{"id":3844,"date":"2024-03-19T02:27:15","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T02:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/19\/exclusive-malabar-eyes-sugar-stake-indias-deep-tech-policy-coming-soon\/"},"modified":"2024-03-19T02:27:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T02:27:15","slug":"exclusive-malabar-eyes-sugar-stake-indias-deep-tech-policy-coming-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/19\/exclusive-malabar-eyes-sugar-stake-indias-deep-tech-policy-coming-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Malabar eyes Sugar stake; India\u2019s deep tech policy coming soon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Exclusive:<\/div>


\n<\/p>\n

India-focused Malabar Investments is in talks to pick a Rs 80-100 crore stake in Sugar Cosmetics via a secondary deal. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch. <\/p>\n

Also in this letter:<\/span>
\u25a0 SaaS\u2019 future in a Gen AI world
\u25a0 AWS, Indian startups working closely
\u25a0 Cedar Capital’s fintech fund<\/p>\n

\n

Exclusive: Malabar may pick up Rs 80-100 crore stake in Sugar Cosmetics <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Vineeta Singh, cofounder, Sugar Cosmetics<\/em><\/p>\n

Malabar Investments has held talks with early backers in Sugar Cosmetics <\/a>for acquiring a stake worth Rs 80-100 crore in the company via a secondary transaction, sources told ET. <\/p>\n

Driving the news:<\/span> Sugar Cosmetics will be valued at Rs 2,900 crore ($350 million) if the deal goes through, these people said on the condition of anonymity as the deal discussions are private.<\/p>\n

The transaction will see partial exits from RB Investments and India Quotient, in addition to some angel investors and family offices.<\/p>\n

A secondary deal is between existing and incoming investors, and the cash doesn\u2019t go into the company. <\/p>\n

\"Shareholders<\/div>\n

Getting IPO-ready:<\/span> The omnichannel beauty retailer is keen on bringing in an investor like Malabar Investments, which typically acquires stakes in firms that would go for an initial public offering (IPO) in the near term. The fund has backed consumer-focused startups such as Boat, Bombay Shaving Company and Ixigo.<\/p>\n

\u201cMalabar Investments coming in could pave the way for other pre-IPO investors to also come in\u2026 the broader contours are being finalised,\u201d a source said. \u201cA term sheet has been prepared but the proportion of which investor gets what exit is still being decided.\u201d <\/p>\n

Growing competition: <\/span>The company has also held discussions to raise fresh capital, but these plans have been put on the back-burner, sources said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSugar has been one of the first movers in the youth-focused colour cosmetics category, and has created a hold in that segment but with newer players entering the market, it is becoming very competitive,\u201d a person aware of the deal talks said.<\/p>\n

\"Good<\/div>\n

Good Glamm Group secures $30 million at flat valuation: <\/span>Beauty products and content company Good Glamm Group has raised Rs 245 crore (about $30 million)<\/a> through a rights issue at a flat valuation of $1.2 billion from existing investors, including Warburg Pincus. The funds will be used for working capital requirements.<\/p>\n

Also read | <\/span>B2B ecommerce firm Jumbotail raises Rs 151 crore in funding<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Startup Mahakumbh | Deeptech policy, Zomato to overtake Blinkit soon, and more<\/p>\n

\"Deepi<\/div>\n

Zomato cofounder Deepinder Goyal with Info Edge cofounder Sanjeev Bikhchandani<\/em><\/p>\n

The first day of the three-day Startup Mahakumbh saw a wide range of deliberations and sessions. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a quick recap:<\/p>\n

Deeptech potential: <\/span>A deeptech startup policy is in the final stages of inter-ministerial consultations<\/a>, department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) secretary RK Singh said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat matters in startups is their ability to commercialise and develop intellectual property rights (IPR). It’s not enough to only innovate, you should be able to convert it into IPR which is of long-term benefit to the country and yourself. Deeptech and extensive research and development would be the answer to that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Also read | <\/span>India needs different approach to AI; focus on opportunities holds the key: Nasscom president Debjani Ghosh<\/a><\/p>\n

Blinkit to pip Zomato: <\/span>In a chat with Info Edge cofounder and vice-chairman Sanjeev Bikhchandani, who also sits on Zomato\u2019s board of directors, Deepinder Goyal said<\/a>, \u201cFor us, it\u2019s all about how we disrupt our businesses\u2026 we have a business plan competition wherein we will offer funds to a small team, which will disrupt the businesses that we\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will lead to Zomato version 5 or Blinkit version 2. Blinkit is a part of Zomato version 4, and in one year, Blinkit would be bigger than Zomato,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Also read | <\/span>Indian startups seen raising $10-12 billion this year: Peak XV\u2019s Rajan Anandan<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Peyush<\/div>\n

