Author: Team CEO VINE

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved a ₹7,280 crore scheme to promote manufacturing of sintered rare earth permanent magnets (REPMs) in India. The move focuses on building integrated facilities capable of producing 6,000 metric tons of magnets annually, strengthening the country’s position in a market critical to clean energy and advanced electronics.

REPMs are essential components in electric vehicles, wind turbines, aerospace systems, defence equipment, and consumer electronics. With demand expected to double by 2030, India currently relies heavily on imports to meet its needs.

The scheme supports the full manufacturing lifecycle, from converting rare earth oxides into metals and alloys to producing finished magnets. The government plans to select up to five manufacturers through a global bidding process, with each allotted up to 1,200 MTPA of production capacity.

Of the total financial outlay, ₹6,450 crore is reserved as sales-linked incentives for a five-year period. An additional ₹750 crore will fund capital subsidies to set up new facilities. The scheme spans seven years: two years for building integrated plants followed by five years of incentive disbursement.

By developing an end-to-end ecosystem for REPM production, the initiative aims to support India’s industrial growth, reduce import dependence, and enable transition-focused sectors such as EVs and renewable energy. It also aligns with national goals, including the country’s Net Zero 2070 commitment and the broader vision of building a globally competitive manufacturing base under Viksit Bharat @2047.

Housing demand across India’s top 15 tier 2 cities recorded a marginal slowdown in Q3 2025, with sales dipping 4% year-on-year to 39,201 units even as the overall sales value rose 4% to ₹37,409 crore. Data published by NSE-listed real estate analytics firm PropEquity indicates a shift in buyer preference toward higher-value homes.

New supply also dropped, falling 10% year-on-year to 28,721 units during the quarter ending September 2025.

Eight of the fifteen tracked cities saw a decline in sales. Bhubaneswar faced the sharpest drop at 26% year-on-year, while Trivandrum registered the strongest rise at 19%. Bhubaneswar also recorded the steepest fall in new supply at 88%.

Ahmedabad continued to lead in both sales and launches by volume in the quarter.

Samir Jasuja, Founder and CEO of PropEquity, said that new housing launches have seen a steady decline, particularly in mid-income and affordable segments where rising input costs are pushing up prices. He added that despite the moderation in sales momentum, tier 2 cities remain central to India’s real estate expansion driven by job growth, infrastructure upgrades, and better connectivity.

On a sequential basis, housing sales declined 3%, sales value fell 1%, and new launches dropped 26% compared to Q2 2025.

Regionally, western India — including Ahmedabad, Surat, Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Nashik, Nagpur and Goa — accounted for 76% of total sales. The region witnessed a 6% year-on-year and 4% quarter-on-quarter decline.

Northern markets such as Jaipur, Mohali and Lucknow saw sales grow 16% year-on-year and 7% quarter-on-quarter. Southern cities, including Coimbatore, Trivandrum and Kochi, reported a 7% year-on-year decline but a 3% quarter-on-quarter rise. Central and eastern cities — Bhopal and Bhubaneswar — experienced a 14% year-on-year and 13% quarter-on-quarter drop.

Launches followed a similar pattern. Western India, contributing 78% of all new launches, saw both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter declines. Northern, southern and central-eastern regions also recorded contraction in supply activity.

Methane-hydrogen startup Enerzi has raised Rs 16.5 crore in a seed round led by Capital-A, with participation from 8x Ventures and a group of angel investors.

The round strengthens the push toward hardware-led climate solutions and builds momentum for the company’s microwave–plasma technology.

Enerzi plans to use the new capital to expand manufacturing capacity, grow its engineering and plasma science teams, and accelerate commercial rollout of its hydrogen–nanocarbon platform in India and internationally.

Founded by Kirankumar Hittalmani and Prakash Mugali, the company is developing microwave plasma reactors that split methane into clean hydrogen while producing solid nanocarbon as a byproduct. The co-product enhances the business model, enabling applications in batteries, composites, and advanced materials.

