IIT Delhi-Duo Founded ByteAsk Raises $1M in YC-led Funding to Reinvent AI Coding for C++

[L-R] – Pratyush Saini, Co-founder and CTO, ByteAsk, Anirudha Kulkarni, co-founder and CEO ByteASK 

ByteAsk raises $1 million in YC-led pre-seed round to build AI coding agents for C and C++

ByteAsk, founded by former LawSutra AI co-founders Anirudha Kulkarni and Pratyush Saini, is building AI coding agents for C and C++ developers working in high-stakes industries.

Anirudha Kulkarni and Pratyush Saini, two IIT Delhi computer science graduates who previously built and sold legal AI startup LawSutra AI to Manupatra, one of India’s pioneers in online legal research, have started their second company, ByteAsk. The company has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding from Y Combinator and Entrepreneur First, alongside investments from angels working at leading global quantitative trading firms.

Founded in June 2026 and headquartered in San Francisco, with operations spanning the US and India, ByteAsk is building AI coding agents for C and C++, focused on developers working in mission-critical environments across defence, aerospace, robotics, high-frequency trading, finance, embedded systems, automotive and semiconductors. The company has also been selected for Y Combinator's Fall 2026 batch and is one of five India-founded young companies in the cohort. It is the only India-founded company in the batch focused on the “neolab” model of building deeply technical companies around emerging AI capabilities.

The founders, Anirudha Kulkarni and Pratyush Saini, first met as undergraduate students at IIT Delhi and worked together on multiple academic projects before starting LawSutra AI in January 2026. The legal-tech startup set out to make legal research faster and more reliable with AI, addressing the limitations of traditional keyword-based tools and the difficulty of relying on generic AI chatbots for high-stakes legal work due to hallucinations and unreliable citations. Anirudha’s family background in law gave the founders an early understanding of these challenges and how they affected lawyers in their day-to-day work.

LawSutra addressed the gap through semantic legal search, enabling the system to understand the context and meaning behind a legal query rather than relying solely on exact keyword matches. By building closely with lawyers and incorporating their feedback into the product, the startup quickly attracted interest from 5,000+ lawyers and saw its user base grow week-on-week, making it one of the fastest-growing legal-tech startups in its segment. This early combination of user adoption, product validation and growing market traction led to the startup being acquired by Manupatra, one of India’s pioneers in online legal research and a leading legal technology ecosystem, within four months of its founding.

Manupatra tested LawSutra's search technology on its own legal data. 97.5% of the results were found to be relevant to the queries, the highest among the AI solutions tested. Its technology now runs inside Manupatra AI Search, which serves lawyers, judges, law firms, government institutions and other legal professionals across India.

Both founders bring deep experience across AI, C++, systems engineering and high-performance computing, with their professional careers spanning quantitative trading, AI infrastructure, cybersecurity and developer systems.

Kulkarni holds a B.Tech and an M.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Delhi. Before ByteAsk, he worked on low-latency C++ systems at Optiver and core data and markets engineering at Quantbox Research, where he built a Python-to-C++ optimising transpiler that reduced execution time from 1.5 seconds to 150 nanoseconds in production environments. He was also part of Optiver’s Delta One trading team and has a background in competitive programming and quantitative research.

Saini holds a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Delhi. Before ByteAsk, he was a Senior AI Engineer at ThirdAI, where he worked on large-scale neural network training and inference infrastructure, and a founding engineer at SimbianAI, where he helped build AI security agents handling more than a million security incidents annually. At LawSutra AI, he designed the search engine and lawyer-grade evaluation system that formed the core of the company’s legal AI technology.

Deepak Kapoor, Founder and CEO, Manupatra, said, “LawSutra’s semantic capability stood out for combining strong technology with a clear understanding of how lawyers actually research. Its performance on Manupatra’s proprietary data, together with the team’s technical depth and responsiveness, led us to explore the acquisition. By integrating this capability with Manupatra’s proprietary legal database and research platform, we can now bring more intuitive, intent-driven legal search to the wider legal community through Manupatra AI Search.”

From legal AI to the software behind critical systems

ByteAsk was born out of a personal pain point the founders had experienced firsthand. They saw an important gap in how AI was being applied to C and C++, particularly for developers working in environments where reliability, performance and correctness are critical. While AI coding tools had dramatically changed software development, they found that the same gains had not translated equally well to C and C++.

The founders identified a significant gap in model performance on C and C++. Rather than building another generic AI coding assistant, they decided to focus on the grounding, verification and reasoning infrastructure required to make AI useful for complex systems programming. Before building the product, the team gathered publicly available evaluations of AI on C and C++, built its own tests around real bugs engineers had encountered, and evaluated leading AI models to understand where they failed.

“Seeing AI transform software development while C and C++ developers still struggle with the limitations of generic coding agents made us realise there was a significant gap to address. From the very beginning, we wanted to work on a problem that was technically difficult and had a large global upside. C++ sits underneath many of the systems the world depends on, but AI has not yet solved the engineering challenges developers face there. Building LawSutra taught us that models are only as useful as the context, verification and workflows around them. At ByteAsk, we are applying that same philosophy to code”, said Anirudha Kulkarni, Co-Founder and CEO, ByteAsk.

According to industry estimates, C++ represents an approximately $400 billion industry in annual salary spend, while they see agentic coding as a roughly $10 billion opportunity growing rapidly year-on-year. Rather than attempting to serve every software developer immediately, ByteAsk is starting with organisations where the combination of C++, AI and reliability creates the most acute need.

“C and C++ power a huge amount of the world's critical infrastructure, but the gains we've seen from AI coding tools have not translated equally well to these environments,” said Pratyush Saini, Co-Founder and CTO, ByteAsk. “We wanted to work on a problem where reliability, verification and context matter as much as generation.”

Commenting on the investment, Nemil Dalal, Visiting Partner Y Combinator, said, “When applying to Y Combinator for ByteAsk, what stood out about Anirudha and Pratyush was their passion, authenticity, and technical expertise. They saw a large group of software developers that were left out of current AI coding tools and had figured out how to make them more productive.”

Building AI coding agents for high-stakes engineering

The fresh capital raised will support ByteAsk’s next phase of product and infrastructure development, with the company planning to expand its engineering and research teams across San Francisco and Bengaluru, invest in GPU compute and training data, and build enterprise-grade security, privacy and on-premises infrastructure for customers in sensitive industries.

