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  • Pragyan Child Development Centre Raises Rs 1 Crore on Shark Tank India

    Pragyan Child Development Centre Raises Rs 1 Crore on Shark Tank India

    Neurodevelopment-focused therapy chain Pragyan Child Development Centre featured on Shark Tank India, where founders Srikant Hindupur, Laxmi Bijapur, and Shreya Batra pitched their vision of building a multidisciplinary care platform for children with special needs.

    During the pitch, the founders highlighted that Pragyan operates therapy centres focused on neurodevelopmental disorders, offering speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, special education, and behavioural therapy.

    The centres are supported by paediatric neurologists and developmental paediatricians, following a multidisciplinary care model designed to deliver structured, protocol-led interventions. In addition to child-focused therapies, the company also provides after-school support, shadow teacher services, and parental counselling.

    Entering the Tank, the founders sought ₹1 crore for 5% equity, valuing the company at ₹20 crore.

    Currently operating 11 centres in Bengaluru, each spanning approximately 1,200 sq ft, the company serves around 50 children per centre every month, translating to nearly 500–550 children across all locations. The team comprises 60 members, including around 50 therapists. Average pricing stands at ₹650 per session, with monthly sales of approximately ₹35 lakh across centres, or ₹2.5–3 lakh at the individual centre level.

    On the financial front, Pragyan reported sales of ₹20 lakh in FY21–22 with two centres in operation. Revenue grew to ₹94 lakh in FY22–23 with four centres and further scaled to ₹1.6 crore in FY23–24 as the network expanded to seven centres. In FY24–25, with 11 centres operational, the company recorded ₹3.4 crore in revenue. Year-to-date revenue stands at ₹2.4 crore, with an EBITDA of ₹58 lakh. The founders project sales of ₹5 crore in FY25–26 and expect EBITDA to reach ₹1 crore in the same period.

    The company shared that its price at launch was ₹900 per session at other centres, while Pragyan positioned itself at a more accessible, ₹300 at select locations. The brand is available via Android and iOS applications, as well as through its website.

    After discussions, Namita Thapar and Mohit Yadav closed the deal by investing ₹1 crore for 5% equity, valuing Pragyan Child Development Centre at ₹20 crore.

    The founders shared that the capital raised will be used to expand to 60 centres over the next five years, with a focus on improving capacity utilisation, strengthening therapist deployment across centres, and scaling access to structured, affordable neurodevelopmental care across India.

  • Companion Labs Raises $2.5 Mn in Seed Round Led by Peak XV

    Companion Labs Raises $2.5 Mn in Seed Round Led by Peak XV

    Companion Labs, a consumer AI startup building entertainment-led interactive experiences, has raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round led by Peak XV’s Surge programme.

    The round also saw participation from All In Capital, UntitledVC, DeVC, and a group of angel investors.

    The fresh capital will be used to speed up product development, deepen AI capabilities, and refine the platform as the company works towards achieving product–market fit, the startup said.

    Founded in early 2025 by Akshay Jhanwar and Ajit Pol, Companion Labs focuses on building AI-powered, character-driven experiences tailored for India’s vernacular and culturally diverse audiences. The founders bring prior experience from companies such as CRED, Flipkart, and the gaming ecosystem.

    The startup operates at the intersection of AI and entertainment, enabling users to explore alternate lives, careers, and aspirations through locally rooted narratives and AI-generated characters. Its products are designed with language, culture, and social context at the core, especially for users outside metro cities.

    Companion Labs is building primarily for Tier 2, Tier 3, and Tier 4 markets, with a focus on vernacular languages including Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, and Bengali. The company aims to create a new category of AI-native entertainment built specifically for India’s fast-growing vernacular internet population.

  • CurryIT Secures Rs 1.5 Crore Deal on Shark Tank India

    CurryIT Secures Rs 1.5 Crore Deal on Shark Tank India

    Clean-label ready-to-cook food startup CurryIT featured on Shark Tank India, where founders Nischal Kandula and Richa Sharma pitched their vision of building a health-first Indian cooking brand focused on convenience, taste, and trust.

