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New-Age Tech Stocks See Mixed Week; Kissht, Honasa Among Top Gainers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 May 2026 13:24:40 +0000

Investor sentiment towards new-age tech stocks remained mixed this week amid the ongoing Q4 earnings season and geopolitical tensions. While thirty one out of the 57 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage gained in a range of 0.11% to close to 18% this week, 26 stocks fell in a range of 0.01% to over 15%.

Recently listed Kissht was the biggest gainer this week, with its shares surging 17.76% to end the week at ₹231.7. The stock hit a fresh high of ₹259.5 on Thursday (May 21).

Besides Kissht, shares of Honasa Consumer, Shadowfax and SEDEMAC touched fresh highs this week. Other stocks that gained this week included WeWork India, RateGain, FirstCry, Nykaa, among others.

Meanwhile, the list of losers was topped by MapmyIndia, with investors responding to underwhelming financial results. In the list of losers, Swiggy and Pine Labs touched fresh lows this week. Delhivery, Wakefit, TAC Infosec, and Fractal were among the other stocks which saw a decline this week.

Investors responded to the Q4 numbers of the companies this week. Here’s a brief look at key financial disclosures this week:

Now, let’s take a look at the key developments at the new-age tech companies this week:

Fractal’s board approved an investment of $6 Mn (₹34.56 Cr) in its US-based step-down subsidiary, Asper US, to power investment in R&D and sales and marketing.
Groww’s promoters and promoter group entities — including cofounders Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Ishan Bansal and Neeraj Singh — offloaded shares worth around ₹270 Cr over the past one week.
Zaggle CFO Srikanth Gaddam tendered his resignation yesterday. He will work with the company till May 27. Gaddam has started a new AI startup, BuildWright, and will work on the same. In a separate development, promoter RAN Ventures Pvt Ltd bought 1.8 Lakh shares in the company.
MobiKwik finds itself in trouble again as Bengaluru Police registered two FIRs against the fintech firm and its lending partner Lendbox for allegedly cheating investors and misusing funds via their P2P lending platform Mobikwik Xtra.
Alongside its Q4 financials, Lenskart’s board approved the merger of wholly owned subsidiaries Dealskart Online Services and Lenskart Eyetech to simplify group structure and reduce administrative costs.
Coworking space provider Awfis received a show cause notice from the Commercial Tax Officer of Tamil Nadu, raising a tax demand of ₹6.53 Cr for various discrepancies in filed return statements of FY24.
Aequs’ board approved an investment of ₹9.30 Cr in its joint venture, Aequs Cookware Pvt Ltd.
Under legal trouble, Fino Payments Bank’s former CEO and founding team member Rishi Gupta stepped down from the position of MD and CEO to “explore new avenues”. Meanwhile, the company’s board approved the extension of the tenure of Ketan Merchant as the interim CEO for a period of three months.
Paytm’s early backer SAIF Partners, via its holding entity SAIF III Mauritius Company, offloaded 56.22 Lakh shares in a block deal worth ₹630 Cr. The VC firm sold the shares at ₹1,120.65 apiece. Investors like Societe Generale, Citigroup, Sundaram MF, Viridian Asia, and Goldman Sachs lapped up the shares via open market transactions.
Madison India Capital offloaded 2.48 Cr shares in fintech major Pine Labs in a block deal worth ₹356.86 Cr. The shares were bought by Franklin Templeton, HSBC Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential, Tata Mutual Fund, Morgan Stanley, among others.
PB Fintech’s board approved an investment of ₹5 Cr in its wholly owned subsidiary PB Marketing and Consulting. The investment will enable PB Marketing to satisfy the minimum net worth threshold required for registration and operation as a depository participant with NSDL or CDSL and for operational requirements.

With that, here’s a look at broader market trends this week.

Markets Remain Cautious Amid West Asia Conflict

Despite persistent rupee weakness and mixed global cues, the Indian equities market showed some resilience this week. While Sensex went up 0.2% to end at 75,415.35, Nifty 50 gained 0.3% to end at 23,719.30.

Market sentiment remained largely range-bound, while broader markets outperformed amid selective investor rotation into mid-cap and new-age tech stocks.

According to Geojit’s research head Vinod Nair, easing concerns around West Asia tensions and a modest pullback in crude oil prices offered some relief to domestic markets. He added that sustained buying by domestic institutional investors helped offset FII selling and reinforced the ongoing “buy-on-dips” trend.

Meanwhile, macro indicators painted a mixed picture. The index of eight core industries grew 1.7% YoY in April 2026, aided by higher cement, steel and electricity output. However, manufacturing activity softened further, with the HSBC Flash India Manufacturing PMI easing to 54.3 in May amid elevated energy costs and trade-related disruptions.

“The upcoming week is expected to remain highly sensitive to global macroeconomic developments, currency movements, and policy commentary. Domestically, industrial production (IIP) data for April 2026, scheduled for release on May 28, will be closely tracked for insights into manufacturing activity and broader economic momentum after recent signs of moderation,” Religare Broking’s research senior VP Ajit Mishra said.

With that, let’s take a look at the performance of Swiggy and Honasa.

Investors Cheer Honasa’s Strong Q4

Shares of Mamaearth parent Honasa Consumer moved up consistently throughout the week before the release of its Q4 financials on Thursday. While the company’s shares gained 3% till Thursday, they jumped significantly yesterday.

The stock touched a fresh high of ₹405.4 yesterday, before settling at ₹384.6. Overall, Honasa’s shares gained 8.54% during the week.

Honasa Consumer’s Q4 FY26 net profit skyrocketed 178% YoY and 38% QoQ to ₹69.4 Cr. Operating revenue grew 23% YoY and 9% QoQ to ₹657.1 Cr during the quarter under review.

The company’s board also announced a dividend of ₹3 per equity share.

Honasa said its emerging brands portfolio — including The Derma Co., Aqualogica, Dr Sheth’s, BBlunt, Staze and Reginald Men — posted over 40% YoY growth in FY26, driven by strong traction across both online and offline channels.

The company also reported its highest-ever quarterly EBITDA of ₹77 Cr in Q4 FY26, marking a 186% jump from ₹27 Cr in the corresponding quarter last year. For the full fiscal year, EBITDA surged 237% to ₹231 Cr from ₹69 Cr in FY25.

Speaking during the Q4 earnings call, CEO Varun Alagh said FY26 was a landmark year for profitability, with EBITDA tripling and full-year EBITDA margin expanding to nearly 9.6%.

Swiggy Remains Under Pressure

Shares of Swiggy continued to remain under pressure this week, touching a fresh low of ₹247.30 on Monday (May 18). After seeing a revival during the middle of the week, the stock again came under pressure yesterday and ended the session slightly lower. Overall, the shares fell 2.1% this week.

On Thursday, Swiggy said it failed to secure shareholders’ approval for its proposal to become an Indian-owned and controlled company (IOCC). Its resolution seeking amendments to its Articles of Association (AoAs) and changes to the board nomination framework fell short of the required threshold.

In a filing, the foodtech major said the proposal received 72.36% votes in its favour, missing the mandatory 75% approval mark by 2.65 percentage points. Swiggy had issued a postal ballot notice seeking shareholders’ approval for the AoA amendments and the appointment of Renan De Castro Alves Pinto as a non-executive nominee director.

The move was seen as strategically important for Swiggy’s quick commerce business, Instamart, as it would have enabled a shift from its existing marketplace-led structure to an inventory ownership model. Similar to rival Eternal’s Blinkit, such a transition would have allowed Swiggy to directly source products from brands and sell them on its platform, potentially boosting margins, improving supply chain control and enhancing customer experience.

Notably, the shareholders approved Pinto’s appointment on the board of directors.

Edited by Vinaykumar Rai
Creatives by Varshita Srivastava

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From Scapia To Mythik— Indian Startups Raised $92 Mn This Week

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 May 2026 04:24:35 +0000

Weekly funding in the Indian startup ecosystem has been volatile over the past few months amid ongoing geopolitical distress. In line with the trend, startup funding fell sharply this week after surging over the past week.

Seventeen Indian startups raised $92.2 Mn between May 18 and 22. This marks a 70% decline from $303 Mn bagged by 15 startups in the preceding week.

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [May 18 — May 22 ]

Date	Name	Sector	Subsector	Business Model	Funding Round Size	Funding Round Type	Investors	Lead Investor
21 May 2026	Scapia	Fintech	Lending Tech	B2C	$63 Mn	–	General Catalyst, Peak XV Partners, Z47	General Catalyst
20 May 2026	Mythik	Media & Entertainment	Digital Media	B2C	$5 Mn	–	Harsh Jain (Dream11), Blume Founder’s Fund, Rajat Gupta (ex-McKinsey & Co), Zubin Bharti Mittal (Bharti Mittal Family Office), Ishan Sinha (Point 72), Rooshabh Shah (SVAR Projects), Sakal Media Group, Patni Family Office, Parekh Family Office	–
20 May 2026	Anscer Robotics	Advanced Hardware & Technology	Robotics	B2B	$4.6 Mn	Series A	India Angel Network (IAN Alpha Fund), Info Edge Ventures	India Angel Network
19 May 2026	Trackk	Fintech	Investment Tech	B2C	$3.7 Mn	Seed	Lightspeed Ventures, Info Edge Ventures, Tanmay Bhatt (Content Creator), Varun Mayya (Aeos Group), Gaurav Munjal (Unacademy), Roman Saini (Unacademy), Gaurav Kapoor (Comedian)	Lightspeed Ventures
22 May 2026	Gabit	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$3.7 Mn	–	Deepak Gupta (Angel Investor), Arnab Basu (Angel Investor), Manav Gupta (Angel Investor), Vilas Dhar (Angel Investor)	–
20 May 2026	Sychedelic	Healthtech	Fitness & Wellness	B2C	$3.5 Mn	Seed	Cultadvisors LLP, TurboStart, Ideabaaz and Praveek Ventures	–
20 May 2026	EndureAir	Advanced Hardware & Technology	Aerial Vehicles	B2B	$3.1 Mn	–	Research, Development, and Innovation Fund	Research, Development, and Innovation Fund
18 May 2026	Cellogen Therapeutics	Healthtech	Lifesciences	B2B	$2.1 Mn	–	Kotak Alternate Asset Managers	Kotak Alternate Asset Managers
19 May 2026	ONO	Agritech	Market Linkage	B2C	$1.2 Mn	Pre-Series A	Aeravti Ventures, Tremis Capital	Aeravti Ventures
14 May 2026	Bombay Banta	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$832K	Pre-Series A	DSG Consumer Partners	DSG Consumer Partners
20 May 2026	Damroo	Media & Entertainment	Digital Content	B2C	$520K	–	Hindustan Times	Hindustan Times
21 May 2026	Meta Fashion	Ecommerce	D2C	B2B	$400K	Pre-Seed	Lumikai, Big Bets, Akshat Rathee, Pratham Mittal	Lumikai
19 May 2026	Kalpi	Fintech	Investment Tech	B2C	$390K	Seed	Rainmatter Capital	Rainmatter Capital
18 May 2026	Owners ID	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$260K	Pre-Seed	Crucifer Investments	Crucifer Investments
20 May 2026	Gamehok	Media & Entertainment	Gaming	B2C	$100K	Pre-Seed	–	–
18 May 2026	Nothing But	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	–	Seed	Atul Rajani, Deeksha Rajani (The Be Life), Sifat Khurana (Innovist), Dhruv Bhasin (Arata), Gaurav Khatri (Noise), Saurav Adlakha (DailyObjects.com)	Atul Rajani, Deeksha Rajani (The Be Life)
22 May 2026	Yoho	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	–	Pre-Series A	–	–
	Source: Inc42

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

Fintech startup Scapia raised $63 Mn in a fresh funding round led by General Catalyst, becoming the highest funded startup this week. On the back of Scapia’s fundraise, fintech became the most funded segment this week with a cumulative funding of $67.1 Mn.
In terms of deal count, ecommerce retained the top spot with six startups securing fresh capital during the week.
Seed stage startups saw a capital infusion of $7.6 Mn during the week, up multifolds from $2.6 Mn raised in the previous week.
Info Edge Ventures was the most active investor this week, backing Anscer Robotics and Trackk.

