Precision animal nutrition solutions, i.e. the company uses insect farming (black soldier fly larvae) to convert waste into high protein, eco friendly ingredients for poultry feed, aquaculture and pet food. Funding towards establishing India's largest black solider fly larvae based protein manufacturing facility. Seed round of an undisclosed amount from angels in India and Norway. Founded in Dec 2022, Bhubaneswar based. Founders: CEO Dr. Jayashankar Das was Co-Founder at Valnizen Healthcare (drug development services), then Group CEO at Hubsect Global (insect farming); CTO Dr. Padmaja Mohanty is Founder of Valnizen, which she started in 2015; Co-Founder Christen was Chairman of Hubsect Global and is founder of Nordia Fresh (seafood trading company). Comps: GreenGrahi (April 2025 funding rom Avaana, Huddle and others), Loopworm (WaterBridge, Omnivore), Artho Biotech (not funded).

Clean label regional snacking brand. No palm oil, no preservatives and no artificial chemicals. Focused on South Indian snacks which is, predictably, a ₹25,000CR market. The goal is to build the Haldirams of South Indian snacks, and to build a consumer (not just D2C) brand. It currently serves customers in Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad (soon, Delhi) through its own website, Zomato and Swiggy and will now drive offline channels (modern trade). Currently fulfills 25K orders a month, revenue scale unavailable. ₹2.14CR interim round. Follows a ₹2.2CR pre-seed round by Titan in June 2025. Founded in Nov 2023, Chennai based. Founders: Rajakumaran (IIM Kozhikode '21) was Head of Growth at ShopUp (B2B e-commerce for Bangladesh), VP of Product at Uniform Junction and a category manager at VOONIK, and also co-founded school uniforms supplier Schoolay; Anbarasan was Principal Product Manager at ShopUp and co-founded WholesaleX (B2B grocery ordering).

AI-native wearables startup. The first product, Neo 1, is a Personal AI Assistant (PAIA) that transforms everyday conversations into actionable insights. It builds upon persistent memory and analyzes emotions from conversations. Conversations are transcribed, not audio recorded. The larger goal is to build out NeoOS, their OS layer for AI assistants, for use on all wearable devices - from glasses to pendants, to watches and rings. Neo 1 is worn on a chain around your neck, currently priced at ₹11,999. $2M seed round. Angels in the round: Awais Ahmed (Pixxel), Anupam Mittal (Shaadi.com), Sameer Mehta (boAt), Namita Thapar (Emcure), Aprameya Radhakrishna (Koo). Founded in Jan 2023, Bangalore based. Founders: CEO Dhananjay (Christ Univ. '11, Virginia Commonwealth Univ. '12) is from Homelane (leading product and marketing for lead gen), ClearTax (head of marketing) and Razorpay (marketing); CTO Aryan (IIT Madras dual degree '21) had a brief prior stint as co-founder of SqFt 51 (co-pilot for architects) and as a PM at ICICI. Order here - https://neosapien.xyz

A new AI-led email client. Provides a contextually intelligent and prompt free email experience. The goal is to improve productivity, with superior thread organization, better attachment handling, semantic search and group summarization features. Currently available for Gmail and Google Workspace users in a desktop-only beta. 30-day free trial, then priced at ₹125 a month for two email accounts, and ₹49 a month for each additional account. $200K pre-seed round. Founded in Sep 2024, Mumbai based. Founder Neeraj (BITS Pilani '14, ISB '19) was the head of product design at Insider, and went on to JP Morgan investment banking and BCG after his MBA. Comps: this takes on Superhuman, Spark, Fyxer. Sign up for a free trial here - https://faraday.email

Voice AI startup. Provides evaluation, observability and a self-learning layer for voice agents used by enterprises. The platform helps enterprises move from voice AI pilots to production faster by improving voice AI reliability and reducing failure rates. Will focus on US clients in sectors that face a high risk from errors/mistakes: healthcare, finance, insurance. Current clients unknown. $1.2M pre-seed round by Kalaari's CXXO Initiative for women founders. Angels in the round: Rikant Pitti (EaseMyTrip), Arjun Pillai (Docket AI), Sharath Narayanan (Sanas AI), Harish Manian (BMH Group), Nivin Pauly (an actor). Founded in Feb 2025, Bangalore based. Founders: CEO Nikkitha was the co-founder of Shoppre (shop anywhere online in India and ship abroad) for close to nine years; CTO Neethu (BITS Pilani '10; IIT Madras PhD in voice AI '17) is an AI scientists from ZS and Uniphore, was briefly co-founder at Mila AI (Gen AI e-commerce) and was part of Antler India's fourth cohort.

Chain of surgical cancer hospitals in Western India (Maharashtra, Gujarat). Focused on affordability, the company is pioneering organ-specific surgical teams to manage complex cases, with 5 centres and 20 surgeons who have performed 20K procedures so far. $2.8M seed round funded by Everhope Oncology, which is a platform incubated and seed funded with $10M by Narayana Health, W Health Ventures and 2070 Health. Founded in Dec 2019, Mumbai based. Founder Dr. Sanket Mehta has been a senior oncologist at Saifee Hospital for 14 years.

Exclusively announced here: AI co-pilot for risk and compliance teams in financial institutions, using Graph AI and Agentic AI for fraud detection, better underwriting and automated due diligence. Launched with payments, wealth management and market listing platforms in India, POCs in the UAE. Seed round of an undisclosed amount. Angels in the round: Sidd Gandhi (Venture Builders Collective). Grant from WTFund earlier this year. Founded in Jan 2025, Bangalore based. Founders: CEO Sunit (IIT Kanpur '21) spent three years at Marcus by Goldman Sachs (its consumer banking brand), building ML capabilities for fraud detection for Apple Card; COO Somesh was at KPMG as Assistant Manager (in the financial crimes practice) and at the NSE as Deputy Manager.

Korean quick-service restaurant (QSR) chain, which appears to have four outlets (soon, five) in Bangalore. K-everything is a theme across India - beauty/music/dramas/food. ₹4CR seed round. Founder Hasan (Ramaiah '16; UBC Sauder '18) worked in Canada in accounts/BD roles (in a recycling company for food processors, for example) before returning to India to start Koriken in May 2022

Skincare brand. 30 products across acne care, sunscreen, cleansers and serums. It has 2.5M customers till date (up from 1M since Sep 2024) and is CM3 profitable - no data on current revenue. $1.8M (₹15CR) bridge round, it last raised ₹12CR from Atomic in Sep 2024. Founded In July 2020, Gurgaon based. Founders: CEO Robin spent three years as BD Manager at Yumchek (HORECA cashback platform); COO Prakher was at Schindler (sales) and PropTiger (marketing).

Orthopedic recovery and rehabilitation products, i.e. wrist braces, ankle walkers and lumbar support belts. Sold online and via orthopedic specialists at hospital chains. Used for post surgical care, pain management and long term mobility support. No information on current sales. $1.2M (₹10CR) seed round. Other investors in the round: SIDBI and angels including Ashish Gupta, Saket Narang (Steinberg India), Abhishek Goyal (Tracxn), Arjun Vaidya (V3 Ventures). Founded in Sep 2024, Bangalore based. Founders: Saumaric (IIT Kharagpur '16, HBS '23) is from Bain/LEK/EY Parthenon; Ankit (also IIT Kharagpur '16) was at Dezerv for two years, with earlier stints at Brookfield/Steinberg (a hedge fund), JP Morgan.