Startup Digest: Curefoods acquires five DC2 brands, Ninjacart announces Rs 100 crore ESOP buyback, PhonePe CEO says 'Bulli Bai' app creators should be jailed & Apple hits $3 trillion market cap

Curefoods, a delivery-only restaurant chain operator has acquired five direct-to-consumer brands for undisclosed sums as part of its plans to significantly enhance its footprint in India this year. The company has acquired Juno's Pizza based out of Mumbai; Bengaluru-based Cupcake Noggins, organic ice cream brand Iceberg; Delhi-based Nomad Pizzas and Jaipur-based White Kitchens, Curefoods said in a statement.

"With the five food brands now on board, Curefoods has more than 20 brands in its portfolio and is looking to house a total of 25 brands by mid-2022, notably strengthening its D2C (direct-to-consumer) offering," it said. Stating that it is on an ambitious road to expand presence in the coming year, the cloud kitchens operator said it plans to have a presence across 20 cities with 200 locations.

"We are excited to kickstart 2022 with five new brands on board making us a powerhouse of 20-odd leading food brands. To cater to multiple eating occasions, cuisines, flavour profiles, and regional nuances, we are bringing on a plethora of such companies — each a strong contender in its space with great products to offer," Curefoods founder Ankit Nagori said.

In October last year, Curefoods had announced acquisitions of seven food brands, including ChaatStreet, Parathabox, and CakeZone, the company said. It added that it has also signed exclusive online rights for Aligarh House, Yumlane, and Sharief Bhai.

E-commerce roll-up unicorn Mensa Brands has acquired leather goods manufacturer and seller, Estalon for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition marks Mensa’s foray into the leather goods segment, which is gaining popularity both in domestic and international markets.

With this, Mensa Brands has till now completed the acquisition of 16 brands in total. "We believe that with Mensa’s complementary skills in technology, operations, and brand building, it is poised to achieve a high growth rate of 5X of the market in the next 3-5 years,” said Ananth Narayanan, founder and CEO of Mensa Brands. Earlier in December, Mensa acquired home décor and kitchenware brand Folkulture. In the same month, Mensa acquired home-grown denim brand, High Star.

Consumer tech company udChalo which serves India’s defense forces and their dependents has acquired software company Dimentrix. Dimentrix provides data analytics services, which will help udChalo gain data insights about its business faster and more effectively, the company said in a statement.

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"With udChalo, Dimentrix can not only bring in ML-driven real-time analytics to the travel segment but also scale up much faster and provide value to a larger segment of customers," said Vikram Roopchand, CTO, udChalo. Started as a travel company, udChalo now sells consumer electronics. It also helps armed forces in paying utility bills, addressing issues related to taxation, and providing online coaching for their kids.

Agritech platform Ninjacart has announced an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) buyback worth Rs 100 crore. This is the company’s second ESOP buyback after a previous round in 2019. Both current and former employees with vested ESOPs as of December 2021 will be eligible for the buyback programme, with the option to sell their entire holding, the Flipkart-backed firm said in a statement.

The latest ESOP buyback announcement comes on the heels of Flipkart and Walmart announcing a fresh round of joint strategic investment in Ninjacart worth $145 million. The startup is also looking to add more skilled professionals to its platform and people with leadership characteristics.

Edtech startup Virohan has launched 10 new centres across the states of Karnataka, Mumbai and Gujarat in the country. The campus launch supports the startup’s PAN-India expansion plans and aggregates the healthcare workforce in the country by providing aspiring AHPs with industry-relevant education and preparing them for the unprecedented challenges, it said in a statement. The firm is aiming to expand to 160 centres across PAN- India by 2022.

Customised Ayurveda beauty brand Vedix has announced new Onion-based hair products. With this, the company has boosted its hair care category and rolled out 10 new products in the market consisting of 3 hair oils, 4 shampoos, and 3 hair masks. The collection is now live on top marketplaces – Amazon. Flipkart, Myntra, Tata Cliq, Trell, Nykaa, and Purplle, the firm said in a statement. The company has now joined the league of large consumer companies including Marico, Emami, and Mamearth that have similar products in their portfolio.

As per Statista, the Indian haircare market is expected to grow annually by 5.77 percent (CAGR 2021-2026), and the global onion oil (key ingredient in onion led hair products) market is projected to reach $112.6 million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 10.9 percent from 2021 to 2030, according to a report by Allied Market Research.

Curative wellness platform Mindhouse has rebranded itself to Shyft. The aim behind the rebrand is to highlight the shift in the company’s focus towards offering a variety of wellness solutions for a broader spectrum of health conditions and issues, the firm said in a statement. The rebrand aims to reflect the scope of the company’s services, helping customers in reversal, remission, and management of their health conditions, it added.