The company plans to initially focus on large firms in high-frequency trading, automotive and embedded systems, before expanding into adjacent markets. The founders say that engineers are using ByteAsk approximately six times more intensively each day than a comparable open-source coding agent, while its weekly active users are doubling week-on-week. On its internal benchmark of real firmware engineering tickets, ByteAsk says its grounding environment enables a smaller model to resolve 89% of tickets, compared with 61% for the best frontier model tested without the environment.

ByteAsk is also developing its own post-training approach for C++, with the aim of releasing one of the first language models specifically post-trained for the language within the next six to eight months.

About ByteAsk

ByteAsk is building AI coding agents for C and C++. Founded in 2026 by IIT Delhi alumni Anirudha Kulkarni and Pratyush Saini, ByteAsk focuses on helping engineers solve complex software problems in mission-critical environments where accuracy, reliability, security and performance are essential. The company is backed by Y Combinator and Entrepreneur First, with additional support from angel investors from the quantitative trading industry.

Ultraviolette Secures $85M to Power Global EV Expansion

Ultraviolette Announces $85 Million Funding Round to Advance its Next Generation of Global EV Platforms

• Round was led by Deep Tech Fund Yali Capital and TDK Ventures.
• Lip-Bu Tan, Chairman, Walden International invests in Ultraviolette; comes on board as Advisor to Ultraviolette.
• The fresh infusion of funds follows Ultraviolette's announcement of its new manufacturing facility scaling production up to 500,000 units annually.
• Ultraviolette currently offers the F77 and X-47 Crossover electric motorcycles with state-of-the art design, technology and performance; soon to be launched products include the Tesseract scooter and Shockwave enduro motorcycle.
• Ultraviolette currently retails in India and 20 European countries.
• Targets entry into the US market in 2027.

Ultraviolette today announced a new funding round of $85 million. The round was led by Deep Tech Fund Yali Capital and TDK Ventures and investment from Lip-Bu Tan, Chairman of Walden International & Advisor to Ultraviolette, alongside Ultraviolette's current and long-term investors.

The funding marks an important milestone in Ultraviolette's journey as it scales its manufacturing capabilities, advances the development of its next generation of electric vehicle platforms and accelerates its international expansion. The company is targeting entry into the United States in 2027, alongside a broader expansion across key markets in Latin America and South-East Asia.

Ultraviolette will deploy the capital towards scaling production for its current products F77 and X-47 and upcoming products, Tesseract and Shockwave, to serve the rapidly growing domestic and international demand.

This investment will also support the development of Ultraviolette's next generation of global EV platforms. These platforms will build upon the company's vertically integrated capabilities across battery technology, power electronics, vehicle architecture and intelligent software.

Lip-Bu Tan, Chairman of Walden International commented, "What I really like about Ultraviolette is the combination of deep engineering expertise, strong IP, and the willingness to take on genuinely difficult problems. They have built the technology from first principles and are focused on creating something that is truly differentiated for the long term."

Ganapathy Subramaniam, Founding Managing Partner, Yali Capital said, "India's shift towards cleaner mobility will increasingly be driven by electric two-wheelers, given the scale of the segment. What attracted us to Ultraviolette is the depth of engineering the team has built in-house; from the battery, powertrain to software and radar and their focus on applying this technology to real rider needs, especially safety. Ultraviolette has taken the F77 from concept to the roads in India and Europe, and brought radar-based safety features into a production two-wheeler with the X-47. With the Tesseract, launching early next year, they will bring this engineering and safety focus to scooters and a much wider set of riders. This combination of deep technology, product focus and ambition gives us strong conviction in Ultraviolette, and we are proud to back them."

Ravi Jain, Investment Director, TDK Ventures commented, "The adoption of electric two-wheelers can be accelerated by superior products powered by differentiated technology. We continue to believe that Ultraviolette is best positioned to catalyze this transition and build winning products for global markets."

Ultraviolette Founders Narayan Subramaniam & Niraj Rajmohan, shared "This funding round represents an important step in Ultraviolette's evolution into a global electric mobility company. The conviction demonstrated by Yali Capital, TDK Ventures, Lip-Bu Tan and our long-term investors reinforces our vision of building a design and tech focused global brand out of India. This investment will enable us to scale manufacturing, accelerate the development of our future product platforms and deepen our presence across international markets. Our single minded focus is about being a global leader in future mobility; electric vehicles that bring together uncompromising performance, future centric design and advanced technology."

Ultraviolette has built deep technical capabilities spanning battery architectures from 48V to 400V, enabling the company to develop electric mobility solutions across multiple vehicle segments and performance requirements. Ultraviolette is one of the only electric vehicle manufacturers globally with in-house technology capabilities spanning this range of battery architectures. This breadth of expertise gives the company the ability to engineer platforms around the specific performance, range, thermal-management and packaging requirements of different vehicle categories.

About Ultraviolette Automotive:

Ultraviolette (UV) is an innovator in future-ready Electric Vehicle Platforms and Battery Technology. Infused with Aviation DNA, this enterprise was conceived in 2016 by the founders, Narayan Subramaniam and Niraj Rajmohan. Ultraviolette is backed by a spectrum of global investors, including Lingotto, TDK Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Zoho Corporation, TVS Motors, and Speciale Invest. It is the first Indian electric manufacturer to secure a European certification for its motorcycles. Ultraviolette has expanded its global footprint, exporting to 20 countries across Europe including Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, the UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland and Hungary.

For more information, visit https://www.ultraviolette.com/

Lumikai Leads $600K Pre-Seed Round in Demoverse, An AI Platform Turning Consumers Into Product Co-Creators

• Demoverse is an AI co-creation platform where brands build products with consumers, not just for them.
• The company calls this shift the move from User Generated Content to User Generated Products, UGC to UGP.
• The platform allows consumers to reshape brand concepts using AI, with the community voting on the strongest directions before brands commit to production.
• Founder Akshay Mehta helped build the UAE's first commercial-scale satellite manufacturing facility, an experience that left him asking whether AI could open product creation to a much larger group of people.
• The capital raised will be used to convert early brand partnerships into paid campaigns, build out Demoverse's US go to market, and grow the consumer creator community.

