Author: sushree

New Delhi–based B2B food supply firm Urban Harvest has acquired premium gourmet brand Cocosutra in an all-cash deal worth ₹2.5 crore.

The acquisition marks Urban Harvest’s expansion beyond fresh produce into higher-margin packaged food segments.

Through the acquisition, Urban Harvest expands its lineup with a range of gourmet products, enabling higher-margin opportunities while building on its existing ties with restaurants, cloud kitchens, and HoReCa customers.

The company added that integration is already underway, with teams, systems, and operations expected to be fully streamlined over the next two months.

Cocosutra operates in the premium packaged food segment and will now scale using Urban Harvest’s procurement strength, logistics backbone and B2B distribution reach. The strategy includes widening market access, optimising costs through supply-chain efficiencies and improving overall profitability.

Urban Harvest noted that Cocosutra’s business has already expanded nearly three times since acquisition discussions began, helped by access to a broader customer base and more efficient backend operations. The company now expects the brand to evolve into a ₹100 crore revenue business over the next two years.

Urban Harvest clarified that Cocosutra will continue to operate under its existing brand identity, even as it becomes fully embedded within Urban Harvest’s platform. No immediate changes to brand positioning have been disclosed, with the focus remaining on scale, pricing efficiency and deeper penetration into the foodservice market.

Bengaluru-based consulting startup Kayess Square has raised ₹10 crore in a pre-Series A round led by real estate developer Vakil Housing. 

The funding also saw participation from individual investors including Parthasarathy NS, Ramakrishna, Umashankar, Raveen Sastry, Vadiraj Katti, Suresh Pillay, and Anand Narayanan. 

The fund will be deployed to strengthen the firm’s core advisory practices and enhance service delivery across finance, governance, risk and transaction advisory, the company said in a statement. 

Kayess Square also plans to use the funds to attract senior talent and selectively expand into new geographies. 

Founded in 2017 by Sathya Pramod and Shivadutt Bannanje, Kayess Square operates at the intersection of finance, law and governance, offering services such as CFO advisory, mergers and acquisitions support, due diligence, valuation, risk management, tax advisory and secretarial compliance. 

The firm works closely with startups, growth-stage companies and investors, supporting them from early institutionalisation and fundraising to scale-up and complex transactions. 

Its offerings include a fractional CFO platform, transaction and M&A advisory, tax structuring, corporate compliance, risk advisory and legal contract management. 

In 2025, the firm acquired the tax compliance and advisory division of Consark Advisory Services LLP. 

According to the company, Kayess Square has executed more than 4,000 assignments and served over 100 clients to date. Going forward, it aims to build a scaled, institution-led advisory platform to help businesses and investors navigate growth, capital raising and governance amid an increasingly complex regulatory landscape. 

Chennai-headquartered payments infrastructure startup Mylapay has raised $1 million as part of a pre-Series A funding round, ahead of its larger Series A planned later this year.

The round included follow-on investments from CDM Capital and Credit Saison, along with new capital from GrowthCap Ventures, led by Pratekk Agarwaal, and several strategic angel investors.

This comes after the startup’s earlier $550,000 seed round, taking it a step closer to institutional fundraising.

The newly raised capital will be deployed to enhance Mylapay’s core payment systems, broaden its product portfolio, and strengthen integrations with banks and payment aggregators.

The company is also accelerating its international expansion plans, with a focus on the Middle East, Africa, and the US.

Founded in May 2019 by Mohanraj Ravi, Mylapay operates as a B2B payment enabler offering cloud-native infrastructure for banks and financial institutions. Its backend capabilities span authentication, transaction switching, clearing, settlement, and reconciliation, with certifications from major card networks such as Visa, Mastercard, and RuPay.

Recently, the startup introduced a single-window acquiring platform that enables institutions to manage both card and UPI acquiring through one integration. Built for compliance-driven and modular deployment, the platform supports throughput of over 5,000 transactions per second, positioning Mylapay for large-scale enterprise adoption.

Ankur Jain has emerged as the highest-ranked Indian-origin entrepreneur on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest self-made billionaires under 40, securing the 19th position globally with an estimated net worth of USD 3.4 billion.

Based in the United States, Jain is the founder and chief executive officer of New York–headquartered fintech startup Bilt Rewards, launched in 2019.

The platform allows users to earn reward points on rent payments, a category traditionally excluded from loyalty programmes. In July 2025, Bilt Rewards was valued at around USD 10.8 billion following a major funding round led by private investors.

Before Bilt Rewards, Jain co-founded contact management app Humin, which was acquired by Tinder in 2016.

He later served as vice president of product at Tinder and went on to establish Kairos, a venture studio focused on solving large-scale challenges such as housing affordability and healthcare costs.

The Forbes list also features Nikhil Kamath, who is ranked 20th globally with a net worth of USD 3.3 billion. Kamath, co-founder and CFO of Bengaluru-based discount brokerage Zerodha, is the only India-based entrepreneur to feature in the global top 40 under-40 rankings. Zerodha, founded in 2010 with his brother and CEO Nithin Kamath, is valued at nearly USD 8 billion, according to Forbes.

According to Forbes, the global count of self-made billionaires aged 39 or younger has returned to a record high of 71, matching levels last seen in 2021. The resurgence has been largely driven by growth across technology, fintech, and artificial intelligence sectors.

