Inc42

Omnichannel kidswear brand Kidbea has raised ₹30 Cr (about $3.2 Mn) in its Series A funding round led by Enrission India Capital, with participation from Inflection Point Ventures, LetsVenture, FE Securities, and existing backers Venture Catalysts, Nazara Technologies’ Nitish Mittersain and Innov8 founder Ritesh Malik.👇 Mamaearth’s Ghazal Alagh, Unacademy cofounder Roman Saini, several family offices, and other angel investors were also part of the round. The Delhi NCR-based startup intends to use the fresh capital to expand its retail footprint to over 100 flagship stores and enter more than 200 multi-brand outlets across India over the next 12-24 months. Founded in 2021 by Swapnil Srivastav, Mohammad Hussain, Aman Kumar Mahto, and Ankita Rani, Kidbea offers sustainable clothing made from bamboo for children. 🔗 Read the full article here: 4-2.co/47kNXWJ #Inc42 #news #Startups #Startupfundings #Kidswear

In India’s $1.2 Bn home salon market, Noida-based @_yesmadam is solving for trust and stability by flipping the commission script for its 7.5K + partners. Read more to explore how they are redrawing the rules of gig economy inc42.com/startups/how-y…

Days after Zomato raised its platform fee, its rival Swiggy has increased the charge to ₹17.58 per order from ₹14.99 earlier, marking an increase of over 17%.👇 Notably, Swiggy has revised the platform fee multiple times over the past year. In August last year, the food delivery company raised platform fee to ₹14 from ₹12 in select markets amid a surge in demand, before extending the hike more broadly. It increased the fee again to ₹14.99 in early September. Platform fee is a flat charge levied on every food delivery order, on top of delivery charges, taxes and restaurant costs. Zomato and Swiggy have increased the platform fee steadily since introducing it ₹2 per order in 2023. 🔗 Read the full article here: 4-2.co/40SFnL7 #Inc42 #news #Swiggy #FoodDelivery #Inflation

Quick food delivery startup @justswishin has raised $38 Mn (about ₹356 Cr) in its Series B round led by Hara Global and Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from Alteria Capital, Stride Ventures and existing backer Accel.👇 The platform plans to use the funds to scale its 10-minute food delivery offering across urban cities, along with investing in team expansion, kitchen automation and supply chain infrastructure. Founded in 2024 by Aniket Shah, Ujjwal Sukheja, and Saran S, Swish delivers fresh food in under 10 minutes. The startup’s model hinges on owning or operating the delivery process end-to-end, including the kitchens, ordering platform and delivery fleet – removing the need for third-party commissions. 🔗 Read the full article here: 4-2.co/4rR3W6g #Inc42 #news #Startups #Startupfundings #QuickFoodDelivery

IIM Calcutta alumni Nikita Barmecha and Udit Sood shared a long-standing love for nature’s goodness and the belief that sustainable choices should fit into everyday living. In practice, however, eco-friendly products struggled to scale in India. Even basic reusables like cotton totes remain niche. Barmecha soon realised that, across food, fashion, or accessories, most everyday products carry an environmental cost most brands don’t design for. Sustainable alternatives are often expensive or impractical. Affordable options often treat sustainability as a surface-level cue, falling short on design, durability, and real-world impact. That gap led the duo to launch @ecoright_ in 2019, combining utility with reasonable pricing to make sustainability a daily choice. Read More- inc42.com/startups/how-e… #Inc42 #Startups #Startupgrowth #Ecofriendlyliving

Baby care quick commerce platform OZi has raised $6.2 Mn (₹57.8 Cr) in its Series A round led by RTP Global. The round also saw participation from existing investors such as Blume Ventures, Huddle Ventures, and Zeropearl VC.👇 In a statement, the startup said that angel investors like Kishore Biyani and the founders of Unacademy, Mosaic Wellness, Livspace, Vetic, magicpin, Spinny, Pristyn Care, and Handpicked also participated in the round. Founded in 2025 by serial entrepreneur Amit Sah, OZi delivers baby products, including apparel, diapers, pharmacy, toys, in under 60 minutes. The platform claims to host 15,000 products for children in the age group of 0-12 years. It currently operates in Gurugram and Noida. 🔗 Read the full article here: 4-2.co/3Pt7ldZ #Inc42 #news #Startups #Startupfundings #Babycare

