Startup developing optical interconnect technology to speed up how data moves inside AI/high performance computing systems. The company builds small, energy-efficient optical modules that can replace traditional copper connections, offering faster data transfer, lower power use and a lighter hardware footprint. The tech is built for AI data centres, edge devices, 5G networks, aerospace systems and other compute-heavy industries, positioning the company as an emerging enabler of next-generation data infrastructure. $6.5M Pre-Series A round led by pi Ventures. Other investors in the round: 500 Global, Indian Accelerator, 8X Ventures, Java Capital. Founded in 2019 as LightSpeed AI Labs. Part of the Entrepreneur First Bangalore cohort. Bangalore/Singapore based. Founders: CEO Rohin was earlier the R&D Chief at MyTi Technetronics, an R&D company in electronics design; CTO Ramana was the Director of Research at Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology, Hyderabad.

Helps digital neobanks, brokers and payment apps launch banking products quickly through a single API. Instead of integrating with multiple banks one by one, Blostem lets platforms offer fixed deposits, FD-backed credit cards and Credit-on-UPI through a single plug-and-play connection. The company already works with 10+ banks and NBFCs, and partners with leading fintech and brokerage apps to make retail banking products easier to access across India. Pre-Series A of an undisclosed amount, Raimatter gets a 9% stake. Founded in Apr 2022, Delhi based. Founders: Ravi was a Senior Consultant at PKC Advisory; Sandeep previously served as SVP at iServeU (banking infra provider); Uday is the founder of IT services firm Teknomatics.

Credit-tech startup building an AI-led underwriting and intelligence layer for secured lending products such as home loans, LAP (loan against property) and MSME credit. It digitises and standardises property diligence for lenders - helping banks and NBFCs speed up loan origination, ensure compliance, and monitor portfolios more efficiently. ₹6 crore Pre-Series A round led by GrowthCap Ventures. Angels in the round: Navin Kukreja and Gaurav Aggarwal (Paisabazaar), Prasanna Rao (Arya.ag) and others. Founded in Jan 2022, Bangalore based. Founders: CEO Nagachethan was previously the head of housing business operations at Navi and product head at Vistaar; CTO Byom was previously a Senior NLP Engineer at ConcertAI and comes from DataWeave.

Med-tech startup that’s reinventing how cancer diagnostics get done, by automating the core yet painstakingly manual processes in histopathology (the study of tissues). Its flagship products, RoboTome (a robotic precision cutting equipment that slices biopsy blocks) and MorphoLens (a high-throughput slide scanner using AI-driven imaging) together aim to replace labour-intensive tissue slicing and slide scanning, drastically cutting down diagnostic time while boosting consistency and scalability. Founded in Apr 2017, Bangalore and NY based. $5M Series A round led by Inflexor Ventures. Founder & CEO Rohit (IIT Kharagpur) previously worked as an engineer at Walmart Labs and was Co-founder & CEO at BigClozet (fashion discovery).

Bengaluru-based biotech startup building solutions for diagnostics, gene editing and bioengineering. Its core aim is to make molecular diagnostics, genome engineering and rare-disease therapeutics accessible and affordable across human, animal health and food safety, through its platforms such as PathCrisp (for rapid diagnostics), EdiCrisp (for genome editing and strain engineering) and CurieCrisp (for preclinical & rare disease therapeutics). $3M Pre-Series A round led by Spectrum Impact (the family-office of Aarti Industries Chairman Rajendra Gogri). Founded in Oct 2020. Founders: Vijay (UCLA, MIT) was a faculty member at tge Indian Institute of Science (IISc), National Institute of Advanced Studies and also a council member at ABLE India, UNESCO's panel on Science & Technology for Development. No background information available on co-founders Sunil and Aditya.

Afforable-premium clean beauty brand focused on creating high-performance makeup that is vegan, gender-inclusive and designed to suit a wide range of Indian skin tones. The company operates as a D2C-first label while expanding steadily into offline retail, with products spanning lipsticks, complexion essentials and everyday makeup staples. No information on current sales. ₹17CR in a new funding round led by Spring Marketing Capital. Bangalore based. Founded in Aug 2018, Mumbai based. Founder Karishma (UC Berkeley) was a business analyst at A.T. Kearney in SF for a year after college, before starting FAE.

YC Winter 2021. An AI-led insurtech company modernising how commercial insurance is underwritten. Its flagship offering, “CURE” (Centralised Underwriting Risk Environment), brings all the key undewriting steps - collecting submissions, reading documents, doing research, scoring risk and managing workflows - into one system, helping underwriters work faster (by up to 85%) and make more accurate decisions. $7M Series A round led by Stellaris Venture Partners. The company is SF and Bengaluru based. Founded in Apr 2020. Founder and CEO Akash Agarwal (IIT Roorkee), previously worked at Playment (data labelling infra) as a project manager.

Noida-based AI research startup building multilingual LLMS and enterprise AI tools for businesses in India and other emerging markets - for example,it combines natural language search and data from 700M professionals to drive lead generation and talent acquisition for its clients. The goal is to "democratize artificial intelligence for the next 3 billion users in emerging markets". $10M Series A round. Other investors in the round: Korea Development Bank Capital, Daekyo Investment, and DS & Partners. Founded in 2018, the company started out as McKinley & Rice, an IT and HR cross-border outsourcing firm. Founders: CEO Felix was an attorney in Korea.

As the name suggest, a platform for farmers to buy, sell, finance and insure tractors and other rural commercial vehicles via both digital and offline channels. It operates 75 COCO (company owned company operated) outlets across Rajasthan, MP, UP and Maharashtra. FY25 revenue: ₹106CR with a ₹9CR loss. Founded in Feb 2018. Its FinTech arm FINJ has disbursed ₹1,500CR in loans through partners, since it launched in Jan 2024. $17M Series A round along with $5M in debt led by Astanor (a global impact investing firm). Founders: CEO Rajat was previously a general manager at National Motors (a Mahindra Tractors dealership); COO Animesh had worked first as a business development manager at Mahindra Group and then as an Associate Director at CARS24. No background information available on the third Co-Founder & President Shivani.

Founded in 2019, Pidge was a relatively entrant to last mile logistics for Tier 1 India, yet is growing fast - 10x year on year. Gurgaon based, the platform connects its delivery fleets, gig riders, order tracking systems and analytics into a single stack, serving over 20,000 brands across 50+ cities. Now at an annualised ₹250CR revenue run rate. The new funding will help the company expand deeper into TierII/III markets, upgrade its AI capabilities and start international pilots. 120CR Series A round led by La Vida es Chula (LVEC), the family office of billionaire Thomas Meyer, founderf of spanish retailer Desigual. La Vida es Chula, incidentally, means "life is pretty" in Spanish. Founders: Ratnesh was the President & MD for international business at Whitbread (the owner of Costa Coffee and Premier Inn) before founding Pidge; CPTO Rushil worked as a consultant at Redbox Automated Retail (video rental and streaming) and ShopRunner (shipping service for brands).