☀️ Happy Friday Junior!

If Thursday had a vibe, it would be “wearing sneakers to a wedding”—half work, half weekend. And that’s exactly the mood we’re serving with today’s Masala Chai. From Zepto Café's kitchen cooldown to quantum ambitions, brownies, and billionaires investing in sneakers, we've got your daily dose of India’s business buzz, brewed just right. Let’s sip.

🗞️ Chai Shots

• 🥪 Zepto Café Cools Off Amid Supply Chain Snags: Zepto is reportedly hitting pause on its 10-minute food delivery vertical, Zepto Café, scaling down operations due to supply chain bottlenecks and a shortage of trained kitchen staff. More in the Big Brew!

• 🌎 US Teases Trade Pact With India: US President Donald Trump says America is "very close" to striking a trade deal with India, hinting at an agreement that could ease tariffs and open up bilateral trade. This comes just after the US slashed tariffs for Indonesia to 19%, and Trump noted India may be next "on a similar line."

• 🍪 Theobroma set for a sweet buyout: ChrysCapital is all set to pick up a 90% stake in Theobroma for ₹2,410 crore. The deal includes buyouts from ICICI Venture and the Messman family—though the founding family will still hold 10%. From one Mumbai bakery in 2004 to 194 stores today, it’s been a brownie-powered rise.

• 💸 7-Eleven’s Parent Tanks After $47B Deal Falls Flat: Shares of Japan’s Seven & i Holdings—owner of 7-Eleven—sank over 9% after Canadian retail giant Couche-Tard walked away from its $47 billion takeover offer. The Canadians accused Seven & i of ghosting them during negotiations, despite months of courtship and a sweetened offer.

📈 Market Masala

• 📊 Nifty inches up, Sensex stays steady: The Nifty closed at 25,212, up 16 points, while the Sensex added 63 points to settle at 82,368. A tug-of-war between bulls and bears kept markets choppy all day, with no clear direction due to muted global cues and a slow earnings start.

• 🏦 Financials lift, metals lag: PSU banks led the charge with a 1.7% surge, while metal and pharma stocks saw profit booking. IT, auto, and realty also posted moderate gains, helping offset the drag.

• 🍎 Apple’s iPhone Orchard in India Bears Record Fruit: Apple has hit a new high in India, churning out nearly 24 million iPhones in H1 2025—a 53% YoY surge—as it races to diversify away from China and dodge US tariffs. Exports alone clocked $22.56 billion in value, with Foxconn and Tata Electronics powering the production engine. India now contributes significantly to Apple’s global supply chain, and buzz is building around the early trial production of the iPhone 17 in Tamil Nadu—possibly the earliest ever India-based launch ramp-up.

• 💻 India bets big on quantum with $32M for QpiAI: Bengaluru-based QpiAI, backed by the Indian government’s ₹6,200 crore National Quantum Mission, has raised $32M in Series A to build utility-scale quantum computers.

• 📝 Trademark Reboot Incoming to Cut Red Tape: The Indian government is brewing changes to the Trademark Rules, aiming to speed up approvals and clear the backlog. Proposals include slashing the opposition window from four to two months and handling hearings internally before involving courts.

🌍 Global Masala

• 📊 Wall Street Wobbles After Trump’s Powell Flip-Flop: US futures slipped slightly after a volatile Wednesday session where stocks first dropped, then rebounded. The chaos? A report that Trump might fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell—followed by Trump saying he wasn’t planning on it… but also not ruling it out.

• 📉 Asia-Pacific Markets Mixed: Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.6% as traders reacted to poor export data and Powell-Fed uncertainty. Australian and Hong Kong futures showed a more upbeat tone.

• 🚚 Japan’s Export Engine Stalls Amid Tariff Heat: Japan’s exports dipped for the second month in a row, shrinking 0.5% in June thanks to tumbling shipments to China and the US. Car exports to the US—a key pillar of Japan’s economy—plunged nearly 27%, as a 25% tariff looms from August 1.

