Category: News

Optical fiber equipment startup Digital Striker has secured $1 million (around ₹8.5 crore) in fresh funding from Foxhog Ventures, as it prepares to move beyond an import-heavy model.

The Delhi-based company said a major portion of the capital, about ₹5-6 crore, will go towards building its manufacturing capabilities, expanding its workforce, and setting up offices in key metropolitan markets.

The remaining funds will be used to sustain existing import and distribution operations while local production is phased in.

Established in 2021 by Priyanka, Digital Striker works in the optical fibre tools and equipment segment, offering a range of products including fibre strippers, cleavers, visual fault locators, optical power meters, and fibre splicing machines.

The company sells its offerings through a pan-India network of resellers, serving customers across the telecom and infrastructure sectors.

In the first stage of its manufacturing push, the company plans to locally produce five to seven products, with plans to widen the product range over time. Digital Striker says it has already built relationships with more than 450 resellers and end customers across the country.

Prior to this funding round, the company was fully bootstrapped and recorded a turnover of ₹8.85 crore over 40 months of operations. Over the coming years, Digital Striker aims to scale manufacturing and strengthen its distribution footprint across India.

Enterprise-focused agentic AI startup Vibrium has raised $1 million in a seed funding round from Bhavesh Gupta, former COO of Paytm, along with a group of other investors.

The company said the capital will be used to advance product development, strengthen its goal-driven AI agent architecture, and expand enterprise deployments across sectors such as BFSI, e-commerce, SaaS, and operations-led businesses.

Founded in 2025 by Akshat Saxena, Vibrium is building an end-to-end platform that enables enterprises to deploy autonomous, production-grade AI agents directly into existing workflows. The platform is designed to deliver measurable business outcomes, including improvements in revenue, efficiency, and customer experience, rather than acting as a standalone AI assistant.

Based in Gurugram, Vibrium positions itself as a solution to common enterprise AI adoption challenges such as unclear return on investment, governance and compliance risks, and slow time-to-production. The startup aims to help organisations operationalise AI quickly while maintaining control, auditability, and reliability.

Since it began operations, Vibrium says it has signed up over 25 enterprise clients spanning sectors such as banking, payments, retail, travel, and hospitality. Within just six months of going live commercially, the platform has logged more than one million minutes of AI-powered interactions, reflecting consistent adoption in real-world production use cases.

Going forward, the startup plans to expand its AI agent portfolio, continue product innovation, and build a stronger presence in key international markets, with a focus on enterprise-grade performance, governance, and outcome-driven deployments.

Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies has promoted Balaji Krishnamurthy to the role of chief financial officer. Krishnamurthy will take over from Prashanth Mahendra Rajah, who is stepping aside from the position, with the change set to be implemented later this month.

An Uber veteran since 2018, Krishnamurthy has held key positions across the company’s finance organisation, most recently overseeing corporate finance and investor relations. In these roles, he has been closely involved in shaping Uber’s financial strategy, managing capital deployment, and maintaining engagement with global shareholders and analysts.

The announcement was made in conjunction with Uber’s latest earnings release, which delivered a mixed picture for investors. While the company posted strong top-line growth, its profit performance and outlook for the next quarter came in below market expectations.

Beyond finance, Krishnamurthy has played an active role in discussions around Uber’s autonomous mobility initiatives, including its robotaxi partnerships. Uber has been steadily expanding collaborations with self-driving technology firms and has said it plans to introduce autonomous rides in several international markets in the coming years.

Uber said Prashanth Mahendra Rajah will remain involved during the handover period to ensure a smooth transition, as the company balances near-term financial discipline with longer-term investments in areas such as autonomy and platform expansion.

New Delhi headquartered startup CHINI KUM, which focuses on sugar-free beverages, has raised ₹1 crore in a pre-seed funding round from a set of angel investors, with the founder also investing in the round.

The funding saw backing from Shobhit Gupta of One8 Commune Restaurants, Varun Sachdeva, who leads e-commerce at boAt, and Eiti Singhal from Eiti Ventures, among other individual investors.

The newly raised capital will be channelled into developing new formulations, introducing additional flavours, and building a wider distribution network across the country. The startup also plans to allocate funds towards expanding its reach on quick commerce platforms and strengthening its digital-first sales strategy.

Founded by Priyank Jain, CHINI KUM is positioning itself in India’s beverage market with a range of low-calorie, sugar-free drinks intended for daily consumption. The brand has begun selling through its own website and has launched via an exclusive partnership with Swiggy Instamart in select urban centers.

The company’s debut range includes sparkling and non-sparkling beverages offered in lemon and mango flavours. CHINI KUM says its drinks are formulated using plant-based sweeteners such as stevia and monk fruit, include prebiotic fibre, and are designed as lighter alternatives to traditional sugary soft drinks.

