Byjus's revenue grew 5% to Rs 2,280 crore ($287 million), of which 80% of revenue came from Edutech products. But the losses were 15X to about Rs 4,500 crore ($566 million). Latest: After its auditor Deloitte reveals financial statements for 2021 which caused delayed recognition, Byjus made some changes to its revenue recognition from this year 2022. Inclusion of “course fee” which made up 14% of Byju’s revenue in FY 2021. Implementation of the yearly break up of ''Teacher's Fee'' which amounts to Rs 300 crore ($37.5 million)—approximately 3% of its overall expenses. Why it matters: Changes in the streaming revenue and interest payments wiped 8% off Byju’s consolidated revenue of Rs 2,380 crore ($300 million) in 2020. Byju’s could not register half of its reported revenue of Rs 1,156 crore (~$145 million) during the FY 2021 as this revenue comes from deferred payments, and that didn't qualify for registering in 2021. Whereas revenue that got excluded but the expenses were already accounted for in the period and increased its overall losses. Moreover, the financial statements excluded expenses of Rs 109 crore (~$13.7 million), which in turn made overall losses to Rs 4,564 crore ($574 million) If you like this kind of short format articles, Then please subscribe to our newsletter to support. Details: Byju Raveendran (CEO & Founder) stated "Around 40% of the revenue got deferred. Otherwise, the growth would have been 60-65%.” Byju's acquisition of Aakash Institute, showed fewer centers have been opened this year indicating reluctance to expand. Also, WhiteHat Jr's losses contributed to around a third of Byju’s losses. Deloitte charged an audit fee of Rs 3.5 crore (US$440,000) to account for some additional effort they incurred in the audit consequent to material incapacities. Winding up: Byjus FY21 missed a lot in its overall revenue- Now it is hoping to change its overall growth in the financials for 2022 through recent changes in revenue recognition.

Adobe agreed to buy Figma, a web-first design platform company, for around $20 billion. Why it matters: This would be the largest acquisition ever of a privately held software company. The deal is structured via an even split of cash and stock. ($10 Billion each) Last Year: Figma raised around $330 million in VC funding, most recently via a Series E round led by Durable Capital Partners at a $10 billion valuation. This deal makes Adobe a monopoly in UI/UX design space. In the future, Adobe plans to add Figma to its creative cloud bundle. Backstory: Adobe first approached Figma several months ago, per a source familiar with the process. Figma didn't run a formal auction process, nor was it seeking to raise new private funding. Backlash: Adobe stock fell 25% after the acquisition announcement after many reports pointed out that deal was too high (50x 2022 ARR) - Reports Catch Up Quick: Adobe's ambition to stay relevant stay strong, The company plans to acquire many other startups in order to keep the growth high.

Meesho has fired 300 employees and is seeking to remove as many extra positions as it tries to streamline its operations following an ongoing war to get new funding at favorable phases. The latest: The Bengaluru-established startup is at crossroads presently as the terms it has received from investors for the new round of funding range between $4.5 billion to $4.9 billion, demanding anonymity as the affair is private. Meesho has tied up with investors Qatar Investment Authority and GIC for the brand-new investment Why it matters: Meesho reached $4.9 billion valuation in Sept and is spending $40 million every month to add new clients and scale its business. Highly unlikely to sustain this cost without raising new capital. The startup has shut Superstore operations in more than 90% of the cities it operated in, which led to many employees losing their job. Meesho registered a loss of Rs. 498.6 Cr In FY21. Roadblocks: The startup said it was streamlining its grocery business to enhance efficiencies. “As we look to boost efficiencies in the light of the integration, a small number of full-time roles and certain third-party positions on six-month contracts at Meesho Superstore were reassessed to remove redundancies with the core business,” Change in strategy, high cash burn, no profit in sight, and intensified competition from big players—Flipkart and Amazon—Meesho, which is in the market to raise funds, is struggling to answer tough questions from investors. Sandwiched: Asia’s popular e-commerce platform Shopee launched in India last year chocked as Shopee scales up in India, Meesho is now sandwiched between Flipkart and Amazon on one side and Shopee squeezing its business from the other side Catch Up Quick: With Meesho burning close to $40 million each month, per estimates, low revenue led to the sacking of employees. Investors who have a ringside view of Meesho’s operations and financials raised similar thoughts expressing concerns. Also, This was our first post that follows TLDR format - meaning shorter articles with meaningful words. If you like this type of content make sure to follow us on socials.

Sharechat is projecting breakeven by FY25. But for that, its revenue must grow nearly 10X in just 3 years. In FY21- ShareChat posts Rs 80 Cr revenue; losses balloon to Rs 1,460 Cr Why it matters: With powerful backers and a $5 billion valuation to boot, ShareChat wants to cement its position as the social media app for India’s masses. Details: Social media platform - Sharechat and short video entertainment app - Moj, advertising sales remain the revenue driver, collecting 95.8% of its annual revenues. ShareChat wants to increase revenues by 10X and hit breakeven by March 2025. To do this, it’s building an advertising engine that can compete with Meta and Google. But building an ad inventory innovative enough to woo digital ad dollars away from bigger rivals is not an easy task. In F22, ShareChat's parent company acquired rival MX's TakaTak short-video platform in a roughly $700 million deal in a cash-and-stock deal. Sharechat & Moj combined monthly active users (MAUs) reached 260 Million but with MX TakaTak, we expect it to be anywhere between 400-500 million. Catch up quick: With powerful backers such as Google, Tiger Global, and TOI - Sharechat was able to raise a total funding of $520 million. But is now struggling to gain profitability. It is now expected that users will see more ads than before. Also, This was our first post that follows TLDR format - meaning shorter articles with meaningful words. If you like this type of content make sure to follow us on socials.

