Nykaa and L’Oréal Join Forces to Empower India’s Next Beauty Icons

• The collaboration involves taking minority stakes, ensuring founders retain full operational and creative control of their independent brands.
• Combining capital with strategic mentorship, global beauty expertise, and local insights to support the booming Indian startup ecosystem.

Nykaa, India’s largest beauty retail company, and BOLD (Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development), the corporate venture capital fund of L’Oréal, today announced a collaboration to jointly invest in the next generation of high-growth Indian beauty and personal care brands.

Through the collaboration, BOLD and Nykaa will take minority stakes in emerging Indian beauty and wellness brands with strong consumer traction and distinctive propositions. Such investments will be purely financial and minority in nature, where founders retain full ownership control and continue to run their businesses independently, with their own teams, culture, and creative direction.

BOLD and Nykaa will act as long-term partners beyond capital to the brands they back, offering mentorship, guidance, and the opportunity to benefit from L’Oréal’s global beauty expertise, alongside Nykaa’s deep omnichannel retail network and consumer ecosystem understanding. The intent is to help ambitious Indian beauty founders scale faster and build enduring brands for India & the world.

Jacques Lebel, Managing Director, L’Oréal India, said: “India is one of the most exciting beauty markets in the world, and its energy comes both from an expanding base of demanding consumers with rapidly evolving needs and from its ecosystem of tremendous entrepreneurs. Through BOLD and this partnership with Nykaa, we want to stand behind that talent — backing founders with capital, mentorship, and L’Oréal’s beauty expertise, while leaving them free to build their brands their way. Our commitment to India is stronger than ever, and this is the next major milestone in a journey of partnership and growth that we began over three decades ago.”

Anchit Nayar, Executive Director and CEO, Nykaa Beauty, said: “Nykaa and L’Oréal have been partners in India for over a decade, working together on our shared vision of making India into one of the world's largest and fastest growing beauty markets. The experience and lessons we have learned along the way have allowed us to understand what it takes to build a promising brand into an enduring one. Combining our strong consumer ecosystem, deep retail network and wide distribution, along with L’Oréal’s global beauty expertise will be an incredibly valuable asset to the next generation of founders as they look to build consumer brands that India can be proud of.”

Embassy REIT Raises ₹1,000 Crores in Landmark First Bank Financing at REIT Trust Level

Becomes the first Indian REIT to access funding from a scheduled commercial bank at the trust level under the RBI's new REIT lending framework

Embassy Office Parks REIT (NSE: EMBASSY / BSE: 542602) ('Embassy REIT'), India's first listed REIT and the largest office REIT in Asia by area, today announced that it has raised ₹1,000 crores through the issuance of three-year floating-rate Non-Convertible Debentures ("NCDs"), fully subscribed by a leading European multinational bank.

The transaction marks the first financing by a scheduled commercial bank to an Indian REIT at the trust level, following the Reserve Bank of India's landmark framework announced in June 2026 permitting commercial banks to finance REITs. The NCDs have been priced at a spread of 150 basis points over the agreed three-month MIBOR OIS benchmark, translating into an initial coupon of 6.97%.

Amit Shetty, Chief Executive Officer of Embassy REIT, said,"This ₹1,000 crore fundraise is a significant milestone for Embassy REIT and for the evolution of India's REIT market. Continued regulatory support from SEBI and RBI has strengthened access to long-term funding for REITs. This new framework opens an important source of institutional capital that complements traditional capital market funding and further deepens the financing ecosystem. As India's first listed REIT, we are pleased to once again lead the way with the first bank financing at the trust level. This landmark transaction reflects the strength of our balance sheet, the quality of our portfolio, and reinforces Embassy REIT's position as the strongest credit in Indian real estate."

Transaction Highlights

• ₹1,000 crores raised through Embassy REIT Series XVIII NCDs
• Three-year tenor with an initial coupon rate of 6.97%
• Pricing at 150 basis points over the three-month MIBOR OIS benchmark
• Coupon to reset every three months in line with the movement in the benchmark
• Fully subscribed by a leading European multinational bank
• Marks the first financing by a scheduled commercial bank to an Indian REIT at the trust level following the RBI's new REIT lending framework
• NCDs rated "AAA/Stable" by CARE

About Embassy REIT

Embassy REIT is India's first publicly listed Real Estate Investment Trust and the largest office REIT in Asia, by area. Embassy REIT owns and operates a portfolio of over 52 million square feet of world-class office spaces across India's key gateway markets, including Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, the National Capital Region (NCR) and Chennai. The portfolio comprises 14 premium office ecosystems, including large, integrated office parks and city-centre office assets, and is home to 285 leading global and domestic corporations. In addition to office assets, the portfolio includes strategic amenities such as five operational business hotels, two hotels under development, and a 100 MW solar park that supplies renewable energy to tenants. Embassy REIT's industry-leading ESG programme has received multiple accolades from globally recognised institutions, including GRESB, USGBC LEED, the British Safety Council, among others. In 2023, Embassy REIT was included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, becoming the first REIT in India to be recognised for its sustainability initiatives by a leading global benchmark. For more information, please visit www.embassyofficeparks.com.

memQ Unleashes Open Quantum Compiler Across Networks

memQ has just open-sourced its Distributed Quantum Compiler (DQC), a breakthrough framework that lets quantum programs run across multiple interconnected quantum processors instead of being limited to a single device. This release is designed to accelerate research into scalable, networked quantum computing.