    During the pitch, the founders shared that CurryIT operates in the packaged food and quick commerce space, targeting everyday Indian households. The brand offers curry and biryani pastes, soups, dals, and daily cooking pastes, made with no dehydrated ingredients, no preservatives, and no additives, while maintaining a one-year shelf life.

    CurryIT highlighted its focus on quick commerce, which contributes nearly 90% of its total sales. The company follows a refill-friendly packaging approach and is priced at a 15–20% premium compared to incumbent brands, supported by a trade margin of around 35%.

    Entering the Tank, the founders sought ₹60 lakh for 1% equity, valuing the company at ₹60 crore.

    On the financial front, the company reported ₹54 lakh in gross sales and ₹41 lakh in net sales in FY22–23. This grew to ₹98 lakh in gross sales and ₹89 lakh in net sales in FY23–24. In FY24–25, CurryIT scaled significantly, recording ₹5.7 crore in gross sales and ₹3.3 crore in net sales. Year-to-date revenue stands at ₹4.8 crore gross and ₹2.8 crore net. EBITDA remains negative, with losses of ₹2.3 crore in FY24–25, though the founders expect EBITDA to turn positive by January 2027.

    The startup shared key unit economics, including 24% cost of goods sold, 7% taxes, 4% shipping, 15% marketplace fees, 15% discounts, and close to 30% spent on marketing and operations. The company currently operates at a 34% gross margin, with a customer acquisition cost of ₹88 as of April 2024.

    After negotiations, Mohit Yadav closed the deal by investing ₹1.5 crore for 4.5% equity, revising CurryIT’s valuation to ₹45 crore.

    The founders shared that the capital raised will be used to strengthen brand positioning, expand quick commerce distribution, and drive trust-led growth through content, as CurryIT aims to become a daily cooking staple in Indian kitchens.

  • Armatrix Raises $2.1 Mn Pre-Seed Backing in Robotics Play

    Armatrix Raises $2.1 Mn Pre-Seed Backing in Robotics Play

    Armatrix, a Bengaluru-based deep-tech robotics startup, has raised $2.1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by pi Ventures.

    The round also saw participation from Inuka Capital, Boundless Ventures, Boost VC, Turbostart, and returning investor gradCapital.

    The company plans to deploy the capital toward completing the development of its proprietary snake-like flexible robotic arm, strengthening its engineering and R&D teams, and accelerating pilot deployments with industrial customers across high-risk environments.

    Founded in 2024 by Vishrant Dave, Prateesh Awasthi, and Ayush Ranjan, Armatrix builds hyper-redundant robotic manipulators designed for inspection and maintenance in hazardous and confined industrial spaces. The founding team, which met during their time at IIT Kanpur, is focused on reducing human exposure in environments where manual inspection remains dangerous and costly.

    Armatrix’s technology targets sectors such as shipbuilding, nuclear, oil and gas, and aviation, where inspection of storage tanks, fuel systems, hulls, and reactors often requires human entry into confined spaces. The startup’s robotic arm features high flexibility, modular end-effectors, and AI-based navigation that enables real-time adaptability in complex, unmapped environments.

  • Student Mobility Startup ZeroMoblt Raises Rs 1.5 Cr pre-Seed Funding

    Student Mobility Startup ZeroMoblt Raises Rs 1.5 Cr pre-Seed Funding

    ZeroMoblt, a Hyderabad-based student mobility startup, has raised ₹1.5 crore in a pre-seed funding round co-led by Sandeep Varaganti, Ashok Agrawal, and a group of high-net-worth individuals.

    The round marks an early vote of confidence in the company’s compliance-first approach to student transportation.

    The fresh capital will be used to speed up development of ZeroMoblt’s AI-native technology stack, expand operations, and build out its infrastructure roadmap.

    The startup is also investing in Edge AI capabilities to support real-time safety monitoring, route optimisation, and compliance automation across its network.

    Founded in April 2024 by Vijay Ganagam and Alfred Lazarus, ZeroMoblt offers an integrated student mobility platform that brings together logistics, safety, discovery, GPS tracking, and subscription-based services. The founders set out to address long-standing gaps in student transportation by building a technology-led, compliance-focused model from the ground up.

