Zoho trots out its Zia LLM; Healthcare dealmaking slows

Hello,

Startups are scaling faster, and founders are getting younger.

That’s the takeaway from Avendus Wealth – Hurun India U30 List 2025. The inaugural edition of the U30 list celebrates 79 exceptional founders and business leaders under the age of 30, who are building companies with scale and ambition. 

And, Mumbai’s Kaivalya Vohra, the 22-year-old co-founder of Zepto, is the youngest leader on the list. 

ICYMI: The countries gaining and losing millionaires in 2025. 

Meanwhile, Wipro beat analysts’ expectations, as it clocked Rs 3,330 crore in net profit for Q1 FY26 compared with Rs 3,003 crore in the same period a year ago, aided by lower costs in selling and marketing expenses, general administration, and favourable currency movements.

In other news, Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath, Founders of Think & Learn Pvt Ltd, plan to initiate legal action seeking at least $2.5 billion in damages against parties they allege caused harm to them and their business.

Lastly, ever received an office email that’s so full of jargon that you couldn’t understand what was being said? Well, communication platform Slack says it is using AI to help business users quickly understand confusing company language and concentrate on important tasks.

At long last, we have a strategically aligned high-impact AI use case that will enhance operational efficiencies! 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Zoho trots out its Zia LLM
• Healthcare dealmaking slows
• Lo! Foods’ next growth phase

Here’s your trivia for today: What was the first video game to be played in space?

SaaS

Zoho trots out its Zia LLM

Zoho launched its in-house large language model, Zia LLM, as part of its broader AI push at Zoholics India, its annual user conference held in Bengaluru, on Thursday. Built entirely on NVIDIA’s AI-accelerated computing platform, the model addresses business-specific use cases, such as data extraction, summarisation, retrieval-augmented generation, and code generation.

All the details:

• The newly launched LLM comprises three models with 1.3 billion, 2.6 billion, and 7 billion parameters, each trained separately and tuned for different contexts. The models perform competitively against similar open-source LLMs.
• At present, Zia LLM is deployed across Zoho’s data centres in the US, India, and Europe. 
• Zoho also introduced English and Hindi Automatic Speech Recognition models, a no-code agent builder called Zia Agent Studio, and a Model Context Protocol server, which enables third-party agents to access its application actions.

Report

Healthcare dealmaking slows

India’s pharmaceutical and healthcare sector witnessed a significant slowdown in deal activity in Q2 2025, with overall transaction value plunging 62% from the previous quarter, according to a new report from Grant Thornton Bharat. 

“The moderation in dealmaking this quarter is not surprising given the high base set in late 2024 and early 2025,” said Bhanu Prakash Kalmath S J, Partner and National Leader - Healthcare at Grant Thornton Bharat. “What we are seeing now is a shift from growth for growth’s sake to consolidation, focus, and institutional readiness.”

Key takeaways:

• The number of deals also fell, albeit more modestly, to 57 from 67. Total deal value stood at $1.3 billion, sharply down from $2.1 billion in Q1 2025. 
• While the decline is partly attributable to the absence of mega-mergers, the data also reflects a broader shift in capital being allocated away from expansionist plays and toward more surgical bets on specialised, scalable platforms.
• M&A volumes held up, with 23 deals in the quarter—only two fewer than in Q1—but total disclosed value fell a staggering 86% to $208 million. The drop also reflects limited transparency: nearly three-fourths of M&A deals did not disclose deal value.

Startup

Lo! Foods’ next growth phase

Less sugar, more protein—that’s what Bengaluru-based Lo! Foods is betting on as it nears Rs 100 crore in ARR, driven by strong traction for its protein-focused brand Protein Chef through quick commerce platforms. The company has raised $3.5 million in a Series A round led by Rainmatter Health, Singapore-based Capital Code, Mount Judy Ventures, Ice.VC, KPB Ventures, and existing family offices.

News & updates

• IT services: LTIMindtree reported marginally lower-than-expected quarterly revenue as global clients cut back on non-essential technology spending amid persistent economic uncertainty. Consolidated revenue rose 7.6% YoY to $1.14 billion in the three months to June-end.
• Robotaxi: Uber will invest $300 million in EV maker Lucid in a robotaxi deal that aims to start with one major US city late next year. Over six years starting in 2026, Uber will acquire and deploy over 20,000 Lucid Gravity SUVs that will be equipped with autonomous vehicle technology from startup Nuro.
• Thefts: The value of cryptocurrencies stolen by criminals surged in the first six months of 2025. So far this year, $2.17 billion has been stolen from crypto services—already eclipsing the $1.87 billion of funds stolen from platforms in 2024—and this is expected to reach $4 billion by the end of 2025, a report said. 

What was the first video game to be played in space?

Answer: Tetris.

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