Distributed Quantum Computing (DQC) is special because it connects multiple quantum processors (QPUs) into a single networked system, allowing them to share entangled states and execute computations collaboratively — overcoming the physical limits of scaling a single device.

memQ’s Distributed Quantum Compiler (DQC) is unique because it’s the first open-source framework designed to let quantum programs run across multiple interconnected quantum processors (QPUs), rather than being confined to a single device.

memQ is one of the few quantum companies focused not just on building bigger quantum processors, but on networking them together into an extensible quantum network architecture. This approach blends quantum science, advanced materials, and integrated photonics to enable scalable, resilient, and cost‑effective distributed quantum computing.

Unlike most quantum firms chasing qubit density on a single chip, memQ builds architectures that connect multiple quantum processing units (QPUs) through entangled photons, enabling scale‑out quantum computing.

memQ Open-Sources Distributed Quantum Compiler

memQ’s DQC is special because it transforms quantum computing from a single‑device paradigm into a distributed, network‑aware ecosystem, laying the foundation for the quantum internet.

Key Highlights of memQ’s DQC

• Open-source release: Available on GitHub under Apache-2.0 license, enabling global collaboration.
• Multi-QPU support: Compiles and schedules circuits across heterogeneous quantum processors connected via optical quantum channels.
• Modality-agnostic design: Works with different qubit technologies (superconducting, trapped ions, photonic, etc.).
• Quantum Network Constructor: Graphical tool to define processor layouts and interconnections.
• Partitioning engines: Includes dynamic interaction (Kernighan-Lin) and hypergraph partitioning (KaHyPar) to optimize entanglement use.
• Scheduling & verification: Discrete-event schedulers simulate photon arrivals and validate output equivalence.

Comparison: memQ DQC vs Conventional Quantum Compilers

Feature	memQ DQC	Conventional Compilers
Target	Multi-QPU distributed networks	Single QPU
Qubit Types	Modality-agnostic (multi-vendor)	Vendor-specific
Network Awareness	Models entanglement, teleportation, photon arrivals	No network-level modeling
Partitioning	Dynamic + hypergraph strategies	Static, single-processor
Scheduling	Time-resolved Gantt charts with stochastic events	Local gate scheduling only
Scalability	Hundreds of qubits across processors	Limited by single device capacity

Impact

• Policy alignment: Coincides with U.S. Executive Order 14413 (June 2026), mandating frameworks for distributed quantum computing.
• Research utility: Enables simulation of hundreds of qubits across 8 interconnected QPUs.
• Industry relevance: Provides a path to overcome scaling limits of single quantum computers, crucial for drug discovery, cryptography, and defense systems.

Challenges & Trade-offs

• Complexity: Cross-QPU operations require state teleportation or gate teleportation, adding overhead.
• Hardware constraints: Performance depends on entanglement generation rates, decoherence times, and link fidelities.
• Experimental stage: Current release is beta (v0.1.2), APIs may change and stability is not guaranteed.

What This Means for You

For researchers and developers in India and globally, memQ’s DQC provides a plug-and-play framework to experiment with distributed  quantum architectures without needing deep expertise in quantum networking. It’s a major step toward scalable, interoperable quantum computing.

Evanston, Illinois-headquartered memQ's DQC is special because it transforms quantum computing from a single‑device paradigm into a distributed, network‑aware ecosystem, laying the foundation for the quantum internet.

Beyond memQ, the distributed quantum compiler space includes both legacy research prototypes and newer open‑source frameworks like DQC1 (MLIR/LLVM‑based) and modular toolchains built around OpenQASM 3. These projects share the goal of partitioning circuits across multiple QPUs and enabling teleportation‑based remote gates.

Armenia Turns to India’s Divyastra Mk‑1: AI‑Driven Loitering Munition Signals New Defence Era

Armenia has reportedly selected Lucknow-based Hoverit’s Divyastra Mk‑1 loitering munition after evaluating UAVs from multiple countries, reported an Armenian media outlet, though no official contract has yet been announced. The choice underscores Armenia’s growing reliance on Indian defence exports, particularly for cost‑effective, AI‑enabled swarm‑capable drones.

Hoverit is a Lucknow‑based defence technology startup founded in August 2022, specializing in unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and loitering munitions. It has quickly emerged as a key player in India’s defence industrial corridor, developing indigenous UAVs like the Divyastra series and securing international attention.

Hoverit represents India’s push into indigenous drone warfare technology, offering cost‑effective, AI‑enabled loitering munitions for both domestic and export markets. Armenia’s reported interest in Divyastra Mk‑1 highlights its growing credibility as a defence exporter.

