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In today’s newsletter:

• Inside India's atmanirbhar space chip
• Rapido eyes road beyond ride-hailing
• Udaan bags $75 million in funding

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When cost-effective engineering meets space tech, you get a chip built for the cosmos at the cost of a startup’s seed round.

Researchers at IIT Madras have developed IRIS, a space-grade microprocessor, for just $3–4 million over eight years—far cheaper than commercial alternatives, said the institute's director V Kamakoti.  

• The RISC-V-based chip, fabricated at the Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL) in Mohali, has now been validated by ISRO for space applications.  

(RISC-V is an open-source architecture for developing chips and processors.)

IRIS features error correction coding (ECC) to withstand cosmic radiation and extreme space conditions.  From design to packaging, the chip was entirely made in India

• It was packaged at Tata’s Karnataka facility
  
  
• The printed circuit board (PCB) were made in Gujarat

Kamakoti admitted that the biggest challenge was fabricating the chip on SCL's 180nm process, a node considered outdated by commercial standards.

• While current fabrication tech restricts performance to 80–120MHz, Kamakoti said that the design allows easy migration to technologically advanced 28nm or 16nm nodes, which would increase performance capacity 

With ISRO’s validation, IRIS could soon power India’s space missions, Kamakoti hopes. 

"This is the first very big important news for the country—that we have designed, tested, packaged, and completely made in India and used in one of our space applications," he said.

Dig deeper

Rapido is now shifting gears with EV financing, making it easier for its captains (drivers) to own electric vehicles.

Through partnerships with NBFCs, fintechs and 12+ EV startups, Rapido is building a full-stack EV ecosystem—from financing and distribution to infrastructure. 

“While we focus on commute solutions and job creation, we will work with banks, NBFCs, and new-age startups. We are also collaborating with 12 EV players nationwide to offer suitable vehicle choices for captains,” Pavan Guntupalli, cofounder of Rapido told us in an interview. 

With 1,000+ EVs already on Karnataka’s roads, Rapido sees sustainability as the next big leap in its urban mobility pipeline.

From a bike-taxi startup to a complete mobility solutions provider, Rapido is now eyeing 500 new cities this year. 

• Karnataka alone will see 80,000 new jobs, with 25,000 exclusively for women under its ‘Bike Pink’ initiative
  
  
• Meanwhile, its SaaS-driven pricing model is fueling rapid adoption—helping Rapido hit 1.5 billion annual rides and solidify its dominance in the auto and cab segments

“We have money in the bank,” Guntupalli said. “We’ll do it when the time is right.”

Read the full interview

Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce unicorn Udaan looks to take flight with a new funding round.

Udaan has raised $75 million in fresh funding from M&G Plc. and Lightspeed Venture Partners, the firm’s founder and CEO Vaibhav Gupta told employees in a town hall. 

• In fact, Gupta said the company is close to acquiring another $25 million over the next quarter

Sources said the funds will be used to deepen market penetration, strengthen vendor partnerships, and bolster the company's long-term supply chain and credit capabilities.

The funding round comes as Udaan prepares for an initial public offering (IPO), which is expected in late 2025 or early next year.

• Last month, the firm received approval from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to consolidate its business verticals under a single entity

It has also been on a cost-cutting spree, including trimming its workforce, to improve unit economics.

• In FY24, Udaan cut its losses by 19% to Rs 1674.1 crore, compared to Rs 2075.9 crore in FY23

Udaan isn’t the only IPO-bound B2B startup to have raised funds recently.

• Last month, its peer, construction materials firm Infra.market raised around $120 million in fresh funding at a nearly $2.8 billion valuation
  
  
• B2B manufacturing startup Zetwerk is also in talks with family offices and high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) to raise $20-30 million at a $3.1 billion valuation

Dig Deeper

• AI-based security company Dream has raised $100 million in a funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures at a valuation of $1.1 billion.
  
  
• South Korea suspended new downloads of the Chinese AI app DeepSeek after the company admitted to not fully complying with the country's personal data protection rules.

Leonardo DiCaprio has just landed a role that's a little bit... amphibian.

• A newly discovered species of frog in Ecuador has been named Phyllonastes dicaprioi in honour of the actor's environmental activism

Found in Ecuador's Western Mountain Forest, this small brown frog lives at altitudes between 1,330 and 1,705 meters above sea level.

Find out more

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