FirstCry parent cut its losses in the March quarter on tightened costs. This and more in today's ETtech Top 5.Also in the letter:■ Smartphone manufacturing race intensifies■ Pope Leo’s AI encyclical■ AI slop floods the internet Firstcry parent narrows YoY loss to Rs 30 crore on 12% revenue uptick Supam Maheshwari, CEO, FirstCryFirstCry parent Brainbees Solutions narrowed its net losses in the March quarter with an increase in revenue.Financials:Consolidated net losses: Rs 30.30 crore, versus Rs 77 crore in the year-ago period.Operating revenue: Up 12% to Rs 2,163 crore.Adjusted Ebitda: Rs 119 croreGross merchandising value (GMV): Rs 11,643 crore, up 10%.For full year FY26, net losses dropped 23% while revenue recorded a 12% surge. The FY26 Ebitda grew 24% YoY.Yes, and: "With our current initiatives, we believe that structurally the growth rate for both online and offline channels will be much superior in FY27," the company said in a filing.Slice swings to profit in first full year as small finance bank Rajan Bajaj, founder, SliceSlice Small Finance Bank posted strong results in its first full financial year after merging with North East Small Finance Bank.Financials:Net profit: Rs 48.4 crore, compared with a loss of Rs 216.7 crore in the previous year.Total income: More than doubled to Rs 1,402.7 crore in FY26 from Rs 603.8 crore a year earlier.Significance: The turnaround follows a bruising first year for the merged entity. ET had previously reported that Slice’s FY25 loss widened to Rs 216 crore even as revenue rose, driven by higher provisions and operating costs.The bank also inherited a weak loan book from North East Small Finance Bank, with elevated non-performing assets and a need for fresh capital prior to the merger.The recovery coincides with talks to raise $50-100 million at a sub-$1 billion valuation, ET has reported exclusively.Nandan Nilekani's Fundamentum bets big on AI, deeptech with Rs 3,000 crore purse Nandan Nilekani’s venture capital firm Fundamentum Partnership launched a dedicated frontier-tech platform, F2A (Fundamentum Frontier Advisors), to invest Rs 3,000 crore in artificial intelligence (AI) and deeptech startups.The details:Of this, Rs 2,000 crore will come through an alternative investment fund (AIF).The remaining Rs 1,000 crore will be deployed through co-investments alongside other investors, including limited partners (LPs), sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and strategic backers.F2A will back startups across consumer AI, enterprise AI and physical AI.Cheque sizes will range from Rs 40 crore to Rs 90 crore.Tell me more: Founded by Nilekani and Ashish Kumar, Fundamentum started in 2017 and has backed companies such as Spinny, PharmEasy, FarEye, KukuFM and AppsForBharat across its two funds. B2B quick commerce startup Fairdeal raises $15 million from Bertelsmann India, others Yash Bansal and Prateek Bansal, founders, FairdealBusiness-to-business (B2B) quick commerce platform Fairdeal.Market has raised $15 million in a round led by Bertelsmann India Investments, with participation from WaterBridge Ventures and Incubate Asia Fund.Fund usage: Fairdeal plans to use the money to add dark stores, strengthen its technology and data stack, and expand last-mile delivery capabilities, cofounder Prateek Bansal told ET.Smartphone manufacturing race heats up as PLI winds down Competition is heating up in India’s Android smartphone manufacturing market as the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for large-scale electronics nears its end, according to industry executives.What’s happening? Lower assembly costs are now a major draw for smartphone brands battling rising component prices and tighter margins.Even as the PLI scheme winds down, companies are not pulling back on manufacturing in India. Instead, brands are spreading orders across multiple contract manufacturers rather than leaning heavily on a single partner.Market snapshot: The shift is already denting larger players. For instance, analysts say India’s largest contract manufacturer, Dixon Technologies, has been losing market share to rivals such as Bhagwati Products, Karbonn and DBG.One analyst said Bhagwati has steadily captured production volumes that once went to Dixon. Earlier, Dixon handled nearly 60% of Oppo’s manufacturing in India through its Chinese design partner, Longcheer.Bhagwati’s partnership with China-based Huaqin, which has recently expanded its global market share, has further strengthened its ability to win smartphone manufacturing orders in India.Magnifica Humanitas: What Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical says on AI, jobs, power and Big Tech Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, warns that AI could reshape society in dangerous ways if governments and tech companies fail to act. A papal encyclical is a formal letter from the Pope to bishops, meant to guide the Church’s response on big moral questions.What the encyclical says: Concentrated control: A small group of companies now holds too much AI power, data and computing infrastructure, the pope warned.Threat to democracy: AI could be used to steer public opinion, politics and economic systems.Jobs at risk: The pope warned that AI-driven unemployment could become a “social calamity”.Protect workers: He urged governments and businesses to invest in retraining and stronger worker protections.The encyclical also echoes Rerum Novarum, the landmark 1891 Church text by Pope Leo XIII on workers’ rights during the Industrial Revolution, casting AI as an equally transformative moment in history.Hit or flop? AI slop is here to stay Across social media, AI slop has quietly become one of the internet’s fastest-growing content categories, flooding feeds at scale. What does it mean? AI slop spans everything from bizarre autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) clips to motivational videos stitched together with synthetic voiceovers and generated visuals. The content often looks disposable, but still racks up millions of views.This is just the latest iteration of a familiar pattern: clickbait headlines, meme pages, search engine optimisation (SEO) farms. But AI has slashed the cost and time needed to manufacture attention.Also Read: AI ignites India infra supercycleExpert take: Industry insiders say the trend exposes a deeper truth about how social media algorithms work.Anirudh Sridharan, cofounder of creator marketing platform HashFame, called it “a pure arbitrage game” built on near-zero production costs and infinite output. “Platforms optimise for watch time, completion rate, looping behaviour and shares. AI slop is engineered exactly for this,” he said.