Hinduja Group to Invest ₹2,500 Crore in Tamil Nadu Towards Renewables & New Mobility Solutions

• Hinduja Renewables to explore 200 MW+ projects across solar, wind and battery technologies
• Ohm Global Mobility to operationalise electric buses for public transport and expand mobility solutions value chain
• Group to explore opportunities across automotive, financial services, energy, battery charging infrastructure and digital mobility solutions

The Hinduja Group - a 111-year-old transnational conglomerate, today announced plans to invest ₹2,500 crore in Tamil Nadu. The investment will span across the group’s businesses including renewable energy, electric mobility, automotive, financial services, energy, battery charging infrastructure and digital mobility solutions.

As part of the commitment, Mr. Amit Saharia, Group President – Strategy, Hinduja Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mr. Deepak Jacob, IAS, MD & CEO, Guidance Industries, Investment Promotion and Commerce Department, Government of Tamil Nadu in the august presence of Hon'ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu - Thiru C. Joseph Vijay, Mr. Ashok Hinduja, Chairman of Hinduja Group of Companies (India), Mr. Dheeraj Hinduja, Chairman, Ashok Leyland, Selvi S. Keerthana, Minister for Industries, Investment Promotion and Commerce, Government of Tamil Nadu, Dr. S. Vijayakumar, IAS - Additional Chief Secretary to Government, Industries, Investment Promotion and Commerce Department, Government of Tamil Nadu and other senior dignitaries.

A key component of the commitment will be the development of 200 MW+ renewable energy projects by Hinduja Renewables Energy Private Limited (HREPL), spanning solar, wind and battery technologies. The Group will seek land and connectivity support in identified catchment areas, including Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Virudhunagar, Madurai and Coimbatore as it works towards developing these projects.

In the mobility space, OHM Global Mobility Limited will operationalise electric buses for public transport in Tamil Nadu and expand its mobility solutions value chain. The Group will also explore opportunities across automotive, financial services, energy, battery charging infrastructure and digital mobility solutions as part of its broader investment commitment to the state.

Mr. Ashok Hinduja, Chairman, Hinduja Group of Companies (India), said, “Our ₹2,500 crore commitment is a statement of our confidence in Tamil Nadu and our desire to participate in its next phase of growth. With its strong industrial base, talent and renewable energy potential, Tamil Nadu is well positioned to lead India's energy and mobility transition. We look forward to building on our long-standing association with the state and working with the Government of Tamil Nadu to create lasting value through investments in clean energy, electric mobility and other emerging opportunities.”

The proposed investment reflects the Hinduja Group's long-standing presence in Tamil Nadu and its growing focus on clean energy and new mobility. The Group's businesses in the state include Ashok Leyland, Gulf Oil India, Hinduja Leyland Finance, Hinduja Housing Finance, Switch Mobility, Ohm Mobility, Gro Digital and Hinduja Tech, among others.

The latest commitment also builds on the Hinduja Group UK’s ₹7,500 crore MoU signed with the Government of Tamil Nadu in September 2025 for investments in the state's EV ecosystem, spanning battery manufacturing, battery energy storage systems and charging infrastructure. In March 2026, Ashok Leyland broke ground for a ₹500 crore greenfield battery pack manufacturing facility at Pillaipakkam near Chennai, further strengthening the state's electric mobility supply chain.

Tamil Nadu's strong industrial base, skilled talent, manufacturing capabilities and entrepreneurial ecosystem position the state well to play an important role in India's energy transition and the evolution of new mobility. The Hinduja Group looks forward to working closely with the Government of Tamil Nadu to take forward this commitment and contribute to the state's sustainable growth.

About Hinduja Group:

The Hinduja Group is a 111-year-old transnational conglomerate with over 250,000 employees across 100 countries. Founded in 1914 by Late Shri Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja, the Group has evolved into one of India’s most respected diversified business houses, with leadership in automotive, financial services, lubricants & specialty chemicals, energy, digital solutions, real estate and healthcare. Through its enterprises, the Group has contributed to India’s industrial evolution and economic progress while building strong global partnerships and market presence worldwide. Anchored in robust governance, disciplined risk management and long-term value creation, the Hinduja Group is guided by its enduring credo, “My Dharma is to work so that I can give,” reflecting a legacy that combines global enterprise with nation-building and community commitment.

India’s Ist Nano Surface Care Brand Invisel Raises ₹4 Crore in Funding Led By IAN Angel Fund

(Left to Right) Atharva Ulangwar (Founder & CEO) and Sumedh Yeolekar (Co-founder & CMO); Invisel

IAN Angel Fund, the evergreen fund of IAN Group, has led a ₹4 crore funding round in Invisel, India's first nanotechnology-based home surface protection brand, along with BeyondSeed, with participation from FAAD Capital. The investment marks the company's first external funding after building a profitable business entirely through bootstrapped operations.

