A consolidated view of market events, assembled from diverse sources.
The Association of Prolific Angels in India (APAII) has been formed by over 30 angel funds, family offices, and individual investors to strengthen domestic early-stage capital and create a unified voice for the sector. The association aims to mobilize $3 billion in early-stage capital over five years and scale angel participation to $30 billion annually by 2047, while expanding beyond major cities to tier-2 and tier-3 locations.
Fresh produce and grocery platform Handpickd is expanding into Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Pune after successfully scaling its zero-inventory model across NCR and Bengaluru, serving over 100,000 customers. The company recently raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Bertelsmann India Investments to fuel geographic expansion and product portfolio growth in fresh kitchen staples.
MUFG-backed Dragon Funds is planning to raise a $600 million second fund focused on high-growth Indian startups, particularly in financial services, consumer, and enterprise sectors. The fund will deploy $50-80 million cheques and aims to leverage MUFG's global presence to help portfolio companies expand internationally, particularly in Japan's underpenetrated software market.
Rainmatter's Dinesh Pai argues that Indian startups need patient, entrepreneurial capital beyond traditional VC cycles, emphasizing the need for evergreen fund structures that can support companies through longer growth periods. The Zerodha-backed firm has deployed ₹1,700 crore across 180 startups over a decade, with 90% of teams maintaining commitment to their original problems despite challenging times.
Indian startups are increasingly bringing celebrities into their businesses as equity investors, co-founders and co-creators, moving beyond traditional advertising partnerships. Based on Tracxn data, India's top 10 celebrity investors have participated in 49 funding rounds across 34 startups worth approximately $460 million between 2021-2026, with notable success stories including Shilpa Shetty Kundra's investment in Rosada (nearly doubled revenue) and Shraddha Kapoor's stake in Palmonas (four-fold revenue increase).
Fin.com has raised $20 million in seed funding led by Expa and Coinbase Ventures to expand its stablecoin payment infrastructure across South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The New York-based startup, founded by Nabeel Alamgir and Mustafa Dar, operates white-label payment infrastructure supporting over 40 currencies and claims to serve more than 800 million end users through its business customers.
AI interactive content company Flam has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by QED Investors, with participation from Shah Rukh Khan and other investors. The San Francisco-based startup, founded in 2021, has expanded its enterprise customer base to over 100 companies including Google and State Farm, and plans to use the capital for AI model research and global expansion.
India's space economy is projected to grow five-fold from ₹0.81 lakh crore ($8.4 billion) to ₹4.22 lakh crore ($44 billion) by 2033, driven by policy reforms, private investment, and commercial applications across Earth observation, communication, and navigation sectors. The growth is supported by FDI liberalization allowing up to 74% foreign investment in satellites and 49% in launch vehicles, while regulatory complexity is creating significant demand for legal advisory services across multiple areas including foreign investment, technology transfers, and export controls.
Crypto data provider Kaiko has successfully expanded its Series B funding round to $110 million, led by S&P Global, with participation from major financial institutions including BNP Paribas, Nasdaq, and Royal Bank of Canada. The funding comes as real-world assets (RWAs) have reached a milestone of $30 billion in onchain value, demonstrating explosive growth of over 70% this year and highlighting the increasing integration of traditional assets into the crypto sphere.
Google has selected four Indian startups for its inaugural DeepMind Accelerator: AI for the Planet programme, which will provide access to AI tools and mentorship over three months to help scale climate solutions. The startups focus on sustainable agriculture, carbon removal, and forestry applications, while Google also announced additional initiatives including expanding AI-powered solar APIs across 300 million Indian rooftops and a 150MW solar project with ReNew Power.