lln low-income americans with the tools and resources they need to be ready for anything. i hope you're ready. 'cause we are. ♪ caroline: welcome back to "bloomberg technology," en caroline hyde in london sitting in for emily chang. let's get the latest news from ed ludlow. ed: in india, softbank has invested $450 million in bangalore food delivery startup, amazing because in india it is such a crowd field. even more extraordinary, if you flip board, look at the details,

a $5.5 billion valuation that came less than a week after the company raised 800 million dollars u.s. from a stellar list of private-market investors. they have ground for new unicorns in india, and it is incredible, the capital going into the country at a time when the economy is still ravaged by covid-19. i wanted to spot like that because it is something we should look at further. we need to keep talking about quick now -- about crypto and about mainstream investors piling in. a well-known hedge fund internationally according to sources is going to invest its main fund into cryptocurrency, betting that the value of the digital assets will rise. it is an interesting play on the back of a record year for its main fund last year, where it exceeded 27% returns. this is a theme we have been talking about all week. to finish again, kathy would -- cathie wood arc has three etf's

that has bought millions of dollars worth of coin-based stocks. it is an interesting bet. we are talking about cathie wood and aslan and now we are talking about cryptocurrency and the equities associated with them. caroline: ed ludlow, thank you. let's talk about another person who has been loving crypto for a while after it close lower than its closing price on wednesday, but still a blockbuster direct listing and received a mixed reaction from investors including arc investor kathy cathie wood. >> cryptocurrencies are vehicles for speculation. nobody is using them for

payments like the dollar. they are using them to speculate, like gold. >> expect tremendous fallibility -- volatility. this is going to be unstable in terms of investors and analysts's understanding what coin-based actually is. >> i believe most of the people deeply invested in this company and this economy, this new crypto economy, our long-term thinkers about what is going to be possible. witness going to be a really interesting one for decades to come. >> this is a very successful direct listing. a lot of investor through the as a -- a lot of investor enthusiasm, watershed day for crypto and coinbase in general. there is tremendous enthusiasm. caroline: coinbase at some of the biggest volume today in terms of action. joining us to discuss is gus

coldobella of paradigm. your focused on crypto but you are a top investor. what about the legal ramifications of all this, but with your investment hat first, how important is it that devin howard was saying -- was talking about buying vis-a-vis the current ecosystem. gus: everything that happened in the past week related to coinbase and serious other players making an announcement about etf's are nothing smithson quick no points to the main issue here, which is that crypto is that a mainstream inflection point. five years ago. there will forward-looking hobbyists in the area, and stories would come across the newspaper every once in a while. today is in the newspaper every day. it is totally in the public consciousness. bitcoin at all times hike --

bitcoin at all-time highs, koibase going public, fidelity and galaxy end of the companies filing etf of occasions -- etf applications with the ftc had this is resulting in well-deserved attention to the sector. caroline: some have started to rename etf's as dt -- ptcs, no less -- btcs no less. to look at the future of individuals thinking about crypto and also policymaking, i am interested in your perspective of what policymakers are making the crypto space? are they coming? gus: the reason we got together, paradigm with fidelity sh to form crypto counsel for

innovation is that because there is so much focus on crypto now, not just among the general public and investing public, but among regulators, eight if our job is to sit down at the same table with regulators in the united states and around the world and talk about what we believe the massive opportunities around crypto are, job creating ability, it is ability to cause people to be more included in the financial system. not everybody has a bank account, but almost everybody has a phone, as well as the enhancement of personal privacy and national security that cryptocurrency can bring. the first thing we did this week , caroline, our first release was a paper from former director of the cia mike morel about how crypto is a boon to governments when the regulatory environment

allows them to be used within particular countries. caroline: full disclosure, my husband is a senior manager at coinbase. at home, i drink the kool-aid hearing from him some of the positive reasons you outline about crypto. what i am hearing more and more is concerned about the environmental effect. is that something you are dealing with a policymaking perspective? how much of that is a backlash to where crib knowing crypto mining could go? gus: i am really glad you raised that. crypto has missed impressions. if we are not sitting with policymakers and people thinking about this and developing a shared set of facts, policies are going to be made and decisions are going to be made in an incomplete way. i think a lot of crypto community members have addressed

