India's Agnikul Becomes first in the world to 3D Print Rocket Engines! | Roundup #153

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to another episode of The Startup Operator Roundup. I am Roshan Karepa.

[00:00:05] And I am Dwingen Saha and together we break down the biggest highlights of India's growing startup ecosystem.

[00:00:10] If this is the first time you are tuning into the channel then please consider subscribing for we talk everything startup.

[00:00:15] And if you are regular listener then please consider sharing this episode with your startup friends.

[00:00:20] Starting of this episode with significant achievements in the space sector,

[00:00:24] Agnical Cosmos launched its first rocket called Agnivan and what makes this special is this is the world's first 3D printer rocket engine.

[00:00:32] Wow, is that a bird? Is that a plane? No, it's Agnicals Agnivan.

[00:00:36] In the digital realm the government of India has a terrible opening but yeah let's go continuing.

[00:00:43] In the digital realm the government of India has proposed a digital competition bill to prevent market dominance of tech giants.

[00:00:50] However this bill has received a lot of opposition from you guessed it.

[00:00:55] Tech giants like Google Amazon and Apple price.

[00:00:58] Moving to the FinTech industry.

[00:01:01] Payton is planning significant layoffs amid growing losses and this move could potentially save the company over 500 trophies.

[00:01:09] Lastly in the payment processing industry, Stripe has temporarily gone invite only in India.

[00:01:15] The company plans to reopen its services in the country by the second half of 2025.

[00:01:20] The reasons they're citing for it is regulatory changes in the country.

[00:01:23] So we'll try to understand what's going on over there.

[00:01:26] So a lot of interesting topics for us to discuss in this episode, hope you stay with us right till the end.

[00:01:31] If you state till the end I mean you'll see a very special dance performance by Bündin Sahab.

[00:01:36] I think this is the right point towards Carri Howazio Week.

[00:01:45] Week has been interesting.

[00:01:47] I'm sure that you can't stop gloting after the massive KKR win and everything.

[00:01:53] Such a one sided match, gotts plan.

[00:01:56] Yeah.

[00:01:59] Come here, we came and let's come here after that.

[00:02:02] Okay alright.

[00:02:04] Yeah meanwhile some exciting news on the chess front, Prags beat Magnus Colson.

[00:02:10] Right?

[00:02:13] Yeah.

[00:02:14] Just as getting sexy of Oshoor, I mean a lot of adoption in India, heck we invented the game but there's been a phenomenal pipeline of players.

[00:02:23] We have Gukesh, Pragsnan and the Vidit Gujarati, all of these are international masters, grandmasters, what have you?

[00:02:31] Right?

[00:02:32] And yeah, there's this coach and Chennai Mr. Ramesh Babu.

[00:02:36] He's been producing amazing, amazing folks.

[00:02:40] I had the opportunity to host him on Bharatwarta sometime back.

[00:02:46] So we'll link to that episode, go check out that episode.

[00:02:49] Let's move on to the news.

[00:02:51] Starting off after four failed attempts,

[00:02:53] Agnical Cosmos successfully performed the launch of its first rocket called Agnibhan using 3D printed rocket engines.

[00:03:02] Agnical is the only Indian startup to have its own private launch pad in Shihari Cota.

[00:03:07] And it is only the second time in India that a private sector company has launched a rocket into space.

[00:03:12] The first one was Skyroot.

[00:03:14] The Agnibhan rockets first flight faced significant challenges.

[00:03:18] It was called of four times in the last two months due to technical issues.

[00:03:21] However, despite this setbacks, the mission marked a significant milestone.

[00:03:26] It's no even took to Twitter and said, a major milestone as the first ever controlled flight of a semi-cravogenic liquid engine

[00:03:33] realized through additive manufacturing.

[00:03:36] So this is not only a huge step for the space industry in India,

[00:03:40] but also for the manufacturing industry.

[00:03:43] Say it.

[00:03:44] I thought you're going to say one step for Agnical like Agnint leave for space industry or some nonsense.

[00:03:51] But it is true.

[00:03:53] This is a phenomenal achievement.

[00:03:55] The fact that they've 3D printed the engine and other parts is like a very good thing.

[00:04:01] I mean, some amazing which means that this is extremely scalable.

[00:04:05] And look, we've spoken about the space sector plenty of times in the past.

[00:04:09] I've said that India is kind of the dark horse here.

[00:04:12] You know, given the geopolitics, given our location as well.

[00:04:16] Right latitude, longitude, et cetera.

[00:04:19] There are a lot of favorable conditions.

