Start- Ups

IIM-Calcutta lets MBA students keep placement spot while pursuing start-ups

IIM-Calcutta has unveiled an initiative, allowing its MBA students to pursue entrepreneurial ventures without permanently foregoing campus placements, said a statement from the institute on Saturday. The initiative was announced by IIM-Calcutta Director Alok Kumar Rai at a ceremony on Friday to induct 480 students into its 63rd MBA batch. He said that students who choose to spend a year building start-ups instead of participating in campus placements will be eligible to return to the institute's placement process the following year if they desire so. The new batch comprises 67 per cent men and 33 per cent female students, with 41 per cent freshers and 59 per cent having prior work experience, the statement said. Students from engineering backgrounds account for 54.7 per cent of the batch, followed by commerce (11.5 per cent), science (10.27 per cent) and arts (10 per cent), while the remaining students are from other disciplines. The Freshers' Welcome ceremony was attended by Gane

The CA who went home and built a Rs 1,176 cr rural e-commerce startup

Prasanna Kumar walked away from the corporate life to solve the supply chain problem he saw as a child and built VilCart - an e-com startup for 100,000 kirana stores across rural South India

Fintechs seek 'safe harbour' provision as regulatory waters turn choppy

The fintech and payments industry is preparing a proposal for RBI seeking safe harbour provisions to protect compliant licensed entities from liabilities and retrospective regulatory action

From hyperloop to orbit: The IIT alumni who want to see through clouds

GalaxEye founder Suyash Singh and his co-founders spent five years building Drishti, a satellite that sees through clouds even at night, and which was launched earlier this month on a SpaceX rocket

'Pronto's use of customer data early test of DPDP Act implementation'

India's data-protection framework offers some guardrails but leaves wide room for interpretation in how those rules apply to AI training

Swiggy's IOCC setback may delay Instamart's next expansion phase

Swiggy told stock exchanges it had failed to win the shareholder approval needed to amend its Articles of Association, a key step in its efforts to qualify as an IOCC

Ubiqedge raises ₹10 crore to scale AIoT platform for infrastructure

Funding will help AIoT startup scale infrastructure monitoring platform, expand deployments, and strengthen partnerships across water, energy, and industrial sectors

Oolka raises $14 mn in Series A funding to build AI-driven financial agents

Accel-led funding round backs Oolka's plan to scale AI financial agents and expand into a full-stack consumer finance platform in India

Indian VCs build 'bridges to America' as AI startups look westward

Venture capital firms in India are creating structured programmes to help AI startups enter the US market, offering capital, relocation support, and access to networks and customers

Home services platform Snabbit raises $56 mn in Series D funding round

Home services platform Snabbit has raised USD 56 million (about Rs 530 crore) in a funding round co-led by Susquehanna Venture Capital, Mirae Asset Venture Investments' Unicorn Growth Fund, and Bertelsmann India Investments, the company said on Tuesday. Existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Lightspeed also participated in the round. Snabbit Founder and CEO Aayush Agarwal told PTI that the company plans to utilise the fund to build a strong balance sheet as it is gearing up to expand service in micro markets and foray into new categories in near future. "We have raised USD 56 million in Series D round funding, led by SIG, along with Mirae and Bertelsmann. This also marks Miraeas first investment from the Unicorn Growth Fund that was recently launched. We already have strong investors like Lightspeed, Elevation, and Nexus. Bertelsmann, which led our previous round, is doubling down significantly," Agarwal said. Global marketplace investor FJ Labs also participated in the fund

Govt issues norms for ₹10,000 crore startup fund's second tranche

The government on Saturday issued detailed guidelines for operationalisation of the second tranche of Rs 10,000 crore fund of funds (FoF) scheme for startups. The guidelines include mechanisms for fund deployment, governance, and monitoring, with the objective of improving the efficiency of capital flows into India's startup ecosystem, the commerce and industry ministry said. The scheme will be implemented through commitments to SEBI-registered Category I and II Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), which will invest in DPIIT-recognised startups. "This approach is expected to ensure disciplined capital allocation, crowding-in of private investments, and wider access to funding across sectors, stages, and geographies," it said. The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), it said, will act as the initial Implementation Agency and will undertake execution through a structured AIF selection and monitoring process. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade

CoRover claims 1.8 billion users globally as it expands agentic AI platform

Indian startup bets on agentic AI for governments and enterprises as adoption scales across sectors, driven by multilingual capabilities, high-volume interactions, and sovereign AI infrastructure

Follower to leader: India's AI application shifts reshape tech landscape

India emerges as a leader in AI's application layer, with startups driving real-world deployment, enterprise adoption and revenue generation, says SenseAI Ventures

India fourth-highest funded country in FY26, with funding falling 18%

India retained its position as the fourth-highest funded startup ecosystem globally in FY26 despite an 18 per cent drop in funding, with early-stage investments and IPO activity showing resilience

Nearly 86% startups increase AI spend, says Elevation Capital report

In addition, more than half expect to double their spend, reflecting a strong and growing conviction in AI's role in driving future growth

JIIF plans to invest ₹80-100 cr in 12-18 months in early-stage startups

Investment platform JITO Incubation and Innovation Foundation on Monday said it plans to invest Rs 80-100 crore in early-stage startups in the next 12-18 months. The platform has invested over Rs 150 crore across more than 100 pre-seed and seed-stage startups over the past two years, and reported over 15 exits during the period. "Over the next 1218 months, the platform plans to invest approximately Rs 80100 crore, with an aim to back 2025 startups annually. Its investment ticket size currently ranges between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 2 crore, depending on stage and sector," JIIF said in a statement. The platform has also made a Rs 26.5-crore investment in Mumbai-based Atomic Capital. The move allows JIIF to participate in a wider set of investment opportunities beyond direct startup investments. JIIF further said that it plans to launch an accelerator programme focused on the Asia-Pacific region, covering India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, where the programme will target early-st

UAE's Valura.ai makes India debut, onboards 1,000 wealth advisors

Valura.ai, an AI-native global investment platform, on Monday announced the onboarding of over 1,000 wealth advisors across India ahead of its official launch, with a collective AUM pipeline exceeding Rs 3,000 crore over the next 12-18 months. The platform provides access to over one lakh global securities with client assets held in local custody within the IFSC at GIFT City under IFSCA regulation, rather than being routed through offshore brokers. The onboarded network includes independent financial advisors (IFAs), registered investment advisors (RIAs), mutual fund distributors, and chartered accountants. The pre-launch response signals strong demand for a credible global investing infrastructure at a time when India's outbound investment surged 67 per cent to USD 41.6 billion in FY25, and the rupee has depreciated over 8 per cent against the US dollar in the past 12 months, Valura.ai said in a release. "Valura combines AI-driven research and portfolio construction with seamless

Poor product data, rising returns push up e-commerce logistics costs

E-commerce and quick commerce platforms are using artificial intelligence to improve product data quality, reduce returns, and ease rising logistics costs amid growing customer expectations

G+D to scale passkey authentication push in India over next two years

German firm Giesecke+Devrient plans to scale passkey-based biometric authentication in India, partnering with banks and card networks to boost trust and improve transaction success rates

Beyond Bengaluru, startups are rising but big capital remains unconvinced

A recent report shows that more than 68,000 startups are now headquartered outside key startup hubs like Bengaluru and Delhi, yet they attracted only 2.1 per cent of capital deployed in India between