Funding

Tata Elxsi inks €50 million multi-year deal with Europe-based auto company

As part of this collaboration, Tata Elxsi will establish a dedicated Global Engineering Centre to support the customer's software platform roadmap and brand-aligned software engineering programmes

Tighter norms, rising compliance failures driving scrutiny for startups

Jaggi brothers case spotlights rising governance issues in startup ecosystem

India's D2C segment sees funding decline to $757 million in 2024

The decline in funding can be attributed to investor caution amid global economic slowdown, oversaturation of similar brands, and fluctuating unit economics driven by high customer acquisition costs

Why Trump froze Harvard University’s $2.2 billion funding?

Trump admin freezes funding to Cornell, Northwestern over rights concerns

Trump has taken actions to toughen federal oversight over US higher education, including drastically reducing the billions of dollars in federal research funding schools receive

Smallcase raises $50 million in funding from Elev8 Venture, others

Model portfolios platform Smallcase on Friday said it has raised USD 50 million in a new funding round led by Elev8 Venture Partners. The funding round is a mix of primary issuance of shares by the company and also secondary, where existing investors have sold shares, as per a statement. Other investors who participated in the round include State Street Global Advisors, Niveshaay AIF, Faeringcapital and Arkam Ventures, it said. Newly raised money will be deployed for expanding investment product offerings across asset classes and strengthen relationships with retail investors and ecosystem partners, it said. The company launched in 2016 helps individuals take a diversified approach towards building long-term portfolios, and has witnessed transactions of over Rs 1.2 lakh crore. "The opportunity to help millions of Indians design better financial futures is one of huge responsibilities and we will continue to deliver on it," its co-founder and chief executive Vasanth Kamath ...

OpenAI close to finalising $40 bn SoftBank-led funding at $300 bn valuation

The deal is set to value the company at $300 billion including dollars raised - almost double the ChatGPT maker's previous valuation of $157 billion from when it raised money in October

Lender SMFG raises $175 mn through ECB facility on a fully hedged basis

Company to use fund to expand portfolio and provide 'greater access to credit for individuals and businesses'

Qcom player Zepto plans to raise $200-250 million ahead of IPO listing

The move is to increase the shareholding of domestic investors before the company goes for a listing this year

Ireda raises Rs 910 crore via Tier-II bonds at 7.74% coupon rate

State-owned IREDA on Tuesday said it has raised Rs 910 crore through issuance of bonds. The funds raised will enhance IREDA's Tier-II capital, increasing its net worth and capital-to-risk-weighted assets ratio (CRAR), IREDA said in a statement. IREDA has raised Rs 910.37 crore through the issuance of privately placed subordinated Tier-II bonds for a 10-year tenor at an annual coupon rate of 7.74 per cent, it said. "The successful raising of Tier-II capital reflects investors' strong confidence in IREDA's financial strength and strategic vision. "This will further empower us to accelerate green energy financing, aligning with the Government of India's target to achieve 500 GW of non-fossil fuel-based energy capacity by 2030," IREDA Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Pradip Kumar Das said. Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd (IREDA) is a non-banking financial institution under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

AI-powered startup Irame.ai raises $1 million from SenseAI Ventures

Irame.ai, an AI-powered enterprise productivity and audit intelligence platform, has raised USD 1 million (about Rs 8.4 crore) in funding from SenseAI Ventures. The funds will help the Gurugram-headquartered firm in enhancing operations in audit automation, anomaly detection, and enterprise compliance, a company statement said. "With this funding, Irame.ai will scale its AI-driven audit intelligence across enterprises, expand its capabilities, and set new benchmarks for governance and compliance automation in a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape," it said. The investment will aid the company to scale impact and make AI-driven audit intelligence the new standard for governance and risk management, Irame.ai Co-founder & CEO Kapil Arora said.