and will continue to address energy usage stories, including one in the new york times today, was was -- which was forcefully pushed back on by other members of the community. so we are alone the same page about that. it underscores, caroline, the reason we need a global educational organization like crypto counsel for innovation, to get thinkers outside crypto to focus on these problems so that we can all enjoy the benefits. caroline: just so our audience is on the same page, what is the argument that you should switch to a more environmentally-friendly energy system? gus: the arguments that you see are that crypto, especially bitcoin and others, are high-energy can stash our high energy consumers -- -- are high

energy consumers. that is nothing case. there are very credible arguments that bitcoin drives innovation in green energy because the system finds inefficient uses of energy and uses them when they would be wasted and polluted if not used. there is a body of work on this that is important to get out, and we see a lot lot of folks pushing back on point -- pushing back on coinbase listings and crypto that are using arguments that we have found just do not hold any water. caroline: we will read more about what you are putting out from the crypto counsel for innovation. paradigm's gus coldobella, thank you.

coming up, index ventures partner nina achadjian joins us to discuss a new $200 million seed fund and what kind of start ups are looking for. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ caroline: seat funding -- seed funding is not new to index ventures. the firm has backed this i spoke companies at the seed stage, like robinhood and deliver oo. the firm has launched a new, $200 million seed fund called index origins. partner nina achadjian joins us

now for more. talk about the seed fund and the companies you have picked for success. nina: we have been doing seed investing for quite some time at index. index origin is a way for us to meet the needs of new founders. they need a platform that can scale with them from origin all the way through out. so being able to do a $200 million seed fund is part of our $800 million venture fund in order to do this. what we are doing to help founders be successful with today is having access to capital and a trusted partner from day one of the journey until the company matures into an ipo company. caroline: in the past 18 months, index ventures has done about 40 seed investments including goodie and remote, companies that do varied things, some

making payments easier, some making ai much easier. is there a consistent theme as to what you are looking for? nina: that is the beauty of seed investing, because you can be on the cutting-edge of sectors that are not etf's. across the u.s. and europe, we invest in a broad range of seeds, artificial intelligence, fintech, but we are excited to back new, emerging technologies like robotics at the seed stage so we can learn about these new sectors before they come some -- before they become mainstream. caroline: interesting. how do you go about it at the moment, word-of-mouth? how do you as nina achadjian go out and hear about the latest? nina: a combination of things. first, relationships matter most in venture capital. a lot of entrepreneurs would meet are actually through

introductions from other entrepreneurs that we have worked with arbat in the past. second -- worked with or met in the past. we collaborate with seed funds and hope to collaborate with the seed ecosystem, solo gp and other seed funds. third, data scientists play great role in finding companies early. we track where executives are going, how much the headcount as grown, so a combination of these things find entrepreneurs early as seeds. caroline: it is interesting how we fast-track the growth trajectory of these companies, and the spac environment in particular is plucking out companies that perhaps would not have thought they were going to exit any time soon and go public and suddenly, there they are. you have so much expense taking companies public, robinhood, wise is another, and you have learned through the experienced

of -- the experience of deliveroo, how do you learn about exit strategies and what you think about the lifecycle? nina: if you are a founder today, number one, there is more capital than ever, which is great because you can raise, higher faster, go to market faster. second, because there is more capital available in the barrios to entry to starting a company are lower, competition is fierce. in the past, let's say you raised a seed round, you usually had a year maybe two years to build your team, perfect products, invest in marketing and gain customers. now, you have a mere couple of months before you have to get out to market because you want to be ahead of your competitors. this is a compressed timeline. the sisi rounds are happening within much of each other -- the rounds are happening within months of each other. caroline: you are in san francisco and i am in london and