Demoverse, an AI powered co-creation platform that enables brands to build products directly with consumers, announced it has raised $600K in a pre-seed funding round. The round was led by Lumikai, India's first interactive media, digital platforms, and games focused VC fund. Lumikai invested $500K as part of Pixels, its pre-seed program for founders building the next generation of interactive platforms. The round also saw participation from Marlan, the UAE based investor-operator focused on deep-tech, and a group of angel investors.

Consumer brands have spent decades trying to predict what people will buy. Getting that prediction wrong is expensive. McKinsey and BoF estimate that the fashion industry alone produced between $70 billion and $140 billion worth of excess inventory in 2023, a pattern that is visible across consumer brands.

The point behind Demoverse is simple: make something people want, with consumers shaping the design before brands commit to production.

Brands post a product concept or design direction on the platform, along with guidelines for what can and cannot change. Consumers then use AI to reshape and refine the concept, and the wider community evaluates and votes on the strongest directions.

What comes back is a clear product direction and a demand signal, ahead of any production commitment. Consumers whose ideas shape the winning design also earn royalties when the product is commercialised, giving the community a genuine stake in the outcome.

Demoverse describes this shift as moving consumer participation from User Generated Content (UGC) to User Generated Products (UGP).

Founded by Akshay Mehta, Demoverse builds on his experience helping construct the UAE's first commercial scale satellite manufacturing facility, work that left him asking whether AI could open product creation to a much larger group of people. Before founding Demoverse, he spent eight years across investing, consulting and operating roles, including Bain, Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India), Asia Alternatives and the UAE’s Royal Group's deep tech investment platform.

Akshay Mehta, Founder of Demoverse, said: "Two decades of social media have trained people to form and express opinions on everything they see. Two years of AI have given the masses the ability to express what they want in a visual format. We have a golden opportunity to bring these trends together and open the canvas where people design and build the products they use, and benefit from their commercial success."

The company is starting in fashion, where consumers tend to have strong opinions on design and visual identity, and plans to extend the model into beauty, CPG and other consumer categories over time. It has already run early trials with Indian consumer brands and is using this round to convert those early partnerships into paid campaigns as it builds towards its next phase of growth.

For Lumikai, the investment extends its thesis around interactive consumer platforms: as AI increases the ease and reduces the cost of creation, consumers will increasingly move from passive audiences to active participants in what gets created.

Salone Sehgal, Founder and Managing Partner at Lumikai, said: "AI is going to make it possible to create an almost infinite number of products. But infinite supply doesn’t solve the fundamental problem: what do people actually want? Demoverse closes that loop. Instead of asking consumers what they might buy through a survey or trend report, it gives them the tools to actually shape the product before it gets made.

We believe the next evolution of UGC is UGP: User Generated Products. Consumers won’t just create the content around brands. Increasingly, they will participate in creating the products themselves. Akshay saw this shift early, and we’re excited to partner with him as he builds it.”

About Demoverse

Demoverse is an AI powered co-creation platform that lets consumer brands build products with their customers, not just for them. Consumers create, refine and vote on designs using AI within brand guidelines, and contributors to winning products earn royalties. The company is starting in fashion and plans to expand across consumer categories. Demoverse is part of the NVIDIA Inception program. For more information, visit: https://demoverse.ai/.

About Lumikai

Lumikai is India’s specialist VC firm focused on interactive media, digital platforms and games. The fund invests in early-stage founders building across original IP, games, digital media, immersive platforms, and frontier tech. The firm has backed category leading companies including EloTV, Story TV and Master AI (India’s #1 social entertainment, micro-drama and edutainment platform) Supernova and Superflow (#1 educational app in India, building an AI communication OS), AutoVRse (India’s fastest-growing enterprise VR company), among many others. A seed stage investor, it also runs Lumikai Pixels, itspre-seed program for founders in their -1 to 10 journey of building the next generation of interactive platforms. For more information, visit https://www.lumikai.com/.

Ceramat’s 3D‑Printed Grafts Put India on Global Medical Map with TDB-DST Support

Representative Image

In a significant stride toward strengthening India’s medical technology ecosystem, the Technology Development Board (TDB) under the Department of Science & Technology (DST) has extended financial assistance to Ceramat Private Limited, Palghar, Maharashtra, for the commercialisation of advanced 3D-printed patient-specific bone grafts.

The project, titled “Calcium Phosphate based Standard and Customized Patient Specific Grafts by 3D Printing via Digital Light Processing Technique and Extrusion-based Equipment”, aims to transform the way bone grafts are manufactured and delivered in India. By leveraging indigenously developed bioceramic materials and cutting-edge additive manufacturing technologies, Ceramat seeks to reduce dependence on imported medical products and establish India as a hub for personalised healthcare solutions.

Ceramat’s Vision for Indigenous Innovation

Ceramat makes special powders and ceramics (like hydroxyapatite and calcium phosphate) that are very similar to the minerals in real human bone. These materials are shaped into grafts — pieces doctors use to repair or replace damaged bone.

Instead of making generic grafts, Ceramat uses advanced 3D printers to create patient‑specific grafts that match the exact shape of someone’s bone. This means every graft can be custom‑fit, improving recovery and reducing complications.

Think of it like this: if you break a part of your bone, instead of using a “one‑size‑fits‑all” piece, doctors can now give you a graft that’s tailor‑made for your body.

Ceramat Private Limited was founded with a mission to develop and commercialise

 bio-ceramics and advanced ceramics that serve as high-quality import substitutes. Its portfolio includes biomaterials such as:

• Hydroxyapatite
• Beta-tricalcium phosphate
• Biphasic calcium phosphate
• Bioactive glass

These materials find applications across orthopaedics, oral care, cosmetics, and industrial sectors.

The Technology Behind Patient-Specific Grafts

The initiative integrates Digital Light Processing (DLP)-based 3D printing and extrusion-based 3D printing with indigenous calcium phosphate biomaterials. These complementary approaches will allow Ceramat to manufacture both standard and customised grafts, offering:

• Complex geometries that mimic natural bone structures
• Patient-specific designs for personalised medical care
• Enhanced flexibility in clinical applications

Aligning with Aatmanirbhar Bharat

The project is closely aligned with the government’s vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat, focusing on advanced manufacturing and indigenous medical technology development. By reducing reliance on imported bioceramic and orthobiological products, the initiative will:

• Strengthen domestic supply chains
• Create opportunities for global market expansion
• Position India as a technology developer rather than just a consumer

Why It’s Globally Relevant

Ceramat’s work matters far beyond India. By producing advanced bone grafts locally, it reduces the country’s dependence on costly imports and makes treatment more affordable. At the same time, mastering patient‑specific 3D printing puts India in direct competition with global medical technology leaders.

