Daybreak

Eyestem, a 14-member biotech startup from Bengaluru is turning heads in global pharma circles. With just $10 million and a modest 1,200 sq ft office, it has developed a promising cell therapy for dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD)—a condition that leads to blindness and has no cure. Early trial results are not only encouraging, they’re outperforming billion-dollar competitors in the West.

But this isn’t just about scientific innovation. It’s about doing more with less. Eyestem’s founders set out with a bold goal: to build a cutting-edge treatment that’s actually affordable, especially for Indian patients. Think world-class therapy in under $10,000. In the current world of cell and gene therapies, where treatments often cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and remain out of reach for most, it is next to impossible.

How did Eyestem achieve this and what does this means for the future of biotech in India?

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Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Nagpur-based Counter Cyclical Investments doesn’t waste time with handholding. The six-year-old firm has a reputation for being quite cut and dry with its clients.  

Consider some gems from the ‘who should invest with us’ long-list. “Those who won’t disturb us by calling us for reassurance everytime the market falls.” “We don’t have any provision for a relationship manager. Once you have taken an informed decision to invest in our PMS, please avoid calling us. Those who are looking for regular correspondence and active interaction, may please stay away.” 

Now, if you think moneyed investors—the kind who have to put in at least Rs 50 lakh to be a part of Counter Cyclical—are put off by the insolence, you’re wrong. Counter Cyclical’s assets under management have shot up over 10X in the past three years, and its customer count has grown by leaps and bounds.

Why? The only scheme—a small-cap one —run by the six-year-old fund house is a chart-topper with five year annualised returns of, believe-it-or-not, 78%. 

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If you have any thoughts or questions about this episode, send them to us as texts or voice notes on Daybreak’s WhatsApp at +918971108379. 

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Four months ago, food delivery giant Zomato decided to run an experiment. If you are a regular patron of the app, you may have noticed a tab called ‘Quick’ appear, that promised 15-minute deliveries in a bunch of metropolitan cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi NCR. 

Now, the company’s founder and CEO made an interesting statement last year that explains why it would choose to try out this experiment. He was asked a question about how quick commerce has changed customer expectations around food delivery. And he said, quite simply – “Blinkit is fast, but that has made Zomato seem slow.” 

He has a point. You may recall that Zomato subsidiary Blinkit launched its in-house 10-minute snack delivery service called Bistro last year, just one day after the very popular Zepto cafe was launched. Swiggy Instamart meanwhile, launched a similar service called Snacc. 

In many ways, 2024 was the year 10-minute food delivery became the next frontier of quick commerce.

Naturally, the biggest food delivery giants in the country did not want to be left behind. So while Zomato launched Quick, Swiggy rolled out its own ultra-fast delivery service, Bolt. 

But here’s where things get interesting. While announcing its Q4 results last week, Zomato announced that its four-month experiment was very quickly coming to an end. In a letter to shareholders, Deepinder Goyal explained that they just could not see a path to profitability without compromising on customer experience.

The Ken's COO and the host of Two by Two Praveen Gopal Krishnan explains what changed. 

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Thanks to AI, economic disruptions, mass layoffs, and a bunch of other fun things, the 40-year career is no longer something you can take for granted. And that fundamentally changes the nature of our careers. No one embodies that change more than the Gen Z workforce. 

Young employees are now seeking a job, not a career. They don't join organisations to retire from them. Instead they see them merely as a step along the way. 

Which is why, the most rigid companies, known for being forts of loyalists, are loosening up to accommodate the needs of younger generations.

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Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

The world’s “most respected” test of school education—the Programme for International Student Assessment or PISA—began this March. 90 countries are on the list including China, Vietnam and some of the poorest nations in the world. But India? We’re sitting this one out. In fact, India hasn’t touched PISA in 16 years!

The last time it did, in 2009, India ranked 72nd out of 73 countries. Only Kyrgyzstan did worse. Ever since, the country has been quietly working behind the scenes to fix its education system through a slow and steady effort to modernise how students are tested. The government set up Parakh, an ambitious body under NCERT, to bring all of India’s 69 school boards on the same level and align with global standards.

But can a country as huge and diverse as India really move away from rote learning to a system that values real-world problem solving and critical thinking?