Startup Fund Developments This Week

Shastra VC unveiled its third fund with a corpus of $100 Mn to back early-stage startups in deeptech, AI and climate sciences sectors. In a statement, the firm said it will invest between $500K to $3 Mn in intellectual property-led startups from the fund.
Asset management firm Piper Serica launched Bharat Tech Fund, a new Cat II AIF with a potential size of ₹800 Cr, including a ₹200 Cr greenshoe option. It aims to back Series A and Series B stage deeptech startups.
PE firm Oister Global launched its third secondary vehicle to back late stage startups. The ACE Fund III has a target corpus of ₹500 Cr corpus, including a ₹250 Cr greenshoe option

Mergers & Acquisitions This Week

OfBusiness’ lending arm Oxyzo received board nod to complete acquisition of debt investment and bond distribution platform GoldenPi Technologies Pvt Ltd via share-swap agreement for a deal value of ₹42.4 Cr.

Innovaccer acquired US-based company CaduceusHealth to expand its Flow software platform into full-stack revenue cycle management for outpatient and ambulatory care. As per an ET report, the deal valued CaduceusHealth at $66 Mn.

Nykaa’s board cleared the acquisition of a 24.2% stake in skin care brand Earth Rhythm for ₹9.4 Cr, making the brand a wholly owned subsidiary of Nykaa. The deal will be completed by August 31.

Other Developments Of The Week

Quick commerce major Zepto is said to be planning on launching its ₹11,000 Cr ($1.1 Bn) initial public offering (IPO) in July. As per a report by PTI, the unicorn is eyeing a listing on the bourses before July 31 and is planning to submit its updated draft red herring prospectus (UDRHP) with the markets regulator in the coming weeks.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the Blackstone-led acquisition of a controlling stake in AI cloud startup Neysa. The investment, part of Neysa’s previously announced $600 Mn funding round, will also see participation from investors including 360 ONE Asset, TVS Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

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Yatra Q4 Profit Tanks 46% YoY To ₹8.2 Cr

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 22 May 2026 22:24:40 +0000

Online travel aggregator (OTA) Yatra’s consolidated net profit tanked 46.1% to ₹8.2 Cr in Q4 FY26 from ₹15.2 Cr in the year ago quarter. On a QoQ basis, profit after tax (PAT) fell 1.6% from ₹8.3 Cr reported in the previous quarter.

The bottom line was impacted as the company’s revenue from operations declined nearly 14% to ₹189 Cr from ₹218.9 Cr in the year-ago quarter. The company’s top line also declined 26.4% from ₹256.8 Cr recorded in the previous quarter.

Including other income of ₹10.4 Cr, Yatra’s total income for the period stood at ₹199.4 Cr.

Total expenses for the quarter stood at ₹193.7 Cr, down nearly 10% from ₹215.2 Cr during the same period last fiscal.

For the full FY26, the travel tech startup’s net profit jumped nearly 28% to ₹46.8 Cr as against ₹36.6 Cr in the year ago fiscal. In line with this, revenue from operations rose 27.2% to ₹1,006.5 Cr from ₹791.4 Cr in FY25.

Revenue less service cost (RLSC), which is essentially the gross margin, rose a mere 3.6% YoY to ₹113.3 Cr in Q4 FY26. EBITDA improved 45.5% YoY to ₹12.6 Cr, while EBITDA margin, as per the company, stood at 11.2% during the quarter under review.

“Yatra delivered a strong FY26, with execution remaining strong despite a volatile macro and geopolitical backdrop. Performance was broadly in line with revised guidance, supported by 24.5% RLSC growth and 37.5% adjusted EBITDA growth, reflecting operating leverage and disciplined cost control,” said Yatra CEO Siddhartha Gupta.

During the quarter, Yatra added 55 new corporate customers with an estimated annual revenue potential of ₹270.9 Cr.

The company also noted that geopolitical tensions significantly affected its MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) vertical. While noting that several Q4 bookings have either been cancelled or deferred to FY27, the management expects a meaningful portion of this demand to return as conditions normalise.

Going forward, the company is projecting an adjusted EBITDA growth rate of 30% in the ongoing fiscal year despite macroeconomic challenges.

“While macro challenges are likely to persist in the first half of the year, management remains optimistic about FY27. Backed by structural growth in India’s travel and corporate mobility markets and Yatra’s continued investment in Al technology, customer acquisition, hotel supply, and its B2E platform. Management remains confident of its medium-term growth CAGR of 20% RLSC growth and 30% Adj EBITDA growth,” said CEO Gupta.

Yatra’s shares ended yesterday’s trading session 5.29% higher at ₹101.45 on the BSE.

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Zepto To Float ₹11,000 Cr IPO By July: Report

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 21 May 2026 23:24:43 +0000

Quick commerce platform Zepto reportedly plans to float its ₹11,000 Cr ($1.1 Bn) initial public offering (IPO) within the next two months.

Sources told news agency PTI that the unicorn is eyeing a listing on the bourses before July 31. The company is now planning to submit its updated draft red herring prospectus (UDRHP) with the markets regulator in the coming weeks.

If the listing materialises, Zepto will become the third quick commerce startup to list on the bourses, after Blinkit parent Eternal and Swiggy.

This comes weeks after the quick commerce giant received Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI’s) approval for its proposed IPO. Previous reports suggested that the company’s potential public issue would largely comprise a primary capital raise, although the final issue size and pricing are yet to be finalised.

In December 2025, the startup received board’s approval to raise up to ₹11,000 Cr through a fresh issue of shares via its public offering. Subsequently, it filed its DRHP with SEBI via the confidential pre-filing route for a listing.

Founded in 2021 by Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, Zepto is among the leading players in India’s rapidly expanding quick commerce space. The startup competes with Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and newer entrants such as Amazon Now and Flipkart Minutes.

According to a recent report by brokerage firm Bernstein, Zepto reportedly operates nearly 1,255 dark stores across 61 cities, overtaking second-placed Instamart that runs 1,181 dark stores spanning 128 cities. The analysis also showed that Zepto’s daily order volume stands at nearly 1.6 Mn compared to Instamart’s estimated 1.2 Mn.

The Aadit Palicha-led company last raised $450 Mn, in a mix of primary and secondary transactions, in October last year, which valued the company at $7 Bn. The unicorn has raised over $2.3 Bn to date and counts names such as Epiq Capital, Dragon Fund, General Catalyst, Y Combinator and DST Global as investors.

The development comes amid intensifying competition in the quick commerce segment, with players trying to retain customers as users increasingly switch platforms based on delivery speed, pricing and product availability.

As a result, the sector is witnessing aggressive expansion, with companies investing heavily to capture a larger share. Most recently, Amazon announced that it would invest ₹2,800 Cr in India, primarily to expand its quick commerce service Amazon Now to 100 cities across the country. Arch-rival Flipkart is also aggressively splurging to ramp up its dark store network.

At the heart of all this is India’s quick commerce market, which is projected to become a $40 Bn opportunity by 2030. As per Inc42 data, quick commerce players are expected to clock $68 Bn in gross merchandise value (GMV) by 2031, up from $8.3 Bn currently.

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Swiggy’s Inventory Pivot Plan Stalls After Failed Vote

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 21 May 2026 22:24:37 +0000

Shareholders have shot down foodtech major Swiggy’s bid to become an Indian-owned and controlled company (IOCC).

The foodtech giant failed to secure the necessary votes to amend its articles of association (AoAs) and rejig its board nomination framework. In a filing with the exchanges, the company said that it received 72.36% of the votes in favour of the amendment, falling short of the 75% threshold by 2.65%.

This is the first time that shareholders have voted down a resolution since the foodtech giant went public in November 2024.

This follows the company last month issuing a postal ballot notice, seeking shareholder approval for amendments to its AoAs and the appointment of Renan De Castro Alves Pinto as a non-executive nominee director. The remote e-voting commenced on April 21 and closed on May 20.

Last week, Swiggy filed a clarification with the bourses, saying that the proposed framework was aimed at becoming an IOCC under the country’s foreign exchange laws. Under current Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) rules, a company can qualify as an IOCC only if both ownership and control rest with resident Indian citizens or eligible Indian entities.

The foodtech major was eyeing the IOCC tag as it would unlock new opportunities for the company in the quick commerce space. Just like its rival Eternal, the push was aimed at helping its quick commerce vertical Instamart transition to an “inventory ownership” model from the current marketplace model led by third-party sellers.

The transition would have allowed it to procure directly from brands and sell them on its platform, replacing commission revenue with net sales. This would have meant higher margins, better control over the supply chain, including warehousing and logistics, and better customer service.

While the plans have been dashed for now, Swiggy had been preparing for the inventory pivot for some time now. In May last year, it rolled out a separate Instamart app, signalling that the quick commerce venture needed its own brand identity. Afterwards in September, it also hived off its quick commerce vertical into a step-down subsidiary to prepare for the potential pivot.

Later during the company’s Q2 FY26 earnings call in October 2025, CEO Sriharsha Majety said that Instamart would eventually move to an inventory-led model.

On the financial front, Swiggy managed to narrow its consolidated net loss by 26% to ₹800 Cr in Q4 FY26 from ₹1,081 Cr in the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, revenue from operations zoomed 44.7% to ₹6,383 Cr from ₹4,410 Cr in the year-ago period.

Shares of the company ended yesterday’s trading session 2.34% lower at ₹250.85 on the BSE.

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IT Ministry To Block Kalshi, Ban Order Against Polymarket Soon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 21 May 2026 19:24:47 +0000

The IT ministry (MeitY) is reportedly all set to formally block US-based prediction market platform Kalshi as soon as tomorrow (May 22).

A MeitY official told The Print that the ministry has already issued orders to enforce the ban on the platform operating in the country “illegally”, while the process is underway to block another such platform, Polymarket.

“We have already issued a blocking order to Polymarket and are in the process of issuing an order to Kalshi as soon as Friday,” a MeitY official reportedly said.

The blocking order will reportedly be issued under Section 69A of the IT Act, which empowers the Centre to restrict access to online content.

Polymarket and Kalshi are US-based prediction marketplaces that offer platforms where individuals can place bets on future outcomes.

This comes nearly a month after the IT ministry issued an advisory, directing VPN service providers and intermediaries to stop enabling access to blocked online betting and prediction market platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi. Both platforms are banned in the country.

The latest formal order comes as the two platforms continued to enable Indian users to trade on their prediction markets via mirror sites despite the ban. For context, a mirror site is an exact copy of a website hosted on a separate server, usually under a different URL, to bypass blocking orders.

The move is a part of the Centre’s wider crackdown on RMG and opinion trading in India. Last year, both houses of the Parliament passed a legislation, which prohibited online real-money gaming and banned advertisements for such platforms. Earlier last month, the IT ministry also notified the Online Gaming Act, 2025, which came into effect on May 1.

Kalshi and Polymarket, both of which allow users to collect winnings from the outcome of events, also fall under the ambit of the ban. Notably, homegrown apps such as Probo, TradeX and MPL’s Opinio, which gained traction during IPL 2024 by letting users bet on real-world outcomes, also went dark after the clampdown last year.

Another issue plaguing the two US-based platforms is their crypto-powered nature. All virtual digital asset (VDA) service providers are required to mandatorily register as “reporting entities” with the finance ministry’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and comply with anti-money laundering norms. Until the applicants acquire the licences, they cannot operate in the country.

The development also comes at a time when the erstwhile RMG players have come under regulatory scanner. Agencies like Enforcement Directorate (ED) have launched probes into many of these platforms over alleged links to illegal betting.