This innovation reflects a broader shift in healthcare toward personalized solutions, where treatments are tailored to each individual rather than relying on generic options. Because the same techniques can be applied to dental implants, facial reconstruction, and even cosmetic surgery, Ceramat’s approach has the potential to influence multiple industries worldwide. In essence, India is positioning itself not just as a healthcare consumer, but as a healthcare innovator with solutions that can serve patients across the globe.

Conclusion

The collaboration between TDB-DST and Ceramat Private Limited marks a pivotal moment in India’s healthcare innovation journey. By combining indigenous biomaterials with state-of-the-art 3D printing, the project not only addresses critical medical needs but also reinforces India’s commitment to self-reliance, innovation, and global competitiveness in medical manufacturing.

Material	Application
Hydroxyapatite	Bone grafts, implants
Beta-tricalcium phosphate	Orthopaedics, oral care

HerSpace Manufacturing Secures $50M from Gray Matters Capital to Fuel Growth

• The funding raised would be used to expand its offerings in key manufacturing hubs across the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh

HerSpace Manufacturing Pvt Ltd, a leader in employee accommodations for industrial workers, announced today that it has raised a further $40 million from its existing investor, Gray Matters Capital (GMC) which had invested $10 million in 2025.

The $50 million will be invested over 30 months through a mix of debt, quasi-equity and equity.

The capital commitment reflects strong investor confidence in HerSpace’s leading accommodation solution, which is highly effective at improving employee retention, productivity, and satisfaction, in addition to drastically lowering the transport costs and the carbon footprint of employing companies.

The new capital is expected to support expansion in key manufacturing markets, including Greater Bengaluru, Hosur, Chennai, and the state of Andhra Pradesh, in addition to investment in people and systems needed to support HerSpace’s growth.

Bob Pattillo, Founder of HerSpace Manufacturing Pvt Ltd. explains, “HerSpace has moved quickly from an idea to a working business with strong market demand. Our goal now is to use the capital, experience and lessons from our first projects to build a model that can scale quickly while maintaining the quality and affordability that make HerSpace valuable to workers and employers.”

“One company placed 200 women employees with us, who then excitedly told all their colleagues, who then asked to be relocated to HerSpace. The company decided to take the entire remaining capacity of 280 beds.”, Pattillo goes on to add.

Manufacturing Sector Growth linked to Worker Housing

A 2024 NITI Aayog report, “S.A.F.E. Accommodation – Worker Housing for Manufacturing Growth,” highlighted the critical role of worker housing in supporting India’s manufacturing growth. The report stated:

Inadequate housing near industrial hubs is a major bottleneck. Poor housing conditions lead to high attrition rates, reduced productivity, and workforce instability. Moreover, the lack of suitable accommodations restricts the migration of workers, particularly women, thereby limiting the sector’s growth potential.

Currently, paying guest (PG) accommodations are the primary alternative, with significant concerns around quality, safety, compliance and safe access for women. This underscores the need for leased worker housing like that provided by HerSpace to establish India’s dominance in manufacturing.

Mr. Simha Nagaraj, CEO, HerSpace Manufacturing

“This funding milestone marks a defining moment for HerSpace and reflects the immense market opportunity ahead, as well as the dedication of our talented team including our Founders Mr. Bob Pattillo and Mr. Puneeth Thimmegowda.” said Mr. Simha Nagaraj, CEO of HerSpace Manufacturing Pvt Ltd.

The company currently has over 950 modular beds delivered and operating, with more than 10,000 beds in the pipeline.

About HerSpace Manufacturing Pvt Ltd

Founded in 2023, HerSpace is the premier provider of leased affordable workforce accommodations for industrial workers in India. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, HerSpace funds, designs, builds, and operates under one roof. Statutory compliance is built in at each stage.

For more information, visit: https://herspace.co/

About Gray Matters Capital

Gray Matters Capital (GMC) is a leading global impact investor in companies with exceptional social impact and strong financial returns. Through 78 enterprises, GMC is projecting to serve 100 million women through entrepreneurial schools, startup impact ventures, health, and housing.

For more information, visit: https://graymatterscap.com/

UPES Runway Invests ₹25 Lakh in Reagvis Labs to Advance AI‑Powered Digital Trust

Dr. Sachin Chaudhary, Co-founder, Reagvis Labs

UPES Runway, the startup incubator at UPES, announced an investment of ₹25 lakh through equity participation in Reagvis Labs, a deep-tech startup developing indigenous artificial intelligence solutions for digital trust, including deepfake detection, document forgery detection, digital identity verification and digital content authentication. The investment is part of UPES Runway’s initiative to identify and support promising AI-native and AI-driven ventures through capital, mentorship and access to the wider startup and investor ecosystem.

Founded in 2025 by Dr. Sachin Chaudhary and Dr. Praful Hambarde, Reagvis Labs grew out of an academic collaboration between the two researchers during their PhD journey. Working in artificial intelligence and computer vision, the founders witnessed the emerging challenges around the misuse of generative AI to create deepfakes, forged documents, synthetic identities and misleading digital content. Reagvis Labs was created to address challenges such as deepfakes, forged documents and synthetic identities, with capabilities spanning media manipulation detection, identity and content verification, and KYC across image, video and audio, by building AI-led technologies that strengthen trust in the digital ecosystem.

Rahul Nainwal, CEO, Runway Incubator and Dean, School of Business, UPES, said, “The next phase of AI innovation will not only be about what artificial intelligence can create, but also about whether we can trust what it creates. Reagvis Labs is working on a problem that will become increasingly important as synthetic content becomes more sophisticated and widespread. Through The Pitch, our objective is to identify such AI-led ventures with strong technology depth and meaningful real-world applications and give founders the capital and ecosystem support they need to build and scale.”

