Welcome “India” Bulls!

Domestic funds from family offices to sovereign vehicles are injecting record capital into startups, shifting the spotlight from foreign investors to homegrown financial champions.

With initiatives like NIIF’s $4.9 B+ infrastructure and private-market investments, and early-stage players like Seafund backing deep-tech ventures, India’s funding ecosystem has gained remarkable depth.

This isn’t just financial firepower it’s strategic momentum. As local capital strengthens, founders face a sharper edge: scale fast or risk being left behind.

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

• Case Study

• Everything else you need to know

• Life Hack in Video

• Special

STARTUPS THIS WEEK

🚀 Lovable Becomes a Unicorn in Just 8 Months A Vibe Shift in Tech Culture?

In a time when most startups obsess over traction, scale, and flashy GTMs, one company leaned into vibe. And it worked.

Lovable, a coding platform designed to make developers feel emotionally connected to their workflow, has hit unicorn status in just 8 months.

Yes a unicorn built not on complexity, but on empathy.

Instead of overwhelming developers with tool overload and dashboards, Lovable focuses on:

• Intuitive, mood-based UI

• Dopamine-friendly task flows

• Collaborative features that feel more like a co-op game than a code editor

This is part of a larger trend we’re seeing in SaaS: Emotional Design.
Startups like Notion, Linear, and now Lovable are proving that utility alone isn’t enough. The feel of your product is just as important.

💡 The insight:
In a world of parity features, your UX vibe is your competitive moat.

As a product leaders, it’s time to ask:

"Does my product feel lovable to use daily?"

Function wins attention. But feeling wins loyalty.

FUNDING SPACE

💰 Weekly Funding Spotlight: Major Startup Investments (July 12 - July 18)

The past week witnessed significant investments across various sectors:

🥛 Milky Mist's Pre-IPO Surge: Milky Mist is raising ₹357 Cr in a pre-IPO round, targeting a ₹2,000 Cr IPO and a ~$2.3B valuation. The dairy giant plans to expand nationally and scale its farm-to-fork supply chain.

⚛️ BQP Secures $5M Seed Round: Quantum simulation startup BQP raised $5M led by Monta Vista Capital, backed by the US Air Force. Its platform blends quantum and classical computing to speed up aerospace and defense designs.

🚀 Omspace Bags $3M to Build Rockets: Ahmedabad-based Omspace Rocket has raised $3M to test its small-satellite launcher “Infinity One.” The EDII-incubated startup aims to make space access more affordable and modular.

🧠 BQP Teams Up With US Air Force: BQP’s $5M seed round also kicks off a strategic collaboration with the US Air Force Research Lab. Their quantum-powered digital twin tech could revolutionize critical engineering sectors.

CASE STUDY

🚚 Udaan + ShopKirana: A $885M Bet on India’s B2B Retail Backbone

India’s B2B e-commerce space just saw a power move.

Udaan is acquiring ShopKirana in a $885 million all-stock deal a consolidation play that signals the next phase of organized retail distribution.

Why this matters:

• ShopKirana has built deep roots in Tier 2–3 cities, empowering over 50,000 kirana stores with tech-enabled procurement.

• Udaan gains on-the-ground network strength, while ShopKirana scales with Udaan’s tech and logistics backbone.

This isn’t just about margins it’s about micro-distribution dominance in Bharat.

As offline and online continue to blur, India’s $800B+ retail market needs supply chains that are both digital and hyperlocal.

This deal signals a shift from growth-at-all-costs to profitable consolidation.

📌 Insight for founders:
In frontier markets like India, solving logistics + distribution at scale still wins over just building apps.

FROM THE WAR ZONE

Everything else you need to know

💳 UPI Beats Visa in Daily Transactions: UPI has overtaken Visa globally with over 650 million daily transactions, making it the world’s largest real-time payment system. Former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant calls this growth “phenomenal” in just 9 years.

🤖 Taxmann & EY Launch AI Tool for Tax Pros: Taxmann and EY India have launched Taxmann.AI an AI-powered platform to help tax and legal professionals with research, drafting, and compliance. It features smart tools like “Ask Bot” and soon a “Draft Bot.”

🏬 Reliance Acquires Kelvinator Brand: Reliance Retail has acquired the iconic Kelvinator brand from Electrolux, moving beyond licensing to full control. The deal boosts its position in the competitive home appliances market.

🌱 IBM Sets Up AI Hub in Kochi: IBM is setting up a Gen-AI Innovation Centre in Kochi’s Infopark to develop AI solutions in sustainability and public services. The move could turn Kochi into a rising AI tech hub.

LIFE HACKS

SPECIAL

🚀 AI Isn’t Just for Tech Teams - It’s Reshaping Every Business Function

From finance to customer support, AI tools are now business tools.

OfficeChai just shared a great list of AI platforms transforming how modern teams operate. A few standouts:

🔹 ChatGPT - Your on-demand strategist, idea generator, and email assistant
🔹 Notion AI - Turns your notes into polished documents instantly
🔹 Kuki Chatbot - Handles customer queries like a pro, 24x7
🔹 Tome - Makes stunning presentations with a single prompt
🔹 Pictory - Converts blog content into social-ready videos

The real shift? AI is no longer a back-office advantage - it’s becoming a front-line partner in speed, clarity, and creativity.

💡 Small business or enterprise, adopting the right AI stack could mean doing 5x more with your current team.

This isn’t future-forward anymore. It’s now.

Your Opinion Matters!

Got more feedback or just want to get in touch? Reply to this email and we’ll get back to you.

Thanks for reading.

Until tomorrow!

Hanoomaan India Business team

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