Disney beats Netflix🥇 | Zandu scion sets up family office⚕️ | Meta raises $10 Bn💰
Disney beats Netflix on streaming subscribers, Nihar Parikh sets up family office, Meta raises $10 bn in bond offering, Funding Deals & more.
Good Morning,
Start your day, the smart way!
1 Mail | 2 Minutes | 3 Stories
Disney beats Netflix on streaming subscribers, announces higher prices🥇
Media giant Walt Disney edged past popular over-the-top (OTT) platform Netflix with a total of 221 million streaming customers, announcing that it will raise prices for customers who seek to watch Disney+ or Hulu without commercials.
The Walt Disney will raise the monthly cost of Disney+ without advertising by 38% to $10.99 in December, as it would start to offer a new option that includes ads for the current price.
Earlier in 2017, Disney staked its future on building a streaming service to rival Netflix as audiences moved to online viewing from traditional cable and broadcast television.
In just five years, Disney has edged past Netflix in total streaming customers. Combined with Hulu and ESPN+, Disney said it had 221.1 million streaming subscribers at the end of the June quarter, while Netflix said it had 220.7 million streaming subscribers.
Zandu scion Nihar Parikh sets up family office for healthcare bets⚕️
Nihar Parikh, who sold his family-run business ZCL Chemicals (formerly Zandu Chemicals) to private equity fund Advent last year has launched a healthcare focussed fund 4Point0 Health Ventures which will make early-stage investments in startups.
The family office will deploy about $75 million into the sector.
Since January, 4Point0 Health Ventures has funded business-to-business platform Saveo, digital therapeutic startup Fitterfly, elective surgery provider Glaymo Health, and Eka Care which digitises the health records of patients.
The Mumbai-based family office wants to invest anywhere between $1-2 million in seed to Series B financing rounds.
Hot Shorts⚡
Customer engagement and user retention software platform Clevertap has raised $105 million in a Series D funding round led by global investment group CDPQ.
Lysto, a web3 startup that provides tools to gamers, has raised $12 million (about Rs 95 crore) from Square Peg, Beenext, Hashed, Tiger Global, and Better Capital.
Bigspoon, a cloud kitchen startup, has raised Rs 100 crores in a funding round led by IAN.
Proptech startup Landeed has bagged Rs 19.5 crore in Pre-Seed funding round led by Clutterbot CEO Justin Hamilton, CRED’s Kunal Shah, Chris Maurice of Yellow Card and Christian Kaczmarczyk of Third Prime VC.
Meta raises $10 billion in the first-ever bond offering💰
Facebook-parent Meta Platforms has raised $10 billion in its first-ever bond offering, as it looks to fund share buybacks and investments to revamp its business, Reuters reported.
The offering would help Meta, the only one among big technology companies without debt on its books, to build a more traditional balance sheet and fund some expensive initiatives, such as its metaverse virtual reality.
Other tech giants such as Apple and Intel also issued bonds recently, raising $5.5 billion and $6 billion, respectively.
In late July, Meta posted a gloomy forecast and recorded its first-ever quarterly drop in revenue, with recession fears and competitive pressures weighing on its digital ads sales.
Tweet of the day🐥
📸 Follow us on Instagram.
Other Top Stories
📃 RBI releases regulatory framework for digital lending
🕵🏻 ED probing crypto exchanges for alleged laundering of over Rs 1,000 crore
“Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.”
- William Ellery Channing
Thanks for reading😊
If you enjoyed the newsletter, please share it with your friends and colleagues. It will help us reach more readers.