With pricing starting at ₹179 per month, @AonMeetings is positioning itself as an affordable alternative to global video conferencing solutions. The company is building a partner-led distribution network to scale across India. Read more inc42.com/buzz/how-aonme…

Biryani is comfort food in India — a dish people argue about, swear by, and keep coming back to. But unlike the QSR sector, where a handful of players dominate nationally, the ₹30K Cr biryani market continues to challenge businesses seeking pan-India scale. Despite its mass appeal, the category lacks a single defining national brand, remaining a patchwork of fragmented local players.👇 In 2017, Lokesh Krishnan launched Potful to challenge that constraint, betting that India’s favourite comfort food could be standardised for a modern audience without losing its traditional soul. The playbook was simple: avoid bulk-cooked batches. Each order is cooked fresh in an individual claypot and prepared traditionally without cutting corners. Potful focusses on claypot dum biryani in regional styles, prepared to order and delivered via a cloud-kitchen model designed for consistency and capital efficiency. Read More- inc42.com/startups/how-p… #Inc42 #Startups #Startupgrowth #FoodIndustry #ComfortFood

India is the world’s second-largest footwear producer and consumer, with domestic demand soaking up 90-95% of its output. It is a massive landscape on a steep trajectory, projected to grow from $17.9 Bn in 2024 to $45.5 Bn by 2032. Yet, for years, the brand landscape was split between two extremes: mass-market labels competing in the sub-₹1,000 segment and industry giants dominating the ₹5,000-plus category. In 2015, Anuj Nevatia and Natwar Agrawal launched Bacca Bucci to claim this underserved middle ground. The duo bypassed the race for the lowest price and the exclusivity of high luxury. Instead, they focused on a homegrown brand that could match the comfort, durability and style of giants like Puma, RedTape and Woodland. The founders positioned Bacca Bucci as a design-led alternative that delivers premium cues without a premium price tag. Its 3.7K SKUs span casual sneakers, boots, and performance footwear, positioning it as a lifestyle footwear brand rather than a single-category specialist. Read More- inc42.com/startups/how-b… #Inc42 #Startups #Startupgrowth #FootwearIndustry #D2C

Nuclear energy startup @PranosFusion has raised $6.8 Mn (around ₹63 Cr) in its fresh funding round co-led by pi Ventures and Ankur Capital, along with participation from existing investor Industrial47, Groww cofounder Lalit Keshre, the founders of Razorpay, and Bhukhanwala Industries.👇 The Bengaluru-based startup is planning to deploy the freshly raised capital to strengthen its R&D, with a major focus on developing high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets. Founded in 2024 by JNCASR’s PhD Shaurya Kaushal and ex-REConnect Energy principal engineer Roshan George, Pranos Fusion is a Bengaluru-based deeptech startup developing nuclear fusion technology using magnetic confinement to produce clean, nuclear energy. 🔗 Read the full article here: 4-2.co/4bwpKiw #Inc42 #news #Startups #Startupfundings #NuclearEnergy

With $11 Bn+ raised in 2025, the Indian investment landscape is maturing. Ashish Bhatia of Finvolve notes, "Investors are rethinking strategies. Founders are building in sectors that are infrastructure-led." Read full interview inc42.com/features/india…

IPO-bound fitness unicorn CureFit, which operates the Cultfit gym chain, has raised ₹440 Cr ($47.2 Mn) in its Series G funding round from Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, Temasek.👇 As per its filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), the company’s board approved the allotment of nearly 91 Lakh (90,98,052 to be precise) Series G compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS) at ₹483.62 each to Temasek’s affiliate entity MacRitchie Investments. Founded in 2016 by Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, CureFit is a health and fitness startup that runs physical fitness platform Cultfit, under which it offers various gym subscriptions via three models – self-owned gyms, franchised gyms, and the marketplace model. 🔗 Read the full article here:4-2.co/40UPfUC #Inc42 #news #Cultfit #FitnessIndustry #Unicorn

