Ronnie Screwvala has set up a $50 million personal fund to back early-stage AI, deep-tech and space-tech startups. He plans to invest in around 15 companies over the next year with high-conviction cheques of $1-3 million. The focus is on founders with resilience, frugality and strong technology fundamentals, not hype-driven models.

OpenHands AI raised $18.8M in Series A funding led by Madrona, with Menlo Ventures, Obvious Ventures, Fujitsu Ventures, and Alumni Ventures participating. The company builds an open-source, cloud-based coding agent platform that automates real engineering tasks, scales across teams, and integrates with existing developer tools.

Neurologist Vinit Suri countered Deepinder Goyal's claim that gravity shortens lifespan, saying, "I can say that this idea oversimplifies a very complex system." "There's no evidence that reducing gravity would slow ageing...Healthy ageing depends on how well we care for our bodies and minds," Suri said. FITTR CEO Jitendra Chouksey called Goyal's claim "pseudoscience...dressed up as innovation".

Of the 90 companies that raised ₹1.54 lakh crore in 2025, 42 companies' shares are trading lower than their IPO prices, NDTV Profit reported. While 45 companies' shares are trading above their IPO prices, 31 companies' shares had closed in red after first trading day. Among top-performing IPOs, Ather Energy and Quality Power lead with 115% and 108% gains, respectively.

Yubi has raised ₹411 crore through a mix of structured debt from EvolutionX Debt Capital and a ₹75-crore equity infusion from founder Gaurav Kumar. The funds will drive expansion into South-East Asia, the US, and the Middle East, while strengthening Yubi’s AI-powered credit infrastructure and scaling its global debt marketplace operations.

San Francisco-based Jiga raised $12 million led by Aleph, with Symbol and Y Combinator backing. The AI-driven platform streamlines sourcing of custom mechanical parts, replacing slow manual workflows with automated communication, pricing, and quality checks. Used by NASA, Siemens, and aerospace teams, Jiga aims to expand production, strengthen AI quality assurance, and scale enterprise support.

Outcome-oriented advertising intelligence links insights to execution by aligning campaign inputs with expected results. It simulates budget paths, shows where audiences contract or expand, and predicts how creative changes influence performance. By modeling outcomes in advance, teams gain a clearer framework for allocation, testing, and continuous optimization.

Prescriptive advertising intelligence advances beyond traditional analytics by recommending the best action at execution. Using agent-like reasoning, it tracks pacing, audience saturation, and creative fatigue, proposing adjustments that reduce waste. This shifts teams toward strategy while automation manages routine monitoring, grounding decisions in predicted outcomes.

Advertising intelligence is shifting from reporting to predictive and prescriptive ecosystems. Modern systems integrate audience signals and cross channel performance to model future outcomes rather than just surface dashboards. With AI driven recommendations, marketers can anticipate shifts in consumer intent, adjust bids dynamically, and test creative variations automatically.

Email marketing tools now blend automation, segmentation, template intelligence, and behavior-based triggers to boost engagement. Modern platforms analyze open patterns, predict optimal send times, and adjust content dynamically. With automated journeys, conditional branching, personalization, and deliverability insights, they keep communication timely, targeted, and consistently relevant.

Conversational AI now powers support automation, lead qualification, feedback capture, and personalised assistance. Modern systems understand context, recall user history, and respond with intent specific logic rather than scripted flows. Natural language models help businesses deliver consistent responses, reduce wait times, and scale conversations without human load.

Advertising intelligence spans five categories audience, creative, media, measurement, and automation each addressing a specific bottleneck, from finding intent-rich segments to analyzing creative drivers and forecasting ROAS. Together, they form an integrated layer that helps teams spot inefficiencies sooner, align on insights, and make faster data-backed decisions.

India's healthcare startup ecosystem is growing across telemedicine, diagnostics, wellness, and hospital automation. Practo enables online consultations, PharmEasy streamlines pharmacy logistics, 1mg supports diagnostics, and HealthifyMe offers personalized wellness tracking. With AI triage, EMR tools, and remote monitoring, these platforms boost access, cut admin work.

