Ice cream players embrace qcom; Meet institutions supporting women entrepreneurs

Hello,

Biocon now has a successor, with Founder and Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw naming her niece, Claire Mazumdar, as the next in line to lead the company.

In an interview with Fortune India, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said the company is gearing up for its next phase of growth. The company will have a sharper focus on advanced biotechnology and will integrate artificial intelligence in its processes.

Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet has approved two more semiconductor manufacturing units with cumulative investment of more than Rs 3,900 crore, with a display-focused compound semiconductor facility in Dholera and a packaging and testing unit in Surat.

Elsewhere, AI firm Krutrim has doubled down as a domestic AI Cloud Services provider, while announcing its financial figures for FY26. The company reported revenue of about Rs 300 crore in FY26, a threefold increase over FY25, and its first annual net profit, with a profit after tax margin of over 10%.

In the world of technology, Microsoft, Google and Elon Musk's ​xAI will give ‌the US government early access to new AI models ​before their public release ⁠to ensure security checks, Reuters reported.

Lastly, Brazil is seeing a rise in WhatsApp groups with one simple rule: no typing or speaking, only whistling.

The trend is reportedly bringing together people of different ages and professions, including members of Congress. Users whistle anything from the tune of birds to popular songs. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Ice cream playbook in the age of q com
• Meet institutions supporting women entrepreneurs

Here’s your trivia for today: Which social network had a default “friend” called Tom for all its users?

In depth

Ice cream playbook in the age of qcom

Changing consumer behaviours have led to companies to experiment with offerings designed for quick service. Dairy Day's latest bet: Ob & Gob, a quick-commerce-first ice cream brand, for example, is designed not for freezers in retail stores, but for the algorithmic shelves of platforms like Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart.

Dark stores, small and hyperlocal warehouses now act as micro-distribution hubs, enabling brands to bypass traditional retail and reach consumers directly within minutes.

Stay cool:

• Indian ice cream startups raised a record $26.5 million in 2024, accounting for 74% of all sector funding over the prior five years.
• The names leading this wave are telling: Go Zero, a guilt-free, zero-sugar brand that derives 70% of its revenue from quick commerce; NOTO, a low-calorie Mumbai-based brand whose revenue grew from Rs 8 crore in FY22 to Rs 55 crore in FY24, according to data by Tracxn.
• Even established players like Havmor Ice Cream and Kwality Wall's have expanded their presence on quick commerce platforms, experimenting with smaller SKUs and exclusive launches.

Inspiration

Meet institutions supporting women entrepreneurs

For women founders, it’s about who gets seen, funded, and taken seriously. Chasing the big dream and starting up is not enough. They need all the support they can get to scale, sustain and be part of the big league. Women can build unicorns, too!

Over the past few years, state-led platforms, institutional incubators and accelerators have been designing pathways specifically for women founders through dedicated cohorts, targeted outreach and capital-linked support.

Key takeaways:

• WE Hub, a government of Telangana initiative, is India’s first state-led organisation for women entrepreneurs. It works across urban and rural ecosystems and supports founders at different stages, from ideation to scale.
• A startup incubator at IIM Bangalore, NSRCEL, has, over the years, designed targeted programmes for women entrepreneurs, including the Women Startup Program.
• The only women-focused incubator in eastern India, WEneurs Forum addresses a critical blind spot in the startup ecosystem: regional disparity.

Bharat ke Innovators

Making robots for factory automation

Machines in factories are designed to repeat predictable tasks. They are accurate in a controlled environment. However, any change in the process breaks down the system. This is where humans step in to fix things. Perceptyne Robots is building machines for this layer of work.

AI platform for surgery

Surgery produces a lot of data. Surgeons require information to make critical decisions. Most of it disappears once the operation ends. That gap, between what happens in the operating room and what can be learned from it, is what Curium Life Technologies is trying to address.

News & updates

• Samsung struggles: The board chairman of Samsung Electronics, Shin Je-yoon, has urged ​unionised workers to resolve their pay ‌dispute with management. He warned that a planned strike could hurt investors and ​employees. A disruption at the chipmaker, which is the largest company in South Korea by revenue, could affect the economy, he said. 
• Massive hit: HSBC has seen a $1.3 billion hit in profits, fuelled by the fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran and fraud in the troubled private credit sector. The London-headquartered bank said profits fell 4% in the first three months of the year, dropping $100m to $9.4 billion, compared with the same period in 2025. Revenue increased 6% to $18.6 billion.
• Job loss: Coinbase said on Tuesday it will cut about 700 jobs, or about 14% of its global ​workforce, as part of a restructuring plan aimed at ‌reducing costs and repositioning the business for the artificial intelligence era.

Which social network had a default “friend” called Tom for all its users?

Answer: MySpace

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