CityMall raised $47M in Series D led by Accel to scale its e-commerce platform in Tier-II and III cities. Founded by Angad Kikla and Naisheel Verdhan, it serves value-conscious consumers via community leaders. Funds will boost distribution, private labels, and supply chains. Reporting Rs 460 Cr FY24 revenue, up 22% YoY, CityMall aims to tap India’s growing small-town e-commerce market with its low-cost model.

Offgrid Energy Labs raised $15M in Series A funding led by Archean Chemicals and Ankur Capital to scale its ZincGel battery tech. Funds will support a UK demo unit before building a gigawatt-scale plant in India. Founded by Rishi Srivastava, Tejas Kusurkar, Brindan Tulachan, and Ankur Agarwal, Offgrid targets peak shifting and off-grid energy, eyeing commercial launch next year in Europe and India.

Hexaware Technologies has partnered with Replit to transform enterprise software development using secure Vibe Coding. Combining Hexaware’s innovation with Replit’s natural language platform, the alliance enables rapid, secure app building with SSO and SOC2 compliance. It democratizes development, accelerates prototyping, and empowers teams across functions to build custom tools. Leaders Amjad Masad and Sanjay Salunkhe highlight its role in driving secure, scalable AI platforms for digital agility.

India’s economy grew 7.8% in Q1 FY2025-26, beating forecasts and countering Trump’s “dead economy” jibe. Projections place India as the third-largest economy by 2030 with $7.3 trillion GDP. Job creation hit 17 crore, while manufacturing and services drive growth. Government schemes like PLI, GST reforms, and Viksit Bharat boost momentum as inflation eases, FDI rises, and S&P upgrades India’s credit rating.

Tessolve, backed by Hero Electronix, raised $150M from TPG Growth to drive acquisitions and global expansion. Revenues rose from $25M in FY16 to $150M+ in FY25. The firm will boost test labs and delivery centers, showcasing strength in chip design and architecture. With 3,000+ engineers and global partners, Tessolve evolves into a full-service provider as semiconductors near a projected $2T industry in 15 years.

Star Localmart, the retail arm of Sanjay Ghodawat Group, acquired DusMinute to expand to 170 stores, focusing on tier-II to tier-VI towns with modern supermarket formats. DusMinute, with 40 app-enabled residential stores, had earlier raised Rs 11.5 Cr from Inflection Point Ventures. Star Localmart targets 3,000 stores and Rs 5,000 Cr revenue by 2030, combining its retail network with DusMinute’s hyperlocal model.

Elev8 Venture Partners closed its debut fund at INR 1,400 Cr ($160M), backed by sovereign funds, family offices, and LPs from Korea, Hong Kong, and India. Founded in 2022, Elev8 invests $10M–$15M in Series B and C rounds across consumer tech, fintech, and healthtech. A third is deployed in Astrotalk, IDfy, smallcase, Porter, and Snapmint, aiming to guide startups toward public listings.

OpenAI plans a 1GW data center in India under its $500B Stargate expansion, partnering with local firms. CEO Sam Altman may announce details during his India visit and Delhi NCR office launch. With India as its second-largest market and rising ChatGPT use, OpenAI is building a local team, aligning with India’s AI Mission and its vision of “AI for India with India.”

India is projected to become the world’s second-largest economy in PPP terms by 2038 with a GDP of $34.2 trillion, according to EY. Backed by young demographics, high savings, fiscal resilience, and structural reforms, the economy could touch $20.7 trillion by 2030. Experts note India’s strong domestic demand, policy reforms, and adoption of emerging technologies will drive growth despite global headwinds.

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw inaugurated India’s first Tempered Glass Manufacturing Facility in Noida by Optiemus Electronics and Corning. Built with a ₹70 crore investment, Phase 1 capacity is 25 million units, creating 600 jobs, and scaling to 200 million with ₹800 crore more. Vaishnaw highlighted India’s electronics manufacturing growth to ₹11.5 lakh crore, exports worth ₹3 lakh crore, 2.5 million jobs, and the upcoming Made-in-India chip rollout.

