IPO angst meets mutual-fund math, the IIM-fication of TISS, a culture clash at Avendus, and more
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Welcome to your Sunday recap of everything The Ken published this week.
In the spotlight
Angry about your mutual fund investing in ‘overvalued’ IPOs? Calm down
The biggest anchor investors among mutual-fund schemes—even in costly and losing IPOs—are delivering on what investors want most
Over 20 mutual-fund houses invested in the anchor book of the seemingly exorbitantly priced Lenskart IPO, and drew massive fire. The furore even saw exhortations to market regulator Sebi to ban fund houses from participating in IPOs. An analysis of five-year data shows that many of India’s biggest mutual-fund anchor-investing schemes are doing fine, despite the duds they bet on. A mix of factors, including opportunistic plays, come together to show that the outrage is overdone. [Read the full story]
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Indian VCs’ newfound love for deep tech: a step change or in lockstep?—A $12 billion investment saga for the ages, starting soon from New Delhi [Read here] [Listen here]
The shape of the future—Organisational structures are changing in the era of artificial intelligence [Read here]
Smartworks didn’t pivot. The market did—In a strained market, Smartworks’ middle lane–neither coworking nor landlord–is suddenly the fastest [Read here]
The numbers behind OpenAI, Gemini, and Perplexity’s deals with Phonepe, Jio, and Airtel—Why is the world’s smartest tech suddenly free in India? [Read here] [Listen here]
Facing the reality
TISS is starting to look more like an IIM than TISS
As India’s best-known social-sciences institute churns out courses to please the market, it’s neglecting what built its legacy. To the detriment of students
In 2024, the new TISS management decided to chuck its own entrance exam in favour of two centralised tests. This led the institute’s two main disciplines–management and social sciences–down opposing paths. As the management courses shift to CAT, they are adopting more of an IIM template. The legacy social-science courses that TISS pioneered are in tatters. [Read the full story]
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Daring i-bank Avendus has a suitor in staid Mizuho. What comes next?
The chaotic, argumentative culture at Avendus risks clashing with the quiet, composed one Mizuho embodies
After 10 years, private-equity giant KKR is selling its 63% stake in Avendus to Japan’s Mizuho Group. Avendus executives worry that Mizuho lacks the experience needed to run a domestic investment bank in India and may impose a conservative Japanese management style. Despite expanding into credit, PE, wealth, and equity capital markets, Avendus still relies heavily on volatile investment-banking earnings, making it unsuitable for an IPO. Despite cultural misalignment, Mizuho signals a hands-off approach. It aims to scale Avendus through its own deep corporate relationships and long-term capital. [Read the full story]
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India wants third graders to learn AI. The teachers are not loving it—As CBSE rolls out AI lessons for younger students, success hinges on whether India can equip teachers to teach the tech they barely use [Listen here]
The AI running India isn’t Indian. Can that still change?—As India ramps its use of AI, a question emerges: who will build the AI that runs its future? [Listen here]
Stories you don’t want to miss
How Physicswallah escaped the startup math of giving everything away
Alakh Pandey kept control while rivals surrendered it. Here’s why public markets will now test his capital-heavy pivot
Physicswallah went public on 17 November with something almost unheard of at this scale: its founders still own over 70%. Years of bootstrapping, late fundraising, and a sudden edtech winter kept the company largely undiluted. It has now flipped from organic growth to an aggressive buying spree—acquisitions, offline centres, degree programmes, heavy ads—a playbook not quite dissimilar to Byju’s. The company is still powered by its founder’s persona. And that strength could just as quickly turn into a liability. [Read the full story]
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Threat models, using taste to defend margins, ChatGPT’s ‘collab’ with Phonepe—AI’s paperclip problem finally rears its head [Listen here]
From CAs to doctors–everyone is automating away hours of work—We asked 200 professionals how much time AI saves them and what they do with it [Read here]
Lessons from Buffett—A beacon of classic, old-fashioned values [Read here]
Domino’s outdid its peers on the QSR front, and now it wants to push the envelope—The pizza leader now sets its sights on the high-margin ads business [Read here]
The ChatGPTficiation of Indian fintech is here—Razorpay, Cred, Phonepe, Zerodha, and other fintechs’ use of AI spans five stages—from low-risk to radical [Read here]
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Indian Hotels’ Puneet Chhatwal on why moving from Taj to Ginger is no longer a demotion for his team
The company’s turnaround wasn’t just about seemingly counterintuitive choices, but also about embracing the unexpected
Indian Hotels, like its peers, has benefitted from the post-Covid pandemic travel boom. After fumbling through most of the 2010s, it has outgrown most other hotel chains in the past five years, and is now the tenth-most-valuable Tata company. Indian Hotels fixed the struggling budget chain Ginger by, among other things, moving food and beverages in-house. It’s not just customers who view Ginger differently now, according to Chhatwal, it’s also Indian Hotels executives. [Read the full story]
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Why foreign stents still rule Indian hearts—India tried to level the playing field in cardiac care. Instead, domestic makers grew — but imported devices are now returning with pricier labels [Listen here]
Why PVR Inox wants to run its cinemas like hotels—In a time where cinema just isn’t pulling the same crowds anymore, the cineplex chain may have found a cost-friendly way to expand [Listen here]
How Trump became Indian apparel makers’ unlikely saviour—For Tiruppur’s textile exporters, Trump’s 50% tariff first came as a shock. But now, it’s looking more like an opportunity [Listen here]
That’s a wrap for this week. If you have thoughts or suggestions you’d like to share, leave a comment on our website or write to our writers and podcasters. You can also reach me at [email protected].
Happy Sunday.
Regards,
Abhijith
