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How CanAssist Breast test uses AI to determine treatment for early-stage breast cancer
Founded by IISc scientist Manjiri Bakre, OncoStem Diagnostics has developed CanAssist Breast, an AI-powered test to identify which early-stage breast cancer patients need chemotherapy and who can safely avoid it.
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Funding news
AI recruitment startup HireBound raises $2M in seed round led by Kalaari Capital
Artificial intelligence (AI) recruitment startup HireBound has raised $2 million in a seed round led by Kalaari Capital as it seeks to scale its agentic AI platform across staffing firms and enterprise talent teams.
The round also participation from Antler, Infinyte Club, and CareerNet.
The Bengaluru-based startup plans to use the proceeds to speed up product development and strengthen its sales and customer-success functions as it works towards scaling annual recurring revenue.
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Creator commerce platform Wishlink raises $17.5M in Series B funding
Creator commerce platform Wishlink has raised $17.5 million in a Series B funding round. The investment was led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, with participation from existing backers Fundamentum and Elevation Capital.
Wishlink plans to allocate the capital towards deepening its technology stack for all three of its primary stakeholders. The funding will be used to build new editing and monetisation tools for creators, develop deeper performance intelligence for brands, and streamline the purchasing journey for consumers. It will also be used to expand the company’s sales and tech teams to acquire more brands and creators.
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Oncare raises $4M in Series A round led by Sky Impact Capital
Oncare, an oncology care platform focused on affordable, standardised cancer treatment, has raised $4 million (about Rs 27 crore) in a Series A funding round led by Sky Impact Capital. The round also saw participation from Huddle Ventures, Lotus Herbal Group, SteerX, and Tremis Capital.
The New Delhi-based startup plans to use the capital to expand into new metro markets as well as Tier II and III cities. It will also invest in strengthening its technology infrastructure to streamline clinical operations, improve care coordination, and enhance the overall patient experience.
“A cancer diagnosis is overwhelming enough. Access to the right care should not make it harder. Our goal with Oncare is to make high-quality treatment more reachable, more transparent, and more humane for families across India. With this support, we are taking an important step toward building a nationwide network that delivers trusted oncology care closer to home,” said Deepak Kumar, Co-founder of Oncare.
Kris@Work raises $3M in seed round led by Infoedge Ventures
Bengaluru-based Kris@Work has raised $3 million in a seed funding round led by Infoedge Ventures, with participation from JN Capital & Growth Advisory (Singapore) and several angel investors.
The company plans to use the capital to expand its enterprise customer base, deepen go-to-market partnerships, and complete development across all four phases of its platform, focusing on automation and multi-agent orchestration.
“SaaS is at a new inflection point. Agentic architectures and context-aware AI are making platforms smarter and more unified,” said Ramakrishna Mallya, CTO & Co-Founder.
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ZeroMobIt raises INR 1.5 Cr in pre-seed round to scale AI-native student mobility platform
Hyderabad-based student mobility startup ZeroMobIt has raised Rs 1.5 crore in a pre-seed funding round backed by angel investors including Sandeep Varaganti, CEO of JioMart, and Dr Ashok Agrawal, SVP at Axis Bank, along with other HNIs.
The company plans to use the funds to accelerate development of its AI-native platform, strengthen core architecture and Edge AI-led safety systems, and expand operations across cities including Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Mumbai. It will also hire across engineering, operations, and growth.
“Student mobility has remained structurally unchanged for decades. We are building an AI-native, compliance-first infrastructure layer that aligns safety, scalability, and ecosystem trust,” said CEO Vijay Ganagam.
optoML raises $1.8M in pre-Series A round led by Bluehill.VC and A99
Fabless semiconductor startup optoML has raised $1.8 million in a pre-Series A round led by Bluehill.VC and A99.
The funds will be used to scale hiring and begin work on next-generation chips.
“India’s deeptech ecosystem is really coming into its own and semiconductors is an area where we are seeing fantastic progress. optoML, a fabless semicon company, sits at the intersection of two irreversible shifts in compute—analog in-memory compute architectures and optical interconnects,” said Manu Iyer, General Partner, Bluehill.VC.
“As AI workloads scale from the edge to hyperscalers, energy efficiency, latency, and bandwidth are becoming first-order constraints. optoML’s 12nm tapeout with TSMC and its partnership with Kaynes Semicon mark a critical transition from research to real silicon and scalable production,” Iyer added.
Other news
IIT Madras Professor B Ravindran appointed to UN’s global scientific panel on AI
Professor B Ravindran of IIT Madras has been appointed to the United Nations’ Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence, the first global scientific body tasked with providing independent assessments of AI’s societal impact.
Established through a UN General Assembly resolution in August 2025, the 40-member panel brings together experts across regions and disciplines to guide global AI governance. Ravindran, Founding Head of IIT Madras’ Centre for Responsible AI and Head of the Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI, said he was honoured to be representing India on the panel.