Founded by Atharva Ulangwar (Founder & CEO) and Sumedh Yeolekar (Co-founder & CMO), Invisel is introducing a new way for homeowners to care for their living spaces. Instead of repeatedly cleaning surfaces after they get damaged, the company's invisible protective coatings help prevent stains, hard water marks, and everyday wear before they happen.

The idea emerged from a simple observation. While working with industrial nano coatings for several years, founder Atharva saw cutting-edge formulations being supplied to businesses across sectors, but rarely reaching end consumers. Homeowners facing common problems such as stained bathroom glass, fading marble, or damaged upholstery had no practical solution to prevent the damage in the first place.

The company was created to change that by bringing industrial-grade surface protection directly into consumers' hands through products that can be applied in minutes without professional expertise.

Within just over a year of commercial operations, the company has served more than 60,000 customers across 900+ pin codes, generated ₹5.2 crore in FY26 revenue, and achieved profitability all without raising external capital. Alongside its D2C business, they also work with institutional partners who are leading OEMs in the Furniture industry, while offering professional application services across multiple cities.

The fresh capital will be used to establish a dedicated manufacturing and research facility in Pune, strengthen the company's materials science capabilities, accelerate product innovation, build greater consumer awareness around preventive surface care, and support domestic and international expansion.

Atharva Ulangwar, Founder & CEO, Invisel, said, “We spent years making nano coatings that were genuinely world class, and then handing them over to other brands to put their name on. The technology worked, the market access didn't exist. Invisel was built to close that gap: to take industrial grade surface science and put it directly in the hands of an Indian homeowner, in a form they can use themselves.
This round lets us do three things we've been unable to do while bootstrapped: scale up our manufacturing and R&D facility, deepen the formulation science with senior research talent, improve marketing and distribution across online and offline channels, and take the Invisel brand to households across the world. We've grown to over 60,000 customers without external capital and while remaining profitable. With this investment, our focus is on building this new category from scratch and becoming the category leaders. Whenever anyone thinks of Nano Coatings, they should think of Invisel.”

Sumedh Yeolekar, Co-founder & CMO, Invisel, said, “We’re not building another home-care brand; we’re building an entirely new category around preventive care. For decades, consumers have been taught to clean, repair and replace after something gets damaged. We believe the future is about protecting surfaces before that damage happens. Our ambition is to make surface protection as fundamental to owning a home as cleaning itself and make Invisel the brand that defines that shift.”

India's home care industry is evolving rapidly as consumers invest more in premium homes, interiors and long-lasting products. Yet almost every solution available today focuses on cleaning surfaces after they have been damaged. They are taking a different approach by making protection the first step rather than the last.

Its invisible coatings form a protective layer on surfaces such as glass, marble, tiles, fabric, leather and metal, helping reduce cleaning effort while extending the life of household materials. A single application lasts between 6-12 months and can be completed within minutes.

Unlike most nano coating businesses that primarily serve industrial customers, Invisel has built a fully integrated consumer brand with in-house formulation, manufacturing and multiple distribution channels spanning e-commerce, institutional partnerships and professional services.

The company plans to expand its professional application network from three cities to twelve, establish its first international presence in the UAE later this year, introduce five new product categories, and grow its team across research, manufacturing, sales and marketing. It is also investing in advanced materials research and patent development to strengthen its long-term innovation pipeline.

About Invisel

Invisel is India’s first nanotechnology-based home surface protection brand. Founded in November 2024 and headquartered in Pune, Invisel manufactures invisible nano coatings that protect everyday home surfaces including glass, tile, fabric, leather, marble and metal from stains, hard water damage and everyday wear. Alongside its Direct-to-consumer business, Invisel works with institutional partners, including leading OEMs in the furniture industry, while offering professional application services across multiple cities. Invisel manufactures all its formulations in-house and has served over 60,000 customers across India. For more information, visit www.invisel.in

About IAN Angel Fund

IAN Angel Fund, the evergreen fund of IAN Group, is a SEBI-registered Category I AIF and part of India's leading early-stage investment platform, which pioneered angel investing in the country. Today, IAN invests through its Angel Fund and venture capital funds, backed by a network of approximately 500 investors, including iconic entrepreneurs and industry leaders from India and overseas. The platform enables founders to raise capital from ₹50 lakh to ₹50 crore as they scale, while offering investors a diversified early-stage portfolio across both emerging and growth-stage startups.