    The company is currently expanding across major educational hubs in India, including Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, and Mumbai. It has partnered with over 15 educational institutions and has completed more than 3.4 lakh student trips across 147 pincodes in Hyderabad alone.

    ZeroMoblt’s fleet network includes over 3,000 vehicles with full compliance coverage. By combining decentralised intelligence layers with strict safety standards, the startup aims to create a scalable mobility infrastructure that institutions and families can rely on for predictable and secure student commutes across urban India.

  • S2.dev raises $3.85 Mn in funding led by Accel

    S2.dev raises $3.85 Mn in funding led by Accel

    San Francisco-based data infrastructure startup S2.dev has raised $3.85 million in a funding round led by Accel, with participation from Uncorrelated Ventures and other investors.

    With this round, the company’s total funding stands at $5.5 million.

    The fresh capital will be used to accelerate product development, expand its managed cloud service into additional global regions, and support early enterprise customers adopting its platform.

    S2.dev was co-founded in 2024 by Shikhar Bhushan, Stephen Balogh, and Dwarak Govind Parthiban. The startup builds a serverless datastore for real-time and streaming data, designed for use cases such as collaborative software, AI agents, and multiplayer applications.

    Its platform offers durable, auto-scaling streams accessible via REST APIs, combining persistent storage with low-latency access.

    The company’s core product enables developers to manage fast-moving, stateful data without handling underlying infrastructure.

    It supports on-demand streams that can be appended to, read from, and controlled programmatically, positioning streams as a fundamental cloud storage primitive. In AI-driven systems, these streams can be used to handle token outputs and message exchanges across multiple agents.

    S2.dev was previously backed by Y Combinator and was part of its Fall 2025 batch.

  • Gut Clinic raises $1 Mn in seed round led by strategic investors

    Gut Clinic raises $1 Mn in seed round led by strategic investors

    Gut Clinic, a Delhi-based healthcare platform, has raised $1 million (around ₹9 crore) in a seed funding round backed by a strategic group of more than 15 investors.

    Key backers include Amitoj Singh, Aman Rajpal, Ankur Kathuria of Alpha Wave Global, Juhi Bhatnagar, and Deepak Garg.

    The funding will be deployed to set up new centres, strengthen clinical systems, and expand diagnostic capabilities as the company targets India’s growing preventive healthcare segment.

    Gut Clinic plans to use the capital to deepen its presence in outpatient gastro-metabolic care and improve access to specialised diagnostics outside large hospital settings.

    Founded in 2024 by Akshat Kumar, Gut Clinic operates specialised outpatient and day-care centres focused on gastroenterology, liver, and metabolic health. The platform was built to address the need for structured, protocol-driven care for chronic digestive conditions through centres embedded within hospitals as well as standalone clinics.

    Gut Clinic’s services include specialist consultations, endoscopies, colonoscopies, advanced gastrointestinal diagnostics, and clinical nutrition support.

    The company follows a patient-centric outpatient model, combining clinical expertise with technology-enabled infrastructure, digital outreach, and local partnerships to improve early diagnosis and long-term disease management.

    Operating across the Delhi NCR region at present, Gut Clinic is preparing to expand into Chandigarh, Punjab, and other parts of North India. The startup plans to launch over 20 centres in the near to medium term, positioning itself as a specialized gastro-metabolic healthcare platform focused on preventive care and delivering consistent treatment outcomes for lifestyle-related digestive disorders impacting millions nationwide.

  • Finanjo raises Rs 1.5 crore in pre-seed backing from AJVC

    Finanjo raises Rs 1.5 crore in pre-seed backing from AJVC

    Finanjo, a Jaipur-based personal finance startup, has raised ₹1.5 crore in a pre-seed funding round led entirely by early-stage venture fund AJVC, headed by Aviral Bhatnagar.

    The fresh capital will be deployed towards product development, strengthening Finanjo’s AI assistant Jo, enhancing decision intelligence, and expanding goal-based planning and credit optimisation features.

    The startup will also invest in Account Aggregator (AA) infrastructure, team hiring across product and engineering, user acquisition through partnerships, and regulatory readiness for future financial product integrations.

