Namaste, Sat Sri Akaal, and Salaam. 🫡

Happy morning, folks. 🙏

Today we’re diving into -
- PhonePe’s latest push into stockbroking,
- Hardware giants’ production pushes,
- And Dunzo’s deteriorating state.

Our read time today is 4 minutes and 38 seconds - faster than you can finish a slice of blueberry cheesecake from Big Chill. 🔥

Let's dive in. 👇

Market Vibe Check

PhonePe makes a stockbroking play. 🤝

TLDR -
- PhonePe is launching a stock market app.
- They spent $75mn on wealth-tech acquisitions last year - this is the outcome.
- Current USP seems to be cost - subsidized and market-leading trading fees for options.

India’s fintech king is pushing hard into the world of wealth management.

PhonePe will be launching a stock market/mutual fund app called share.market.

Nothing too special here - its a classic investing app with ETFs, shares, options, etc.

But here is the interesting part.

The bet is on India’s financialization.

Currently, less than 3% of Indian household income goes toward stock markets.

In other places like the US/UK, over 30-35% of income is put into markets.

As that percentage of income going towards markets increases, folks are gonna be hunting for easy + seamless ways to securely invest their savings.

This space has recently started heating up -
- Jio Financial’s $300mn asset management venture with Blackrock
- Groww & Upstox’s multi-billion dollar cash piles
- Paytm’s new Paytm Money arm

As they say, follow the money. 💰

Dunzo drama gets worse. 🤦

TLDR -
- Dunzo deferred salaries by one more month.
- They’ve also capped salaries with no guarantees, etc.
- Employees were understandably mad and started protests/operation halts.

Things are looking appalling at Dunzo.

Last quarter → 30% employees fired.
Last month → salary caps for ALL employees
Last week → salaries delayed until September
Today → salaries delayed until October

The interesting part - some of the startups out there have managed to crack this 10-minute delivery model.

Zepto is building towards store-level profitability and minting millions a day simply from advertising.

But Dunzo’s woes look pretty bad.

Investors are not keen to add more fuel to the flame, while employees come to work in fear.

It looks like Dunzo ka time is done-zo.

Hardware giants start filing in for subsidies. 🪛

TLDR -
- Modi’s new plan to cash-back 5% of a product’s price is in full swing.
- 35+ companies have applied over the last 3 weeks.
- Some big names include HP, Apple, Dell,

India’s latest manufacturing scheme is looking very healthy.

The plan is to give manufacturers 5% back on every single product they ship.

Foreign firms are subject to all sorts of taxes/duties/nonsense, but if they make in India, they skip all of that.

So far, almost 35 companies have applied with some big names like HP, Apple, Dell, and Foxconn.

A solid supply chain coupled with a go-getter mindset is a perfect recipe for hardware success.

In other news… ☕

Saudi grabs a stake in an MMA league (BBG)

China’s top real estate developer Country Garden posts a $7bn loss (FT)

Foreign investors offload tons of shares in India (Mint)

Fidelity marks UP Meesho’s valuation (Inc42)

Amazon gets threatened with legal action for drug sales. (FT)

And that’s the tea the chai for today.

Thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoyed it. Have a mauj-masti filled day ahead.

Lots of ❤️,

Team Cutting Chai