Zelio E-Mobility sets up manufacturing unit in Cuttack
Hisar-based Zelio E-Mobility has commissioned a new manufacturing facility in Cuttack, Odisha, to strengthen its presence in eastern India and meet rising EV demand in Odisha and West Bengal.
The plant, set up with an investment of under Rs 3 crore, adds 60,000 units annually, taking the company’s total production capacity from 72,000 to 1.8 lakh units per annum. The facility will reduce delivery timelines and logistics costs, support dealership expansion, and generate 60–100 local jobs while producing electric two-wheelers.
Toing Launches in Delhi NCR, Expands to 11 Cities Nationwide
Affordable food delivery app Toing has launched in Delhi NCR, expanding its presence to 11 cities across India.
The platform is now live in Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad, after launching in Pune in 2025.
The company says it guarantees the lowest item prices, matching or beating restaurant menu rates, with no packaging or platform fees.
Targeting Gen Z and value-conscious consumers, the app features popular outlets including Punjabi Anghithi, KFC and Bikanervala.
ConvoZen launches indigenous speech models
ConvoZen, the enterprise conversational AI platform backed by NoBroker, has unveiled two indigenous frontier speech models: Akshara (speech-to-text) and Ragini (text-to-speech)—at its ConvoZen Conversational AI Summit.
Akshara is trained on anonymised real-world B2C telephonic conversations and optimised for 8 kHz recordings, code-switched speech, and Indian business terminology. The company claims it delivers 32% lower word error rates than the next-best Indic ASR (automatic speech recognition) system and over 55% fewer errors than leading global models on public benchmarks.
Ragini, its multilingual (text-to-speech engine, offers human-like expressiveness, seamless code-switching and improved pronunciation of Indian names and terms such as UPI and Aadhaar.
ConvoZen has also introduced its end-to-end Conversational AI Stack integrating conversational agents, copilots, supervisor AI, and customer intelligence tools. The platform serves over 50 enterprises including TATA AIG, HDFC Life, CARS24, and Jana Bank.
Zendesk opens innovation hub in Pune
Zendesk has inaugurated a new Innovation Hub for Research and Development in Pune as part of its global product expansion strategy.
The Pune Hub will focus on AI-powered solutions built around the Zendesk Resolution Platform and house teams across product management, UX design, engineering and site reliability. It will play a strategic role in advancing agent and admin workspaces and strengthening the company’s employee service offerings.
Currently employing nearly 300 people, the facility is expected to grow by 15% by the end of 2026. The Pune operations are led by Vinod Shah, Vice President of Software Engineering.
Zyoin Group, Lex Visas partner to support GCC mobility
Zyoin Group has signed a strategic MoU with Lex Visas to support global gapability centres (GCCs) in managing cross-border talent mobility. The collaboration combines Zyoin’s GCC talent advisory expertise with Lex Visas’ immigration and compliance capabilities across more than 50 countries. The partnership aims to help GCCs strengthen leadership mobility, ensure immigration readiness, and streamline global workforce deployment.
Pankaj Walia joins Nexedge Capital as co-founder
Pankaj Walia has joined Nexedge Capital as co-Founder after a 22-year career at Standard Chartered Bank, where he most recently headed private banking in India. He will lead expansion across HNI, UHNI and NRI segments while shaping the firm’s business strategy and revenue growth. Founded less than a year ago, Nexedge Capital operates across seven Indian cities, serves over 1,000 families. and manages assets exceeding ₹20,000 crore.
Bharat Supply to expand across central India
Logistics startup Bharat Supply plans to open 40 new distribution centres across Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and neighbouring states, marking one of its largest regional expansions.
The expansion is expected to create over 500 jobs in delivery, warehouse management, and operations. The new centres will serve Tier II, Tier III, and rural markets, including Shahdol, Balaghat, Neemuch, Unnao, Jhansi, and Prayagraj.
CEO Taranbir Singh said the move will strengthen last-mile connectivity across central India and support the company’s strategy of building scalable, technology-enabled distribution infrastructure beyond metros.
Yellow Fertility to invest Rs 50 Cr to expand
Yellow Fertility, an affordable fertility care provider plans to invest Rs 50 crore over the next two years as part of its expansion plans that include scaling its operations, infrastructure, and clinical capabilities.
As part of this expansion phase, Yellow Fertility plans to launch five new centres in February this year across Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Delhi, and Bengaluru. Besides, it aims to expand into Jammu, Chandigarh, Shimla, and Amritsar in the coming months. Yellow Fertility also seeks to establish 30 IVF laboratory centres by the end of 2026, positioning itself as the third-largest IVF lab chain in India.
Ambika Bhaik, CEO, Yellow Fertility, said, “Our expansion is driven by a clear purpose to make high-quality fertility care more affordable and accessible to all. Through a combination of our affordable IVF offerings , clinical excellence and a patient first approach, we continue to strengthen our position as a fast growing trusted fertility care provider in India.”
Edited by Swetha Kannan
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