Inside IIT Madras’ Incubation Cell; How WAE is trying to cut plastic bottle use

Hello,

Wakefit’s having quite the slumber party. Ahead of its IPO, the omnichannel furniture retailer has raised Rs 580 crore from anchor investors at Rs 195 per equity share. Key anchor investors include Ashoka Whiteoak, HDFC Life Insurance, Bajaj Life Insurance, HDFC Mutual Fund, Axis Mutual Fund, and Mirae Asset MF. The company is set to launch its Rs 1,288-crore IPO on Monday (December 8).

Elsewhere, SpaceX has told investors and representatives of financial institutions that it plans to pursue an initial public offering in the second half of next year. The Elon Musk-founded rocket-maker is considering a public listing of the entire company, including Starlink, its internet satellite service. 

Moving on, if you have been affected by the recent Indigo fiasco, consider train travel. Indian Railways has come to the rescue with additional coaches across several zones. It has deployed 116 coaches across 37 trains to ease the travel disruptions due to flight cancellations and delays. 

Online travel platforms are also rolling out emergency measures to support stranded passengers.

The year’s coming to a close, and it’s time to take a look at how 2025 has been for Indian women. It has been a year of sharp contrasts for Indian women, who have been pushing forward despite uneven ground. Data shows a landscape shifting in real time, marked by transformation in progress and a surge in pension benefits, but there have also been setbacks in safety and digital access.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• IITM Incubation Cell powering deeptech startups 
• How WAE is trying to cut plastic bottle use
• Online travel agencies deal with the IndiGo chaos

Here’s your trivia for today:  Which football club contributed to the loss of its city’s World Heritage status due to its new stadium project?

Deeptech

IITM Incubation Cell powering deeptech startups

Since its launch in 2013, IIT Madras Incubation Cell has incubated over 500 deeptech startups. CEO Tamaswati Ghosh talks about the incubator’s role in nurturing some of India’s most impactful ventures across AI, quantum, fintech, e-mobility, and spacetech. 

Key takeaways

• “Startups (incubated at the incubation cell) stay with us for a very long time… and the backing continues... Some of our founders come back as mentors to our younger ones,” says Ghosh.
• Close to 18% of our faculty population in IITM today have companies—117 faculty members are founders or minority shareholders, the largest among institutions in the country, she says. 
• “We encourage startups to understand feedback from potential customers and see if they can get pilots from the industry early on. When they start working with a potential customer, then capital infusion from venture funds becomes much easier.”

Social impact

How WAE is trying to cut plastic bottle use

Most people would rarely consider how a disposable plastic bottle of mineral water comes into being and what its long-term consequences are. It was against this context that Anupam Joshi founded WAE Water (WAE) as an ‘activist venture’ almost 15 years ago.

Key takeaways

• In its early years, WAE ran campaigns like saynotobottledwater.com—pushing companies to rethink the health risks and environmental costs of plastic packaged water
• WAE started by supplying its steel-based, point-of-use water systems to big institutions, with early clients like Citibank and Max New York Life joining the vision.
• Today, WAE is more than just a dispenser company. It is part of a broader push to reduce dependency on bottled water, especially single-use plastic bottles. 

IPO

AceVector moves closer to IPO

Gurugram-based digital commerce company AceVector Limited—the parent of Snapdeal, Unicommerce, and Stellaro Brands—has filed its updated draft red herring prospectus (UDRHP-I) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), taking a significant step toward its public market debut.

News & updates

• Lawsuit: The New York Times filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI on Friday, claiming that the artificial intelligence startup was copying, distributing and displaying millions of its articles without permission to power its generative AI products.
• NVIDIA challenger: Shares of Moore Threads, a Beijing-based graphics processing unit (GPU) manufacturer often referred to as ‘China’s Nvidia’, soared by more than 400% on its debut in Shanghai following its $1.1 billion listing.
• Big Tech fines: Europe is forging ahead with its crackdown on Big Tech, levying fines on Alphabet's Google and Elon Musk's X and opening new investigations, asserting its sovereign right to enforce its laws in defiance of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Which football club lost its city’s World Heritage status due to its new stadium project?

Answer: Everton FC

We would love to hear from you! To let us know what you liked and disliked about our newsletter, please mail [email protected]. 

If you don’t already get this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here. For past editions of the YourStory Buzz, you can check our Daily Capsule page here.