[00:04:21] There's this fantastic podcast series on Spotify called Mission Acero, which is narrated by Harsha Bogle.

[00:04:27] Do check it out.

[00:04:28] It gives you a little bit of a preview into what happened how the space sector came to be in India.

[00:04:35] But fantastic, fantastic achievement.

[00:04:38] You know, we had a prime minister Modi congratulating them.

[00:04:41] Plenty of other ministers as well, Rajiv Chandra Shaker, who's a minister of IT.

[00:04:45] It's one.

[00:04:46] So yeah, great achievement, technical folks.

[00:04:49] And we'd love to host you on the podcast.

[00:04:52] So if you guys any of your listeners, if you guys are connected, please make sure that they,

[00:04:57] You know, check out the channel and yeah, get us on the podcast.

[00:05:01] Get them on the podcast.

[00:05:03] Well, in addition to this being the world's first flight with 3D printed rocket engine,

[00:05:07] this flight is also India's first using a semi-criagianic engine.

[00:05:12] And I think what tops all of this is that it was entirely designed in India and assembled in IT.

[00:05:17] What's the semi-criagianic engine now?

[00:05:20] It's almost cryogenic.

[00:05:23] All right.

[00:05:24] No, but it's pretty cool.

[00:05:26] This thing was entirely designed in a assemble in IT Madras.

[00:05:29] Yeah.

[00:05:30] You have been a fan of making India a great.

[00:05:32] Okay, moving on to some big tech news to curb market dominance of large tech companies.

[00:05:37] The Indian government has proposed the digital competition bill.

[00:05:40] And no surprises here.

[00:05:42] A US lobby group representing these companies like Google Amazon and Apple is asking India to reconsider the new

[00:05:48] competition law, which they are calling it very similar to the one past in EU.

[00:05:52] They are worried that rules about using data and giving certain partner special treatment might make things more expensive for users.

[00:06:00] India's digital competition bill is on the lines of use digital markets Act of 2022.

[00:06:05] It will apply to big firms including those with a global turnover of 30 billion dollars.

[00:06:10] And whose digital services have at least 10 million users in India.

[00:06:14] Now, of course, this brings all the large tech companies under the purview.

[00:06:18] Yeah.

[00:06:19] This bill proposes to prohibit companies from exploiting non-public data of users and promoting their own services over rivals.

[00:06:27] So, of course, Google and Amazon are coming under fire.

[00:06:30] Yeah.

[00:06:31] So, if I find something called SSDs, significant digital enterprises and pretty much all of these folks.

[00:06:37] About a certain revenue, like Google, Facebook or Meta, I should say, and Amazon fall under this.

[00:06:43] And look, the way some of these platforms work, obviously, I mean they've become so pervasive, right?

[00:06:50] They're omnipresent.

[00:06:51] And the significant amount of commerce or even conversation that happens on these platforms.

[00:06:56] So, it's almost ending to become a utility of sorts.

[00:07:00] We've seen how social media shapes, plenty of conversations on politics, policy and culture and so on and so forth.

[00:07:09] But the way these platforms operate, I mean, obviously it's fairly opaque, right?

[00:07:14] If you look at Google Play for example, you don't know what really happens when you're at Amazon.

[00:07:22] You can know what's happening.

[00:07:23] Yeah, exactly right?

[00:07:25] And there's no retrace for all of that.

[00:07:27] So it's about time I think and obviously these guys will crib about a cost of doing business and so on and so forth.

[00:07:34] But look, I mean this kind of anti-trust and anti-competition stuff happens elsewhere in the West as well.

[00:07:41] We were talking about the Google HubSpot equation and how it could potentially be struck down.

[00:07:48] Right?

[00:07:49] I mean, they're fine with these kind of regulations.

[00:07:51] They're fine with like, you know, act with into some of these things in the West but they seem to have a problem here, right?

[00:07:57] Which is, yeah, I mean we had to put up foot firmly down and negotiate for sure, right?

[00:08:04] So yeah, also a lot of startups have, you know, come out and spoken in favor of this.

[00:08:09] Well, I think around 40 startups.

[00:08:10] Because it'll give them an equal footing, right?

[00:08:12] So you'll give them an equal footing.

[00:08:14] I don't know if, you know, we will build another social media platform, right?

[00:08:18] I mean like a uniquely Indian one.

[00:08:19] It's been tried before.

[00:08:20] Right?

[00:08:21] Cool as the latest debacle.

[00:08:23] Right?