Products are priced from ₹30 for a 160 ml serving, with plans underway to scale presence across metro and Tier I cities. The startup is prioritising quick commerce-led distribution to tap into rising demand for healthier beverage choices.

Bengaluru-based pet healthcare startup Dr. Doodley has raised $3.3 million (around ₹30 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round, comprising ₹20 crore in equity and ₹10 crore in debt. The equity portion of the round was led by V3 Ventures.

The funding round also saw participation from Campus Fund and Thackersey Family Office, along with angel investors including Yatin Shah and Karan Bhagat, founders of 360 ONE Wealth, and Gautam Dalmia, managing director of Dalmia Bharat Group.

According to the company, the newly raised capital will be used to scale hospital infrastructure, deepen clinical capabilities, and prepare for expansion into additional Tier I cities.

Launched in 2023 by Utsav Bisaria and Yash Jayprakash Ladda, Dr. Doodley follows a blended pet care approach that brings together on-demand veterinary home visits and 24/7 multispecialty animal hospitals. The startup operates three pet hospitals in Bengaluru, spread across Jayanagar, Yelahanka, and Whitefield, and is supported by a network of around 35 veterinary professionals.

In the coming year, the startup intends to scale its hospital network to seven locations, adding new centres in Bellandur, Indiranagar, Rajajinagar, and parts of North Bengaluru. As part of this expansion, Dr. Doodley is targeting care delivery for over one lakh pets each year and plans to expand its veterinary team to more than 100 professionals.

The startup is also preparing to roll out 30-minute vet-at-home services and introduce a flat pricing model of ₹10,000 for surgical procedures, irrespective of complexity. Over the past year, Dr. Doodley claims to have treated more than 30,000 pets and performed over 1,000 surgeries.

Noida-based AI-enabled robotics startup Octobotics has raised around ₹10 crore in a seed funding round led by Navam Capital, with participation from BYT Capital.

The fresh capital will be used to accelerate product development, strengthen field validation, and support international expansion. A portion of the funds will also be deployed towards global certification processes and scaling operations across India, Singapore, and the Middle East, the company said.

Founded in 2020 by Ishan Bhatnagar and Gulshan Kumar, Octobotics builds AI-enabled non-destructive testing (NDT) robotics platforms for inspection in asset-intensive sectors such as oil and gas, chemicals, power, marine, and railways. The startup focuses on inspection use cases in hazardous and hard-to-access environments, where manual inspection is unsafe or inefficient.

Octobotics’ client base includes the Indian Navy, Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL), BPCL, HPCL, Aarti Industries, GSFC, and Saudi S-Chem. In the previous financial year, the startup posted revenues of around ₹2 crore.

The company’s offerings span railway inspection solutions, automated weld inspection systems, and purpose-built non-destructive testing (NDT) tools for hard-to-access and elevated environments. These robotic platforms aim to replace manual inspection processes while transforming collected data into practical, decision-ready insights for asset owners and operators.

Operated by Octobotics Tech, the startup positions itself as a deep-tech player in industrial inspection robotics, with a focus on improving safety, accuracy, and efficiency across critical infrastructure sectors.

Kochi-based marine robotics startup EyeROV has raised ₹13 crore ($1.44 million) in a pre-Series A funding round co-invested by AWE Funds and Unicorn India Ventures.

The fresh capital will be used to accelerate research and development, support new product innovation, and expand the company’s presence across India and international markets.

Established in 2017, EyeROV works in the marine robotics and underwater inspection space, designing and building remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and unmanned surface vessels (USVs) for use across infrastructure, energy, and defence sectors.

EyeROV was founded by Johns T. Mathai (CEO) and Kannappa Palaniappan P. (CTO), both IIT alumni, who identified a market gap while working on requirements for the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The company integrates non-destructive testing (NDT) payloads such as ultrasonic testing, sonar imaging, and AI-based inspection tools into its robotic systems, and offers both product sales and robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) models.

EyeROV claims to have executed over 150 projects for more than 80 clients across power, oil and gas, ports, shipping, and government sectors. Its client base includes Tata Power, NHPC, Adani, ONGC, BPCL, and Maersk, as well as defence and government organisations such as the Indian Navy, DRDO, and the Indian Coast Guard.

The startup recently secured an order worth ₹47 crore from the Indian Navy, its largest contract to date.

Operated by IROV Technologies Pvt Ltd, EyeROV is recognised as the company behind India’s first commercial underwater drone.

The company said the current funding round serves as a precursor to a planned $10 million Series A round, aimed at supporting global expansion.