Earlier this month, ED arrested three cofounders of gaming platform Gameskraft Technologies and froze its assets worth ₹526 Cr in connection with an alleged money laundering case. The trio have now moved the Karnataka High Court (HC), seeking bail.

Earlier this year, WinZO cofounders, Paavan Nanda and Saumya Singh Rathore, were also arrested by the ED on money laundering charges under the PMLA following raids and seizure of assets totalling ₹690 Cr. The duo were subsequently granted bail.

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WeWork India Q4: Profit Jumps 79% To ₹66 Cr, Revenue Up 29% YoY

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 21 May 2026 08:24:43 +0000

Coworking space provider WeWork India’s consolidated net profit for the fourth quarter of FY26 (Q4 FY26) zoomed 79.3% to ₹65.9 Cr from ₹36.7 Cr in the year-ago quarter. On a QoQ basis, profit skyrocketed 294% from ₹16.8 Cr.

Operating revenue increased 29.1% to ₹696.1 Cr from ₹539.4 Cr in the same period last year. Sequentially, it increased 9.8% from ₹634.1 Cr.

Including other income of ₹9.5 Cr and finance income of ₹9.8 Cr, total income for the period under review stood at ₹715.4 Cr.

Meanwhile, total expenses stood at ₹672.3 Cr in Q4 FY26.

Shares of the company jumped following the results and were trading 6.87% higher at ₹521 on the BSE.

(The story will be updated soon)

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Ola Electric Slides 5.7% As Brokerages Stay Bearish Despite Lower Q4 Loss

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 21 May 2026 07:24:22 +0000

Shares of Ola Electric fell as much as 5.7% to touch an intraday low of ₹34.8 on the BSE today as investor sentiment remained weak following bearish brokerage commentary after its Q4 results.

The stock later pared some losses and was trading 3.7% lower at ₹35.5 at 11:47 IST. The company’s market capitalisation stood at ₹15,684.9 Cr (about $1.6 Bn).

Shares of Ola Electric have slipped over 6% so far in 2026 and are down 31% on a one-year basis.

The decline in the stock came even as the EV maker reported a 43% decline in consolidated net loss to ₹500 Cr in Q4 FY26 from ₹870 Cr a year ago. However, sequentially, loss widened 3% from ₹487 Cr in the December quarter.

Operating revenue plunged 57% YoY and 44% QoQ to ₹265 Cr during the quarter. Including other income of ₹39 Cr, total income stood at ₹304 Cr.

Revenue from the automotive business fell about 57% YoY to ₹264 Cr, while revenue from the cell business remained flat at ₹4 Cr.

The decline in automotive revenue came as electric two-wheeler deliveries shrank about 61% YoY to 20,256 units during the quarter.

Ola Electric said Q4 FY26 was a low-volume quarter but claimed that its cash burn reduced significantly. Total expenses declined 57% YoY to ₹546 Cr, helping the company report its first operating cash flow positive quarter with consolidated CFO of ₹91 Cr.

The company also said its customer service operations have now “materially stabilised”, with average service turnaround time reducing from around nine days in October 2025 to nearly a day in March 2026.

Meanwhile, the company’s auditors flagged concerns around its cash flows and funding position, noting that Ola Electric reported negative operating cash flows of ₹775 Cr in FY26.

The auditors added that the company is relying on existing cash reserves, operational improvements, credit lines and ongoing investor discussions to support operations.

The auditors also noted that Ola Electric has substantially completed investor engagement for its proposed ₹1,500 Cr qualified institutional placement (QIP), which is expected to support liquidity and working capital needs.

While vehicle deliveries stayed under pressure in Q4 FY26, Ola Electric said demand improved in recent months, with registrations rising 20% month-on-month to 11,391 units in April after doubling in March.

The company expects Q1 FY27 orders to nearly double sequentially to around 45,000 units, which it believes will help move its auto business towards EBITDA and free cash flow positivity during FY27.

However, Ola Electric said margins could remain moderate over the next two quarters due to commodity inflation and pricing investments to drive growth.

The company added that its focus in FY27 will remain on recovering volumes, improving service, reducing costs, ramping up its Gigafactory and increasing the use of in-house battery cells.

Despite the operational improvements, brokerages continued to remain bearish on Ola Electric.

Emkay Global Financial Services retained its ‘Sell’ rating on the stock and raised its target price to ₹25 from ₹20, citing stronger industry growth assumptions.

Citigroup also maintained its ‘Sell’ call and revised its target price upward to ₹26 from ₹22 earlier.

Meanwhile, HSBC retained its ‘Reduce’ rating and lowered its target price to ₹33 from ₹45, implying up to 32% downside from current levels.

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India’s AI Inference Problem, Anscer Bags ₹45 Cr & More

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 21 May 2026 04:24:15 +0000

The Dollar Cost Of AI Inference

India’s AI boom may be quietly creating its next major dollar outflow problem.

As startups and enterprises rush to embed generative AI and large language models into everything from customer support to internal workflows, a growing share of their technology spending is flowing overseas through AI inference bills.

The New AI Bill: AI inference is becoming the biggest operating cost of AI-native products. Unlike classic software, every chatbot reply, workflow trigger or personalisation step can create a fresh bill, often tied to tokens or cloud compute. That means AI usage rises not just with customers, but with each interaction.

The Dollar Dent: For many early stage startups, AI inference already devours a big chunk of their cloud infrastructure budgets, a figure expected to rise even more going forward. With foundational models and GPU capacities tethered to dollar-linked pricing, Indian companies find themselves earning in Rupees but paying for their critical AI operations in dollars, which are at the mercy of market fluctuations.

The Value Leak: The concern is not just cost inflation, but also where the money flows. Much of India’s AI consumption ends up enriching overseas model providers and infrastructure owners rather than domestic compute ecosystems. As a result, critics are flagging that AI compute costs are starting to resemble a digital version of the import bill.

Engineering A Local Pivot: To counteract this economic drain, domestic players like Yotta, CtrlS and Reliance Jio are expanding GPU clusters and AI cloud offerings. Industry executives believe India has structural advantages in this space like a thriving developer ecosystem, domestic demand and lower operating costs for LLM makers.

Simultaneously, enterprises are already testing the local infrastructure for lower latency, better data residency and tighter control over costs. With the country projected to guzzle around 7 GW of AI compute capacity by 2030, will India remain dependent on foreign AI compute or will the domestic infrastructure step up? Let’s find out…

From The Editor’s Desk

Anscer Robotics Bags ₹45 Cr

The industrial robotics startup has raised $4.6 Mn in its Series A round led by IAN Alpha Fund to strengthen its product stack, scale US market operations and expand global partner network.
Founded in 2020, Anscer Robotics builds autonomous mobile robots, fleet management software, and industrial automation systems for factories. It has raised $7 Mn to date and operates a facility in Bengaluru that can manufacture 1,000 robots annually.
As warehousing operations grow more intricate, businesses are automating operations to improve efficiency. On the back of this, the homegrown industrial automation market size is projected to cross $25.8 Bn by 2028.

Ola Electric’s Revenue Dips

The EV maker managed to trim its consolidated net loss by 43% YoY to ₹500 Cr in Q4 FY26. Operating revenue also slumped 57% YoY to ₹265 Cr during the quarter as E2W deliveries shrank 61% YoY to 20,256 units.
However, total expenses for the quarter declined 57% YoY to ₹546 Cr. As a result, the company claimed that Q4 was its first operating cash flow positive quarter.
Going forward, the EV maker said that it is targeting a recovery in national market share to 15% to 20% over the next six months through better service, stronger store productivity and new product launches.

upGrad Nears Profitability

The edtech major claims to have turned PAT profitable in the first 11 months of FY26. upGrad is said to have posted a net profit of ₹38 Cr on provisional and unaudited revenue of ₹1,532 Cr during the period.
The unicorn is expected to close FY26 with revenue of ₹1,972 Cr and PAT exceeding ₹60 Cr, against a net loss of ₹274 Cr in FY25. Despite the boost, the company’s valuation slipped to $1.7 Bn, down 24% from its peak valuation of $2.25 Bn in 2022.
This comes as upGrad is all set to acquire rival Unacademy in an all-stock deal, which would peg Unacademy at around ₹2,055 Cr (about $218 Mn). This implies a 90% cut from the troubled edtech’s peak valuation of $3.4 Bn in 2021.

Inside ixigo’s AI Push

For more than a decade, travel apps have barely changed. Users still have to juggle tabs, compare fine print and worry about everything from delays to visa rules. ixigo wants to change this by using AI to turn travel planning into a conversational experience.
The OTA’s AI assistant, TARA, is designed to do the work users usually do manually, from finding shorter layovers to checking hotel prices. The company also claims to have processed over 1.5 Lakh calls end-to-end through AI systems during a disruption.
In the long run, ixigo wants to make AI the glue between product, support and retention, so that users start seeing the platform not as a place to book tickets, but as a reliable travel companion they can carry in their pocket.

Lenskart’s Q4 Show

The eyewear giant’s consolidated net profit declined 7.5% YoY to ₹203.6 Cr in Q4 FY26, despite expanding margins and operating revenue zooming 46% YoY to ₹2,515.7 Cr. What played a spoilsport was expenses surging 36% YoY to ₹2,308.3 Cr.
For the full FY26, Lenskart’s profit surged 69% YoY to ₹500.9 Cr, aided by strong operating leverage, premiumisation, and international growth. Meanwhile, its top line rose 33% to ₹8,814 Cr during the fiscal.
The company added 183 net new stores during the quarter in India, taking the total store count to 3,327 globally. In FY27, the company plans to embed AI across manufacturing, customer experience, supply chain and store operations to drive operating leverage.

Inc42 Markets

Inc42 Startup Spotlight

Can Pramatra Safeguard India’s Quantum Stack?

Quantum computing could eventually break today’s encryption. However, most current systems are not ready for that shift as existing quantum-safe options, especially fibre-based ones, remain limited by range and scalability. Enter Pramatra Space, a startup trying to fix this problem.

Reimagining Security: Founded in 2023, Pramatra Space is developing satellite-based Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) to create encryption keys that can be transmitted securely across long distances. By moving the problem into orbit, the startup aims to overcome the physical limits of terrestrial fibre networks and make global communication secure.

Chips In Orbit: The startup’s approach uses integrated photonic chips mounted on low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites to generate and transmit quantum keys to ground stations. Those keys are designed to be extremely difficult to intercept, giving enterprises and critical infrastructure a new layer of protection against future cyber threats.

Beyond Key Exchange: Pramatra is also planning to offer key management systems to secure digital assets and mission-critical networks. Alongside that, it is developing specialised chips for both satellite payloads and ground-based security modules, which could help it control more of the security stack and improve deployment flexibility.

As both governments and enterprises prepare for a post-quantum future, the startup is eyeing a piece of the global quantum cryptography market, which is projected to cross $4.6 Bn by 2030. So, can Pramatra build a secure backbone for India’s digital communication?

Infographic Of The Day

India’s watch market is no longer just Titan and Timex. From D2C microbrands to premium curators, a whole new generation of Indian watch brands is quietly building a market that didn’t exist a decade ago…

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EndureAir Nets ₹30 Cr Under RDI Scheme To Build Heavy-Payload Drone Platform

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 May 2026 10:24:31 +0000

IIT Kanpur-incubated dronetech startup EndureAir Systems has received ₹30 Cr (about $3.1 Mn) in grant support under the Centre’s RDIF scheme to develop its SABAL-200 kg heavy-payload drone and take the project closer to commercial deployment.

EndureAir is part of the first cohort of five startups selected to receive grant disbursements under the Centre’s ₹1 Lakh Cr RDI scheme.

The first batch includes Dhruva Space, EndureAir Systems, e-TRNL Energy, Noccarc Robotics and IISTEM Research.

