Startup Story 💡

In the Spotlight: Kunal Shah 💳

Kunal Shah, an NMIMS dropout turned serial founder, posted recently on LinkedIn about the harsh reality of entrepreneurship, saying that “most startups are destined to die, even the funded ones.” Something that he himself has experienced first hand.

But let’s see how his journey panned out, and trust me, it’s one for the books. Shah did his bachelor’s in Philosophy from Wilson College in Mumbai, not out of passion for philosophy but because the classes for this subject were from 8 am to 10 am. The remaining time he supported his family financially by working part time as a delivery boy and a full time data entry operator.

Later, he went on to pursue MBA from NMIMS Mumbai but dropped out after a year to follow his entrepreneurial dreams. He started a venture called PaisaBack, which was a cashback and promotional discount campaign platform for retailers. After testing waters and realising the potential of online recharges in an emerging market, in 2010 he decided to shut down PaisaBack and started Freecharge with Sandeep Tandon. In 2015, Freecharge was acquired by Snapdeal for $450 million. After a couple of years of functioning independently, Freecharge was acquired by Axis Bank in 2017.

And then came the masterstroke by Shah, in 2018 when he started Cred, with a very simple idea of rewarding credit worthy people who made credit card payments on time.

Cut short to today, the company is valued at a whopping $6.4 billion and is among the top 10 unicorns in India, with a monthly active user base of 13 million. Cred is not just limited to credit card payments now; it has expanded its presence in UPI, wealth management, and even travel and automotive products and services.

Indian Markets Update 📉

The Sky is Red 🔻

Yesterday, the Indian stock market was bathed in red with popular market indices Nifty 50 down 2.67% and Sensex down 2.74%, wiping ₹15 lakh crore from the Indian stock market. But why did it happen all of a sudden when only last week, Nifty 50 had surpassed 25000 points?

Well, here are 3 key reasons for that:

1. Fear of recession in the US: As per the Sahm Recession Indicator, the US is alarmingly close to entering a recession in light of a massive hiring slowdown, with only 114,000 jobs added in July and the unemployment rate nearing 4.3%
   
   

2. Bank of Japan’s interest rate hike: This hike is resulting in the unwinding of Yen carry trade. The carry trade is a strategy where investors borrow in a currency with low interest rates and invest in assets with higher yields in other currencies. Due to the interest rate hike, borrowing in Yen has become more expensive, prompting investors to sell off their investments made with borrowed Yen in US tech stocks

3. Tensions in the Middle East: Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah have vowed to retaliate against Israel for the assassination of Hamas chief and Hezbollah’s military chief. This conflict could push oil prices higher, which are currently at 8-month lows