Online shopping has seen rapid changes in the last two decades. The majority of businesses are on the path of digital adoption in a bid to survive. Consumer behavior has shown drastic changes with the majority of shoppers shifting to online ways of shopping. Digital payment across the globe skyrocketed due to ease of usage and decentralization. However, amid the cacophony of a digital economy, there has been a severe rise and fall of a genre of startups ie. The (Buy now, Pay later) BNPL startups. This article will provide strategic insights into the rise and fall of BNPL start-ups How it works? A BNPL is a model of the payment system. This is divided into various verticals with start-ups and organizations providing their own customized BNPL model with various iterations however the core philosophy behind this payment model is it enables cashless financing options. This financing option allows you to leverage the facility of short-term credit for various online purchases however the payback should be initiated in a matter of 15 or 30 days. Sometimes the total payment is divided into four or six minimal chunks which have to be paid back across payments. Why was it so successful? The primary reason why the BNPL model is successful across the globe is that various rules and regulations constituted by lawmakers for credit and lending companies do not touch the BNPL model. As a result, these companies can get along by evading a majority of laws required to institute credit. This helps the consumer who can easily avail credits without going through the overall bureaucratic hurdles Another major reason behind the rise of the BNPL model is it attacks human psychology. By dividing the price tag into chunks of payments it creates an illusion in the human mind that you are paying less although it does create a dissonance in the mind however the dissonant feelings are trivialized thus strengthening the thought around how such models are good as it doesn't get us rid of all the cash at an instant. The BNPL model also satisfies our "present bias" which in turn directly affects our cognition. We tend to see the benefits while trivializing the potential losses. Although the probability of losses and profits are equal and a majority of times the probability of a loss is higher in a BNPL payment model but as it affects our psyche we tend to ignore the risks in our thirst for instant gratification. The Fintech sector immediately jumped up on the BNPL bandwagon and we immediately had a range of BNPL start-ups operating across the market. Some of the prominent names across this sector Afterpay, Klarna, and Affirm are all around the online shopping ecosystem convincing buyers to adopt this payment model. BNPL start-ups immediately developed quick systems wherein all you had to do was enter your proprietary information regarding your debit or credit card and immediately the organization will access the risk associated with lending you money through an analytical model. After this procedure, it is a matter of minutes wherein your request is accepted within seconds. After your request is accepted you have transacted a loan and an email drops on your mail with a link to the payment app which will help you track your payments. How do they make money? The primary modules through which a BNPL start-up earns money are the customer and the merchant. Merchants operating on the BNPL platform have to pay a fee that can range from 2% to 8% depending on the platform. Apart from this, the customer helps the BNPL start-up earn in two ways. The platform issues an interest on the credited amount and earns through the interest payments. Secondly, if a creditor misses a payment the platform levies a hefty fee on the creditor and various options like auto- debit etc. ensure that the payback is initiated. Rise of BNPL Klarna founded in 2005 in Stockholm is one of the biggest BNPL providers. This company which started as a start-up entered the market in a very ripe phase when digitization was at its peak. This period saw an aggressive rise of BNP startups and they immediately saw major attention from Silicon Valley. The entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley immediately termed these start-ups as a mission project which was trying to solve the problem of credit by letting people from marginalized sections with a low credit score or such get access to credit. This statement saw aggressive funding from Silicon Valley and identified it as a potential market. Some of the examples of aggressive funding include Affirm which was founded in collaboration with Palantir technologies. Apart from this various startups like Afterpay saw aggressive funding from American counterparts with an eye on conquering the market. Fall of BNPL In recent years, various BNPL payment platforms have taken a hit with Klarna the most prominent platform slashing its valuation from $46 billion to a meager $6 billion. This has been followed by a massive cut across its workforce. Apart from this Zip from Australia saw its overall share price fall by a record 90% which led to the company calling off its merger with Sezzle terming the merger as unsuitable due to problematic macroeconomic conditions. Analysts are of the view that the whole BNPL sector had built up a massive hype around itself however gradually it became to die out as investors realized that BNPL couldn't provide value for money. This resulted in severe funding cuts as the markets began to dry out of funds for prospects thus sucking the money out of the sector. Apart from this, the sheer number of startups and companies operating across this space has massively increased competition. With every individual eyeing a piece of the cake it has become a race to the bottom with massive discounts across the various platforms with companies downgrading in a thirst for survival. Due to the recent economic conditions paired with rising inflation, consumer behavior has changed with the majority of them trying to downsize aggressive spending. Apart from this even if a customer initiates a payment the chances of payback seem to be low. Apart from this, A slew of regulations has plagued the sector, and now in order to survive these companies have cut down on instant loans thus downsizing the BNPL platform for ease of doing business. All these factors have initiated a slow death of various BNPL startups spread across the market. Future of BNPL BNPL start-ups have started looking beyond European markets and are aggressively targeting the markets in third-world countries which have a huge scope for growth. Apart from this, they are shifting from the traditional BNPL module to various innovative models. BNPL organizations are trying to get into contract partnerships with various banks eyeing their technical expertise in the credit sector along with the funds. Apart from this a section of BNPL players is moving towards a B2B model and eyeing to initiate a partnership of credit across businesses and not the consumer. However, the scope of providing funds to various businesses has its own set of risks with businesses having the highest probability of closing shop in one year. Although BNPL pictures itself as a fabulous game changer model it also comes along with its set of challenges. These start-ups had a phenomenal start however the market became saturated and competitive therefore it is completely unpredictable about what the future holds for the BNPL payment sector.

