Namaste, Sat Sri Akaal, and Salaam. 🫡

Good morning folks.

Today we’re diving into -
- BCCI’s latest push to milk cricket for profits,
- IndiGo’s searing (and soaring) growth,
- And Freshwork’s stellar profitability

Our read time today is 4 minutes and 47 seconds - faster than you can find the kabadiwala on a Sunday morning. 🤷

Let's dive in. 👇

Market Vibe Check

BCCI tries setting up a $750mn marriage with Apple/Amazon. 🏏

TLDR -
- India’s cricket body wants to sell domestic rights (i.e. all India team matches that are played IN India)
- The asking price seems to be $750mn for 5 years of rights.
- Response from media is pretty flat, because the real cash cow is IPL.

India’s BCCI is the world’s richest cricket board.

And where money moves, politics follows.

Giants like Apple, Amazon, and Reliance are all gonna be bidding for India’s 1.1 billion cricket eyeballs.

EY reckons that we’ll see the final sale price for these rights fall around $750m USD.

This is odd, since the last time these domestic rights were sold, they fetched $800m USD.

Bbut the answer is pretty simple.

Warren Buffett once said that price is what you pay, and value is what you get.

Here, the price is insanely high, but you don’t get much value.

Domestic cricket falls very short when compared to the IPL - which means less viewership, less expensive ads, and much smaller ad revenue figures.

Star India were the poor folks who bought LAST 5 years’ rights (2018-2023) and are currently sitting on a $120m loss on that purchase.

A little prudence goes a loooong way. 💀

Indigo slaps Dalal Street’s forecasts out of the skies. ✈️

TLDR -
- Fuel costs down & demand up = great times for IndiGo.
- Posted record quarterly profits of $375 million + a 63% market share.
- Another (slight) factor was the insolvency of Go. (😅)

India’s largest airline just dropped quarterly results - and these are growth numbers that some startups would be proud of.

Net revenue jumped 30%+ to $2.02bn.

Total profits came in steaming hot too - $375 million vs. market expectations of $215 million.

The crazy thing - this is despite having over 40 of their jets grounded due to engine issues.

IndiGo’s momentum is crazy… they’re punching 33,000 feet above their weight.

Freshworks gets ready to 6X it’s profits. 📈

TLDR -
- Indian SaaS Freshworks posted 20% quarterly revenue growth (at $145m).
- Net loss is currently at $36mn with an expected PROFIT of $28m this year.
- Their NDR (net dollar retention) is still over 100%, meaning that customers are buying more…

The numbers are looking brilliant for FreshWorks - tons of $$$ rolling in and barely any rolling out.

They’re on track to make $28 million in operating profit this year off of a $145 million revenue run rate.

That’s a +20% net profit margin - which is pretty enviable for a SaaS business of this scale.

And another crazy number - their net-dollar retention is currently at 108%. NDR is a metric that says, how much money am I earning from Client X today vs. one year back.

An NDR of over 100% means that Client X is buying MORE from you. (which is what Freshworks is playing with).

Beauty of a software company is that once your product is made, the only big cost heads are salaries and marketing.

That leaves you with tons of headroom to scale - which is precisely the game they’re trying to play.

Another day in Silicon Valley… 😴

In other news… ☕

Brookfield teams up with Sequoia to buy big stakes in companies that have taken valuation cuts (FT)

USA’s credit-rating downgrade makes Indian markets bleed billions (Mint)

Recovering EV demand bumps up outlook for lithium giants (Reuters)

Oxy takes an 83% dent to profits after sloppy oil markets (FT)

Apple Card’s savings account crosses the $10 BILLION deposit mark 🤯 (TC)

And that’s the tea the chai for today.

Thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoyed it.

Lots of ❤️,

Team CC