Enerzi’s technology sits at the intersection of hardware design, materials science, and process engineering. Alongside its hydrogen solution, the company also builds microwave-based industrial heating systems used in rubber processing, polymer curing, foundry drying, and other manufacturing processes. Its move toward methane plasmolysis stems from years of R&D in microwave–plasma systems.

Arctus Aerospace has raised $2.6 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Version One Ventures and South Park Commons, with participation from gradCapital and angel investors including Balaji Srinivasan, Srinivas Narayan, early Ather engineers, and leaders from Bounce Infinity and Boom Supersonic.

The Bengaluru-based deep-tech startup was earlier part of the South Park Commons Founder Fellowship.

The company will use the funds to expand engineering capacity and strengthen its full-stack manufacturing setup as it advances development of long-endurance aircraft designed for real-time geospatial intelligence.

Founded in 2024 by Shreepoorna S, Arctus Aerospace builds unmanned fighter-class aircraft capable of operating at 45,000 feet, flying for up to 24 hours, and carrying payloads of up to 250 kg. The startup manages design, manufacturing, assembly, and systems engineering in-house.

The aircraft platform supports SAR, hyperspectral, optical, EO and IR sensing. According to the company, missions covering 500 sq. km that typically cost around $10,000 can be executed for close to $500 using its system, enabling wider adoption across energy, climate monitoring, infrastructure and security.

Arctus currently operates aircraft above 10,000 feet, delivering centimetre-level accuracy in mapping and analytics. All development and testing take place in its 25,000-sq-ft facility in Bengaluru.

The company enters a growing UAV sector with 57 active competitors, including global players such as Ehang, Wisk and Aurora.

Deeptech health automation startup Morphle Labs has raised $5 million in its Series A round led by Inflexor Ventures.

The company will use the new funds to support its global expansion plans, increase manufacturing capacity for its systems RoboTome and MorphoLens, secure regulatory approvals across multiple regions, and continue technology development across hardware, optics and imaging intelligence.

Founded in 2017 by Rohit Hiwale, Morphle Labs started in the tissue-diagnostics space with a focus on automated histopathology, a process that still depends heavily on manual workflows compared with other digitised areas of medical imaging.

Morphle’s platform RoboTome automates the slicing of biopsy blocks, offering consistent and high-precision sections. Its companion device, MorphoLens, scans more than 100 slides per hour to enable remote assessments and support higher lab throughput.

The company holds over 80 patents across robotics, optics, embedded engineering and imaging science.

Pratip Mazumdar of Inflexor Ventures said Morphle’s growing traction reflects the rising need to modernise pathology workflows and strengthens its position in deeptech healthcare automation.

Three companies, Amagi Media Labs, Sahajanand Medical Technologies, and Fractal Analytics have received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), moving a step closer to launching their initial public offerings (IPO).

SEBI issued observations on the draft papers of Fractal Analytics and Amagi Media Labs on November 18, and on Sahajanand Medical Technologies on November 17. With this approval, each company can now file its Red Herring Prospectus (RHP), which will include details such as issue size, price band, lot structure, reservation breakdown, allotment dates, and listing timelines. SEBI’s approval remains valid for 12 months.

Fractal Analytics

Fractal Analytics, founded in 2000 by Srikanth Velamakanni and Pranay Agrawal, is preparing to raise funds through a combination of fresh issue and OFS.

Its IPO will include a fresh issue of ₹1,279.3 crore and an OFS of ₹3,620.7 crore by shareholders including Quinag Bidco Ltd, TPG Fett Holdings Pte Ltd, Satya Kumari Remala, Rao Venkateswara Remala, and GLM Family Trust.

The company plans to use the funds for repayment of borrowings by its US subsidiary, laptop purchases, a new office in India, R&D, sales and marketing under Fractal Alpha, acquisitions, and general corporate needs.

Fractal reported revenue of ₹2,765 crore in FY25, up 25.9% from ₹2,196 crore in FY24. Profit after tax turned positive at ₹22 crore compared to a loss of ₹5.47 crore in FY24.

Amagi Media Labs

Amagi Media Labs, a Bengaluru-based SaaS company that works with media organisations to distribute content across digital devices, plans to raise funds through a mix of fresh issue and offer for sale.

