Funding

Novastar, a fund of funds, is registered as a CAT II alternative investment fund and is targeting the first close over the next four to six months

PB Health acquires Amazon-backed startup Fitterfly to boost preventive care

Founded in 2016 by Dr Arbinder Singal and Shailesh Gupta, Fitterfly is known for its clinically validated programs in diabetes reversal, obesity management, and heart health

NVIDIA, Qualcomm Ventures join India Deep Tech Alliance as coalition secures $850 million in fresh commitments

The industry coalition, IDTA, was launched in September at SEMICON India with $1 billion in initial capital commitments to back early-stage Indian deeptech companies across AI, semiconductors, space, robotics, biotech, energy, and advanced manufacturing.

SaaS firm MoEngage raises $100 million led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, A91 Partners

MoEngage plans to use the fresh capital to accelerate innovation in AI marketing agents, scale product development, and strengthen go-to-market efforts in key regions, particularly North America.

Sauce VC nears close of $80 million in new fund to deepen consumer play

The fundraise comes at a time when venture capital firms have been on a fundraising spree, Moneycontrol had reported earlier.

Jupiter Money raises Rs 115 crore in fresh funding from existing investors and founder

The Bengaluru-based fintech has more than doubled its revenue in FY25, and plans to achieve operational breakeven within two years.

25-year-old IIT-BHU alumnus launches emotive voice AI Luna; Kunal Shah, WTFund place early bets

Developed by Jaipur-based startup Pixa AI, Luna claims to enable real-time, speech-to-speech expressive voice interaction and aims to power entertainment and wellness apps.

Blume Ventures raises $175 million in first close of Fund V, targets $275 million by 2026

The Bengaluru-based VC firm has already begun deploying capital from the fund, with investments in Mave Health and Confido (healthtech), Lucira and Ozi (consumer), PowerUp Money (fintech), and iDO (deeptech).

Smallest.ai raises $8 mn seed round to scale enterprise Voice AI globally

The platform is currently used by enterprises such as Paytm, MakeMyTrip, ServiceNow, and Dalmia Cement, with support for more Indian languages in development.

Optimo Capital raises Rs 150 crore in Series A round led by founder Prashant Pitti, Blume Ventures, Omnivore

The NBFC, which focuses on credit-starved MSMEs, also secured an additional Rs 110 crore in debt from IDFC and Axis Bank

Investment platform Wint Wealth in talks to close $20-million round led by Vertex Ventures

The deal comes amid continued investor interest in India’s wealthtech segment, which has been one of the more active fintech verticals since last year

Following the Smart Money: What Q3 VC funding reveals about AI dominance, India's innovation gap

Following venture capital flows is like reading a map of the future, and right now, all roads lead to artificial intelligence

Uniphore raises $260 million in Series F funding from NVIDIA, AMD, Snowflake and Databricks

The Palo Alto headquartered firm, which started as a conversational AI company in Chennai, counts Allstate, Dell, Priceline and The Washington Post among its over 2,000 clients

Around 300 employees impacted at Zepto amid cost efficiency drive at the quick commerce company

A total of around 1,000 Zepto employees have been impacted since the beginning of the year, sources told Moneycontrol. Zepto is also cutting back its spends on AWS and other software and the company will go "very tight" on hiring.

Peak XV Partners to lead $25 million round in Stable Money, four months after $20 million fundraise

Stable Money's new funding round follows a $20 million investment from Fundamentum and others in June, as wealthtech platforms continue to attract investor interest

Zepto expands ESOP pool by $170 million to over $500 million

The move comes on the heels of the company’s $450 million Series H funding round, first reported by Moneycontrol, which values Zepto at $7 billion, up from $5 billion last year.

Zepto closes $450 million funding from Calpers and existing investors; taking total fundraise close to $2 billion in under two years

Zepto is now valued at $7 billion, up from $5 billion just last year. Moneycontrol had exclusively reported Zepto is nearing a $450 million funding round led by Calpers on October 1. CEO Aadit Palicha said Zepto has a cash balance of $900 million now.

Kuku lands $85 million funding led by Granite Asia to accelerate Kuku TV, Kuku FM expansion

The investment comes at a time when micro dramas are rapidly gaining popularity among Indian consumers

Coinbase invests in CoinDCX at $2.45 billion valuation, doubles down on India, Middle East

Coinbase believes that India and the Middle East are two markets that are poised to play a pivotal role in the future of global crypto adoption.

AI-powered gaming studio Airoclip bags $2.75 million from T-Accelerate Capital, Centre Court Capital, & Bitkraft

Airoclip relies on AI-driven personalisation and dynamic content generation to deliver casual gaming experiences from India for a global audience.

Wealthtech platform Dezerv raises Rs 350 crore funding round led by Premji Invest, Accel

The latest round takes Dezerv’s total capital raised to over Rs 850 crore since its launch in 2021, as per the firm, including its $32 million (approx. Rs 270 crore) Series B round in July last year.

Chara Technologies raises Rs 52 crore to expand rare-earth-free motor manufacturing

Deep-tech startup to set up new Bengaluru facility, launch new product lines, and scale annual capacity to 100,000 units

Mobile-first entertainment startup Rusk Media bags Rs 103-crore funding led by IvyCap Ventures

Rusk Media plans to use the funds to accelerate its international expansion and create new Gen-Z entertainment IPs

Tough luck? Astrotalk’s $100 million deal with Hornbill Capital comes unstuck over NSFW content flagged during due diligence

"All this is completely baseless as we never signed any term sheet with any investor," Anmol Jain, co-founder, Astrotalk, said in response to Moneycontrol's detailed queries.

Dineout founders raise $4.5 million for medical travel startup from Nexus, Swiggy's Sriharsha Majety, England cricketers, others

The Medical Travel Company, founded by Ankit Mehrotra and Sahil Jain, plans to target the UK’s overburdened healthcare system and fix gaps in the $100-billion medical tourism industry.