Inc42

Months after receiving a regulatory nod for its NBFC licence, MobiKwik has now completed the transfer of its digital lending operations and associated team to its wholly owned subsidiary, MobiKwik Distribution Services Private Limited (MDSPL).  Beyond the restructuring, the fintech company has also announced that it will be pumping ₹60.85 Cr as equity into MDSPL. To strengthen the subsidiary’s operations, MobiKwik has appointed former Bajaj Markets exec Manish Pathania as the chief business offi

Geospatial technology startup NeoGeo has raised around $20 Mn (₹191 Cr) in a Series A funding round co-led by Neev II Fund and Aavishkaar Capital. Neev II is managed by SBI Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of the State Bank of India, while Aavishkaar Capital is the investment arm of the Aavishkaar Group. NeoGeo plans to deploy the fresh capital to deepen its platform and product portfolio, invest in R&D and technical capabilities, and strengthen its team.  The Gurugram-based startup will

Prominent Indian startup investors — VC firm Peak XV Partners, Girish Mathrubootham-led Together Fund and Aakrit Vaish’s Activate — have acquired stakes in US-based voice AI unicorn Wispr Flow.  The aforementioned investors participated in the startup’s $280 Mn Series B round, which catapulted its valuation to $2 Bn. While US-based Menlo Ventures led the round, other existing and new investors Notable Capital, NEA, Neo Ventures, 8VC, MVP Ventures, Acrew, Forerunner, Goodwater, and PLUS Capital,

DeHaat Honest Farms, the consumer food brand launched by agritech startup DeHaat, has raised ₹35 Cr in a pre-Series A funding round led by OTP Ventures.  The round also saw participation from Sadev Capital and Maiuni Ventures.  Alongside the fundraise, DeHaat cofounder Adarsh J Srivastava has been appointed the CEO of Honest Farms to lead its next phase of growth.  The fresh capital will primarily be used to expand into new geographies, widen the brand’s product portfolio through new product dev

Healthcare startup Superhealth has appointed former Dunzo cofounder Dalvir Singh Suri as its head of operations as it looks to scale its hospital network across India.  In his new role, Suri will build the systems, teams, and operating processes required to replicate Superhealth’s care model across its upcoming hospitals. Superhealth plans to expand its network to 100 multispeciality hospitals over the next five to seven years.  Suri spent more than eight years at hyperlocal delivery startup Dun

Ecommerce enabler Shiprocket’s IPO has produced sharply divergent outcomes for its investors, with returns on the shares sold through the OFS component ranging from 0.6X to 77.6X.  One of Shiprocket’s earliest backers, 500 Global, offered its entire holding for ₹16.3 Cr through the OFS. At the upper end of the IPO price band of ₹92 to ₹97, this was equivalent to about 16.8 Lakh shares and translated into a gross return multiple of 77.6X over its weighted average acquisition cost of ₹1.25 per sha

Online travel aggregator (OTA) ixigo has entered into a partnership with ride-hailing major Uber to enable train-ticketing via the latter’s app. Launched today (August 18), the service would now allow users to book train tickets via the Uber’s app, check PNR status as well as book a cab to and fro railway stations without switching apps.  Users can access the feature through the ‘Bus & Train’ section on Uber’s home screen or Services menu. They can enter their origin, destination and travel

Edtech major upGrad said its net loss narrowed 52% to ₹130 Cr in the financial year ended March 2026 (FY26) from ₹274 Cr in the previous fiscal year.  The Ronnie Screwvala-led startup’s gross revenue, inclusive of taxes, rose 7% to ₹2,070 Cr during the year from ₹1,943 Cr in FY25. Its total income after Ind AS accounting stood at ₹1,732 Cr.  Meanwhile, upGrad’s Ind AS EBITDA rose over eightfold to ₹123 Cr from ₹15 Cr in FY25.  The startup also said it collected ₹530 Cr in revenue that is yet to

 Update| August 18, 12:50 IST Child development-focused healthtech startup LISSUN has raised ₹48 Cr (about $5 Mn) in a Series A funding round led by Colossa Ventures.  The round also saw participation from Physis Capital and existing investors RPSG Capital Ventures, IvyCap Ventures, Rainmatter, Multiply Ventures, and SucSEED Ventures. New Age India Fund and Beyond Capital Ventures joined the company’s cap table as new investors.  The Gurugram-based startup plans to deploy the fresh capital to ex