What do Google, Facebook, and Zomato have in common? Well, within a few years, they all have determined that a rebrand ought to assist them to enhance outcomes. They’ve followed a sparkling new appearance to scale new heights. Google rebranded to Alphabet in 2015. Facebook has become Meta in 2021. And it looks like Zomato desires to be known as Eternal (at the least internally). But there’s something else too…you see, in every case, traders have been additionally delighted whilst the information hit the market. When Google rebranded to Alphabet, its stocks rallied via way of means of 5% over a subsequent couple of days. When Facebook morphed into Meta, the stocks jumped 6% quickly after the announcement. And whilst Zomato’s inner rebranding plan has become public, its stocks soared over 15% within an hour of the opening of the market. But wait… Is this for real? Do traders actually care about rebranding or is that only a glad coincidence? Well, there are not a whole lot of studies on the matter. But we did find one paper from 2017 that tested 215 company logo modifications throughout a 20-yr period — from 1996 to 2015. And it concluded that during maximum cases, the common inventory rate rose via way of means of 2.50% on every occasion the employer introduced an alternate approach. Why does this happen you ask? Well, you see, if an employer is busy combating a whole lot of opposition in its number one domain, traders assume the employer to make a little noise and redial its imaginative and prescient. They accept as true with it’s the handiest manner the employer can live nimbly and maintain handing over value. Like Apple in 2007 — whilst the employer became known as Apple Computer Inc the conventional enterprise wasn’t precisely developing exponentially. So it dropped the phrase Computer and modified its call to Apple Inc and stated, “The Mac, iPod, Apple TV, and iPhone. Only one of these is a computer. So we’re converting the call.” And traders have been delighted. They knew that Apple had already confirmed itself with new products. The handiest factor left to do became double down on that plan and construct its destiny. And the stock price jumped 11% immediately. If you study Google too, it had a similar case at play. Google desired to expose that it wasn’t just a search engine. Thus, Alphabet a parent company was set up to showcase its ambition for growth. And following that google's business expanded from an advertising company to a product-based company with the launch of Pixel, G Cloud, etc. This is an excerpt from the then-CEO of Google describing the idea — As Sergey [Brin] and I [Larry Page, the CEO] wrote withinside the unique founder's letter eleven years ago, “Google isn't always a traditional employer. We do now no longer intend to come to be one.” As a part of that, we additionally stated that you may assume us to make “smaller bets in regions that would appear very speculative or maybe bizarre whilst as compared to our modern businesses.” Then there’s Facebook, which named its parent company - Meta to expand into the metaverse space and cement itself as not just a social media company but a pioneer in the metaverse space with the help of Oculus. And in the case of Zomato its parent company - Eternal showcases the company's entry into new markets. With the recent acquisition of Blinkit in June in a $568 Mn all-stock deal, Zomato has also entered into 10 min delivery space. Zomato has additionally been making investments in more than one different entity. It has already invested over $1 Billion in serval startups such as a robotics meals company Mukunda, virtual marketing and marketing company - Adonmo, a health platform - Curefit which itself has become a unicorn, hyperlocal discovery enterprise - Magicpin, and a logistics company- Shiprocket. Even internally, Zomato has wagered on tasks that could increase eyebrows — a video streaming platform, a foray into promoting Nutraceuticals like Whey protein. It even has plans to go into economic offerings and release its very own Buy Now Pay Later Product (we’ve written about it earlier). This performs nicely into Zomato’s approach of being greater than only a meals transport app. The company is aware of it’s working in an aggressive area with little or no purchaser loyalty. They want greater drivers of increase and they want to hedge their bets additionally. And perhaps the excellent manner to get the crew aligned to that imaginative and prescient is to make it clear that the employer is Eternal. It’s boundless. It’s timeless. Sometimes, it wishes to take bets that would appear and sound silly. Some of those bets will work. Some of them won’t. But it wishes to take those bets to adapt and survive. In 2019, Zomato’s CEO wrote a weblog put up approximately how he sees dangers. And one sort of danger he became excited to take became what he knew as “Multiplier danger.” "This is whilst you're taking a danger which isn't always existential; will be huge enough, and if it performs out nicely (a.k.a if it works), then you get multiplier returns. ‘Multiplier’ begins off evolved with at least 2x outcomes. Anything else, consistent with me, isn't always a multiplier outcome, simply an additive outcome. I am now no longer announcing that a 2x multiplier impact is a super outcome — it's miles a slightly satisfactory multiplier. Relative to a huge (however non-existential) danger, multiplier dangers must goal for at least 3–5x return/outcomes." Could this new direction that Zomato (or Eternal) is forging be one such multiplier danger for the employer?