[00:08:24] There is, of course all this shared chat and whatnot.

[00:08:27] But yeah, the best we can do is make sure that, you know, whatever these X or meta or whoever else operates in India.

[00:08:36] Right?

[00:08:37] At least is transparent about their workings, right?

[00:08:41] Because they're definitely very influential.

[00:08:43] So the build proposes, redress, penalties and so on, right?

[00:08:48] So yeah, aside from the fact that they can't promote their own products and services on their platform,

[00:08:53] which gives them an unfair advantage.

[00:08:55] I think the key thing also is that it says you can't prevent users from using a third-party application,

[00:09:01] which is also very, very important, right?

[00:09:04] The fact that, you know, people have that optionality to, you know, pick between whatever platforms they want to use.

[00:09:10] So yeah, this is about time.

[00:09:12] It's still a build not an act.

[00:09:14] So there's of course plenty of things that's going to happen between now and then.

[00:09:19] But let's see.

[00:09:20] Also, competition council of India, right?

[00:09:23] I think they find Google around $161 million because Google prevents the download of alternate app stores

[00:09:29] or to even remove the default apps from the mobile phones.

[00:09:32] Right? So I think this build will kind of make things, they do random things, right?

[00:09:36] I mean, they can, at the very least, they can give us security warning, right?

[00:09:39] I mean, you're downloading an app, I mean, it says that this is not this is unsecured or something.

[00:09:43] Right? Nine out of ten people will be like, okay, maybe this is suspicious, right?

[00:09:48] And I don't have to download this or something.

[00:09:50] Right? So yeah?

[00:09:52] Well, I don't know how many of you are still holding onto PTM stocks,

[00:09:55] but I have single digit shares hoping that someday it will go up.

[00:10:00] And one of the way that PTM is planning to, you know, stabilize its share price is by firing more than 6000 employees.

[00:10:07] This will be happening in the next few months.

[00:10:09] Allegedly, right? Allegedly, yeah.

[00:10:10] Nothing is confirmed.

[00:10:12] There are financial express quoted that PTM is planning to let go of nearly 6000 employees.

[00:10:17] The company has been dealing with significant losses and is aiming to stabilize by cutting costs.

[00:10:22] This action could probably save the company around 500 crore rupees.

[00:10:27] But this isn't the first time that PTM is resorting to layoffs to save money.

[00:10:31] Earlier, the let go of around 1000 employees in December last year.

[00:10:35] PTM also faced a major setback in February 2024 when RBI penalized its banking wing,

[00:10:41] PTM payments bank for violating norms and non-compliance to regulatory policies.

[00:10:46] In this recently announced quarterly results, they ended the quarter with a concerning loss of almost 550 crores.

[00:10:55] Last year also, as you know, PTM also recently announced its quarterly results.

[00:11:01] They concluded the quarter ending with a concerning loss of 550 crores rupees.

[00:11:06] So I don't know whether this layoffs is going to really help their case.

[00:11:11] I guess it's like signaling to the market, right?

[00:11:15] I feel bad for PTM because at this point of time, I mean, it's tough, right?

[00:11:20] I mean, what's happened with the payments bank and so on, right?

[00:11:23] And clearly the e-commerce site has not really worked as much.

[00:11:28] They were really relying on the whole payment infrastructure being the top of this year to do a bunch of stuff on the merchant side of things, right?

[00:11:37] Whether that is lending and so on.

[00:11:39] Yeah, I mean, it's going to be a tough thing.

[00:11:43] So this is perhaps signaling to the market saying that we'll exercise a little more fiscal discipline.

[00:11:50] We're more prudent about our spend and so on.

[00:11:53] And you know, hoping that investors are a little more patient in the interim period.

[00:11:57] But let's talk about this layoffs, right?

[00:11:59] I mean, we've been seeing layoffs go on globally for the past few years.

[00:12:03] In fact, in India last year around 20,000 people with tech jobs were laid off.

[00:12:08] And this was what media is calling the silent layoffs in calendar year 2023.

[00:12:14] This happens after every bull market run, right?

[00:12:17] I mean, there are excesses in the bull market and the fraud is cleaned up, you know, when the market cuts, right?

[00:12:22] So a bunch of these jobs shouldn't have been there in the first place, right?

[00:12:27] And what you're seeing is like that realization of that, right?

[00:12:32] And further, I mean, because of all this AI automation and stuff, I mean,

[00:12:37] people are going to focus a lot more on productivity, right?

[00:12:40] So you're not just competing with your fellow man, you're competing with machines now, right?

