The second week of January saw a record jump in the number of startup funding deals. This week, as many as 31 Indian startups raised funding amounting to $157.3 million. These deals include nine growth stage and 19 early-stage deals. The transaction details of three startups remained undisclosed.

New Delhi: Tech Giant Google recently unveiled the second cohort of the Google News Initiative (GNI) Startups Lab, a 12week catalyst program that aims to help the next generation of independent, news startups in India. Medical Dialogues, a leading health and medical news portal in India has been selected as one of the 10 startups participating in the program.

The Indian government has identified AI as an important strategic technology and has launched the National AI Strategy as well as other initiatives to promote AI adoption. Areas where AI is finding applications in India include healthcare, agriculture, education, smart cities, financial services, defence, transportation, and energy. Big tech companies, startups, government organizations, and industry are notable players adopting AI.

Mera Market, an emerging player in the Ecommerce market, is rapidly gaining popularity among startups in India as their preferred platform for launching their first online stores. The platform has become a force to be reckoned with achieving multimilliondollar sales figures and has been dedicated to assisting startups in building their brands from scratch through its innovative lifetime ecommerce store feature.

Interested startups can submit their application under the themes namely: Agriculture Fintech and Insurtech for small and marginal farmers, Innovative solutions for Indigenous groups, tribal communities and Assistive technology and solutions. Some of the startups will also be supported with seed grants.

Interested startups can submit their application under the themes namely: Agriculture Fintech and Insurtech for small and marginal farmers, Innovative solutions for Indigenous groups, tribal communities and Assistive technology and solutions. Some of the startups will also be supported with seed grants.

With Generative AI acceleration, 70 per cent of startup founders are intending to embed Artificial Intelligence in their solutions, finds NASSCOM. (File Image: DC) Chennai: Notwithstanding the funding winter, over 60 per cent of tech startups reported an increase in profitability in 2023.

Resilience was the defining narrative of the Indian startup economy in 2023, but the slew of corporate malfeasance incidents definitely dimmed the shine of our achievements. Although India now comfortably ranks in the upper echelons of the global startup ecosystem, if the domestic ecosystem isn’t able to deliver on its promise of long-lasting resilience, its foundation will crumble, swiftly and catastrophically.

As artificial intelligence (AI) is Advancing and a substantial spike can be witnessed in data security breaches, venture capital (VC) investors are significantly scaling their investments in Indian cybersecurity startups. Over the last two years, these startups have witnessed a remarkable 63 per cent surge in fund inflows, amassing a total of $130.7 million, according to data from Tracxn.

Humane, the startup behind the new AI Pin, has fired 10 employees, which is 4% of its workforce. CEO Bethany Bongiorono says that the cuts are part of some changes to best prepare us for continued growth. Twitch, the popular game streaming platform, has also announced plans to lay off about 35% of its staff, which is about 500 roles.

AI startups will continue getting larger shares of the seed money, but investors are more likely to also exit them if they continue yielding low capital and looming threat of regulation in various parts of the world. This is an obscure problem to navigate the gold rush tech trends as it may be too early to bet on AI products beyond Gen AI and too late if they align well with target market demographics and policies.

While the Indian AI startup ecosystem is at a nascent stage right now, venture capitalists are sure it is poised for growth in several areas, which could even have a global impact A new generation of Indian AI first or AI native startups could be catering to the world in the coming years

Norwegian robotics startup 1X Technologies, backed by OpenAI, has raised $ 100 million, or about Rs 830 crore, in its Series B funding round led by EQT Ventures. As part of the round, 1X also provided a significant secondary facility, with existing investor Sandwater increasing its stake with the third largest contribution in the round.

A two-day Agri startup conclave, organised by department of agricultural economics, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, BHU started on Saturday. The conclave is being held in collaboration with Baroda UP Gramin Bank, IGNOU, Varanasi regional centre branch at Shatabdi Krishi auditorium, BHU, Varanasi. Banaras Hindu University (File)

According to PitchBook, US investors infused around USD 170.6 billion into startups in 2023, dip of around 30 per cent from the USD 242.2 billion recorded in 2022, as the venture capital funding market continues to grapple with valuation resets amid rising interest rates.

IIT Madras incubation cell, India s leading deeptech startup hub has so far incubated more than 350 startups and they have a total valuation running into billions of dollars. Around 125 patents have also been filed by their startups. Most of these startups are in the healthtech, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Virtual Reality, data sciences and the robotics space.

Aqua connect, the aquaculture technology platform has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with StartupTN to promote blue economy initiatives in the state. Through this, Aquaconnect aims to foster innovation and support the growth of new age startups in the aquaculture sector in the state.

Belden, a US based network and digital solution provider, inaugurated its Customer Innovation Centre (CIC) in Bengaluru on Wednesday. The company has previously launched its CICs in Stuttgart, Germany, Santa Clara, California, Shanghai, China and Chicago, Illinois.