WhatsApp has launched Writing Help, an AI-powered feature that refines messages with styles like professional or funny. Built on Private Processing, Meta AI generates suggestions without accessing message content. Validated by NCC Group and Trail of Bits, the feature is optional and off by default. Initially rolling out in English across the US and select countries, WhatsApp plans a wider global expansion.

Infosys and Mastercard have partnered to integrate Mastercard Move with Infosys Finacle, enabling faster cross-border payments. The collaboration helps financial institutions reduce implementation time and access services across 200+ countries and 150+ currencies, covering 95% of the banked population. Executives from Mastercard and Infosys highlighted the partnership’s focus on security, agility, and improved customer experience as global remittance volumes continue to rise.

The Indian government has launched a Joint Working Group (JWG) with the live events industry, including players like BookMyShow, Wizcraft, Saregama, and District by Zomato, to boost growth and create 20 million jobs by 2030. Key steps include a single-window clearance on India Cine Hub, a digital music licensing registry, new infrastructure policies, skill development, and financial incentives.

The Department of Posts (DoP) has partnered with MapmyIndia–Mappls to boost India’s digital addressing system via DIGIPIN. An MoU was signed at Dak Bhawan, New Delhi. MapmyIndia will supply base maps for the Know Your DIGIPIN app and integrate DIGIPIN into Mappls, improving location-based services. DoP’s Shri Harpreet Singh highlighted greater reach and accessibility, while Shri Rakesh Verma stressed empowering citizens. The move strengthens innovation and the Address-as-a-Service (AaaS) framework.

Reliance Jio unveiled Jio Frames at its 48th AGM, marking its entry into smart wearables. The glasses feature a multilingual AI assistant in Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali, with HD media capture, hands-free operation, and Jio AI Cloud backup. Open-ear speakers support calls and media playback. Offering recipe guidance and real-time information, Jio Frames rivals Ray-Ban Meta, aiming to popularize AI-driven eyewear within the Jio AI ecosystem. Pricing and launch details await announcement.

Mukesh Ambani and Mark Zuckerberg announced a new joint venture to bring open-source AI solutions to Indian businesses. Powered by Meta’s Llama models and Reliance’s scale, the initiative will democratize AI for startups, enterprises, and industries nationwide. This partnership aims to fuel innovation, productivity, and sovereign AI adoption across India.

Mukesh Ambani announced a strategic partnership with Google Cloud to drive large-scale AI adoption across Reliance businesses. The collaboration will launch a Jamnagar Cloud Region, powered by clean energy and Jio’s network, to deliver secure, scalable AI infrastructure. Sundar Pichai called it a transformative step to empower startups, enterprises, and India’s digital economy.

Mukesh Ambani unveiled Reliance’s new AI subsidiary, Reliance Intelligence, at the 48th AGM. The company will build AI-ready green data centres in Jamnagar, form global tech partnerships, deliver affordable AI services for sectors like education, healthcare, and agriculture, and act as a talent hub for AI innovation. The move strengthens Reliance’s ambition to become India’s deep-tech powerhouse.

Aqualab, retail arm of Laborate Pharmaceuticals India, crossed ₹100 crore revenue in three years and targets ₹250 crore by FY25–26. Its 800+ SKUs and 500+ stockists drive Tier-II/III expansion. MD Arpit Bhatia cites scaling Direct-to-Retail and last-mile delivery. Leveraging Laborate’s GMP-certified facilities, Aqualab eyes exports, digital channels, and new categories in India’s ₹18,700 crore retail pharmacy market, projected at ₹31,200 crore by FY32. Founded 1985, Laborate operates in 55 countries.

