Hello,
One of Paytm’s largest shareholders is tamping down its bets on the company.
Antfin (Netherlands) Holding B.V.—a subsidiary of the Ant Group—has cut its stake in One 97 Communications Ltd by 4 percentage points after selling 25.5 million shares. The investor’s stake has now dropped from 9.84% to 5.84%.
And not a moment too soon—considering India is planning to tighten its foreign ownership rules soon, which could have significant implications for sectors ranging from ecommerce to pharmaceuticals.
The changes would make foreign-owned companies subject to FDI regulations when it comes to share transfers or restructurings, Reuters reports.
Beyond this, Alibaba Group is fighting a fire on many fronts. The company’s shares dropped sharply after the Trump administration raised concerns over Apple’s potential deal with Alibaba to make the company’s AI available on iPhones in China.
Apple’s sluggish pace on delivering on its own AI, unlike other tech giants like Google and Amazon, has been a standout point of contention for critics of the company.
And insiders believe this gap may soon threaten everything on the company’s docket for the future—from iPhones to augmented reality glasses and robots.
In the tech world, obsolescence is always a single step away.
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- Myntra goes global
- Hocco’s ice cream game
- Driving scientific innovation with AI
Here’s your trivia for today: What was the inspiration for MGM’s famous lion mascot?
Ecommerce
Myntra goes global
Myntra on Monday launched Myntra Global to cater to the Indian diaspora seeking homegrown brands abroad. The platform is going live with Singapore after seeing some traction from Indian users in the region.
“We’re essentially competing in the overall fashion market, but our focus is specifically on Indian wear and Indian brands, categories that aren’t available at this scale in these markets. That’s why we believe we have a unique opportunity, especially since consumers already have an understanding of what Myntra is,” shared Nandita Sinha, CEO, Myntra.
Key takeaways:
- Myntra is currently looking to tap into Indian fashion needs around weddings, festivals, and other special occasions, with the goal of reaching 10-15% of Indian consumers in Singapore.
- As part of this model, Myntra will not be setting up warehousing or holding inventory in overseas markets. As a result, deliveries are expected to take around four to seven days.
- This is not Myntra’s first attempt at global expansion. In 2020, it partnered with regional ecommerce platforms Noon and Namshi to offer Indian brands abroad.
Startup
Hocco’s ice cream game
Ankit Chona remembers feeling uncertain at the start of his new venture—not because he feared failure, but because he was stepping into an industry where he was already known. “I was very nervous,” he says, reflecting on his decision to return to the ice cream segment after selling Havmor to South Korea’s Lotte in 2017.
The idea for Hocco emerged organically. “At our restaurants, we were serving other people’s ice cream. One day, we just thought—why not make our own?” he recalls. Incorporated in 2019, Hocco began commercial operations in 2023.
Scoop 2.0:
- The startup, based in Gujarat, currently produces 40,000–50,000 litres of ice cream per day, and plans to increase that to 1.3 lakh litres daily by next summer. In FY24, Hocco posted a revenue of Rs 200 crore, with a target of Rs 400 crore by FY26.
- A key part of Hocco’s strategy has been to invest in its own cold chain infrastructure rather than relying on third-party logistics providers. The company operates GPS-enabled, temperature-controlled trucks, in-house cold rooms, and a dedicated logistics team to manage distribution.
- Hocco remains strongly rooted in Gujarat, but has expanded to markets such as Delhi-NCR, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and parts of Uttar Pradesh. In other regions, Hocco distributes ice cream solely through quick commerce platforms like Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart.
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Ankit Chona
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DevSparks
Driving scientific innovation with AI
Scientific research has traditionally been a long, painstaking process, often taking years of experimentation and analysis. Manish Gupta, Senior Director of Google DeepMind, says that the timeline is now collapsing down to a few seconds, all thanks to AI.
At DevSparks 2025, YourStory’s flagship developer summit, he also discussed how the lab’s latest Gemini releases, multilingual research projects, and energy-efficient ‘Matryoshka’ model are solving India’s most pressing real-world problems.
Novel solutions:
- He pointed to DeepMind’s AlphaFold, an AI program that performs predictions of protein structures. “I feel this area hasn’t received as much attention in India,” he said, noting that last year’s Nobel Prize-winning in Chemistry is ‘a good signal of what’s likely to come.’
- Gupta, who currently leads research teams in AI across India and Japan, believes that a key focus for his team is making these technologies more inclusive and accessible, especially in India, ensuring they benefit all and not just a ‘privileged few’.
- He explained how the company is adopting the ‘Matryoshka architecture’, inspired by Russian nesting dolls, where smaller AI models are built inside a larger one to improve efficiency.
News & updates
- Brexit: The UK and EU announced a landmark deal to reset relations after Britain’s exit from the bloc in 2020. British officials said the agreement—which covers a range of matters, including security, energy, trade, travel, and fisheries—marked a “new chapter” in their relationship after years of tense post-Brexit relations.
- New CEO: Bath & Body Works has named Daniel Heaf as its new CEO—its second in less than 3 years—replacing Gina Boswell. Heaf was most recently Nike’s chief strategy and transformation officer until his role was eliminated by the sneaker giant’s new CEO Elliott Hill.
- Listings: Spain has ordered Airbnb to block over 65,000 holiday listings on its platform for having violated rules, such as not including their license number or specifying whether the status of the owner. Spain is grappling with a housing affordability crisis that has spurred government action against short-term rental companies.
What was the inspiration for MGM’s famous lion mascot?
Answer: The MGM lion was chosen as the company’s mascot in 1916 by publicist Howard Dietz, as a tribute to his alma mater Columbia University, whose mascot is also a lion.
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