Tech5: Vedanta to invest $500 million in display glass unit, India's renewable energy at 203 GW, and more

The solar sector saw an increase of 20.1 GW (27.9 percent), growing from 72.02 GW in October 2023 to 92.12 GW in October 2024. The combined total solar capacity, including projects under implementation and tendered, now stands at 250.57 GW, a significant rise from 166.49 GW last year. 

Wind energy increased by 7.8 percent, from 44.29 GW in October 2023 to 47.72 GW in 2024. Total capacity in the pipeline for wind projects has now reached 72.35 GW. As of October 2024, large hydro projects contributed 46.93 GW to India’s renewable portfolio, while nuclear power capacity contributed 8.18 GW.

Prosus sees Swiggy investment gain $2 billion: Bloomberg

Prosus NV has gained over $2 billion from its investment in Swiggy ahead of the Indian food delivery company’s IPO debut in India, Bloomberg reported earlier today. Prosus, along with its controlling shareholder Naspers, invested $1.3 billion for a 31 percent stake in Swiggy, which is targeting an $11.3 billion valuation.

The company plans to sell some shares in the IPO, retaining 25 percent of Swiggy. Prosus expects the sale to generate over $500 million in returns. Prosus is best known for being the largest backer of China’s Tencent. Swiggy’s IPO was significantly oversubscribed, with major global investors participating.

India’s food delivery market is currently dominated by Swiggy and its larger listed rival Zomato, but competition is hotting up on the quick delivery front. Swiggy’s Instamart business, for example, offers everything from groceries to kitchenware and even a growing catalogue of apparel and electronic gadgets—all delivered within 15 minutes or so.

Rajeev Misra, co-CEO, exits Softbank Vision Fund

Rajeev Misra is stepping down as co-CEO of SoftBank Investment Advisors, the parent of the $100 billion Vision Fund. Co-CEO Alex Clavel will take over as sole leader, TechCrunch reported on November 12. 

Misra, who joined SoftBank in 2014 and helped launch the Vision Fund in 2017, led the world's largest tech venture capital (VC) fund at its inception, but the fund became notorious for a series of high-profile failures, including investments in WeWork and Katerra, Global Corporate Venturing noted in its report on the news.

Despite some successes, like Coupang, the fund struggled with due diligence and poor returns, leading to scaled-back operations and missed fundraising targets, according to Global Corporate Venturing. Misra, who also announced reduced responsibilities in 2022, will continue to lead his $6 billion One Investment Management fund, backed by Abu Dhabi. Prior to SoftBank, Misra held senior roles at Deutsche Bank and UBS.

HCLT names Arjun Sethi chief growth officer of ‘strategic segments’

HCL Technologies has named Arjun A Sethi as chief growth officer for what the company describes as “strategic segments”. Based in New York, Sethi will focus on winning more business from the public sector in the US, and the multinational private equity industry, India’s third-biggest IT services company said in a press release on November 12. These segments have “a wealth of new opportunities”, chief executive C Vijayakumar said in the release.

Sethi joins the company after a 25-year career at Kearney, a consultancy, where he served as senior partner and vice chair of digital transformation. He has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology and a post-graduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.