Happy New Year! ETtech Top 5 returns to your inbox today after a well-earned break.

When Indian startups raised a record $36 billion in 2021 and 39 of them turned unicorns, you may have thought, like we did, “Now I’ve seen it all.” Well, a company that’s still at the idea stage—and doesn’t yet have a name—could soon be valued at $100 million. Is 2022 going to be even crazier than last year?

Credit: Giphy

Also in this letter:

• What does 2022 hodl for crypto in india?
• Future Retail moves court to junk Amazon arbitration
• Flipkart’s website, app back online after brief outage

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Exclusive: Ex-Myntra CEO’s venture could soon be worth $100 million

Former Myntra CEO Amar Nagaram

A brand new startup is in talks with investors such as Falcon Edge and Accel Partners to raise $25-$30 million in its first round of funding at a valuation of $100 million, several sources told us.

The kicker: The company, founded by former Myntra CEO Amar Nagaram, doesn’t even have a name yet. If the deal goes through at a $100-million valuation, it will be among the most valuable idea-stage startups ever.

China model: The unnamed venture will focus on creating customised fashion products based on consumer needs and will rely on the consumer-to-manufacturing model.

• Chinese company Shein is among the first ones to execute this model, which helps reduce the cost of storing inventory while catering to specific needs of customers.

“They will look to solve consumer needs in fashion through technology and deploy the Chinese model of manufacturing goods based on the orders being received,” a source said.

Club Myntra: Myntra cofounder Mukesh Bansal, who now runs Curetfit and is a president at Tata Digital, will also invest in a personal capacity in the startup, sources said.

Nagaram worked at Flipkart for almost seven years before moving to Myntra as its CEO in 2019. Its previous chief executive Ananth Narayanan had quit shortly after Walmart acquired the Flipkart Group in August 2018.

In May 2021, Narayanan founded the ecommerce rollup firm Mensa Brands, which went on to become a unicorn in just six months when it raised $135 million in a round led by Alpha Wave Ventures in November.

Nandita Sinha has been Myntra’s CEO since November, a month after Nagaram quit to pursue his own venture.

Done Deal: Meanwhile, Groyyo, a business-to-business manufacturing and automation company, has raised $4.6 million in a seed funding round led by Alpha Wave Incubation. The company said it will use the funds to build its teams across key manufacturing clusters in South Asia, and to expand into the United States and the Middle East.

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What does 2022 hodl for crypto in india?

Hi, it’s Apoorva. Nothing describes the mania that cryptocurrency—and allied sectors— witnessed in 2021 better than this Ernest Hemingway quote from his book ‘The Sun Also Rises’: “Gradually, then suddenly.”

One of the first crypto exchanges in India launched almost a decade ago. Once the sole purview of techies and seasoned traders, cryptocurrencies rose from obscurity to capture the imagination of the mainstream.

Crypto went mainstream in 2021: Barely bruised by the regulatory uncertainty, crypto trading and investing skyrocketed, as did the coverage of this nascent industry by the mainstream Indian media. As trading volumes soared, this crypto craze didn’t escape the notice of regulators and the government, which for the first time officially met with crypto exchanges and industry stakeholders.

Also Read: 2021 Year in Review | Defining moments in India’s crypto saga

As a reporter covering this space, the graph for me went from the excitement that comes with learning something new and finding answers, to “omg, I can’t keep up with this tsunami of information”. Trading and investing is just a small part of the crypto universe, which encompasses blockchain startups, crypto-native and traditional VCs, non-fungible tokens, the ‘metaverse’ and Web3.

In an industry that literally never sleeps—no borders, no circuit breakers—I encountered countless young people sold on the future of this technology. It was enthralling to talk to 12- and 13-year-olds during the Dogecoin mania, and later see them graduate from memecoins to other altcoins (from their profits) in mere months.

“I am into Solana now,” said a 15-year-old girl from a small town in Maharashtra who has been explaining crypto to her parents, relatives and friends. Inevitably, she found herself answering her grandfather’s questions about crypto coins and fixed deposits during the T20 World Cup, which was peppered with crypto ads.