Dr. Sachin Chaudhary, Co-founder, Reagvis Labs, said, “Reagvis began with our belief that trust must become a fundamental layer of the AI-powered digital world. As generative technologies grow more powerful, the ability to distinguish authentic content from manipulated or synthetic content will become increasingly important for businesses, governments and individuals. The investment and support from UPES Runway will help us strengthen our technology, accelerate development and take our digital-trust solutions to a wider set of real-world applications.”

Through The Pitch 3.0, UPES Runway plans to support 10 innovators this year, with an investment of around ₹25 lakh per startup, and the potential for higher investment in exceptional AI-led ventures, subject to evaluation and approval. Pitch 3.0 recently concluded its Delhi leg, which attracted more than 20 applications and brought seven shortlisted startups before investors, mentors and UPES leaders. The ventures represented a wide range of sectors, including AI image recognition, fintech, edtech, disaster management, fleet technology, quantum computing and deep tech, reflecting the breadth of AI-led innovation emerging from India’s startup ecosystem. Startups - Arthik AI, StoreLink and Memintel were shortlisted in the Delhi round. The next leg of The Pitch is being planned in Bengaluru, as UPES Runway continues to identify and invest in niche AI businesses across different markets.

Through the Runway Incubator, UPES is also advancing its larger vision as an AI-first university, connecting academic and technological capabilities with entrepreneurship, funding and market opportunities. The initiative seeks to enable founders to take AI-led solutions beyond the laboratory or prototype stage and build ventures capable of addressing emerging industry and societal challenges.

Launched in 2021, Runway has grown into a platform for entrepreneurial development at UPES. In about five years, more than 200 startups have been incubated through Runway in association with DST-TIBI, MeitY, Shell E4, MaXcel Accelerator and Global University Systems.

For more information, please visit: runwayincubator.com

About UPES:

Established through the UPES Act, 2003, of the State Legislature of Uttarakhand, UPES is a top-ranked, UGC-recognised, private university. As per the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2025, the Ministry of Education, Government of India, UPES has been ranked 45 among universities, with a rank of 18 in Law, 36 in Management, and a rank of 43 in Engineering. As per the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2026, UPES now stands in the 501-600 band globally and 5th in India, improving from 7th in 2025. Notably, in Research Quality, UPES jumped 57 positions in just one year to be ranked 299 globally. In addition to this, the university has been ranked the No.1 private university in academic reputation in India by the QS World University Rankings 2026. It is among the top 2% of universities in the world.

UPES has received 5 stars on Employability (placements) by the globally acclaimed QS Rating. 50+ faculty members from UPES feature among the world’s top 2% researchers as per the Stanford University list.

UPES offers graduate and postgraduate programs through its seven schools: School of Advanced Engineering, School of Computer Science, School of Design, School of Law, School of Business, School of Health Sciences & Technology, and School of Liberal Studies and Humanities. The UPES family includes 20000+ students, 1,500+ faculty and staff members, and a thriving community of 40000+ alumni that work across sectors in marquee brands like EY, KPMG, Bain and Co., McKinsey & Company, Capgemini, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Nestle, ITC, Adani Power, ONGC, GMR, TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Amazon, Flipkart, Accenture, Deloitte and more.

Pixxel’s $100M Boost Fuels Hyperspectral Satellite Revolution

Image ~ Pixxel.com

Pixxel, the Google-backed Indian space-tech startup, has raised $100 million in a Series C round led by Temasek and Seraphim, marking India’s largest-ever private space-tech funding. This brings Pixxel’s total capital raised to $195 million and values the company between $400–500 million.

The $100M raise stands as India’s largest-ever space-tech funding round, underscoring Pixxel’s transition into its next growth phase as it expands across the entire space-tech value chain.

The fundraise arrives amid strong tailwinds for Pixxel. In just two years, the company has deployed six Firefly satellites to build the world’s highest-resolution commercial hyperspectral constellation, launched its Aurora Earth intelligence platform, and secured contracts with NASA and the NRO. It has also triumphed in multiple iDEX challenges from India’s Ministry of Defence, unveiled an orbital data-centre demonstration satellite, and been chosen to spearhead India’s first public-private Earth observation constellation of 12 satellites under IN-SPACe.

Key Funding Details

• Round size: $100 million (Series C)
• Lead investors: Temasek (Singapore) and Seraphim (UK)
• Other participants: Radical Ventures, growX Ventures, 360 ONE Asset, IMM Investment
• Total funding to date: $195 million
• Valuation: Estimated between $400–500 million

Strategic Expansion Plans

• Satellite Fleet Growth: Expansion of the Firefly hyperspectral constellation, upcoming Honeybee satellites, and sub-metre resolution satellites.
• Aurora Platform: Scaling its Earth intelligence software, which integrates satellite data with AI for actionable insights.
• Planetary Infrastructure Vision: Combining sensors, satellites, and AI to create a “health monitor for the planet.”

Why This Matters

• Largest space-tech fundraise in India: Positions Pixxel as the most well-funded Indian space startup, surpassing peers like Skyroot Aerospace.
• Global relevance: Hyperspectral imaging provides data beyond conventional satellite imagery, useful for climate monitoring, agriculture, defence, and resource management.
• Sovereign capability: Nations can leverage Pixxel’s systems for independent space missions and intelligence.

Comparison with Peers

Pixxel	Skyroot Aerospace
$195M total funding	$160M total funding
Focus: Hyperspectral satellites + AI Earth intelligence	Focus: Launch vehicles (rockets)
Valuation: $400–500M	Valuation: $1.1B (unicorn)
Backers: Temasek, Seraphim, Google	Backers: GIC, Lenskart’s Peyush Bansal

Challenges Ahead 

• Capital intensity: Satellite manufacturing and launches require sustained funding.
• Global competition: Rivals like Planet Labs and Satellogic already dominate hyperspectral imaging.
• Regulatory hurdles: India’s evolving private space policy could affect timelines and sovereign contracts.
• Execution risk: Scaling Aurora software and satellite fleets simultaneously is complex.

IBM Ventures Invests in BQP: Quantum Physics Acceleration Reaches Production

BQP Founding Team

• IBM Ventures has invested in BQP, bringing total funding to $8M and backing BQP's expansion from engineering design into real-time operational decisions. The investment extends a technical relationship that began in 2023, when BQP joined the IBM Quantum Network.


• Classical solvers leave roughly 85% of a GPU's floating-point capacity idle. BQP's flagship platform, BQPhy®, puts that capacity to work, resolving full-fidelity physics inside operational decision windows.