Now you can buy your favorite live music tickets with Spotify Tickets Spotify’s entry into the ticket-selling with Spotify Tickets is a new way of its expansion. Already hit and stepped into various arenas. Ticketmaster, a monopoly in the ticket-selling business could be trembling after recent backlash from fans and Spotify’s arrival at the right time. Spotify has recently been on finding all sorts of plausible ways to expand its business. Already shelling out big on podcasts, the company has also acquired audiobook platform Findaway and gave signs of trying new ways in the space. Expanding to New Markets Spotify, the audio streaming company has officially stepped into another arena to spread its newest expansion and launched a website where users can buy tickets for live music events, according to Music Ally currently this is a test mode for Spotify Tickets. Spotify Tickets page currently displays upcoming shows, from Limbeck, Annie DiRusso, Dirty Honey, Crows, Tokimonsta, Four Year Strong, and Osees. Spotify told Billboard, "At Spotify, we routinely test new products and ideas to improve our user experience. Some of those end up paving the path for our broader user experience and others serve only as important learnings- Tickets.spotify.com is our latest test. We have no further news to share on future plans at this time,". Spotify, founded in 2006, according to similarweb.com the company is currently ranking 73rd globally, clocking over $5 billion in annual revenue over the last three years and generating traffic of 400 M+ monthly visitors. Its audience demographics comprise 58.34% male and 41.66% female, with 28.61% of the audience from the United States driving a major chunk of the crowd. Spotify’s recent diversification includes the company has embraced NFTs, adding an artist-support resource, expanding its advertising offerings, stepping into the metaverse, hosting live DJ sets, and adding a karaoke mode. With this new strive, Spotify has jolted its head-to-head competitors in ticket-selling business Ticketmaster and Seatgeek. Ticketmaster’s monopoly trembles Currently, Ticketmaster is enjoying the monopoly of being the major ticketing platform for almost all concerts held in the United States and Greater Europe, it stands together with live music and Live Nation. Ticketmaster was founded in 1976, making more than $1 Billion dollars annually currently ranked 456 globally, and attracting 95M+ visitors monthly, with 83.55% users from the United States dominating the demographics, users comprise 50.96% male and 49.04 female. Recently, Ticketmaster faced huge flak from Adele and Bruce Springsteen fans over the Dynamic Pricing scheme which pushed ticket prices soaring as high as $1000. The company has been irked with various issues concerning scalping, auto-purchasing bots, and poor customer experiences. For instance, there was a time more than 60% of tickets were purchased through bots and fake accounts (Sisario, 2013) which prevented fans from getting to their desired concerts due to unavailability of space. Former CEO of Ticketmaster, Nathan Hubbard clearly stated the picture of how ticket brokers are taking advantage of the system, fan clubs, and email lists by "[using] fake names, fake addresses, and multiple credit cards to steal tickets out from under an even smaller subset of real fans.” With the current stint of Spotify, Ticketmaster’s reputation has become vulnerable and put danger to its monopolistic position. Spotify's timing of the launch is interesting as it comes a week after Ticketmaster joined hands with TikTok to sell concert tickets directly on the social media service. Ticketmaster has an opportunity to resolve the problem by selling tickets to authentic people through a verification process that uses Spotify’s extensive data of their users, with this alliance Ticketmaster would be able to promote concerts to real fans. Rise of Seatgeek Seatgeek is also climbing up to the heated competition with Ticketmaster is another ticket-selling company that Spotify would have added to its list and planned a warm hug for them. Seatgeek was founded in 2009 and backed up by multiple investors that include Technology Crossover Ventures, Accel Partners, Causeway Media Partners, Founder Collective, NYC Seed, DreamIt Ventures, Stage One Capital, Trisiras Group, Eli and Peyton Manning, Nas and Melo7 Tech partners. Currently ranking at 4306 globally, generates annual revenue of $100M - $200M, more than 10 million users monthly (46.44% female, 53.56% male) are using the services of the company makes a popular choice and no less in the longer run. Seatgeek is also famous for its partnership with Logan Paul, Jeff Wittek, and David Dobrik. The company regularly sponsors YouTubers and several smaller podcasters based in the US. This reflects the company's ambition to boost its offering throughout the country. Recently, according to Wall Street Journal, the company has raised $ 238 Million in new funding and this was done after nixing a deal with SPAC. Its valuation rose to $1 billion, Spotify has sparked a sense of trying out new ways and Seatgeek needs to feel it and prepare accordingly.