    Founded by Prithviraj Singh Chauhan and Pankaj Singh Chauhan in 2025, Finanjo is a behaviour-first personal finance platform focused on young Indian users. The founders are also known for co-founding the YouTube channel Backstage with Millionaires, which covers Indian startups and entrepreneurship.

    Finanjo leverages India’s Account Aggregator framework and artificial intelligence to give users a consolidated, real-time view of their savings, spending, investments, and liabilities, along with data-backed financial guidance.

    Within a few weeks of launching its beta version, Finanjo crossed 5,000 user sign-ups and now sees close to 500 users active daily. The platform has connected savings worth over ₹25 crore and has begun generating income through fixed deposit and mutual fund referral commissions.

  • Pulse raises $4 Mn seed funding led by 3one4 Capital

    Pulse raises $4 Mn seed funding led by 3one4 Capital

    Bengaluru-based medical equipment startup Pulse has raised $4 million in a seed funding round led by 3one4 Capital.

    The round also saw participation from Incubate Fund Asia, Stride Ventures, and a group of angel investors.

    The company plans to deploy the capital to set up a dedicated R&D hub, speed up product development, obtain regulatory certifications, and build a nationwide distribution network across India.

    Pulse was co-founded in 2025 by Anshul Sharma and Nishant Goel. The startup operates as a full-stack, asset-light medical equipment manufacturing platform that works closely with India’s MSME ecosystem, combining product design, quality systems, regulatory compliance, service infrastructure, and market access under a single operating model.

    The company focuses on low and mid-complexity medical equipment and consumables, with an initial emphasis on critical care and renal care categories. Pulse currently targets mid-sized hospitals with 50–200 beds and plans to expand into larger hospital chains over time, while also adding new medical specialties to its portfolio.

    By aggregating and upgrading domestic manufacturing capacity, Pulse aims to reduce India’s dependence on imported medical devices and enable Indian manufacturers to meet global quality and compliance standards.

    Headquartered in Bengaluru, the startup currently operates with a 25-member team and is positioning itself as a horizontal OEM serving both domestic and international healthcare markets.

  • Misfits Secures Rs 1 Crore Deal on Shark Tank India

    Misfits Secures Rs 1 Crore Deal on Shark Tank India

    Community-building and offline social networking brand Misfits featured on Shark Tank India, where founders Shashwat Narhatiyar, Shaswat Kar, Saurabh Sharma, and Chaitanya Dhawan presented their vision of building a “third space” beyond home and work to bridge the gap between digital networking and real-world connections.

    During the pitch, the founders shared that Misfits operates in the hyper-local community space, with a strong focus on “hobby clubs” where members meet offline for activities like sports, board games, hiking, and music jams.

    The brand’s core offerings include a platform that connects venue owners, club leaders, and users, all managed through an in-app ecosystem designed for simplicity and safety. Misfits highlighted that they offer features like “Leader Mode,” which allows users to start their own clubs; currently, 150 leaders have been approved from over 1,500 applications. Among its offerings, sports meetups have emerged as a hero category, contributing nearly 30-40% of total meetups.

    Entering the Tank, Misfits sought ₹1 Crore for 1.25% equity, valuing the company at ₹80 Crore.

    On the financial front, the company reported a monthly Gross Booking Value (GBV) of ₹20–22 Lakh, with platform sales standing at ₹7 Lakh. Monthly metrics for November 2025 showed an average of 700 meetups in Delhi NCR with 5,000 unique monthly attendees.

    The company shared key operational metrics, including an Average Booking Value of ₹270 per meetup. The platform’s revenue share averages ₹60 per attendee, though this varies between sports meetups (₹40) and non-sports meetups (₹75). Misfits currently operates with a monthly burn of ₹23 Lakh and maintains a team of 24 full-time employees.

    https://app.ceotrail.com/heizen-secures-rs-90-lakh-deal-on-shark-tank-india/

    The company has significant digital traction with 95,000+ app downloads since its July 2024 launch and 25,000 Monthly Active Users (MAU).

    After negotiations, Kanika Tekriwal closed the deal by investing ₹1 Crore for 3% equity, revising the company’s valuation to ₹33.33 Crore.

    The founders shared that the capital raised will be used to scale their presence beyond the Delhi NCR region, strengthen their team, and further develop their event management and venue booking tools.