Ola Electric suffers in Q3; A helmet made for women rider

Hello,

Few commodities have seen a price decline as much as cacao this year. However, chocolate continues to remain expensive this Valentine’s Day, as the desserts on the shelves now were manufactured when the raw ingredient’s price was sky high. 

In May last year, cacao prices stood at a record $10,000 per metric tonne compared to the average of $2,000-$3,000 for much of the 2010s. Prices have dropped by about 30% in the last month alone, per Axios. 

Moving on, OpenAI last month said it would retire GPT-4o—a bot that users came to describe as flirty, quirky, in short, the perfect “romantic” companion. But its rollback, on the eve of Valentine’s Day, came as a sad development for users who had formed an attachment to it, reported The Guardian. 

Meanwhile, where does the idea of “one true soulmate” come from? Here’s what science has to say about the origins of romantic love portrayed in the current media. 

Lastly, concert tourism is the latest travel trend, thanks to the K-pop group BTS. The massive global tour will kick off in Seoul in April and will cover 34 cities across Asia, Australia, North and South America, Europe, and the UK between April 2026 and March 2027. 

Hotel and flight tickets have sold out, along with concert tickets, and host cities are preparing to see an influx of tourists. 

As the popular BTS song goes, “Welcome to Ma City”!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Ola Electric suffers in Q3
• A helmet made for women riders
• Inside the Lighthouse Communities Foundation

Here’s your trivia for today: Which Shakespeare play references Valentine's Day in a famous monologue about love and madness?

Electric Mobility

Ola Electric suffers in Q3

Ola Electric’s woes continued in Q3 as its revenue from operations more than halved to Rs 470 crore compared with Rs 1,045 crore in the year-ago period. Thinning revenues follow the decline in sales at the company, which had been a market leader in electric two-wheeler (E2W) sales until Q3 2025. 

Subdued demand:

• During this period, it managed to sell only 32,074 units of its vehicles—a 62.3% decline in sales compared with 84,970 units sold in the year-ago quarter. 
• Despite a dip in revenue, the Bhavish Aggarwal-led firm managed to narrow its net loss for the quarter to Rs 487 crore compared with Rs 564 crore in Q3 FY25. 
• In Q3, the company also launched its 4680 Bharat Cell platform for startups and businesses. It had also expanded its business to enter the Battery Energy Storage Business solutions powered by its in-house manufactured cells.

<Top Funding Deals of the Week>

Startup: IDfy

Amount: Rs 476 crore

Round: Undisclosed

Startup: Supertails

Amount: $30M

Round: Series C

Startup: Pandorum Technologies

Amount: $18M

Round: Series B

Innovation

A helmet made for women riders

Founded by Alpana Parida and backed by Indian cricketer Jemimah Rodrigues, Tvarra is a helmet brand designed specifically for women, addressing a long-overlooked gap in safety, fit, and design for two-wheeler riders.

Parida and her team started with a seminal 1950s National Institute of Design study that measured head sizes across lakhs of Indians for the fashion industry. It identified the "intermediate oval," the most common head shape for Indians, and designed it specifically for women's measurements.

Made for women:

• Tvarra addressed aerodynamics to prevent wind lift. It created a notch for earrings, even large jhumkas, so the backing wouldn't dig painfully into the skull. The company added a visor that actually protects the face from insects, dust, and pollution, unlike competitors' decorative "goggle-shaped" designs.
• While women's helmets typically sell for Rs 800-1,200 and are made from substandard materials, Tvarra uses 45-density EPS foam and polycarbonate blends—the same materials in premium motorcycle helmets. 
• At Rs 2,000-2,950, these helmets are more expensive than the competition. "We don't want to make it cheaper. We want to make it better. Safety should be our lookout,” Parida insists.

Social Impact

Inside the Lighthouse Communities Foundation

The Lighthouse Communities Foundation is a public-private partnership model that focuses on agency building, vocational skills, employability, and livelihoods. The first ‘Lighthouse’ opened in 2016 under an MoU with the Pune Municipal Corporation as part of Pune’s Smart City Projects. Since then, it has expanded into a six-state initiative, impacting over 2.4 lakh people so far.

Run in partnership with state governments and government bodies, the Lighthouses offer a practical solution, allowing young people to make informed choices and stay committed.

News & updates

• OpenClaw: Chinese tech giant Baidu is reportedly giving users of its main smartphone app access to the popular AI tool OpenClaw. AI agents such as OpenClaw have recently gained popularity for their ability to automate tasks such as managing email and using online services.
• Traffic: Trying to highlight its potential as a unique search destination, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready asserted that the site sees larger search volume than ChatGPT. According to third-party data, ChatGPT sees 75 billion searches per month, while Pinterest sees 80 billion searches and generates 1.7 billion monthly clicks, he said.
• Oil: The US has issued a general licence to Reliance Industries that will allow the refiner to buy Venezuelan oil directly without violating sanctions. Handing a licence to Reliance could speed up Venezuela's oil exports and reduce crude costs for the operator of the world's biggest refining complex.

Which Shakespeare play references Valentine's Day in a famous monologue about love and madness?

Answer: Hamlet

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