The untapped potential of MSME insurance coverage

Hey,

Nykaa now has a brand new orchestra to play its symphony.

The omnichannel magnificence and private care retailer has appointed 14 key executives in a serious top-level shuffle. The rejig passed off throughout know-how, finance, enterprise, product, and advertising and marketing verticals, with P Ganesh as the brand new CFO.

The latest appointments come after 5 executives resigned from the corporate in March on account of a steep fall in its inventory worth

Talking of the markets, Sensex scaled again to the 60,000-mark led by banks indices. ICICI Financial institution’s shares jumped 2.37% after it reported a 27.64% leap in consolidated internet revenue to Rs 9,852.70 crore for the March quarter. IndusInd Financial institution additionally posted a 50% YoY rise in internet earnings.

Additionally, Adani Ports and Particular Financial Zone began a debt buyback programme of as a lot as $130 million. The corporate seems to be to regain investor confidence after the damaging report by Hindenburg Analysis launched in January.

In the meantime, ecommerce agency Meesho is nearing zero money burn and is on observe to realize EBITDA breakeven this yr. That is courtesy of its asset-light enterprise mannequin, which has helped cut back its prices. The corporate additionally witnessed a pointy rise in its promoting income within the final eight quarters.

In different information, Air India too has boarded the ChatGPT flight.

The airline has made an preliminary funding of $200 million to make use of ChatGPT-driven chatbot and varied different initiatives as a part of modernising its digital methods to compete with world carriers.

However does the AI algorithm really feel superior?

A Redditor not too long ago requested ChatGPT to relate a two-sentence horror story. The outcome was a story of a post-apocalyptic world the place people have vanished and solely a solitary AI is left.

*Goosebumps*

In as we speak’s e-newsletter, we are going to speak about 

• The untapped potential of MSME insurance coverage
• Lokal raises recent capital of Rs 120 crore 
• SaaSing the worldwide provide chain

Right here’s your trivia for as we speak: What was Princess Jasmine’s authentic title in Aladdin earlier than Disney modified it?

MSME

The untapped potential of MSME insurance

Almost 85% of India’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) usually understand insurance coverage as an undesirable expense regardless of being significantly weak to enterprise dangers. Insurance coverage firms have recognised the immense potential on this untapped market and at the moment are taking steps to deal with it.

Reaching SMEs:

• Within the final 5 years, PolicyBazaar has catered to roughly 5,000 SMEs per yr on common.
• Ankit Agrawal, CEO and Co-founder of InsuranceDekho, tells YourStory that MSMEs need insurance coverage merchandise tailor-made to their wants, permitting them to check insurance policies, get quotes, and buy insurance coverage on-line
• Sajja Praveen Chowdary of PolicyBazaar believes tech-enabled shopping for and coverage administration processes and devoted help will enhance entry to the smallest of companies.

Funding Alert

Startup: Lokal

Quantity: Rs 120 Cr

Spherical: Sequence B

Startup: Adventum Scholar Residing

Quantity: $5M

Spherical: Sequence B

Startup: DevX Coworking

Quantity: $3M

Spherical: Pre-Sequence A

Funding

Lokal gets fresh capital

Hyperlocal content material platform Lokal has raised Rs 120 crore in Sequence B funding from new buyers International Mind and Sony Innovation Fund, with participation from India Quotient and different present buyers. The corporate plans to increase in present markets, launch new classes and product capabilities, and strengthen its product and know-how groups.

The playbook:

• Based in 2018, Bengaluru-based Lokal offers hyperlocal info like each day updates, commodity costs, native jobs, actual property, matrimonial, native enterprise advertorials, and classifieds.
• The app is at present out there in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, and Gujarati on the Google Play Retailer, and has greater than 40 million downloads.
• Lokal has to this point raised Rs 225 crore in funding, together with the present funding spherical, and has 110 workers.

Startup 

SaaSing the global supply chain

Chennai-based Pando strives to attach varied stakeholders within the provide chain—producers, warehouses, distributors, retailers, retail shops, customers, factories, and their suppliers. Based by Nitin Jayakrishnan and Abhijeet Manohar in 2018, the startup has been centered on promoting to enterprises from the very starting.

Interconnected methods: 

• Pando’s preliminary rising pains included growing options for patrons who wished a number of particular options, which led it to construct a no-code resolution that helped customise choices primarily based on enterprise wants.
• The startup targets giant enterprises that is probably not pleased with their enterprise useful resource planning (ERP) suppliers in fulfilling provide chain calls for. 
• Within the final 18 months, the corporate has expanded to different Asia Pacific areas and within the final yr or so, it set foot in North America.

Information & updates

• Bank run: Greater than $68 billion had been withdrawn from Credit score Suisse within the first three months of 2023, the financial institution reported in its last-ever monetary outcomes. “These outflows have moderated however haven’t but reversed as of April 24, 2023,” it added.
• Dismissal: Disney started its second wave of layoffs, bringing complete job cuts in latest weeks to 4,000 when the most recent spherical is accomplished. Earlier this yr, Disney mentioned it could slash 7,000 jobs from its workforce as half of a bigger reorganisation to chop prices by $5.5 billion.
• Lunar estate: China is planning to discover 3D printing know-how for establishing buildings on the moon, its state media reported. Its upcoming Chang’e 8 lunar mission goals to make use of soil from the moon to construct a lunar base for long-term lunar habitation.

What was Princess Jasmine’s authentic title in Aladdin earlier than Disney modified it?

Reply: Badr al-Badur, which suggests “full moon of full moons” in Arabic.