Lenskart bags $100 million from ChrysCapital; CCI challenges parts of NCLAT order on Google

Also in this letter:
■ India’s Startup Mafia 2.0
■ Lightspeed’s Bejul Somaia on India’s VC opportunity
■ Telcos’ ARPU to get marginal boost from IPL

ChrysCapital invests $100 million in eyewear startup Lenskart

Omni-channel eyewear startup Lenskart has been on a fundraising spree over the last year as it eyes more markets internationally. On Thursday, it announced a $100-million investment from private equity fund ChrysCapital through a primary and secondary share purchase mix, taking its total fundraise to about $600 million in this round.

Confirming ET’s newsbreak: ET was the first to exclusively report about ChrysCapital’s potential investment in Lenskart in its February 23 edition. This is among the largest investments in a new-age entity by ChrysCapital, which has backed internet firms such as Dream11, FirstCry, and Xpressbees.

ADIA funding: In March, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the Gulf Sovereign wealth fund (SWF), invested $500 million in Asia’s largest eyewear retailer mostly through a secondary sale of shares with a small primary round consisting of growth equity at a $4.2 billion valuation. It resulted in ADIA becoming one of Lenskart’s largest shareholders with a 10% stake.

Quote, unquote: “Incidences of myopia are growing globally with big unsolved problems of access, affordability, and awareness. We believe with the help of technology, customer centricity, and investments in supply chain and talent, we can eradicate the problem,” said Lenskart cofounder and CEO Peyush Bansal.

NCLAT Google order: CCI challenges parts in SC

Unhappy with certain parts of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s (NCLAT) judgment, which upheld the Rs 1,337-crore fine on Google but set aside four of the 10 directives, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has moved the Supreme Court. While the filing is from June 5, the case is yet to be numbered due to technical issues.

Driving the news: Sources told ET the CCI has challenged NCLAT’s direction, which held that to prove abuse of dominance under Section 4 of the Competition Act, the competition watchdog is required to do an “effect analysis” and “the test to be employed in the effect analysis is whether the abusive conduct is anti-competitive or not”.

Why an analysis? Google had argued before the NCLAT that the statutory scheme of the Act indicated that, to be held abusive, the conduct of a dominant enterprise or group has to be anti-competitive and there has to be an effect analysis on this, a stand opposed by the CCI.

Exclusive | India’s Startup Mafia 2.0: Oyo, Ola, Udaan spawn most entrepreneurs

A major marker of a maturing startup ecosystem is the number of ventures spawned by existing companies. In the first phase, prominent startups Flipkart, Myntra, InMobi and Makemytrip laid the ground for the next generation of internet entrepreneurs. This led to a new wave of firms such as Oyo, Ola Cabs, Paytm, Udaan, Freshworks, incubated by the so-called ‘startup mafia’

Capital, talent: Drawing on a record inflow of venture capital in the past decade, 297 founders set up some 253 new companies, triggering talk of a ‘startup mafia’. These entrepreneurs come from companies such as Zomato, Zoho, Freshworks, Paytm, Citrus Pay, and Snapdeal, among others, according to data from Longhouse Consulting, a talent advisory firm.

Jargon buster: The term ‘mafia’ here refers to startup executives who go on to launch their own ventures. It was first used to describe the famous ‘PayPal Mafia’ moniker, which was used to describe former employees of the payments platform, including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Roelof Botha, who became entrepreneurs.

The new-gen mafia: The new generation includes founders such as Mohit Kumar and Vatsal Singhal of Ultrahuman; Ragini Das and Anand Sinha of Leap Club; Amit Lakhotia of Park+; Nitin Gupta and Prateek Jindal of Uni Cards; Anish Achuthan and Mabel Chacko of Open Financial Technologies; and Arvind Parthiban of Superops.ai.

India not for the faint-hearted…but worth it: Lightspeed’s Bejul Somaia

In a note posted on Twitter after Sequoia Capital spun off its India partnership into an independent entity, Lightspeed Venture’s Bejul Somaia said India’s potential remains “incredibly compelling”, with its sizeable market, high-quality founders and one-way adoption of technology.

From the horse’s mouth: “India’s importance as the world’s third-largest digital market should not be under-estimated, that significant value will be created in the transition to a digital economy, and that a new generation of founders will be central actors in this value creation,” said Somaia in a lengthy message on Twitter.

Yes, but: Hinting that a large number of private companies in India are overvalued, Somaia said, “Companies that don’t succeed contribute to a cycle of creative destruction that is essential to the development of an innovation economy.”

Also read | Sequoia India, Southeast split from US; rebranded as Peak XV Partners

Chamath’s claims: On Wednesday, Silicon Valley investor Chamath Palihapitiya said venture capital firm Sequoia Capital’s decision to hive off its India partnership did not make sense considering it is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. He said that while the exit from China was understandable, the firm could have let its India operations stay attached.

Also read | Became too complex to run a global investment biz: Peak XV’s Shailendra Singh on Sequoia split

JioCinema’s IPL telecast may give a boost to telcos’ ARPU

Despite the free telecast of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on JioCinema boosting average monthly data use by about 5%, there might only be a marginal increase — a 1-2% rise in the fiscal first quarter — in average revenue per user (ARPU) for telcos as consumption would be within the daily allowance that most packs offer currently,

Analysts’ take: Consumption of the IPL is still heavy on televisions, meaning viewers use their handsets to consume the matches in bits, when they are travelling or in office. Such consumption would not result in meaningful data usage spikes, said analysts.

Enough data at hand: A recent survey by IIFL showed that while IPL consumption on handsets had picked up in rural markets, consumers said the 1.5GB allowance per day was enough to stream the tournament in standard definition, negating the need for data top-ups.

Quote, unquote: “An increase in content watching owing to the sports event is likely to have pushed up the data consumption per subscriber in the near term. However, the same is not expected to be ARPU accretive,” said Ankit Jain, vice president and sector head, Corporate Ratings, ICRA.

Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Gaurab Dasgupta in New Delhi. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.