India Insights by Times Bridge: April '22

Dear Reader,

We hope you've been doing well.

Below is the latest from the Times Bridge portfolio and a few noteworthy trends that we have been observing in?India?more broadly.

Happy reading!

Portfolio Highlights

Our portfolio partner companies had an impressive quarter, generating outsized impact and growth in India and, in so doing, advancing their global position as well.

We are thrilled to announce that?Headspace?has launched “Be Kind to Your Mind,” its first India-specific brand voice initiative. The slew of activities planned for the initiative will inspire users to take regular pauses during their stressful lives, while further fueling Headspace’s growth in the world’s largest open Internet market. Headspace has become India’s top revenue-grossing app in the Health & Fitness category across both the Google Play and Apple App Stores.

As tourism returns to pre-pandemic levels in India,?Airbnb?has announced its plan to open a new technology hub in Bengaluru, which has emerged as one of the world’s biggest technology capitals. The investment will allow Airbnb to double down on the Indian market as well as draw on India's world-class talent to bolster the company's capabilities globally.

Marking one of its first collaborations in Northeast India,?Coursera?recently joined forces with Manipur International University (MIU) to give students and faculty unlimited access to job-relevant courses and materials. The strategic partnership will bring Coursera’s world-class education offering beyond large cities and into the furthest corners of India — its largest market outside of the U.S.

Smule?has partnered with the Indiatimes Lifestyle Network (ILN), India's leading digital entertainment and lifestyle platform, to host the second season of 123 Riyaaz. With the digital-only reality show, which requires contestants to record themselves singing, Smule has continued to unite India’s young population through the love of music.?

Wattpad?partnered with Audible to make popular Wattpad stories available as Hindi audiobooks exclusively on the audiobook and podcast platform. The partnership will continue through the end of 2022 and help Wattpad stories reach an even broader audience in India, one of Wattpad’s fastest-growing markets worldwide. Separately, Wattpad ranked among the top 10 Entertainment apps in India this year.

Leading Indian retail investor Shankar Sharma has collaborated with?Stocktwits?to share his market insights, which aim to enlighten India's young population with the basic tenets of investing and help them unlock lifelong value in doing so.

MUBI, the world’s premier streaming platform for curated films, announced the launch of its first curator partnership in India with Vikramaditya Motwane, a critically-acclaimed Director-Screenwriter. As part of this collaboration, Motwane hand-picked a selection of seven diverse films, which were spotlighted on the platform. The initiative helped advance MUBI’s mission of taking interesting, incredible, beautiful cinema to Indian film enthusiasts.

The leading platform for home renovation and design,?Houzz, announced the Best of Houzz 2022 winners with a ten-year anniversary celebration. The awards recognised the top architects and designers across?India and furthered Houzz’s mission of uniting the world’s design community — which includes homeowners, home professionals and design enthusiasts — on a truly global platform.?

Canva?has continued to expand its reach in India through Canva for Education, its offering that includes over 60k education-specific tools and templates for teachers and students to design and collaborate together. Canva recently joined hands with The Center for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA), India’s leading school accreditation platform for over 500K teachers, to launch a unique design challenge for teachers. With this collaboration, CENTA teachers used the world’s largest design platform to create, collaborate and communicate visually, which will augment and improve their instruction for students across India.

Business Insider?kickstarted a new initiative, Money Insider, to bring together insights from the country’s leading “Fin-fluencers.” These finance influencers, through their captivating and contemporary approaches, are instilling sound, financial habits and making financial literacy more accessible and enjoyable for millennials, Gen-Z and other audiences across India.

i3 Summit Highlights

The inaugural session of the?i3 Summit by Times Bridge?showcased visionary leaders, who shared insights on immersing global ideas in India and scaling Indian ideas on a global stage. This year, our esteemed guests included Dara Khosrowshahi (CEO, Uber), Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Founder, Info Edge) and Satyan Gajwani (Vice Chairman, Times Internet).

Three takeaways from?Dara Khosrowshahi:

• The market is vast with boundless opportunities. Be willing to reinvest both capital and talent.
• Entering the Indian business ecosystem requires local partnerships, which is important both on the business front and in the public sector.
• Play the long game, and keep in mind the “big picture.”

Click?here?for the podcast audio recording.

Three takeaways from?Sanjeev Bikhchandani:

• India’s large and aspirational population, economic growth, democracy and rule of law are driving India’s long-term growth prospects.
• Because of UPI [India’s interbank digital payment system], new categories, industries and companies have emerged, and the ease of making and receiving payments has improved drastically.
• The Indian market might not meet expectations in the short run but, according to Bikhchandani, it will exceed its potential in the long run.

Click?here?for the podcast audio recording.

Three takeaways from?Satyan Gajwani:

• Digital and financial inclusion have been a powerful growth strategy.
• The willingness to watch paid content has grown exponentially in India over the last 3-5 years.
• As digital penetration increases in remote areas of India, a new customer set has opened up and companies can create offerings at price points that were not possible before.

Click?here?for the podcast audio recording.

Thanks for reading. Until next time!