Page 2 - Funding

Jumbotail raises $120 million in funding round led by SC Ventures

B2B e-commerce firm Jumbotail has raised USD 120 million (about Rs 1,027 crore) in a funding round led by the investment arm of Standard Chartered, SC Ventures, the company said on Monday. With this fresh funding, the company has raised USD 263 million so far. "Jumbotail, India'sB2B marketplace and New Retail platform for food and grocery, has raised USD 120 million in a funding round led by SC Ventures, the innovation and investment arm of Standard Chartered Plc," the company said in a statement. The company will invest the capital to build AI-native solutions and capabilities to cement its leadership, the statement said. Jumbotail also announced the completion of its acquisition of Solv India, which is a B2B commerce and financial services platform incubated by SC Ventures. The deal was approved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). "Together with Solv, we now help thousands of brands and MSME sellers reach over 5,00,000 small retailers across more than 400 cities and to

Zilo raises $4.5 million to expand fashion delivery beyond Mumbai

Fashion-tech platform Zilo will use the funding to build its supply chain, expand to other top-tier cities and grow its catalogue to 250 brands by the festive season

US pulls funding from vaccines group; 'ignored the science', says RFK Jr

US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr said the country is pulling its support from the vaccines alliance Gavi, saying the organisation has ignored the science and lost the public trust. A video of Kennedy's speech was shown to participants at a Gavi meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, where the vaccines group was hoping to raise at least USD 9 billion for the next five years. Gavi is a public-private partnership including WHO, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation and the World Bank. It has paid for more than 1 billion children to be vaccinated through routine immunisation programmes, saving an estimated 18 million lives. The US has long been one of its biggest supporters; before Trump's re-election, the country had pledged USD 1 billion through 2030. Kennedy called on Gavi to re-earn the public trust and to justify the USD 8 billion America has provided in funding since 2001, saying officials must consider the best science available, even when that science contradicts established paradigms.

IndiaBonds raises ₹32.5 cr in first funding round to boost growth

IndiaBonds.com, a Sebi-registered online bond platform provider, on Wednesday said it has raised Rs 32.5 crore (USD 3.77 million) in its first external funding round. The round was led by a curated group of marquee individual investors from the investment and technology sectors, many of whom bring deep experience and strategic insight in scaling financial and digital platforms, it said in a statement. This milestone marks a significant step forward for the company, which has been entirely bootstrapped for over four years driven solely by the personal capital of its founders Aditi Mittal and Vishal Goenka, it added. "This round allows us to continue on a high growth trajectory, and we are only likely to look at institutional funding from sometime next year," Vishal Goenka, Co-Founder of IndiaBonds, said. IndiaBonds offers a seamless digital platform for retail and institutional investors to discover, assess, and invest in a range of fixed income products, including corporate bonds,

Utopia secures $1.5 mn from Whale Tank to develop obesity vaccine

Hyderabad-based biotech Utopia Therapeutics raises seed funding from Whale Tank to accelerate preclinical work on its novel immunotherapy vaccine targeting obesity

Harvard to hold graduation as Trump-linked court battle casts long shadow

Harvard's commencement day will be observed amid a federal court hearing on Trump-era measures targeting the university's foreign student programme, funding, and academic independence

UGRO Capital to raise up to Rs 915 crore through preferential CCD issue

UGRO Capital's board approves Rs 915 crore capital raise via CCDs; capital adequacy to improve from 19.41% to 29.4%, with rights issue of Rs 400 crore also planned

CloudSEK raises $19 million for AI-led innovation, global expansion

CloudSEK secures funding from Indian and US investors to boost AI capabilities and expand internationally, with the US emerging as its fastest-growing revenue region

RBI pushes lenders to revive funding market vital for monetary policy

While overall money-market turnover has risen to an average $70 billion a day, interbank trades account for just 2 per cent of that, down from 20 per cent a decade ago

State Bank of India to decide on $3 billion fundraising on May 20

Country's largest bank State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday said it will consider raising USD 3 billion through public offer or private placement during the current fiscal. The bank's Executive Committee of the Central Board will meet on May 20 to decide on the fundraising plans. The committee will "examine the status and decide on long term fund raising in single/multiple tranches of up to USD 3 Billion ...through a public offer and/or private placement of senior unsecured notes in US dollar or any other major foreign currency during FY 2025-26," SBI said in a regulatory filing. Shares of SBI closed at Rs 800.35, down 0.19 per cent over previous close on BSE.

Biryani Blues raises $5 million in funding led by Yugadi Capital fund

Quick service restaurant chain Biryani Blues on Tuesday said it has raised USD 5 million (over Rs 40 crore) in a funding round led by Carpediem Capital's new fund Yugadi Capital with participation of other investors. The fund raised in a pre-Series C funding round will support expansion strategy, enhance human capital across functions, and upgrade operations and logistics. The brand plans to open over 100 new outlets over the next three years, Biryani Blues said in a statement. "We are poised to accelerate our expansion by opening over a 100 new brand stores over the next three years, in popular high street markets and malls across north India," Biryani Blues Co-founder Raymond Andrews said. Operating under Thea Kitchen Pvt. Ltd, Biryani Blues runs 68 outlets across North India and Bengaluru. Earlier, Biryani Blues raised USD 5 million in Series B funding from Rebel Foods in FY22. It had previously secured USD 2 million in Series A funding from Carpediem Capital Partners Fund I ...

Celcius Logistics raises ₹250 cr in Series B to expand to 1,000 cities

With the latest round, Celcius aims to scale its tech-enabled cold chain logistics, enter new sectors, and enhance its presence in over 1,000 cities across India

Fintech-focused VC firm QED Investors eyes India in $300 mn Asia push

After investing around $200 million in India since 2020, the VC firm is pushing deeper into Asia-now operating in Indonesia, Japan, and Singapore, and setting its sights on South Korea and Australia

Centre utilised over 98% of water resources funds in FY25, shows data

The Jal Shakti ministry has utilised nearly the entire Central allocation for water resources schemes in the last fiscal, with 98.39 per cent of funds spent by the end of March, according to an official document. The document titled 'Report on Availability and Utilisation of Scheme Funds for 2024-2025 up to March 2025' shows details of expenditure of the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation under both Centrally Sponsored Schemes and Central Sector schemes. Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) are programmes funded mainly by the Central government but implemented by state governments, often requiring a matching contribution from the states. Central Sector schemes are fully funded and implemented by the Central government without any financial participation from the states. According to the document, against a Central budget estimate of Rs 13,431.48 crore for Centrally Sponsored Schemes, the actual expenditure stood at Rs 13,216.34 crore. In comparison

Elon Musk's DOGE slashes $135 mn funding to fight deepfakes, misinformation

The cuts impact dozens of active grants, including several programmes focused on combating misinformation and AI deepfakes, according to the document

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?

The Trump administration has frozen more than $2.2 billion in grants and contracts to Harvard University. Watch the video to know why.

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