India’s fast-growing home and kitchen D2C segment is attracting investor interest as consumers shift toward branded, design-led utility products. Home Essentials, a digital-first home and kitchen brand, has raised Rs 70 crore in a pre-Series B funding round led by 360 ONE Asset, with participation from existing investor India Quotient. The company had earlier raised $2.2 million in seed funding from India Quotient and others. Funding to Accelerate Omnichannel Expansion and Product Innovation The fresh capital will be used to expand Home Essentials’ omnichannel presence, strengthen supply chain infrastructure, and broaden its product portfolio across home improvement and kitchen categories.…
Author: Aman Atulya
PRISM, the parent company of hospitality platform OYO, has appointed former SEBI chairman Ajay Tyagi as an Independent Director on its board. The appointment strengthens PRISM’s governance structure as the company prepares for its public market debut and continues expanding its global hospitality footprint. Regulatory Expertise to Support Governance and Public Market Readiness Tyagi served as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India from 2017 to 2022, where he oversaw capital markets regulation, investor protection, and supervision of primary and secondary markets. His experience is expected to support PRISM’s compliance, governance, and IPO readiness strategy. Before SEBI, Tyagi…
Jaipur-based personal finance startup Finanjo has raised Rs 1.5 crore in a pre-seed funding round fully backed by early-stage venture fund AJVC, led by Aviral Bhatnagar. The investment signals growing investor interest in behaviour-driven fintech platforms targeting India’s young, digitally native population. The capital will help Finanjo strengthen its AI-led financial intelligence platform and accelerate early growth. Capital to enhance AI assistant and financial intelligence infrastructure The fresh funds will be used to advance Finanjo’s core product, including improving its AI assistant Jo, strengthening decision intelligence capabilities, and expanding goal-based financial planning and credit optimisation features. The company also plans…
Data infrastructure startup S2.dev has raised $3.85 million (approximately Rs 32 crore) in a funding round led by Accel, with participation from Uncorrelated Ventures and other investors. The startup was previously backed by Y Combinator as part of its Fall 2025 batch and has raised a total of $5.5 million to date. The funding reflects growing investor conviction in infrastructure platforms enabling real-time, AI-native software systems. Building serverless infrastructure for real-time streaming data Founded in 2024 by Shikhar Bhushan, Stephen Balogh, and Dwarak Govind Parthiban, S2.dev provides a serverless datastore designed to manage real-time streaming data without requiring infrastructure management.…
Armatrix, a deep tech robotics startup, has raised $2.1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by pi Ventures, with participation from Inuka Capital, Boundless Ventures, Boost VC, Turbostart, and returning investor gradCapital. The fresh capital will be used to complete development of its proprietary snake-like flexible robotic arm, expand its engineering and research teams, and accelerate pilot deployments with industrial customers. The funding marks an important milestone as the company moves from prototype validation to real-world industrial adoption. Building robotic systems for hazardous industrial environments Co-founded in 2024 by Vishrant Dave, Prateesh Awasthi, and Ayush Ranjan, Armatrix develops snake-like,…
Prabhkiran Singh, co-founder of D2C fashion brand Bewakoof, has announced that he will step away from the company after 14 years of building and scaling the business. Singh said he will continue leading the company until the end of March before shifting focus to personal priorities, marking a major leadership transition for one of India’s early digital-first fashion startups. From Bootstrapped Startup to Gen Z-Focused D2C Brand Founded in 2011 by Singh and Siddharth Munot, Bewakoof began as a bootstrapped venture targeting young Indian consumers with affordable, trend-driven apparel and accessories. The company adopted a direct-to-consumer model, selling primarily through…
ZeroMoblt, a student mobility startup, has raised Rs 1.5 crore in a pre-seed funding round co-led by JioMart CEO Sandeep Varaganti, Ashok Agrawal, and a group of high-net-worth individuals. The fresh capital will be used to accelerate development of its AI-native technology platform, expand operational presence, and strengthen its infrastructure roadmap. The funding comes as the startup builds a compliance-focused mobility ecosystem tailored for students across major educational hubs in India. Building safer and smarter transportation for students Founded in April 2024 by Vijay Ganagam and Alfred Lazarus, ZeroMoblt provides a student mobility platform integrating logistics, safety monitoring, discovery, live…
Funding to expand global cross-border payments infrastructure Xflow, a B2B cross-border payments startup, has raised $16.6 million (approximately Rs 138 crore) in a Series A funding round led by General Catalyst, with participation from existing investors Square Peg, Stripe, Lightspeed, and Moore Capital. PayPal Ventures joined the round as a new investor. The startup was valued at $85 million post-investment. The Bengaluru-based company will use the fresh capital to scale operations and expand into new geographies, strengthening its global payments infrastructure. With this round, Xflow has raised a total of $32 million to date, including a $10.2 million pre-Series A…
AI-powered recruitment platform HireBound has raised $2 million (approximately Rs 17 crore) in a seed funding round led by Kalaari Capital, with participation from Antler, Infinyte Club, and CareerNet. The Bengaluru-based startup plans to use the fresh capital to strengthen product development, expand go-to-market operations, and accelerate its global expansion strategy. The company is targeting a 5x increase in annual recurring revenue (ARR) over the next 12–18 months as demand rises for AI-led hiring automation. Building agentic AI to automate end-to-end hiring workflows Founded by Sharad Vij and Kumar Vikramaditya, HireBound is developing an AI-powered recruitment platform designed to automate…
Bluehill.VC and A99 back optoML’s AI semiconductor vision SoC semiconductor startup optoML has raised $1.8 million (approximately Rs 15 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round led by Bluehill.VC and A99. The fresh capital will be used to expand hiring and accelerate development of its next-generation chip platforms. The investment comes after the company successfully completed the tapeout of its 12 nm chip in collaboration with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), marking a key milestone in its technology roadmap. Building analog-in-memory architectures for AI workloads Founded by Saravana Maruthamuthu, optoML develops analog-in-memory compute architectures integrated with optical interconnects to support…