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The Shyft platform will allow customers to enroll in programs to reverse and manage specific health conditions. As per the company, customers will be able to access a range of services spanning nutrition, yoga, counselling, meditation, aerobics, lamaze and more, tailored into personalised programs for their health conditions.

Shyft is planning to cater to people suffering from conditions such as PCOS, hypertension, diabetes, thyroid, digestive issues, or women in need of natal care, and will also track symptoms and markers in real-time, to continuously iterate the programs, it claimed.

"The global wellness industry is worth $4.5 trillion, and 60% of the customers are spending on wellness for curative purposes. Wellness is also getting digitised fast with the recent increase in online adoption, which helps us as we deliver our services digitally,” said Pooja Khanna, co-founder, Shyft.

The persons behind the “Bulli Bai” app where hundreds of Muslim women were listed for “auction” “should be put behind bars for life”, said Sameer Nigam, founder, and CEO of digital payments platform PhonePe CEO. The issue has been widely condemned by internet users, rights groups and opposition parties.

“#BulliBaiApp creators should be put behind bars for life. Shame on you - whoever you are. Your own mother's would be ashamed of having given birth to you today,” Sameer Nigam tweeted on Monday night. The PhonePe chief is one of the few voices from the start-up ecosystem to publicly speak on the issue.

Hundreds of Muslim women were listed for “auction” on “Bulli Bai”, a dodgy app, with photographs sourced without permission and doctored. It has happened for the second time in less than a year. The app appeared to be a clone of “Sulli Deals” which triggered a similar row last year. Meanwhile, Mumbai Cyber Police detained a 21-year-old engineering student from Bengaluru on Monday.

Following major progress in the nascent Indian‘plant-based meats’ landscape in the second half of 2021, FMCG company ITC has announced a foray into the burgeoning sector. ITC’s entry into the plant-based space is therefore likely to make an impact not just domestically, but in the huge export market as well, the company said in a statement.

ITC Ltd's food business will launch plant-based burger patties and nuggets providing the taste of chicken to consumers through retail, e-commerce, and food-service establishments in the country’s top 8 cities, advised by expert nonprofit Good Food Institute India (GFI India) on product and positioning strategy.

"There is no large pan-Indian brand in the plant-based protein segment in India. We have worked with some global partners to ensure there is no compromise either on the product texture, quality and taste. We want to enjoy the early mover advantage in India. The meat market is huge with 72 percent of Indians being non-vegetarians and

The e-commerce marketplace Flipkart Internet has reported a 28 percent jump in its revenues for the year FY20-21. The company has recorded Rs 8,115 crore in its revenues, as per data sourced from Tofler. It further reported a net loss of Rs 2,881 crore during the same fiscal. This is a 49 percent increase from the last financial year. The company’s total expenses for the fiscal were reported as Rs 10,996 crore.

Meanwhile, its wholesale arm reported its revenues as Rs 43,357 crore, a 25 percent jump since the last financial year. The company further reported a net loss of Rs 2,445 crore during the same fiscal. This is a 22 percent decrease from the last financial year. The company’s total expenses for the fiscal were reported as Rs 45,801 crore.

Eka Care, a healthcare platform is now enabling the citizens to book vaccination slots for children aged between 15-18 years. Vaccination for teens got opened today amid a surge of COVID cases in multiple cities. The process to book the vaccination slot is easy and can be completed in 3 simple steps. Children can now book their vaccination slots using their parents’ existing CoWIN accounts or register by creating a new account through a unique mobile number, the firm said in a statement.

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The vaccine option for this age group would only be Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, according to guidelines issued by the Union health ministry on 27 December.

For the healthcare providers, Eka Care said it is building a secured full-stack platform to facilitate better tracking and reporting of outcomes for both doctors as well as patients.

Apple became the first company to hit a $3 trillion stock market value, before ending the day a hair below that milestone, as investors bet the iPhone maker will keep launching best-selling products as it explores new markets such as automated cars and virtual reality.

As per Reuters, on the first day of trading in 2022, the Silicon Valley company's shares hit an intraday record high of $182.88, putting Apple's market value just above $3 trillion. The stock ended the session up 2.5 percent at $182.01, with Apple's market capitalization at $2.99 trillion. Apple shared the $2 trillion market value club with Microsoft, which is now worth about $2.5 trillion. Alphabet, Amazon.com and Tesla have market values above $1 trillion.

HR software startup Justworks seeks $2 billion valuation in US IPO

Human resources and payroll software maker Justworks said it was aiming for a valuation of up to $2 billion in its initial public offering in the United States, as per Reuters. The company, backed by Bain Capital, said it was offering 7 million shares at between $28 and $32 per share. That would fetch Justworks $224 million at the top end of the price range.

Justworks also counts Thrive Capital and Index Ventures among its investors. Its shares will be listed on the Nasdaq under the symbol "JW", the company said in a filing. Founded in 2012, the New York-based company lets small and medium-sized businesses handle payroll, benefits, compliance, and human resources. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and BofA Securities are the lead underwriters for the offering.

