A full circle for Sirona; Fintech Zaggle’s game plan

Hello,

It’s the race to the smartest.

Elon Musk’s xAI has unveiled Grok-3, announcing that the new AI model has “more than 10 times” the compute power of its predecessor. Trained on 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, Grok 3 benefits from the addition of H100, H200, and upcoming B200 chips for faster performance and smarter capabilities.

But is it really the “smartest AI on Earth”? Experts are divided.

Early reviews suggest that while Grok 3 outperforms some OpenAI models in select benchmarks, it does not clearly surpass OpenAI’s o3. Some users pointed out that the AI model does not know the difference between left hand and right hand, and some techies are also questioning its coding abilities. But netizens say it does pass the ‘vibe check’ and is certainly “a state-of-the-art frontier model.”

Meanwhile, OpenAI is actively working to prevent a hostile takeover by Musk.

It is reportedly considering granting special voting rights to its non-profit board to preserve the power of its directors as the company transitions to a traditional for-profit structure.

But is safety being compromised in this race?

OpenAI Co-founder Ilya Sutskever is reportedly in the process of raising more than $1 billion for his new venture, SuperSafeIntelligence, at a valuation exceeding $30 billion. It focuses on building safe and reliable AI systems.

Exciting times ahead!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• A full circle for Sirona
• Fintech Zaggle’s game plan
• Taking toddy shop culture to NYC

Here’s your trivia for today: When was the first high-speed train network established?

D2C

A full circle for Sirona

Femtech startup Sirona founders Deep Bajaj and Mohit Bajaj have bought back their company from the Good Glamm Group for an undisclosed amount.​ The deal is estimated to be valued around Rs 150-180 crore and would help the Good Glamm Group to reduce its debt, which currently stands above Rs 500 crore, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The buyback comes as Good Glamm Group navigates liquidity crunches, investor departure, and mounting debts. 

Reclaim:

• The Darpan Sanghvi-led Good Glamm Group had acquired Sirona for Rs 450 crore in an all-cash deal in October last year. 
• The house of brands had invested Rs 100 crore in Sirona through primary and secondary investments by offering substantial returns of 6X to 20X for early angel and seed investors in 2021.
• The severe cash crunch has prompted the Good Glamm Group to consider raising fresh funds at sharply lower valuations, triggering the exit of three of its directors from Accel India, Prosus, and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Funding Alert

Startup: Lightstorm

Amount: Rs 700 Cr

Round: Fresh

Startup: Spyne

Amount: $16M

Round: Series A

Startup: Singulr AI

Amount: $10M

Round: Seed

In-depth

Fintech Zaggle’s game plan

Hyderabad-headquartered startup Zaggle, which helps businesses manage and pay for recurring expenses, is hoping to reach milestones of its own. The company, founded in 2011 by Raj Narayanam, went public in September 2023. With a freshly raised war chest of over Rs 595 crore, the company is targeting three acquisitions, expanding into underserved merchant ecosystems. 

Key takeaways:

• Through its acquisition of TaxSpanner in September 2024 for Rs 32 crore, Zaggle is developing a platform that will automatically file tax returns for gig workers, who often don’t have the know-how or the resources to file it themselves.
• Zaggle says it automates expense management by reducing manual processes in reporting, approvals, and reconciliation through SaaS tools and prepaid cards, minimising errors by 60-70%.
• The company’s business is built on a foundation of high-margin segments, with interchange fees—earned when its prepaid or corporate cards are swiped at merchant locations—standing out as its most profitable vertical.

Food and Wine

Taking toddy shop culture to NYC

Chef Regi Mathew of Kappa Chakka Kandhari-fame takes Kerala’s toddy shops’ ‘touchings’ concept to the US with the opening up of Chatti, a restaurant and bar celebrating the cuisine of local taverns.

Chatti in Malayalam refers to the flat, round earthen pots usually used in Kerala’s famous toddy shops. Chef Mathew wants to recreate the Kerala toddy shop experience in New York City, letting guests enjoy a few drinks with ‘touchings’ or small plates, and make a new friend or two. 

Exceptional offering:

• Much like Kappa Chakka Kandhari, the team at Chatti sources the spices directly from Kerala farmers—peppercorns from Pulpally in Wayanad, jaggery from Marayoor, tea leaves from Munnar, and cold-pressed coconut oil from homemakers’ collective in Ernakulam.
• The Trivandrum Chicken Fry uses fennel, garlic and chilli to create a flavour bomb, while the Border Chicken Fry puts the focus on freshly ground pepper; the Cochin Calamari is coated with coconut crumbs, while the coconut clams have the added twist of delicate spices and tamarind. 
• Interesting drinks from the Chatti menu include Elephant Whisperer—a tribute to the bond between elephants and caretakers. The Sam Bar (word play on sambar) is a clarified vodka cocktail. Ayyo Kaapi is a take on the classic Espresso Martini using filter kaapi. 

News & updates

• Rate cut: The Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates for the first time in four years as price pressures cool while stressing it won’t ease as aggressively as markets anticipate. It also warned that reducing borrowing costs too quickly could result in disinflation stalling. 
• Visa manipulation: TCS is reportedly facing allegations of visa fraud, with whistleblowers claiming the company misused special work visas to sidestep US labour laws. A Bloomberg News investigation suggests that TCS improperly used L-1A manager visas to bring frontline workers to the US while labelling them as managers.
• Uncertainty: French IT services company Capgemini said discretionary spending among clients will remain subdued for at least the next six months. Growth in Capgemini's main markets, North America and France—which accounted for nearly half of the company's revenue in 2024—fell by 1.6% and 5.8%, respectively, in the fourth quarter.

When was the first high-speed train network established?

Answer: 1964. The Tōkaidō Shinkansen, connecting Tokyo and Osaka, was inaugurated before the 1964 Summer Olympics. 

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