Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (August 8, 2025)
Featured stories
Inside India’s push for building indigenous AI models
India is accelerating its push for indigenous AI, with government-backed startups building language and voice models rooted in the country’s 121 languages, cultural nuances, and local data.
Flagship efforts from Sarvam AI, Gnani.ai, CoRover.ai, Fractal, and Ola Krutrim signal a shift from AI consumption to AI creation, aiming for sovereignty, inclusivity, and global competitiveness—much like UPI’s impact on digital payments.
This momentum will take centre stage at TechSparks 2025 (Nov 6–8), where leaders will explore how Indic AI is reshaping India’s tech landscape and setting global benchmarks. Read more.
Bhumi, Samiksha Pednekar launch natural mineral water brand Backbay
Actor Bhumi Pednekar and her sister Samiksha have launched Backbay, a clean beverage brand and its product, Backbay Aqua, natural mineral water from the Himalayas, packaged in sustainable paper cartons.
The idea emerged from the Pednekar family’s decade-long journey toward sustainability. “Very early on, we quit using single-use plastic as much as possible. Every time I had to drink water from a plastic bottle, it would really bother me. There were just no options available,” explains Bhumi. Read more.
OpenAI rolls out GPT-5, eyes India as potential largest market
OpenAI has officially launched the much-awaited GPT-5, its most advanced large language model (LLM) to date. The AI firm on Thursday announced that it is making the model available to all users, including those on the free tier of ChatGPT.
The latest AI model brings major improvements in reasoning and performance across various tasks such as writing, coding, and healthcare applications. It also unites and surpasses OpenAI’s previous breakthroughs in frontier AI, spanning 4o, OpenAI o-series reasoning, agents, and advanced math capabilities. Read more.
Latest news
Reliance writes off its $200M investment in Dunzo
Reliance Retail, the consumer arm of Reliance Industries, has officially written down its Rs 1,645 crore investment in hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo, according to the conglomerate’s annual report.
This comes after Dunzo, once an early entrant in the hyperlocal delivery and logistics space, lost its edge in the cutthroat quick commerce market.
Dunzo shut operations earlier this year in January after its app and website went offline, as the last of its remaining co-founders and CEO, Kabeer Biswas, left the company. Biswas went on to join Flipkart to lead the ecommerce major’s quick commerce operations, Flipkart Minutes. Read more.
Zepto rolls out 10-minute medicine delivery in four cities
Quick commerce player Zepto launched Zepto Pharmacy, a 10-minute medicine delivery service, in selected areas of Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, and Hyderabad, CEO and Co-founder Aadit Palicha said in a LinkedIn post on Thursday.
Zepto has spent the past 12 months running the service at a small scale to fine-tune customer experience, supply chain, and compliance processes. Palicha said, “Our objective is to keep operational standards extremely high and not scale too rapidly given the complexity of this category.” Read more.
Swiggy, FirstCry add $160M to SoftBank’s notional gains in Q1; Ola Electric drags
Food delivery giant Swiggy and omnichannel retailer FirstCry emerged as the top Indian performers in SoftBank’s Vision Fund portfolio for the April–June quarter, contributing nearly $160 million in unrealised investment gains.
Swiggy led the charge with a $139 million increase in fair value, as its stock climbed 21% during the quarter. FirstCry added another $20 million to SoftBank’s books, following a 5% rise in its share price, according to the investment banker’s latest earnings presentation. Read more.
Zomato onboards Shah Rukh Khan as its new brand ambassador
Zomato onboarded Indian film actor Shah Rukh Khan as its new brand ambassador. The announcement follows Khan’s recent appearance in Zomato’s latest campaign, Fuel Your Hustle, which celebrates the quiet grind behind some of India’s most celebrated names.
This collaboration will see Khan featured prominently across Zomato’s multi-platform marketing initiatives, including television commercials, digital campaigns, print and outdoor activations.
Funding news
Ace Blend raises pre-Series A from Fireside Ventures
Ace Blend, a science-backed nutrition startup, raised an undisclosed investment from Fireside Ventures.
Ace has been revamping India’s supplement landscape through its partnership with Bio-gen Extracts since 2022. With 25+ years of global expertise, Bio-gen’s clinical-grade ingredients and extraction technologies have been the backbone of Ace Blend’s results-driven formulations.
Other News
Mirae Asset Mutual Fund introduces two new fund offers
Mirae Asset Investment Managers launched new fund offers for two fund of funds—Mirae Asset Multi Factor Passive FoF and Mirae Asset Gold Silver Passive FoF.
These funds of funds are designed to provide investors with exposure to factor-based domestic equity ETFs and precious metals, i.e., gold and silver ETFs, respectively, through a disciplined systematic approach.
(This article will be updated with the latest news throughout the day.)
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