About IAN Group

IAN Group is India's largest horizontal platform for early-stage investments, comprising the IAN Angel Fund, BioAngels, and a series of SEBI-registered venture capital funds, including the US$100 million IAN Alpha Fund. IAN supports entrepreneurs with capital, mentoring by experienced founders, and access to global markets. Forbes has recognised IAN as one of the most iconic business and economic developments of Independent India over the last 75 years, alongside institutions such as LIC, NASSCOM, the RBI, and Naukri.com.

Finvolve Backs DefenceTech Startup KshatraLabs to Build High‑Speed Counter‑Drone Systems

Finvolve, a multi-stage venture capital fund along with India Accelerator (IA), has announced an undisclosed investment in KshatraLabs, an Indian DefenceTech startup building autonomous aerial interceptor systems to address the growing threat posed by hostile drones and drone swarms.

The investment will support KshatraLabs in advancing product development, strengthening its engineering capabilities and progressing its autonomous counter-drone systems towards higher technology readiness levels and field validation. The company plans to deploy the capital towards research and development, core engineering talent, legal and intellectual property requirements, certifications, defence events and operational needs.

KshatraLabs is developing HAWK, an autonomous aerial interceptor capable of detecting, tracking and neutralising hostile UAVs at speed upwards of 89.5 m/s (300 km/h), with less than five seconds of launch readiness. Its software-first architecture combines external sensors such as radars with onboard EO/IR sensors for autonomous terminal guidance, supported by a proprietary state of the art autonomy stack called APEX. The stack allows rapid response with accuracy at high speed scenarios.

Commenting on the investment, Ashish Bhatia, Co-Founder of Finvolve and Founder & CEO of India Accelerator, said, “India's evolving defence landscape requires indigenous technologies capable of addressing emerging threats with greater speed, autonomy and cost efficiency. KshatraLabs is working on a critical capability gap in counter-drone defence through its high-speed autonomous interceptor technology. Its software-led approach, focus on sovereign technology and alignment with emerging defence requirements make it an interesting company to watch as India builds capabilities for the next generation of warfare.”

Speaking on the investment, Rishav Dev Mishra, Co-Founder & CEO, KshatraLabs, said, “The future of deterrence relies on mass manufactured, AI-native, autonomous systems operating at the edge. At KshatraLabs, our systems are built to navigate, intercept and close the kill chain entirely on their own. Utilizing intelligent sensor fusion and systems that run at the edge in contested environments, KshatraLabs aims to build vehicles that execute operations with full mission autonomy across air, land, and sea. This investment will help us accelerate hardware development, strengthen our engineering capabilities and move closer to field validation and deployment.”

The investment comes at a time when counter-drone capabilities are emerging as a strategic priority for defence forces globally. KshatraLabs is developing swarm-capable interceptor systems for coordinated response to mass drone threats, alongside an AI-native C4ISR and JADC2 layer enabling multi-sensor fusion, real-time decision-making and operations in contested, GPS-denied environments. The company has demonstrated autonomous interception and completed hardware-in-the-loop testing at 90 m/s, and engaged with the Indian Armed Forces for feedback on hardkill systems . It is also aligned with multiple active defence procurement requirements and has received a grant under the SISF scheme.

With the fresh capital, KshatraLabs aims to take its swarm interceptor drones to TRL-6, establish strategic partnerships, and conduct operational field trials to progress towards defence procurement opportunities. Its technology also has potential applications across critical infrastructure, airports, power plants, refineries and ports, where scalable counter-drone capabilities are increasingly relevant.
About KshatraLabs

Founded in October 2025 and headquartered in Bengaluru, KshatraLabs is a Defence robotics startup building autonomous counter-drone systems and next generation command and control technology. Its flagship system, HAWK is designed for high-speed autonomous aerial interception in contested environments. The company is developing a sovereign, software-first stack enabling operations through autonomous control, sensor fusion and swarm operations with mission autonomy.

About Finvolve

Finvolve is a multi-thesis venture capital fund supporting startups across their growth journey, from pre-seed through pre-IPO, with a centre of gravity in growth and late-stage capital. The fund partners with founders to provide growth capital, strategic guidance, and long-term support, helping companies scale sustainably and build enduring businesses.

About India Accelerator

India Accelerator (IA) is India’s leading accelerator - a full-stack platform that sources, scales, and backs high-potential startups from the earliest stages. IA operates across three reinforcing layers: a network of physical hubs that surface founders at the source, an accelerator powered by proprietary tech and a global mentor network, and capital deployed through Finvolve, its multi-stage VC arm. With 250+ startups accelerated, 33 hubs across 18 cities, and ₹500 Cr committed through Finvolve, IA has emerged as a national engine for startup discovery and long-term value creation.

