Wearable device for mental health. The device sends calming signals in 10 minute sessions to the brain’s "relaxation centres", helping users reduce stress and anxiety. How does it do that? - it stimulates the vagus nerve (our longest cranial nerve that stretches from our brain to abdomen) with electrical signals. Tested on a thousand users and endorsed by 100 specialists. ₹12K+ price, pre-orders at ₹8k. ₹4.5CR (~$525K) pre-seed round. Angels in the round: Arjun Vaidya (V3), ​Sharan Hegde (finfluencer), Ritesh Agarwal (OYO)l, Aman Gupta (BoAt). The startup had earlier raised ₹2CR (~$230K) in the first tranche of this round from government bodies - SISFS, MeitY Startup Scheme, NGIS, (BIRAC). Mental health comps: many, but they're not device-centric. Founders: Siddhant ran a startup delivering keto-meals; Shalmali ran a climatetech startup.

Biofortified grains brand. Parent co. GreenDay works with 15,000 farmers to grow grains (rice, wheat, millets) naturally, albeit with higher levels of essential nutrients - zinc, iron, protein, and calcium. PV Sindhu is brand ambassador and investor. ₹10CR (~$1.2M) seed round, including angels - Namita Thapar, Shantanu Deshpande, Akshay Ghulati, Apurva Chamaria, Karan Jindal. The founders started soon after business school (IIM-A; Jaypee). Competes with traditional brands that artificially fortify - where nutrients are added during food processing.

Mass-premium shapewear brand, alà SKIMS, by influencer Kusha Kapila. 192K IG followers one week after its launch (Kusha has 4M+ followers). Priced 30-40% lower than global competitors. ""Our goal is to be the first brand Indian women think of when they need shapewear, just as SKIMS has done globally". ₹8-10CR (~$900K-1.1M) seed round (exact amount undisclosed), Ghazal Alagh also participated. Comps: Zivame, Clovia, Krvvy.

AI agents for the pharma industry - streamlines FDA compliance for regulatory, medical affairs and commercial teams. Two tools: Labeling AI streamlines label updates and competitor comparisons; Ads Promo AI helps review promotional materials and ensures their compliance. $500K seed - YC remains a draw for many of our founders. SF/BLR based. Founders: Sanskar is from GlobalBees; Hemant from Zolve, Oyo; Rishabh a two-time founder.

Enables influencers to earn by recommending products from Myntra, Flipkart, Nykaa and D2C brands. Product =~ Wishlink. ₹12.5CR (~$1.5M) seed round. Founder Ashna Ruia is from the Essar family. Comps: Wishlink, Faym, HYPD.

Chain of coffee shops in North India with a vegetarian menu. Now in 35 locations. Pre-seed round of an undisclosed amount. Recent comps: Fast Coffee; First Coffee.

Pre-launch luxury skincare brand that will be manufactured between France and India. ₹4.5CR (~$500K) seed round. Investors undisclosed - "a Bangalore-based family office". Little to no information available on the founders. Comps: see Antithesis and other comps (below).

Fintech that offers micro surety bonds to MSMEs, providing collateral-free alternatives to traditional bank guarantees. ₹22CR (~$2.6M) seed round. Other investors in this round: AngelList. Aditya and Rajeev were co-founders of Numberz (receivables management, acquired by Chargebee); Mukand is from Aon, Tata AIG.

EV charging network with a dual approach - high-speed DC chargers for highways; along with a decentralized network of chargers in urban hubs. Any electric vehicle owner can purchase the DeCharge charger, install it and start earning as a host while saving on their own charging costs. Built on the Solana blockchain. $2.5M seed round. Other investors in this round: EV3 Labs, Chainyoda Jedis, Levitate Labs. Two of the three founders built a startup offering Metaverse-as-a-Service to brands; the third was Head of Blockchain at Chingari. Comps: Greenie Energy, funded last December. Greenie is focused on the India market, DeCharge seems to be building for a global market.

Remittances platform focused on NRIs in the US for now. Claims 500K monthly transacting users and $110-120M in remittances processing in the last 12 months. The app goes beyond remittances - users can earn rewards and get cash back on various services, including live sports (cricket) streaming, grocery shopping and OTT subscriptions. $14M seed round. Nishkaam was Head of Mobile Strategy and Growth at Hulu before joining Times Internet to create Times Club, a super app in 2019, which was spun off as Abound in 2023. Lots of activity in cross border payments in recent months: HiWiPay, Dodo Payments, Rupeeflo, Infinity.