Tech giants have started expanding their footprints beyond the traditional market for a long time- however in the last decade, these giants of the digital ecosystem have started disrupting the healthcare sector. In this article, we will delve deep into the phenomenon of tech giants trying to get leverage in the healthcare sector. Amazon acquired One Medical for $3.9 Billion and launched Amazon Pharmacy in 2020 as a prescription and delivery service. Apple also acquired Tueo Health, a startup developing an app that tracks breathing during the night for children who have asthma. Google acquired fitness wearables company- Fitbit for $2.1 billion to expand its WatchOs capacities and gather more data. Microsoft acquired speech recognition company Nuance Communications for $20 billion to expand its healthcare offerings. The phenomenon of big tech delving deep into healthcare was pioneered by "Athena Healthcare." In 2007, the company went public and amassed massive support when its shares rose by a record 97% on its very first day of being open to the public. Athena Healthcare proved to the technology world that you can use a modern innovation-based technology sector and disrupt the healthcare sector which runs on a traditional backdrop. This success paved the way for various other companies and subsequently, Big Tech understood the inherent value of healthcare and started acquiring them. Although healthcare always seemed to be a favorable sector to bring in disruption due to various inherent problems inside the traditional system, the hordes of government regulations paired with various directives and bureaucratic hurdles made it an unpleasant sector to get into. However, as the bureaucratic system improved this phenomenon was synonymous with rising demand for data-driven models which could process and filter information in unique ways while carving out innovative information resulting in a shift to a model which was more relevant to the current times and created a fertile ground for various technology companies to dive in. If we observe the market from a different perspective we will be quick to realize that healthcare needs insights from technology companies to understand the economy and bring in modernization while healthcare seems to be a ripe ground for various technological companies due to its complex nature and paired with the gravity of the need of innovative solutions to save a life this phenomenon was quite successful. Needed improvement in Healthcare The basic modernization bought in hospitals was the inclusion of electronic health records which saved a lot of bureaucratic hurdles for hospitals. However gradually other sectors started to improve wherein IoT and predictive analysis and quick prescription based on real-time data became a part of the daily treatment manuals. This wave of modernization brought across various verticals of the healthcare sector has resulted in higher levels of customer satisfaction along with a higher efficiency across the administrative side of hospitals. The technological advancements have helped hospitals to bring in major cost-cutting measures across healthcare. Recently the focus of technology has shifted to disrupting the issues like inoperability, security issues, labor issues, and various other serious issues that are plaguing the whole system. Greater price transparency across the market for healthcare services lets users get acquainted with the original price and cut out various intermediaries like brokers and middlemen who used to inflate the price. Various data centers that use to store tons and tons of medicare data have started becoming inefficient due to the shift to cloud-based systems for data storage purposes. Rise of investments in Healthcare In 2006, Castlight Healthcare, A SaaS-based startup entered the market and by 2014 it had released its IPO and gained massive capital, and generated high profits. Another SaaS-based startup- Zenefits had shown rapid growth across the healthcare sector with its combined value surpassing more than $500 million in its very first year. Post-pandemic investment has also increased significantly, Healthcare start-ups have raised more than $80.6 Billion in just 2020 alone, Analysts point out that this number will increase further. Some of the start-ups that have raised more than $100 million+ are Doctor on Demand, Grand Rounds, and Doximity. Teladoc Health is the largest provider of telehealth medical consults whose stock went up 750%, This points out the insane investment flow in the healthcare sector even CVS (Pharmacy Giant) started offering jumped into the telehealth market. Major acquisitions in the healthcare sector The emerging healthcare sector has caught the attention of big tech companies which have finally realized the value potential of these markets as a result they have started a quick consolidation of various small startups and companies operating across the healthcare sector. This consolidation has been brought about by acquiring these startups and incorporating them with their companies and as a result, gaining quick access to these markets. The recent acquisitions across the healthcare sector are as follows Alphabet, the parent company of Google acquired the wearable brand "Fitbit" in a deal worth $2.1 billion. This move was constituted to bring about innovation across the healthcare sector and open up a world of new possibilities. Microsoft acquired Nuance at a whopping price of $19 billion to leverage its voice recognition and various speech-related technologies across the healthcare sector. Although the market has seen various acquisitions and mergers of small healthcare startups being incorporated into big tech companies, Amazon has paved the way for a revolutionary concept in the market. Amazon is looking forward to bringing healthcare services to your doorstep based on a subscription model through the Amazon Prime interface. The tech giant looks forward to providing primary care services to individuals with the help of the subscription-based model. There will be a bunch of services paired along with this model but the central idea is to bring in customer loyalty toward a care provider. Amazon already runs such a model and has a footprint across various cities on a global basis and is already operating the subscription-based model with great success. Apart from this, They have also acquired startups like the online pharmacist "Pillpack". Along with this, it has also launched various services like a new Halo view healthcare brand along with an innovative method of testing for Covid. These measures point toward the fact that Amazon is building a digital healthcare ecosystem with plans to dominate the sector. In the current scenario, the barriers between technology and healthcare have been destroyed, directly pointing to the fact that innovation will rule the healthcare sector. These waves of innovation will directly address the inefficiency across the traditional healthcare sector and bring overall inefficiency to the sector.

