPO; Building $100M GCC-focused company

Hello,

Thinner iPhones, smarter watches: the Apple annual launch event is back with a bang.

Here’s what you can expect: the company’s first entirely new smartphone model in several years, the iPhone 17 Air, which will be its thinnest model by far, and the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. Additionally, its smartwatch line will be up for a spruce-up as well.

What you might miss: any major AI advancements and features planned for its flagship models. 

Pricing will also be closely watched, especially since the launch comes in the middle of a new US tariff regime. Whether Apple decides to raise the price of iPhones or seek alternative routes to make up tariff costs remains to be seen.

Tech is fast becoming a battleground for countries seeking a leg up in the global trade war. Most recently, Dutch chip-gear maker ASML’s $1.5 billion investment in French AI firm Mistral has bolstered Europe’s AI ambitions against its US rivals.

As Mistral’s top shareholder, this deal puts ASML up as Europe’s AI champion against behemoths like Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google. 

A new challenger’s entered the AI arena.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• What PhysicsWallah’s IPO means for edtech
• Building $100M GCC-focused company
• Accops is rewriting the cybersecurity playbook

Here’s your trivia for today: Which technological innovation was once famously believed to be an April Fool’s Day prank?

Edtech

What PhysicsWallah’s IPO means for edtech

PhysicsWallah (PW)—which has now filed papers with SEBI for an initial public offering worth Rs 3,820 crore—is viewed as the torchbearer for the troubled edtech industry that could put the industry back in a positive light.

PW’s planned listing is a moment of reckoning for the Indian edtech sector. After bruising years dominated by BYJU’S troubles, the draft prospectus filed by the company has become a proxy for the sector’s credibility.

Test of maturity:

• Ashwin Damera, Co-founder and CEO at Eruditus, notes, “PW’s listing shows Indian edtech has entered a new phase from high-growth startups to businesses with scale and profitability…”
• On partnerships and credibility, Vedantu Founder and CEO Vamsi Krishna adds, “The only change which might happen is with some of these B2B or government tie-ups. Being listed will lend much more credibility to do those things.”
• Vikram Gupta, Founder and Managing Partner of IvyCap Ventures, stresses, “PhysicsWallah will be viewed as a trend setter and one of the few real winners in the space,” he says. Still, expectations are tempered. “I don’t think one successful IPO will immediately open the floodgates…”

Funding Alert

Startup: Ingrid Technology

Amount: $4M

Round: Growth

Startup: Aurva

Amount: $2.2M

Round: Seed

Startup: Timuckdo

Amount: $285,000

Round: Equity

Women in Tech

Building $100M GCC-focused company

In the early 2000s, as Global Capability Centres (GCCs) were shutting down across India or being acquired by large IT companies, Priti Sawant saw an opportunity. She started quietly building what would become India’s most successful GCC enablement story. 

Today, Sawant’s company JoulesToWatts employs 5,800 tech professionals across nine countries.

Growth story:

• “In 2004-05, I realised the need to build an enablement ecosystem for Indian GCCs. Offshoring would only go so far, and eventually, the global market would recognise India’s potential and want to explore it directly,” recalls Sawant.
• Its tech-first approach has enabled the company to make data-driven decisions on an hourly basis and build customer satisfaction scores in real-time. More recently, the company has leveraged AI to accelerate project delivery by 60-70% and reduce proof-of-concept development time.
• At JoulestoWatts, Sawant’s direct reports are 50% women, the tech workforce is 32% women (higher than market standards), and the enterprise workforce is nearly 50% women–all achieved, she insists, through natural processes rather than quotas or special programmes.

Startup

Accops is rewriting cybersecurity playbook

In 2012, Vijender Yadav and Mohan Bhat, who earlier worked together at cybersecurity firm NeoAccel, founded Accops based on their observation that enterprises struggled with costly, complex, and insecure VPN systems. 

Accops’ flagship Virtual Desktop Infrastructure solution lets enterprises create secure virtual desktops in a centralised data centre or cloud, which employees can access from anywhere on their personal devices.

News & updates

• Metals heavyweight: London-listed miner Anglo American and Canada’s Teck Resources plan to merge, the two companies said, marking the sector’s second-biggest M&A deal ever and forging a new global copper-focused heavyweight.
• Acquisition: SpaceX said it would pay $17 billion for the rights to use some of EchoStar’s valuable spectrum for cellphone service. The deal includes $8.5 billion in cash and up to $8.5 billion of SpaceX stock for two chunks of valuable US wireless licenses and related domestic and international rights.
• Recovery: Boeing delivered 57 jets in August, up from 48 in July. It was the highest number of deliveries in August since 2018, when the US planemaker handed over 64 airliners.

Which technological innovation was once famously believed to be an April Fool’s Day prank?

Answer: Gmail. Launched on April 1, 2004, many people thought it was a hoax for a webmail service to offer a whole gigabyte of free storage.

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