• BQPhy® is in production with aerospace and defense customers, with contracted and committed revenue up 8x since BQP's 2025 seed round and 3x customer growth.

BQP, the physics acceleration company, today announced a strategic investment from IBM Ventures, the venture capital arm of IBM. The investment brings BQP's total funding to $8M and funds BQPhy®'s expansion from engineering design into operational deployment, scaling delivery and go-to-market as BQP expands beyond aerospace and defense. Venn10 Capital and existing investor Monta Vista Capital also participated. Since its 2025 seed round, backed by New York State's venture arm and other institutional investors, BQP has grown contracted and committed revenue 8x, tripling its customer base and growing platform users 20x.

"An engineer with a deadline doesn't care where the answer came from. They care that it arrived in time and that the physics is right. The industry spent years treating this as a hardware problem that warranted faster chips, more of them, and eventually a quantum one. But it was always a software problem," said Abhishek Chopra, Founder and CEO of BQP.

Chopra added: "We spent those years earning our way into engineering workflows, so when the quantum machines are ready, nothing about how those teams work has to change. That's the path IBM has watched us build since 2023, and this investment says it's the right one."

Mission-critical decisions have deadlines, and high-fidelity physics simulations rarely meet them. More hardware has not closed the gap. Classical physics solvers leave roughly 85% of a GPU's floating-point capacity idle, because the sparse iterative methods underneath simulation are bound by memory access rather than compute. Teams choose between accurate models that return the right answer too late, or fast methods that answer on time by skipping the physics, leaving hidden risk behind over-engineered safety margins.

BQPhy® removes this trade-off between speed and accuracy. Its physics-AI optimization engine resolves the full physics inside the decision window, using the GPU capacity classical solvers leave idle. The platform delivers this through two solvers that share a single SDK, integrated natively into MATLAB as a MathWorks Connections Program partner, with standard APIs for Python, Julia, and other frameworks. This enables engineers to get the answers without leaving the tools they already use.

QuantumNOW™ is in production today on customers' existing CPU and GPU infrastructure, and each deployment maps which problems belong on a QPU - making QuantumMAX™, BQP's quantum-native solver in development, an on-ramp rather than a bet. It is written for heterogeneous CPU-GPU-QPU execution rather than a single hardware target.

"What stood out with BQP is that users don't have to change how they work to get quantum-accelerated results. Their proven track record of developing software that helps enterprises build a practical path toward hybrid quantum-classical computing is what gives IBM Ventures confidence in making this investment," said Emily Fontaine, Global Head of IBM Ventures.

In aerospace and defense, BQP's furthest-along work is in space. Under an SBIR with the U.S. Space Force and SpaceWERX, extending earlier work with the SDA TAP Lab, BQPhy®'s physics AI propagates a catalog of more than 3,000 space objects in under a second, roughly 250x faster than the open-source Orekit solver by compressing the model using proprietary algorithms. BQP also holds a CRADA with the Air Force Research Laboratory's Aerospace Systems Directorate and has demonstrated BQPhy® on radio-frequency signal problems for the tactical edge with NavalX. With Modovolo, BQP built a system-level propulsion optimization for UAV mission profiles, expanding from three design variables to more than twelve and tuning propeller and motor as a single unit; integration took roughly one week through the API.

In energy, BQP is applying the same platform to commercial systems, with EV battery thermal management work funded by India's Ministry of Heavy Industries and the Indian School of Business.

The same engine that predicts where a satellite is heading also predicts how heat moves through a battery pack or a data center rack: different industries with the same high-dimensional physics that has to resolve before the decision window closes.

QuantumNOW™ is in production; QuantumMAX™ is proving out. In work presented at USNC/TAM 2026, BQP ran QuantumMAX™ on quantum hardware for uncertainty quantification in computational fluid dynamics, reaching the same accuracy as classical Monte Carlo with fewer samples on a benchmark-scale problem. BQP's research is published in IEEE, AIAA, and APL Quantum, with best paper awards at AeroCon 2026 and the IEEE Space, Aerospace and Defence Conference (SPACE 2026).

About BQP

BQP (formerly BosonQ Psi) is a physics acceleration company applying quantum algorithms to mission-critical operational decisions. Its unified Quantum-HPC platform, BQPhy®, pairs physics AI surrogates with an optimization solver, delivering results on today's CPU and GPU infrastructure through QuantumNOW™ with quantum-native acceleration in development through QuantumMAX™ - both on a single SDK. Headquartered in Syracuse, New York, with offices in the UK and India. Learn more at https://www.bqpsim.com

GVFL Invests ₹30M in Edgeverse to Advance Edge AI Perception Tech for India’s Two‑Wheeler Mobility

Founders of Edgeverse India Pvt. Ltd

Deep-tech startup to strengthen its AI-powered perception stack for two-wheelers and expand across mobility, industrial automation and defence

GVFL has invested ₹30 million in Edgeverse India Pvt. Ltd., a deep-tech startup developing edge AI-based perception technology for mobility and other real-world applications.

The investment will support Edgeverse's next phase of growth, including the development of India-specific road intelligence, camera and radar technology, and the commercialisation of its AI-powered perception solutions.

Founded in 2023 by Arindam Ghosh, Subrata Debnath and Navaneeth A, Edgeverse is building a hardware-agnostic perception stack that combines edge AI with sensors such as cameras and radar. The technology is designed to help original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier-I suppliers deploy advanced safety and perception capabilities across vehicles.

Edgeverse's flagship offering, Perceiva ARAS, is an Advanced Rider Assistance System software stack designed for camera- and radar-based applications. The company is also developing an integrated ARAS solution comprising processor hardware, sensors and proprietary perception software.

India being the world's largest two-wheeler market and a leading producer presents a significant opportunity for advanced safety and rider-assistance technologies that can be deployed without substantially increasing the cost, size or power consumption of vehicles. With an estimated 375–400 million two-wheelers already on Indian roads, the market offers considerable scope for companies developing technologies tailored to local traffic and road conditions.

According to SIAM, India recorded 21.7 million domestic two-wheeler sales in FY2025-26, the highest ever for the segment and a 10.7% increase over the previous year. The country also recorded 5.18 million two-wheeler exports during the year, underlining its position as both a major consumption market and a global manufacturing and export hub.

