VC funding in October reaches $1.6B; Urban Company goes abroad

Hello,

Next stop, Indian stock markets.

Logistics platform Shadowfax is planning for a Rs 2,000-crore IPO. The proposed issue will comprise a fresh equity sale of Rs 1,000 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of another Rs 1,000 crore by existing shareholders.

Also, Pine Labs will open its much-anticipated IPO on November 7, which will include a fresh equity issue worth Rs 2,080 crore and an OFS of 82.35 million shares by existing investors. 

The subscription window will run through November 11, with the anchor book slated to open a day earlier on November 6. 

The fintech giant also posted a profit after tax of Rs 4.79 crore in Q1 FY26, largely due to a tax credit that offset an operational loss, marking a reversal from the deeper losses the payments company reported a year earlier.

Elsewhere, today, India’s singles are reshaping the landscape of modern love by having open conversations around mental health.

The study, conducted among dating app Happn users across India, found that 67% of singles feel comfortable discussing mental health with a partner, signalling a decisive shift toward emotional openness and vulnerability in dating. 

ICYMI: Time is running out to grab passes for TechSparks 2025—YourStory’s flagship startup-tech event—to be hosted from November 6–8 at Taj Yeshwantpur, Bengaluru! Don’t miss out on the opportunity to network with entrepreneurs and investors.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• October sees highest VC funding in 2025
• Urban Company goes abroad
• Snowflake pursues Indian enterprises

Here’s your trivia for today: Which candy bar bears the name of its inventor’s family horse?

Funding

October sees highest VC funding in 2025

October was a blockbuster month for the Indian startup ecosystem, as monthly venture capital (VC) funding reached the highest level for the year, with a consistent inflow of large-value deals. The total VC funding in October touched $1.6 billion across 99 deals, a 76% growth from a year ago, according to YourStory Research. Compared to September 2025, the rise was 36%.

Key takeaways:

• This VC fundraise for October beats the May mark of $1.4 billion. 
• In October, the sharp increase in VC funding was primarily driven by large value deals. Each week saw at least one transaction above the $100-million range: Dhan ($120 million), Zepto ($450 million), Uniphore ($260 million), and Snapmint ($125 million).
• Mumbai topped the list at $958 million, followed by Chennai and Delhi-NCR. Bengaluru has been pushed to the fifth spot, below Pune.

Home services

Urban Company goes abroad 

Home services platform Urban Company is setting up a subsidiary in the UAE and restructuring its board as it adapts to life as a publicly traded company. The company’s board has approved the creation of a wholly owned subsidiary in the UAE with an initial investment of Rs 3 crore. 

The UAE unit will focus on general trading activities, including selling products to service providers who operate on Urban Company's platform in the Emirates. It will also market its own branded products, known as ‘Native’, directly to UAE consumers.

Financial decisions:

• Vamsi Krishna Duvvuri, who previously held a seat as a nominee director representing investor VY Capital, has been redesignated as a non-executive, non-independent director.
• Urban Company reported a net loss of Rs 59.33 crore in Q2 FY26, compared with a loss of Rs 1.82 crore a year earlier, as expenses grew faster than revenue and the company incurred charges related to its stock market listing.
• The firm’s Native business, which sells a line of smart RO water purifiers, posted revenue of Rs 75 crore, up from Rs 27 crore. The segment remained loss-making with an EBITDA loss of Rs 11 crore.

Enterprise

Snowflake pursues Indian enterprises

AI data cloud company Snowflake has made significant inroads in the Indian enterprise market, with its products and solutions gaining wider acceptance across various segments, driven by its core philosophy of delivering time to value. The US-based company, in five years, gained its first set of customers in India’s digital, cloud-native companies. Since then, there has been no looking back for Snowflake.

In a conversation with EnterpriseStory, Vijayant Rai, Managing Director, India – Snowflake, said, “The biggest challenge Indian enterprises face is fragmented information, and we solved it by getting them all into one place, which is the unification of data. Once this was done, they had better analytics and insights.”

News & updates

• AI buzz: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has sold over $1 billion worth of the chipmaker’s shares since June, completing a massive pre-planned stock sale. The final sale of 25,000 shares, reported Friday, wrapped up an arrangement adopted by Huang in March to unload as many as 6 million shares by year-end. 
• Retire: Tennis player Rohan Bopanna announced his retirement at the age of 45 on Saturday, ending a professional career spanning over two decades in which he captured two Grand Slam titles and also became the oldest men’s doubles world number one.
• Global body: Chinese President Xi Jinping took centre stage at a meeting of APEC leaders on Saturday to push a proposal for a global body to govern AI and position China as an alternative to the US on trade cooperation.

Which candy bar bears the name of its inventor’s family horse?

Answer: Snickers. The candy bar was named after the Mars family’s favourite horse. 

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