Luxury handbag and accessories brand, with 50 SKUs priced at ₹5,000-15,000. Sold via Ajio Luxe, Tata Cliq Luxury, Nykaa Luxe. Seed round of an undisclosed amount. Founders: Sanchit (EDHEC) was part of Whirpool's global Fast Track Management Program for two years; there is no information available on co-founder Annika, after her Master's in Luxury Accessory Design and Management from Italy. Founded in Jan 2024.

Casual dining and QSR chain for - you guessed correctly - Japanese food. The company has three models - a café, a bakehouse (faster service) and the KoiKoi Essentials food products brand (ramen kits, frozen meals) - with 7 outlets across Delhi NCR and Mumbai currently at an ₹30CR (~$3.4M) annualised revenue. The goal is to get to 90 outlets/20 cities/₹200CR (~$23M) by 2027. $2M seed round. Includes the participation of Capitar Ventures, a venture debt firm. Founder Gaurav started this in 2019, soon after his Masters degree.

Fashion and travel accessories brand - luggage covers, storage pouches, socks and hankies. The brand has shelf space in diverse multibrand outlets (MBOs) - Regal Shoes, Crossword, Hamleys. Currently at 15K monthly orders, 25% offline-75% online sales split. Monthly sales data not provided. ₹4.5CR seed round. Founders: Harshit (Narsee Monjee) held strategy and marketing roles at Future Consumer (part of Future Group) for 5 years as well as at Pfizer Consumer Healthcare; Manali was at MullenLowe Lintas for 5 years, followed by Future Consumer, and brand design agencies in Singapore. Founded in 2021.

Full-stack Edge AI hardware platform - the company builds modular Edge AI computing platforms that integrate compute, connectivity and storage on a single board - with 5000 shipped to date. This hardware is deployed in industrial gateways, humanoid robots, autonomous vehicles, drones and defence systems. Competes against boards provided by global players: Raspberry Pi, Nvidia Jetson, Google Coral, Qualcomm. ₹1.39CR seed round. Founders: CEO Prabhu is from EMC, Siemens and Affiliatics; Savitri was a director at WaterBot Online Solutions for a decade (IoT systems). Founded in Jan 2025.

Sustainable packaging for fresh produce. The packaging is in the form of plant-based films, that extend shelf life of fruits and vegetables by up to 3x. It is both biodegradable and compostable, with R&D as well as production in Visakhapatnam. Naturally (pun intended), this is a B2B business, working with farmers, exporters and retailers. It has two products, for bulk shipments and for retail. Building both sales and compliance functions in the US and India. Current revenue scale not provided. $1M seed round. Founders Taraka and Venkata built out SBioTech, an aquaculture startup that specializes in probiotics for fish, for seven years. That overlapped with them building MicGene Lab, a state of the art research laboratory in Visakhapatnam. Founded in Aug 2020.

Kids lifestyle brand - blankets, towels, school gear. Currently at ₹12CR annualised revenue, growing at 40% QoQ. The focus is on scaling collectible-driven seasonal drops. ₹4CR seed round. Angels In the round: Shivali Vij (Michelin), Deepank Kumar (ESR India), Pratik Mathurkar (Honest Chocolat), Uday Sodhi (Kurate Digital Consulting), Stoffer Norden (former CEO, Booking.com). Founders Ritvik and Karishma are from NIT Tiruchirappallii. They founded XOOG, a safe social network for kids. Founded in Feb 2023.

Consumer food brand with products from the Mithila region which lies in Bihar as well as Jharkhand. This is a clean label brand which covers Indian superfoods, "heritage staples" (e.g., Katarni rice, a unique short grain rice only grown in this region) and a healthier variety of snacks. Five months since launch, its currently at ₹3CR annualised revenue, 20 SKUs and 25K customers in aggregate. ₹1.5CR seed round. Founders Shubham and Ankit are IIT Bombay, Anshu is from Ramaiah College. CEO Shubham co-founded a marketing agency; Protego, a car accessories brand; and BreadnPulp, a hyperlocal breakfast delivery platform in Mumbai. Ankit is from Timemytask (on demand home services), Anshu is from Thokbaazar (hyperlocal B2B platform). Founded in Dec 2024.

Consumer food and beverage brand, with fun, nostalgic products - flavoured sodas, cotton candy and tapioca crips for example. The goal is to scale distribution across typical channels (Q-Com) as well as food service outlets and abroad. No data on scale. ₹1.5CR seed round. Co-Founder and CEO Rahul Johar was Executive Director at iResearch Services for 17 years, while also building national distribution for his family owned firm JOHARS Group, a wholesaler/importer. Founded in Jan 2023.

Formerly HealthPresso. $300K angel round from undisclosed investors that closed in July. Founders: Daleep was Senior VP & Country Head of McCann Health for 12 years; Manuj, ex Sapient and Accenture, was Director of Client Services at Essence Software Solutions for close to a decade. The fourth co-founder, Dr Swadeep Srivastava, is not linked here. Founded in May 2023.

Marketing automation system called MAGI (Marketing AGI) that brings together the intelligence and orchestration layer. $1.9M pre-seed round. Founders: Deepesh and Shrestha are both IIT Kharagpur. Deepesh was the Co-Founder of Drivebarn (SaaS for car dealers in the US) and a PM at energyX Solutions and Sonatype; Shrestha was a Team Lead at Meta in the UK, prior to which he was a software engineer at Swiggy and Clip. Founded in Oct 2024.