Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (September 15, 2025)

From turning surplus food into animal feed to scaling gaming incubators, digital healthcare, and AI-driven customer experiences, here are the stories making waves this week.

Featured Stories

WasteLink is turning India’s food surplus into nutritious animal feed

India wastes as much as 74 million tonnes of food every year, amounting to 22% of its foodgrain production, according to data from the United Nations Environment Programme 2021.

Much of this food, while still edible, ends up in landfills or compost pits. Meanwhile, the country’s dairy and poultry industries are grappling with rising costs for raw materials like maize and soya. What if one problem could help solve the other?

That thought sparked the creation of Wastelink, a Delhi startup founded in 2018 by Saket Dave, a chemical engineer who was later joined by Krishnan Kasturirangan, his former colleague at cloud communications firm Knowlarity. 

Today, WasteLink turns surplus food into feed ingredients for cattle, poultry, and aquaculture.

Read more here.

Deeptech startups blending AI, robotics to solve everyday challenges

Robotics and AI, once considered science fiction, are very much our reality now—moving beyond research labs into industries to tackle some of the most pressing real-world challenges.

From reimagining industrial automation and water management to transforming farming, healthcare, transport, and even digital workflows, deeptech startups are pioneering solutions that blend AI, machine learning, computer vision, robotics, and automation in novel ways.

By enabling machines to perceive, reason, and act with greater autonomy, these technologies are reshaping industry operations, bringing adaptability, precision, and scalability to diverse fields, including agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, diagnostics, and autonomous mobility. The following startups represent this new wave of innovation, applying AI and robotics to make technology more responsive to everyday human and industrial needs.

Read more here.

How Freedom Tree became a Rs 15 Cr design-first brand without VC backing

In a consumer landscape dominated by D2C brands chasing celebrity endorsements, VC rounds, and aggressive ad spends, Mumbai-based Freedom Tree has quietly built a Rs 15+ crore lifestyle brand by sticking to its core—design, experience, and loyalty.

“We’ve always believed that good design is not a luxury, it’s a daily need,” says Rishabh Khosla, Business Head and Partner at Freedom Tree, in a conversation with SMBStory. “That belief drives every choice we make—from how our products are created to how our stores are experienced.”

The origin story of Freedom Tree began as a colour and trend consulting studio in 2002, founded by designer Latika Khosla, who also founded a modern home store in the 1990s.

Read more here.

TechSparks 2025: Why you need to join the movement to lead India’s AI-powered decade

TechSparks 2025, India’s most influential startup and technology summit, returns to Bengaluru’s Taj Yeshwantpur from November 6–8, bringing together top entrepreneurs, investors, tech innovators, and policy leaders.

Now in its blockbuster 16th year, YourStory’s flagship event has grown to be the heartbeat of India’s innovation ecosystem, driving 2 million+ connections and hosting more than 2,300 trailblazing speakers to date.

This year, the spotlight is sharper and the stakes are higher. With the theme “India 2030: Powered by AI”, TechSparks 2025 will dive deep into how AI and deeptech are redefining business, public systems, and daily life. As India races toward a $10 trillion digital economy, this is where the next generation of ideas, ventures, and game-changers will take centre stage.

Read more here. 

Large, fragmented market and clear tech potential: Prosus explains why it backed Urban Company

In 2021, Prosus, among the world’s biggest tech investors, led a $188-million funding round in Urban Company, doubling its valuation to $2 billion—on the promise of bringing order to the chaotic home services market in the country. Four years later, that bet seems to have been delivered. 

The home services platform’s Rs 1,900-crore IPO last week drew overwhelming demand, getting fully subscribed in under three hours and closing with subscriptions over 104 times—among the strongest issues by a new-age Indian tech firm.

As of the third and final day of the issue, stock market investors had subscribed 103.63 times to Urban Company’s IPO.

Read more here.

Subscription-based mobility startup MyPickup winds down operations

Inflection Point Ventures (IPV)-backed MyPickup is winding down its operations after about three years after it struggled to find a product-market fit for the company’s offerings during non-peak times.

The subscription-based mobility startup offered electric auto-rickshaw services that can be subscribed on a weekly and monthly basis with zero cancellations and zero surge pricing for commuters.

MyPickup’s founder, Abhijeet Jagtap, took to LinkedIn to note that the company struggled to get access to patient capital—long-term investment money that does not expect quick returns—that was required for the company to achieve product-market fit. “As a founder, I underestimated the time to PMF and capital requirements for executing such an idea. Our 4 pivots also did not give the level of customer experience we wanted to create,” Jagtap said in the post.

Read more here.

Funding News

CrazyGoldFish secures Startup India Seed Fund to build AI reasoning layer for education

CrazyGoldFish, a deep-tech education AI startup incubated at iHub IIT Mandi, has secured funding under the Government of India’s Startup India Seed Fund Scheme.

The company is developing a plug-and-play AI reasoning layer designed to help ed-tech providers, institutions, and government partners integrate personalisation, evaluation, and classroom observation tools more efficiently.

At its core, it is a “Multidisciplinary Knowledge State,” which unifies exam outcomes, learning signals, content, and insights to identify gaps and deliver bias-free assessments. According to Founder and CEO Rahul Khandelwal, the fund will accelerate efforts to “reclaim teacher time and democratise personalisation.”