EndureAir said it will use the fresh capital for R&D, technology upgrades, manufacturing expansion and strengthening its field-testing infrastructure as it looks to scale indigenous high-payload drone systems in India.

SABAL-200 kg is a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial system (UAS) designed to carry payloads of up to 200 kg. The platform offers an endurance of 2.5 hours and an operational range of 200 km.

Founded in 2018 by IIT Kanpur aerospace engineering professor Abhishek, along with his former students Rama Krishna and Chirag Jain, EndureAir Systems develops drones for defence, surveillance, disaster management and logistics use cases.

The startup designs and manufactures its drone platforms in-house with a focus on systems suited for Indian operating conditions. It said the latest development is expected to support import substitution and create jobs across Tier II & III cities as it scales manufacturing.

Its UAV platforms, including SABAL-20 and SABAL-40, have already been deployed across defence and civilian applications, particularly in high-altitude and difficult terrains.

The new SABAL-200 kg platform builds on this foundation to support aerial logistics and transportation in hard-to-access regions.

Since inception, EndureAir has raised about $7 Mn, including ₹25 Cr from IAN Alpha Fund and IAN Angel Fund in 2025.

Launched in July 2025 by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), the RDI scheme focuses on sectors such as deeptech, AI, robotics, spacetech, biotech, climate tech and the digital economy, while supporting India’s push for technological self-reliance under the Atmanirbhar Bharat mission.

Last week, Dhruva Space secured ₹105 Cr in grant support under the RDIF scheme for ‘Project Garud’, a next-generation 500 kg-class satellite platform aimed at enabling large-scale constellation deployments.

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Maharashtra Mulls Curbs On Bike Taxi Drivers Working Across Multiple Apps

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 May 2026 08:24:06 +0000

The Maharashtra government is considering fresh curbs on bike taxi drivers operating across multiple aggregator platforms such as Ola, Uber and Rapido as part of a broader regulatory push to tighten oversight of the sector and improve passenger safety.

According to a report by The Indian Express, the proposal was discussed during a review meeting of the state’s transport department, attended by transport minister Pratap Sarnaik, CM advisor Kaustubh Dhavse, additional chief secretary (transport) Sanjay Sethi, cyber crime DIG Yashasvi Yadav, transport commissioner Rajesh Narvekar, and representatives of aggregator platforms.

The report added that the Maharashtra government is drafting a comprehensive policy for bike taxi aggregators with stricter norms for driver verification, vehicle monitoring and passenger safety, amid concerns over riders operating across multiple platforms and frequently switching between apps.

“Passenger safety, driver verification and transparency in the transport system are non-negotiable. Companies must operate only after complying with government rules and conditions. Any violation will invite strict action,” Sarnaik was quoted as saying.

As part of the proposed framework, the state is examining if riders should be allowed to operate for only one aggregator platform in a day to ensure clearer accountability of drivers and vehicles attached to individual companies.

The move comes days after the state government reportedly directed Apple and Google to remove apps such as Ola, Uber and Rapido from their app stores. However, the order was withdrawn within 24 hours.

“We are trying to work around a way to cease bike taxi operations without blocking all standalone ride-hailing apps,” a senior cyber department official told The Indian Express.

Earlier this month, Sarnaik sought an immediate shutdown of bike taxi services operated by Ola, Uber and Rapido, alleging they were operating without valid approvals and violating transport regulations.

He also called for filing FIRs against the companies and flagged concerns around passenger safety, driver verification, insurance coverage and the impact on licensed taxi and autorickshaw drivers.

The ongoing standoff between the Maharashtra government and bike taxi aggregators over alleged violations of state transport rules dates back to 2020, when Rapido launched bike taxi operations in Maharashtra without formal approval from the state government.

Its licence applications were subsequently rejected in 2020 and 2022, while the Bombay High Court in 2023 directed the company to suspend operations in the state for a week.

Maharashtra notified the Maharashtra Bike-Taxi Rules 2025 in July last year, granting provisional 30-day licences to Ola, Uber and Rapido to transition to electric bike taxis.

The rules mandated that only electric two-wheelers painted yellow and marked as bike taxis could operate commercially. However, the platforms allegedly failed to comply, leading the state to revoke their licences in March this year.

Despite the revocation, the platforms continued operations. Enforcement teams detected around 715 Rapido-linked bike taxis, 43 linked to Uber and 18 linked to Ola. Fines worth ₹11.85 Lakh were collected from them.

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Amagi Posts ₹34 Cr Profit In Q4, Revenue Jumps 29% YoY

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 May 2026 05:24:39 +0000

Media SaaS company Amagi turned profitable in Q4 FY26, posting a consolidated net profit of ₹34.3 Cr as against a loss of ₹10.6 Cr in the same quarter last year. Sequentially, profit jumped 11% from ₹30.9 Cr.

Operating revenue grew 28.5% to ₹397 Cr during the quarter under review from ₹308.9 Cr in Q4 FY25. However, revenue declined 1.7% from ₹403.8 Cr in the preceding December quarter.

Including other income of ₹24.2 Cr, total revenue for the quarter stood at ₹421.2 Cr.

Meanwhile, total expenses stood at ₹380.7 Cr during the quarter under review.

(The story will be updated soon)

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Investment Platform Trackk Raises $3.7 Mn To Strengthen Broking Infra

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 19 May 2026 10:24:36 +0000

Investment and stock broking platform Trackk has secured $3.7 Mn (about ₹35.7 Cr) in a seed funding round led by Lightspeed, with participation from Info Edge Ventures.

Angel investors such as Tanmay Bhatt, Varun Mayya, Unacademy cofounders Gaurav Munjal and Roman Saini, and television actor Gaurav Kapoor also participated in the round.

The startup plans to use the capital to strengthen its broking infrastructure, expand product capabilities, accelerate user acquisition, build new financial products, and for hiring.

Founded in 2021 by Vedant Gupte, Siddharth Thakkar, and Aryan Jain, Trackk claims to be an investment platform built for Gen Z. It claims to help users simplify the investment process via AI-led stock discovery, personalising their investment journey and providing easier execution tools for more accessible experience of trading for first-time investors.

The startup offers stock broking, futures and options trading, IPO investing, and portfolio tracking and portfolio rebalancing tools.

“With Trackk, we are building a platform that simplifies participation in financial markets for young Indians while making the overall investing journey far more intuitive and accessible,” Gupte said.

Trackk claims it has seen strong adoption among younger investors, with almost 90% of its users belonging to the 20-24 age group.

The startup competes with giants like Groww, Zerodha, Angel One in the stock broking space.

With rising financial awareness, startups operating in the stock broking and the broader wealth management segments are seeing rising adoption.

Betting on this opportunity, Dream 11’s parent Dream Sports recently launched stock broking platform ‘Dream Street’. Earlier this month, PB Fintech’s subsidiary PB Marketing and Consulting received a stock broking licence for offering services on NSE’s debt segment.

Meanwhile, investors are also actively backing startups in the segment despite SEBI’s clampdown on F&O and the pressure on the Indian equities market in recent months. Trading platform Sahi raised $33 Mn last month in a round led by Accel, with participation from Elevation Capital.

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Unacademy Cofounder Sumit Jain Exits, Gaurav Munjal To Take Charge

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 19 May 2026 08:24:46 +0000

Unacademy cofounder and CEO Sumit Jain is exiting the edtech startup which is being acquired by upGrad, sources told Inc42.

In an internal communication shared with employees, Unacademy cofounder Gaura Munjal said Jain’s last working day will be June 30. Going ahead, he will be involved with Unacademy as an advisor, the sources added.

Munjal will take the reins of the startup post Jain’s exit.

Jain joined Uncademy as a cofounder in 2020 and was later made CEO in 2025 as Munjal started focusing on the startup’s foreign language platform Airlearn.

The development comes at a time when Ronnie Screwvala-led upGrad is in the process of acquiring Unacademy.

Under the deal, upGrad will acquire Unacademy in an all-stock transaction, valuing the SoftBank and Peak XV Partners-backed startup at ₹2,055 Cr (around $218 Mn) — 90% lower than its peak valuation of $3.4 Bn in 2021.

Unacademy is expected to have a cash balance of ₹900-950 Cr once the deal closes, likely in June-July next year.

The startups are currently seeking approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the proposed merger.

upGrad is also in talks to raise an internal round of about ₹375 Cr from existing backers, including Temasek, Moneycontrol reported. It is persistent to note that Temasek is a common investor in both the companies, holding about 22% stake in upGrad and 5% in Unacademy.

Unacademy has raised a total funding of $830 Mn to date from investors like Blume Ventures, Peak XV Partners and Elevation Capital. upGrad, on the other hand, has raised about $330 Mn and was last valued at $1.9 Bn.

The deal is one of the biggest consolidation moves in India’s edtech sector, which is still adjusting to the slowdown after the Covid-led boom. Demand for online learning softened significantly post the pandemic, and the sector is still dealing with the fallout from the collapse of BYJU’S — once valued at $22 Bn.

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SEDEMAC’s Strong Q4, Cellogen Bags $2 Mn & More

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 19 May 2026 04:24:44 +0000

SEDEMAC’s Q4 Profit Zooms

SEDEMAC put up a strong show in Q4. The quarter saw the deeptech company’s revenues surge on the back of mobility-led demand and a widening product footprint. This operational scale drastically enhanced profitability, lifting EBITDA margins by over 500 basis points.

Here is a quick snapshot of SEDEMAC’s Q4 FY26 numbers:

Net profit rose 273% YoY to ₹32.1 Cr
Operating revenue zoomed 60% YoY to ₹287.7 Cr
Total expenses increased 47% YoY to ₹246.4 Cr
EBITDA margins improved to 21.3% from 16.1% in Q4 FY25

Mobility Drives Growth: The deeptech company’s core mobility arm did most of the heavy lifting in Q4 and accounted for nearly 90% of its top line. With auto giants like TVS, Bajaj, and Hero MotoCorp in its kitty, the company also scaled its annual electronic control unit (ECU) sales to 39 Lakh units in FY26, up 63% YoY.

Expanding Product Depth: A key driver for SEDEMAC’s growth has been the ramp-up in integrated starter generator ECUs for ICE three-wheelers. Simultaneously, it is also seeing deeper MCU penetration in electric two- and three-wheeler segments. Beyond its domestic dominance, SEDEMAC is actively expanding into the North American genset market via its electronic fuel injection ECUs.

The Road Ahead: The deeptech company is now preparing for its next growth phase, with products for commercial vehicles, electric light commercial vehicles and power tools in the pipeline. Its new 1.2 Lakh sq ft plant in Pune’s Chakan is expected to begin ECU shipments from Q2 FY27, while another 9,000 sq ft facility is projected to begin shipments of electric machines from Q3 of the ongoing fiscal. It has also acquired 13 acres of land in Tamil Nadu’s Shoolagiri for future customer shipments in South India, signalling a broader manufacturing push.

As the listed deeptech company prepares for heavy capex on new factories, here is how SEDEMAC fared on the financial front in Q4…

From The Editor’s Desk

Cellogen Therapeutics Bags ₹20 Cr

The biotech startup has raised about $2 Mn in a funding round from Kotak Alternate Asset Managers to advance its clinical programmes, expand gene therapy pipeline and strengthen manufacturing and regulatory capabilities.
Founded in 2021, Cellogen Therapeutics is a cellular engineering startup that develops therapies to treat cancers and blood disorders. The startup aims to price its treatments at $60K to $70K compared to $500K currently.
The biotech startup claims to be working towards phase I human clinical trials in collaboration with CMC Vellore. Last year, it also bagged a patent for its CAR-T platform.

NPCI’s Unified Soundbox Infra

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is working on building a common interoperable infrastructure for UPI soundboxes to enable merchants to accept payment from any QR code.
Currently, most soundboxes are closed systems which are compatible with their respective company’s ecosystem. A merchant currently needs separate devices for different providers like Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay, among others.
While the move is expected to benefit merchants, it will likely impact the revenues of fintech companies. Most fintech players typically charge merchants a monthly rental fee for soundbox devices.