[00:12:44] So all that hasn't come to that specifically, right?

[00:12:48] I guess given the market, people are just being a little more prudent about who they hire,

[00:12:53] what they do, et cetera.

[00:12:55] Talking about fintechs, Stripe has also temporarily gone invite only in India.

[00:13:01] This sighting the country is evolving regulatory landscape as the reason for it.

[00:13:06] Stripe says that the regulatory landscape means that it cannot currently promise a quick launch and easy onboarding for Indian firms.

[00:13:13] But they did not name any specific regulations.

[00:13:16] What this means is that new businesses in India will no longer be able to sign up for Stripe account

[00:13:21] through the company's website instead, what they need to do is reach out to the company and request for an invitation.

[00:13:27] Stripe also says that it plans to reopen its services to the broader audience by the second half of 2025

[00:13:33] after completing necessary infrastructure upgrades.

[00:13:36] Now I'm not sure whether this has anything to do with the whole payment aggregator story that we have been seeing evolve

[00:13:43] or is this just a move by Stripe to be more cautious in the market?

[00:13:46] I'm not sure what specific regulation they're talking about, but no loss used Razer Pay.

[00:13:52] Can simple is it?

[00:13:55] Yeah.

[00:13:56] Simple as that.

[00:13:57] I mean, app payment infrastructure and you know, app payment providers are like really awesome.

[00:14:02] So I don't know.

[00:14:03] I don't think it's a significant loss as such.

[00:14:06] Razer Pay if you're listening to this, you know which podcast is there?

[00:14:09] You should pay us, you know?

[00:14:10] Blink it by Jews.

[00:14:11] Razer Pay.

[00:14:12] Before moving to the talk of the town section, here is a quick round-up of the notable fund

[00:14:17] reasons of the week.

[00:14:18] Construction materials maker in-for-market reads around $50 million from Mars Unicorn Fund.

[00:14:24] Performance where brand techno sport reads 175 crore rupees or around $21 million from in 91 partners.

[00:14:31] Zip electric has reads $15 million from Iniors, 9 Unicorns, Iron Fund, Fence Catalysts and others.

[00:14:38] EV startup turnover is $6 million from British International Investment, Kona Capital,

[00:14:45] Stellar Adventure Partners and B Capital.

[00:14:48] Végapay which is another FinTech startup, there is $5.5 million led by elevation capital

[00:14:54] and flam reased $4.5 million from Turbo start, twin ventures and others.

[00:14:59] A lot of small check sizes, I don't think they're...

[00:15:02] Yeah, but in-for-market, 50 million is significant for sure, right?

[00:15:06] I don't know if you guys have been following, right?

[00:15:08] I mean, my Instagram reads a full-off like five stocks that will go up after the June 4th

[00:15:13] Reserve and so on and so forth.

[00:15:15] But I can't tell you like construction for sure, right?

[00:15:18] I mean, there's this so much activity happening in India that, yeah, people are betting

[00:15:23] on betting big-on construction, right?

[00:15:25] So...

[00:15:26] Are you seeing like how Navi Mumbai airport is coming up?

[00:15:28] No, I haven't.

[00:15:29] You should check it out.

[00:15:30] Yeah, I mean, I'll be there in couple of weeks.

[00:15:32] But they would only complete faith in...

[00:15:34] Check out the construction, right?

[00:15:36] So this as usual is not financial advice, please don't take us seriously, at least with this.

[00:15:42] Yeah.

[00:15:43] Thanks for adding that comment.

[00:15:44] Okay, on Twitter, that is a very interesting video doing that round.

[00:15:48] We will let you watch it for yourself.

[00:15:50] You'll be there, you'll be there on your work, you'll work space and make it your own.

[00:16:00] Ooh, now you make it, now you make it, now you make it, now you're making it all the time.

[00:16:03] So this video is from the annual event of Canva.

[00:16:06] I'm sure all of us have used Canva at some point or the other, but in college startups or wherever.

[00:16:12] And when I first saw this video, firstly it reminded me of Silicon Valley.

[00:16:17] Yeah, and that is...

[00:16:19] It's the epitome example of how Hulu operates.

[00:16:23] Silicon Valley, the series, which is just fabulous.

[00:16:26] I mean, every day, every week, I kind of realized how genius the show was, right?

[00:16:31] Something happens, that kind of reminds me of stuff.

[00:16:33] But yeah, my SaaS company is, please don't do music videos.

[00:16:37] Please, please, please, please, it's not cool.

[00:16:40] It absolutely is not, right? I mean, it's mega cringe.