Colgate-Palmolive India has partnered with D2C startup Bombay Shaving Company to drive the D2C and ecommerce business of its personal care brand Palmolive, as the FMCG major looks to revive the underperforming brand. Under the partnership, Bombay Shaving Company will manage Palmolive’s consumer-facing advertising and customer relationships across D2C and ecommerce channels. Colgate-Palmolive will continue to oversee Palmolive’s modern and general trade business, traditional advertising, product

AI-powered lending tech startup Rezolv has raised $12.5 Mn (about ₹115 Cr) in a Series A funding round led by Norwest. Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India and existing investor 3one4 Capital also participated in the round.  The Mumbai-based startup plans to deploy the fresh capital to strengthen its AI capabilities across the lending lifecycle, including sales, risk assessment, underwriting and collections.  “At Rezolv, we are transforming debt collections by combining AI, intelligence and

In last week’s edition of The Checkout, we explored how efficient dark store management will be central to quick commerce platforms’ festive season sales strategies. Therefore, this week, we decided to move to the next layer of India’s ecommerce ecosystem: marketplaces and ecommerce enablers. Ahead of this year’s festive season, the ecommerce stack appears to be shifting from a basic support layer (payments, storefronts, and logistics) to a more integrated, technology-driven commerce infrastruct

Razorpay has launched a transformer-based AI foundation model Vulcan built to expedite digital payments. The IPO-bound startup claims that the model can make every digital payment more reliable and safer by scoring routes in real-time and flagging fraud that becomes visible across multiple merchants after it is in production. Built with NVIDIA and AWS technology, Vulcan combines Razorpay’s payments data with NVIDIA’s accelerated computing and AWS’ cloud infrastructure.  Vulcan

Will Sellers Embrace AI Blitz? The AI war in the Indian ecommerce space is now moving into the seller realm. Online marketplaces are using AI tools to automate catalogues, forecast demand, improve advertising and retain sellers. But why are marketplaces building AI stacks to woo sellers? Retention With AI: The AI-led strategy could become a new growth lever as customer acquisition costs rise and competition for online shoppers intensifies. By improving catalogue quality, product discovery, prici

For much of the past two years, the AI race in Indian ecommerce revolved around the consumer.  That meant the likes of Amazon, Meesho, Flipkart invested heavily in AI-powered search, personalised recommendations, conversational shopping assistants and customer support aimed at making product discovery easier and improving conversion rates. As generative AI matured, companies increasingly positioned these tools as the next evolution of online shopping. These ecommerce giants are now racing to bui

Flipkart wanted to draw attention to the final day of its Freedom Sale. Instead, its obituary-style print advertisement has triggered a debate over dark humour and how far brands should go to grab eyeballs.  The advertisement borrowed the visual language of obituary notices, placing photographs and personal details of individuals inside memorial-style boxes. However, it was Flipkart’s deals, and not the people featured, that were supposedly nearing their end.  “We aren’t sad at all,” the adverti

PharmEasy parent API Holdings claims to have become debt free, after repaying ₹1,050 Cr in outstanding debt by selling a portion of its stake in Thyrocare Technologies and internal accruals.  Thyrocare promoter Docon Technologies sold 1.58 Mn Thyrocare shares, representing around 9.90% of the company’s paid-up equity share capital, via open market trades. Following the sale, Docon continues to hold 51.02% stake. API Holdings redeemed and repaid the NCDs on August 14. The shares had been pledged

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has approved 31 new applications under the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS), amounting to a cumulative ₹6,844 Cr.   MeitY also cleared a further ₹1,033 Cr capacity expansion to existing beneficiary Wipro Global, taking the fresh clearance amount to ₹7,877 Cr.  With this, MeitY has now approved 106 applications over the lifetime of the scheme.  Capital goods led the allocation with five approved applications seeking ₹

Sunil Bharti Mittal is set to step down as the non-executive chairman of Airtel Payments Bank and leave its board after serving in the role for more than a decade. His tenure will conclude on September 30, following which existing board member Shabnam Sinha will take over as chairperson on October 1 for a three-year term. Sinha’s appointment has been cleared by Airtel Payments Bank’s board and the RBI, the payments bank said in a statement.  Mittal, the founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises

Former Peak XV Partners analyst Saksham Mittal’s wealthtech startup Corpus Labs is in talks to raise pre-seed funding from Stellaris Venture Partners, sources told Inc42.  While Inc42 couldn’t ascertain the size and terms of the funding round, Corpus has disclosed on its website that it has raised $4.2 Mn in pre-seed funding. However, the website did not identify the investors who participated in the round.  Mittal cofounded Corpus with former Groww executive Ayush Gupta and former JPMorgan exec