From Unacademy’s co-founders stepping away to Cars24 shutting down its spare parts platform, YourStory brings today’s headlines that highlight significant developments across industries.
Featured Stories
ixigo’s steady rise: From serving Bharat to shaping the future of travel tech with AI
In an interaction with YourStory, ixigo co-founders Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar opened up about the company’s rapid growth and the central role artificial intelligence plays in its strategy.
“We didn’t start as a ticketing platform,” Aloke Bajpai, Group CEO, ixigo, tells YourStory. “Our focus has always been on addressing real pain points for India’s aspiring middle class—people in Tier II and III towns who mostly travel by train or bus and seek budget hotels. That DNA hasn’t changed.”
Read more here.
Flextron’s 10-minute charging could put India’s EV adoption in the fast lane
Flextron is a Bengaluru-based B2B EV tech startup founded by Ameen Khan, Mukesh R Jogi, Crystal Lobo, Nipun Pise, and Royan Rebello. With backgrounds in tech giants like Microsoft and JP Morgan and a shared passion for innovation, the five friends decided to quit their corporate careers to tackle one of India’s toughest clean mobility problems: fast and accessible EV charging.
Read more here.
Latest news
Unacademy co-founders Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini to step away from their roles
Unacademy co-founders Gaurav Munjal and Roman Saini are stepping away from their day-to-day roles at the edtech firm as they shift their focus to AirLearn, the company’s language learning app, which is expected to be spun off into a separate entity, people familiar with the matter told YourStory.
Read more here.
Cars24 shuts down spare parts platform citing buyer mindset
Used car marketplace Cars24 has shut down its pilot programme, Inspare, which was set up in Delhi-NCR to facilitate doorstep delivery of spare parts to automotive workshops.
In a LinkedIn post, Cars24’s CEO Vikram Chopra said workshops that had tie-ups with insurance companies trusted the company’s service. However, for repairs not covered by insurance, workshops had the freedom to choose the spare parts supplier; here they chose the services of a local distributor over the firm’s services.
Read more here.
Myntra gets $125M infusion from Singapore parent company
Fashion ecommerce platform Myntra has secured Rs 1,062.5 crore ($125 million) from its Singapore-based parent company, FK Myntra Holdings.
Myntra’s board has allotted 19,43,753 equity shares at an issue price of Rs 5,466 per share through a rights issue, raising the stated amount, according to a regulatory filing accessed from the Registrar of Companies.
Read more here.
PayPal gets RBI nod for facilitating cross-border export payments
PayPal Holdings Inc. (PYPL), has received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Payment Aggregator for Cross Border Exports (PA-CB-E), the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Read more here.
Salesforce to acquire Informatica in $8B deal
SaaS major Salesforce said it will acquire cloud data management company Informatica in an all-equity deal valued at $8 billion, as the enterprise software giant deepens its push into artificial intelligence.
The company stated the acquisition will strengthen its data infrastructure to support the development and deployment of agentic AI across enterprises.
Read more here.
Funding news
Orbitt Space raises $1M in funding led by pi Ventures
Space-tech startup founded by former ISRO scientists, Orbitt Space, on Wednesday said it has raised $1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by pi Ventures. IIMA Ventures also participated in the funding round.
The company will use the newly raised funds to accelerate the design and development of Orbitt’s proprietary electric propulsion technology and avionics systems, to build its team, and to begin rigorous testing of its first prototype.
Simply Nam secures strategic investment to expand product portfolio
Simply Nam, a celebrity makeup brand owned by makeup artist Namrata Soni and serial entrepreneur Hanna Stromgren Khan, today announced a strategic fundraise led by the Bhaane Group.
The company aims to use the investment to expand its product portfolio with new launches, deepen its educational content offerings, and strengthen its omnichannel presence.
Simply Nam has doubled its customer base in the last year with a 40% returning customer rate, and maintaining an average monthly revenue run-rate of Rs 2 crore.
Agritech startup GROWiT raises $3M in Series A round
Potective farming startup GROWiT on Wednesday raised $3 million in a Series A funding led by GVFL, with participation from Veloce Opportunities Fund, JITO, We Founder Circle, Sunicon Ventures Fund, Progrowth Ventures and Hyderabad Angels.
The newly raised funds will be used towards the company’s aggressive expansion plans, deepen its research and development capabilities, and strengthen its technology infrastructure to serve farmers more effectively.
Alternate capital firm ILIOS 72 raised Rs 1 Cr in seed funding
ILIOS 72 Alternative Capital on Wednesday raised Rs 1 crore in seed funding from a group of family offices, marking the company’s first external fundraise.
