Audio
.jpg "Deep Tech India: Vishesh Rajaram on why more investors believe the sector can grow in this country")
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If Softbank's getting its mojo back, what does that mean for India's startups?
Two months ago, Softbank Group's chairman Masayoshi Son said it was time to play offence again. Two days ago, the company posted a small profit at its venture capital funds, even though the group's consolidated net loss for the June quarter surprised analysts. Sanjay Anandaram, co-founder of JumpStartUp one of the earliest US-India cross border VC funds, unpacks what it could mean for startups when one of the world's largest tech investors says it's back — especially if entrepreneurs and VC investors alike haven't learnt from past mistakes
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Zomato, Meesho profits: Are they sustainable?
Earlier this week, Zomato reported that for the first time in its 15-year history, its consolidated business is EBITDA and PAT positive—in other words, profitable. A few days later, social commerce platform Meesho said that it had been profitable across divisions and categories at a profit after tax level too, in July. What do these seemingly small news items indicate? We asked Ninad Karpe, founder and partner at 100x.VC, and Abhishek Goyal, co-founder at Tracxn, to paint for us the big picture
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Deep Tech India: Satya Chakravarthy on the product versus commercialisation funding conundrum
As India readies its own deep tech startups policy, we bring you a short series of conversations with some of the entrepreneurs and VC investors who are building this ecosystem in the country. Today, Satya Chakravarthy, head of the national centre for combustion research and development at IIT Madras and co-founder of The ePlane Company, talks about some of the recent milestones at his venture. Chakravarthy also offers some advice on navigating the challenges of building a deep tech company and bursts a couple of myths involved
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Your UPI experience is about to change...
A new innovation called the UPI Plugin will allow you to make payments from within a merchant app itself, which means that when you make a transaction for Swiggy or Amazon, for instance, you won't have to leave the apps at all. Where does this leave players like PhonePe and Google Pay? The payment giants have expressed concerns with this new model, and we unpack how it will play out on this episode. Joining us today is Anuj Kacker, co-founder of Neobank Freo, and a fintech expert. He also talks about how credit coming to UPI will be the next big thing
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India to restrict laptop imports — will Apple move to make them locally?
India, last week, announced restrictions on the import of laptops and tablets, initially with immediate effect, but later added a three-month grace period. Forbes India's Rajiv Singh joins us on ToThePoint today to talk about whether this move will help incrementally boost the development of India's electronics ecosystem. And we speculate a bit about whether Apple, whose Q3 laptop and iPad sales were down from a year earlier, will expand its India manufacturing operations to go beyond iPhones and include Macbooks and iPads as well
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Inside India's new draft policy for deep tech startups
Industry stakeholders have welcomed the need for a policy for deep tech startups, a draft for which was released by a consortium on July 31, open for public feedback until September. The policy hopes to encourage and support research, development and innovation in the deep tech domain through grants and incentives. However, the industry also says that a lot will depend on how the policy is implemented. Helping us unpack what this means is Satya Chakravarthy, head of the national centre for combustion research and development at IIT-Madras
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Saurabh Chandra and Naveen Arulselvan on plans after a $10.85 mln Series A at Ati Motors
In this episode, Saurabh Chandra, CEO and Naveen Arulselvan, CTO at Ati Motors in Bengaluru, a company building autonomous mobile robots for industrial applications, discuss two new products they recently launched. Ati's flagship, the Sherpa, is running around in factories of marquee customers such as TVS Motors, Bosch, Hyundai and Ceat. With $10.85 million in a new round of funding led by True Ventures and with participation from existing investors, Chandra and Arulselvan plan on expanding further into markets, including the US and Japan
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Tesla's China hurdle in India
Tesla is looking to set up an India factory, but will, reportedly, have to find a workaround for the Chinese supplies it needs. A Reuters news report says that amid strained India-China relations, India has asked Tesla to emulate the Apple manufacturing model in the country—for each Chinese vendor involved, a local partner must step in. Auto expert Puneet Gupta, director, S&P Mobility, speaks to us about what this means, as the world is watching India's road to electrification
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If an AI tool makes an ad, who is responsible for it?
The Advertising Standards Council of India has just released a white paper on the use of generative AI in ads, in collaboration with the well-known law firm Khaitan & Co. We invited Manisha Kapoor, CEO and secretary general of ASCI, and Tanu Banerjee, a partner at Khaitan & Co. to discuss some of the points they've highlighted in the paper, that looks at opportunities, risks and best practices. The bottom line is that the human user still needs to be accountable and responsible in the use of this new, rapidly evolving technology
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Tiger Global's Flipkart and other exits — what's next in India's startup landscape?
According to various media reports, Tiger Global Management, a hedge fund and venture business famous in India for backing Flipkart and later Freshworks, has exited both companies. Forbes India's Rajiv Singh joins us on ToThePoint today to discuss the ways of Tiger, whose investments helped to put the spotlight on opportunities for global investors in the emerging startup ecosystem in India. The scene is different today, though, amid a funding winter—how soon will Tiger Global find another Flipkart?
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Arun Vinayak at Exponent on solving the 'two-sided problem' of fast charging for India
Arun Vinayak, co-founder and CEO at Exponent Energy, talks about the challenges of fast charging—one of the critical factors preventing India's EV market from growing much faster. Arun describes an "offboard" method for keeping the battery within the right temperature range. Most damage can happen while the battery is being charged by moving the complexity involved to the charging station. As a result, the company promises its batteries can go from zero to 100 percent charge in 15 minutes and still run well for 3,000 cycles