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

From Delhi startup Partnr digitising India’s unorganised two-wheeler repair ecosystem to Ather CEO Tarun Mehta’s thoughts on the deeptech-focused venture capital ecosystem, YourStory brings you today’s headlines with the latest developments across sectors.

Featured stories

Digitising local garages: How Partnr is empowering India’s unorganised mechanics

Across India, small neighbourhood garages quietly keep the country’s estimated 27 crore two-wheelers and 7 crore four-wheelers moving. For a budget-conscious vehicle owner, local mechanics offer a much-needed cost reprieve on vehicle repair, as opposed to the more expensive authorised service centres that factor in higher overhead costs and expensive parts. 

These local workshops are often found in narrow lanes in both metros and small towns, manned by a single mechanic with modest tools and limited access to parts. However, despite being the backbone of India’s unorganised vehicle service economy, these workshops often face a fragmented market, find it difficult to source spare parts, and are slow to adopt technology.

Delhi-based Partnr aims to address these inefficiencies through its tech platform. Read more here.

Deeptech startups need easier access to capital: Ather CEO

Ather Energy Co-founder and CEO Tarun Mehta has underscored the capital needs of deeptech startups in India. 

At Micelio Mobility’s Global Clean Mobility Summit in Bengaluru on Tuesday, Mehta said funding has been a difficult journey for most deeptech, hardware, and R&D-heavy startups in India, and India needs to ensure easier access to capital for them. 

In a fireside chat with Infosys Co-founder and Axilor Ventures Chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan, Mehta pointed out that Ather had been lucky with respect to capital. He said it was “unbelievable how fortunate” the EV maker had been to find the capital it needed from the people who invested in it. Read more here.

Also Read

For deeptech startups, growth capital is a function of traction: Panellists say at Prosus' flagship event

Latest news

US-based Coinbase doubles down on CoinDCX with new investment

Global crypto platform Coinbase on Wednesday said it is infusing fresh capital into Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX, at a post-money valuation of $2.45 billion. 

According to CoinDCX, the newly raised funds, which are an extension of its last fundraise, will be used to enhance its product offerings, introduce new on-chain use cases for India, and expand into new markets. Read more here.

Prosus raises stake in ixigo to 15% as Peak XV, Elevation Capital book gains

Global consumer internet group Prosus has increased its holding to roughly 15% in Le Travenues Technology, the parent of travel platform ixigo, following a combination of primary and secondary share purchases.

MIH Investments One B.V., a Prosus entity, acquired an additional stake through an off-market transaction, buying shares from early investors Peak XV Partners and Elevation Capital. Prosus bought around 5.06% of ixigo’s fully diluted shares—3.16% from Peak XV and 1.9% from Elevation—for an estimated Rs 620–660 crore.

Funding news

Consuma raises $1.3M in funding led by Equirus InnovateX 

AI startup Consuma raised $1.3 million in seed funding led by Equirus InnovateX Fund, as well as from angel investors, such as Tracxn’s Abhishek Goyal, Flipkart’s Mekin Maheswari, comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath, and Titan Capital’s Shiv Kapoor, among others. 

Founded in 2021 by Abhilash Madabhushi, Consuma helps brands derive faster, deeper insights from digital behaviour data. In less than six months since its public launch, the startup already works with over 35 global brands, including Godrej and Britannia.

"In a world of quick commerce where consumer expectations evolve in real time, the shelf life of insights is low. Brands can no longer rely on million-dollar research projects that run into months. Consuma AI’s exceptional team and platform bring that decision intelligence into the moment. This investment round will help scale faster, deepen the tech, and enable delivery of insights from source to strategy, in minutes, not weeks,” said Sadhika Agarwal, Equirus InnovateX Fund Principal Officer. 

Fragaria Fruits raises $2M in funding led by WEH Ventures 

High-tech farming company Fragaria Fruits raised $2 million in seed funding and project finance led by WEH Ventures, with participation from Rainmatter, Spiral Ventures, and angel investor SashiKumar, CEO of Akshayakalpa Organic. 

The startup will use the new funds to scale its operations in Bengaluru to expand its premium fruit portfolio to blueberries and raspberries. This capital will support Fragaria in providing a year-round supply of high-quality, sustainable produce to the Indian market.

Matters.AI raises Rs 55 Cr to launch self-learning AI Security Engineer

AI-native data security company Matters.AI raised Rs 55 crore, which it will use to build an AI Security Engineer. 

Unlike traditional security platforms that only monitor or alert, the AI Security Engineer is a self-learning system that understands how sensitive data behaves, predicts misuse before it happens, and responds autonomously across Cloud, SaaS, Endpoints, and On-Prem environments.

The Rs 42 crore seed round was co-led by Kalaari Capital and Endiya Partners, with participation from Better Capital, Carya Venture Partners, and leading cybersecurity angels. The earlier Rs 13 crore pre-seed was led by Better Capital and Carya Venture Partners.

Other news

Cisco partners with Social Alpha to launch accelerator programme for agritech startups

Cisco India CSR and venture development platform Social Alpha partnered to launch Krishi Mangal 3.0—the third edition of its flagship accelerator programme for farmer-centric innovations. 

The latest edition of Krishi Mangal aims to scale seven startups leveraging the power of AI, IoT, robotics, and renewables to address soil degradation, water management, farm mechanisation, post-harvest losses, and supply chain inefficiencies. 