index is global in nature. we heard from colleague ed ludlow about opportunities in india. i am interested in what you think about where the best companies are growing? it pains me as a follower of european technology to see what happened to deliveroo in its debut coming to the market, and did that have a hit to european tech? nina: what has happened over the last year has leveled the playing field and democracized the economy. we have been bullish on europe. we continue to be excited. it is such a big market and there are so many opportunities. we are still extremely excited about opportunities outside silicon valley and the u.s., and continue to invest in entrepreneurs in europe and

globally. caroline: i know you have invested in armenian companies in particular, and the like. great to spend some time with you. we will have you soon, nina achadjian, has got a wealth of experience and started out as i-yield bond leader. coming up, mercedes enters a new era with the flagship s-class sedan going all electric. we hear from the daimler ceo, the new launch that aims to take on rivals' head on in the luxury market. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ shery: -- caroline: taiwan semiconductor manufacturing warns a shortage

of semiconductors may extend into 2022. the world's largest contract maker as listed targets this year for spending and growth in says automaker clients can expect chip shortages to ease next quarter, with deficits going into next year. the company joins industry giants who warn of deficits due to unprecedented demand for everything from cars to game consoles to mobile devices. chinese carmaker geely is introducing a new car to take on giants like apple and huawei who want to take on the ev market. we spoke to them earlier. >> we are critical for this. it was funneled for geely. no matter its brand, products, themes, organization or culture, which is no different than any other tech company.

caroline: all of this as german's -- germany's diebel introduces in all electric vehicle and aims to usher in a new era for mercedes, transferring it from a name of high-powered production engines that can maybe rival tesla on the ev front. the ceo ola kaellenius spoke to bloomberg's matt miller. >> something we have been doing research on for more than 15 years now. the particular recipe for the e qs is something we developed with a partner. if you look at the car, this bow shape, as our chief designer calls it, why is it like that? form follows function. it has the lowest drag coefficient of any serious production car.

the smooth shape helps and many details lead to great efficiency and also gives you the range. >> it keeps the design language pretty clearly mercedes. let's. . get back to the chip shortage used -- let's get back to the chip shortage. you say you prioritize them for vehicles like the s class, but how is it hindering production in 2021? ola: we had disruptions in the first quarter. we will continue to have disruptions in q2. we are never talking -- we are now talking about the recovery scenario with suppliers. it is not 100% clear on supply availability. we are hoping we will be able to make up for much of that loss in the second half of the year. but it is still kind of day to day management. >> how important is it to keep

your suppliers close to your production? a couple days ago, there was a story about your crosstown competition working with a battery producer institute cart, for example -- battery producer in stuttgart. >> are you trying -- are you trying to source cells close to where you manufacture? ola: our guiding principle is to go for the best, best technology, best innovation, cost structures that meet our targets. that worldwide network is not something that is going to disappear, nor do we want it to disappear. but as we scale some technologies, battery, we are going to need so many gigawatt hours on the way to 2030. so for some components, as has

been the case in the past as well, we will build up production in the most important regions where we have manufacturing. >> can you put a dollar figure on what kind of investment you are plowing into this new electric push? ola: many, many billions. the five-your plan time signed off on just -- five-year plan daimler signed off on just before christmas has a budget of $70 billion in the lion's share goes into technology. caroline: we had a story -- >> to save weight -- the car behind you -- what do you see about input prices? ola: across-the-board he goes up and down.

in some cases, you hedge, in some cases you fluctuate with the market, but in general, commodity markets in the long run tend to be efficient. if you get into a crunch, higher demand and prices go up, newer capacity comes online. so you can plan a product cycle of vehicles that may be on the market first -- you can't plan a product cycle of vehicles that may be on the market for seven years. caroline: the daimler ceo talking with our very own matt miller. that is it for this edition of "bloomberg technology." tomorrow, we hear from reid hoffman and get his thoughts on whether trump will be allowed back on big platforms. that and so much more tomorrow on "bloomberg technology."

stay with us for more. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ haidi: good morning and welcome to "bloomberg daybreak: australia." shery: good evening from bloomberg world headquarters in new york. i'm shery ahn. haidi: chinese gdp numbers, they report record growth, but the viral debacle preys on investors. economic