Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (January 12, 2026)
Featured stories:
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How DoppelIQ leverages AI to turn first-party data into actionable insights
In modern consumer businesses, decisions on pricing, product launches, promotions, and messaging happen at unprecedented speed, yet systems for understanding consumers have barely evolved. Most B2C companies still rely on surveys, focus groups, and panels, methods built for a slower commercial environment.
Founded in 2025, DoppelIQ is an AI-based market research and consumer intelligence platform built for B2C brands. Instead of running surveys, the platform uses first-party customer data to create AI-driven digital representations of real consumers.
These digital consumers allow brands to simulate behaviour, test decisions, and generate insights on an ongoing basis rather than through episodic research cycles.
Read more here.
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Through its Powering Livelihoods programme, Delhi-based think tank CEEW focuses on decentralised renewable solutions that directly support income-generating activities for farmers, women’s collectives, and micro-entrepreneurs
” align=”center”> Through its Powering Livelihoods programme, Delhi-based think tank CEEW focuses on decentralised renewable solutions that directly support income-generating activities for farmers, women’s collectives, and micro-entrepreneurs
Where clean energy meets rural livelihoods
In rural India, where clean energy is frequently discussed in the context of large solar parks and grid-connected renewable infrastructure, the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) is charting a different course.
The think tank’s goal is to create decentralised solutions that can power livelihoods and support income-generating activities at the local level.
Titled ‘Powering Livelihoods’, the programme focuses on renewable-powered technologies that directly support income-generating activities for farmers, women’s collectives, and micro-entrepreneurs.
Read more here.
From founder to first cheque: How TDV Partners is betting on India’s next big consumer giants
India’s early-stage venture capital landscape is witnessing a quiet shift toward smaller, conviction-led funds that enter before traditional institutional capital, often backing founders at the idea or pre-product stage.
TDV Partners operates in this space. Founded by Ujwal Sutaria, the early-stage fund focuses largely on consumer-facing businesses and platform-led models emerging from India.
TDV—short for Trillion Dollar Ventures—was set up with the belief that some of the next generation of globally scaled companies will be built out of India, and that backing founders early is key to that outcome.
Read more here.
Latest news:
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Crypto platforms face geo-tracking and bank verification under updated AML norms
India’s financial crimes watchdog, Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), has unveiled stringent new checks on cryptocurrency exchanges, requiring “liveness detection” and geographical tracking for new users in a broad move to stamp out money laundering in the digital asset sector.
The updated guidelines, issued on January 8 by the FIU, mandate that crypto platforms must go beyond simple document uploads. Under the new regime, exchanges are required to capture “live selfies” of users to verify their physical presence, utilising software that detects eye blinking or head movements to prevent the use of static photos or deepfakes.
Read more here.
Funding news:
Bluecopa bags $7.5M Series A funding to expand AI-driven finance software
Bluecopa, an AI-native finance operations automation platform, has raised $7.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Singapore-based Analog Partners, with participation from existing investors Blume Ventures and Dallas Venture Capital.
The round brings the company’s total funding to $11.6 million, including capital from founders.
Dharana Capital raises $250M for second India-focused growth fund
Urban Company-backer Dharana Capital has raised $250 million for its second growth fund, becoming the latest venture capital firm to stock up on dry powder.
The VC company plans to invest in technology and consumer businesses in India, taking a long-term approach with its portfolio companies.
Dharana’s investors in the new fund include US university endowments, health systems, and non-profits.
Read more here.
Good Farmer Food Concepts raises $1.5M in pre-Series A Funding
Good Farmer Food Concepts, the parent company of artisanal coffee brand Maverick & Farmer Coffee and Square Burgers & Co, on Monday raised $1.5 million in a pre-Series A round.
This marks the company’s first external fundraising was led by investment firm CreedCap with participation from Indian tennis player Rohan Bopanna and former Indian cricket team captain Rahul Dravid, along with Meraki Sport & Entertainment.
The company will use the newly raised funds to expand its national presence with its cafés, invest in research and development, and production infrastructure. It will also use a portion of the funds to grow its retail vertical.
PumPumPum raises Rs 18 Cr in pre-Series A funding
Used car leasing platform PumPumPum on Monday raised Rs 18 crore in a pre-Series A round led by early-stage venture capital firm LC Nueva with participation from Mufin Green and Anupam Finserv.
The company will use the newly raised funds to accelerate the development of its asset-light leasing technology platform, expanding its B2B2C employee leasing partnerships, and strengthening its OEM and dealer networks across new, used, and EV segments.
A portion of the capital will also be used to deepen its presence in metro markets and scale technology, sales, and customer success teams.
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Other news:
Zyoin Group and WeWork India partner to scale GCC growth in India
Zyoin Group has entered a strategic memorandum of understanding (MoU) with WeWork India to support the expansion and operations of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) across India.
The partnership will be used to help enable access to agile, scalable, and talent-centric workspaces. Under the MoU, Zyoin Group’s GCC advisory expertise, talent intelligence, and employer branding capabilities will be complemented by WeWork India’s flexible workspace solutions.
The collaboration will support companies across different stages of their GCC journey, from pilot teams and lean setups to multi-city expansion.
PayGlocal granted patent for cross-border payment success rate optimisation
PayGlocal on Monday was granted a core patent by the India Patent Office for its payment success rate optimisation engine.
The patented system improves cross-border payment acceptance through issuer-aware orchestration that dynamically determines when and how authentication is invoked, based on contextual risk and liability signals.
“High payment success rates (PSR) don’t happen by accident,” said Rohit Sukhija, Co-founder and CPO, PayGlocal. “The high PSR delivered by PayGlocal is a direct outcome of our deep understanding of global payments and our ability to convert that knowledge into issuer-aware processing systems that handle complexity in real time. This patent confirms that what we’ve built is not just good implementation, but proprietary infrastructure logic with a strong foundation that we now own.”
(This article will be updated with the latest news throughout the day.)
Edited by Suman Singh
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