Wakefit’s sleepy market debut; Flam’s bet on interactive advertising

Hello,

The market is moving at breakneck speed to keep up with AI transformations. And with it is emerging a rather lopsided investing pattern, according to one of Deloitte’s top executives.

Deloitte’s Chief Technology Officer Bill Briggs highlighted a growing strategy, where companies are pouring 93% of their AI budget into technology and only 7% into the people expected to use it—something he believes is a critical error for the long term.

In his own words, this tech-heavy approach is akin to “trying to get paella” but ending up with “just cilantro.”

Meanwhile, the scale of infrastructure planned for upcoming energy transitions and AI sector demands could also send copper prices soaring into the stratosphere.

According to Citi, projected copper deficits and continued hoarding of the red metal by the US are expected to keep prices surging all the way into 2026.

Lastly, Italy is making some new strides in food sustainability. Scientists in the country are developing sweet snacks with lab-grown plant cells and fruit residues, producing a material that a 3D printer can then process into 'pastries' with high nutritional content.

Prototypes include snack bars and glossy "honey pearls" designed to preserve flavour and nutritional value.

Turns out, you can download your cake and have it too.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about

• Wakefit’s sleepy market debut
• Flam’s bet on interactive advertising
• The Irula families of Chennai’s ECR

Here’s your trivia for today: Which European country gets about 3/4ths of its electricity from nuclear power, more than any other country globally?

Retail

Wakefit’s sleepy market debut

Omnichannel furniture retailer Wakefit’s IPO run came to an end on Monday morning, with the stock sliding over 5% after opening. However, the slide hardly marred the upbeat atmosphere at the National Stock Exchange. The event at the exchange saw co-founders, investors, and the Wakefit team lighting the ceremonial lamp and felicitating key partners.

Key takeaways:

• Shares of the mattress maker opened flat at Rs 195, which was the issue price, and later slipped to as low as Rs 177 on the NSE. It was trading at Rs 193 as of 11 AM. At the listing price, Wakefit was valued at about Rs 5,905 crore.
• The Bengaluru-based company’s IPO saw its demand pick up only towards the end of the issue period, after muted interest on the first two days.
• Ahead of the IPO, Wakefit raised Rs 580 crore from anchor investors, including Ashoka Whiteoak, 360 One, and Steadview Capital along with strong participation from domestic mutual funds.

Startup

Flam’s bet on interactive advertising

Most digital advertisements today follow a predictable pattern: a video pops up on your screen, you skip it in five seconds, and move on. In a world where people scroll faster than brands can talk to them, attention has quietly become the most expensive commodity online.

Bengaluru- and San Francisco–based Flam wants to change this. Instead of flat, one-way ads, the startup is building interactive, mixed-reality content that users can touch, move, or even talk to—all without downloading an app.

Offering realism:

• By March 2024, Flam released its first commercial campaign with Britannia, featuring Ranveer Singh in a mixed-reality newspaper ad. It was the moment the team realised that its long R&D cycle had finally paid off.
• A basic campaign costs between $5,000 and $10,000, while highly interactive one-off campaigns can cross $100,000.
• The next big step for Flam is moment shopping. Instead of opening an ecommerce app and scrolling for products, users will get smart, contextual links through WhatsApp or other channels. The content will help them understand what they are looking for and show the products in real time.

Social Story

The Irula families of Chennai’s ECR

The Association for India’s Development (AID) India, a Chennai-based non-profit, began its housing programme for vulnerable tribal communities in 2015. For years, its team transited across East Coast Road—the gleaming coastal highway along the Bay of Bengal lined with boutique cafés, global brands and rooftop bars.

Three years ago, a chance detour led the team to a hamlet that the coastal highway had long concealed: 22 Irula families living inside a vast dumpyard in Kovalam. These families have lived for decades without land rights or permanent shelter, even as luxury development reshapes the coastline. Their struggle highlights how rehabilitation and land policy routinely fail the most vulnerable.

News & updates

• Intervention: Rupee fell to a record low of 90.74 on Monday, pressured by a prolonged deadlock in US-India trade negotiations and sustained foreign outflows from domestic equities and bonds. The currency, Asia's worst performer this year, avoided steeper losses amid likely RBI intervention, four traders told Reuters.
• License: China has started granting licenses with lengthier terms to allow European companies to obtain critical minerals essential for industries, including clean tech, automakers, and defense contractors, Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission’s trade chief, told Bloomberg.
• Fined: The Spanish government has fined property rentals giant Airbnb 64 million euros for advertising unlicensed apartments. It also said that some of the properties advertised in the popular tourist destination were banned from being rented.

Which European country gets about 3/4ths of its electricity from nuclear power, more than any other country globally?

Answer: France.

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