Blinkit has 2,027 dark stores. Flipkart Minutes has 800. Yet Flipkart Minutes leads every rival on Average Order Value; ₹750-800 vs Blinkit's ₹547 and Zepto's ₹390. Late to quick commerce. But clearly not playing catch-up on what matters for unit economics. The real question for founders and investors isn't who entered first, t's who scales profitably. And a higher AOV is exactly the structural edge that changes that math. 📦 800 dark stores today → 1,200 by June 2026 🛒 Highest AOV in the category 🏙️ Already in 80-100 cities — and expanding fast Can Flipkart Minutes outrun the giants? 👇 #Inc42 #trending #quickcommerce #ecommerce #darkstores #financials

For years, India’s baby care market has sold a dominant narrative: modern parenting requires disposable diapers. Aggressive marketing made them the default choice, leaving parents stuck between synthetic convenience and traditional cloth options that often feel impractical today.👇 But the trade-offs are hard to ignore. Made with plastics and chemical additives such as dyes and fragrances, disposables can trigger rashes and add to an escalating waste problem. When Pallavi Utagi faced the same dilemma, she decided to create a better alternative. As existing cloth diapers felt clunky and obsolete, she and her spouse, Salil Utagi, decided to build a modern reusable ‘bumwear’ range from scratch. Using technical textiles and real-world engineering, they launched SuperBottoms, a high-performance reusable alternative in a market dominated by disposables. Read More- inc42.com/startups/how-s… #Inc42 #Startups #Babycare #Startupgrowth #ModernParenting

First, let's take a deep breath. 🍃 Now, let's talk about startups that are tackling and building for India's real issues - Burnout. Anxiety. Work stress. From AI chatbots to brain-stimulating wearables. From peer support communities to voice AI companions. There's something for every kind of bad day. 💡 Wysa has clocked 500Mn+ conversations globally 💡 MindTalk's Dr. Riya is a 24/7 voice AI therapist 💡 Mave Health ships a headset that literally rewires your brain for focus & stress 💡 Now&Me connects you to a real therapist for just ₹7/min 💡 And yes, Calm & Headspace have raised $400Mn+ combined, because the world was always willing to pay for peace of mind Indian mental health startups have collectively raised $127 Mn+ so far, so it’s safe to say the healing economy is officially here. 📊Source: Inc42 Datalabs #MentalHealth #HealthTech #IndiaStartups #BurnoutRecovery #WellnessEconomy #StartupEcosystem #AIHealth #MentalHealthAwareness #StartupIndia #Inc42

Fleet management startup LetzRyd has raised $4 Mn (about ₹38 Cr) in a fresh funding round led by JIF Capital Ltd, with participation from 15th Rock and existing investor UNLEASH Capital Partners.👇 The startup intends to utilise the fresh capital to accelerate expansion, enter new markets and scale its vehicle base. Besides, it also intends to deepen its investments in technology and operational infrastructure. Founded in 2023 by Tarun Jain, Kushagra Dokania, and Sarvagna G, LetzRyd operates a fleet of over 1,000 cars and drivers which it leases to taxi-hailing service companies. Currently operational in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai, it plans to expand its operations to markets like Delhi and Chennai soon. 🔗 Read the full article here: 4-2.co/4lIh7oq #Inc42 #news #Startups #Starupfundings #Fleetmanagement

For most Indians, brewing speciality coffee at home can feel intimidating, as if you need equal parts barista skill and gadget expertise. Cafés have introduced many consumers to better beans and artisanal drinks, but home brewing hasn’t become as effortless or familiar as instant coffee; most people still prefer to sip it out-of-home rather than make it themselves. When the pandemic hit in 2020 and cafés shut overnight, that dependence became obvious. People wanted to brew good coffee at home and searched for better beans, the right tools and knowledge from a coffee-loving community. What they found instead was fragmentation. Abhinav Mathur, a coffee enthusiast from Bengaluru, experienced this pain point first-hand and saw an opportunity to build around it. On World Coffee Day that year (October 1, 2020), Mathur launched Something’s Brewing as an e-retail store built for home brewers. Read More- inc42.com/startups/how-s… #Inc42 #Startups #Cafes #CoffeeCulture