Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (June 17, 2025)
YourStory presents the daily news roundup from the Indian startup ecosystem and beyond. Here's the roundup for Tuesday, June 17, 2025.
From top mobility apps experimenting with their bike fleets to LeadSquared's IPO preparations, YourStory brings today’s headlines that highlight significant developments across industries.
Featured stories
We are working towards becoming IPO ready in the next 12-18 months: LeadSquared’s Prashant Singh
While some industry veterans warn of an “AI winter” threatening traditional SaaS models, Indian SaaS unicorn LeadSquared sees AI as a means to build sharper products and deliver more measurable outcomes.
In an exclusive conversation with YourStory, LeadSquared Co-founder Prashant Singh explains the firm’s evolution from a marketing platform to a CRM powerhouse, and why the company is placing its bets on purpose-built AI over hype.
Latest News
Ride-hailing apps halt bike taxis as Karnataka HC’s ban kicks in
Ride-hailing apps, including Rapido and Uber, have paused their bike taxi offerings as the Karnataka High Court’s bike taxi ban kicks in the state.
On Monday, Rapido and Uber had displayed the 'bike courier' option on their platforms, which has now been taken down.
The move to halt the bike taxi offering comes a day after Rapido issued a statement acknowledging the high court’s directives. It added that the company is “actively pursuing all avenues to support our captains.”
Coralogix raises $115M in Series E funding at $1B valuation
Coralogix, a full-stack observability and security platform provider, on Tuesday raised $115 million in a Series E funding round at an over $1 billion valuation. The company’s latest funding round was led by NewView Capital, a California-based venture growth firm, with participation from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, NextEquity and existing investors.
Coralogix will allocate a substantial share of the capital to its operations in India, one of its three largest markets worldwide. The investment will be used to expand its presence, with a focus on BFSI, IT and telecom, logistics, and edtech sectors.
Funding News
Dugar Finance raises $3 million from Symbiotics Investments
MSME-focused NBFC, Dugar Finance & Investments Ltd has secured $3 million in debt funding from Swiss-based Symbiotics Investments to support rooftop solar financing and EV financing.
The funding has been sourced from a $75 million Green Basket Bond issued by Symbiotics and is backed by British International Investment (BII), UK’s development finance institution.
The funding will be used to expand Dugar Finance’s electric vehicle (EV) and rooftop solar financing offerings, particularly targeting residential customers, MSMEs, and housing societies in India’s tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
Saswat Finance raises $2.6M in Pre-Series A round
Fintech platform Saswat Finance announced it has raised $2.6 million in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Ankur Capital, with participation from existing investor Incubate Fund Asia.
The funding will be used to scale Saswat’s data-led financial services across Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh, expand its product offerings, and strengthen its analytics infrastructure.
Founded in 2022, Mumbai-based Saswat focuses on rural credit and insurance enablement, initially targeting the dairy supply chain. The company has disbursed over Rs 55 crore in asset-backed loans and onboarded 6,000 customers to date.
Darwix AI raises $1.5M to expand enterprise GenAI stack globally
Darwix AI, an enterprise-focused conversational AI startup, has raised $1.5 million in a funding round led by Rebalance, Inflection Point Ventures (IPV), and JITO Incubation and Innovation Foundation.
The round also witnessed participation from Growth Sense, Growth91 and several angel investors including Ankit Nagori, Sanjay Suri, Amit Lakhotia and Mekin Maheshwari also participated, the company shared in a press note.
The Gurugram-based company plans to use the capital to accelerate product development, expand its US operations, and grow its sales and engineering teams.
Founded by IIM alumni Ajay Sethi and Hanit Awal, Darwix AI builds generative AI infrastructure for omni-channel sales and service conversations in large enterprises.
Xportel raises seed funding from Rukam Sitara and Flipkart Ventures
Export enablement platform Xportel has secured seed funding from Rukam Sitara and Flipkart Ventures, along with participation from Venture Catalysts and a group of angel investors from the logistics and trade-tech sectors
Founded by Anshul Mahindru, Darpan Lamba and Sanchit Narang, Xportel provides a digital platform to help Indian SMEs and e-commerce brands manage export-related processes including compliance, logistics and documentation.
The company said the funding will be used to expand its technology stack, grow operations and sales teams, and onboard more exporters. Xportel also plans to invest in automating post-shipment tracking and customs documentation.
Other News
Pocket Entertainment appoints Umesh Bude as CTO to lead AI-driven tech strategy
Pocket Entertainment, the parent company of Pocket FM, Pocket Toons, and Pocket Novel, has promoted Umesh Bude to Chief Technology Officer, the company said in press note.
Bude, who was earlier Senior Vice President of Engineering, will now lead the end-to-end technology strategy, reporting to Co-founder Prateek Dixit. In his new role, Bude will focus on expanding the company’s AI capabilities and enhancing user experiences across its platforms.
The appointment comes as Pocket Entertainment sharpens its focus on generative AI and tech-led storytelling.
GyanDhan elevates its CMO Aman Jain as co-founder
Education financing platform GyanDhan on Tuesday named its chief marketing officer, Aman Jain as co-founder.
Jain, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, joined the New Delhi-based startup in its initial stages and played a key role in building its brand and B2B operations over nine years. He joins Ankit Mehra and Jainesh Sinha as the third co-founder.
This comes after GyanDhan raised $6 million fundraise from Classplus and Pravega Ventures. The company said it will use the proceeds to expand its physical presence to over 50 cities, double its financial partnerships, and invest in technology and community-building initiatives.
Zepto scales fresh produce supply chain by 4x in one year
Quick commerce unicorn Zepto has scaled its fresh produce supply chain nearly fourfold over the past year, from 640,000 to 2.21 million units sold daily.
The Bengaluru-based company said that the expansion was driven by direct sourcing from thousands of farmers and the use of over 70 collection centres nationwide where produce is graded, packed, and dispatched within 12 hours of harvest. The company’s sourcing is powered by its proprietary Bloom app, which enables real-time mandi price tracking, automated vendor scoring, and dynamic procurement planning.
It said this model has helped reduce costs, improve quality, and boost predictability for both consumers and producers.
Wellness platform Habuild hits 10 million users
Wellness startup Habuild said on Monday it has surpassed 10 million users, from just 1,000 users in 2022.
Founded by CEO Saurabh Bothra, the platform offers daily live yoga sessions, wellness challenges, and guided habit-building routines. Habuild’s courts users range from Tier I to Tier IV cities, and participants ranging in age from 3 to 91. The company claims 450,000 users take part in its daily yoga sessions.
Global Innovation Hub launched in Bengaluru Airport City
The government of Karnataka, Bengaluru Airport City Ltd (BACL), and ANSR have jointly announced the launch of a Global Innovation Hub, District I. This will be an integral part of Bengaluru Airport City’s 28 million sq. ft. business park cluster, a mixed-use urban destination.
According to a statement, District I will serve as a central platform to accelerate deep-tech entrepreneurship, enterprise-driven innovation, and the commercialisation of academic research. By bringing together Global Capability Centers (GCCs), IT service providers, accelerators, corporate labs, startups, VCs, academia, and public institutions, the initiative fosters an interconnected, collaborative ecosystem across industries and institutions.
With a focus on advanced technologies such as AI, quantum computing, blockchain, and customer experience technologies, this hub will foster innovation in critical industries including aerospace, space tech, smart cities, retail, BFSI, manufacturing, telecom, and defence.
(The copy will be updated throughout the day.)
Edited by Affirunisa Kankudti