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If you have any thoughts or questions about this episode, send them to us as texts or voice notes on Daybreak’s WhatsApp at +918971108379. 

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

The Life insurance Corporation of India or LIC is now stepping into a sector where more than 860 million Indians or nearly 60% of the population still has no coverage. The insurer signalled its big move into health insurance in March this year with a major acquisition—49% of Manipal Cigna, a private health insurer, in a deal valued at over ₹3,500 crore.

And here’s where things get really interesting.

This is LIC we are talking about. It doesn’t need to chase quarterly returns or exist to make shareholders rich. It exists to do things, to fix things and show up when the government needs a nudge—or a battering ram. And in a country where trust, access, and affordability in healthcare are still broken concepts for most, a battering ram could be exactly what’s needed.

In this episode, we are look at LIC’s entry into health insurance and how the rest of the sector is bracing itself. Because if LIC gets this right, it won’t just be another player in the market. It could be the market.

If you have any thoughts or questions about this episode, send them us as texts or voice notes on Daybreak’s WhatsApp at +918971108379. 

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Ather Electric once pioneered the electric two wheeler segment. But now it has fallen behind its competition like Ola Electric and TVS Motor in terms of market share.

To make matters worse, its recent IPO saw a lukewarm response from investors. One thing is clear -- up until now, Ather’s focus has been on building superior products, loaded with features and a smooth user experience. But to take things to the next level, Ather will have to build a more compelling narrative.

How did it get here? What's next for the EV maker?

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Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Mahindra’s new EVs the XEV 9e and BE6 were marketed as software wrapped in metal. They promised the future. Things like augmented reality heads up display, auto park assist, a triple screen dashboard, an in car camera, and a digital key based on near field communication. 

But now, that long list of cutting edge features is proving to be a real bottleneck for the company. The Ken spoke to at least a dozen frustrated buyers of Mahindra’s new electric twins, who haven’t yet received their cars despite promised deliveries. 

Why? Well, the reason apparently is a software update. Buyers have found that the digital keys they were handed at the showrooms just wouldn’t work. Touchscreens were freezing, Cameras were glitching. The list goes on. 

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Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Earlier this month, India’s largest third party logistics company, Delhivery, acquired its biggest rival Ecom Express in a $165 million distress sale. The acquisition could not have come at a better time for both parties. 

Things have been tough for Ecom for some time now. The company, in fact, called off its IPO plans just this February, about six months after filing the papers and ended up laying off hundreds of its employees. 

Meanwhile, Delhivery has been soldiering some tough times too.  By acquiring its floundering rival, Delhivery seems to be going all out to claw back some business. But is that enough? 

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Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

In January this year, Netradyne, the logistics AI startup, became India’s first unicorn of 2025 after it raised $90 million in series D funding. 

You see, it did not take it long to realise that its sweet spot is the long-distance trucking segment. It serves over 3,000 customers across eight countries, including the likes of Amazon, Shell, Indian Oil and Greenline Mobility. And it all began with one rather primitive prototype. Of course, now it has morphed into a compact device with a built-in GPU, up to four cameras, and a disembodied voice alerting drivers not to crash the vehicle.

The Ken reporter Abhirami G found herself in the backseat of one of Netradyne’s test cars in Bengaluru's Whitefield neighbourhood. The driver of the car was a Netradyne employee. And as he weaved through the traffic, the company’s signature always-on surveillance cameras didn’t just watch his every move, but also apparently “understood” and “analysed”. As he drove, he was generating the precious training data that powers the company’s bread and butter. Apart from making roads safer, this whole system also doubles up as a driver’s best legal defence in times of trouble. The company’s executive Vice president of Engineering Teja Gudena said that on multiple occasions, it has saved drivers from liability by proving their innocence in accidents.

Apart from its new-found unicorn status, it reportedly managed to clock Rs 1,000 crore in revenue in 2023. It also currently has a stronghold in the US and other major global markets. Reaching all of these milestones within nine years is pretty remarkable. But despite all that success, Netradyne is now grappling with an existential crisis. Because now, driverless vehicles are no longer science fiction, they are a logistical inevitability. And that leaves Netradyne in a rather tricky spot.

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This episode was first published on Feb 13, 2025

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.