MEL Science acquires Vsauce’s Curiosity Box to bring an unparalleled learning experience Vsauce’s Curiosity Box, A STEM-focused subscription box has been acquired for $12 million by MEL Science, an educational subscription box company. MEL Science raised $14 million of funding in 2020 and is looking forward to its expansion route after this acquisition, which will broaden its reach in the education technology industry. Announced on 23 August 2022, Vesuace’s Curiosity Box has been acquired by London-based ed-tech subscription company MEL Science, the acquisition was done for $12 million in a all-cash deal. Curiosity Box is proliferating in the space of ed-tech and currently has more than 10,000 active subscribers, created more than 170 custom products, shipped more than 300,000 individual boxes. Emerging Curiosity Box gets acquired Curiosity Box was founded in 2015 by the creator Michael Stevens of Vsauce, a Youtube channel that rose to popularity by creating videos, featuring Maths, Science, and Human experiences, later Vsauce was joined by Kevin Lieber and Jake Roper and currently, this channel has amassed over 26M subscribers and 3 Billion views. Riding on the success of Vsauce, Curiosity Box delivers the experience through engaging toys, books, and puzzles. Its audience engagement is quite sounding and clocking over 172k website visits and is geographically overwhelmed by the United States than any other nation averaging around 28.5 % according to Similar.com’s data audience demographics majorly audience lies in the age group (18-24) 26.86 % and age (25-34) 31.04%. With Heavy reliance on social media marketing 69.07 %, Curiosity Box's audience is trafficking from Youtube and accounts for a significant 97.97% of the traffic. Curiosity Box's global presence is improving quickly and according to similarweb.com. MEL Science is on a run to unite the learning experience It was founded in 2015 by Vassili Philippov, MEL science is an ed-tech startup headquartered in London, UK, which offers subscription-based educational project deliverables to customers and it includes a range of more than 50 digital AR & VR experiences. Backed by 9 investors including Mubadala & Orbit Capital Partners to its recent list. The last funding was raised in 2020 summating to $26.7 Million. MEL Science audience engagement increased by 5.69% to 251.5K visits last month, geographically its major traffic comes from the United States at 40.92%, and Its digital presence is marketed by search results at 52.54% and direct search at 37.14%, and traffic from social media is driven majorly by Facebook 48.74% and Pinterest 34.69%. There are quite a lot of top players in the market who are not shy in their potential competitiveness. KiwiCo is one the most popular science subscription box with over 500K subscribers globally and clocks over $150 Million in annual sales. Mark Rober is also another famous youtuber who recently launched his subscription box service- CrunchLabs. What Does This Acquisition mean? With this acquisition, MEL Science will keep on its en route of expansion by conjointly efforts to bring new ways of STEM experience and make learning more experimental and absorbing. This will help MEL Science in increasing its customer reach and in broadening its position in the market. Let’s hear what both parties say : “I’m truly excited by the opportunity to collaborate with the MEL Science team! I look forward to working together and growing the number of people joining the curious community on our journey to explore the world, celebrate the amazing, and support brain health for the future of our pale blue dot and beyond.” Michael Stevens, Founder of Vsauce and co-founder of Curiosity Box “We are thrilled to join forces with the Curiosity Box team and I can’t wait to see what we achieve together. With the addition of their amazing creativity, storytelling skills, and unrivaled reach, we further our mission to democratize science, encourage children to dream about what is possible, and empower them with the knowledge and confidence to achieve it.” Tara Hamilton-Whitaker, COO of MEL Science

Zomato is reconsidering its plans to release Zomato instant, a 10-minute transport carrier all throughout India. The business enterprise couldn't supply to its clients as now no longer many eating places confirmed pleasure for the initiative. The 10-minute meal transport is a recipe for disaster, as there's little or no credible proof that it won’t damage stakeholders. Entrepreneurship and threat are phrases that you may frequently discover being utilized in tandem. If you're an entrepreneur and also you aren't capable of taking risks, then there's little or no threat you’re going to succeed. But, extra frequently than now no longer, this threat-taking behavior has a tendency to take you down. Recently, Zomato additionally met the identical religion as 10-minute transport appears to have boomeranged on it. Zomato’s initiative is failing Zomato is re-comparing its plan to release 10-minute transport offerings all throughout India. According to a report with the aid of using Economic Times, Company didn't satisfy its goal of handing over meals within 10 mins of clients setting the order. Zomato had named its 10-minute transport carrier Zomato Instant and it turned into released most effective in Gurgaon. Even in Gurgaon, it turned into a run on a pilot basis, a test that could be replicated in similar locations, if successful. The character mentioned in the aforementioned newspaper said, “Shortage of transport fleet and excessive heatwave withinside the North, which has additionally brought about constrained transport workforce, are inflicting transport delays of 15-20 minutes, not like the 10-minute dedication provided through Zomato Instant.” Apparently, the pilot task in Gurgaon is constrained as well. Only some high-profile manufacturers like Chaayos, Dana Choga, and Caterspoint have signed up for this initiative. Now, the employer is claiming that Zomato Instant changed into released with a goal of purchaser call for quick-trade, and in step with the spokespersons, the task has become out to be a fulfillment in this regard. The semi-failed commercial enterprise version pressured Zomato to quickly abandon its plans of launching Zomato Instant in Bengaluru. A Zomato spokesperson said, “The destiny route for the pilot is to deepen our penetration in Gurgaon earlier than we scale this as much as different towns and finetune a version that might paintings exceptional for our eating place and shipping partners.” Zomato is now under probe by CCI Another cause for Zomato forsaking its Bengaluru plans become a currently released probe by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) had accused online meal transport systems of numerous malpractices. These include charging unilaterally determined commissions from eating places, now no longer giving eating places a choice to use their personal transport companions, and retaining eating places withinside the darkish approximately purchaser details. CCI later released research on numerous systems, one in all of which protected Zomato. The file is anticipated to pop out withinside the following couple of weeks, simplest and then Zomato will determine a destiny route of action. Controversial 10-minute meals delivery model On April 21, Zomato released the debatable 10-minute transport Zomato instant. It had promised to supply sparkling meals within 10 minutes. Apparently, Zomato pitched this concept to live applicable withinside the market. Though Zomato has continuously increased its offerings to more recent cities, it has gone through the opportunity of being declared beside the point within the wake of the arrival of learners startups. Apps like Dunzo, Blinkit, and Zepto had been rising as credible options for Zomato and its ilks like Swiggy, and Uber eats. Zepto is specifically making inroads with its 10-minute grocery transport model. It even raised $200 million at the start of this month. Couldn't offer solutions to troubles presented It became turning into a survival difficulty for Zomato, so the organization commenced its test in Gurgaon. Since it became a brand new area any meals transport organization became venturing in, apparent questions on the protection of meals in addition to transport companions had been raised. To clear up the meal's high-satisfactory difficulty, the organization announced that it became exploring an enterprise version below which it'd be shopping for a pre-determined amount from restaurants, and could keep it in its homes after which supply them to customers whilst ordered. It also stated that the organization had hired future-equipped station robotics and complex dish-stage call for prediction to hold the meals fresh. When quizzed approximately the protection of transport companions in a hyper-aggressive environment, Deepinder Goyal, Chief govt of Zomato did now no longer provide any logical explanation. In what was regarded to be a conceited denial of reality, Goyal stated, “Ten-minute transport is as secure for our transport companions as 30-minute transport,”. 10-minute meals delivery is a horrific idea The failing immediate meals transport version tells us that there may be a restriction to which era can extrude the sensible landscape. Food now no longer simply fills our bellies, however, it additionally offers us the strength to preserve ourselves ultimately. Serving meals blanketed with the aid of using era isn't sustainable ultimately till we need a vulnerable populace depending on protein shakes and Vitamin capsules for nutrition. Maybe, that is precisely what those corporations need, a populace who's satisfied with them for pleasant their spontaneous needs, concurrently depending on their brethren for fixing the troubles induced because of them. This can be a want of the hour for them, which is horrific for humans and immediate meal transport is a recipe for disaster.

