Deepinder Goyal tops entrepreneurial powerlist; Data-driven approach to investing

Hello,

Slop–Merriam-Webster dictionary’s word of the year describes low-quality digital content. 

Originally used to describe “soft mud, the word slop has been around since the 1700s. It later came to define “food waste” in the 1800s before taking on a more general meaning of “rubbish”.

With AI tools churning out word salads, the word gained popularity in the last few years. Merriam-Webster is the latest in a string of dictionaries to choose words of the year based on how technology is reshaping our lives. Collins’ word of the year was “vibe coding,” while Cambridge picked “parasocial” and Oxford’s choice was “rage bait”, CNN reports

Speaking of technology, OpenAI, Google and Perplexity have begun an unprecedented fight for artificial intelligence users in India, rolling out freebies in a strategy to harvest data in world’s most populous nation.

Next up: the $117 trillion world economy in 2025, visualised. 

The US remains the world’s largest economy at $30.6 trillion, which is greater than China, Germany, and Japan combined. India’s economy is projected to grow 6.6%, among the fastest rates across the world’s largest economies.

Lastly, while toxic haze shows India’s climate crisis, the year 2025 saw some good news on the global climate front. From rising investments in renewable energy to several endangered species showing remarkable comebacks, this year saw many wins for climate and wildlife conservation. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Deepinder Goyal tops entrepreneurial powerlist
• Data-driven approach to investing
• The story behind women’s malnutrition

Here’s your trivia for today: In which country would you find the Nazca Lines?

News

Deepinder Goyal tops entrepreneurial powerlist

Deepinder Goyal (42), Founder of food delivery and logistics platform Eternal, has topped India's ‘Top 200 self-made entrepreneurs of the millennia’ 2025 list.

The list, released by IDFC FIRST Bank and Hurun India, highlights the 200 most valuable companies in India, founded after 2000. These companies are ranked according to its value, defined as market capitalisation for listed companies, and valuations for non-listed companies. It only includes companies headquartered in India.

Key takeaways:

• Goyal’s Eternal, valued at Rs 3.2 lakh crore, has for the first time overtaken RK Damani’s DMart (Rs 3 lakh crore). The former’s worth is up by 27% from 2024. The combined value of all companies on the list stands at Rs 42 lakh crore, and features entrepreneurs from across 51 cities in India. 
• Co-founders of Zepto, Kaivalya Vohra (22) and Aadit Palicha (23), are the top two youngest entrepreneurs of the country, followed by Shashvat Nakrani (27) of BharatPe. Other founders in the top 10 list, under 32, include Ritesh Agarwal (31) at #5, and Ankush Sachdeva (32) at #7.
• Bengaluru also retained its spot as India’s top startup hub in 2025. The list notes that 88 founders featured on the list have Bengaluru as their residence city, while 52 companies are headquartered in the Silicon Valley of India.

Funding Alert

Startup: Databricks

Amount: $4B

Round: Series L

Startup: MoEngage

Amount: $180M

Round: Series F

Startup: Tagbin

Amount: $10M

Round: Undisclosed

Startup

Data-driven approach to investing

For years, disciplined, data-driven investment strategies were the exclusive domain of Wall Street institutions and ultra-high-net-worth families in the US. Everyday professionals in the country often found themselves choosing between two extremes—basic index funds and high-risk bets—with little access to research-backed, risk-managed portfolios. 

Neev Finance is seeking to change this scenario with a simple, structured and data-backed approach to everyday investing. The quantitative asset management company hopes to democratise institutional-grade investing for hardworking Americans.

Structured portfolios:

• Neev offers two investment products: a stable yield account built to give steady returns from low-risk, yield-generating digital asset strategies, and a multi-asset dynamic fund which uses proprietary data models to adjust investments between stocks, crypto, commodities, and cash based on market conditions.
• The company currently manages $3 million–5 million directly. There are about 2,000 investors on its platform. Neev continues to grow organically through referrals and credibility rather than heavy marketing, according to co-founder Nirav Kamdar.
• Neev plans to develop a seamless mobile investing and portfolio tracking app and expand multi-asset quantitative research infrastructure, tax optimisation, retirement planning, and support for real estate investments. It also plans to create a nationwide community for financial knowledge and empowerment. 

Insight

The story behind women’s malnutrition

India’s nutrition challenge among women is no longer limited to hunger or weight loss. A new multi-centre study funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and published in the Wiley Online Library shows that undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency and early metabolic risk are big contributors.

The findings show how diets that are low in protein and essential micronutrients but high in inexpensive calories, combined with more sedentary work, heat stress, and chronic physical and mental strain, are reshaping women’s health. As a result, anaemia often overlaps with vitamin deficiencies and early metabolic risk, but this combination is rarely detected by health systems that look at problems in isolation.

News & updates

• Failed bid: Warner Bros Discovery's board rejected Paramount Skydance's $108.4 billion hostile bid on Wednesday, saying it failed to provide adequate financing assurances.
• Acquisition: Online education platform Coursera said on Wednesday it would buy rival Udemy in an all-stock deal, valuing the combined company at $2.5 billion, as the industry consolidates after a post-pandemic slowdown and heightened investor scrutiny.
• Coding tool: Google’s vibe-coding tool, Opal, is making its way to Gemini. The company on Wednesday said it is integrating the tool, which lets you build AI-powered mini apps, inside the Gemini web app, allowing users to create their own custom apps, which Google calls Gems.

In which country would you find the Nazca Lines?

Answer: Peru

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