Also in this letter:
■ ETtech Done Deals
■ ETSA 2023: Elite jury meets virtually to pick winners
■ Elon Musk gets closer to bringing Starlink to India
(L to R) Kanika Mayar and Piyush Kharbanda, partners, Vertex Ventures, Ben Mathias, managing partner, Vertex Ventures
Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India (VVSEAI) on Tuesday announced the final close of its fifth fund, at $541 million. The fund corpus includes a dedicated co-investment envelope of $50 million to invest alongside the main fund in startups led by women founders.
Big jump: The Temasek-backed firm said the latest fund is 80% larger than Fund IV, which it closed at $305 million in 2019.
The latest fund is backed by both existing and new Limited Partners (LPs), including sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, corporates and family offices across Asia and Europe.
Portfolio firms: Vertex’s new Fund V raise comes on the heels of cash-on-cash returns from its portfolio. This includes exits from its investments in Grab, FirstCry, Xpressbees and Recko among several others, the firm said in a statement.
Partnerspeak: “Our earlier funds have had superior cash-on-cash returns and are outperforming benchmarks. This track record led most of our investors from VVSEAI Fund IV to return as investors in VVSEAI Fund V and increase their allocation,” said Ben Mathias, managing partner, Vertex Ventures.
Apple to sell made-in-India iPhones on launch day for first time
For the first time, people in India will be able to buy an iPhone—that, too, one made in India—on launch day with the rest of the world. Apple plans to make the India-built iPhone 15 available in the country and some other regions on the global sales debut day, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Apple is set to unveil its latest products at its Cupertino, California headquarters on Tuesday at 10:30 pm (IST). The Apple ‘Wonderlust’ event will showcase the highly anticipated iPhone 15 series, the Apple Watch Series 9, and an updated AirPods Pro.
Driving the news: While the vast majority of iPhone 15 models will come from China, this would be the first time a latest-generation, India-assembled device is available on the first day of the sale, according to the report.
Also read | Explained: Why is Apple’s stock falling ahead of the iPhone 15 launch?
Major shift: This underscores India’s growing production prowess, and reflects a significant departure from Apple’s previous strategy of selling mostly Chinese-made new devices to customers across the world. The new iPhone 15 is expected to go on sale within days or weeks of its unveiling.
iPhone 15 Series: The latest series is expected to bring significant upgrades to Apple’s smartphone lineup. The higher-end iPhones are likely to get a faster Apple A17 chip built on the new 3-nanometer production process, while the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus will get the A16 chip from last year’s Pro phones.
Also read | Apple expected to unveil next generation of iPhones as company tries to reverse a recent sales slump
Shift to USB Type-C: In a major shift, Apple is switching the phone’s charging and data port to the USB-C standard in the iPhone 15 series and future phones.
Also read | Apple expected to bow to EU and unveil iPhone with USB-C charger
Apple Watch Series 9: The Apple Watch Series 9 will undergo some significant improvements under the hood. It will include enhanced sensors and internal components, as well as the new optical heart rate sensor, which promises more precise readings.
ETtech Done Deals
Peyush Bansal, founder & CEO, Lenskart
Lenskart’s Neso Brands invests in French D2C eyewear brand: Neso Brands, an ecommerce subsidiary of eyewear firm Lenskart, said it has invested $4 million in Paris-based omnichannel eyewear brand Le Petit Lunetier. In a statement, Neso said it has acquired a ‘significant stake’ in the French brand but did not detail the size of the stake.
Pee Safe raises $3 million: Pee Safe, a hygiene and wellness brand, has raised $3 million in a Series B funding round led by Natco Pharma Limited, and Rainmatter Health. Zerodha founders Nithin and Nikhil Kamath, and Alkemi Growth Capital, an existing investor, also participated in the round.
Dabur scion Gaurav Burman buys 7.5% stake in Mitsu: FMCG and consumer healthcare group Dabur India’s scion Gaurav Burman has acquired a 7.5% strategic stake in healthcare startup Mitsu. The startup offers scientific self-therapy programmes and is backed by healthcare company Metacog Health.
A star-studded jury led by Kotak Mahindra Bank founder Uday Kotak, met virtually on Tuesday to pick the winners of the ninth edition of India’s most coveted prize for entrepreneurial excellence: The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA).
Ahead of the winner reveal, take a look at the nominees across the eight categories:
■ Bootstrap Champ: Boldfit, Fyers, Boult Audio, Klenty, Gameberry Labs
■ Top Innovator: StringBio, Zero Cow Factory, GalaxEye, Brainsight AI, Newtrace
■ Comeback Kid: Amit Gupta, Naveen Dachuri and RK Misra (Yulu), Aneesh Reddy, Anant Choubey and Sridhar Bollam (Capillary Technologies), Mukesh Singh, Raj Pandey and Vikash Kumar (ZopSmart), Uttam Digga, Pranav Goel and Vikas Choudhary (Porter), Ankit Mehta, Rahul Singh and Ashish Bhat (Ideaforge Technology)
■ Best on Campus: XYMA Analytics, Digantara Technologies, Minus Zero Robotics, Bunpai India (Rescript), Farmicon India Ltd
■ Social Enterprise: Bioprime Agrisolutions, GramCover, Vidyakul, FIA Global
■ Woman Ahead: Ayushi Gudwani (FS Life), Minu Margaret (Blissclub), Rashi Narang (Heads Up for Tails) and Aarti Gill (Oziva)
■ Midas Touch: Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal (Titan Capital), Kanwaljit Singh (Fireside Ventures), Jishnu Bhattacharjee (Nexus Venture Partners), Varsha Tagare (Qualcomm Ventures), TCM Sundaram (Chiratae Ventures)
■ Startup of the Year: Groww, Mamaearth, Lenskart, OfBusiness, Icertis
Stay tuned to know who won!
Elon Musk gets closer to bringing Starlink to India
After months of security concerns, Elon Musk’s satellite company, Starlink, may soon receive approval from the telecom ministry to offer its services in India.
Details: A high-level meeting scheduled for later this month is expected to address Starlink’s proposal for a global mobile personal communication by satellite (GMPCS) services license. While an approval seems likely, potential last-minute issues could still cause delays.
What happens next? Once Starlink secures the GMPCS license, it will need additional approvals from various government departments and the Department of Space before it can officially accept orders and move forward with its operations. Currently, One Web, backed by Sunil Mittal, and Jio, in partnership with Luxembourg-based SES and led by Mukesh Ambani, have obtained GMPCS licences. Jeff Bezos’ ‘Project Kuiper’ is also expected to enter the Indian market.
Against spectrum auction: Starlink has been calling on India to not auction spectrum but just assign licences in line with a global trend, saying it is a natural resource that should be shared by companies. An auction may impose geographical restrictions that will raise costs, it said in company letters made public by the Indian government in June.
Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Megha Mishra in Mumbai and Erick Massey in New Delhi.
