Women founders mean business; Making commuting safer for women

Amazon recently showed off its recent acquisition in the wearables space–Bee, an AI device that can be worn as a clip-on pin or a bracelet. 

Designed for recording conversations such as interviews or meetings, the device works as an AI companion. The tool can also learn about your preferences via Gmail, Google Calendar or even Apple Health, TechCrunch reported. 

The idea itself isn’t unique and the wearables space has seen companies that have tried to build AI companions. Will Amazon’s Bee take off or end up in the gadget graveyard like the Humane AI pin remains anyone’s guess.

Moving on: Fancy a stay at a hotel on the Moon? A company called GRU Space recently announced that it is constructing habitats on the lunar surface and interested visitors can book their reservations for about $250,000 to $1 million.

Speaking of those who can afford such expenses, the world’s top 20 billionaires hold about $3.8 trillion combined, a number that’s greater than the GDP of most countries. Leading the pack is Elon Musk, who is worth $714 billion, driven by his $366 billion stake in SpaceX, which is valued at $800 billion. Here’s the complete list. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Women founders mean business
• Making commuting safer for women
• Kazam eyes 2X jump in revenue in FY26

Here’s your trivia for today: Which country’s late monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, got a patent for a rainmaking technology?

Venture Capital

Women founders mean business

Ankita Vashistha recalls the monthly pitch meetings as a member of the Indian Angel Network in 2012. Women founders were rare, and when they did appear, alongside male co-founders, they would sit silently as their male partners pitched. 

“I realised that there were no opportunities for women, and even if there were, it was not a level playing field,” recalls Vashistha. “We were missing out on backing women entrepreneurs and shifting the narrative by giving them access to capital.”

Championing women founders:

• Vashisht launched the Saha Fund in 2015, looking at early-stage tech focused on women, long before diversity in venture capital became a mainstream conversation. 
• Today, as the founder of Arise Ventures, she has backed over 520 founders, all while quietly building the infrastructure to change who gets funded in Indian tech.
• With over a decade of experience backing women founders, Vashistha is pleased about the fundamental shift over the past few years. “Back in the day, women felt they had to build consumer products in fashion or similar areas. Now, we have women in deeptech, AI, biotech, cybersecurity, healthcare, and more. We have to celebrate women across all sectors,” she notes.

<Funding Alert>

Startup: Sukino

Amount: $31M

Round: Series B

Startup: Liquidnitro Games

Amount: $19.1 M

Round: Series A

Startup

Making commuting safer for women

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” align=”center”>

Fery Rides positions itself as India’s first women-led, zero-anxiety mobility platform, built “for women, by women”, and operates with a fully electric fleet. The platform offers on-demand rides, scheduled rides, and city rentals through bike taxis, and has expanded to cab services recently. Scheduled rides let users pre-book fixed time slots. 

Safe rides:

• Operations span a 10-km radius anchored by hubs at Millennium City Centre Gurugram metro station, where vehicles are stationed. Partners operate only within this zone to maintain steady availability and quicker pickups.
• The platform is open to all women, though preference is given to those who can ride a bicycle. A driver’s licence isn’t mandatory; Fery assists new partners in obtaining one during onboarding.
• Over the next two years, the startup plans to expand to 10 cities, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, and Chennai, with a partner network of 5,000+ sister partners and 10 million safe rides for women, targeting an ARR of Rs 100 crore.

Electric Vehicle

Kazam eyes 2X jump in revenue in FY26

EV charging startup Kazam is targeting a revenue of about Rs 85 crore in FY26 as it inches towards EBITDA breakeven, the company’s Co-founder and CEO, Akshay Shekhar, told YourStory.

Earlier this month, Kazam reported a revenue of Rs 40 crore in FY25, which is 3.5X times higher than the revenue it had reported in FY24. According to Shekhar, this increase can be attributed to the firm onboarding Bajaj Auto as a client. It commands a significant share of the electric three-wheeler market in India. 

News & updates

• IPO: General Atlantic-backed cloud software player Amagi Media Labs is banking on media customers moving to the cloud to boost revenue, CEO Baskar Subramanian told Reuters. The Bengaluru firm, which provides software for the broadcast and streaming TV industries, launched a $199 million IPO on Tuesday.
• AI deal: Apple is joining forces with Google to power its artificial intelligence features, including a major Siri upgrade expected later this year. The multiyear partnership will lean on Google’s Gemini and cloud technology for future Apple foundational models.
• New project: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of Meta Compute, a new initiative designed to bolster the tech giant’s AI infrastructure. Zuckerberg said the company intended to drastically expand its energy footprint in the coming years.

Which country’s late monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, got a patent for a rainmaking technology?

Answer: Thailand

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