Peyush Bansal (middle) with BlueStone founder Gaurav Singh Kushwaha (R) and Rukam Capital’s Archana Jahagirdar (L)<\/em><\/p>\n

Move towards premiumisation: <\/span>Consumers are willing to pay for premium products<\/a> as they seek differentiation and aspire to enhance their lifestyle, according to Lenskart founder Peyush Bansal and BlueStone founder Gaurav Singh Kushwaha. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn general people want to improve their quality of life. It’s not a new phenomenon. Now people are saying that I’m earning some money and I want to invest,\u201d said Bansal.<\/p>\n

Also read | <\/span>India’s compute infrastructure deficit hinders AI potential: Nvidia executive<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Gen AI will transform SaaS into software-and-services: report<\/p>\n

\"SaaS<\/div>\n

The software-as-a-service (SaaS) business will become software-and-services in next-generation solutions<\/a> within generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), suggests a report by SaaS-focused accelerator and early-stage fund Upekkha and venture capital firm WestBridge Capital.<\/p>\n

Report findings: <\/span>This will have information technology services industry-like offerings merge with SaaS offerings and will happen in a spectrum of \u201cdo-it-for-me\u201d, \u201cAI add-on benefits\u201d, and \u201cpowered by AI products\u201d, the report said.<\/p>\n

Among other new categories that will emerge within GenAI are GenAI dev tools, GenAI eval, code automation, responsible AI, and large language model ops.<\/p>\n

\"Investments<\/div>\n

Expert take: <\/span>\u201cWe cannot compete with either Silicon Valley or incumbents at the platform level,\u201d Upekkha managing partner Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan told ET. \u201cWhere we will be able to compete is building on applications because Indians are good at understanding applications in depth. The biggest opportunity will come in building vertical and not in building horizontal SaaS.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tell me more:<\/span> Other predictions include how vertical AI, like vertical SaaS, is going to be prominent as the presence of vertical data will drive the intelligence ability strongly and how \u2018ambient AI\u2019 \u2013 a counterpart of artificial general intelligence in enterprise processes \u2013 will surpass the efficiency gains of traditional software and the cloud.<\/p>\n

Also read | <\/span>Local SaaS firms under the thumb to retool for artificial intelligence<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Other Top Stories By Our Reporters<\/p>\n

\"Gaurav<\/div>\n

Gaurav Arora, director and head of startup business in Asia Pacific and Japan at AWS<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018AWS working with Indian startups to solve for world\u2019:<\/span> Amazon Web Services (AWS) is working closely with Indian startups<\/a> to export their \u201cgreat ideas\u201d and innovation to markets like the US. \u201cThere’s been a lot of momentum from India that we are seeing, which is scaling globally,\u201d Gaurav Arora, director and head of startup business in Asia Pacific and Japan at AWS, told ET.<\/p>\n

Cedar Capital announces first close of Rs 240 crore fintech fund:<\/span> Cedar Capital, the fintech-focused venture capital arm of management consulting firm Cedar and fintech market intelligence platform IBS Intelligence, has announced the first close of its Rs 240 crore<\/a> ($30 million) FinTech Venture Capital fund, raising capital in the range of Rs 50 to 75 crore.<\/p>\n

Narayana Murthy gifts grandson Ekagrah shares worth Rs 240 crore:<\/span> Infosys cofounder NR Narayana Murthy has gifted his four-month-old grandson Ekagrah Rohan Murty<\/a> the company\u2019s shares worth about Rs 240 crore, making him the firm\u2019s youngest shareholder and perhaps among India\u2019s youngest billionaires. <\/p>\n

\n

Global Picks We Are Reading<\/p>\n

\u25a0 Here\u2019s the Elon Musk interview that got Don Lemon\u2019s show canceled (The Verge<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u25a0 Reddit IPO filings reveal the company\u2019s hopes \u2014 and fears (Wired<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u25a0 Chinese and Western scientists identify \u2018red lines\u2019 on AI risks (FT<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India-focused Malabar Investments is in talks to pick a Rs 80-100 crore stake in Sugar Cosmetics via a secondary deal. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch. Also in this letter:\u25a0 SaaS\u2019 future in a Gen AI world\u25a0 AWS, Indian startups working closely\u25a0 Cedar Capital’s fintech fund Exclusive: Malabar may pick up Rs 80-100 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img.etimg.com\/photo\/msid-108600481\/Vineeta%20Singh%20Cofounder%20Sugar%20Cosmetics.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[607],"tags":[6727,6731,2481,5708,6728,1587,6589,925,2799,6729,6726,6725,505,913,6724,2341,922,6730,6723,2416],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3844"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3846,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3844\/revisions\/3846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}