The funding will enable ILIOS to upgrade their technology platform, making it easier for clients to track portfolios and discover new opportunities platform. The newly raised funds will also allow the company to open a new office in Jaipur.
Additionally, the funding will also be utilised in expanding the team to bring more research-backed investment ideas to a wider audience.
Other news
Duolingo partners with Glance to upskill young India via Lock Screen learning
Language learning platform, Duolingo, on Wednesday partnered with smart lock screen platform Glance to embed Duolingo’s gamified English lessons into Glance’s smart lock screens.
Within three months of the launch, Duolingo’s content on Glance has garnered over 720 million glances.
“At Duolingo, our focus is on keeping things simple, engaging, and effective—so that anyone, anywhere, can make real progress. We are committed to making language learning widely accessible and enjoyable for all, and we’re always looking for new and innovative formats to reach our learners where they are. This partnership with Glance is exciting because it brings bite-sized English learning directly to millions of lock screens, making upskilling in English effortless, interactive, and a natural part of their daily routine,” said Karandeep Singh Kapany, Regional Marketing Director, Duolingo.
Pure Storage partners with SK hynix to meet energy efficiency requirements for hyperscale data centers
NYSE-listed Pure Storage on Wednesday partnered with SK hynix to deliver flash storage products that meet the high-capacity energy requirements for data-intensive hyperscalar environments.
“This collaboration with SK hynix is an exciting step in our mission to deliver superior all-flash storage technology to hyperscalers. By combining SK hynix’s advanced QLC products with Pure Storage’s host-based flash management architecture, we can deliver an optimized solution for the hyperscale production environment and AI infrastructure. Pure Storage can further elevate performance, scalability, reliability, and energy efficiency, addressing the unique demands facing today’s data-centric industries,” said Bill Cerreta, GM, Hyperscale, Pure Storage
Rapido partners with SACTEM to train over 1000 captains in basic life support
Ride-hailing company Rapido on Wednesday partnered with the Society for Advanced Clinical and Therapeutic Emergency Medicine (SACTEM) to provide Basic Life Support (BLS) training to over 1000 captains across 16 cities in India.
The initiative, which was flagged off on World Emergency Medicine Day, is being rolled out in a phased manner with the first phase covering captains across Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai, and Kolkata, among others.
Captains will be trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first aid.
Entitled Solutions rolls out new health plan for low-income workers
Entitled Solutions, B2B2C startup that helps businesses meet the financial and medical needs of their low-income staff has started the roll-out of health screening plans. This enables companies across segments of F&B, consumer, and hospitality to meet regulatory compliance requirements along with affordable pricing plans for their workforce.
Since the launch, Entitled Solutions claimed that it has covered more than six lakh workers across India with three lakh health checkups completed to date. Amongst the brands currently making use of the program are Lite Bite Foods, Jubilant Foods, Bloom Hotels, Nando’s, Rebel Foods, Popeye’s, Dunkin’, Pagariya Group, Radisson Hotels etc.
MathCo appoints new HRBP head
MathCo, an enterprise AI and analytics company has announced the appointment of Richa Sharan as new head of Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP). She has over 16 years of experience as HR business partner with work experience across companies such as Accenture, Infosys and Tech Mahindra.
SolarEdge Technologies opens tech centre in Bengaluru
SolarEdge Technologies, a smart energy technology company has opened its new R&D and technology centre in Bengaluru. This facility is designed to support research, product development, and technical operations. It will also house support and engineering teams.
SolarEdge established its Indian office in 2017 and its solution portfolio includes PV inverters, power optimisers, storage systems, and a cloud-based monitoring platform.
Smile Group appoints new managing partner for healthtech venture
Smile Group, a technology investor and operator has appointed Gagandeep Singh Bedi as Managing Partner to head its newly launched Healthtech Venture Builder. Bedi has over 25 years experience of working across companies such as AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Baxter, and Eli Lilly. He has also been engaged with India’s startup ecosystem through the India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre to accelerate tech adoption in clinics; a partnership with IIT Kanpur’s SIIC for dementia-care innovation; and early-stage investments in healthtech ventures targeting acute coronary syndrome and lung cancer.
Kore.ai signs collaboration agreement with AWS
Kore.ai, an enterprise AI, has signed a strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Kore.ai has integrated its agent AI platform and business solutions with AWS services like Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Q, and Amazon Connect. These integrations are expected to accelerate the deployment of AWS AI tools for a variety of business use cases. The Kore.ai Agent Platform, including AI for Work, AI for Service, and AI for Process, is also available on the AWS Marketplace.
(This article will be updated with the latest news throughout the day.)
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