Startups In India

Kepler Aerospace raises $8 mn seed round led by Blue Ashva Capital

The seed round will fund deployment of the company's first six swarming ISR satellites and support expansion of its mission operations and avionics-as-a-service businesses

TILT Capital launches ₹250 crore fund to back next-generation startups

The/Nudge Foundation's investment platform will provide ₹2 crore to ₹16 crore in patient capital to seed-to-Series A ventures serving India's Next Billion across livelihoods and climate resilience

Homegrown direct-to-consumer companies raise $6 billion in five years

India's homegrown D2C startups raised nearly $6 billion across 2,000 equity funding rounds between 2021 and 2026 YTD, but funding has slowed sharply this year

AI-led startups face takeoff hiccups as overreliance poses challenges

AI is helping Indian founders build prototypes faster, but scaling these startups is proving harder as technology costs, bugs and weak product understanding emerge

Aerospace startup Airbound raises $37 mn to expand autonomous aircraft biz

The Bengaluru aerospace startup will use the Series A capital to scale engineering and manufacturing, while its Andhra Pradesh network is planned to handle up to 10,000 daily flights

IDFC First Bank, IIMCIP launch ₹2 crore startup incubation initiative

IDFC First Bank has partnered with the IIM Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP) to launch a pan-India programme aimed at nurturing enterprises working on sustainable business solutions, officials said on Monday. The 'IGNITE' programme will provide total financial and operational support of Rs 2 crore, including a direct startup grant corpus of Rs 1.36 crore, they said. It aims to help early-stage ventures strengthen their business models, expand market reach, and deliver measurable environmental and social outcomes, according to an official statement. Under the programme, 16 startups from across the country will be selected through a competitive evaluation process, it said. The focus areas include green manufacturing, waste recycling and upcycling, cleantech, renewable energy, water management, environmental technologies, and the sustainable use of indigenous resources. The selected startups will undergo a structured incubation journey comprising business diagnostics, expert mentorin

PM Narendra Modi meets founders, CEOs of 20 homegrown space-tech startups

The Prime Minister said private participation had strengthened India's space ambitions and urged startups to explore applications in agriculture, environment and education

Over 85% of India's deeptech funding raised in past six years: IVCA

More than 85 per cent of India's $11.4 billion deeptech funding since 2015 was raised in the past six years, as the sector moved from early-stage proof points to commercial validation

In an age of social media, founder-led brands are the new business model

Interestingly, founder-led brands follow a very different marketing formula

Bengaluru startup bets on cancer-sniffing dogs and AI for early detection

Dognosis is repurposing the canine sense of smell, traditionally used to detect drugs or explosives, for low-cost health screening and aiming to make early detection accessible to far more people

Coffee equipment company Kaapi Machines raises ₹50 cr from Sedna HoReCa

The coffee equipment and services provider plans to use the funds to expand its product portfolio, strengthen manufacturing capabilities and improve its technology stack

CARPL.ai raises $10 million from IFC to expand radiology AI platform

World Bank Group's private-sector arm leads Series A round as the startup expands its AI marketplace for hospitals and diagnostic centers across global markets

Funding for operator-led startups nearly doubles in two years to 11%

Funding for startups founded by experienced business operators rose nearly 12 times between 2023 and 2025, while seed-stage investments increased 17.5 times

TDB-RDI selects 22 deeptech startups with project cost of ₹4,744 crore

The Technology Development Board has backed 22 deeptech startups with ₹2,192 crore under the RDI Fund, supporting projects worth ₹4,744 crore across strategic sectors

Technology that succeeds in India can succeed anywhere in world: BITS VC

Technology that succeeds under Indian conditions can often succeed anywhere in the world, but the challenge is that deep technology does not run on normal startup timelines, according to BITS Group Vice Chancellor Ramgopal Rao. In an interview with PTI, the renowned academician said India cannot become a global innovation hub merely by building more companies around technologies developed elsewhere. "We must build companies around science and intellectual property created in our own universities. India has two enormous advantages: talent and problems at scale. Both can become the basis for globally important companies," Rao said. He said India needs homegrown solutions in semiconductors, healthcare, agriculture, space, energy, water, advanced materials, artificial intelligence, defence and manufacturing. "A technology that succeeds under Indian conditions can often succeed anywhere in the world. The difficulty is that deep technology does not run on normal startup timelines," he t

Delhi approves ₹400 cr start-up policy to boost innovation, create jobs

The Delhi Start-up and Incubation Policy will be rolled out in phases, beginning with 11 state universities, 13 government-aided colleges, polytechnic institutions, Industrial Training Institutes (ITI

Rize raises $31 mn to grow sustainable rice platform across Southeast Asia

BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts led the Series B round as Rize expands exports, develops AI tools and scales carbon initiatives across Vietnam, Indonesia and other markets

AI coding startup Emergent hits $1.5 bn valuation in Series C round

Emergent has raised $130 million at a $1.5 billion valuation as rapid global adoption of its AI-powered software development platform drives strong revenue and user growth

RDI fund's maiden startup cohort likely to plug deeptech gaps

The first five startups backed under the Rs 1 lakh crore RDI fund aim to develop indigenous deep-tech solutions across space, healthcare, clean energy and advanced engineering

RDI fund's first cohort of startups aims to plug country's deep-tech gaps

The first five startups backed under the government's RDI fund will develop indigenous technologies in space, defence, healthcare, batteries and biotechnology through milestone-based financing