🛵 Inside Ola Electric's plans to cut losses

The most interesting news selected specially for you! 01 August 2024 [View in Browser]( Hello, For 61-year-old table tennis player Ni Xia Lian, age is just a number. On Wednesday, Ni was pitted against Olympic silver medallist Sun Yingsha, who is 38 years her junior. Although Ni lost, she got a [standing ovation]( from the happy crowd at the Paris Olympics 2024. Truly, a living legend! Speaking of legendary, [TechSparks Bengaluru]( is back, with its 15th edition to be held on September 26-28. Grab your early passes now. Moving on, the BYJU’S-BCCI saga continues. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on Wednesday reportedly postponed its decision on approving the settlement of [Rs 158 crore]( between the two parties amid allegations raised by the edtech company’s US-based lenders. A previously elusive BYJU’S co-founder has surfaced amid the settlement talk: Riju Ravindran. And to those wondering who [Ravindran]( is, The CapTable has you covered. In other news, content-to-commerce platform The Good Glamm Group saw its [losses in FY23]( widen to Rs 917 crore from Rs 362.5 crore in FY22 as it focuses on reaching profitability ahead of its IPO. Meanwhile, its operating revenue more than doubled to Rs 603 crore from Rs 211.4 crore a year ago. It’s the season of public outings. Kidswear brand FirstCry’s parent BrainBees Solutions Ltd will open its IPO on August 6. The company is seeking a valuation in the range of $2.9-3 billion in its public listing and will reveal its IPO price band today. In today’s newsletter, we will talk about - Inside Ola Electric's plans to cut losses - Simplifying personal finance - Helping vulnerable communities Here’s your trivia for today: Which is the earliest book describing a stock exchange? --------------------------------------------------------------- Electric Vehicles Inside Ola Electric's plans to cut losses an event, Bhavish Aggarwal, Founder and CEO of Ola Electric, laid down two themes that could help the company achieve profitability ahead of its IPO launch. Aggarwal said that the company is banking on high revenue and low costs as volumes rise. Eye at profitability: - He added that the company’s 4680 Lithium ion cell manufactured in-house—which combines high energy density and high power density—would help significantly reduce the costs of manufacturing vehicles. - The company will start delivering its motorbikes to customers early next year and integrate its new Lithium-ion cells beginning next year. - Also, in the wake of [MapmyIndia's lawsuit]( against Ola Electric for allegedly misappropriating its data, Aggarwal called the move “opportunistic”. A spokesperson called these allegations “false, malicious and misleading”. [Read More]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Financial Services Simplifying personal finance Club, the social and education platform for personal finance co-founded by finance influencer Sharan Hegde and Raghav Gupta, has expanded its offerings with the launch of financial services and products via partnerships. The idea is to assist members with relevant products, which they have learnt about through the masterclasses on 1% Club’s platform. Financial planning: - While 1% Club was originally conceived as an online platform, it has swiftly evolved to foster an exclusive offline community as well as to promote collaborative learning inspired by shared experiences. - “We want to ensure that our members do not have to search for a suitable policy elsewhere and have direct access to it via our platform,” says Raghav Gupta, Co-founder of 1% Club. - 1% Club has launched ‘Personal CFO’—a service provided under 1% Club’s SEBI-registered sister company ‘One Centurion’. [Read More]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Social Impact Helping vulnerable communities artist and curator Nobina Gupta's platform Disappearing Dialogues (DD) brings together communities, institutions, and the public to document and disseminate their knowledge to wider audiences through exhibitions and interactions in public spaces. “For every community we work with, our goal has been to ignite a sense of pride and sustenance within, and inspire children and youth, who are also first generation school goers to imbibe their rich traditions...," says Gupta. Conserving ecologies: - Gupta decided to start her project in 2014 in Nang, Ladakh, where children had an understanding of the medicinal plants growing in their backyard, and the local doctor used their generational wisdom of the Himalayan herbs to treat people. - To help the locals in Baghelkhand, DD partnered with Pipson Sebastian Mampilli, a sustainable living entrepreneur who worked with the locals to preserve traditional indigenous farming knowledge and textile designers. - DD set up an interactive Young Curators Lab, where it held workshops and fieldwork at the wetlands, online mentorship, and exhibitions. [Read More]( --------------------------------------------------------------- From the CapTable The silent sibling: Riju Ravindran’s role in the Byju’s saga "Riju Ravindran never had a very active role [in Byju’s] since around 2012, when the company started hiring external employees. He was assigned to the finance department but wasn’t actively involved. He provided oversight and occasionally offered suggestions to his brother or the management. These suggestions were not given much importance due to his limited role in the company, though they would at least be discussed," said a Byju’s employee who has been with the company for 15 years. Since 2020, Ravindran’s role in the company has diminished even further. This, however, hasn’t stopped Byju Raveendran from making full use of his younger brother by appointing him to several directorships across the edtech’s various subsidiaries in India and globally. These positions have allowed Ravindran to amass more wealth than many startup founders. Between 2015 and 2023, Ravindran sold shares worth $375 million in Think & Learn, the parent company of Byju’s, according to PrivateCircle Research. In 2022, Forbes pegged Ravindran’s wealth at $1.3 billion. This wealth, though, has come at a cost, with Ravindran often being used as a pawn to further the ambitions of his older brother. Key takeaways: - Riju Ravindran, Byju Raveendran’s younger brother and co-founder of his embattled edtech firm, is unknown to most outsiders. - Despite being a co-founder, Riju never had a defined role in the company, though he is believed to have previously overseen its finances. - An introvert, he is notoriously media-shy, with no photos of him publicly available and the company also not using his face for press releases. - His invisibility, though, has not prevented him from amassing close to $400 million from secondary share sales over the past decade. [Continue Reading]( --------------------------------------------------------------- News & Updates - [Tough job:]( Boeing on Wednesday named aerospace industry veteran Kelly Ortberg as its new President and CEO after a months-long search, tasking the former Rockwell Collins executive with the monumental job of turning around the struggling planemaker. - [Ad-free:]( Microsoft is making Skype ad-free in an update that will roll out to users across all platforms soon. The update also includes improved AI image creation tools on Skype for Windows and macOS. - [Sports love:]( Adidas expects soccer's increasing appeal among consumers globally to be a trend that lasts into 2025, after sales of its jerseys in connection to this year's soccer tournaments surpassed its expectations. Did you know? Which is the earliest book describing a stock exchange? Answer: Confusion de Confusiones. Written by Joseph de la Vega in 1688, the book describes the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. 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