We all have heard of Snickers, Milky Way, M&M's, Pedigree, or Whiskas but do you know that all these brands are owned by a single parent company? Yes, you heard it right. Mars.Inc (Mars, Incorporated) is the parent company behind all these successful brands which operate across various verticals in the market. This article delves deep into the Mars.Inc and how it crafted an ecosystem of brands around its parent company. The History of Mars.Inc In 1884, "Frank C. Mars" was born in the state of Minnesota. At a young age, Frank was struck by the crippling polio disease. As he had very restricted movement due to the inefficiency of his legs his mother involved him in a fun sport of hand dipping chocolates to keep him busy. This kindled in young Frank a passion for chocolate. By the age of 19, the passionate Frank had started a business selling candies. However unfortunately his business suffered massive losses and he had to close the business. These were some of his initial failures in the process of establishing his business. In 1910, Frank started a new business with his wife wherein they started producing buttercream candies. And this was the beginning of the success of the Mars corporation. In just 5 years, Mars's Candy factory had more than 125 workers working round the clock, producing candies and transporting the same day to various distributors due to the unavailability of refrigeration techniques at that time. These candies quickly started getting traction in various departmental stores and malls across America. By 1920, The production moved to a new space and produced another candy named "MAR-O-BAR". This candy became an instant failure in the market due to transportation issues but this failure became the stepping stone for the creation of the famous chocolate brand "Milky way". The "Milky way" chocolate malted milk bar became an instant success product and became directly responsible for a massive increase in sales. Frank Mars's son "Forrest Mars" parted ways with his father and took a meager amount from his father along with him the formula of curating the chocolate. With this, he settled in the UK and started an organization "Mars limited" in the UK and started producing chocolate bars. Forrest Mars had a very hard time running his chocolate production units. The new chocolate "Mars bar" was released across the UK and it was an instant hit, however it was the remake of the original"Milky way" chocolate with some minor tweaks. After parting ways, Forrest Mars's father died and after some years they merged both the UK division and the US division under a single umbrella while massively expanding across new markets. Brands under Mars Inc. Today, Mars.Inc has a very large list of brands under the parent company expanding across various verticals. However, if we sum up the whole business the company operates across four major segments. These four major segments are Confectionery, Pet food, Mars Wrigley, and Mars Edge. Where Mars Wrigley consists of some of the most famous brands like M&M's, Snickers, and Skittles. Along With these brands, various other brands operate under this segment catering to a specific niche market in every country. Mars's Wrigley produces "Orbit gum" which is one of the most widely consumed chewing gums across the globe. Mars started operating across the pet care market after buying out a pet food supplier "Kal Kan". They operated across two segments ie. Dog food and Cat food. These were individually restructured and "Pedigree" and "Whiskas" were introduced in the market. Since then Mars started producing various products focusing on pet care and controls a sizeable portion of the market. The company revealed that its sales grew 50% to almost $45 billion in 2021, According to a statement. While total revenue can also include supplementary income sources, sales typically make up the bulk of it. This makes Mars Inc. bigger than Coca-Cola, Hershey, and Mondelez in terms of revenue. Most of this growth is contributed by its pet care brands such as Whiskas and Pedigree which saw tremendous growth. Acquisitions by Mars Inc. Mars. Inc has merged with a total of 19 companies in its history. The most famous acquisition by was initiated in 2008, When the company incorporated itself with Berkshire Hathaway and conducted a buyout of Wm. Wringley Jr. (Wrigley Company) for $23 billion in an all-cash deal. This was one of the most successful and ambitious acquisitions by Mars. Apart from this Mars.Inc integrated Aquarium Pharmaceuticals to expand its fish food offering. It was later renamed Mars Fishcare. Today, Fishcare business operates a horde of brands that cater to various fish care products. Apart from this some of the famous brands incorporated by Mars are a chain of premium chocolates "Ethel M chocolates". Another acquisition of "Doanna Petcare" in the year 2007 positioned Mars as a significant player in the dry pet food market. Along With these various acquisitions since its inception which later became world-famous brands some of the recent acquisitions by Mars.Inc was the incorporation of a "KIND" chocolate bar at an undisclosed amount. Is Mars Inc. a Monopoly? Mars.Inc has always kept a low profile since it is a private family business it doesn't have to reveal its financial statements. The conglomerate works in the most secretive way ever with little information about any of its business information. However, it has adopted a holistic approach to controlling the market. It primarily focuses on aggressive advertising to promote its food products. Secondly, It invests a huge amount of money in market research before curating any product. Thus its major expenditures are its advertising and market research (R&D) which form the basis for dominating the market. The second component is responsible for establishing Mars.Inc monopoly in the market is its focus on value. The production houses work round the clock with excellent quality control. The firm always focused on quality and