BQuick On Oct. 16: Top 10 Stories In Under 10 Minutes

This is a roundup of the day’s top stories in brief.

1. Inside Razorpay: India’s Newest Fintech Unicorn

Razorpay started out in 2014 with a very simple premise—that despite proliferation of businesses around payments in India, small firms, young startups and many others still found it difficult to find the right payment solutions.

• And so, two IIT-Roorkee alumni—Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar—decided to leave their corporate jobs and take a shot at building a payment gateway focused on these segments.

• Six years later, Razorpay became the latest Indian fintech startup to have a $1 billion valuation. A unicorn, joining the league of Paytm, PhonePe, BillDesk and PineLabs.

Here’s how Mathur and Kumar, after a dose of reality check, built out their billion dollar payments startup.

2. Crisis And Recovery: A Mobius-Mukherjea Exclusive

Whenever the economy is hit by a mega-crisis, surprisingly consumption proves to be far more robust than most people expect it to be, write Mark Mobius and Saurabh Mukherjea.

• Furthermore, financially strong, dominant franchises consolidate market share during such crises.

• Finally, stock markets tend to perform well following major crises.

Read the surprising evidence.

3. Blackstone Nears $2-Billion India Deal

Blackstone Group Inc. is nearing a deal to buy an Indian developer’s commercial properties for about $2 billion, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News.

• The U.S. private equity group is in advanced talks to acquire Prestige Estates Projects Ltd.’s rent-yielding assets including offices and operating malls, the people said, asking not to be identified as the discussions are private.

Terms haven’t been finalised and negotiations could still be delayed or fall apart, the people said.

4. Nifty Trims Weekly Loss; UPL Slumps

India’s stock benchmarks rose, trimming a weekly loss, after another signal that economic growth is recovering and as government steps to boost liquidity buoyed sentiment.

• The S&P BSE Sensex ended 0.6% higher at 39,982.

• The NSE Nifty 50 index ended 0.7% higher at 11,762.

• Both measures clocked their first weekly loss in three, falling 1.3% each.

• Shares of UPL Ltd. posted the worst intraday fall in five months after KPMG Mauritius resigned as auditor to its subsidiary UPL Corp.

Follow the day’s trading action here.