Funding India’s next AI-native builders; Nykaa nearly triples its profit

Hello,

Recovery is on the horizon for India. 

India’s economy grew at a faster pace than analysts expected last quarter, driven by a rebound in investments and strong services sector activity. 

Gross domestic product clocked in at a four-quarter high of 7.4% in the quarter ended March 2025, according to the Statistics Ministry, higher than the average of 6.8% predicted by economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The government pegged the full-year GDP growth at 6.5%. 

A strong economy comes with a strong hand on trade. India will reportedly urge the US to scrap the 10% baseline tariff imposed by US President Donald Trump, especially in the wake of legal challenges to his trade policy. 

US supremacy is being challenged in a number of areas, especially in AI development. According to star investor Mary Meeker, US AI pioneers such as OpenAI might soon be at risk of being undercut by cheaper rivals like China’s DeepSeek. 

From multi-billion dollar tech deals to new agentic tools, the AI space has been through some sea changes this month. YourStory has summed up all that happened.

Innovation can spring from the most innocuous places, and go on to create history. This Saturday, join us as YourStory and The Bharat Project host the brightest entrepreneurs building for Bharat across healthtech, agritech, deeptech, climate, and more.

Don’t forget to catch all the action here. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Funding India’s next AI-native builders
• Nykaa nearly triples its profit
• GRC consulting for mid-sized firms

Here’s your trivia for today: Which famous inventor averaged one invention patent for every two weeks of his working life?

Investor

Funding India’s next AI-native builders

As AI becomes the next universal interface, early-stage investor BoldCapbelieves the traditional venture capital playbook needs a fundamental shift to support ‘new breed of builders’.

In its newly-released AI Manifesto, the Bengaluru-based VC firm outlines a strategy that goes beyond vanilla venture capital. The investment firm is pairing capital with deep technical guidance and building founder-first networks to back these firms.

Misunderstood market:

• Siddharth Ram, VP - Marketing and Platform at BoldCap believes that by being solely AI-native, the firm gains a distinct edge—one that generalist investors simply can’t replicate.  “The goal is to become a default choice for AI-native founders.”
• The problem, Ram believes, is that most investors are still approaching AI companies with outdated models. “Most funds still don't get it. They're asking about moats the same way they would for traditional SaaS, but the entire premise is different.” 
• Unlike other firms, the AI-focused VC does not follow a spray-and-pray model. It instead focuses on structured investments combined with hands-on support and platform access, helping startups progress to subsequent funding rounds.

Top Funding Deals of the Week

Startup: Citykart

Amount: Rs 538 Cr

Round: Series B

Startup: Saarathi Finance

Amount: Rs 475 Cr 

Round: Series A

Startup: Snitch

Amount: Rs 279 Cr

Round: Series B

Beauty

Nykaa nearly triples its profit

FSN Ecommerce Ventures, the parent company of beauty ecommerce platform Nykaa, nearly tripled its after-tax profit, buoyed by the robust performance of its core beauty and personal care businesses. 

During the March quarter, the startup earned Rs 20.28 crore net profit, compared with Rs 6.93 crore it posted in the corresponding quarter of the previous year as the margins of its core business improved.

Key takeaways:

• The Falguni Nayar-led company also saw its expenses rise by 22.7% YoY to Rs 2,031 crore in the fourth quarter, mostly hurt by employee benefit expenses, finance costs and depreciation expenses.
• Its core beauty and personal care vertical delivered a 24% YoY growth in topline to Rs 1,894 crore. However, on a quarter-over-quarter basis, this segment saw a decline in income from Rs 2,060 crore earned in Q3.
• Nykaa’s fashion vertical, which competes with Myntra, Tata Cliq Fashion and Ajio, saw a further decline in its bottom line, with a loss of Rs 36.4 crore. However, the segment's revenue rose by 10% to Rs 161 crore.

Startup

GRC consulting for mid-sized firms

SAP is widely considered one of the leading enterprise resource planning systems, however, it has long posed significant challenges around access governance, cybersecurity, and compliance automation, especially for mid-sized organisations with limited resources.  

ToggleNow is taking on established players in this space, building tools and services tailored to streamline GRC and security within SAP environments.

Bharat ke Innovators

How Respirer is reshaping air quality standards

Respirer delivers real-time, hyperlocal air quality data to communities, industries, and policymakers. It has emerged as a pioneer in climate tech, developing low-power IoT devices and analytics platforms tailored for Indian cities.

Building a greener future from trash

Saltech Design Labs is shaped by the founders’ firsthand exposure to the health and environmental perils of unmanaged waste. They’ve developed a closed-loop, zero-cement process to transform low-value waste into construction materials.

News & updates

• Capital outflow: Global equity funds posted outflows for a second straight week through May 28, as risk aversion rose following US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats on EU imports and overseas-made iPhones, alongside a spike in long-tenor bond yields.
• Everyday AI: Google’s AI assistant, Gemini, is gaining a more prominent place in inboxes with the launch of email summary cards, which will appear at the top of emails. The company announced that users would no longer have to tap an option to summarise an email with AI.
• AI revenue: Dell reported fiscal first-quarter revenue that topped analysts’ expectations, driven by growth in AI server sales. The Nvidia partner's quarterly revenue grew 5% year-over-year to $23.38 billion. Servers and networking revenue jumped 16% to a record $6.3 billion.

Which famous inventor averaged one invention patent for every two weeks of his working life?

Answer: Thomas Edison.

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