[00:16:43] Hmm.

[00:16:44] But the thing is, it's so cringe that people are talking about it.

[00:16:48] Yeah.

[00:16:49] But I guess, I mean, if you're doing like billions of dollars in revenue, then, yeah, sure, why not?

[00:16:55] You know, but still don't, you can do stuff.

[00:16:57] Don't do it.

[00:16:58] Yeah.

[00:16:59] And another video, this Larry Ellison, who is the co-founder of Oracle.

[00:17:04] He talks that...

[00:17:06] Elon doesn't know what he's doing.

[00:17:07] He's going to have to go out for money.

[00:17:09] I'm really smart. I work for the Wall Street Journal.

[00:17:12] And that's it.

[00:17:13] Who are you?

[00:17:14] This guy is landing rockets.

[00:17:16] You know, he's landing rockets on, on, on, you know, robot, robot drone rafts in the ocean.

[00:17:25] And you're saying he doesn't know what he's doing.

[00:17:27] Why are you talking to journalists in an event?

[00:17:30] What do you make of that comment?

[00:17:32] Dude, Larry Ellison is the original bad boy of tech.

[00:17:35] I'm serious.

[00:17:36] You guys may not know, right?

[00:17:38] I mean, the guy is phenomenal.

[00:17:40] So, I remember there was a story of him going with bags of cash to his neighbors, like asking them to sell their house and wicked.

[00:17:48] He's just bought up the entire course, right?

[00:17:52] This one time he wanted to buy an F-16.

[00:17:54] And the US would not sell it, right?

[00:17:56] I mean, he'd lock it, would not sell it.

[00:17:58] Say, when do the Russians instead?

[00:18:00] So, the guy is legit bad ass.

[00:18:02] I mean, he's, like, absolute bad ass.

[00:18:04] And he's absolutely right about journalists, right?

[00:18:07] I mean, yeah, people who don't really do much.

[00:18:12] I mean, aside from comment on things, right?

[00:18:14] Talking about, like, Elon should do X, Y, things.

[00:18:17] Man, I mean, the guy is perhaps the most impactful human.

[00:18:20] You know, a live right now, right?

[00:18:24] And you're going with him about some in-a-in thing, right?

[00:18:29] About why some Twitter policy or whatever nonsense, right?

[00:18:33] So, yeah.

[00:18:34] So, absolutely, on point as always, Mr. Larry Ellison.

[00:18:38] Yeah?

[00:18:39] Good stuff.

[00:18:40] Awesome.

[00:18:41] So, before we wrap it up, last week, we received some interesting comments on some of the topics we discussed,

[00:18:47] especially on the barbished versus Microsoft bit.

[00:18:50] We have Prangel, who commented on YouTube saying that

[00:18:53] Barbished's message would have been better-worded.

[00:18:56] Illness seemed a little too troubling given the history of Western medical science, classifying,

[00:19:01] homosexuality as an illness for a long time.

[00:19:04] It is more like a cultish behavior than an illness.

[00:19:07] So, as an interesting comment, we also received a comment from Ishika.

[00:19:12] She requesting us to do a deep dive into some of the specific sectors in the startup.

[00:19:18] That's a great idea and something we have been exploring ourselves.

[00:19:21] So, stay tuned to our channel for really putting out a episode like that in a few weeks.

[00:19:26] We're thinking of doing a deep dive on drones in India, right?

[00:19:30] And how the ecosystem has kind of evolved its impact on the future and so on.

[00:19:35] So, let us know if that's something that is of interest to you guys.

[00:19:39] Also, any other sectors, anything that we should do a deep dive on.

[00:19:43] The idea is to do like a short 4 or 5 minute video that covers all the key aspects and perhaps give you plenty of content and material to go down various rabbit holes, right?

[00:19:54] So, that's what we're thinking of.

[00:19:56] Yeah.

[00:19:57] Well, awesome guys.

[00:19:58] Thanks for staying with us right till the end.

[00:20:00] Please, wear your special dance before.

[00:20:02] Ill come and come on my private channel.

[00:20:04] After the only fact.

[00:20:08] Anyway, guys, that's all for this week's roundup.

[00:20:10] We hope you enjoyed it.

[00:20:11] Do keep sharing your perspectives on the topics that we've discussed in the comments below.

[00:20:16] Again, a reminder to like and share this video, read us on a favourite podcast platform.

[00:20:20] Follow us on social and see you again next week with us.

[00:20:23] Subscribe to Gungen's Only Fans channel.