Latest news with #NandanNilekani-backed
Mint
02-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Mint Primer: Why Sebi wants investors to skip opinion trading
This week, the markets regulator issued a note advising investors to stay away from 'opinion trading' platforms, warning that it does not regulate these entities. Why is the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) unhappy about opinion trading? Mint explains. Also Read | Mint Primer: US GDP contracts 0.3% in Q1—why the IMF still sees no recession Sebi told investors that 'opinion trading' platforms use the terminology and structures taken from regulated markets, including terms such as 'profits', 'stop loss', and 'trading'. These phrases make opinion trading platforms seem like they are similar to regular trading platforms allowing trade in stocks, bonds, and other financial securities. However, Sebi warned, an opinion or a Yes/No prediction to a question is not considered a financial security and cannot be legally traded like a stock. Sebi does not regulate these platforms and they operate in a legal grey area. In short: 'opinion traders' are on their own. Also Read | Mint Primer: What IT companies' Q4 show means for investors Opinion (or event) trading apps allow users to place bids on the outcome of an event, such as the outcome of a cricket match, the value of assets such as Bitcoin. Globally, 'prediction markets' consider the answer to the question as a 'contract', much like a futures or an options contract. However, India's securities law does not recognise outcomes of events such as cricket matches as a valid contract. Therefore apps like Nandan Nilekani-backed Probo and Sequoia-backed MPL Opinio are not regulated by Sebi. With no specific laws, they are largely considered to be a subset of real money gaming. Also Read | Clicks & growls: Why AI's hearing the call of the wild Yes, in the US. Kalshi is an opinion trading platform that is regulated by the US's Commodity Futures Trading Commission and is legal for all US residents. However, other global firms such as Polymarket are illegal in the country. An older venture named iPredict ran in New Zealand between 2008 and 2016, but shut down following legal challenges. Opinion trading is neither legal nor illegal. But trading apps are making a case to recognise it as skill-based gaming, and not betting. Last week, two papers made this argument; the first was written by a professor from IIT Delhi and commissioned by trading firm Probo, and another by law firm Evam Law and Policy. They used mathematical evidence to show that successfully taking positions on the outcome of events—such as a cricket match—is determined by a user's skills and knowledge, and not by chance. If they can prove it, they could be recognised as real-money skill-based games, much like fantasy cricket or online poker. But that may not resolve their regulatory problems. Last year, India imposed a 28% GST on real money gaming apps. This is applicable on their prize pool (the total amount users spend) and not on the companies' revenue. Taxation has hurt many real-money gaming companies. But Y-Combinator backed opinion trading app Better Opinions pivoted to real-money gaming after the new taxation kicked in.
Time of India
23-04-2025
- Business
- Time of India
NR Narayana Murthy's Catamaran funds auto parts maker Sedemac
Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy 's family office Catamaran has made an investment in Pune-based automotive electronic and electrical component maker Sedemac Mechatronics . The financials of the transaction could not be ascertained. 'It was a secondary transaction. One of the early investors has exited and Catamaran has joined the cap table,' said a person privy to the development. The secondary deal comes ahead of talks of a potential initial public offering ( IPO ) of Rs 800-1,000 crore. While the exiting investor was not disclosed, its early investors include Nandan Nilekani-backed NRJN Family Trust, which invested in 2017, and growth investor Iron Pillar, which infused capital in 2018. The Catamaran deal also comes along the lines of the potential growth seen in the domestic supply chain in precision manufacturing in India. Its other investors include Xponentia Capital Partners, A91 Partners and 360 ONE Asset along with family offices of Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan and Mindtree co-founder NS Parthasarathy, Raintree Family Office of Leena Dandekar and logistics & courier company AFL Pvt Ltd's chairman and managing director Cyrus Guzder. Both Catamaran and Sedemac founder Shashikanth Suryanarayanan declined to comment. Catamaran has over $1 billion in assets with public and private investments across technology, manufacturing, deep tech and ecommerce. The family office has backed around 28 private firms including Acko, Udaan, PaperBoat and Elon Musk's SpaceX. Its most recent publicly known investment was in July 2024 in Bengaluru-headquartered Eton Solutions, a cloud-based software services firm for family offices. Last year, Catamaran's president Deepak Padaki told ETabout the investor's strategy to focus on public market companies and plans to expand its portfolio with intelligent manufacturing startups focused on robotics, predictive analytics, maintenance, etc. In May last year, Sedemac, the brand name under which the company operates, saw a $100 million (then around Rs 830 crore) investment round led by Xponentia Capital Partners, A91 Partners and 360 ONE Asset at a valuation of $230 million. However, a majority of the funding was a secondary transaction with around $9 million of the investment infused into building a new manufacturing plant. That round saw the full exit of the company's first institutional investor Nexus Venture Partners along with TR Capital and Montane Ventures. Since its inception in 2007, the company has raised nearly $26 million (around Rs 220 crore as on Tuesday's exchange rate). Sedemac, an acronym for Separating Decision Making from Actuation, the principle behind mechatronics, was founded by IIT-Bombay professor Suryanarayanan and his lab students—Manish Sharma, Amit Dixit and Pushkaraj Panse. The company makes critical components used to help generate power in automotive vehicles. Its products are used in small engines, electric vehicles and e-bikes. Sedemac employs over 400 people and caters to large original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in India, including Hero Motocorp , Mahindra Group and TVS. The firm has a development centre and two manufacturing plants in India.
