Building a diagnostics network; Giving brands control over data

Hello,

Let’s start this weekend in style. Meet the ‘OG’ Birkin—sold for a record-breaking $10.1 million at a Sotheby’s Paris auction. Now owned by a private collector from Japan, here’s the story behind the creation inspired by English actress Jane Birkin.

Elsewhere, just days after Nvidia touched $4 trillion market cap, CNBC has reported that CEO Jensen Huang unloaded roughly $36.4 million worth of stock in the leading AI chipmaker.

Shortly after the market opened Friday, Fortune’s analysis of net worth had Huang ahead of Warren Buffett, with the Nvidia CEO at $143.7 billion and the Oracle of Omaha at $142.1 billion.

Meanwhile, Flipkart’s $50 million ESOP buyback programme will give liquidity to about 7,000 to 7,500 of its staff members. Find all the details here. 

ICYMI: HerStory spoke to ‘Mostly Sane’ aka Prajakta Koli on finding herself on the Time100 Creators List!

Lastly, the India AI story is slowly shaping up. This time, Shiprocket has taken charge.

The logistics firm launched Shunya.ai—a sovereign, multimodal AI model developed entirely in India—to serve the country’s MSMEs and digital commerce ecosystem. The model, which supports voice, text, and image inputs across more than nine Indian languages, is positioned as a foundational AI layer for Bharat-focused businesses.

According to Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who spoke at the launch event, many SMBs remain limited not by resources, but by mindset—and AI is now shifting that equation.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Building a diagnostics network
• Giving brands control over data
• Meet Epsilon India’s Reena Gupta

Here’s your trivia for today: What was the last letter added to the English alphabet?

Healthcare

Building a diagnostics network

Chennai-based Aarthi Scans & Labs has built a fairly large diagnostics network in India, with over 70 diagnostic centres and 30 collection centres in 10 cities. The most distinctive aspect of Aarthi’s strategy is its direct-to-patient approach, which has helped it stay profitable and sustainable through the years, without needing external capital. 

Growth:

• Rather than spreading itself thin in many new cities, Aarthi opens multiple centres, almost simultaneously, helping the company create sufficient brand awareness in the market.  
• Aarthi’s core services span radiology and pathology, offering what Founder and MD V. Govindarajan describes as an “integrated diagnostics” approach—combining different services, such as blood tests, scans, and genetic reports—to give a clearer and faster diagnosis. 
• By maintaining lower overhead costs, avoiding referral fees, and reinvesting profits, Aarthi has built a resilient business model that can weather economic uncertainties without external support, and is poised for further growth, says Govindarajan. 

<Top Deals of the Week>

Startup: Credit Wise Capital

Amount: Rs 200 Cr

Round: Undisclosed 

Startup: Varthana Finance

Amount: Rs 159 Cr

Round: Debt

Startup: Khetika

Amount: $18M

Round: Series B

Startup 

Giving brands control over data

Founded by long-time friends and collaborators Trigam Mukherjee and Trilokjit Sengupta, WNNR is a gamified data intelligence platform that transforms simple user interactions into rich, actionable customer insights. 

WNNR tackles the limitations of both social media and traditional adtech by moving beyond impressions and click-through rates. Instead, it rewards users for engaging—reading, sharing, and answering questions—offering brands ethical, consent-driven first-party data in return.

Key takeaways:

• With its offerings, WNNR serves a range of use cases across influencer marketing, publisher monetisation, employee engagement, and consumer brand building.
• WNNR is currently bootstrapped, with an initial investment of about $60,000 from the founders.
• Though the startup is currently in the pre-revenue stage, WNNR is actively running pilot campaigns with brands in FMCG, insurance, and consumer electronics.

Inspiration

Meet Epsilon India’s Reena Gupta

Reena Gupta is the Head of Digital Experience Services at Epsilon India. She leads the delivery of a $250 million global portfolio, steering high-performing teams that drive measurable impact for clients worldwide. Gupta heads a team of over 1,000 people and has developed a leadership style that focuses on flexibility, delegation, and empowerment.

Bharat ke Innovators

Upcycling flowers for wellness

Phool.co is India’s first startup to pioneer 'flowercycling'—an innovative process that upcycles floral waste into certified natural charcoal free incense, and Fleather, a revolutionary vegan alternative to leather.

Building critical care tech

Noccarc focuses on creating accessible, high-performance medical devices. Unlike imported alternatives, Noccarc’s ventilators and monitors are built from the ground up with Indian conditions and constraints in mind, rugged, easy to use, digitally advanced, and affordable.

News & updates

• Strategy: The Indian government is exploring steps to create more, larger and stronger banks to fund what is expected to be one of the fastest paces of growth in the world in the coming decades. Possible options include authorising large companies to apply for banking licenses, incentivising NBFCs to acquire full banking permits, and making it easier for foreign investors to raise stakes in state-run banks.
• Demand: Mercedes-Benz said its Q1 sales in India hit an all-time high, rising 10% to 4,238 units, on strong demand for its high-end models and EVs. Luxury car sales account for a little over 1% of India's 4 million units-a-year market.
• Crypto: US-listed crypto stocks jumped on Friday as bitcoin surged to a record high in the run-up to a landmark week that could cement policy wins for the crypto industry. Bitcoin was last up 4% at $118,071.19, taking its gains for the year to 26%. The digital asset has surged nearly 41% in the past three months.

What was the last letter added to the English alphabet?

Answer: J. It was added to the alphabet in the mid-1500s.

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