A US jury on Monday found Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes guilty of conspiring to defraud investors in the blood-testing startup, convicting her on four of 11 counts, Reuters reported. Holmes was convicted on charges of defrauding three other investors, as well as conspiring to do so. She was acquitted on three counts of defrauding patients who paid for tests from Theranos, and a related conspiracy charge.

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The jury could not reach a decision on three counts related to individual investors. A sentencing date was not immediately set. Prosecutors said Holmes, 37, swindled private investors between 2010 and 2015 by convincing them that Theranos’ small machines could run a range of tests with a few drops of blood from a finger prick. She faces up to 80 years in prison when sentenced by US District Judge Edward Davila but would likely get a much lower sentence.

Holmes was also charged with misleading patients about the tests’ accuracy but was acquitted of those charges. Holmes is likely to appeal. The jury’s verdict came after seven days of deliberations. Testifying in her own defense at trial, Holmes said she never meant to deceive anyone and that Theranos’ lab directors were in charge of test quality. In closing arguments, defense attorney Kevin Downey said the evidence did not show Holmes was motivated by a cash crunch at Theranos but rather thought she was “building a technology that would change the world."

Holmes rose to Silicon Valley fame after founding Theranos in 2003. Her net worth was estimated at $4.5 billion by Forbes in 2015. Wealthy private investors including media mogul Rupert Murdoch invested millions in the company after meeting with the founder who was known for her Steve Jobs-like black turtleneck.

Tesla's announcement that it has opened a showroom in Xinjiang has attracted criticism from US rights and trade groups, making it the latest foreign firm caught up in tensions related to the far-western Chinese region, according to Reuters. Xinjiang has become a significant point of conflict between Western governments and China in recent years, as UN experts and rights groups estimate more than a million people, mainly Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities, have been detained in camps there.

China has rejected accusations of forced labour or any other abuses there, saying that the camps provide vocational training and that companies should respect its policies there. The US electric car maker announced the showroom's opening in Xinjiang's regional capital, Urumqi, on its official Weibo account last Friday. "On the last day of 2021 we meet in Xinjiang," it said in the post.

On Tuesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest US Muslim advocacy organization, criticised the move, saying that Tesla was "supporting genocide". "Elon Musk must close Tesla’s Xinjiang showroom," Council on American-Islamic Relations said on its official Twitter account, referring to Tesla's founder. Similar criticism came from a U.S. trade group, the Alliance for American Manufacturing, and US Senator Marco Rubio.

China has released pilot versions of its digital yuan wallet application on mobile phone app stores as the country's central bank steps up its push to develop its own digital currency, Reuters reported. The "e-CNY (Pilot Version)" app, developed by the People's Bank of China's (PBOC) digital currency research institute, was available for download on Chinese Android and Apple app stores on Tuesday in Shanghai.

A notice in the app said it is in a research and development pilot phase and is only available to selected users through supported institutions that provide e-CNY services, including major domestic banks. PBOC Governor Yi Gang said in November that China would continue to advance the development of its central bank digital currency and improve its design and usage, including increasing its interoperability with existing payment tools. In a year-end meeting, the PBOC said it would continue to push forward with the research and development of the digital yuan.

Chinese gaming and social media company Tencent Holdings said it would cut its stake in Singapore-based gaming and e-commerce firm Sea, reducing its voting power to under 10 percent. According to a term sheet reviewed by Reuters, Tencent is selling at a price range of $208.00-$212.00 per share, bringing the total divestment to up to $3.1 billion. Sea's last close price was $223.31 per share. The trade has not been priced, according to a source.

Tencent will divest about 14.5 million shares, reducing its stake to 18.7 percent from 21.3 percent.

The company said it intends to retain the substantial majority of its stake in Sea for the long term. "The share sale unlocks a portion of the value of Tencent's investment in Sea, which has seen significant growth and expansion in its global business operations. The divestment provides Tencent with resources to fund other investments and social initiatives," the company said in a statement.

Tencent will be subject to a lockup period that restricts the further sale of Sea shares by Tencent during the next six months. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America advised on the trade, according to the term sheet. Tencent's move comes just days after the company said it would divest $16.4 billion of its stake in JD.com, weakening its ties to the e-commerce firm, amid pressure from Beijing's broad regulatory crackdown on technology firms.

Sea said Tencent and its affiliates had given an irrevocable notice to convert all their Class B ordinary shares. Upon conversion, all outstanding class B shares of Sea will be beneficially owned by Forrest Li, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Sea, whose market value of $124 billion makes it Southeast Asia's most valued company. Tencent has also agreed to terminate its proxy to Li after the conversion. Sea is proposing to increase the voting power of each Class B ordinary share to 15 votes from three. Sea said the changes are subject to approval by its shareholders at its annual general meeting set for February 14.