Break-up and make 💰
NFTs are having the best week ever, beauty retailer Nykaa files to go public, and some more updates.
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First up,
Market Recap 📈
Indian equity markets started on a strong note today amid buying interest across sectors. Meanwhile, the US stocks remained low on concerns about the delta variant and lower-than-expected private sector employment growth in July.
Sensex: 54,492.84 (+0.23%) ↑
Nifty 50: 16,294.60 (+0.22%) ↑
Dow Jones: 34,792.67 (-0.92%) ↓
Nasdaq 100: 15,083.39 (+0.15%) ↑
Bitcoin: $37,974.38
Top Stories 📰
1. Nykaa files for IPO 💅
India's startup ecosystem is booming like never before.
Beauty and cosmetic startup Nykaa has filed its Red Herring Draft Prospectus with SEBI as it plans to go public this year. The Mumbai-based startup will also be India's first woman-led unicorn startup to launch its IPO.
Some quick stats -
Revenue grew 38.10% year-on-year to Rs 2,440.89 crore.
Turned Rs 16.34 crore loss into a Rs 61.94 crore profit.
Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) rose 50.7% year-on-year to Rs 4,045.98 crore.
45 million+ downloads across its mobile platforms.
The startup seeks to raise nearly Rs 525 crore via fresh issue of shares at a $4 billion+ valuation. Meanwhile, the investors and promoters will sell up to 4.31 crore equity shares through offer for sale.
As of March 31st, the company is operational in 38 cities in India and has around 73 physical stores. The 2012-launched startup plans to use the capital towards repayment of outstanding debts, marketing, and establishing new stores and warehouses.
Why it matters? Nykaa is the only startup that's profitable and meets the criteria to list on the Indian stock exchange. Even Zomato, which went public last month, didn't cross this benchmark.
2. NFT markets report their best week yet 🔥
If there was any doubt regarding the future of NFTs, this week made it clear: NFTs are here to stay.
The market for digital collectables saw a 338% rise as its trading volume on the Ethereum network reached $171 million. OpenSea, an NFT marketplace, reported its trading volume soar from $10.9 million on July 30 to $49 million on Aug 1.
Some other key highlights -
Weekly NFT trade volume surpassed $300 million for the first time.
Trading volume for Cryptopunks crossed $78 million this week.
The average prices of Bored Ape Yacht Club and ArtBlocks Curated, popular NFT collections, also reached their record highs.
More recently, the popular 'Friendship ended with Mudasir’ break-up meme was auctioned off as an NFT for Rs 38,273,13 (or around $51,530)
In India, the NFT trend is just getting started. Three new marketplaces - WazirX, Wall.app, and NFTically - have emerged in less than two months as conversations around these digital tokens gain momentum.
While WazirX took the common NFT route, the other two are rethinking the entire model, with NFTically promoting itself as a SaaS marketplace while Wall.app wants to build its own social commerce platform based on NFTs.
Why it matters? NFTs are increasingly becoming a popular choice among digital artists and creators as it offers them an escape from traditional market barriers and broadens their reach while ensuring that they're being compensated on an appropriate scale.
Deal Street 🤑
Square acquires Australian lending pioneer Afterpay
This week, Square announced that it has acquired buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider Afterpay for $29 billion. The announcement marks the company's largest acquisition deal yet as Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey bets on the growing industry to compete against big banks and tech firms. Similar to Klarna and Affirm, Afterpay allows you to make purchases and pay later via interest-free monthly instalments. Shortly after the news, Square's stock rose 10% while Afterpay grew 35%. The BNPL industry is only going to get bigger as these apps are expected to grow 10-15x by 2025, eventually processing almost $1 trillion in transactions.
BharatPe becomes a unicorn
BharatPe, a New Delhi-based startup that provides merchant payments solutions and other financial services, has raised $370 million in a Series E round led by Tiger Global, becoming the 19th unicorn startup this year. The round saw participation from new investors like Steadfast Capital and Dragoneer Investor Group, and existing investors, including Sequoia Growth, Coatue Management, and Ribbit Capital, among others. The startup, founded in 2018, is operational in over 130 Indian cities and serves more than 7 million merchants. It has disbursed around $300 million to its merchant partners so far and has an outstanding loan book of $100 million. BharatPe now plans to use the capital towards product expansion and working with Centrum Financial Services to set up a small finance bank (SFB).
Tweet Of The Week ✨
RIP, Fleets ⚰️
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