• 🛍️ Richemont’s Japan Sales Drop 15%: Cartier-owner Richemont saw sales fall as a strengthening yen cooled last year’s luxury boom fuelled by Chinese tourists. Still, jewellery demand kept global sales up 6%.

☕ Big Brew: Zepto Café Is Cooling Down — What Went Wrong With the 10-Minute Food Hustle?

Zepto's once-hyped 10-minute food delivery venture, Zepto Café, is quietly simmering down. With staff shortages, supplier delays, and a nosedive in orders, India's instant kitchen experiment is hitting real-world roadblocks. Here's the full lowdown:

• 🧑‍🍳 Kitchen blues: Zepto is grappling with a shortage of trained chefs and sourcing issues. Complex menu items like fried foods have been pulled as it tries to streamline back-end operations.

• 📉 Order volumes cut in half: What once hit 1.3 lakh daily orders has dropped to 65,000–67,000. The slowdown began around May and hasn't picked up since.

• 🚪 Cafe closures creeping in: In May alone, 44 Café outlets were shut across north India. Expansion has halted, and even new dark store launches have slowed significantly.

• 📲 App crash diet: The standalone Zepto Café app, which saw 1.5 million downloads in December 2024, slipped to just 17,000 downloads in June. Marketing spends have been slashed too, especially for performance ads.

• 🧊 Suppliers left on ice: Vendors complain that large orders are being delayed or not picked up at all. One supplier says monthly orders shrank from ₹1.5 crore to just ₹50 lakh.

• 💰 Funding ahead, IPO on radar: Zepto is now in talks to raise $500M from existing investors—seen as a pre-IPO war chest. But a tough Café season might spook some backers.

• 🍔 Competition heats up: Blinkit’s Bistro and Swiggy’s Snacc are gaining momentum, even as they too slow new store openings. Their simpler menus and deeper logistics bench are proving more sustainable.

🤔 What does this mean?

Zepto Café's struggle reveals the limits of ultra-fast food delivery at scale. Logistics and operations in hot kitchens are far more complex than delivering milk and eggs. While Zepto insists it's not backing off—highlighting ₹1,000 crore in Café sales—the pullback suggests a rebalancing act. The quick commerce game is evolving, and so is the recipe for success.

🚀 Startup Scoop

• 💊 Truemeds picks up Rx cash: With a fresh $20M from Peak XV, Truemeds now has over $90M in funding and a valuation of $410M. Its prescription-matching algorithm and discounted meds model are clicking with users, especially in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.

• 🛵 BeepKart pulls the brakes in Chennai: Stellaris-backed used two-wheeler marketplace BeepKart has shut operations in Chennai and laid off the entire team there. Bengaluru is also being scaled down as the company shifts to a leaner, asset-light model amidst ongoing cash pressures.

• 🎮 NODWIN Levels Up, Nazara Steps Back: Esports giant NODWIN Gaming is gearing up for a fresh funding round from existing investors to fuel its next growth phase—but parent Nazara Technologies won’t be joining in. That means Nazara’s stake will be diluted, and it will lose majority control along with some key rights.

• 🧵 Culture Circle raises from OYO’s Ritesh Agarwal: The luxury and streetwear platform raised a strategic round at ₹100+ crore valuation. The money will go toward scaling its AI-based authentication tool SourceX, new categories, and more offline stores.

🧠 Chai Break Trivia

🦄 Did you know the word “unicorn” for startups wasn’t always common — it was coined in 2013 because billion-dollar startups were that rare.

Today? There are over 1,200 unicorns globally. So maybe we need a new mythological creature. Phoenix, anyone?

🔮 What’s Brewing Next?

• 📈 Q1 Earnings Season Picks Up Steam: Expect action from FMCG and IT majors over the next 7 days. Market mood will hinge on margin performance and forward guidance.

🫖 Until tomorrow…

That’s your Friday Junior pour of Masala Chai! Whether you're snacking on a Theobroma brownie or rage-deleting the Zepto Café app because your paratha was late, we hope you're now better informed—and slightly more entertained.

Catch you tomorrow with another cup of India’s business buzz. Until then, sip smart. ☕💼