Sure, I'll email you on this. And I'll also send this note to Tracxn and see if they have any counter argument. I see that they do get data from corporate venture deals usually but not sure if they are capturing ALL of them.

Seema Singh

Shalabh, if you feel that way then all I can say is it's your right to feel the way you want :) But let me emphasise that's not how journalism is done at The Ken. Pranav had been working on the story much before Ola announced its select-media test drive. The amount of detail and their corroboration with multiple sources couldn't have been possible in the tiny window between the test drive and the publication of the story. Moreover, we don't do surprise journalism. Pranav played back every material information in the story back to the company for their comment/confirmation/denial. That Ola chose not to respond or engage with him is their prerogative.

Seema Singh

Thanks, Nikhit, Here goes: Foodtech: Cotex Technologies, Inficold, Evo Foods, Proeon, Goodmylk, Good Dot, Keeros, Krimanshi, ClearMeat Agri-related: String Bio, IRS, Seagrass Tech

Seema Singh

Hmmm, sorry to hear that, Vaibhav. I can understand the resonance part; it's hard to humanise 'capital' in a subject that deals with renewables, energy, battery, etc. It didn't occur to me that there'll be readers who'd not know about climate tech as such. Will do better next time.

Seema Singh

Ola funding is included in the chart. RIL's investment is (corporate) Capex and won't count as PE or VC funding. This space is certainly interesting :)

Seema Singh

Varun, the VC investment in EV companies in the last 20 months is captured in the graphics and includes investments in Ola and Ather. Tracxn tracks all VC investments and has given us data up to Nov 11. As for ReNew, Reliance, NTPC and that grade of renewables funding, the $70 billion figure quoted by the power minister includes those investments. What Adani or Reliance will do in future is not captured here. When that happens, it will reflect in the aggregate. Right now it's only an announcement. Sugar companies making small investments from their balance sheet won't count as VC investment, IMO. Unless they make public announcements to that effect.

Seema Singh

Ramraj, the data in the graphics captures the early stage investment in India. Deals are picking up but the ticket size is still small. Tracxn has listed 64 deals in the last 20 months or so and it is updated as of 11 Nov. You are right that there's no VC ecosystem; many deals are one-off climate tech. For instance, Endiya, quoted in the story, has one deal in Cell Propulsion. But that doesn't make Endiya a climate tech focused VC.

Seema Singh

Not a tubelight moment, that's a valid point, Baswantrao. How about, come on the publication day for stories, and then revisit for comments:) Because it often happens that you keep marking stuff to read later but never get around to reading them.

Seema Singh

Chandragupta, fibre is indeed the best and ideal option for urban consumers. Can't say it's the cheapest because it's very expensive to lay fibre what with endless delays with civic permissions to dig up. I do say in the story that satellite, for now, is for remote use — far flung areas where it makes no sense to lay fibre — and for network operators who can boost their backhaul infrastructure, esp for 5G. In the next 2-3 years, it's hard to see a consumer opting for Dish-internet, pay $2000-2500 for a ground terminal. But rural infra providers or MVNOs can certainly take to satellite broadband. Once the ground terminal cost falls below $500, then maybe retail consumers will have another choice.

Seema Singh

Thanks, Aniket. Glad that you found it useful. Here's an earlier article hinting at the impending disruption - https://the-ken.com/story/2020-the-year-big-tech-allied-with-telcos-but-also-put-them-on-notice/?searchTerm=Telecom,%20big%20tech

Seema Singh

Sorry Amrit. I'll try to do better next time. As for the topic, this is very much within our remit at The Ken- we write about tech and telecom. Sometimes core tech stories need to be told because what is nerdy today, will become mainstream tomorrow.

Seema Singh

Gokul, fair point. I did intend to add a box explaining 'backhaul' but somehow missed doing that. It's on me. I've added it now. On competition, you are right. Just when we thought telecom is a settled market, 2+1+1 player, high entry barrier and not much scope for anyone to do anything, here comes a new dimension. Which is what I had hinted at in my graphics-heavy story earlier. Do check that out : https://the-ken.com/story/2020-the-year-big-tech-allied-with-telcos-but-also-put-them-on-notice/?searchTerm=Telecom,%20big%20tech

Seema Singh