Turbostart invests $1 mn in Lighthouse PropTech's $2.5 mn funding round

The Dabur Family Office and several other high net-worth individual (HNI) family offices joined the round, valuing the company at $13.5 million

Elon Musk's X raises close to $1 bn in fresh funding at $32 valuation

The company is considering using some of the proceeds to pay down its remaining debt load

Everhope Oncology secured $10 million seed funding for expansion

This is the largest healthcare seed round in the last 24 months

Fashion-tech brand Virgio aims to invest $1 mn across 16 stores under plan

On the international front, the fashion-tech brand plans to open two stores in Dubai. It is currently scouting locations and aims to begin operations by the end of 2025

India's venture capital funding rises 43% to $13.7 billion in 2024

India's Venture Capital (VC) ecosystem exhibited robust growth in 2024, with funding surging 43 per cent year-on-year to USD 13.7 billion, according to a report. This recovery was fuelled by a 45 per cent rise in deal activity, with 1,270 transactions recorded, reinforcing India's position as the second largest market for venture capital and growth funding in the Asia-Pacific region, the report by Bain & Company and IVCA said. "Small- and medium-ticket deals (< USD 50 million), which made up around 95 per cent of the deals, increased by 1.4x, whereas USD 50 million+ deals nearly doubled, rebounding to pre-pandemic levels as high-quality assets attracted deployments. Megadeals (USD 100 million+) also rebounded with 1.6x increase in volumes as investors backed high-quality companies that successfully weathered the two-year funding winter," it said. The report noted that the consumer technology, software and SaaS (including generative AI), and fintech sectors attracted over 60 per

Wipro to invest $200 mn in Wipro Ventures to accelerate startups funding

IT major Wipro on Wednesday said it will invest USD 200 million (about Rs 1,740 crore) in its arm Wipro Ventures to accelerate its funding for startups in the technology innovation space. This marks the fourth funding round for Wipro Ventures since it began operations ten years ago, and is aimed at speeding up investments in startups at the early to mid-stage level, a company statement said. "This latest investment reaffirms our commitment to helping startups grow faster, innovate, and collaborate with the IT services industry to support large enterprises. We envision a collaborative ecosystem, where these emerging technologies can be deployed globally, drive progress, and create sustainable value for all stakeholders involved," Wipro CEO and MD Srini Pallia said. Established in 2015, Wipro Ventures focuses on identifying and investing in promising early-stage startups that drive technological innovation. The Wipro Ventures team connects Wipro and its clients to a global ecosystem o

India may miss key climate goal of 500-GW RE capacity by 2030: Report

India may fail to achieve its target of deploying 500 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity by 2030 if the annual funding does not increase by 20 per cent from the current levels, a new report warns. The report prepared by global energy think tank Ember said project-commissioning delays and uncertainties related to new age "Firm and Dispatchable Renewable Energy" (FDRE) projects could raise the cost of capital by up to 400 basis points. Delays in project commissioning have been caused by land-acquisition issues, grid connectivity delays and delays in signing power purchase agreements (PPAs), it said. According to the report, a 400 basis points increase in financing costs could result in India falling short of its 500-GW renewable energy target by up to 100 GW. A higher cost of capital would also increase electricity costs for consumers, it said. Investments in renewable power generation and transmission in the financial year 2024 were estimated at USD 13.3 billion, a 40-per

Geniemode raises over $50 million in Series C round led by Multiples

The investment is aimed at fuelling its global expansion and enhancing its technology-driven supply chain solutions, the company said

CapitaLand India Trust to invest Rs 1k cr in Maia Group's Bengaluru project

Singapore-based CapitaLand India Trust (CLINT) will provide around Rs 1,000 crore fund in a commercial project being developed by Maia Group in Bengaluru. In a statement on Friday, CLINT said it has "entered into a forward purchase agreement with Maia Estates Offices Pvt Ltd to acquire an office project at Nagawara, Outer Ring Road (ORR), Bengaluru". Maia Estates Offices is an affiliate of Bengaluru-based luxury residential developer Maia Group. Sitting on a land parcel of about 4.6 acres, the office complex is part of a mixed-used development with a total net leasable area of approximately 1.36 million sq ft. The mixed-use development is a flagship commercial project of Maia, comprising office and retail space with net leasable areas of 1.13 million sq ft and 0.22 million sq ft respectively. "As part of the forward purchase arrangement, CLINT will fully fund the development of the office project and receive interest on the funding at a rate which is higher than its borrowing cost