Episode Details
Back to Episodes
A profitable edtech unicorn goes shopping
Description
Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Thursday, February 29, 2024. Happy Leap day to all our listeners. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started:
Bears went loose on the D-street on Wednesday with benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty seeing a crash. Dragged down by the Midcap and Smallcap indices, both Sensex and Nifty were down more than one per cent at close, falling below the psychological levels of 73 thousand and 22 thousand respectively.
As the February derivatives approached their expiry, the border markets corrected themselves on Wednesday amid stretched valuations. small and midcap companies bore the brunt of the crash. This is after Sebi asked mutual funds investing in these companies to disclose more information about the risks involved. A senior mutual fund executive confirmed to Mint’s market correspondent Ram Sahgal, that the fund had shared information about handling a stress situation with Sebi. The market regulator had been in discussions with mutual funds about excessive inflow of cash into smaller companies. Coinciding with this, Kotak Mutual fund has capped the lump sum inflows to its small cap fund at 2 lakh rupees per PAN per month and SIP inflows to 25,000 rupees per PAN per month.
https://blankpaper.htdigital.in/dash/story/11709128654894
“If you want to be a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline,” if this quote by Virgin Atlantic airline’s founder Richard Branson does not tell you enough about the risks of airline business, today’s Mint Primer, definitely will. For an airline business to be revived, a lot of factors need to align, it is no easy feat. Profitable carriers rely on a mix of factors: from favourable fuel prices and suitable aircraft, to reliable maintenance contracts, extensive networks, prime airport slots, and a skilled workforce. In India especially, the action plan to get the planes back on the tarmac, requires a hawk-eye over costs and proactive management. What’s also crucial is support from vendors, engine lessors and maintenance companies. With SpiceJet’s boss Ajay Singh making a bid,, Mint’s aviation reporter Anu Sharma explains the future prospects of Go First, the bankrupt airline that was launched by the Wadias.. Interestingly, the only revival story in the aviation industry over the last three decades is that of SpiceJet, which got a second lease of life in December 2014.
News from the edtech sector has been very bad lately.. But PhysicsWallah stands as an exception. The unicorn startup, which raised 100 million dollars at a valuation of more than a billion dollars from Westbridge capital in 2022, has been profitable for the last three years. In an interview to Mint’s new economy reporter Sneha Shah, Physicswallah’s cofounder Prateek Maheshwari said the company is considering making more acquisitions in the future. The company has set aside a corpus of 100 million dollars for acquisitions and other inorganic deals, of which 60 million is from its last fund raise. The company, according to Maheshwari, is a cash generating one, unlike startups which took the cash-burning route. Physicswallah’s is expected to close this fiscal with a revenue of 2000 crore rupees, a growth of 150 percent over last year.. The edtech is now in need of new growth areas. According to Maheshwari’s plan for the company, physical centres will form a significant part of its expansion strategy. The company, which started as a YouTube channel, was entirely bootstrapped before the fund infusion by Westbridge, which was also joined by GSV ventures. Inte