Indian Fintechs’ Mythos Threat

The launch of Anthropic’s AI model, which is capable of autonomously finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities, last month sent shockwaves through India’s financial establishment.
To curb this new threat, the Centre has urged top bankers to assess allied risks, while also pushing for faster threat-intelligence sharing between regulators and agencies like CERT-In. As a result, cybersecurity has become a national economic security issue.
Yet, analysts are skeptical about readiness. Critics warn that many banks still depend on manual triage, fragmented asset visibility, and slow vendor coordination — weaknesses that systems like Mythos can ruthlessly exploit.

Shadowfax’s Inflexion Point

The logistics major turned profitable in Q4 FY26, alongside a record surge in top line. Having posted its first meaningful quarterly profit, Shadowfax is attempting to transform itself into a full-stack logistics operating system.
The company has set its eyes on vertical quick commerce categories. To this end, it is planning to scale its dark store network to 100 in FY27, while focusing on high gross margins and profitability.
Even as it scales core parcel delivery, Shadowfax is also widening its ambitions to foray into specialised logistics categories like heavy-shipment and high-value deliveries. This is expected to bring in higher margins and even stronger customer stickiness.

India’s Listed Startup Tracker

Over 60 Indian new-age tech companies have so far listed on the bourses, boasting a combined revenue of $18 Bn and a cumulative market capitalisation of $141 Bn.
While 13 startups went public in 2024, another 18 companies made their D-Street debut in 2025. Continuing the momentum, six startups have already listed on the bourses this year so far.
Currently, nearly 25 startups, including Zepto, Shiprocket, OYO, among others, are in various stages of their IPO journey. Delhi NCR is home to the biggest chunk of listed Indian startups, while fintech and SaaS top the sectoral charts.

Inc42 Markets

Inc42 Startup Spotlight

How VU Dynamics Is Making Battle-Ready UAVs In India

India’s defence ecosystem depends heavily on imports for advanced aerial systems. The real gap appears to be turning research into rugged, deployable hardware that can work in the field. VU Dynamics is trying to close this gap with its indigenous UAV platforms.

From Lab To Deployment: Founded in 2022, the IIT Kanpur-incubated startup designs and manufactures next-generation unmanned aerial systems (UAVs) for both defence and civilian use cases. Its focus is not just on building drones, but on creating end-to-end systems that are practical to deploy and easier to operate.

Multi-Product Stack: VU Dynamics’ offerings includes surveillance and battlefield drones, portable launch systems and simulation modules for operator training. This combination matters because drone adoption is not only about the aircraft itself, but also how quickly it can be launched, how reliably it performs and how well users can be trained before deployment.

Built For India: The startup’s pitch rests on endurance, ease of use and cost efficiency, which are critical in defence and public-sector environments. Last year, VU Dynamics partnered with PATH Group to scale manufacturing and move toward production-grade deployment.

With the homegrown defence UAV systems and autonomous aerial platforms market expected to cross $1.4 Bn by 2030, can VU Dynamics help India build its own aerial systems at scale?

Infographic Of The Day

Delhi NCR is now India’s top D2C hub by both funding and deal count, attracting over $3.5 Bn across 434 deals, surpassing Bengaluru’s $3.4 Bn and 342 deals.

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Biotech Startup Cellogen Therapeutics Raises ₹20 Cr from Kotak Alts

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 18 May 2026 10:24:40 +0000

Biotech startup Cellogen Therapeutics has secured ₹20 Cr (about $2 Mn) in funding from Kotak Alternate Asset Managers (Kotak Alts).

The startup plans to use the capital to advance its CAR‑T clinical programmes, expand its gene therapy pipeline, and strengthen its GMP‑compliant manufacturing and regulatory capabilities.

Kotak Alts made the investment through the Kotak Life Sciences Fund I (KLSF-I), an investment vehicle for early- and growth-stage lifescience and healthtech ventures.

Founded in 2021 by Dr. Gaurav Kharya and Dr. Tanveer Ahmad, Cellogen Therapeutics is a cellular engineering and gene therapy startup. It develops next‑generation therapies utilising Chimeric Antigen Receptor T (CAR-T) cells to treat cancers and blood disorders with an aim to make life-saving therapies more affordable and accessible. While current treatments cost $500K to $700K, the startup aims to price its treatments at $60K to $70K.

The startup’s core platform is a bispecific, dual-antigen CAR-T therapy. In simple terms, while conventional CAR-T therapies look for a single marker to attack cancer cells, Cellogen Therapeutics’s platform targets two different markers. Not only is this a more effective approach to cancer care, it also has a lower probability of relapse compared to the existing CAR-T treatments.

Cellogen Therapeutics claims it is working towards phase I human clinical trials, subject to regulatory approvals, in collaboration with CMC Vellore. Earlier last year, it bagged a patent for its CAR-T platform.

In addition, the startup is also developing early-stage programmes for beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease.

Prior to raising capital from Kotak Alts, Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company Natco Pharma acquired over 5% stake in Cellogen Therapeutics for ₹15 Cr.

Kotak Alts’ marked the first close of KLSF-I in January last year at ₹250 Cr (around $29 Mn) from family offices, UHNIs (ultra high net worth individuals), industry veterans and other institutions. The fund is specifically dedicated to backing startups in life sciences, medical devices, digital health, consumer wellness, diagnostics and delivery, across the entire life cycle, i.e. investing in early, growth and late stage.

In February, nutrition supplements startup ZeroHarm Sciences secured ₹65 Cr ($7.2 Mn) in a funding round led by KLSF-I and Alkemi Growth Capital.

Notably, the biotech sector in the country has been booming in recent years. The country is home to more than 11,000 biotech startups. To further promote research, manufacturing, and innovation in the sector, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, announced a new ‘Biopharma SHAKTI’ scheme in this year’s Union Budget.

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NPCI To Roll Out Unified Soundbox Infrastructure For Merchants: Report

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 18 May 2026 07:24:37 +0000

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is working on building a common interoperable infrastructure for UPI soundboxes to enable a single device to process UPI payments across different payment apps.

Citing sources, ET reported that the back-end infrastructure would allow merchants to accept payment from any QR code and use the same device for the settlement services. The NPCI’s common platform would be compatible with QR codes of all fintech players.

The infrastructure would allow merchants to receive payment confirmations through a single soundbox, regardless of the QR code used by customers for the transaction, the sources added.

Inc42 has reached out to the NPCI for comments on the development. The story will be updated on receiving a response.

Currently, most soundboxes are closed systems which are compatible with their respective company’s ecosystem. A merchant currently needs separate devices for different providers like Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay, among others.

With a common UPI soundbox infrastructure, the device would be efficient to support payment from any UPI app. This will reduce hardware duplication for the merchants.

While the move is expected to benefit merchants, it will likely impact the revenues of fintech companies. Most fintech players typically charge merchants a monthly rental fee for soundbox devices.

Notably, soundboxes are witnessing rising adoption among merchants, including kirana stores, street vendors, small retailers, restaurants, food stalls, and other local businesses.

For instance, Paytm highlighted that its subscription merchant base grew to 1.5 Cr in the last quarter of FY26, aided by device-led expansion, including soundbox deployment. The company has also integrated AI into its soundbox devices — enabling business insights, customer notifications and merchant support.

Last year, IPO-bound PhonePe launched an upgraded version of its smartspeaker, with enhancements in connectivity and power efficiency to boost digital payments for offline merchants across the country. As per its UDRHP, PhonePe had 9.19 Mn net deployed payment devices across its merchant network as of September 30, 2025. These devices include its soundbox, called smartspeaker, and EDC machines.

Last year, SaaS giant Zoho also unveiled a smart POS device and static QR with soundbox to expand its fintech offerings under Zoho Payments.

The development comes at a time when UPI has become the default digital transaction method for day-to-day needs. The number of UPI transactions stood 22.35 Bn in April.

Earlier today, Paytm launched ‘Paytm Pocket Money’ to offer UPI payments for teenagers without any bank account, where parents and guardians can keep a track on the spending and control access with defined limits.

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Delhivery Slides 6% As Flat Q4 Profit Overshadows Revenue Growth

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 18 May 2026 06:24:40 +0000

Shares of Delhivery fell nearly 6% to hit an intraday low of ₹447.85 on the BSE as investors turned cautious following the logistics major’s largely flat Q4 FY26 profit despite strong top line growth.

Shares were further weighed down by a broader market sell-off triggered by surging crude oil prices, ongoing tensions in West Asia, and rising US bond yields. BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 fell as much as 1.41% and 1.38% intraday, respectively.

Delhivery pared some of the losses later and was trading 4.75% lower at ₹453.10 apiece at 11:26 IST. The company’s market capitalisation stood at ₹33,901.9 Cr (about $3.5 Bn) at the time.

On Saturday, Delhivery reported a flat Q4 FY26 profit amid higher corporate overheads despite strong revenue growth. Its consolidated net profit stood at ₹72.4 Cr in Q4 FY26 against ₹72.5 Cr a year ago, even as operating revenue rose 30% YoY to ₹2,850 Cr from ₹2,191.6 Cr.

Total expenses increased 26.9% YoY to ₹2,853.1 Cr during the quarter. At operating level, EBITDA jumped 94% YoY to ₹231 Cr, while EBITDA margin expanded to 8% from 5.4%. The company’s transport business remained the key growth driver, with revenue from the segment rising 38% YoY to ₹2,453 Cr.

For the full FY26, Delhivery’s profit rose 8% YoY to ₹321 Cr, while operating revenue grew 17% to ₹10,486 Cr.

The company said it delivered over 1 Bn express shipments during FY26, with annual shipment volumes rising 40% YoY to 1,054 Mn.

Delhivery said it continued investing in AI-led logistics infrastructure during the quarter and also announced key board-level changes, including the appointment of Tata Communications CFO Kabir Ahmed Shakir as an independent director.

Despite the stock decline, brokerages largely maintained positive ratings on the company following its Q4 FY26 results.

UBS maintained a ‘Buy’ rating and raised the target price to ₹630, citing strong volume growth and benefits from the Ecom Express integration.

Citi maintained a ‘Buy’ call with a target price of ₹565, highlighting improving free cash flows and gains from ecommerce outsourcing.

Goldman Sachs maintained a ‘Neutral’ rating with a ₹480 target, noting strong parcel growth but weaker realisations and elevated integration costs.

Nuvama also maintained a ‘Buy’ call and raised its target price to ₹580, saying Delhivery remains well-positioned to gain market share in part truck load (PTL) and express logistics segments.

The post Delhivery Slides 6% As Flat Q4 Profit Overshadows Revenue Growth appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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The Mythos Threat, Delhivery’s Q4 Snapshot & More

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 18 May 2026 05:24:43 +0000

When AI Learns to Break Things

Anthropic’s Mythos — an AI system capable of autonomously finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities — has sent shockwaves through India’s financial establishment.

The system reportedly uncovered decades-old security flaws in OpenBSD, one of the world’s most hardened operating systems. For a country that has built its financial stack on deeply interconnected digital rails — UPI, Aadhaar-linked auth, cloud-native banking APIs — the implications are hard to overstate.

The Government Scrambles: Finance Minister Sitharaman called top banks for a high-level security meeting following Mythos’ release, warning of “unprecedented” cybersecurity risks and constituting a panel — headed by SBI chairman CS Shetty — to assess allied risks. The government is also pushing for faster threat-intelligence sharing between banks, regulators, and agencies like CERT-In. The shift in posture is significant: cybersecurity is no longer a compliance checkbox — it’s a national economic security issue.