Of course, the potential of the Indian market is not lost on anyone. A handful of VCs entered the market this year and blockchain companies hired people to accelerate the adoption of the technology in India.

What’s in store this year? If you, like me, thought it was hard to keep up with the developments in the industry in 2021, it will only get harder next year. With that in mind, here are some predictions for 2022, assuming the regulatory uncertainty continues.

Metaverse for everything: Yes, everything. From creator-specific metaverses to retail brands marketing in virtual estates and edtech initiatives, 2022 will see companies across clothing, accessories and beauty formulate a metaverse strategy.

NFT overload: If you thought NFT mania in 2021 was excessive, think again. The adoption of NFTs and social tokens will only increase this year. A few NFT marketplaces are targeting creators and social media influencers are thinking of ways to associate themselves with NFT projects.

Also Read: 2021, the year of the NFT

Web3 and VCs: Despite the regulatory uncertainty, several Indian funds laid the foundations for their Web3 theses in 2021. Sequoia India made about 20 investments in this space. Sources told us other funds in India were also making allocations for Web3 investments, and that a backer of unicorns has completed the legal formalities to invest in these blockchain startups through token sales.

Also Read: What is Web3 and why is Jack Dorsey not a believer?

Gaming and play to earn: Blockchain-based games that reward users with cryptocurrency or NFTs for playing will become bigger next year in India. New and existing games may adopt crypto tokens and venture into the play-to-earn space.

Tweet of the day

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Future Retail asks Delhi High Court to terminate Amazon arbitration

Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani

In December, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) suspended Amazon’s 2019 deal with Future Retail, saying the US company failed to notify certain commercial arrangements as part of the deal.

Now, Future Retail has moved the Delhi High Court, hoping to use this ruling to terminate Amazon’s case at a Singapore arbitration tribunal. The move, if successful, could allow the cash-strapped retailer to sell some of its assets to Reliance.

Continuing the arbitration would be illegal, Future Retail said in its petition to the high court, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the filing.

Request denied: The company had earlier approached the Singapore tribunal itself to have the arbitration terminated but on December 30 the tribunal refused to consider its request. The final hearing begins later this week, which prompted Future to move the Delhi court.

If successful, the latest attempt by Future Retail can end the arbitration case that had blocked the sale of some of its physical assets like stores and warehouses to Reliance Industries Ltd.

Under pressure: Future Retail is coming under increasing pressure from investors. On Monday its dollar bonds dropped the most since November 16, after it missed payments to lenders and its credit rating was downgraded.

A halt or termination of the arbitration case would be a setback for Amazon, which is in a race with Reliance to dominate India’s billion-plus consumer market.

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Flipkart’s website, app restored after brief outage

Flipkart’s website and mobile app went down on Monday but were back online within hours.

According to downdetector.com, the outage was mostly reported by website users (58%), followed by app users (24%). The ecommerce website was reportedly down in Delhi, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Patna, Kolkata, Cuttack, Hyderabad, Indore, Ahmedabad, Vijayawada, Chennai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Mumbai, Nashik, Ahmedabad and Surat. The company declined to comment on the matter.

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IT firms will continue to reach for the cloud in 2022

Digital transformation and cloud delivery solutions will continue to drive growth for IT and technology services this year, according to a new study.

According to Gartner, global cloud revenue is estimated at $474 billion in 2022, up from $408 billion in 2021. Cloud revenue will surpass non-cloud revenue for relevant enterprise IT markets, estimates show.

Indian IT firms will be at the forefront of this transformation.

• Tata Consultancy Services is focusing on growth and transformation solutions for new and existing clients, in addition to legacy IT engagements. Over 70% of its employees are now trained in digital offerings.
• Wipro has targeted digital transformation-focused deals while training over 35% of its employee base on cloud solutions.
• HCL Technologies has built out a toolbox of automation assets packaged in the firm’s DRYiCE suite of products to boost clients’ business.
• India-focused Cognizant is looking at tools and intellectual property-focused on hybrid, multi-cloud, containerization, and microservices.

By 2025, Gartner estimates that more than 95% of new digital workloads will be deployed on cloud-native platforms, up from 30% in 2021.

Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Zaheer Merchant in Mumbai. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.