Namaste, Sat Sri Akaal, and Salaam. 🫡

Good morning folks.

Today we’re diving into -
- Temasek’s $145 million investment into Mahindra Electric,
- Zomato’s first ever profit,
- And the government’s latest push to “make in India”.

Our read time today is 4 minutes and 55 seconds - faster than you can grab an ice-cream from the Mother Dairy cart. 🤷

Let's dive in. 👇

Market Vibe Check

Temasek supercharges Mahindra Electric with a $145mn boost. ⚡

TLDR -
- Singapore’s state fund Temasek is splashing 1200Cr for a 1.5% stake in Mahindra Electric.
- Pegs the company’s value at $9.8 billion+
- A good chunk of this cash is gonna go toward a $1.2 billion EV plant in Pune.

This time last year, Mahindra dropped plans to go ham on the EV market with 5 new SUVs.

Today, they’re pushing on with full speed after a $145 million cash infusion from Singapore state investor Temasek.

Temasek is gonna be handing them this $145 million in exchange for 1.49% of the business - an effective valuation of $9.8 billion.

Mahindra sees the future in EVs and have set out plans for 1 in 4 sales to be fully electric by the end of the next 4 years.

Tons of foreign investors are throwing cash into India’s EV market -
- Tesla’s big office play
- Hyundai’s bet on electric SUVs
- Audi’s Q8 hitting showrooms early

Charging up… ⚡

Zomato ekes out it’s first baby-sized profit. 👶

TLDR -
- First ever profit of 2 Crore INR - big mark of operational excellence.
- Blinkit grocery revenue jumped ~75%.
- Very significant and hard pivot away from “risky” bets to proven ones.

Zomato went from being mocked and ridiculed for their spending to being a good reminder that management is EVERYTHING in the startup scene.

After two flat quarters, tons of growth misses, and lots of stock market controversy, they just reported their FIRST profit.

The breakup of this is as follows -
- 181 crore profit from food delivery
- 133 crore loss from Blinkit (quick-commerce segment)
- 35 crore loss from Hyperpure (grocery B2B segment)

Zomato reckons that they can have a fully profitable Blinkit in the next 4 quarters as it’s already CM1 positive.

Overall business is also looking very good - with growth slated at 40% over the next few years.

Kadak… 👌

India slaps big restrictions on PC imports. 🫣

TLDR -
- No regulation → tons of licenses…
- You now need approval from the government to import tablets, laptops, and all-in-one PCs.
- BJP govt wants to push local manufacturing to the MAX.

Another BIG “Make in India” push…

If you import laptops, PCs, tablets, and other computing tech, you’ll now need a license from the government.

There will also be an import duty for each new imported item, but the current specifics haven’t been given out by the government.

This means that manufacturing in India = no import duty, even if the parts are all assembled in China & Taiwan, for example.

And in other news… Reliance launched their own JioBook, priced at 15,999 Rs. 🙈

In other news… ☕

Apple sales slide for the 3rd straight quarter (BBG)

GoStudent raises $95mn to sell AI tutoring (TC)

KKR thinks about buying Simon & Schuster for $1.7bn (FT)

Nomura hires a “virtual influencer” to advertise accounts (BBG)

America drops $300mn fine on a robo-calling center (TC)

And that’s the tea the chai for today.

Thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoyed it.

Lots of ❤️,

Team CC