CrazyGoldFish is targeting India as a testbed before expanding into the global B2B ed-tech infrastructure market.

Funding News

MyNaksh raises Rs 7.5 Cr in pre-seed round led by Eximius Ventures

Astrology platform MyNaksh has raised Rs 7.5 crore in a pre-seed round led by Eximius Ventures and Gemba Capital, with participation from a curated network of angel investors and operators, including Infinyte Club.

MyNaksh is building a personal astrology experience powered by AI, designed to deliver a personalised experience from day one. The product focuses on understanding each user deeply, and will offer human experts, astrologers, personal connections, and AI astrologers to build trust.

“Astrology has long been diluted by gimmicks or locked in outdated formats. This fundraise accelerates MyNaksh’s mission to restore astrology’s status as a credible, culturally rooted, and deeply personal tool for self-awareness and growth,” Nitesh Salvi, Founder & CEO, MyNaksh.

Other News

Databricks appoints Kamalkanth Tummala as India’s Country Manager

Data and AI company Datatabricks has announced the appointment of Kamalkanth Tummala as the new Country Manager for India.

This appointment follows Databricks’ $250 million investment in India to support training and enablement, research and development (R&D), and go-to-market resources, as well as the company’s recent Series K investment at over a 100 billion valuation.

“In India’s dynamic landscape, data and AI are reshaping every organisation, and Databricks is uniquely positioned to help enterprises build a lasting competitive advantage. I’m excited to join Databricks during this moment of tremendous growth and momentum," said Tummala.

KRAFTON India opens applications for Cohort 3 of gaming incubator

KRAFTON India will open registrations for Cohort 3 of the KRAFTON India Gaming Incubator (KIGI) on 20 September 2025.

Launched in 2023, the programme has supported 10 studios across two cohorts with funding, mentorship, and access to global platforms. Four Cohort 1 studios have already soft-launched their games, while Cohort 2 projects are in development.

Backed by partners such as Google Cloud, AWS, AccelByte and GameRefinery, KIGI provides resources spanning cloud infrastructure, analytics, AI-driven playtesting and user acquisition. Startups from cities including Kolkata, Bangalore, Madurai and Kohima have benefited so far. KRAFTON India CEO Sean Hyunil Sohn said the incubator aimed to make India a global creative force in gaming. Applications can be submitted via KRAFTON India’s website.

Xiom Healthcare launches free digital OPD platform ‘Health Imagined’

Xiom Healthcare has announced the launch of Health Imagined (Hi), a free digital OPD platform designed to streamline outpatient care for providers and patients. Conceived in the US and built in India, Hi integrates appointments, electronic medical records, billing, telemedicine, AI-assisted diagnosis and doctor collaboration into a single system.

The web-based platform, with Android and iOS apps to follow, also supports medical students with case-based learning and knowledge access, and offers colleges assessment tools aligned with global standards. Rajul Tyagi, creator of Hi, said the platform was built in consultation with senior doctors and aims to make high-quality digital healthcare tools accessible to all providers.

Applications are free for doctors, patients, and institutions.

CARS24 partners with ElevenLabs and Google Cloud to deploy voice AI in used car market

CARS24 has partnered with voice AI leader ElevenLabs and Google Cloud to integrate real-time speech intelligence across its 100+ hubs in India. The system processes over 20,000 hours of customer–agent conversations each month in 14 Indian languages, achieving 98.5% accuracy in automotive terminology.

Since deployment, CARS24 has reported a 35% rise in first-visit conversions, a 40% drop in valuation disputes, and a 25% boost in customer satisfaction.

The platform uses encrypted, consent-based recording and automated PII redaction to ensure compliance with Indian data standards. Running on Google Cloud, it enables low-latency, scalable operations. CARS24 says the next phase will include predictive coaching, multilingual voice commerce, and natural language car discovery.

TiE Bangalore partners with Career247 to expand startup education beyond metros

TiE Bangalore has announced a strategic partnership with Career247, a venture of Adda Education, to bring entrepreneurial learning and mentorship to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across India.

The collaboration aims to democratise startup education by combining entrepreneurship fundamentals with AI readiness, addressing the gap between metro and non-metro ecosystems. Key initiatives include an AI for Women Entrepreneurs programme under TiE Women, Entrepreneurship and AI Hubs in smaller towns, and Centres of Excellence in entrepreneurship and emerging technologies across colleges.

The partnership will also support government projects on skill development and technology adoption. The first set of programmes will roll out within 60 days, targeting lakhs of learners in its first year.

Dhillon Freight Carrier Limited receives in-principle approval from BSE for SME IPO

Dhillon Freight Carrier Limited (DFCL), a logistics solutions provider operating under the brand DFC Logistics, has received in-principle approval from BSE Limited for the listing of its proposed Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the SME platform.

According to its Draft Red Herring Prospectus, DFCL plans a fixed-price issue of 14,00,000 equity shares at Rs 72 each, including 70,400 shares reserved for the market maker. The net issue of 13,29,600 shares will represent 33.92% of the company’s post-issue equity.

Proceeds will support fleet expansion, working capital, and general corporate purposes. Promoter Karan Singh Dhillon said the IPO will strengthen DFCL’s logistics network and scalability. Finshore Management Services is the lead manager, with KFin Technologies as registrar to the issue.

(This article will be updated with the latest news throughout the day.)