Nikhil Kamath is ranked 20th on the global list, with an estimated net worth of $3.3 billion. He co-founded Bengaluru-based stockbroking platform Zerodha in 2010 alongside his elder brother, Nithin Kamath. While Nithin serves as the company’s chief executive officer, Nikhil holds the role of chief financial officer.

Forbes estimates Zerodha’s valuation at close to $8 billion, positioning it among India’s most valuable and influential brokerage firms. The company is widely credited with reshaping India’s retail investing landscape through its low-cost, technology-first model.

Born in 1986, Nikhil Kamath dropped out of school after Class 10 and began his career at a call centre before learning stock trading independently. Beyond Zerodha, he has co-founded ventures such as True Beacon, Gruhas, Rainmatter, and most recently, The Foundery, a residential startup launchpad announced in December 2025.

Kamath is also known for his philanthropic commitments, having pledged in 2023 to donate 50% of his wealth toward causes including education, healthcare, and climate action, and for hosting the popular “WTF is” podcast featuring global leaders and entrepreneurs.

Drunken Monkey, one of India’s largest smoothie-focused QSR brands, has appointed retail veteran Sandeep Malik as its new Chief Executive Officer, signalling a sharper focus on scale, operational discipline and global expansion.

The appointment comes as the Hyderabad-headquartered brand looks to strengthen its franchise-led model and improve unit-level economics.

It also aims to accelerate domestic and international expansion, particularly in markets such as the UAE and the US.

Founded in 2016 by Samrat Reddy, Drunken Monkey was built around the idea of offering 100% natural smoothies with no added sugar, preservatives or artificial flavours. Inspired by the brand philosophy of being “Naturally High”, it has grown rapidly from a single outlet into a nationwide QSR chain.

Sandeep Malik brings over 25–30 years of leadership experience across retail and brand-led organisations. A hands-on leader with deep expertise in P&L management, omnichannel operations and large-scale expansion, Malik has previously held senior roles at Bestseller India, Raymond, Reebok and Sharaf Retail, where he scaled multiple fashion brands in fast-moving environments.

Currently operating 130+ outlets across more than 45 cities, Drunken Monkey offers over 200 smoothie and juice combinations spanning detox, protein, meal replacement and wellness categories.

As India prepares for New Year’s Eve celebrations, delivery workers linked with major platforms including Swiggy, Zomato, Zepto, Blinkit, Amazon and Flipkart have announced a nationwide strike on December 31, raising concerns over disruptions during one of the busiest days for food delivery, quick commerce and e-commerce services.

The protest, called by the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT) and the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (TGPWU), is aimed at highlighting declining earnings, longer working hours and unsafe delivery practices. Workers argue that hyper-fast delivery models, particularly 10-minute deliveries, push them into risky road conditions while offering little job security or social protection.

Union representatives say delivery partners are facing mounting pressure from platforms’ algorithms, frequent penalties and arbitrary account suspensions, with limited grievance redressal. They are demanding safer delivery timelines, fairer pay structures, restrictions on late-night deliveries in hazardous conditions, and access to social security benefits such as health insurance and accident cover.

The timing of the strike is significant, as December 31 typically sees peak demand from restaurants, liquor stores, party supply vendors and last-minute online shoppers. Any large-scale disruption could result in delayed or cancelled orders, impacting customer experience and revenues, particularly for quick-commerce platforms that rely heavily on speed.

While some larger or established businesses expect limited impact, smaller outlets and cloud kitchens that depend heavily on app-based deliveries could face immediate losses. Industry observers note that the protest underscores a broader challenge for India’s gig economy balancing rapid growth and consumer convenience with sustainable working conditions for delivery partners.

As platforms remain largely silent on the issue, the outcome of the strike may influence not only New Year’s Eve sales but also ongoing conversations around labour rights, safety and the future of gig work in India’s digital commerce ecosystem.

ClickUp has acquired AI coding startup Codegen as part of its efforts to deepen the use of agentic AI within its productivity platform. The acquisition is aimed at accelerating ClickUp’s AI roadmap, particularly its work on autonomous “Super Agents” designed to work alongside human teams.

According to ClickUp, the integration of Codegen’s technology will support the development of AI agents that can independently plan tasks, generate software, and execute complex workflows. These agents are expected to bring greater automation and contextual understanding to engineering, product, and enterprise operations.

Founded in 2023 by Jay Hack, Codegen built an agentic AI platform positioned as an AI coworker. Its tools integrate with platforms such as GitHub, Slack, and Linear, allowing users to convert natural-language instructions into planned code changes and automated pull requests. The startup focused on enabling AI systems to understand project context and carry out development tasks with limited human intervention. 

Following the acquisition, Hack will join ClickUp as Head of AI. Codegen’s core team and proprietary technology will also be integrated into ClickUp’s operations. The company said the move will help it build AI agents that can understand context across tasks, documents, and goals, extending beyond rule-based automation.

Founded in 2017 by Zeb Evans and Alex Yurkowski, ClickUp operates as a unified productivity and AI workspace. The company’s stated goal is to reduce time spent on work by consolidating tools and workflows into a single platform.

As of 2025, ClickUp is valued at around $4 billion following its $400 million Series C funding round in late 2021. The company has crossed $300 million in annual recurring revenue.

In recent months, ClickUp has expanded its capabilities through acquisitions, including enterprise search startup Qatalog in November 2025 and product management platform Kitemaker in May 2025.