The innovation funnel creates a structured path from idea to execution by filtering concepts through discovery, validation, prioritization, and prototyping. This prevents resource dilution by advancing only high-viability ideas. It encourages broad exploration, early assumption testing, and evidence-based refinement, helping teams stay experimental while maintaining operational discipline.

Former Harvard president and ex-US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has resigned from the OpenAI board after newly released emails revealed his close relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Summers said he's "deeply ashamed" of his relationship with Epstein and is stepping back from public roles to "rebuild trust". Harvard has launched an investigation into his ties with Epstein.

Microsoft and NVIDIA have committed to investing up to $5 billion and up to $10 billion, respectively, in AI startup Anthropic. Under the partnership, the Claude chatbot maker will also purchase $30 billion of Microsoft Azure compute capacity. Meanwhile, Anthropic and NVIDIA will collaborate on design and engineering to optimise the startup's models for the best possible performance.

The best student startup ideas solve immediate campus needs with quick, simple prototypes. High-traction concepts include peer tutoring for specific subjects, AI-based study productivity tools, hyperlocal delivery for books or essentials, hostel services like laundry or repairs, second-hand markets for textbooks and gadgets, and micro-freelancing for design, editing, or coding.

The stage-gate model divides innovation into controlled steps, each followed by a gate that reviews feasibility, risk, and resources. Teams progress through concept evaluation, technical checks, business modeling, prototyping, and market readiness. These checkpoints align stakeholders, filter weak ideas early, and guide investment.

BlackBuck co-founder and CEO Rajesh KN Yabaji has sold 20 lakh shares at ₹676.40 each in a bulk deal, raising about ₹135 crore. After the sale, his stake falls from 11.81% to 10.7%. Major institutional investors including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley participated in the larger block deal.

Zoho Co-founder Sridhar Vembu said he advises young entrepreneurs, both men and women, to marry and have children in their 20s instead of postponing it. "I tell them they've to do their demographic duty to society...and their own ancestors," he stated. Vembu added, "I know these notions may sound quaint or old-fashioned, but I'm sure these ideas will resonate again."

Rupifi CEO Anubhav Jain backed Infosys Founder Narayana Murthy's call to bring China's 9-9-6 work culture, or a 72-hour workweek, to India. "As a nation, we need people who work hard and build this country...It's not about glorifying staying late in office," Jain said. "[9-9-6] pushed China to the level it's today," he wrote in the now-deleted LinkedIn post.

Sonata Software has dropped two spots to rank 13th among India’s leading IT services firms after a steep 30% YoY decline in Q2FY26 revenue. The fall was largely driven by Microsoft shifting major enterprise clients to a direct-sales model, impacting Sonata’s biggest vertical. The company now aims to strengthen its digital and cloud capabilities to revive growth.

Axirium Aerospace has secured $3.5 million in a seed round led by Shastra VC and BEENEXT, with support from angel investors including Ashish Gupta (Ex-MD & Co-founder, Helion Advisors) and PVS Raju (Vice Chairman, AIG Hospitals). The funding will be used to build a global-grade manufacturing unit, expand its engineering team and strengthen its aerospace supply-chain capabilities.

PayList.music is testing a live model wherein listeners have a direct financial stake in the artists they connect with. The first edition takes place at Mumbai's antiSOCIAL, where artists premiere unreleased tracks while audiences use the PayList app to send real-time payments straight to performers. The goal, creators said, is to build an honest space where creativity and community meet.

Meta's Chief Revenue Officer, John Hegeman, on Tuesday announced he will leave the Facebook parent to launch his own startup. His key responsibilities will be taken over by another Meta executive, Andrew Bocking, who currently leads the company's ads product and strategy team, according to Hegeman's Facebook post. "Hegeman is leaving the company after 17 years," a spokesperson said.