as a result, it dominated the market. The company operates on a simple philosophy wherein it believes that customers will pay you if you provide them with massive value. In present times Mars. Inc considers itself a dominant force in the food business market. It has repositioned itself as an organization operating in the food market. If we look at the statistics the company is larger than Coca-Cola and also controls nearly 35% of the pet care market and registers a major portion of sales across the market. The company has recently started including the nutritional segment across its food products to reposition snacks, not as junk food but as nutritious healthy snacks. With such a holistic approach towards the market Mars.Inc has turned out to be the major market player across various segments and along with the various mergers and acquisitions across the market Mars.Inc is on the path to achieving complete market domination

Big retail chains like Kmart, Macy's, Crocs even Target are closing thousands of their stores to cut losses, Some even going bankrupt like Ravalon and JCPenny. So one might think that are retail chains actually dying? Has e-commerce won the battle? Well No, With the advent of e-commerce sites like Etsy, Amazon, and Shopify has pushed people towards online shopping. People now want everything home delivered and companies like GoPuff and Gorillas are now delivering groceries within 10 minutes! During the pandemic, These companies got billions in funding rounds and started offering home deliveries at ultra low rates some even losing millions every month just to acquire few customers. They did this to make customers habitual of their services and gain market share. But now these companies are struggling to get funding due to bear market sentiments. On the retail side, Over 12,563 stores were permanently closed mainly family-owned. Big retail chains like Walmart and Costco survived the pandemic without any significant store closures. Stocks of major retail chains were red throughout 2020 (excluding GameStop). Store closure due to technology is not new, Economists have termed this phenomenon as the "Rustbelt phenomenon". In 1980, the US had peaked its manufacturing output after which the companies started using machines in factories to increase profitability some even outsourcing the manufacturing part, This heavily affected the job market, and a majority of high-paying jobs got evaporated. This affected the purchasing power of consumers which in turn caused a recession and many retail chains got affected by this and a downturn in the stock market caused even more damage to the already suffering retail sector. Even before the pandemic retail chains were on a decline and here's why- Convince of e-commerce (Exciting offers, Home Delivers, etc.) Insufficient marketing done by retail chains Poor store management (Out of Stock, Again?) Too much traffic (Due to rising in car ownership) Increase in social anxiety (Further pushed by Covid-19) Lack of proper car parking space But all is not lost for retailers, They have one significant leverage against e-commerce. Big retailers like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy are all moving toward an omnichannel direction in which retailers use their stores to directly ship orders to consumers without needing for a separate warehouse. With this method, they can fulfill orders quickly and cheaply. In Amazon's case, They have to buy big warehouses all around the country and modify it to store and ship products. This becomes a very capital-intensive project. Retail is still much bigger than e-commerce, According to Statista, Worldwide physical retail sales surpassed $19.86+ Trillion, whereas e-commerce only managed to surpass $5.07 Trillion. Walmart alone annually brings $559 Billion in revenue followed by Costco with $166.78 Billion. With the acquisition of Whole Foods, Amazon also entered the retail sector and now operates over 598+ stores across the states. Retail is considered a foundation for any economy as it provides jobs to millions of people across the world. The retail sector strengthens the local economy therefore it isn't feasible that the retail sector will close down. But we are experiencing that the We all have seen how Sears, Revlon, and J.C. Penny filed for bankruptcy and closed down completely with some recovering from bankruptcy however some troubles are far from decreasing. However, if we look at the revenues of Nordstrom or Kohl they have experienced record revenues even though other contemporary retail stores are closing down. If we look at Nordstrom they had 156 locations in 2005 which dramatically increased to 292 in 2014. However, they had a total of 397 stores by 2021. This points out the fact that although throughout the decade offline retail shopping sector was seeing various closures. But Nordstrom on the other hand had dramatically increased its retail store locations. The reason for this being there was a comprehensive strategy combining offline and online shopping. These stores managed to stay because the demand never weakened in the areas where they opened. While the company had a significant online presence it didn't dampen up its offline store experience instead it customized the whole shopping experience. The Nordstrom analysis revealed that over the decades its revenue per square foot never decreased and instead it increased exponentially. A company with a massive expansion outlook with zero focus on customer experience leasing out huge commercial spaces is bound to fail shortly. The companies need to craft an exqexquisite opping-based experience for its customer to survive the retail death. The facts about the death of retail aren't very sound because statistics point out that the millennials aren't massively shopping online as claimed by popular culture. It's a mix of offline shopping. Customers still crave experience and if you can provide them with the perfect experience you can easily sail through.