Each startup will deploy its solution with farmers and grassroots partners, backed by non-dilutive funding of up to Rs 50 lakh. The startups will have the opportunity to scale across multiple states with access to more than 200,000 farmers and 150 farmer-producer organisations (FPOs) and have an opportunity to access an additional non-dilutive funding of up to Rs 2 crore, facilitated by Social Alpha. They will also have the opportunity to access seed investment from Social Alpha and its partners, subject to due diligence.

Deloitte India and OneTrust collaborate to simplify privacy compliance in India

Deloitte India collaborated with privacy technology company OneTrust. The collaboration combines Deloitte's domain expertise and advisory capabilities on data privacy with OneTrust AI-ready governance platform and automated privacy solutions, helping businesses simplify privacy compliance and drive responsible growth.

The collaboration will assist businesses in transforming compliance from a manual, resource-intensive task into a scalable, automated business function. It will also enable businesses to strengthen governance and accelerate innovation through consent, preference management, and end-to-end implementation support. By combining global best practices with local execution, the alliance allows Indian enterprises to embed privacy into their daily operations.

EaseMyTrip partners with Raipur District Administration to empower youth and boost tourism

Travel tech platform EaseMyTrip signed a memorandum of understanding with the Raipur District Administration. 

The partnership will empower local youth with practical skills in travel and tourism. As part of the MoU, EaseMyTrip will provide specialised training for participants on digital travel booking platforms, customer service excellence, local tour guiding, heritage interpretation, and basic hospitality.

Giva partners with ClickPost to automate logistics ahead of the festive season 

Giva partnered with ClickPost to automate its logistics infrastructure to help strengthen its operations ahead of the festive season and support its plan to expand its store network to 350 outlets by March 2026. 

A key driver for the partnership was the transition from a people-dependent model to a system-driven one. ClickPost’s automation has dramatically reduced the manual effort and time required to manage logistics, a critical advantage as shipment volumes soar. Giva’s team can now manage analytics, billing, and real-time tracking through a single, intuitive dashboard.

“Partnering with ClickPost was a strategic decision to ensure our logistics capabilities could match our growth ambitions,” says Nikhil Rangari, AVP, Operations at Giva. “The impact on our operational efficiency has been significant. We’ve driven an over 80% reduction in the time our B2B vertical spends on manual logistics tasks. What used to be a 2-to-3-hour daily process of coordination on spreadsheets is now a streamlined, automated workflow that takes the team less than 30 minutes. This is the type of efficiency gain that allows us to focus on our broader growth with confidence.”

Chalet Hotels launches new-age premium Hospitality brand ATHIVA

Chalet Hotels launched ATHIVA Hotels and Resorts, a premium hospitality brand debuting with over 900 keys across six hotels. The brand made its debut with the transformation of The Dukes Retreat in Khandala, featuring 147 rooms and 11 suites.

Alongside this property, Chalet has identified five additional properties to transition ATHIVA over a period of time, including a fully renovated business hotel in Navi Mumbai, The Resort at Aksa Beach, a K Raheja Corp Group Hotel, and three greenfield projects that are under development—two in Goa and one in Thiruvananthapuram.

These properties have been designed for the millennial and Gen Z audience with signature differentiators, including Breakfast@Anytime, Binge Box that replaces calorie-heavy minibars and Dollops of Joy—surprise treats woven across the stay.

PhysicsWallah partners with BSF to extend educational support to families of personnel

Edtech firm PhysicsWallah partnered with Border Security Forces (BSF) to make learning opportunities accessible to families of BSF personnel.

The partnership aims to enable children and dependents of serving, retired, and martyred personnel to pursue academic goals through structured scholarships and fee waivers.

Under this initiative, dependents of BSF martyrs and personnel who lost their lives in service will receive a complete tuition fee waiver for PW’s online and offline courses. For families of serving and retired BSF members, scholarships of 35% on offline courses and 25% on online programmes will be available.

Eligible candidates can apply for support across multiple exam preparation programmes, including JEE, NEET, UPSC, SSC, Banking, and other competitive tests offered through PW’s digital learning platforms and nationwide network of offline centres.

Greaves Electric Mobility partners with Shriram Green Finance to expand retail financing

Greaves Electric Mobility partnered with Shriram Green Finance, the EV financing arm of Shriram Finance, to make electric mobility more accessible in the country.

The collaboration will enable customers to get access to convenience and flexible retail financing for the EV firm’s range of electric three-wheelers and electric light commercial vehicles.

Through this partnership, customers can benefit from loans covering up to 90% of the vehicle’s value, competitive interest rates, and tailored repayment plans designed to meet diverse business requirements.

IIT Bhubaneswar sign MoU with Indian Army’s Simulator Development Division

IIT Bhubhaneswar signed a memorandum of understanding with the Simulator Development Division (SDD) of the Indian Army to collaborate on advanced research, training, and innovation in Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), AI, robotics, and other emerging technologies.

As part of the agreement, IIT Bhubaneswar will provide academic and research support through its VARCOE (Virtual and Augmented Reality Centre of Excellence), while SDD will facilitate practical exposure and collaborative development projects in defence simulation and technology prototyping.

The collaboration encompasses short-term training and certification programmes, internships for IIT Bhubaneswar’s students, access to facilities, and joint innovation initiatives such as hackathons and ideation challenges.

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