Legacy Baggage Remains: Kotak Mahindra Bank’s MD and CEO Ashok Vaswani acknowledged that the nature of threats is shifting from human-speed to machine-speed attacks, requiring faster detection and response. But analysts are skeptical about readiness. Gartner’s Jaishiv Prakash warned that many banks still depend on manual triage, fragmented asset visibility, and slow vendor coordination — weaknesses that AI-class systems like Mythos will ruthlessly exploit.

Fintech’s Soft Underbelly: India’s fintech layer is deeply integrated into the broader banking ecosystem through payment gateways, lending APIs, account aggregators, and embedded finance systems — creating potential pathways for hackers to reach larger financial networks through smaller, less-defended platforms. Paytm, Razorpay, and Pine Labs have reportedly reached out to Anthropic to access Mythos for their own vulnerability testing — acknowledging the threat by trying to wield the very tool they fear.

How will the ecosystem deal with this threat? Find out…

From The Editor’s Desk

Delhivery’s Mixed Q4 Show

The logistics major’s consolidated net profit stayed almost flat YoY at ₹72.4 Cr in Q4 FY26. This came despite operating revenue rising 30% YoY to ₹2,850 Cr during the quarter under review.
In line with the top line, total expenses also rose 26.9% YoY to ₹2,853.1 Cr during the quarter under review. The startup processed 306 Mn express parcel shipments, while PTL freight tonnage rose 20% YoY to 5.49 Lakh metric tonnes.
For the full FY26, Delhivery’s net profit rose 8% YoY to ₹321 Cr in FY26, while revenue from services increased 17% YoY to ₹10,486 Cr.

India Gets The Cerebras Edge

Last week, the UAE President presented a Cerebras chip to PM Narendra Modi. The exchange marked the formal execution of Condor Galaxy India, an ambitious 8-exaflop AI supercomputing partnership between the two nations.
Under this agreement, 64 Cerebras CS-3 systems will be deployed to build one of the largest AI compute clusters in India.
Cerebras’ Wafer-Scale Engine chips house over 4 Tn transistors and close to 1 Mn AI-optimised cores on a single piece of silicon. It also claims to deliver up to 20X faster AI training and inference capabilities.

Weekly Funding Rundown

Indian startups cumulatively managed to raise $303 Mn across 15 deals last week, zooming 129% from $132.2 Mn raised across 18 deals in the preceding week. Rapido and HrdWyr topped funding charts by raising $240 Mn and $13 Mn, respectively.
On the back of Rapido fundraise, travel tech emerged as the most funded sector last week. Ecommerce clocked the highest number of deals at five.
Seed stage funding declined nearly 54% to $2.6 Mn from $5.6 Mn raised in the previous week. Meanwhile, Singularity AMC and Titan Capital emerged as the most active investors, backing two startups each.

Ecommerce’s Power User Ceiling

India’s ecommerce market has grown into a $165 Bn industry in just over a decade. Yet, only 2% of India’s 958 Mn internet users account for 60% of the country’s ecommerce GMV. This poses concentration risks for local D2C brands.
To counter these issues, experts urge brands to tap into accessible pricing, distribution, and product strategies to capture scale in emerging markets. Brands also need to address issues to turn Gen Z consumers into repeat users, they add.
To woo these power users, brands are also focusing aggressively on community building and influencer-led marketing to engage a consumer base that values premium experiences as much as pricing.

Bearish Week For Startup Stocks

Of the fifty seven new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage, 46 fell in a range of 0.2% to over 22% last week. The remaining 11 grew in the range of 0.39% to nearly 15%.
Pine Labs and Zaggle emerged as the biggest losers last week, while Veefin and Wakefit clocked the biggest gains. The cumulative market cap of 57 new-age tech stocks stood at $125.14 Bn at the end of the week.
The bearish trends came as Indian equities remained under pressure amid ongoing geopolitical tensions, plunging rupee, and inflationary concerns. Moving forward, markets will react to announcements from the recently concluded US-China summit.

Inc42 Markets

Inc42 Startup Spotlight

How Fraganote Is Making Perfumes A Style Choice

For years, fragrance in India has been treated like a hygiene purchase, not a style choice. Premium scents often feel too expensive, or too detached from local tastes. Fraganote is trying to change this by building accessible, modern perfumes designed for self-expression.

Reframing Fragrance: Founded in 2023, Fraganote is positioning itself as a new-age fragrance brand for Indian consumers. The startup leans into niche aromas, built around edible notes like vanilla and dessert-like accords. It has also expanded into tropical and premium collections, while keeping its portfolio gender-inclusive.

Built For Discovery: The startup sells through its website, quick commerce platforms like Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart, along with Nykaa and offline retail. This distribution mix has helped the company garner a customer base of more than 3 Lakh users, with a repeat purchase rate of 35%.

Riding A Growing Market: As Indian consumers increasingly treat personal care as part of identity and lifestyle, the Delhi NCR-based startup is eyeing a piece of India’s fine fragrance and personal care market, which is projected to cross $4.2 Bn by 2030. So, can Fraganote bring artisanal fragrances to the Indian masses?

Infographic Of The Day

India’s D2C ecosystem has evolved into a full-stack $65 Bn ecosystem powered by quick commerce marketplaces, payment infrastructure players, logistics network and SaaS players. And this market is projected to touch $310 Bn by 2031…

The post The Mythos Threat, Delhivery’s Q4 Snapshot & More appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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Shadowfax’s Inflection Point And The Next Frontier

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 May 2026 06:24:20 +0000

It was FY22 and Shadowfax was still viewed largely as another fast-growing logistics startup battling for ecommerce deliveries in India’s crowded third-party logistics (3PL) market. Four years later, the Bengaluru-based company’s market share in the 3PL segment has climbed from roughly 8% to as much as 29%, making it one of the country’s largest logistics platforms.

But its ambitions now extend far beyond parcel delivery. After posting its first meaningful quarterly profit in Q4 FY26, Shadowfax is attempting something more consequential — transforming itself from a courier network into what its executives describe as a full-stack logistics operating system for India’s digital economy.

In the March 2026 quarter, Shadowfax reported revenue of ₹1,237 Cr, up 73.6% year-on-year (YoY), while net profit swung to ₹55.8 Cr from a loss of ₹9.9 Cr a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA rose more than tenfold to ₹58 Cr, with EBITDA margin expanding to 4.7% from just 0.7% last year.

Operationally, the company delivered 22.6 Cr orders during the quarter, a staggering 100.8% jump from the prior year.

For most logistics companies, this combination — hypergrowth alongside expanding profitability — is difficult to achieve simultaneously. Yet Shadowfax executives insist the company is still early in its scale-up phase.

“We have hit a critical volume,” the startup’s management said during a post-earnings call, arguing that future automation investments will now break even “significantly faster”.

Market Consolidation Tailwind

India’s logistics market has historically been fragmented, populated by regional delivery firms, captive logistics operations, and VC-funded startups competing aggressively on pricing. But this structure appears to be changing rapidly.

“What is happening in the industry is that the top two players continue to gain market share, and the market is becoming more and more consolidated,” Shadowfax’s management said on the earnings call.

The company believes its market share gains are coming from two directions simultaneously. Smaller third-party logistics providers are struggling to compete with scaled infrastructure networks, while large enterprises are increasingly reassessing if operating logistics in-house still makes economic sense.

The company’s management estimates that roughly 55% of its future growth will come from expansion of India’s underlying digital commerce economy, while another 40% to 45% may come from continued market-share gains. The economics increasingly favour scale players.

At the centre of Shadowfax’s strategy is network density. The company now operates across more than 15,600 pin codes through nearly 4,800 touchpoints, supported by roughly 2.6 Lakh quarterly delivery partners and more than 3,500 daily trucks.

The larger the network becomes, the lower the effective cost per shipment tends to fall. Warehouses, sorting centres and transportation routes begin generating operating leverage as order density rises. That leverage is now becoming visible in the company’s financial profile.

Partner expenses declined to 52.2% of revenue in Q4 FY26 from 56.4% a year earlier, while corporate overheads also improved. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded roughly 400 basis points YoY.

Importantly, the company believes that the largest gains are still ahead. Executives suggested EBITDA margins could improve by roughly 100 to 120 basis points annually through FY28, before accelerating further as infrastructure utilisation rises.

“We are sacrificing near-term margins for long-term dominance,” was the underlying message running through the earnings discussion.

This philosophy explains the company’s unusually aggressive investment cycle. Shadowfax spent ₹185 Cr on capex in FY26 alone, nearly matching the ₹246 Cr it invested cumulatively from inception through FY25. Much of that spending went towards automation, sortation infrastructure, geographic expansion and technology systems.

One newly launched NCR sort centre offers capacity for 10 Lakh daily orders and throughput of 48,000 shipments per hour. Yet despite the spending surge, the company closed FY26 with ₹1,574 Cr in cash and virtually no debt.

How Quick Commerce Is Reshaping Business

If scale is the foundation of Shadowfax’s strategy, quick commerce may be its most important growth catalyst. The company now describes itself as India’s leading 3PL provider for quick-commerce platforms.

Unlike traditional ecommerce, where power is concentrated among a handful of giants, India’s quick commerce ecosystem is more distributed. Management said that the market now has six or seven meaningful players, reducing dependence on any single customer.

“There is no sort of leverage that any one partner has on 3PLs,” executives said during the call.

Quick commerce changes logistics economics fundamentally. Deliveries occur within tighter geographic radii, order frequencies are higher and customer demand becomes more predictable. This increases route density, improves delivery utilisation and shortens fulfilment cycles. For logistics companies, these dynamics can structurally improve margins.

Shadowfax’s hyperlocal business generated ₹232 Cr in revenue in Q4 FY26, up 32.1% YoY, while hyperlocal order volumes climbed nearly 30%.

But management appears focused on an even larger opportunity emerging beyond grocery delivery. Executives repeatedly highlighted what they described as the next phase of quick commerce — verticalised categories such as fashion, beauty, gourmet products, pet care and childcare. The players in these categories often lack the scale or operational sophistication to build dedicated fulfilment networks internally. Shadowfax wants to provide them with the infrastructure.

This strategy is driving one of the company’s most ambitious bets — dark stores. Shadowfax currently operates around 15 dark stores but plans to scale that number to 100 during FY27. Management disclosed that the pilot locations have already demonstrated attractive economics, with some generating gross margins above 20% and achieving profitability within three to four months.

“We spent a lot of time learning how they work,” executives said, explaining that the first phase was intentionally designed as a pilot before broader expansion.

The dark store initiative represents a major strategic evolution. Rather than simply transporting parcels, Shadowfax is increasingly embedding itself into inventory storage, fulfilment management, demand forecasting and localised warehousing. The deeper it becomes integrated into merchant operations, the harder it becomes to replace.

Shadowfax’s Competitive Moat

One of the least understood aspects of Shadowfax’s model may also be one of its biggest structural advantages. According to the management, essentially 100% of the company’s last-mile deliveries are “crowdsourced”.

Delivery partners operate on a per-order basis, rather than as part of a fixed employee fleet. Drivers may simultaneously handle ecommerce deliveries, quick-commerce shipments, food delivery and mobility-related work through the same ecosystem.

“Nothing like that exists in our country,” management said during the earnings call. The structure resembles a hybrid between a flexible gig-work marketplace and a national logistics network. It allows capacity to scale dynamically with demand rather than remaining fixed during slower periods.

That flexibility matters enormously in logistics, where utilisation often determines profitability. A driver network capable of moving fluidly across categories reduces idle capacity while improving route density and earnings potential for delivery partners themselves.

The same model also gives Shadowfax unusual flexibility as it expands into new verticals.

Its ‘Prime’ offering, which provides intra-city same-day delivery and inter-city next-day shipping, has already expanded to more than 120 cities. Initially designed for D2C brands, the service is now being extended aggressively toward India’s SME ecosystem through ‘Shadowfax 360’ — a self-service logistics platform launched during FY26.

