Google Adds Flipkart to Cart; Male unicorn founders earned 8 times more than female founders; and more

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In today’s newsletter:

Google adds Flipkart to cart
Male unicorn founders earned 8 times more than female founders
Rural development can ease internet warfare, says Mamaearth CEO

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3 best stories

Google adds Flipkart to cart

E-commerce giant Flipkart has raised fresh funds after a three-year hiatus from a big name: Google!

Message management

Flipkart collected $350 million from Googleclosing a $950 million financing round.

This values the company at a whopping $36 billion.

The round started in December 2023 with A $600 million investment from Flipkart’s parent company, Walmart.

While the initial plan was for a larger pot of $1 billion, Flipkart decided to close the round with a slightly reduced amount

What will the funds be used for?

The fresh capital will help the company improve its offerings.

“The capital from the seed round will be used to double down on fast trading, in addition to investments in verticals such as travel (Cleartrip) and Shopsy,” a person aware of the development told us.

Time is also important:

The company has also made contributions in Tier 3 regions and beyond (thanks Meesha), and thus wants to strengthen Shopsy

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Google’s check comes as Flipkart prepares to shift its base from Singapore to India.

Dive deeper

Male unicorn founders earned 8 times more than female founders

Indian unicorns mint money for their founders. But take a closer look and you’ll see a disturbing trend:

Male domination

On average, male founders in fiscal year 2023, they earned eight times more than their female peers– according to a PrivateCircle study conducted on 114 Indian unicorns.

The report also shows that male founders earned an average of Rs 1.8 crore while their female founders earned just Rs 1 crore.

This gap goes beyond pay – a shocking 57 unicorns have zero women on their boards

Where the money flows

Founders of media and entertainment unicorns were the highest earners in FY23, with an average salary of Rs 3.5 crore.

This is followed by logistics unicorns at Rs 1.9 crore and edtech companies at Rs 1.6 crore.

Meanwhile, Supam Maheshwari, CEO of FirstCry, earned the highest salary in FY23 at Rs 200.7 crore.

This hefty sum also single-handedly inflated the average salary of a Pune founder to a staggering Rs 20 crore

Deeper

Rural development can ease internet warfare, says Mamaearth CEO

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This comes as legacy brands have had to struggle to boost sales as demand in rural areas has weakened over the past few quarters.

Alagh told us in an interview that with signs of economic growth returning in rural areas, the competitive intensity on e-commerce platforms could wane over the next two quarters

Profit levers

Despite such macroeconomic difficulties, Mamaearth managed to improve its profitability by increasing sales faster than advertising and promotion expenses.

The company said operating profitability (measured as EBITDA) improved by 5.6 percentage points in FY24

Alagh said other profit levers are negotiating better prices with suppliers and keeping wages from rising

Rapid growth

Meanwhile, fast trading has not only become the fastest-growing sales channel on Mamaearth, but also generates more profitable sales than mainstream e-commerce platforms.

Deeper

MC Special: Brands are lining up for Indian Olympians

India’s highest-ever success at the Tokyo Olympics has renewed brands’ love affair with athletes, resulting in bigger purses for the Paris Games.

The number of brands supporting the Indian Olympic Association has doubled and sponsorship revenue has increased by 100% compared to Tokyo

Mirabai Chanu, Lovlina Borgohain are inundated with brand queries and Manika Batra is wanted for a TV show. Find out more

MC Interview: NSE should be India’s Nasdaq, says Nazara founder

Nazara Technologies founder Nitish Mittersain wants more startups to list in India.

“(India) is a great place to create wealth for yourself and everyone here in the country. I have told many startup founders that in five years we should transform the NSE into India’s Nasdaq,” Mittersain told us in an interview.

He said there is a belief that many startup founders regret going public and running a public company. However, he argued that the benefits of going public far outweigh the disadvantages.

Mittersain also talked about Nazara’s IPO path, how it is pursuing larger M&A deals, the debate over private and public market valuations and how it is leveraging artificial intelligence.

Read the interview