Perceiva ARAS app on motorcycle digital cluster, Edgeverse India Pvt. Ltd

ARAS Collision Zones-1, Edgeverse India Pvt. Ltd

“Edgeverse is building a differentiated technology platform at the intersection of edge AI, perception and mobility safety. Its capabilities across both software and hardware, combined with a focus on solving for Indian road conditions, present an interesting opportunity in the evolving mobility technology ecosystem,” said Mihir Joshi, Managing Director, GVFL.

Edgeverse has previously received ₹18.5 million in seed funding from ARTPARK and was selected as one of the winners of the NASSCOM Mobility Innovation Challenge 2025. With the latest investment, Edgeverse is focused on translating its technology development and early industry engagements into scalable commercial deployments. The company aims to emerge as a trusted perception technology partner for OEMs and are in advance talks with the large global tier-I suppliers building India-focused camera, radar and edge AI solutions for the next generation of intelligent mobility.

“With GVFL's support, we are looking to accelerate product development and move towards wider commercial deployment,” said Arindam Ghosh, Co-Founder & CEO, Edgeverse. “Our vision is to make life-saving edge intelligence accessible and build technology in India that can compete globally.”

Edgeverse began with the objective of making two-wheelers safer through real-time sensing and intelligent alerts. The company has since developed its own processor board and camera module and conducted on-road testing for front- and rear-collision detection.

The startup has demonstrated its technology to potential customers, including Ather, and is engaging with players across the mobility and technology ecosystem such as Cavli and Qualcomm, as it works towards wider adoption of its perception stack. The company has also developed Perceiva DMS, a camera-based Driver Monitoring System for commercial vehicles, along with a radar perception stack.

Over the next six to twelve months, Edgeverse plans to build an Indian road dataset covering 100,000 kilometres, develop a 2MP camera and a 77 GHz radar module, and secure multiple commercial agreements for its ARAS and DMS solutions.

The company will also strengthen its team and explore applications across industrial automation and defence.

CarbonStrong Raises ₹12.5 Cr. in Funding Led By IAN Angel Fund to Scale Low-Carbon Cement Innovation

Left to Right — Harsh Jain (Co-founder & CEO) and Vikramaditya Singh (Co-founder & COO); CarbonStrong

IAN Angel Fund, the evergreen fund of IAN Group, has led a ₹12.5 crore investment in CarbonStrong, a Bengaluru-based climate-tech startup developing low-carbon cement substitutes from industrial waste, with participation from Rainmatter, Social Alpha, Spectrum Impact and Full Circle Ventures. The seed round will support CarbonStrong in setting up its first production facility, expanding its team, undertaking further product development and testing, and moving from customer trials to commercial-scale production. The company aims to build a capacity of up to 100,000 tonnes a year over the next 2 years.

Founded in 2022 by Harsh Jain (Co-founder & CEO) and Vikramaditya Singh (Co-founder & COO), they have developed a portfolio of materials that can replace up to 50% of the cement used in concrete. The company says its solution is around 30% cheaper than cement and can also improve the durability of concrete.

Importantly for concrete manufacturers, CarbonStrong’s product can be used within existing plants and processes, meaning customers do not need to make major investments in new equipment to adopt it.

Cement is essential to modern construction, but it is also one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions, responsible for over 8% of global CO2 emissions. At the same time, hundreds of millions of tons of industrial wastes such as fly ash and slag are generated every year.

Some of these industrial wastes are already used to substitute cement in concrete, but existing solutions have limited capacity to replace cement while maintaining required performance.

CarbonStrong was founded with the aim of addressing this gap. The company takes industrial wastes and processes them into building materials that can replace a larger share of cement without requiring concrete manufacturers to change the way they operate.

Harsh Jain, Co-founder and CEO, CarbonStrong, said, “India will build most of its future in the next 25-30 years. We want every ton of that concrete to be stronger, cost-efficient, and lower in carbon footprint. This investment helps us take our now-proven technology to industrial scale.”

The company has already conducted several customer trials and paid pilots. Its materials have been used in demonstration projects across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai.

The company is now looking to convert these early trials into long-term supply relationships with ready-mix concrete companies, builders and contractors. It is also targeting precast concrete and paver block manufacturers.

The fresh capital will help CarbonStrong build its production capabilities and expand its team as it moves from pilot projects towards commercial production.

CarbonStrong is also working to expand the range of industrial wastes that can be turned into useful cement substitutes. Its future plans include materials made from steel slag, copper slag, mine-tailings and other industrial byproducts. The company was also recognised by HCL ClimaForce in 2026 and by Avaana-Startup India-NITI Aayog AIM Grand Challenge for ClimateTech Innovation in 2025.

The company estimates that India's market for cement substitutes could reach around INR 25,000 crore by 2030.

The company's immediate focus is on India, with plans to eventually expand into other markets across the Global South. Its long-term ambition is to produce 10 million tonnes a year by 2035.

About CarbonStrong

CarbonStrong produces low carbon binders by upcycling industrial wastes to replace up to 50% cement in concrete. The binder is made by processing industrial wastes from coal, steel and other sectors into high-performance cementitious materials. It cuts cost and carbon footprint and maintains performance of concrete with no change to plants or process.

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.

Digidukan Secures ₹2 Crore Angel Funding to Power 60-Minute Construction Procurement Across Tier-2 and Tier-3 India

The Investment will support Digidukan’s technology, product expansion, and growth across Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets

Digidukan a B2B quick-commerce platform built for construction-material retailers, has raised ₹2 crore in angel funding from Vinay Gupta and Shubham Gupta, Directors at United Plywood Group, one of Rajasthan’s established construction-material businesses. The company is using technology to bring a 60-minute delivery model to construction procurement, enabling retailers to order materials on demand instead of tying up capital in excess inventory or waiting on fragmented supplier networks.
Vinay Gupta, Director, United Plywood Group, said: “Over decades in the building-material industry, I have seen that the real constraint is rarely demand; it is the inefficiency between demand and availability. Fragmented procurement, excess inventory, and inconsistent supply have constrained retailers for years. Digidukan is addressing this structural gap at its core.”
Lakshya Agarwal, Co-founder, Digidukan, said: "We did not buy this stack; we built it while we were already delivering. The next step is handing that intelligence to the shopkeeper, so Digidukan stops being a place they order from and starts being the system that tells him what to order. We are building a technology company that happens to deliver building materials in under an hour."