The platform allows merchants to onboard automatically with no minimum order requirements and minimal human sales intervention. Management believes tens of thousands of smaller businesses entering India’s D2C economy can now be added to the network without proportionate increases in headcount.

The next wave of growth, the company said in its presentation, will come from SMEs entering D2C commerce at scale. Shadowfax is positioning itself as the logistics backbone supporting that migration.

The Next Phase: AI & Premium Freight

Even as it scales core parcel delivery, Shadowfax is widening its ambitions into more specialised logistics categories.

Through its ‘Prime Large’ initiative, the company plans to launch large-appliance and heavy-shipment logistics in FY27. Executives said the segment offers stronger yields, higher barriers to entry and fewer national competitors.

“Pull-driven demand” already exists from customers, the company’s management said, because relatively few logistics providers currently possess the infrastructure needed to move heavy goods efficiently across India at scale.

At the same time, the acquisition of CriticaLog adds a premium freight and high-value logistics layer to the broader ecosystem. The business specialises in time-sensitive shipments, luxury goods and critical logistics services, areas typically associated with higher margins and stronger customer stickiness.

The management described the acquisition as a strategic portfolio expansion rather than a diversification experiment. “Portfolio gap closed without new build-out,” the company said in its presentation.

Underlying many of these initiatives is another recurring theme — artificial intelligence (AI).

Executives repeatedly referenced AI-driven routing, node prioritisation, image recognition, demand forecasting and quality-control systems. In logistics, even small optimisation improvements can compound dramatically at scale. Faster routing decisions, better warehouse placement and improved shipment visibility can materially lower costs across millions of daily deliveries.

Still, risks remain substantial. India’s logistics sector remains intensely competitive, particularly as quick commerce platforms continue experimenting with internal fulfilment capabilities. Operational complexity is also rising rapidly as Shadowfax simultaneously scales automation, dark stores, SME onboarding, heavy logistics and premium freight.

Loss-shipment and quality-check costs remain elevated at more than 6% of revenue, though the company’s management said technology investments should gradually reduce those figures over time.

Yet, Shadowfax’s current trajectory suggests that the company may already have crossed an important threshold.

For years, Indian logistics startups were forced to choose between rapid growth and sustainable profitability. Shadowfax appears to have achieved both simultaneously in FY26 — 69.1% revenue growth, 66.4% order growth, expanding margins, a net profit of ₹112 Cr, and accelerating market share gains.

This is why FY26 increasingly looks less like a strong operating year and more like an inflection point for Shadowfax. The company that once competed simply to deliver packages is now trying to build the infrastructure layer beneath India’s digital economy itself.

The post Shadowfax’s Inflection Point And The Next Frontier appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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How D2C Brands Can Grow Beyond India’s Top 2% Power Shoppers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 May 2026 11:24:40 +0000

India’s ecommerce market has grown into a $165 Bn industry in just over a decade, but its growth remains heavily concentrated among a small set of consumers. Currently, just 2% of power shoppers out of India’s 958 Mn internet users account for 60% of the country’s ecommerce GMV, according to Inc42 Datalabs’ ‘D2C 3.0: The Next Big Wave in Indian Ecommerce Report 2026.’

This means that despite a total 350 Mn online shoppers recorded over time, only 19 Mn account for over half of the total spends recorded by ecommerce and D2C platforms.

Power shoppers are high-intent, high-spending consumers who prefer shopping directly from D2C brands for convenience and personalisation. They are digitally native, comfortable with online shopping, and tend to place frequent, high-value orders. They contribute disproportionately to premium D2C segments.
While this poses concentration risks for D2C brands competing for the same set of high-frequency buyers, it also presents a major opportunity to upgrade the broader base of online shoppers into high-value consumers through new acquisition and engagement models.

Low Intent To High Frequency

“Shoppers with high ecommerce spends range across staples to discretionary categories. While staples and daily FMCG purchases have largely moved to online channels, high-value discretionary spends like jewellery, luxury products and premium home products straddle across online and offline channels,” according to Rishav Jain, MD and co-lead of consumer tech and retail at Alvarez & Marshal.

High-intent shoppers are now emerging not just from metro cities but also Tier II and III markets, where widespread UPI adoption, social media-led brand discovery, and increasing discretionary incomes among digitally native Gen Z buyers are pushing the popularity of online shopping.

While omnichannel strategies may work well in metros, the relative lack of organised offline retail in smaller cities is expected to drive incremental ecommerce GMV growth from these geographies. As a result, brands will need more accessible pricing, distribution, and product strategies to capture scale in emerging markets.

“Discovery of new brands now happens largely through digital content, which is driving deeper ecommerce penetration beyond the top categories. Ecommerce also democratises access for consumers, making it a preferred medium,” said Yash Dholakia, partner at D2C-focused investment firm Sauce.vc.

According to Dholakia, daily consumption categories such as groceries and medicines, along with low-frequency categories like home improvement, remain significantly underpenetrated online, creating large opportunities for brands solving category-specific problems. He added that brands can also adopt hybrid models where relevant, combining offline experiences with digital transactions and customised supply chains.

Capturing A Disloyal Cohort

However, capturing Gen Z consumers is increasingly becoming less about acquisition and more about retention. The cohort is characterised by relatively low brand loyalty and high expectations around convenience, speed, aesthetics, and experience.

This is pushing brands to focus more aggressively on strategies such as community building and influencer-led marketing to engage a consumer base that values premium experiences as much as pricing.

“Few important indicators of strong brand strength for new-age brands are repeat purchase and organic brand search. These coupled with low CAC and high share of own website purchase make a powerful case for brand love and product acceptance. Most brands get initial scale through push-based customer acquisition and trials but find repeat based profitable sales sustenance difficult,” Jain said.

This is due to a number of factors, including a lack of meaningful differentiation beyond branding, overdependence on paid customer acquisition, weak unit economics and inability to scale distribution beyond one channel.

Brands need to address these issues to turn Gen Z consumers into users who place repeat orders.

“D2C brands can also play a very important role by introducing consultative selling in some high-value categories and solving for trust gaps in large-ticket segments,” Dholakia said.

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App-Based Gig Workers’ Union Calls For 5-Hour Nationwide Shutdown

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 May 2026 07:24:41 +0000

The Gig & Platform Service Workers Union (GIPSWU) has called for a nationwide five-hour shutdown of app-based services, demanding higher kilometre-based payment rates from digital platforms and government intervention following the recent hike in petrol, diesel and LPG prices.

In a statement issued yesterday, the union appealed to gig and platform workers associated with various app-based companies to observe a temporary shutdown of services from 12 PM to 5 PM today.

Amid the ongoing geopolitical tensions in West Asia, including disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, oil marketing companies increased petrol and diesel prices by around ₹3 per litre yesterday, marking one of the first major nationwide fuel price hikes in nearly four years.

Following the hike, petrol prices in Delhi rose to about ₹97.77 per litre, while diesel prices climbed to ₹90.67 per litre.

Claiming that the fuel price hike would severely impact lakhs of gig workers, GIPSWU said rising fuel costs and stagnant payouts are putting further pressure on workers’ earnings.

GIPSWU president Seema Singh said rising fuel and LPG prices have increased the financial burden on gig workers, especially delivery workers associated with platforms such as Zomato, Swiggy and Blinkit amid severe heatwave conditions.

The union is demanding a central law for gig workers and a minimum service rate of ₹20 per kilometre. It said that while fuel, maintenance and transportation costs continue to rise, platform companies have largely kept payout structures unchanged.

Citing NITI Aayog estimates, the union said India had around 7.7 Mn gig workers in 2020-21 and the number is projected to increase to about 23.5 Mn by 2029-30. A substantial portion of these workers are associated with app-based food delivery, grocery delivery, logistics, ride-hailing and digital platform services.

In memorandums submitted to the Centre, concerned authorities, and digital platforms, GIPSWU sought immediate revision of delivery charges, increase in kilometre-based payment rates and compensation for rising fuel expenses so that the burden of increasing operational costs is not imposed entirely on workers.

The union said it submitted memorandums to platforms like Zomato, Swiggy, Blinkit, Zepto, Dunzo, Urban Company, Ola, Uber, Rapido, Porter, Amazon Flex and Instamart.

GIPSWU said the proposed shutdown is intended to “peacefully highlight” the difficulties being faced by delivery workers, drivers and app-based service workers due to increasing operational expenses and inadequate compensation structures.

This is not the first time gig workers’ unions have called for protests against app-based platforms. In recent years, gig workers across India have organised multiple strikes and shutdowns against companies such as Swiggy, Zomato, Blinkit and Zepto over issues including low pay, algorithm-based penalties and poor working conditions.

Earlier this year, GIPSWU called for a nationwide ‘online’ strike on January 26, asking workers to switch off their apps in protest against alleged exploitation, low pay and lack of legal protections for gig workers, followed by nationwide protests in February.

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Why UAE President Gifted Cerebras AI Superchip To PM Narendra Modi

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 May 2026 06:24:27 +0000

Right after hosting a high-profile conclave of the foreign ministers of BRICS nations in New Delhi on Thursday (May 14), Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in the UAE the next day for the first-leg of his five-nation diplomatic tour.

While the announcement of the West Asian nation committing $5 Bn investment in the country grabbed headlines, much more happened behind the scenes. During a tête-à-tête, UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan presented a Cerebras chip to PM Modi.

The exchange was not just symbolic. It marked the formal execution of Condor Galaxy India, an ambitious 8-exaflop AI supercomputing partnership between India and Abu Dhabi-based tech major G42. The physical chip handed to PM Modi is the foundational building block of this infrastructure.

Under this agreement, 64 Cerebras CS-3 systems will be deployed to build one of the largest AI compute clusters in India.

For context, supercomputers provide the computational power necessary to train complex AI models, while AI, in turn, optimises the performance of these computing systems. Even the current breed of LLMs rely on supercomputers, specifically massive clusters of GPUs.

The partnership signalled the growing importance of AI infrastructure in India-UAE cooperation and the increasingly strategic role of compute in the next phase of cross-border cooperation.

For India, the partnership aligns closely with its domestic AI ambitions. It also helps bring sovereign AI compute onshore, reduce dependence on foreign cloud infrastructure, and provide startups and researchers access to frontier-scale computing power.

But what exactly are the Cerebras chips at the centre of the growing India-UAE tech bonhomie?

The AI Chips Powering India-UAE Tech Ties

At the heart of this geopolitical tech partnership is a radical departure from conventional chip design. Traditional GPUs, which power most modern AI systems, are manufactured by printing hundreds of small chips onto a large circular silicon wafer. The wafer is then cut into individual chips for commercial use.

However, Cerebras Systems builds a single massive processor using an entire silicon wafer, an architecture it calls the Wafer-Scale Engine (WSE). This chip houses over 4 Tn transistors and close to 1 Mn AI-optimised cores on a single piece of silicon.

Featuring a 44 GB on-chip SRAM that moves data at 21 petabytes per second and a proprietary on-wafer fabric, Cerebras’ WSE-3 claims to deliver an aggregate bandwidth of 214 petabits per second. It also claims to be able to train AI models with up to 24 Tn parameters without complex code splitting.

By keeping the entire processing network on one continuous wafer, Cerebras reduces data communication latency, delivering up to 20X faster AI training and inference capabilities.

Founded in 2015, Cerebras Systems is the brainchild of Andrew Feldman, Gary Lauterbach, Michael James, Sean Lie and Jean-Philippe Fricker. At the outset, the startup set out to solve a difficult challenge in semiconductor history – wafer-scale integration.

For decades, using an entire silicon wafer as a single processor was unviable. A single speck of microscopic dust during manufacturing could create a defect. Cerebras Systems solved this by building thousands of spare cores directly onto the silicon wafer, allowing the chip to automatically reroute data around any manufacturing flaws.

Since rolling out its first chip in 2019, the US-based startup has gone from selling individual hardware boxes to building giant cloud supercomputers.