SBI Raises $500M in Overseas Bond Issue

State Bank of India, acting through its London branch, has announced the conclusion of successful pricing of USD 500 million of “Regulation S” bonds at a coupon rate of 5.25 per cent. The bond is benchmarked against the 5yr US Treasury and priced at a spread of 88 bps over the benchmark. The bonds will be listed on SGX-ST, India INX and NSE-IX.

The transaction received an overwhelming response and saw strong interest from investors across geographies with a peak orderbook of USD 2.46 billion with 145 investors. On the basis of strong investor demand, the price guidance was revised from T+120 bps area to T+88 bps resulting in price compression of 32 bps. The Notes will carry rating of BBB, BBB- and BBB+/Stable from S&P, Fitch and CareEdge Global respectively.

SBI Chairman Shri CS Setty

Commenting on the transaction, Shri Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, Chairman, SBI said “The successful pricing of USD 500 million, during the ongoing global uncertainities, is a testament to the strong appetite for bonds of SBI and to the diversified investor base the Bank has in offshore capital markets, allowing it to efficiently raise funds from the leading global fixed income investors. The issue has priced at the tightest spread among all Indian public bond issuances since the RBI swap window announcement and reflects the confidence of the global investors in India’s growth story in general and credit quality of SBI in particular. The tight pricing achieved amid the evolving global macro environment has demonstrated containment in the borrowing cost for issuers from India. ”

BNP PARIBAS, Citigroup, Crédit Agricole CIB, Emirates NBD Bank PJSC, HSBC (B&D), MUFG, and Standard Chartered Bank were the Joint Bookrunners for this offering.

Mumbai's Brilliance Cosmocare Raises Rs 1.65 Crore to Build India's First Doctor-Led Longevity and Anti-Ageing Skin Health Platform

Dr. Ashok Patel and Satyapal Chandra

Most of what is sold as anti-ageing in India is a discount on a laser package. Brilliance Cosmocare, a Mumbai-based skin health venture founded by aesthetic surgeon Dr Ashok Patel, is trying to build something closer to science. Over ten years of clinical practice, the doctor-led venture has treated more than 12,000 patients, built a 4.9-star reputation across 500 verified reviews, and closed a $200,000 (Rs 1.65 crore) seed round to expand a model built on diagnosis, documented outcomes and long-term skin monitoring, rather than one-off procedures.

The distinction matters more than it might seem. India's combined skincare and aesthetic medicine market is worth close to $5 billion today and is projected to cross $11 billion by 2032, growing at nearly 15% a year, according to industry estimates. Much of that growth is being driven by treatments and products sold on trend rather than evidence-based procedures recommended before any real diagnosis, pricing patients discover only after they've committed, and marketing claims nobody is required to verify. Brilliance was built to compete on the opposite end of that spectrum: not ingredients or discounts, but data.

“Most people think of anti-ageing as something you do at 45, in a hurry, after the damage is already visible. We think about it as skin health you build for a decade, diagnosed early, tracked over time, and treated only when there's a real reason to. Beauty is a natural outcome of that. It was never meant to be the starting point,” said Dr. Ashok Patel, Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Brilliance Cosmocare.

The Rs 1.65 crore seed round was raised from a pool of family offices and institutional investors and will be used to fund clinical infrastructure, product development for the company's preventive-care pipeline, and the expansion of the Skin Record data platform. It follows a broader pattern of investor interest in Indian skin health. HUL's roughly Rs 3,000 crore acquisition of Minimalist last year is among the clearest signals that scientific, evidence-based skin brands can deliver serious results in this market.

“Ageing well is going to be one of the defining health conversations in India over the next decade, and almost nobody is building for it with real clinical rigour. We're not trying to be the biggest clinic or the loudest brand. We're trying to become the company people trust with their skin throughout their lives, across families and generations,” said Satyapal Chandra, Co-Founder and Director of Brilliance Cosmocare.

The company describes its work as skin and hair longevity, not dermatology in the conventional sense. Every patient begins with an AI-assisted diagnostic scan that scores measures such as skin age, hydration, pigmentation, UV damage, and barrier health. A report is produced that doctors use to build a treatment plan rather than sell one.

About Brilliance Cosmocare

Brilliance Cosmocare is a Mumbai-based, doctor-led skin health company building preventive, evidence-based anti-ageing and longevity care for Indian skin and hair. Founded by aesthetic surgeon Dr. Ashok Patel and technology entrepreneur Satyapal Chandra, the company runs a diagnosis-first clinic in Andheri West alongside a doctor-formulated product line, and is developing an AI-powered longitudinal Skin Record platform and a preventive nutraceutical portfolio. Brilliance Clinic, the clinical arm of Brilliance Cosmocare, has treated more than 12,000 patients over a decade of practice and holds a 4.9-star rating based on more than 500 verified patient reviews.