The IPO includes a fresh issue of equity shares worth up to ₹1,020 crore and an Offer for Sale of up to 3.41 crore shares by existing investors such as PI Opportunities Funds, Norwest Venture Partners, and Accel India VI.

Amagi intends to allocate ₹667 crore from the fresh issue for technology and cloud infrastructure investments. The rest will be directed towards acquisitions and general corporate purposes.
The company reported revenue of ₹1,162 crore in FY25, growing at a CAGR of 30.7% from FY23 to FY25.

Sahajanand Medical Technologies

Sahajanand Medical Technologies, founded in 2001 by Dhirajlal Kotadia, focuses on medical devices in vascular and structural heart interventions.

The company’s IPO will be a pure Offer for Sale of up to 2.76 crore shares, with promoters Shree Hari Trust and Dhirajkumar Savjibhai Vasoya selling their stake through the issue.

From FY23 to FY25, the company’s revenue increased from ₹795.49 crore to ₹1,024.88 crore. Vascular intervention devices remained the primary contributor, though their share in revenue declined from 72% to 66%. Structural heart devices grew from ₹75.42 crore to ₹157.32 crore during the same period.

These approvals mark the first major step for all three companies toward entering the public market. Each will now move forward with finalising issue details in their upcoming RHPs.

Google’s AI Future Fund is partnering with Accel’s pre-seed investment programme Atoms to launch a new India cohort focused on supporting early-stage AI innovation. This marks Google’s first structured co-investment effort in the Indian market.

The Atoms AI Cohort 2026 will invest in founders building AI-led products across work optimisation, creativity, software engineering and entertainment. Applications for the programme will close on January 26, 2026.

Selected startups will receive up to $2 million in funding and up to $350,000 in Google credits, including Cloud and Gemini access, along with early access to DeepMind’s advanced model suite. The three-month customised programme will also offer mentorship across engineering, product and go-to-market functions to help founders build and scale from day one.

“We are looking for founders ready to think big and build bold,” Google said in a statement.

Accel partners Prayank Swaroop and Shekhar Kirani said the collaboration is aimed at removing barriers for early-stage AI builders by offering a combined stack of capital, tools and technical support.

Accel launched Atoms in 2021 to back early-stage startups and later expanded it into two tracks — Atoms AI and Atoms X. Atoms AI now evaluates startups globally that are founded by Indian-origin entrepreneurs. The earlier ticket size for Atoms AI investments was up to $1 million, with additional benefits worth $5 million from partners such as OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS, Google and Stripe.

Last year, Accel backed Revvolution AI, Zingle and BPRHub through the Atoms AI track. Accel also partnered with Prosus in October under the Atoms X programme to support early-stage deeptech startups with a single-cheque investment approach.

Google’s AI Future Fund, launched six months ago, has funded more than 30 companies globally. The company also recently announced the 20 startups selected for its “Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First” 2025 cohort, which will run as an equity-free three-month programme.

India’s AI market is projected to reach $17 billion by 2027, driven by rising adoption across enterprise and consumer applications.

FAE Beauty has raised ₹17 crore in a new funding round led by Spring Marketing Capital. The round also saw participation from Titan Capital, Winners Fund, Arihant Patni and a group of angel investors.

The company plans to use the capital for product innovation, expansion into new categories and strengthening its presence across online marketplaces, quick commerce platforms and offline retail.

Founded in 2019 by Karishma Kewalramani, FAE Beauty offers beauty and skincare products designed for Indian skin tones. The company focuses on inclusivity and shade diversity and has built a portfolio that blends performance with care. Its lip and eye products include formulations aimed at hydration and anti-pigmentation, while its newer additions include skin tints and face products.

Kewalramani said consumers now expect makeup that delivers on performance while supporting skin needs and offering accurate shade matching.

FAE Beauty has gained traction among Gen Z and millennial users. The company distributes through Amazon, Nykaa, Blinkit, Tira, Myntra and its own website, and continues to build on its core hero SKUs as it expands its category footprint.