Backed by the AI momentum, Cerebras Systems made one of the biggest tech debuts on the Nasdaq since 2019, raising $5.55 Bn just a couple of days ago. Its market capitalisation surged to as high as $95 Bn in the debut trading session.

After President Al Nahyan gifted the wafer to PM Modi, Cerebras Systems cofounder and CEO Feldman took to social media to welcome the development.

“We founded @cerebras with a vision to forever change AI compute… Today our AI super computer solution was the centerpiece of a collaboration between the Governments of the UAE and India. We are honored and humbled,” said Feldman in a post on X.

With chips in its kitty, work is all set to begin on one of the largest AI compute clusters in India.

Boost For India’s AI Ambitions

The supercomputing initiative has been in the works for some time now. The project was announced by PM Modi and Al Nahyan during the latter’s visit to India in January this year.

Subsequently, a term sheet was signed between G42 and India’s Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to deploy an 8-exaflop supercomputer cluster in India during the India AI Impact Summit 2026.

Under the framework, G42, in partnership with C-DAC, will be responsible for the installation, deployment, operations, and maintenance of the system.

Once operationalised, the project will mark a big step forward for the Indian AI ecosystem. The proposed eight exaflop (or 8,000 petaflop) capacity is almost 19X compared to the combined peak 410 petaflop compute capacity of the country’s two flagship AI supercomputers AIRAWAT and PARAM Siddhi-AI, both hosted at C-DAC Pune.

For starters, the supercomputer facility will help train and run large AI models much faster than conventional infrastructure, and offer greater control over data and latency. It will also offer affordable access to startups as well as other public and private sector entities for research, application development, and commercial use.

“The AI compute cluster will underpin a new era of joint R&D across sectors such as health and genomics, energy, and geospatial analytics, enabling researchers, institutions from both countries, and India’s emerging innovators to advance frontier science and address some of the most consequential challenges of our time,” G42 said in a statement.

The project will likely be utilised to accelerate drug discovery, processing satellite data for disaster management, simulating efficient smart energy grids and fostering research.

A big part of the appeal is also data sovereignty. By hosting the infrastructure and data in India, the project helps address questions of data residency, security and national control.

“India is one of the world’s great innovation economies. Deploying an instance of G42’s Intelligence Grid at this scale in such an important geography is what AI-native transformation looks like in practice. We are delivering infrastructure that converts energy and compute into sovereign governed nation-scale intelligence,” said G42 CEO Mansoor Al Mansoori during the latest meeting between the heads of the two states.

The post Why UAE President Gifted Cerebras AI Superchip To PM Narendra Modi appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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From Rapido To HrdWyr— Indian Startups Raised $303 Mn This Week

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 May 2026 05:24:28 +0000

Indian startup funding momentum witnessed a sharp uptick this week on the back of Rapido’s mega funding round this week. Fifteen startups managed to raise $303 Mn between May 11 to May 15, marking a 129% increase from $132.2 Mn raised across 18 deals last week.

However, barring Rapido’s $240 Mn primary infusion, startup funding would have declined by 52% this week.

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [May 11 — May 15]

Date	Name	Sector	Subsector	Business Model	Funding Round Size	Funding Round Type	Investors	Lead Investor
15 May 2026	Rapido	Travel Tech	Ride Hailing	B2C	$240 Mn*	–	Prosus, WestBridge Capital, Accel	Prosus
12 May 2026	HrdWyr	Advanced Hardware & Technology	Semiconductors	B2B	$13 Mn	Series A	Ideaspring Capital, Singularity AMC, Avatar Growth Capital, Persistent Systems	Ideaspring Capital
11 May 2026	Wingreens Farms	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$12.6 Mn	Series D	Ashish Kacholia (Lucky Investment Managers), Alchemy Fund	Ashish Kacholia
14 May 2026	Dhruva Space	Advanced Hardware & Technology	Spacetech	B2B	$11 Mn	–	Research, Development & Innovation Fund (RDIF)	Research, Development & Innovation Fund (RDIF)
12 May 2026	Dil Foods	Foodtech	Cloud Kitchen	B2C	$7.7 Mn	Series B	Bikaji Foods Family Office, V3 Ventures, MJV Ventures, Alteria Capital	Bikaji Foods Family Office
12 May 2026	Mekr	Enterprise Services	Manufacturing Solutions	B2B	$7 Mn	Series A	Avaana Capital, Titan Capital	Avaana Capital
13 May 2026	Nivasa Finance	Fintech	Lending Tech	B2C	$2.6 Mn	Seed	Prime Venture Partners, Blume Ventures, Whiteboard Capital	–
11 May 2026	Flo Mobility	Advanced Hardware & Technology	Robotics	B2B	$2.5 Mn	Pre-Series A	Mela Ventures, Arali Ventures	Mela Ventures, Arali Ventures
15 May 2026	Legend Of Toys	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$2.2 Mn	Pre-Series A	Singularity AMC, Veltis Capital, Enzia Ventures, DeVC, Atrium Angels, Stride Ventures	–
12 May 2026	SCIKIQ	Enterprise Tech	Horizontal SaaS	B2B	$1.5 Mn	Pre-Series A	Triton Investment Advisors	Triton Investment Advisors
13 May 2026	The EleFant	Ecommerce	Recommerce	B2C	$1 Mn	–	Growth Sense, JIIF, Arian Capital, Asit Oberoi (Angel investor), Vimal Saboo (Angel investor)	Growth Sense
13 May 2026	Instafix	Consumer Services	Hyperlocal Services	B2C	$787K	Pre-Seed	Titan Capital, 8i Ventures, Anish Srivastava (Blinkit), Bharat Kalia (Lifelong)	Titan Capital, 8i Ventures
11 May 2026	Bobakat	Foodtech	QSR	B2C	$638K	Pre-Series A	–	–
11 May 2026	NORI	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$350K	Pre-Seed	Rebalance, Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Paytm), VSS Investco	Rebalance
14 May 2026	The Sweet Change	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$73K	–	Indian Angel Network (IAN Angel Fund), Udaan Angel Partners	Indian Angel Network
	Source: Inc42 *Part of larger round

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

Rapido raised $240 Mn in fresh funding in a round led by Prosus, making travel tech the most funded segment this week. Important to highlight that the total size of the round, including secondary transactions, is expected to be around $740 Mn.
In terms of deal count, ecommerce witnessed significant investor traction with five deals recorded under the segment. Advanced Hardware & Technology with three startups raising fresh investments this week.
Singularity AMC and Titan Capital emerged as the most active investors backing two startups apiece.
Seed stage startups saw a capital infusion of $2.6 Mn during the week, down 53.6% from $5.6 Mn raised in the previous week.

Fund Updates This Week

Former Peak XV Partners managing directors Ashish Agrawal, Ishaan Mittal, and Tejeshwi Sharma launched Mettle Capital, a new India-focused VC firm with a maiden VC fund in the range of $350-400 Mn
Early stage VC firm 3one4 Capital is planning to launch its fifth fund —3one4 Capital IFSC, with a potential corpus of around $225 Mn to back startups operating in sectors like AI and SaaS, enterprise and manufacturing automation, fintech, deeptech and consumer internet.

M&A Updates This Week

US-based AI finance platform Numero acquired Chennai-based finance automation startup Royu in a cash-and-stock deal. Royu builds AI accounting agents for finance teams.
InCred Group’s wealth management arm InCred Capital acquired Singapore-based fund management firm S Cube Capital to strengthen its offshore capabilities across the Singapore-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-India investment corridor.
Dhan parent Raise Financial Services acquired GreenLife Insurance Broking Pvt Ltd (GIBL) in a cash-and-stock deal to foray into the insurance distribution space.

Other Developments

IPO-bound electric two-wheeler maker Simple Energy is raising ₹126.7 Cr in a funding round led by its existing backer Arokiaswamy Velumani. The round will fuel the company’s growth and business expansion plans.
EaseMyTrip’s board approved the proposal to raise up to ₹500 Cr via a rights issue. The company is likely to use these funds towards expanding its presence across non-core segments, particularly in hotels and holidays.
SaaS major Zoho invested ₹70 Cr in the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to help them reach more customers and reduce the dependence on large tech platforms.

The post From Rapido To HrdWyr— Indian Startups Raised $303 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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Exclusive: EV Startup Simple Energy To Raise ₹127 Cr

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 15 May 2026 07:24:46 +0000

IPO-bound electric two-wheeler maker Simple Energy is raising ₹126.7 Cr (around $13.2 Mn) in a funding round led by its existing backer — Thyrocare founder Arokiaswamy Velumani. The round will also see participation from a clutch of angel investors.

According to Simple Energy’s MCA filings accessed by Inc42, the Bengaluru-based startup’s shareholders passed a resolution last month to issue 2.11 Lakh Series X CCPS at ₹6,000 each. Cofounders Suhas Rajkumar and Ankit Gupta will also participate in the round, investing ₹13.5 Cr each.

The resolution said the fresh capital will be used for Simple Energy’s growth and business expansion plans.

The funding seems to be part of an ongoing round. Questions sent to the startup didn’t elicit any response till the time of publishing this story.

Including the latest funding, Simple Energy’s total funding has crossed $84 Mn, including a $10 Mn bridge round raised last year. It counts Haran Family Office, Apar Industries-backed Desai Family Office, and Vasavi Family Office among its backers.

The development comes at a time when the EV startup is gearing up for its IPO. Last year, cofounder Rajkumar said Simple Energy was eyeing a public listing. He said Simple Energy was looking to raise nearly $350 Mn (about ₹3,000 Cr) via its IPO by Q2 or Q3 of FY27 to double down on R&D and scale its offline footprint to 500 stores.

Founded in 2019 by Rajkumar and later joined by Shreshth Mishra and Gupta, Simple Energy currently sells three electric scooters — Simple One, Simple OneS and Simple Ultra. The startup has expanded its presence across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, and currently operates around 70 retail outlets.

However, the EV maker’s ride hasn’t exactly been smooth. Although Simple Energy was initially expected to begin deliveries in 2022, regulatory hurdles and delays in fundraising pushed its rollout by over a year. Sales also remained sluggish till the end of 2024 before gaining traction last year.

Rising Competition In E2W Market

According to Vahan data, Simple Energy has sold around 4,806 electric scooters so far, including 1,244 units in April 2026. The startup recorded its highest-ever monthly sales in March at 1,775 units before demand softened in April amid a broader slowdown in the E2W segment.

Industrywide, E2W registrations fell 20% month-on-month in April to 1.4 Lakh units from 1.92 Lakh units in March. Despite the sequential decline, registrations were still over 50% higher than the 92,532 units recorded in April 2025.

Simple Energy competes with the likes of Ather Energy, Ola Electric, River Mobility, Ultraviolette Automotive, Oben Electric and other players in India’s fast-growing E2W market.

The funding comes at a time when competition in India’s EV market is intensifying, with both startups and legacy automakers doubling down on localisation, niche segments and go-to-market strategies — all vying for a slice of a market projected to reach $132 Bn by 2030.

The momentum has also been supported by the Centre’s continued push for EV adoption. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on citizens to cut fossil fuel dependence by shifting to EVs, public transport, and carpooling amid geopolitical tensions in West Asia.

On the financial front, Simple Energy’s operating revenue jumped more than 6X to ₹40.7 Cr in FY25 from ₹6.6 Cr in FY24. Total income rose nearly 4.6X to ₹44.3 Cr during the year. At the same time, the startup’s consolidated net loss widened 32.6% to ₹83 Cr as expenses surged to ₹129.67 Cr.

Simple Energy is yet to disclose its FY26 financials. However, Rajkumar told Inc42 in September last year that Simple Energy was targeting 1,000% year-on-year growth in both revenue and vehicle sales in FY26.

The post Exclusive: EV Startup Simple Energy To Raise ₹127 Cr appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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