Key Facts About Armenia’s Selection

• Reported by Armenian outlet Hraparak (Sept 19–23, 2026): Armenia compared UAVs from the US, France, Iran, Ukraine, Israel, India, China, and Russia.
• Divyastra Mk‑1 chosen: Factors included low cost, AI capabilities, and swarm employment potential.
• No official confirmation yet: Armenia’s Defence Ministry has not publicly announced a contract or delivery timeline.
• Strategic context: Armenia is diversifying defence suppliers after the 2020 Nagorno‑Karabakh war, moving away from traditional Russian dependence.

Divyastra Mk‑1 Specifications

Feature	Details
Range	Up to 500 km
Endurance	5 hours airborne
Payload	~15 kg
Deployment	Rapid launch from vehicle‑mounted systems
Speed	300–400 km/h attack speed
Capabilities	AI‑enabled, swarm operations, ISR + precision strike

Armenia–India Defence Ties

Armenia already operates Indian systems: Pinaka MRL, ATAGS artillery, MARG artillery, Akash SAM, Zen counter‑drone system, Swathi radar, and ALS50 loitering munition.
Hundreds of Indian‑made armoured trucks have been delivered.

Defence cooperation includes joint production discussions and increased military exchanges.

Risks & Considerations

• Unconfirmed deal: Until official contracts are signed, reports remain speculative.
• Geopolitical sensitivity: Armenia’s pivot to Indian systems may strain ties with Russia, its traditional supplier.
• Operational integration: Armenia must adapt training and logistics to absorb Indian UAVs into its force structure.
• Export credibility: For India, successful deployment in Armenia will be a litmus test of its defence export ambitions.

Strategic Implications

For India, this marks a step toward becoming a global defence exporter, moving beyond “Make in India” for domestic needs.
For Armenia, Divyastra Mk‑1 offers a cost‑effective, AI‑enabled strike option to counter Azerbaijan’s drone dominance.
For the region, it signals a shift in defence alignments, with Armenia increasingly sourcing from India instead of Russia.

WOI India Acquires SwiftSeed Ventures, Appoints Founder Amar Dixit as CEO to Drive Vision 2030 Ecosystem Expansion

Amar Dixit CEO WOI India

WOI India has acquired SwiftSeed Ventures, an early-stage investment and startup ecosystem platform, and appointed its founder Amar Dixit as Chief Executive Officer. SwiftSeed will continue to operate as an entity under WOI India, bringing its investor, founder and institutional network into WOI’s India platform.

Over the past few years, SwiftSeed has built a network of 500+ investors and 10,000+ founders, operators and ecosystem participants, along with around a dozen startup investments. The platform has also developed partnerships and MoUs with institutions including IIT Delhi, IIM Lucknow and IIM Udaipur and worked with corporate and innovation ecosystems including Maruti Suzuki Innovation and Google’s innovation ecosystem.

Dixit has been associated with the IIT Delhi entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem for several years. He has been part of the core team of IIT Delhi Angels and previously headed eDC IIT Delhi, where he worked with founders and supported ventures emerging from the institution. He also serves on the boards of several growth-stage ventures and advises startups and businesses on strategy, growth, partnerships and ecosystem development.

His move to WOI India follows several years of work across early-stage investing, entrepreneurship and ecosystem building. In his new role, he will lead the development of WOI India’s platform and its engagement with founders, investors, institutions, corporates and global ecosystem partners.

Commenting on his appointment, Mr Amar Dixit said, “I have had the opportunity to experience entrepreneurship from different sides as a builder, while working with founders, and while working with investors and institutions. Each experience showed me that founders don't just need capital. They need the ecosystem around the capital.”

WOI India is developing its platform across six areas — Education, Venture Studios, Community, Centres of Excellence, Infrastructure and Capital. Its Vision 2030 includes targets to train 1 crore entrepreneurs, build 100 venture studios supporting 10,000+ startups, establish eight Centres of Excellence, develop 30 Startup Parks, 1,000 Startup Cafés and 10 Innovation Cities, and mobilise ₹10,000 crore+ in entrepreneurial capital.

With the acquisition, SwiftSeed’s early-stage investment platform and founder-investor community will continue under the WOI India platform. Its existing relationships across founders, investors and institutions will form part of WOI India’s wider ecosystem work.

Dixit said, “Some of the biggest opportunities are in the gaps between companies, capital, institutions and markets. That is where I want to spend the next chapter of my career.”

At WOI India, Dixit will also oversee platforms including Startup School, DayOne Venture Studio, CEO Square, VC Circle, Centres of Excellence, Startup Park and WOI Angels, while working with universities, corporations, investors, research institutions, governments and international ecosystem partners.
About WOI India

WOI India is the Indian chapter of WOI.ECO, a UAE-headquartered global ecosystem development company. Its India platform is being developed across Education, Venture Studios, Community, Centres of Excellence, Infrastructure and Capital.
About WOI.ECO

WOI.ECO is a global ecosystem development company headquartered in Dubai, UAE, working across ecosystem development, venture building, infrastructure, community, education and talent, and capital and investment.