The Weekly Dispatch

Temasek is looking to invest as much as $9-10 billion in India over the next 3 years as it is seeing more opportunities to deploy larger sums of capital in India. Temasek, which invested over $1 billion in India in FY23, has already deployed close to $2 billion so far this fiscal led by its investment in Manipal Health and a small cheque in Atomberg Technologies.? It is interested to invest in areas such as healthcare services, consumption, digitization, sustainability and energy transition themes.

The startup engagement programme, run by Mondelez India and Huddle, will select early stage snacking food startups to provide mentoring and an equity-free grant of $20K. Starting in August 2023, its curriculum will cover critical business themes such as product manufacturing, packaging, designing and logistics and other business themes relevant for startups to scale. The mentors will include 35+ senior leaders from the industry and from Mondelez.

Electric commercial vehicle (eCV) financing firm Ascend Capital is planning to raise ?500 crore over the next 18 months as it looks to finance over 1 million electric commercial vehicles by 2030, the company said. Cofounded in 2019 by Lokesh Chandra Mittal and Gaurav Maheshwari, the company has so far invested about ? 80 crore in its own business and has financed over 8,000 commercial EVs.

A group of 30 prominent domestic and international startup investors including Tiger Global, Peak XV and Steadview Capital have written to Prime minister Narendra Modi, expressing deep concerns over GST Council's recent decision to levy 28% on the online real-money gaming sector. The investors have also sought a brief meeting with the Prime minister and relevant officials to discuss this matter in more detail.

Sequoia Capital said that Michael Moritz, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist, is leaving the firm after 40 years. Moritz, a partner in the U.S. venture capital giant's seed and growth teams, will focus on Sequoia Heritage, a $15 billion wealth management fund that he helped launch in 2010, the Financial Times reported. The fund will be independent from Sequoia Capital, with focus on a diversified range of assets.

Warburg Pincus named Jeffrey Perlman as President and successor to Timothy Geithner. Geithner, who was U.S. Treasury Secretary in the Obama administration and had headed the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, will become the chair of the investment firm. A Warburg Pincus spokesperson said Perlman will continue with his responsibilities in Asia and remain a critical part of the firm’s real estate investment team while spending a meaningful amount of time in Asia.

One 97 Communications, which operates the Paytm brand, has granted 17.06 lakh (1.7 million) stock options to eligible employees, it said as a part of filings.? The company said that it has granted 17,06,829 stock options under Employee stock ownership plan 2019, as determined by its nomination and remuneration committee (NRC). Each stock option is convertible into one fully paid up equity share having a face value of ?1 each. The exercise price has been set at ? 9 per stock option.

BYJU’S has reportedly vacated multiple offices in Bengaluru in a move to save rental costs. It has three offices in Bengaluru, including two buildings in Kalyani Tech Park, nine floors in Prestige Tech Park and its largest office in India at IBC Knowledge Park, Bannerghatta. The edtech firm has vacated the 5.58 Lakh square feet property in Kalyani Tech Park. The move reportedly saves BYJU’S around ?3 Cr in monthly rent and points to the scale of the financial stress the edtech finds itself under.

Swiggy said it will be buying back shares worth $50 million from 2,000 staffers which were issued to them as part of the company’s ESOP. This comes at a time when the Indian startup ecosystem is in the midst of a funding winter which has forced several new-age companies to conserve cash. This is the second tranche of the ESOP liquidity program. In June last year, it had offered the option to more than 900 eligible employees to opt to receive up to $23 million against their ESOP.

Faad Network announced the launch of AgriManch, an innovative accelerator program dedicated to nurturing agritech startups. As part of the AgriManch program ,selected startups will receive a minimum capital infusion of ?25 lakh to strengthen their operational capabilities. The 12-week cohort program will cater to 5 promising startups specialising in various sectors, including agricultural automation, agfintech, agbiotech, aginfratech, precision agtech, and upstream-midstream agtech.