Welcome “India” Bulls!

Venture capital activity remains cautious but steady, with investors prioritizing smarter, more disciplined deals over flashy visions. While early-stage funding has slowed, startups with strong execution, clear metrics, and solid fundamentals are still attracting capital. VCs are scrutinizing business models more closely, favoring traction over hype, and valuing authentic relationships over rapid pitches.

The market is not closed it’s evolving. Now is the time to refine strategies, demonstrate value, and build genuine investor trust.

Dive in to stay ahead!

P.S. The Sunday Special is designed to help you discover the most important Startup insights outside of Share Markets. Our regular Share Market updates will resume as usual on Monday.

Startup Menu

• Startups this Week

• Funding Space

• Psychology

• Everything else you need to know

• Life Hack in Video

• Special

STARTUPS THIS WEEK

🌐 India Leading in Intangible Asset Investment

Investing beyond bricks and into brains.

An Entrepreneur India report shows India outpaces many global peers in investing in intangible assets like software, R&D, and brand development highlighting a strategic shift in its innovation economy.

Why this matters:

✅ Digital-first resilience: Whether fintech, SaaS, or AI, a stronger investment in IP sets the next generation of Indian startups apart.

✅ Building sustainable advantage: Unlike hardware, intangible investments stay with you pushing competitive walls higher over time.

✅ Favorable policy tailwinds: Government incentives for R&D and software exports are making these investments even smarter.

💡 If India plans to be a global tech powerhouse, it's already laying the groundwork. Attention, founders and investors your intangible assets are the real equity.

FUNDING SPACE

💰 Weekly Funding Spotlight: Major Startup Investments (July 05 - July 11)

The past week witnessed significant investments across various sectors:

🍲 Spicing Up D2C Food With Fresh Funding: Cookd raises ₹16 Cr in a pre-Series A round led by Spring Marketing Capital. With a strong content-commerce play, Cooked is poised to scale its kitchen-ready products across India’s growing D2C landscape.

🎓 From Research to Returns IIT Madras Gets into VC: IIT Madras is launching a ₹200 Cr venture capital fund to back deep-tech and IP-driven startups. This marks a bold step in turning academic innovation into scalable startups rooted in India’s R&D ecosystem.

🏥 Healthcare Gets a Growth Infusion: Avis Hospitals secures $25 Mn from NABVENTURES to expand its oncology and organ transplant services. The funding supports its goal to make specialized care more accessible across Tier-2 and Tier-3 Indian cities.

PSYCHOLOGY

🩺 AI Workshops in Med School Are No Longer Optional

Medicine is evolving and so must medical education. AI literacy is becoming essential in medical education. Workshops teaching doctors and students to work with AI from diagnostics to patient management are now critical, not optional.

Reflections for founders or EdTech enablers:

✅ AI isn’t a tool it’s a co-doctor: As diagnostic AI becomes mainstream, future physicians must co-navigate tech and that starts in training.

✅ Ethics + exploitability: Doctors in training need to understand how AI arrives at results reducing the “black box” concern and safeguarding patient trust.

✅ Opportunity for platforms: Curricula, simulation tools, and compliance frameworks that teach practical AI use are now ripe for innovation.

💡Bottom line: If your startup is building AI-powered medical tools, don’t just sell them help doctors learn them. Success won’t just be product adoption it’ll be acceptance.

FROM THE WAR ZONE

Everything else you need to know

🎧 When IP Becomes the Battlefield: Pocket FM vs. Kuku FM: ₹857 Cr lawsuit filed over alleged unauthorized downloads of 10,000+ copyrighted audio works. As India’s audio content market grows, IP protection is emerging as the new frontline for creator-led platforms.

🚍 One App to Rule Your Commute: Bengaluru commuters can now book metro and BMTC bus tickets via Namma Yatri and Tummoc apps. This seamless integration is a leap toward frictionless, multimodal public transport across India’s urban centers.

☁️ Your Next Desktop Might Not Be a Device: Jio Platforms unveils cloud-based virtual desktops, enabling remote access to high-performance systems for MSMEs and freelancers. It’s a strategic push to make secure, scalable computing accessible to India’s growing digital workforce.

⚖️ Innovation Meets Regulation Again: Maharashtra takes action against bus aggregators like IntrCity for license violations and safety gaps. This tension signals the need for a regulatory refresh that aligns with modern mobility startups and commuter demands.

LIFE HACKS

SPECIAL

🧭 30 Best AI Tools for Work in 2025 Are You Upgrading?

The right AI can free you from low-value tasks if you choose wisely.

Curated list of 30 top AI tools for work in 2025 showcases how everyday productivity is being reimagined across writing, coding, visuals, and voice processing.

From drafting emails to generating designs, these tools highlight two critical trends:

✅ Invest in automation wisely: Automating repetitive tasks frees your team’s creative energy but only if the tool fits your workflow and stack.

✅ Be tool-smart, not tool-obsessed: Every new AI app carries learning cost. Pair adoption with clear ROI metrics time saved, errors reduced, output increased.

✅ Stack synergy is the real win: A content AI paired with voice-over AI, or design AI feeding into presentation tools, delivers compound value more than the sum of parts.

💡 Ramp adoption by piloting one problem area (e.g. weekly reporting or client decks) before scaling tools across teams.

Your Opinion Matters!

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Thanks for reading.

Until tomorrow!

Hanoomaan India Business team

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