Netrasemi has raised ₹107 crore ($12.5M) in Series A funding led by Zoho, with Unicorn India Ventures and Maithan Alloys participating. This follows a ₹10 crore pre-Series A in December 2024. The round values Netrasemi at ₹630 crore ($74M), marking a 6.6X jump. Founded in 2020, Netrasemi builds energy-efficient SoCs for smart IoT, featuring an AI acceleration core (NPU) and silicon IPs for on-device analytics.

Nuyug, a celebration-wear jewelry brand co-founded by Ankur Dua and Manali Thareja, raised ₹2.5 crore in pre-seed funding led by AJVC. The funds will support channel expansion, R&D, and product diversification. Nuyug bridges imitation and fine jewelry with skin-safe, gold-toned designs for weddings and festivals. In eight months, it achieved ₹1 crore ARR and launched 400+ products via its D2C platform, Myntra, Nykaa Fashion, and Amazon.

Cumin Co has raised $1.5M in a Fireside Ventures-led round to boost enamel-based coating production and enhance its supply chain. Founded in 2025 by Niharika Joshi and Udit Lekhi, the brand offers toxin-free enamel cast iron cookware priced between ₹1,999–₹7,000. Targeting high-income households via a D2C model, it reports ₹1 crore MRR with 20% MoM growth, and plans expansions to Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart.

Beatoven.ai has launched Maestro, a generative AI music model ensuring royalties for artists and rights-holders through full licensing and partnerships. Powering Beatoven’s Music Intelligence tools, Maestro creates instrumental tracks with planned sound effect and vocal support. Trained on licensed datasets via Musical AI, it guarantees attribution and payouts. CEO Mansoor Rahimat Khan highlights AI’s creative role. Industry leaders Ed Newton-Rex and Sean Power endorse its ethical approach.

IBM and AMD are collaborating to integrate AI accelerators, quantum computing, and HPC. Leaders Arvind Krishna and Dr. Lisa Su emphasize transformative potential. Their quantum-centric architecture assigns tasks to optimal paradigms quantum for simulations, classical for data analysis. AMD’s CPUs, GPUs, and FPGAs will merge with IBM’s quantum systems for fault-tolerant computing. A demo launches this year, extending IBM’s partnerships with RIKEN and Lockheed Martin. AMD powers the world’s fastest supercomputers.

PedalStart has launched Hustler Mela 3.0 in Bengaluru, a live pitching event deploying ~₹15 Cr across 10 startups. With 300+ investors, including angels, HNIs, and VCs, alongside 30 curated startups, the event fosters real-time evaluation and networking via PedalInvest Club. Co-founders Manas Pal and Aditya Darolia highlight building a learning-driven ecosystem. Hustler Mela promotes founder-investor collaborations through pitches, networking, and sessions on startup evaluation.

Ashray Akruti and Optum India have launched a Mobile Hearing Clinic in Hyderabad to deliver hearing healthcare to underserved communities. Inaugurated by Mr. D.P.K. Babu and Ms. Uma Ratnam Krishnan, it offers free ENT check-ups for early detection and intervention. Mr. Babu stressed hearing’s role in education, while Ms. Krishnan highlighted Optum’s collaborative mission. Recognized by WHO, Ashray Akruti and Optum India, part of UHG, continue advancing healthcare access.

BhaoBhao, co-founded by Aditi Sanganeria and Anshika Maheshwari, raised $200K from angel investors to scale its at-home pet grooming services. Operating in India’s $3.5B pet care sector, the Mumbai startup charges Rs 1,500–2,000 per visit, using certified groomers for dogs and cats. With 3,000+ clients and a 95% repeat rate, BhaoBhao now eyes a $4M- $5M funding round by year-end to expand services.

Apple and Reliance Jio have partnered to bring RCS messaging to iPhones in India, enabling Jio users to access rich features like read receipts and high-resolution media. The move modernizes SMS with secure transactions and alerts. With Jio’s vast user base, Apple expects rapid adoption. Simultaneously, Apple is expanding retail and manufacturing in India, planning to shift iPhone assembly for the US market to India by 2026.