From 60-minute delivery to intelligent procurement

Founded by Lakshya Agarwal and Kshitij S. Rungta, Digidukan combines construction-retail expertise with technology to modernise procurement. Lakshya leads the technology and data layer, using demand and purchase patterns to make procurement smarter, while Kshitij focuses on execution intelligence, ensuring inventory and fulfilment translate those insights into reliable, 60-minute delivery.
The company is now building towards a larger vision: moving from simply fulfilling retailer orders to helping retailers anticipate what to stock and when, using data to make construction procurement faster, more predictable and less inventory-intensive.
The company’s early traction reflects strong, repeat-led adoption among its retailer base, with monthly GMV growing 8x compared with the beginning of the year. Digidukan has achieved an approximately 90% repeat customer rate, while delivering nearly 5,000 orders to date, with an average order value of over ₹9,000. The combination of repeat purchases and rising order volumes points to growing reliance on the platform for recurring construction-material procurement.
The ₹2 crore will be used to strengthen Digidukan’s technology and product capabilities, expand into additional categories and support higher order volumes. The company will also deepen its presence across Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets, with a focus on making construction-material procurement faster, more predictable and less inventory-intensive.
The investment comes at a time when construction retail remains one of India’s large but largely offline supply chains. Retailers continue to manage multiple suppliers, uncertain availability and inventory-led purchasing, often keeping significant working capital locked in stock simply to avoid losing a sale. Digidukan is building an alternative through a technology-led procurement platform where retailers can discover, order and receive construction materials when they need them, while demand and inventory signals help make the supply chain more responsive.

About Digidukan

Digidukan is a B2B quick-commerce platform built exclusively for construction material retailers. Founded by Lakshya Agarwal and Kshitij S. Rungta, the company enables retailers to procure construction materials on demand, improving inventory efficiency and working capital while simplifying procurement through technology. With a focus on Tier-2 and Tier-3 India, Digidukan is modernizing the construction retail supply chain and helping retailers grow with greater speed, agility, and efficiency.
Website: https://digidukan.shop/about
Media Queries:
Sakhi Bhatt | +91 7303625706 | sakhi@themediamanifest.com

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.

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.

Lane Raises ₹8.5 Crore to Build Driver Intelligence Infrastructure for Safer Roads in India

• Lane (inlane.in) is building the driver intelligence infrastructure underpinning the next generation of driving education and vehicle ownership in India. Kae Capital led the round, with participation from DeVC, Antler India and Panthera Peak.

Lane, a tech-enabled driving education and mobility platform, has raised ₹8.5 crore in a round led by Kae Capital, with participation from DeVC, Antler India, Panthera Peak as well as prominent Angels.

The problem

The company is tackling a problem India has left unsolved for decades: the absence of structured, high-quality driver education at scale.

The stakes are high. More than 1.7 lakh people die on Indian roads every year, roughly twenty every hour. Most Indian drivers learn informally, from family or friends, and the formal test itself is run at 10-15 km/h on a fixed track, nothing like real traffic. India has about 1% of the world's vehicles but accounts for nearly 11% of its road deaths. The biggest gap is the near-total absence of a rigorous, accountable system for teaching people to drive.

The insight behind the category

Lane was founded by Samiksha Agarwal in 2025, who spent her career in VC and finance but always came back to one passion: driving. That led her to a simple observation — India has 250 million licence holders, but most were never actually taught to drive.

Samiksha Agarwalv– Founder of Lane

"Every driving school in India chases the same thing: the licence," Samiksha says. "We're after something harder and far more valuable — a confident, competent driver. Confidence behind the wheel is a life skill: built once, carried forever."

In 18 months, Lane has delivered 30,000+ hours of instruction to more than 3,100 learners, making it one of the largest structured driver-education platforms in the country. Nearly 70% of its customers already held a licence when they signed up — proof of the gap between getting a licence and knowing how to drive.

Lane's safety-first method was developed over 400+ hours of pilot classes, with input from automobile researchers. Instructors are held to the same bar: every partner is assessed across 15 driving parameters, including simulated lessons. Those who qualify can earn ₹80,000–90,000 a month, working within micro-markets close to home.

From education to ownership

Education is the entry point, not the endgame. Lane has begun offering car purchases, RTO services and more to its learners — with nearly 60% expressing intent to purchase their first car.

"We're not in the business of repeat enrollments," Samiksha says. "We're in the business of building trust that lasts well beyond the last driving class."

The bigger bet: driver intelligence at scale

Longer term, Lane is building an AI-powered, automotive-grade system for the full mobility journey — with education as the entry point and driver intelligence as the long game.

Sunita Viswanathan, Partner, Kae Capital:"What convinced us wasn't just the size of the category, but where it sits in a person's life, the moment you learn to drive is the moment you start thinking about owning, insuring, and building a life around a car. Samiksha found the right entry point, and she's exactly the founder to build from it."

At its core is a sensor-based system that turns every driving session into behavioural data, building a living driver profile for each learner.

• For insurers: pricing risk on how someone actually drives, not on static categories.
• For manufacturers: comparable, real-world data on how vehicles perform.
• For the country: a genuine picture of how India's 250 million licence holders drive — the foundation for incentive systems that reward safe behaviour and give policymakers something enforcement alone never could.

A partner to India's road safety mission

India's governments have put road safety firmly on the national agenda — from mandatory highway ambulances to Good Samaritan protections. What no public institution can build alone is the on-the-ground education, instructor accountability, and behavioural data that turn that intent into outcomes. Lane wants to be the engine that delivers it on the ground.

Use of funds

The ₹8.5 crore will be deployed across three priorities:

• Geographic expansion — scaling Lane's instructor network across Bengaluru and into other Tier 1 cities
• Sensor technology — accelerating the build-out of Lane's proprietary driving behaviour system
• Car ownership — building the downstream infrastructure that takes a confident driver through their first car purchase

About Lane

Lane is a first-of-its-kind tech-enabled driving education and mobility services platform headquartered in Bengaluru. Founded by Samiksha Agarwal, it brings structured driving lessons, end-to-end RTO and licensing support, and a driver intelligence platform together into one ecosystem, built on a simple conviction: that driving is one of the most important life skills an Indian will ever learn, and it deserves to be taught properly.