PB Fintech’s dream quarter; Gaming meets neuroscience

Hello,

Over the years, Porter has delivered many things—furniture, documents, parcels from home…and a Rs 1,200 crore windfall for Peak XV Partners.

As it fully exits Porter, the venture capital firm marks an 11X return on the Rs 116 crore of capital it had poured into the logistics startup over the past decade. 

Sticking to logistics, Delhivery also has reason to celebrate. It posted its first full-year profit, along with a modest growth in revenue, boosted by a boom in its partial truckload services. 

Meanwhile, Amazon is working on consolidating its logistics and marketplace operations in India under one roof, as it’s in early talks to spin off its domestic unit. 

The world of Big Tech is fast-paced. And contemporary innovations, like AI, will soon remake the foundations of every company, including giants like Microsoft, according to CEO Satya Nadella. 

Nobody has a better front seat to this phenomenon than the ones at the heart of AI and software development.

This Saturday, Bengaluru will be host to the brightest and best minds at DevSparks—India's most-anticipated developer summit. Don’t forget to grab your spot!

And keep a tab on all the coverage here.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• PB Fintech’s dream quarter
• Gaming meets neuroscience
• Redefining menstrual dignity 

Here’s your trivia for today: What popular artist’s work has been stolen more than any other’s?

Startup

PB Fintech’s dream quarter

Chairman and Group CEO Yashish Dahiya is optimistic about PB Fintech’s journey ahead. He opened the Q4 FY25 earnings call with a bold declaration: “We feel confident it is profitable, kind of, forever... I don’t think it will ever go back into the red again.” 

For the full fiscal year, the parent company of Policybazaar and Paisabazaar reported a striking 45% YoY growth in consolidated revenue, reaching Rs 4,977 crore. Net profit surged an eye-popping 426% to Rs 353 crore.

In green:

• Central to this transformation has been the company’s insurance renewal flywheel, which has steadily gained momentum.
• The company’s renewal revenue now stands at an annualised run rate of Rs 817 crore, up 42% YoY from Rs 577 crore in FY24. These renewals, mostly health and life insurance policies, carry contribution margins exceeding 80%.
• PB Fintech’s UAE operations, still a relatively small part of the portfolio, have turned the corner in terms of profitability. In FY25, UAE insurance premiums grew 76% YoY, mirroring Indian business’ skew toward health and life products.

Top Funding Deals of the Week

Startup: Farmley

Amount: $40M

Round: Series C

Startup: Celebal Technologies

Amount: $15M

Round: Series B

Startup: Flam

Amount: $14M

Round: Series A

Startup

Zeuron.ai connects gaming with neuroscience

What if the key to unlocking better brain health wasn’t pills or therapy sessions but playing console games? This was the take-off point for Zeuron.ai, a Bengaluru-based neurotech startup reimagining how chronic disease, cognitive health, and human-machine interaction can coexist in a single system. 

Game on:

• At the core of Zeuron.ai’s vision is MIMO (Mind Motion), an AI-driven interactive therapy console that looks like a gaming system but functions more like a digital neurology lab.
• One of Zeuron.ai’s earliest adopters has been the Early Child Development Centre in Bengaluru, a rehabilitation clinic that focuses on early intervention for children with developmental challenges. 
• Zeuron.ai is working to raise Rs 2.3 crore as part of its seed funding round, with participation from Campus Fund, DERBI Foundation, and angel investors from the founder’s alumni network.

Inspiration

Redefining menstrual dignity

Aanvi Kanodia launched FLOW Pads in 2020 as a grassroots initiative within the Sanshil Foundation. Today, the initiative has grown nationwide to tackle period poverty and promote sustainable menstrual hygiene.

FLOW Pads conducts drives twice a month in the rural areas of Haryana and Delhi, and distributes an average of 100 sanitary pad kits a month. Each kit includes two to three cloth pads (usable for up to two years), an instruction manual, and a pictorial guide on how to clean the pads. 

Key takeaways:

• The production cost of one FLOW Pads kit is Rs 150, and it has so far distributed 25,000 kits, including 80,000 pads.
• FLOW Pads also tapped into sustainability by sourcing fabric waste from industrial units in Manesar, Gurugram. “We got this fabric cut and gave it to women to stitch,” Kanodia says, adding that the pads were lab-tested for safety before distributing them. 
• Currently studying at the Indian Institute of Design and Innovation, 20-year-old Kanodia aims to expand her initiative. “I want to devote more time to FLOW Pads and expand it to more cities.”

News & updates

• Unbundling: Microsoft made fresh commitments to unbundle its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 software suites from its Teams workplace communication app in an effort to address competition concerns from European regulators and avoid a possible antitrust fine.
• Mega deal: US President Donald Trump announced deals totalling more than $200 billion between the United States and the United Arab Emirates, including a $14.5 billion commitment between Boeing, GE Aerospace and Etihad Airways, the White House said.
• No game: Apple has blocked the Fortnite video game on its iPhones in the US and through the game maker’s own store in the European Union, its maker Epic Games said on Friday. Epic Games did not give a reason why Fortnite had been blocked, Reuters reported.

What popular artist’s work has been stolen more than any other’s?

Answer: Picasso. The Art Loss Register has over 1,100 of his works listed as missing or stolen.

We would love to hear from you! To let us know what you liked and disliked about our newsletter, please mail [email protected]. 

If you don’t already get this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here. For past editions of the YourStory Buzz, you can check our Daily Capsule page here.